Day trip to Blackpool – how bad?

Hi

We’re staying with friends oop north next week and the kids have realised Blackpool illuminations are commutable

Ive never been and was looking for some tips

The pleasure beach is the biggie, their website sells wristbands discounted if I buy in advance but doesnt mention individual ride costs
Big kid would get ££££ worth but little one isnt into the white knuckle – dont particularly want to blow £20 for one go on the tea cup ride etc
It also looks like they charge £6 just for park entry – Ive got this wrong surely??

Parking – I like the idea of getting in on the tram – where would be the best place to do this please?

We’re not looking at shows and stuff, just a bit of time on the fair, some fish and chips and a tram ride through the lights

Not a deal breaker but are dogs welcome in the fair and on trams too?

Thanks – all tips gladly received, dogs in Blackpool jokes eagerly anticipated 🙂

Wipe your feet before you get back in your car.
It’s a shithole.

**** awful place. Pleasure Beach is now a terminal rip-off IMO. Full of pissed-up stags and hens and vaguely psychopathic locals. The main drag has a veneer of presentability, but venture off it into the pox-hole that is the rest of town at your peril.

Commiserations. Blackpool is a massive exercise in window-dressing; stacks of money have been spent smartening up the Front while one block back lurks the unemployable Underclass in one of the scummiest DSS doss holes in Britain.

As you drive in to Blackpool you will be directed to some massive car parks, but actually you can park in the better residential streets around the area of the tram depot at the southerly end of the line then schlep to the tram, getting on at Starr Gate, the depot stop. Approaching Blackpool head left for the airport then continue straight past to the Front and you’ll see the tram depot right on the Front. The Pleasure Beach is pretty good for kids but wrap up warm against the wind because you’ll be standing around a lot.

Ahhhhhhh…. the Northern Riviera. Its brill.

Whats not to like?[/url] 😯

Binners – that is class, haven’t laughed so much for ages. No.39 says it all.

15 years ago the in laws wanted to go for a nostalgia trip. They would only go by train and wanted a family outing.
A weekend of hell is putting it mildly dog rough B&B with drunk staff. Drunken herds of men and women morning and night.

worst part of the weekend a naked lad being sick and pooing at the same time by a bus stop.
It’s got worse I’ve been told.

Do the Pleaseure Beach on Tesco vouchers if you can.

Take supplies and something to piss in if you want to do the lights in the car as the traffic jam can last for hours.

There is a decent BMX track and skatepark in Blackpool…

Just don’t go in a Mankini!…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-29704452

Went this year as we were in the area and I haven’t been since I was 12 or so, thought it might be nice to have fish and chips by the sea…….

Drove in and just didn’t stop! place has become a complete toilet sad to say, 11.30am and saw multiple giuys and girls of various ages staggering about pissed up, and its so run down its shocking, its not what it was for sure!
have a look and make your own mind up but i wont go back 🙁

About 10 years back I went on a conference with work. Went out for a pizza at midnight and got a taxi back to the hotel. Taxi driver warned us we were lucky to have got the 5 minutes between the hotel and pizza place without being attacked.

Went about a year or so back as well to look at a car at a garage up the coast so had a spin through Blackpool on the way back. Echo the above comments, its the most run down crap hole of a place I’ve ever been to (and I work in Bradford which is positively glorious in comparison).

I can honestly say without any hesitation that I have never been to a bigger shithole than Blackpool. Wild horses couldn’t drag me back there.

Further to Binners’ post, here’s a little slideshow giving you a flavour of the joys of Blackpool.

NSFW, I say it again, NSFW!

I used to go every year on a hockey tour and in my experience it has got cleaner and tidier, at least on the seafront. As someone said above, step away from the promenade – which is still very tacky in places – and there’s next to nothing going for the town centre. I’ve never eaten worse fish and chips than at Blackpool either.

I went with the kids in the Summer holidays and ticked off the Tower and Circus (surprisingly entertaining) but have no desire to go back again.

Blackpool is a massive exercise in window-dressing; stacks of money have been spent smartening up the Front while one block back lurks the unemployable Underclass in one of the scummiest DSS doss holes in Britain.

It keeps me in work though so god bless em
Sat there right now in the rain in the alcoholic/ drug addict/ gay area. Not sure why the later is there as well tbh as they are lovely.

OP e-mail for advice re parking

Not done pleasure beach as expensive as hell with young un to do shit rides,
Illuminations are poor IMHO but my kids enjoy them
I advise getting out and walking the only good bit tbh or you just sit in a jam
Preston is basically the nearest station and wont have parking. Possibly go to say fleetwood or Bispham and catch a tram ?? busy as well i assume but i have never done it and no toilets
My kids like the sandcastle for swimming and slides if you are getting there early.
I do not mind coming here to do one thing but that is it
My favourite is the kids indoor play centre sells beer in 4 pint pitchers …..that Blackpool for you.

At least we all now know where you get your cheery disposition and radiant sunshine optimism from, Junky 😉

At least it has Broadband 😉

There was a vending machine that sold crutchless knickers outside our B and B. When asked what the options were for breakfast they were ” have it or don’t” nice.

You think Blackpool is bad, visit Morcambe!!! There is that much nylon in the town everyone buzzes from static, (I know, I come from Southport which ain’t much better)

there is a sex shop * and it has a sign** in the window which state sno under 18
it then has a separate one which explains that this includs children in pushchairs

* i would explain the innocent reason for me knowing this but it wont be believed anyway
** i have it on my phone i will post it up later***

***i would explain the innocent reason for this but that one is much harder to explain

That video had me crying. Is it wrong to laugh? The sound track is genius and the photographic details are ace.

Someone was on here recently going on about violence, the police and sausages. Take care of your sausages.

Also, going by a seminar I attended a few years ago, keep a good eye on your kids.

Recently went on a school trip (as a helper)to Blackpool zoo and was pleasantly surprised . All the kids loved it.Nice and compact and you can see all the animals close up,literally a couple of feet away from the big cats ,elephants ,giraffes etc .

As long as you keep away from the town centre, it’s ok. At this time of year there’ll be plenty of room to park on the prom down near the south end. Trams’ll be busy weekend evenings, but get on at Star Gate (southern end) and you’ll be ok.

there is a sex shop * and it has a sign** in the window which state sno under 18
it then has a separate one which explains that this includs children in pushchairs

* i would explain the innocent reason for me knowing this but it wont be believed anyway
** i have it on my phone i will post it up later***

***i would explain the innocent reason for this but that one is much harder to explain

Is that the one on the bridge before the TA Centre?

Monkeysfeet knows it well by the sound of it 😉

The only place I’ve been to so far that’s worse than Newport. I left within the hour 😆

I was there earlier this year for the funeral of a prisoners dad. He warned us beforehand about what a cesspit it was/is & it was/is.
Hope I never have the need to go back.

We can see it from a nearby hill. That’s quite close enough.

on the upside, I guess you were pretty relaxed he wasn’t going to abscond on the day…?

on the upside, I guess you were pretty relaxed he wasn’t going to abscond on the day…?

Well he wasn’t going anywhere without me as we were, ‘attached’!
(The funeral itself was actually in Lytham which was quite nice & his family were very decent)

A tsunami would be a merciful end for Blackpool if it wasn’t for the possibility that all the DSS dross might wash over the Fylde and end up claiming in East Lancashire.

A friend of a friend worked in the Blackpool rock factory and got sacked. As an act of revenge before leaving he reset the lettering machine and two weeks later the company discovered they had a warehouse full of rock with the words “F*** Off” written down the middle.

I would buy that rock!

the company discovered they had a warehouse full of rock with the words “F*** Off” written down the middle

Would have thought it would a big seller in Blackpool.

A friend grew up in Lytham and tells some interesting stories about nights out in Blackpool, only been there once and stayed for 10 minutes (the life of a courier) it just looked a bit windswept and desolate.

If it is worse than the “port” then it must be grim 😆

We make the pilgrimage once a year for the illumiations, only 40mins. never ceases to amaze how much of a depraved shithole it is.

having said that, i dont really mind it! we went last week, picked kids up from school and drove over, parked up, had no lovely fish & chips, central pier, big wheel, few other rides, few games on the stalls. let the dog chase seaguls on the beach for a bit. then when it got dark jumped in the car for a length of the Promenade and was home for 8pm. kids loved it.

ive also had some cracking nights out there in my youth, afternoons in the tower lounge! great fun. just gotta take it for what it is. there are some ace rides on the pleasure beach too tbf.

Its like any town, it has its rough shitholes but equally a lot of nice areas.

Used to have some legendary clubs back in the start of the rave movement…

Shaboo, Hacketts, Oz, Eurika and Zone.

Spent most weekends there from 89 – 90. Happy days.