This week saw Pleasure Beach Resort unveiled their newly transformed S&S Shot Tower now called Launch Pad.
Formerly known as Ice Blast, Launch Pad underwent an entire refurb which saw rebranding, repainting and a brand new cylinder introduced into the ride winding the clocks back to its good old best.
Riders shoot 20 storeys skywards reaching speeds of up to 80mph and Pleasure Beach CEO Amanda Thompson was on hand to cut the ribbon at the official opening ceremony.
She said:
“Re-imaginings like this one are fantastic for our industry. Not only do they create a new and incredibly powerful ride experience, they’re sustainable, and they allow us to re-invent beloved attractions for generations to come.
Investing in new rides is important – and we’re so excited for our new Gyro Swing arriving next year – but when you do something like this, a ride becomes new again.
Launch Pad is an exciting, innovative take on a classic, combining nostalgia with bold new elements that we know fans will love. We’re so excited to finally welcome everyone onboard and see their reactions.”
After experiencing the ride myself I can safely say it’s a massive improvement on what it was before the reimagining whilst subtle has certainly added more of a theme and anticipation element to the ride with an included countdown and smoke effects.
There’s a good atmosphere before every launch and the countdown still is unpredictable as it doesn’t always shoot up when the 5 second countdown hits 0, there’s still that unpredictability there whilst the countdown adds to the whole space theme of the ride.
It’s a themed experience, in a sense but this is merely vinyl / covers that have been added over existing infrastructure to give it more of a space theme.
I would have personally loved for them to lean into it a little bit more because even the Apollo 13 funfair ride still has better theming for me as they incorporate little meteorite seats for people to sit on and launch the ride going around, there’s an astronaut and rocket centrepiece and that’s a travelling ride.
Whilst Launch Pad does look the part and the launch experience is vastly improved from what it was I would have liked them to add more actual theming to and around the ride as opposed to a few vinyls but that’s just me being picky of course.
A space themed topper at the top of the tower, on-board audio discussing your upcoming mission, surrounding theming accents as opposed to just covering up old buildings. They’ve certainly improved it but at the same time there was definitely more than could have been done also should they have needed to but with other projects in the pipeline I can see why this wasn’t particularly a huge priority in the grand scheme of things.
The new merchandise range is a solid start with a very impressive blue notepad and a lovely white Launch Pad all weather coat, I’d like maybe a cap or a beanie with the rounded Launch Pad logo on and maybe lean more into the space side of things Vs the new power of the ride but other than that, it’s a solid start with plenty more to come!
It’s a period of evolution for Pleasure Beach Resort with this project and River Caves currently having its own refurbishment, there is of course a brand new Intamin Gyroswing set to open in 2026, new scenes inside Wallace and Gromit and the rumoured family roller coaster to be constructed in the empty plot of land where Grand Prix once resided.
Things are looking up for Pleasure Beach Resort as they are evolving and stepping out of their vintage shoes and into some brand spanking new trendy trainers with a future forward attitude and I’m quite excited to see it all coming together.
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