Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2025 Discussion

[rob666]

Only fifty times more than suggested...

 

[Ares]

I've worked for many top down, micro-managed, ego-led businesses before and the last minute offers and price switching, poor marketing decisions, ignoring consultants and cancelling events seemingly set up to fail absolutely honk of it and I see no future where anything changes to save the park until there is a change in management across the board and I'm tired of even giving it half a chance to show change.

For all I care, get Six Flags / Cedar Fair in as a first foothold in the UK against Universal and Merlin and IP the rides and have the park subsidized by US parks and have offers on US package holidays to their parks.

Regardless, the parks finances are visible to all via companies house and numerous articles - they are continually unprofitable and AVIKTAS is the last roll of the dice. IMO a new coaster would've done miles better for the park from a marketing POV, on a £10m or so budget as suggested only a bit more than a Gyro. Id gladly see the back of Avalanche, Rev or Streak if needed for a new coaster on top of the existing removals.

The Gyro itself is a great ride, but I do not think it's the ride that makes any difference. To the GP it's just another swinging ride like they see at fun fairs, and it'll be too intense for most, myself included. It feels like it was bought to swing phalluses, pardon the pun, over petty height / size records. Mandy is like an insecure, not well endowed man with a large car to over compensate.

The park I know and loved wasn't just about the rides, it was the little things in-between. Superbowl Dodgems, Arabian Derby, the arcades etc. The park feels lifeless other than queuing for the rides these days, and once you've paid one price, I think the consumer mindset is more oriented to avoiding spending more in a tight economy versus PPR and you wing your day on FOMO and emotion led purchasing decisions in the heat of enjoyment. I've paid my £40 ticket entry, why pay £10 to throw 3 basketballs and win a prize I can order off Amazon for a similar price etc. Even arcades feel dated for the most part.

Times change, consumers change, and the economy is going to get much, much, much worse I can tell you that for sure. The jobs market reports alone can tell you all you need to know with 500k+ job losses in 3 months and a lot more to follow due to poor governance and automation for the most part.

The park needs to forget what everyone else is doing, and do the opposite. Stop zigging and start zagging and go back to what made BPB great.

For the PPR argument, do £10 entry flat pricing and give people equivalent value ride tokens to get started, that way if nan and grandad or mum and little brother don't want to do the big rides, they get to come in and gift those tokens to the people around them that do and just sell ride token books like the old days and make it a nostalgic experience.

I guarantee you a POP/PPR blend would shift consumer mentality and there would be an uptick in secondary spend too.

I personally just think better priced wristbands with tiered ride access Junior/Family/Thrill would work best and incentivize larger groups / families to enter the park with free non-rider tickets with every ride ticket purchased too. That alone increases secondary spend when grandparents or non-riding friends or family are sat about all day watching and waiting.

The same sound advice is repeated constantly on here and the park continues to make the same mistakes and embarrasses itself from selling bits of Grand Prix rubble, PMBO advertising wrappers and cancelling events due to evidently poor sales.

Sorry to waffle everyone and for being a negative nelly, but it comes from a place of love towards a place that holds special memories with family members that are no longer around. I just want the best for it and I really fear the worst is just around the corner.

 

[b2311e]

I agree the swing might not be the wisest move. I like the idea, I'll ride it, it will have the intended effect of changing the skyline. But I fear it's tumbling down the same path as Icon, where it's good, but not good enough to turn heads. There isn't really any hype. Hell, I'm not sure people even know its coming - can you imagine Merlin opening an attraction next year and not mentioning it at all in the park? I'd argue it's much more difficult to market a flat ride than a coaster, so it's already harder work than it could be.

The park's own website has a top-level menu button for Launch Pad, but the page for Aviktas is buried under the 'rides' submenu. Despite claiming to be updated regularly, the most recent section is dated May 2025. The ramp past River Caves has hoarding boards along the full length, yet this blatant advertising opportunity is missed. This is basic stuff, folks.

The area it is going into needs secondary spend opportunities. A small kiosk selling snacks and drinks would be a blindingly obvious choice, but it seems there's fewer and fewer now. Moving the catering unit(s) to the Trauma Towers side and having it like a square would work, and make best use of what they have. Crucially, it avoids the dead space appearance we have now.

As for the park as a whole, I could write suggestions all day, and I'm sure most of them would have already been discussed in a boardroom.
My biggest issue is the guest experience - it is rapidly getting worse. Key points that come to mind:

The entrance experience is shambolic at the best of times. Noahs ark building is too small for the purpose. People queue for security, only to get turned away by the butty police and have to fight their way back through the crowd. See also, those who don't realise you need your ticket by this point. If you were new to the park, you might not realise, and there's no signage to tell you. If you are a regular, see my post from yesterday about the new season pass experience. What a way to deal with your regular customers.

Total lack of navigational signage throughout the park. Things like information, toilets, first aid should be absolute bare minimum. Even signs to the park exit would be useful, people ask me every so often.

Fictional queue times in the app, and a lack of display screens outside ride entrances.

Toilets are regularly in an absolutely diabolical state - How hard can it be to ensure each cubicle has a seat, lock, and toilet paper. These should be checked every hour, so why are there examples that have been broken nearly a year? Also, stop closing them before ride close.

The eternally broken fences in Big One's queueline. Some of the ropes held on with cable ties, the rightmost metal post in concrete doesn't stand upright (and has been like that years), the handrails that aren't attached properly on the ramp. Fair play, I think they've fixed the step along the left side of the station this year, but in doing so they've trapped a load of litter in the uplight cutouts.

Mentioning this with the huge caveat that most are fine - some staff need to remember they're speaking to paying customers. The way I have seen some guests spoken to recently is absolutely disgraceful, and they'd be well within their right to complain.

Nearly all of the above 'experience' issues can be solved for relatively minimal cost, but would pay dividends in how a guest perceives their day.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

So are people seriously suggesting that Pleasure Beach should not have all-day ride wristbands?

Or are people saying bring back PPR with the option of purchasing a wristband?

 

[Mick]

Selling tat for ridiculous sums of money doesn’t necessarily mean the park are on their **** at all. They’ve obviously clocked that there’s a growing market for theme park items (aka tat) and that it at least makes sense to try and get a few quid from it before they throw it in the skip.

No different to all the old wheels and bits of wood they try and flog in the shop, imo.

 

[flyingguitar]

So are people seriously suggesting that Pleasure Beach should not have all-day ride wristbands?

Or are people saying bring back PPR with the option of purchasing a wristband?

I would say bring back PPR with the option of purchasing a wrist band, allows you to get some of the non riders money from bars and shops, get money from those who want to ride one or two of the rides whilst also allowing people to get a "deal" and ride more rides.

Selling tat for ridiculous sums of money doesn’t necessarily mean the park are on their **** at all. They’ve obviously clocked that there’s a growing market for theme park items (aka tat) and that it at least makes sense to try and get a few quid from it before they throw it in the skip.

No different to all the old wheels and bits of wood they try and flog in the shop, imo.

it isn't just this though, there is many parts which adds up to show they are very likely struggling:
Closing multiple rides this year,
Still no river caves,
Little investment (we have avikats (stupid name) but appart from icon we really havent had much else this past decade (mostly ride removals) compare that to alton, it has had removals, but we have had TCAAM, Neme reborn, Toxicator, the wickerman, smiler, air/galactica retheme, etc, they are a family park but standing still is a quick way to loose market share),
the financial accounts showing they have been loosing money from their theme park for ages,
The run down nature of the park,

and so much more, recently an American theme park youtuber came to the UK and did BPB as part of their trip and talked about how it was clear to him that they were struggling:

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igUInEpl2MY

I agree the swing might not be the wisest move. I like the idea, I'll ride it, it will have the intended effect of changing the skyline. But I fear it's tumbling down the same path as Icon, where it's good, but not good enough to turn heads. There isn't really any hype. Hell, I'm not sure people even know its coming - can you imagine Merlin opening an attraction next year and not mentioning it at all in the park? I'd argue it's much more difficult to market a flat ride than a coaster, so it's already harder work than it could be.

The park's own website has a top-level menu button for Launch Pad, but the page for Aviktas is buried under the 'rides' submenu. Despite claiming to be updated regularly, the most recent section is dated May 2025. The ramp past River Caves has hoarding boards along the full length, yet this blatant advertising opportunity is missed. This is basic stuff, folks.

The area it is going into needs secondary spend opportunities. A small kiosk selling snacks and drinks would be a blindingly obvious choice, but it seems there's fewer and fewer now. Moving the catering unit(s) to the Trauma Towers side and having it like a square would work, and make best use of what they have. Crucially, it avoids the dead space appearance we have now.

As for the park as a whole, I could write suggestions all day, and I'm sure most of them would have already been discussed in a boardroom.
My biggest issue is the guest experience - it is rapidly getting worse. Key points that come to mind:

The entrance experience is shambolic at the best of times. Noahs ark building is too small for the purpose. People queue for security, only to get turned away by the butty police and have to fight their way back through the crowd. See also, those who don't realise you need your ticket by this point. If you were new to the park, you might not realise, and there's no signage to tell you. If you are a regular, see my post from yesterday about the new season pass experience. What a way to deal with your regular customers.

Total lack of navigational signage throughout the park. Things like information, toilets, first aid should be absolute bare minimum. Even signs to the park exit would be useful, people ask me every so often.

Fictional queue times in the app, and a lack of display screens outside ride entrances.

Toilets are regularly in an absolutely diabolical state - How hard can it be to ensure each cubicle has a seat, lock, and toilet paper. These should be checked every hour, so why are there examples that have been broken nearly a year? Also, stop closing them before ride close.

The eternally broken fences in Big One's queueline. Some of the ropes held on with cable ties, the rightmost metal post in concrete doesn't stand upright (and has been like that years), the handrails that aren't attached properly on the ramp. Fair play, I think they've fixed the step along the left side of the station this year, but in doing so they've trapped a load of litter in the uplight cutouts.

Mentioning this with the huge caveat that most are fine - some staff need to remember they're speaking to paying customers. The way I have seen some guests spoken to recently is absolutely disgraceful, and they'd be well within their right to complain.

Nearly all of the above 'experience' issues can be solved for relatively minimal cost, but would pay dividends in how a guest perceives their day.

I agree the lack of signage is very bad, however I think another problem is the layout of the park, everything is everywhere, vary compact and chaotic making it hard to see where any rides entrance is, combined with the tiny signs, and matching signs, requiring people to read the sign to know what ride it is.

Compare this to AT, most the rides (bar the smiler) have funnel like paths, with very few diverging paths around a ride meaning people are encouraged to go past the entrance when near the ride, which has very unique signs.

the up keep is quite poor, I think another problem with this is the unwilling to change, keeping old structures such as Noah's ark, flying machines, etc. whilst the rides may be fun, they aren't fan favourites and newer buildings could be much better, if they replaced the casino and Noah's ark for a new enterance it could drive more sales as people could be more incited into entering with a more friendly and open ticket offices and entrance gates, but they have a cramped casino building, and a tiny entrance gates, none of which are properly signposted and are very confusing for a first time visitor, along with other parts in the park, with old monorail track being left, various building just left empty, and old bars which look like they are from the 90's, not very inticing

there is also a vice versa to this, they have removed fan favourites (the mouse) but not replaced them with new rides, but also they don't push their history, they don't embrace the historic rides such as the grand national, just kind of having them they could advertise with the fact they have rides from the victorian era and from this era with the best staying, or something like that.

 

[rob666]

... I mean who would turn their nose up at a £20 Ryanair flight?

Me.
Never done one.
Hottest month records broken worldwide a few times already this year, and it is probably going to be the hottest year on record, nationally and worldwide.
So no £20 flights for me thank you.

 

[Hid]

Little investment (we have avikats (stupid name) but appart from icon we really havent had much else this past decade (mostly ride removals) compare that to alton, it has had removals, but we have had TCAAM, Neme reborn, Toxicator, the wickerman, smiler, air/galactica retheme, etc, they are a family park but standing still is a quick way to loose market share),

Pleasure Beach is not like Towers they can't just spend and spend like they can because they are independent.

they have removed fan favourites (the mouse)

They were kinda forced into removing Wild Mouse because insurance providers would not insure it.

keeping old structures such as Noah's ark, flying machines

They can't remove either structures as they are listed

 

[rob666]

Paulton's are independent, they have spent and spent.

 

[Hid]

Paulton's are independent, they have spent and spent.

Yes because they cater more to families which is the most profitable market.

Also Paultons don't have to upkeep aging rides like Pleasure Beach do

 

[Matt N]

Yes because they cater more to families which is the most profitable market.

Also Paultons don't have to upkeep aging rides like Pleasure Beach do

I refute that these are the sole reasons for Paultons’ relative success. I’m not saying they aren’t factors at all, but if they were, I think many other smaller UK parks would also be successful.

If we’re being honest, most smaller UK parks primarily cater to young families at this point. And very few parks worldwide have as much of an expansive vintage lineup as Blackpool. A primary focus on young families didn’t save Drayton Manor from bankruptcy in the late 2010s, and it didn’t save the likes of American Adventure from closure either.

The biggest reason for Paultons’ success, in my view, is because they’ve had a very shrewd pricing and investment model that evidently fits their product incredibly well. They’ve expanded and been forward-thinking, but they’ve done so carefully and in a sustainable, organic manner, and they price their product in such a manner that spend per capita is relatively high compared to most UK parks. They clearly know their product and their demographic incredibly well and have a consistent vision, and it has paid dividends for them.

That’s not to say that Paultons’ pricing model should be picked up and used for Blackpool Pleasure Beach, though. It’s about knowing your product and your demographic; in Blackpool’s case, a historic seaside park in Lancashire is a very different product to an inland young family park near Southampton, so what works will likely be very different.

 

[rob666]

Yes because they cater more to families which is the most profitable market.

Also Paultons don't have to upkeep aging rides like Pleasure Beach do

Nickland!
And a dozen other family rides!

 

[Hid]

Nickland!
And a dozen other family rides!

Peppa Pig is more popular than Nicklodeon.

On thing to in Pleasure Beach you need to know how to ride each ride to enjoy Wooden Coasters go with the flow. Big One avoid wheels seats. Just avoid Infusion

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Peppa Pig is more popular than Nicklodeon.

...Remind me, which channel airs Peppa Pig outside of the UK?

 

[Hid]

...Remind me, which channel airs Peppa Pig outside of the UK?

I am talking of guests in the UK

 

[rob666]

Show me the figures, I am far from convinced.
Not sure the Beach have ever released separate Nickland figures...but 6 million Beach visitors, against around a million at Paultons.
So Ms Pig is less popular in my book.

 

[flyingguitar]

Pleasure Beach is not like Towers they can't just spend and spend like they can because they are independent.

even if you don't have as much budget as AT, AT have a lot of themed rides, requiring a lot of funding for the theming, and AT's rides are often more expensive than independent parks would install (e.g b&m invert vs slc).

staying still in this industry is what can ruin a park, they could have installed more cheaper rides rarther than buy Icon and try to spread that budget out more.

They can't remove either structures as they are listed

I was more talking about why they didn't remove them much earlier and have kept them for so long.

besides you can move grade listed structures, it sounds a bit sketchy, but it has been done multiple times before, often they get moved to a museum, although I don't know how Noahs ark is built and thus if it can be moved.

alternatively they could open a second gate further down the promenade, turn Noah's ark into a gift shop, arcade, etc. have a proper enterance, with a good amount of signs, as currently the only signs from outside the park are the mr sunshine, which unless you know BPB don't really mean anything

 

[Benzin]

alternatively they could open a second gate further down the promenade

One by the hotels and Big One would be ideal.

 

[Squiggs]

...Remind me, which channel airs Peppa Pig outside of the UK?

I'm not sure whether this was the point, but a very quick google search gives a reasonable summary of Peppa Pig's global distribution arrangements. Not to mention, the same Wikipedia article has an overview of Merlin's global licensing set up, related to the number of Peppa Pig parks and attractions that have since sprung up around the world.

 

[shakey]

They were kinda forced into removing Wild Mouse because insurance providers would not insure it.

Again, no real evidence for this. Just tittle tattle and rumours, and logically it makes no sense that it couldn't be insured.

As for whether the park are in financial trouble. There is a load of evidence to suggest they are , and the fact they are offering half price wrist bands in peak season should be enough to raise alarm bells.