Blackpool Pleasure Beach owner Amanda Thompson has criticised staff communication over the delayed Valhalla ride.
In a series of Tweets posted on Saturday, she said that she believed the ride – currently undergoing refurbishment – would have been ready last season.
The dark water ride was initially planned to reopen in 2021 following re-working, but the COVID-19 lockdowns were attributed to its reopening being delayed a further year.
Works are ongoing and the ride will now not open – despite previous statements – during the Pleasure Beach’s 2022 season, which ends tomorrow.
In August, Thompson attributed the delays to ‘technical and logistical issues’, which she reiterated today.
However, in an extraordinary series of Tweets on the issue, she said this afternoon that actual progress had been “hidden” from her by park staff.
“What is going on is clearly hidden from me,” she wrote in relation to the ride’s ongoing works.
‘Beyond my control’
Thompson said that she was under the impression that the ride would open this weekend, the final Saturday and Sunday of the amusement park’s 2022 calendar.
In a series of responses to Twitter users, her posts included saying: “Certain things are beyond my control, I am just letting you all know.
“It is not because I don’t care that [Valhalla] isn’t open. I do care, and I am way more fed up than all of you. It is just a massive drama that is not my doing. I am not an engineer or an electrician.”
She added that “spare parts” and “safety” had also been factors in the delayed reopening of the ride.
Thompson said that a promotional film and images for the ride’s re-launch had been completed earlier this year, but that Valhalla’s refurbishment was “one project” which she had “kept out of”.
“I thought it was opening, I am seriously upset but I am disappointed,” she said.