ONE of the best-loved theme parks in the UK is introducing two new attractions in time for its annual Halloween event.
Pleasure Beach Resort in Blackpool will be celebrating its ‘Journey to Hell’ scare nights, with two additional features, as well as a revamped event with three times as many rides.
For 2024, the theme park will have two new live-action “scare zones”, including the Alice in Wonderland-themed ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ and an unusual ‘Cabinet of Curiosities.’
The former will see the park’s Alice in Wonderland ride converted into “a nightmarish world” where Alice and friends have gone insane.
It will feature “grotesque figures” who the park claim will be lurking around every corner hoping to terrify park-goers.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Curiosities is built inside the lair of a macabre collector and is “home to the inexplicable and the bizarre”.
It will be filled with a collection of gruesome creatures and guests will have to escape through a maze of horrors.
Nine rides will be included in the event this year, with unlimited rides available on all but the live-action scare zones.
It’s a much more generous offering compared to last year’s event, where only three rides were included on a one ride per visitor basis.
Meanwhile, the north of the park will be transformed into ‘haunted ride areas’ and will feature scarily dressed roaming actors, live entertainment, and spooky cocktails and dining options.
Elsewhere, ‘The Ghost Train: Vault of Shadows’ will return for its second year.
The train is said to be one of the most haunted attractions in the world, and is rumoured to be haunted by one of its former operators, affectionately known as “Cloggy”.
The theme park has also warned visitors about other spooks that could be found lurking throughout the park during the event.
Below the rides and amusements sits a 100-year-old network of tunnels that is used to travel between rides.
This underground network will be home the fourth live-action scare zone, ‘Twisted Tunnels’.
Guests will have to find their way through the labyrinth of winding passageways beneath the theme park, accompanied by some other unwelcome characters.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach has been open right next to the beach in Blackpool since 1896 and featured a few roundabouts, a Bicycle Railway and several small stalls.
It has since grown into one of the UK’s best-known parks, with 10 rollercoasters, five water rides, five dark rides and the country’s only Nickleodeon Land, which has 12 themed rides and meet and greets with popular characters.
It boasts about being “the most ride intensive park” in the UK.
That didn’t used to be the case, with its first notable attraction known as Sir Hiram Maxim’s Captive Flying Machine – a swing ride that opened back in 1904.
A Mill Chute water ride titled The River Caves of the World opened the following year and, perhaps surprisingly, both are still up and running to this day.
The park’s rides have broken records throughout the years, with The Big One the world’s tallest rollercoaster when it first opened in 1994.
It was also the steepest, and the second fastest, with a top speed of 74mph.
It has since lost those titles and is now the UK’s second tallest and fastest ride, behind Hyperia at Thorpe Park, which opened in 2024.
Please Beach was the first theme park in Europe to introduce a fully inverting steel rollercoaster, called Revolution, and is the last remaining park in the world to still operate a Steeplechase rollercoaster.
CEO of Pleasure Beach Resort, Amanda Thompson OBE, said: “This year, Journey to Hell is bigger and more frightening than ever with two brand new scare zones.
“After the success of our zone inside the Ghost Train last year, we’ve turned another fan-favourite ride into a terrifying live action area and it promises to be one of our creepiest yet.
“We know our rides help us stand out from other scare events, so we’ve tripled the rides available and added ride theming for a more immersive experience.
“Even the rides that aren’t classed as one of our scare zones will have roaming actors and entertainment to create a truly terrifying night.
“Add that to our own eerie history here at Pleasure Beach Resort and it’s a Halloween event not to be missed.”
The Journey to Hell: Freak Night events will take place on selected dates from October 11 until October 31, from 7pm until 10pm and Tickets start from £39.50.
However, for younger visitors who perhaps aren’t quite prepared for the scariness of the special events, extra family-friendly Halloween-themed entertainment and activities will run throughout October.
That includes Halloween guests, who will be seen roaming around the park, including Lougarock the werewolf.
There will also be fancy dress competitions, scary movies shown on the park’s Scream Screen, and Halloween-themed food and drinks.
Meanwhile, at Nickelodeon Land, there will be the chance to say ‘trick or treat’ to Nickelodeon characters including SpongeBob SquarePants and the PAW Patrol pups.
Meanwhile, this is what Alton Towers has planned for Halloween, including a new Nemesis-themed thrill experience.
And this is what it’s like to ride the UK’s tallest and fastest rollercoaster.
