Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Review

Disclaimer: We received free entrance in exchange for this post, as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Read on for our Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Review.

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Seaside holidays and hitting the rides and arcades almost go hand in hand, just like ice-creams and fish and chips are associated with this type of staycation.

The Pleasure Beach at Great Yarmouth is located on the seafront at the south end of Great Yarmouth’s famous Golden Mile. To enter the Pleasure Beach you will need to purchase a wristband which gives you unlimited rides and entry all day long – these can be purchased in advance or on the day or you can purchase a fun card pre-loaded with game ride credits of £5 or £10.

The minimum you can have on the card is £5 and you need a card even if you are not going on any of the rides, however, this gives you unlimited entry all year round and you can let your family or friends use the credits on your card for their rides.

Fun cards can be topped up inside the park using the ticket booths, you can check how many credits you have left on your card and top up using your debit card easily. Wristband prices depend on age and if you visit during off-peak or peak season, and are £2 cheaper to book in advance (if booked before midnight the night before you arrive). Full ticket prices can be found on the website here.

Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach Review

Wristband on the day off-peak

7+ years – £22 (£20 online in advance)
3-6 years – £17 (£15 online in advance)
under 3’s – £9 (not available online)
Disabled – £15 (not available online)
Carer – £15 (not available online)

Wristband on the day during peak season

7+ years – £25 (£23 online in advance)
3-6 years – £20 (£18 online in advance)
under 3’s – £12 (not available online)
Disabled – £18 (not available online)
Carer – £18 (not available online)

Pleasure Beach is open daily from 11 am and once you have your fun card or wristband band you can come and go as often as you like all day long.

Each ride has different credit amounts, from 2 to 5 credits – you tap your fun card or wristband on entry to each ride. (Remember to check your fun card to see how many credits you have left and top up as needed).

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Types of rides at the Pleasure Beach Great Yarmouth

There are rides for all the family from toddlers, family and thrill seekers. Some are slow and steady and others fast and furious, whatever your preference there is a ride for you. Below I have shared the ride types, ride credits for each ride and height restrictions – Ride accompanied means they have to be accompanied by a fare-paying more mature person

Kids rides:

Bonanza – 2 ride credits – under 1m must be accompanied, over 1m can ride alone
Cups & Saucers – 2 ride credits – under 0.9m must be accompanied, over can ride alone

Raft Ride – 2 ride credits – 0.9m to 1.1m must be accompanied, 1.1m and above can ride alone
Yo-Yo Ride – 2 ride credits – 1m + can ride alone, under this height must be unaccompanied

Family Rides:

Big Apple Coaster – 2 ride credits – height restrictions, between 0.9m and 1.1m can ride accompanied, 1.1m + can ride unaccompanied

4-D Cinema – 3 ride credits – under 8’s must be accompanied
Floaty Boat – 2 ride credits – 0.9m to 1.1m must be accompanied – 1.1m + can ride alone
Flying Dumbo – 2 ride credits – 0.9m to 1.2m must be accompanied, 1.2m + can ride alone

Fun Factory – 3 credits – 0.9m to 1.1m must be accompanied, 1.1m + can enter alone
Haunted Hotel – 2 ride credits – must be 0.9m + to ride alone, under this height, must be accompanied

Monorail – 2 ride credits – must be 1.25m + to ride alone, under this height, must be accompanied
Whirlwind – 3 ride credits – between 1m and 1.2m must be accompanied, 1.2m + can ride alone

Retro Rides:

Dodgems – 3 ride credits – minimum passenger height 1m, minimum driver height 1.25m
Gallopers – 2 ride credits – must be 0.9m to ride alone, under this height must be accompanied

Pirate Ship – 3 ride credits – minimum height 1.1m
Snails & Fairy Tales – 3 ride credits – unaccompanied height 1.2m +, under this height must be accompanied

Roller Coaster – 5 ride credits – between 0.9m and 1.1m must be accompanied, 1.1m + can ride alone
Twister – 3 ride credits – minimum height 1.25m
Waltzers – 3 ride credits – minimum height 1m accompanied, 1.2m + can ride alone

Thrill Seekers:

Family Star – 4 ride credits – minimum height 1.3m
Disko – 3 ride credits – minimum height 1.2m
Lightning 360 – 4 ride credits – must be 1.3m to ride

Pendulum – 4 ride credits – minimum height 1.25m
Reverse Time – 3 ride credits – minimum height 1.2m
Sky Drop – 3 ride credits – minimum height 1.2m

Getting around, queue times and parking

We visited Pleasure Beach on Wednesday 23rd August which is peak time during the kid’s summer holidays, it is also a busier day in Great Yarmouth as on Wednesday evenings they have a free fireworks display on the beach at 10 pm, which means all the businesses and attractions stay open for longer on this day, and more visitors head to the beachfront so they can make the most of their day, have lots of family fun and find somewhere to park before the fireworks start.

There is a dedicated car park for Pleasure Beach right by the Premier Inn, the summer tariff applies from 1st March to 31st October and costs £2 for up to 2 hours, £5.20 for 2-4 hours and £8 to park all day.

While it was one of the busiest times to visit we didn’t have to queue more than 5 minutes for each ride and with so many rides available if there was a little queue we just chose another and then went back to that ride.

The Pleasure Beach opens at 11 am. and while there was a queue to pick up our wristbands, this moved very quickly – the ticket booth opens earlier than 11 am. so you can get your fun card/wristband and get in at 11 am. There was little congestion getting through the turnstiles so we had a wander to the shops and came back 15 minutes later and walked straight in, scanning our wristbands and heading through the turnstiles.

The rides are positioned with enough space between them all that even if there was a queue, you weren’t on top of people queueing for other rides, and it never seemed overcrowded at all which can often happen at the seaside when visiting the rides and attractions.

Paths and walkways were all very well-spaced and large and there wasn’t the usual bumping into others while getting around and even the queues for food and drinks at lunchtime moved very quickly.

We found the only ride that had a long queue was the Rollercoaster which sadly we ran out of time to go on so we definitely plan to go back for this one. This is a traditional wooden rollercoaster which is the star attraction at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, It is one of only two wooden rollercoasters still standing in the UK and draws both rollercoaster enthusiasts and families. It opened in 1932 and visitors return year after year to enjoy the thundering ride they remember as children.

Our favourite rides and recommendations

It seems both my children are now thrill seekers and like the faster rides these days, we missed out the smaller and slower rides and hit all the thrill seeker rides, family rides and retro-style rides.

First off was of course was the Dodgems, the kids always head for these immediately wherever we go and they had great fun bumping each other, trying to swerve out of the other one’s path at the last minute and make them crash into other riders. This always leaves them in fits of giggles and wanting to ride again and again.

The Haunted Hotel was also a big hit, Emmy does love a ghost train and this time around Harry decided he was super brave and wanted to ride alone for his first time on this ride, despite me saying I should go with him the first time around, he was adamant, but very quickly regretted that decision. He isn’t a fan of the dark, and this ride is all set in the dark, made to look like a haunted hotel. While it wasn’t scary and more funny for Emmy and me, he sadly didn’t enjoy it on the first ride.

Not one to admit defeat though we all went straight back on, this time with Emmy riding alone and Harry with me – he really enjoyed it and giggled all the way around as I was pointing out things to look at as we passed them, and that he missed initially as had his eyes closed. This isn’t a scary ride but if you’ve younger children, even if they are above the height to ride alone I would suggest going with them for the first time, and if they like it then they can always go again on their own.

Emmy is far more hardcore these days, although she’s been a fan of the faster spinny rides for years now, and I am the only one who is happy to go on these with her. As soon as she saw the Pendulum ride she decided the two of us were going on together – we had just had breakfast so I made her wait a little while before we braved this. This ride starts off gently but soon gets faster and faster, as the name suggests, you are set off in a pendulum motion going side to side before you are sent in a full loop going upside down at 50ft in the air. All I can say is thank goodness there are no cameras and photographic evidence of being suspended upside down at 50ft – you may only be upside down for mere seconds but goodness it feels far longer than that while you are hanging there. I’d suggest tying long hair back before this one and don’t do it on a full stomach. It was great fun though.

Lightning 360 was also so much fun – I queued with Emmy for this, then at the last minute Harry decided to brave it so we swapped places. This ride raises you up into the air in a plane and you go around and around, however, with a user-controlled gear stick you can make the plane do a 360 in the air as many times as you choose. You could spend the whole ride doing loop the loop, keep the plane on its side for the whole ride or even spend your entire flight upside down if you wanted to! He was a little unsure to start but wanted to be brave and came off smiling, laughing and wanted to head straight back on.

Also inside the park

As well as the rides you can find plenty of food and drink options from Burgers, hot dogs, chips, ice creams, doughnuts, hot and cold drinks and also alcoholic options.

The kid’s favourite was the vast array of slushie flavours which you could mix as many as you wanted – We chose to buy the refillable cups for £4 each as it was such a hot day, these can then be refilled for £2 – they now have a souvenir cup which they brought home and is a great reminder of our day.

There are also arcades inside Pleasure Beach, with fruit machines, 2p machines, claw machines and all the favourites you would expect to find at the seaside as well as a few stall games such as hook a duck, throw the ball into a bottle, ball games and more – these are all charged at an extra cash fee.

Final thoughts

We had the best time, spending almost 4 hours hitting the rides. You could easily spend even longer and do the rides as many times as you wanted to – if doing this a wristband makes the day a cheaper option for you. If you just wanted a few rides and planned to visit more often then a fun card saves money as you can enter as many times as you want all year round.

Although we didn’t go on all the rides on this occasion, we did all the ones the kids wanted to go on and some more than once and we could have gone back until closing with our wristbands.

It was very clean, the staff very friendly and even though it was the height of summer the queues were never very long at all – the longest we waited was for the duration of one ride each time. It is certainly somewhere to visit if you are spending a few days visiting Great Yarmouth.

A tip is to download the app before visiting then you have a map on your phone and can plan your day, you can also then keep up to date with upcoming events, opening times and more.

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Watch our Tiktok of our day

@clarenicholasuk AD we spent the day going harder and faster than usual and discovered the kids are now thrill seekers. A day at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and we had the best time, spending most of it upside down or spinning around and around. Even in the height of summer we didn’t queue for longer than 5 minutes for a ride, and the wristband entry works so well. #visitgreatyarmouth #greatyarmouth #greatyarmouthpleasurebeach ♬ I Wanna Go Faster – WAR*HALL