Coaster Cabana

Running from July 31st to August 28th, Great Yarmouth’s Pleasure Beach transforms into a tropical playground every Saturday called Coaster Cabana. It opens at 11am with the tropical twist taking off from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. Coaster Cabana offers everything that Pleasure Beach delivers to the Norfolk coast while the sun is beaming along with a pop-up cocktail bar, live music from a couple of DJ booths, a roaming tropical band that performs around the site, tropical dancers as well as stilt walkers and street entertainment all adding a Caribbean festival shine to the tropical experience.

I went to see what Coaster Cabana was like and if it really brings that tropical atmosphere to Pleasure Beach and the Yarmouth beachfront. Their cocktails came with a pink flamingo straw to get you in the spirit, I went for a strawberry daiquiri and it tasted sweet as. Food wise, the choices were overwhelming, I eventually decided on the loaded fries with pork and coleslaw. When I got the fries they were warm and crisp but the pork on top tasted cold sadly, none the less it was very filling - those bowls are certainly stacked high! The band of four, mostly made up of percussion and a trumpeter was a nice touch and not too loud, although there was no chance you could miss them as they were constantly on the move with a dance in their steps. The DJs playlist seemed to be enjoyed by a lot of the visitors, but wasn't really my jam. The tropical dancers were encouraging the crowd throughout the evening, and this carnival blur of employed dancers and entertainers merged seamlessly with the dancing visitors during the big finale performance wrapping up the night.

It was an entertaining evening out, however they could have improved the atmosphere a tad. For example they had one guy juggling various items throughout the evening and generally holding up all of the basic street entertainment himself. If they had multiple street entertainers it would have added much more to the carnival vibe experience. Also adding a couple of extra tropical props like palm trees and sandy areas would have been nice. The weather was a little chilly with a grey sky and the heavens did briefly open up - this obviously didn't do a thing for the tropical feel, but we all know this is not the Caribbean - however didn't dampen the spirits of those there to entertain and once the drizzling quite the visitors soon got back in the carnival spirit.

As it’s Pleasure Beach you gotta hit the rides, right. I managed to squeeze a couple in, one being their famous Roller Coaster which surprisingly holds up despite being older than your Grans Nanna. And of course the classic Waltzers making me feel daiquiri dizzy, but hey that’s part of the fun.

To sum up everything that CoasterCabanahas to offer is a nice idea that families would enjoy and for me it was weirdly fun to have an event with a tropical twist at Pleasure Beach.