Icon is a steel sit-down rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, England. It was built by Mack Rides and opened in 2018.
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Ride Experience[]
Icon begins by rolling out of the station and pausing before it's first launch. Dramatic drum sound effects play from speakers surrounding the area, ending with a voice.
'I-I-I-I-I-ICON.'
Riders are immediately plunged into an LSM launch, followed by a tunnel and then up into a top hat, which goes under the lift hill of the Pepsi Max Big One. This leads into a non-inverting & shallow inclined loop before multiple banked turns which interact with the Big Dipper and Steeplechase. After this, the riders navigate back over Steeplechase and into the first and only inversion, a barrel roll which is succeeded by a very small (yet notable) airtime hill down into the second tunnel. By this point, the riders have completed what is considered to be the first half of the ride.
After leaving the second tunnel, riders are greeted by another LSM launch, accelerating them to the ride's top speed, into a non-inverting junior immelman (Icon's tallest element). Finally, the train navigates a few more airtime hills, banked turns, a helix and two s-curves before hitting the brake run.
Notes[]
The ride experience is generally considered to be incredibly smooth and comfortable.
Inversion Controversy[]
There is also some controversy over the ride's immelman- although Icon has one inversion formally, many believe that the immelman inverts and that the ride has two.