River Caves is one of the senior attractions at Blackpool Pleasure Beach but also one of the most iconic too. After our visit the other week I was quite surprised by the condition it was in and honestly a little sad to see it the way it was. I’m the first to admire old rides and their traditional vibe but this was different. I’m not throwing any shade at the park as I appreciate the fact alone it is open still as we do have an absence of indoor boat rides across the UK. But I definitely feel as if it’s time for some sort of re-haul as I’d hate to see this close. Let’s have a chat about how it looked during our last visit.
Exterior:
The outside of River Caves lost a lot of its theming quite some time ago now. However, if you don’t recollect that or know that was there then actually it still looks fabulous. It feels quite simple but appealing from the exterior viewpoint. However, it could always look better with some of the equivalent treatment that Valhalla got.
Audio & Lightings:
It was quite hit & miss throughout the whole of the ride. During the ice section was the primary part of the ride there was a lack of audio & a lot of noticeably broken lighting or not turned on. But strictly speaking, this wasn’t too bad.
Boats:
The boats haven’t really altered over the years they do what they need to do and that’s transport you around the system.
Scenes & Props:
This is where I was the most surprised, unfortunately. Immediately spotted an animatronic with their hair hanging on by a thread which if I’m honestly looked incredibly creepy. By all means, there are plenty of possibilities as to why this may have happened. A lot of animatronics weren’t working but if you didn’t know they moved you’d never noticed as such. The next debatable thing was a dinosaur with a cleaning cloth in its mouth which is quite the distraction. Then there was cleaning fluid in the middle of a scene chained which is rather strange. But something that little could have easily been moved. It was sad to see a few broken props just face down in the water and they were quite apparent too which is quite sad. Yet the fountains seemed to be working tremendously. During the ocean-like scene, the added feature from a few years ago wasn’t working either. Towards the back end of the ride though it appeared the best part of it was working perfectly fine.
The Future:
For the ride to be in this condition whether we were unlucky on a bad day or not I’m not quite sure but I do feel it’s going to have some work done soon. It’s not like Pleasure Beach to leave rides to this point without a plan of action ahead. Valhalla was in a similar state before it shut for the re-imagining could this be the same scenario? I hope we don’t lose the ride completely as it’s such a classic and concludes the park beautifully. I’d love to see a parallel theme but just modernised or fixed up entirely. The way Pleasure Beach is laid out it won’t be entirely worth getting rid of the ride system at all. Either way, I do hope there is a plan in place to bring this ride back to the life it deserves.
Overall:
Again I love River Caves wholeheartedly. But to be operating in the condition it was during our visit is quite honestly frustrating to see. For as long as I can remember it’s perhaps never been the best dark ride in the UK but it’s never been like this. Again, I’m not hurling shade or nitpicking at all every point that’s been made in this blog was things you couldn’t really miss knowing the ride and how it usually is. My one hope is the future looks sunny and this is just a pass time until closed season when it’ll begin to look more bright again.
—-
What do you think about River Caves this season? Did we just have a bad ride or has it been like this for the whole of 2023?
Thank you so much for reading and again to emphasise the fact I really do hold it up to Pleasure Beach for having this ride still operational after all the years it’s been open.
