THE BIG ONE

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We set the alarm and got up early, today was the day we were off to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. When we arrived we collected our tickets and ran through the gates like excited children. We headed straight for The Big One and to our surprise the queue was only about 20 minutes long. We even got the seats right at the front. For those of you who don’t know, the Big One when first opened was the highest, fastest and steepest rollercoaster in the world. It doesn’t hold any of these records anymore but its still a fantastic rollercoaster. Next and after some convincing I managed to get Andy to go on the Ice Blast. This shoots you 230 feet in the air at 80 miles an hour then drops you back down again. It was all over very quickly but very exhilarating. Next choice was down to Andy. He chose Valhalla which is a indoor cross between a log flume and a ghost train. We sat in the back of a long boat and were sailed into the darkness. We were turned around and plunged backwards down a flume. Then sailed through ice, fire, wind and snow themed rooms. The ice room was extra freezing after the soaking we had just received! There we couple more flumes which were also in the dark so totally unexpected. Some were so steep the I nearly fell out as there are no bars or straps to hold you in. When the ride finished we were absolutely drenched. We squelched out way back into the daylight and understood why the £1 plastic macs sold at the entrance were so popular!

After heading back to the car for a change of clothes we spent the rest of the day going on all the main rides. Andy even went on the Crazy Mouse which meant conquering some childhood fears. He tells me that as a child he nagged his parents to go on this ride then screamed the entire way round and has never been on one since. He loved it this time. Non of this could prepare us for the last ride we chose to go on - Steeplechase. This consists of being strapped to a carousel horse with a loosely fitted seatbelt over your lap. You are then sent speeding around a track alongside your opponent. The horse travels round bends, and over bumps nearly throwing you from its side before finally coming to a sharp stop which almost flings you over its head. All this takes place roughly 25 feet in the air. Surprisingly this is marketed as a family ride!

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