Valhalla, Blackpool

The year 2000 may be famous to most as the start of a new millennium, the year they told us our computers would all crash because they could not handle the date changes or the year they built so many pointless buildings and monuments worldwide but for me and many other Blackpool pleasure beach fans it will always be the year that Valhalla came to town. Valhalla is the world’s largest dark ride and it was officially opened on the 14th of June 2000 by Jonathan Ross. As well as being the largest dark ride in the world it was also Britain’s biggest privately funded millennium investment, something ... more

Back in June of the year 2000 Jonathon Ross and his wife officially opened Valhalla, the world's largest dark ride, at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Dave and I were amongst the invited guests. Now, come on, are you impressed? Okay I can live with that. Seriously I had entered a competition and won the chance, along with a good many others, to be the first people to ride Valhalla. We also won a night in the Norbreck Castle Hotel which was appalling and I will post my review about that as soon as the category has been set up. As it happens we had already booked a two day break in Blackpool at The ... more

I absolutely love going to Blackpool, in fact it is one of my favourite places in the UK! Of course it should be no surprise that for somebody who loves theme parks one of the reasons I love Blackpool so much is because of the Pleasure beach located there. I have been going to this theme park since I was a young child and I can easily spend all day there and not be bored! I remember when they opened many of the newer rides there as they of course were helping to make the park more modern and hands down one of my favourite new additions to the park is the Valhalla attraction. Where in the park ... more

Valhalla was opened in 2000, replacing the “Fun House” that burnt down so tragically in November 1991. It was a £15million development and contains effects not seen in the UK before. Be prepared as you “travel into the immortal resting place of the Vikings”. It goes by the motto “You WILL get wet… You might get soaking” and I can’t tell you how true this is, there’s no escaping wetness. Valhalla can be seen when you enter the park’s entrance closest to town (a range of regular transport is available to the park e.g. Trams and Buses) and is located next to “Ice Blast” and the “Derby Racer”. The ... more

Valhalla Facts At a cost of £15million, it is Britain's biggest privately funded millennium investment. Valhalla is built on the site of the famous Fun House, which was destroyed by fire in 1991. Many of the specially-created 'show action' effects have never before been used on amusement park rides. Valhalla incorporates fire, water, snow, thunder and lightning effects with riders experiencing extremes of temperature from minus 20C to 110F. More than 100,000 gallons of water a minute is used to propel up to 2,000 riders per hour. The man-made waterfall spanning 30 metres cascades at 12,000 ... more