Ride Profile
www.parkworld-online.com
A Viking voyage
Following a £4 million investment, one of Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s best-loved rides, Valhalla, has returned with a host of exciting new features. Park World reports.
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ell-known as the UK’s wettest water ride (its famous tagline goes: “You will get wet, you may get soaked”) Valhalla reopened at Blackpool Pleasure Beach this year.
As one of the park’s most popular rides, the results of this revamp were
highly anticipated - and it’s no wonder, for much has been made of the new-and-improved Valhalla, with CEO of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Amanda Thompson OBE, proudly stating: “The new ride is absolutely sensational and will definitely leave riders wanting more. “Those who remember the original ride may recognise some of its
best-loved features, but this reimagining of Valhalla offers a totally new immersive experience that will leave riders eager to return!” Adam Slevin, director of creative, design & experience at Blackpool
Pleasure Beach, added: “We’ve worked so hard to find the perfect balance between maintaining nostalgia, giving the ride some much-needed TLC and adding in a few surprises for fans. “Valhalla will test even the most confident rollercoaster rider’s limits, with
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plummeting temperatures, fiery furnaces and torrents of water.” So, what does it mean to enter Valhalla? Park World had to find out.
Guests prepare to embark on their voyage at the ride station, which has been extended and redecorated for a suitably Nordic atmosphere. Riders board Viking ships to begin their journey - and it’s without doubt a wet one. Prior to the ride’s closure, industrial vacuums would remove water from the boats in-between trips - those are still in place, so guests can expect to get soaked. It’s worth noting here that Valhalla - for which Intamin provides the water
transit system - features a reservoir holding over one and a half million gallons of water - enough to fill more than two Olympic-sized swimming pools. As riders set sail they are immersed fully into a watery Viking world.
Things start slowly as their longboat ascends to the top of the building and anticipation builds as the icy mists descend and the voyage unfolds. The journey is half a mile long in total - four minutes of gradually
JULY 2023
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