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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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The staff were too busy hiding dippy, cos of all the closures!
Could I add that my experience on Sunday was enhanced by chatting with one of the park managers on the National, he has always amused me no end by the subtle disguised use of hand signals as a greeting from a long distance away.
He always lightens my day with stunning repartee about his dedication to keeping all the rides open and running at full capacity, and I have seen him whip lazy ride ops to within an inch of their lives if they do not run up and down the ride platforms between trains.
The rumours that I am actually carrying his child are false.
Sadly.
Will that do mate?
 
pj said:
Fair enough but I feel had this been a vlog about Alton Towers there would have been much more mention of the ride down time and bad operations from the start rather than ticked away at the end.


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May I suggest you watch the Alton Towers video from mid March last year when half the park was closed, but we praised the staff for their efforts and hyped the Wicker Man throughout despite endless waiting through its downtime?
 
If you’re filming a vlog in real time, it’s natural that you consider your views rather than make knee jerk reactions. Having experienced the Saturday unfold, it’s probably fair to say that there were some issues earlier in the day, but not much more than you might otherwise expect.

As the day progressed it was almost like watching the park fall apart like a house of cards. It’s at that point, later in the day, that you can properly reflect on the day.

For what it’s worth, in my opinion, the park were very clearly not ready to open. That’s as a result of poor decisions made by management. The problems were too many and varied to just be bad luck, repeated too often to just be coincidence; the reaction to issues in certain circumstances showed a disdain for their paying customers.

It’s already been said, but opening weekend problems are not unusual. It is challenging to recruit enough staff with the experience to provide seamless service from day one. Technical issues are almost inevitable because of the nature of reopening rides which have been unused for several months. You can forgive these issues to an extent.

This year though, and in the knowledge that opening weekend poses these challenges, Pleasure Beach appear to have knowingly reduced resources to prepare. An issue which has very clearly and spectacularly backfired.

Even more unforgivable is that their online booking system allows them to reasonably forecast the crowds. Even the good weather was forecast fairly well in advance. So they must have had an inkling that this was inevitable. It’s not their first rodeo - they should know better.

All of this is a massive shame, because despite this weekend’s shambles, BPB is still probably the UK’s best park. There are plenty of decent staff amongst those whose decisions are undermining the place. There are also still positive developments happening (the opening show, new hotel etc). It’s concerning that their inexcusably poor performance this weekend will no doubt have put off many repeat customers and done the park’s reputation no favours.
 
rob666 said:
Don't hold any hopes for next weekend though...still half term...even warmer forecast (don't get me started royjess!), payday weekend for many, and a week isn't long enough to get all those second trains running properly if there are issues with engineer recruitment and retention.
But I will have to attend as it is dippy's round.
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I've booked tickets for sunday

I'm praying for rain but its not going to happen
 
Seems to me that the real problem is not Pleasure Beach, but vlogs...!

I'll be there this Sunday though, hopefully Icon works but if not I'll go for a stroll on the promenade with the wind in my face, it will feel practically the same as Icon's launches.
 
Sorry Matt, you weren't there, and are misinformed.
The ride had major issues both days...the Beach fan group lost their group ride time, it closed very early on Saturday, and ran for about an hour and a half on Sunday.
The ride staff told me to get on quick before it broke down, and I did, then it did as they suggested.
This year's operations, compared to last year's excellent overall running, has been very poor so far.
 
rob666 said:
Sorry Matt, you weren't there, and are misinformed.
The ride had major issues both days...the Beach fan group lost their group ride time, it closed very early on Saturday, and ran for about an hour and a half on Sunday.
The ride staff told me to get on quick before it broke down, and I did, then it did as they suggested.
This year's operations, compared to last year's excellent overall running, has been very poor so far.
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Thanks for the clarification @rob666, but are you referring to the actual ride experience? Or the operations? I was referring to the actual ride experience.
 
ringo said:
Question how on earth do they go through over 1 million white bulbs a year :eek:
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Call me sceptical but I don't see how that's possible. That would be over 2700 bulbs replaced per day on average, or 114 for every single hour of the year.

Also from the education pack:
Did you know that 750,000 burgers were sold on the park last season?
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I wonder how many of those people are still waiting to get them?
 
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