Detailed review by Fritzthecat
Fritzthecat
Essex, United Kingdom98%
Pleasure Beach is a fairly large amusement park with rides for all ages. It is located right at Great Yarmouth's beautiful white beach at the south end of the Marine Parade.
Pleasure Beach Great Yarmouth9
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Accessibility
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"Must See"-Factor
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Budget Friendliness
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During our holiday near Great Yarmouth in 2007 we'd already been to Joyland, a much smaller amusement park at the northern end of Marine Parade, but soon realised that there is another, larger park in town. Of course our kids were begging that we should take them and after a few days of moaning and nagging we gave in and took them.
As always when we've visited Great Yarmouth so far the weather was splendid and by the time we arrived we were all looking forward to some time at the beach. As much as we get soaked elsewhere in the UK, strangely for us the sun always seems to shine in Great Yarmouth but of course I can't give any guarantees that you'll be just as lucky.
Like at Joyland you won't need to pay any admission to enter Pleasure Beach which has the added bonus that you can come and go during your visit as you please. Perfect for a amusement park that is located right next to such a lovely beach as most visitors probably don't want to spend the whole day inside of the park just to get the most out of their money but also will want to spend some time on the beach.
The park is one of the oldest in the UK and dates back to 1909. They have some lovely old rides in there, perfectly restored and in good working order of course. Their Roller Coaster has been there since the 1930's, it's a wooden construction and fans of those nostalgic rides will love it. I did, while the family was watching from below. The kids were still a bit too small to go on it and the husband is not to keen on fast rides. The rattling when the trains rumble over the tracks is something the newer coasters don't offer anymore and there is still an operator at the back of the train to stop the whole thing. If you go don't miss out on this ride !
The other rides are great too, the girls where happy to meet their beloved "snails" again. Another version of this, also very old, ride can be found at Joyland. The entry to the rides is regulated by height charts; if you are too small they won't let you in. I would have been tall enough to go on all of them but for some you need a bit stronger nerves (or stomach) than I do and the Roller Coaster was as far as I did go when it comes to speed and excitement. If you are more daring or travelling with teenager they will be well catered for, there are enough rides that made me feel slightly dizzy just by watching them.
For the little ones there is plenty to ride on and do, apart from the rides there is crazy golf and arcades. For snacks you can get ice cream and candy floss, just as it should be on a proper fun fair.
The tickets for the rides are sold at ticket booths; you need to get them in advance as there is no sale directly at the rides. You can choose in between single tokens or wristbands which enable you to ride as often on the day of purchase. As we'd arrived early in the day and were planning to pay several visits in between we opted for wristbands for the girls and also bought a few single tokens for us, just in case we'd feel tempted (we did). The wristbands come in two price categories, under 3 years and over. Our kids were both older than three and we paid around £15 each. There is also the chance to buy discounted family wristbands for families up to 4 or 5 people. We should have opted for one of those as we really enjoyed the park and next time will be all the wiser.
If we should go back to Great Yarmouth I surely would also like to go back to Pleasure Beach. Its a great park with some rather unique rides in it and a lovely location. The prices for the wrist bands don't come cheap but at least the kids can ride as often as they want and many theme parks ask much more in admission fee as this one with fewer rides available. We went on a normal weekday just after the official school holidays and had no problem with queues but I could imagine that Pleasure Beach can get extremely busy during the summer holidays. To find it is really easy. It is very well signed out and not to find the beach in Great Yarmouth is almost impossible. Parking can be found all along the beach, as far as I remember Pleasure Beach doesn't have own parking spaces. A bus stop is only a few steps away, alternatively you can also take one of the horse carriages to travel from the north part of the Parade to the park and back.
