Blackpool Rock

It's that time again - The Easter Holidays which can only mean one thing our family caravan holiday, this time back at Haven. We chose Blackpool and Haven Marton Mere this time mainly to take a trip to the Blackpool Doctor Who Museum.

MONDAY
As with all holidays I was up at 6.30 on Monday morning to finish off my packing chores as well as make the pack-up for the journey and a few household chores.

Bill’s friend Emma arrived just before 10am and I called a cab to take us to the train station.
Thanks to my sister for suggesting it, we were travelling via Leeds to Blackpool. The trainline.com website told us we had to make 2 changes at Sheffield and Manchester but instead we could just make the one change at Leeds which shortens the journey and is less hassle of getting on and off trains.

The train was pretty packed though and there was nowhere for us all to sit together so Bret went and sat down and it turned out there was a seat near him so I went and sat down too. When the train stopped at Sheffield a lot of people got off so that meant Bill and Emma could also sit down instead of sitting out in the vestibules.

There was a 50 minute wait at Leeds but luckily the platform was right next to the one we came in on so we had time to go freshen up in the toilets and have a bite to eat before the train came in.

When the train arrived it was a little local train with just a couple of carriages so I sent Bret on ahead to get us a table all together because me and the girls all had suitcases to lug on.
A single man had taken occupancy of the nearest table seat to the luggage racks so in a bid to appeal to his better nature I said in a loud voice "I can't believe all table seats are taken. We will have to split up and I will have to stand here with the luggage" No response what so-ever. How selfish is that?? So I turned to him and asked him oh so politely if he would move to another seat so we could all sit together. I could have smacked him because his reply was that he was getting off at the next stop so 3 of us could sit there and the other one could have his seat when he got off!! So I told the children to sit down there and I went and sat in the little fold down seat in the vestibule so I could see the luggage cos it was right next to the door.

The evil man lied because he didn't get off until about 45 minutes into the journey, about the 4th stop.

The rest of the journey was fine as we all sat together and enjoyed flying through new towns that we had never been to and in some circumstances never heard of...

We reached Blackpool just after 3pm and once we got out of the station, we found the taxi rank. I didn't realise that Blackpool was stuck in the dark ages. The taxi driver opened up the boot and took our cases off us, then instead of storing them in the boot as I thought, he tied them onto this little shelf on the back of the cab and we set off with the cases just there.
So the next half an hour in that cab to the park were very uneasy as we imagined our cases spilling out all over the road or worse still being nabbed while we were stopped at a red light...and believe me every single set of lights we hit turned red just for us!

We were all relieved when we finally reached Haven Marton Mere but couldn't believe the half mile drive once in the entrance to the entertainment complex and check-in.

Check-in was ridiculously unorganised. There was no method and even though they said not to queue before 4pm there queue was already out the door. I settled the kids down at a table with all the luggage while I went and joined the line.


About half an hour later it was my turn and our worst fears were realised when I was shown on the map that our caravan was right back near the entrance to the camp so we had to drag all our cases back along the road half a mile away.

The plus point to this was that our caravan turned out to be right opposite the bus stop into Blackpool.
We all chose our rooms (Mine obviously the one with the double bed) The girls chose the room with the bunk beds and Bret got a twin room to himself.


Unfortunately as we were settling into our caravan the rain started to come down that with the distance away from the clubhouse meant that once we went out to explore we wouldn't want to come back to go out again so the girls went out to have a look around and me and Bret joined them later.

For our first meal of the holiday we met up at the cafe bar. It is the same as the usual pub restaurant on Haven parks. The food is what you would expect from a Wetherspoons pub. Good quality and reasonable.

Bret and I had "build your own burgers". For me this was a 1/4 pounder with cheese and BBQ sauce. For Bret a chicken burger with cheese and onion rings. Bill had Cheese and Onion pasty and Emma a Baked potato.

We headed into the clubhouse to find some seats and see what sort of entertainment was available. We managed to find seats and got drinks. We caught the end of the Kids club with the Bears Vs Tigers games.
Then came the party dances starting with YMCA.

After the kids entertainment was over the adult entertainment began with a game show. The Funstar (Nat) asked for a male and female volunteer up onto the stage. The guy was called Daz and was from Derby so we all gave a big whoop and cheer.
They had to do various ridiculous things including kissing as many people as they could and downing a pint of lager to earn points and win the bottle of sparkly wine.

When that was over they brought on the cabaret. I was expecting a bit more than a young girl singing to backing tracks. At first I just thought it was some girl who had wondered out onto the stage until we realised that was the entertainment so we upped and left back to the caravan.
unfortunately it was bucketing it down outside so we got soaked through.

After Hot chocolate and a bit of TV we all retired for an early night ready to face the next day.

Tuesday
I was woken at 6.30am by the rain coming down heavy on the top of the van. It was very cold as I cuddled up tight to try and go back to sleep and woke again at 8.30. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud int he sky. I got up and made myself some toast for breakfast. I sat listening to the radio until the kids surfaced and then we all got ready to head into Blackpool for the first time.

The buses were pretty regular and we saw the bus at the stop as we left the caravan.
As we got on though the driver advised us that he was having problems and the bus was close to breaking down. He said that there was a chance it would happen soon so we may have to get off and wait for another bus to arrive. We said we don't mind.
It was a pretty harrowing ride into town. We felt like we were in the film SPEED. He was going at breakneck speed in the hope that the bus would make the journey - however he had to stop a few times to let people on and it was touch and go each time whether he could get it started again.

We made it into Blackpool and got off behind the tower. We split up to go our own way and made a plan to meet up for lunch in 3 hours. All the kids headed off to the North Pier but I thought it would be fun to walk further North to see what was up there. I had no idea that the North Pier was it and that the further you go towards Fleetwood the more Hotels and guest houses you find.
I walked for about an hour before realising this. There were some great views though and I got some great photos.


After an hour of walking I realised I wasn't going anywhere so I decided to hop on a tram back to the North shore to have a look round before meeting the kids for lunch. I wandered along the North shore going in and out of the arcades and shops until I bumped into Bret who had spent up all his day's money within an hour. I couldn't browse anymore with him tagging along skint so we went to Costa coffee on the North Pier and had a Hot Chocolate and a couple of biscuits.

We had a walk to the end of the pier while we were there. The sun was out and the sky was Blue although it was a teensy bit windy.


The Pier is still really in it's original state with wooden floorboards and some of them are a bit worse for wear. At one point we nearly lost Bret as his foot went right down on a loose board and he had to grab hold of the nearby lamppost.
There was some great views of Blackpool from the end of the pier and it was a great way to really test out my 10x optical zoom...

At 1.30pm we went and sat outside to meet up with the girls. It was a unanimous decision to have lunch at McDonald's although I would have preferred to go to a little cafe and have a sandwich or a plate of Fish and Chips.

After lunch we wandered into Coral Island. This was a huge Amusement arcade and so much more. There was a huge arcade in there as well as a ghost train and another monorail type ride around the top of the venue where you go round and shoot lasers at targets hanging from the ceilings.
As you can see it is very much a Pirate themed venue.


There was also a huge cafe, a pub/restaurant and 2 Fish & Chip bars in there too.
I gave Bret some money as he had spent up and we all split up again for an hour. I was bored of the machines pretty quickly so I went in the bar and had myself a pint while watching the world go by.

When we met up again later we talked about having walked past the Louis Tussaude's waxworks and agreed that it would be a fun way to spend the rest of the day.


It totally was!
As we walked in the door we were transported to a Hollywood movie premiere.


Then we walked through to a Vegas casino


The place just went on for miles. There was an escalator up to a more fantasy based area with Superman and Darth Vadar and Harry Potter and an Indianna Jones room which I didn't go through but the children did several times. There is a special area where you can be Superman too...

Then it was through another door and up some stairs which took us to Football players, Coronations street and the music room.
The music room was excellent as they had an area where you could "Be Robbie William's band"
Emma sat down at the drums naturally and Bill & Bret picked up the guitars and they looked cool - In fact Who needs Robbie Williams?!
From the music room we walked through to a mock up of a Tussaude's studio where there are several spare heads of waxworks that are no longer used.

Then it was through a Hall of mirrors which scares me to death. You could get very claustrophobic in there. I just like to walk very slow with my hand on the mirrored wall and have to take a great old puff on my inhaler when I get out. The path out of the hall of mirrors took us through a seaside scene where we saw Charlie Chaplin and then into the Regal room.

I got to have my picture taken on the throne along with the Royal family.

Also in the regal room we found Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Tony Blair, Joan of Arc, Queen Victoria and a very poor replica of Princess Diana

Then it was James Bond accompanied by the big Monster villain Jaws.


Then our journey took us through the Star Wars bar and then we found ourselve in the gift shop. It seemed to come to an end pretty sharply but then we realised that the way out led us down some very dark stairs and we arrived in the Chamber of Horrors.
It was all very dark and eerie. You couldn't see where you were going very well which was all part of the drama especially when you went round a dark corner and came accros Michael Myers.

Then there was a very scary corridor filled with dead bodies hanging from the ceiling which you had to walk through to get to the next exhibits




By the time we finally got out of the Chamber of Horrors and back out onto the street, It was about 5.30pm and we had been in there for nearly 3 hours. I was ready for a sit down and a drink.
We split up again for a couple of hours. The girls went off in one direction and Bret and I made our way to a Wetherspoons pub called The Counting house and we sat and had a drink in there until 7pm when we met the girls and caught the bus back to the camp.

After a sit down and a rest we got our glad rags on and headed off to the Showbar for the evening's entertainment. Tonight it was the Party dances in the dark. This is great cos they use emotional blackmail to get the kids to make their parent spend loads of money on crappy flashy things like flashy bunny ears, necklaces, swords, wands, glo-sticks etc...
It is fun to watch though.

The Tuesday night cabaret was a very good band from Manchester called The Rogues. A 3-piece who covered a wide range of hits from the 60s, 70s, 90s and 2000s.

We got ourselves some chips for supper and ate them as we enjoyed the cabaret.
I think this was probably the only night we stayed right to the end of the entertainment. Unfortunately when we got out of there it was throwing it down with rain again so by the time we got back to the caravan we were all soaked again. We got in our pjs and had Hot Chocolate by the fire. We turned in about 1am when we were all nice and dry and warm.

Wednesday
I was up at 9am and having my breakfast when the others slowly arose too. The sun was out and the sky was blue but it was very windy indeed and that made it quite cold.
Today was the long anticipated trip to the Blackpool Doctor Who museum - The whole reason for our trip in the first place.
As we stood at the bus stop we discussed catching the open top tour bus. You pay £7 for a day ticket but you can also just pay a single fare. Seems there was no choice in it as the bus came almost as soon as we got to the stop and it was the open top bus. Emma was so excited that I couldn't say no and so we got on it and went upstairs. It was very full by the time it left for the town and there was no choice but to sit in the open part.

I have to say it was a bit blowy up there. The wind was blowing up a storm anyway and speeding through the streets of Blackpool, I found it hard to catch my breath. Never mind the wind blowing through my hair - It was blowing through my whole body.

I was so glad to get off at the tower that I suggested Hot Chocs all round at Costa coffee.
After we got ourselves warmed up we headed for the Dr Who museum which was to be the highlight of our week.

As there was 4 of us I thought I would see if I could get a family ticket which would mean we would only pay £5 each instead of the £7. The young lad on the ticket office wasn't going to let us but then the owner of the museum came out and said that it would be fine as Bret (Who towers above me at age 15) could be the Dad. Off we skipped into the TARDIS doors.

I'll be honest and say it wasn't quite what I was expecting and I was a little disappointed. I think the main problem was that it concentrated on the original Who from Hartnell to McCoy so a lot of the monsters and Aliens we didn't recognise. I will say one thing though there was still a thrill at the fact that each and every exhibit in that museum was an original prop or costume from the show - No Mock-ups at all.

We started with the original TARDIS console. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to touch it as it is so old and delicate that it could fall apart.

We spent about an hour and a half in the museum and you can see all the pictures here.
There was a short exhibit of recent Doctor Who costumes but only from the first season of New Who and there was no Boe :( I guess the more recent and popular items are at the Cardif and travelling exhibitions.)
We did still enjoy seeing the classic artifacts though.
In the gift shop at the end they didn't really have many souvenirs, it was mostly just the regular DW merch that you can buy in the shops and it was just as expensive. They did have a little machine that you could put a penny in (and 50p) and it turns it into a special Dr Who penny.

So we all got one as a keepsake.

After the museum we went off for lunch in the Coral Island cafe. The place is huge and very busy. They do meals for £3.55 where you can choose the main and add to it beans or peas and chips or baked potato. I had Roast Chicken with Baked potato and Beans.
It was really nice but our only gripe was that there were no condiments. No salt, vinegar or - Horror of Horrors - Ketchup.

After lunch we split up and arranged to meet at 7pm. I wandered into the town centre to look round the shops and do a bit more exploration of Blackpool itself. I have found that I have become a fan of architecture since buying the fuji camera and I found a few interesting archetectural items.
Like these Atlases holding up the main Post office building

I also saw this interesting structure in the town

I don't know how but I ended up wandering around the charity shops. There always seems to be more of these in seaside towns than any other towns. I didn't really find anything of interest there so I had a look round the cheap bargain shops and £shops.
I sat in the Blackpool theatre bar with a coffee while I wrote my postcards. It was empty so It was lovely and peaceful. It was so easy to think of what to write in so much as I was writing too much and couldn't fit it all in.

With shopping done I wandered down to the North shore to do more touristy stuff like take more photos of the tower.


I bought some donuts - they were very expensive this year - 5 for £1.50 - and I went to find a good bench on the pier to sit and eat. I struggled somewhat with the wind and it was a bit unnerving with this big Seagull hovering over my head ready to swoop and steal my sugary donuts.

After walking the Golden Mile and doing lots of shopping and sight-seeing my feet were throbbing and my legs were aching. I was meeting the kids at 7pm so I thought I would make my way down to the Counting House for a nice cold Pint.
I never did get that Pint as I stood at the bar for 10 minutes and no one appeared to come and serve me. Instead I waited at the bus stop until the children arrived.

I had sort of run out of cash for the day so instead of eating out I made Cheese & Ham toasties for tea back at the caravan and everyone wolfed them down. I had a tenner left in my purse which would be enough for a couple of drinks each at the club.

Wednesday was Funstars show night. All the funstars joined forces in an all singing, all dancing Summer high show.
They began with some High School Musical numbers and went into Grease and then some Hannah Montana and other Disney songs.


When that was over we had the cabaret which was a bloke singing along to backing tracks. He wasn't bad but he sang the same songs as the band the night before so we decided to go back to the caravan.
Wednesday night was our first night without rain so we had a leisurely walk back to the van and then once inside it was Hot Chocolate and sweet treats. There was nothing interesting on the tv for us to unwind to so we had a few games of cards before turning in.
It wasn't as cold at night now so it wasn't as hard to pull myself away from the gas fire and to my bed. I even lay in bed playing on my DS for a while.

Thursday
I must have had the best sleep Wednesday night as I slept in until nearly 10am.
I got up and made some breakfast and sat watching "Brothers and Sisters" on Channel 4.
The kids all slept well too as it took them a lot longer to get up.

The girls planned to go swimming and Bret was meeting up with someone in town but I wanted to go and buy pressies and treat myself to some souvenirs of Blackpool.
I was all dressed and getting ready to leave when suddenly my back went into spasms. The pain was so excruciating that I went all light headed. I sat down a minute and took some painkillers.
A few minutes later I felt better so I said goodbye and headed towards the bus but it was impossible, I couldn't walk the pain was so intense. It made me cry because this was the last day of my holiday and I didn't want to be too crippled to do anything.

I went back to the caravan and sat down in tears. The children all went their seperate ways and I just sat there. I have to admit that I may have taken more than the directed dose of painkillers but they weren't helping.
It was about an hour before I felt I could actually manage to walk. As I made my way to the bus stop, the pain was still there but more of a dull ache. I promised myself that when I got off the bus I would go into the NHS drop-in centre that was just opposite.

By the time the bus reached the tower I was feeling much better and felt I didn't need to go to have it checked out after all. I did go to the pharmacy and stocked up on strong painkillers just in case.

I wanted to visit Funny Girls as seen on the tv show Blackpool. I found it pretty easily but it wasn't open for me to go in so I just took some external photos.

I wanted to catch the tram and take a trip to the South shore as we hadn't even visited the whole time we had been there. It was £1.60 on the tram and I couldn't believe just how far away it was past all the hotels and guest houses.
I kind of wish we had gone down as a family. Bret had run out of money already and so he didn't even get the chance to go on a tram. It was now that I realised this splitting up thing didn't really work.

I got off the tram at the pleasure Beach. If it wasn't for the £30 entrance fee, I probably would have taken everyone but that is ridiculous for a seaside funfare. I believe it cost £5 if you didn't ride but then each ride would cost £5 to go on...Total rip off!


I bought myself some donuts - 99p for 3 - and took a walk around the back streets to look round all the little markets and gift stores. I didn't find anything different to what was in the main stores along the front but things were a little cheaper though. I also found an RBS bank so I could draw some more money out without having to pay £1.75 for the privelidge.

It was starting to drizzle and I realised the time was getting on so I started to take a leisurely walk back along the front towards the North Pier as I was meeting the kids at 3.30pm for Pizza Hut "All in for £4"

I bought all my pressies. Fudge for Ange and Brian and a novelty rock willy for Lisa (Which I haven't given her yet) and flying saucers for Debz.
I also picked up a couple of Blackpool magnets and a pen for myself as souvenirs of Blackpool.

More sightseeing photos...

I bumped into the girls on my way to Pizza Hut and we wandered through town discussing what we had done with our day.
As I mentioned earlier, Bret had been meeting up with an online friend so I didn't want to cut his day short so we just waited around for him to arrive.

The £4 deal in Pizza Hut is called Happy hour and runs from 3pm to 6pm. You get the choice of an individual pizza or Pasta or Salad with 2 pieces of Garlic bread and a drink for £4. However the more people the cheaper it is because for 4 of us it was only £14. That is cheaper than it would cost for 4 meals at McDonalds.
The choice of Pizza is limited to Pepperoni & Red Onion, Chicken and Mushroom or Margherita.

They were very busy as you can imagine so the service was very slow but the food was worth waiting for. The individual thin pizzas are quite big.

Once we finished it was a long wait to get the bill and pay. I got fed up waiting and I am afraid I didn't give a tip.

We split up again as the girls wanted to go and explore the South shore. Bret and I went to B&Ms to get some snacks and treats for the train journey home and then caught the bus back to the camp.
I made myself a well-earned coffee and put my feet up with some chocolate which I hadn't had all week. Joanna Paige was presenting The Paul O'Grady show on Channel four so I enjoyed watching that while dipping my chocolate in my coffee.

As it was the last night I wanted to go to the club quite early. I put on my best going out clothes and a bit of slap and we made our way down to the club. Unfortunately after our lovely Wednesday of no rain at all, it had come back with a vengence so we were pretty wet by the time we got to the club.


We managed to get a good table at the front so we would have a good view of everything. It was the kids Fun factor competitions again Bears Vs Tigers.

The girls arrived just in time for the party dances. I didn't feel like a drink so I had a Slush instead. In fact I pushed the boat out for the last night and had a Blue and Red mixed slush ;)
I went to get chips for me and Bret as we were both feeling peckish and I came back thinking I was missing my favourite song - MusicMan but it was another variation called Mimic man which I didn't enjoy at all.

The next dance though was a favourite of all the Young uns - Court of King Caracticus.


And then of course the speeded up version.



Then it was adult gameshow time again. This time Nat asked for 6 men to come up to the stage although they weren't told what they were doing. Once she had them there she told them that they would be taking part in a breakdancing competition and if you'd seen the men that were up there you would realise why that was so funny.
Having said that all 6 blokes really gave it some welly but the first to go was sadly the fattest.
So with 6 men down to 5 the next test of this "Mr Haven 2009" competition was to test their flirting. Our favourite Funstar Harry came out in a blonde wig and calling himself Harriet. The men had to walk up to him/her and give their best chat up line.

So another punter gone, the hardest task of all was to come where each men had to pretend to be Tarzan swinging through the jungle and fighting crocodiles and trampling tarantulas to rescue Harriet from King Kong.

To find the winner each man had to do a tasteful striptease (Bearing in mind there were still plenty of children in the room)

To decide the overall winner it was all about who got the biggest applause from the audience. We cheered loudly for 2 of them as I had a distinct dislike for one of the contestants...Don't ask me why!
The winner was the older of the 3 and a worthy champion! (No pics, I was busy eating)

The cabaret for the evening was the Funstars cabaret again. This time is was singing and dancing of a more mature nature.



It was around midnight when we left the club. I didn't fancy staying for the "Disco"
I had a load of 10p's in my purse so for the first time ever I decided to try and get rid of them in the 10p pusher machines. Instead of getting rid of them I won about £3 and 2 keyrings.

So we left the amusement arcade for the last time and took a leisurely walk back to the van as it was no longer raining.
We stayed up chatting for a while but conscious that we had to be up pretty early we were in bed for 1am.

The Journey home was quite horrendous. As it was Good Friday there were no trains from Blackpool to anywhere but Manchester. So we had to go to Manchester and change for a train to Sheffield where we had to change again for Derby.

We were at the front of the queue in Blackpool so managed to get seats and put our luggage away but from Manchetser onwards it way too packed. Although there were a few seats available on both trains there was nowhere to leave the luggage. So while Bret managed to get a seat each time, me and the girls stayed stood in the vestibules with the cases as we didn't want to lose them or have them stolen.

We were back home for 4pm.