Grand National

Pleasure Beach Resort opened 2025 with a clear warning for guests: the full attraction line-up would not be available at the start of the season. Alongside several smaller rides that would remain closed for the year, the park said Grand National, the 1935 wooden coaster, would still be out of service when the season began. The reason was practical but significant: winter works on the ride had not yet been completed.

For Blackpool fans, that was a meaningful update. Grand National is not an ordinary coaster, but one of the park's classic wooden icons and a rare mobius racer, with both sides forming one continuous track. When a historic ride like that misses the season start, it affects the character of Pleasure Beach itself. Guests visiting for the traditional coaster collection had to adjust their expectations.

The news sat within a wider phase the park described as a period of transformation. Pleasure Beach wanted to invest, rethink parts of its offer and still hold on to the things that make it special. For Grand National, the article mainly marks the vulnerability and value of heritage maintenance: a wooden classic only stays part of the future when heavy work continues behind the scenes.

In March 2019, Grand National earned a strange but memorable footnote in theme park history. At Blackpool Pleasure Beach, British Naturism organised a world record attempt in which a large group of participants rode the classic wooden coaster without clothing. According to Looopings, 195 people took part, comfortably beating the previous record of 102. The organisation expected the achievement to be officially confirmed by Guinness.

For regular guests, the stunt did not change the ride's day-to-day operation, but for fans it briefly turned Grand National into more than a historic racing wooden coaster from 1935. The ride became the stage for a publicity moment that was easy to remember because it mixed daring, humour and nostalgia. On a coaster with such a long service record, that matters: Grand National is not only a piece of amusement park heritage, but also a recognisable platform for Blackpool's more eccentric side.

The article therefore gives the attraction a story beyond the usual statistics of height, length and speed. Grand National made news as a cultural event, fitting neatly into the colourful reputation of Pleasure Beach Resort.