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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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You can't always queue for a front seat on Icon.
If the queue is long, you are "guided" into the main queue.
Likewise for the back seats, if there are more than four at the gate, you are usually asked to move down.
Can't understand why they don't do limited hours on Valhalla, just open it for a couple of hours at the end of the day.
 
@rob666 I must have been lucky this season as I've not had any issues getting front or back row (except for being booted off back row when someone further down the train can't get their restraint fastened)

I try to avoid super busy days though :)
 
Thanks for your opinions and tips, guys! Judging by what you've said, I definitely think queueing for the front would be worth doing, and I may well try and sit towards the back if I can get multiple rides in so that I can get a taste for both.

Also, do you guys have any recommendations of rides for me to try and do for the first time, as when I last visited, I only did the coasters and Ice Blast due to Valhalla being closed?
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Opening hours- Times have changed greatly since the 90s, the way people visit parks and buy their tickets has changed in this digital age. People now plan their trips weeks in advance and buy online tickets. They’re far more likely to get to the park and 10am and view it as a day trip making late closings unnecessary during most periods of the year. There are far less casual, walk up visitors these days, you just have to look at how many hotels have closed down in Blackpool as well as the ageing clientele of Blackpool, many of whom would have no interest in visiting the park. This is very different to the 80s and 90s when Blackpool was booming and relied on walk-ups and would keep going till late to accommodate this.
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Sorry but that's total rubbish.

Why would anyone want to book weeks in advance for an outdoor attraction located in a place notorious for bad weather ?? If you are in a large group you may plan in advance, but most people would much rather make as late a decision as possible.

Blackpool is the only park I know of that penalises late bookings so heavily. It is the only seaside park that doesn't either offer free entry or re-reimbursed entry and it is also the earliest closing seaside park.

So why is pleasure beach going against every other seaside park's business model ? Do they know something other parks don't ?

As for merlin parks, you can pay on the gate with readily available 2-for-1 vouchers cheaper than booking on line through their website. And a lot of people pay on the gate, because they would rather wait to see what the weather is going to be like !

Blackpool is just as popular with young people and families as it was in the 80s and 90s. The piers can be packed out well into the evening during the summer holidays or illuminations.

The only thing that has really changed is the way pleasure beach choose to run their business.

Unfortunately they currently have their opening/closing hours wrong, pricing structure wrong, and overall customer service ranging from ok to abysmal.

And please don't get me started on deranged rodents !!!
 
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Icon is a front row ride for me. The back still rides well but it feels quicker on the front.

Morning rides aren't great though. It speeds up a lot during the day. This is typical of many coasters though and Mack Megas in particular.
 
Benjsh said:
Icon is a front row ride for me. The back still rides well but it feels quicker on the front.

Morning rides aren't great though. It speeds up a lot during the day. This is typical of many coasters though and Mack Megas in particular.
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Is it a good thing that I saved my first ride on it until 2pm last year, then? If that's the case, I may well save it until the evening when I go on 24th August so that it's at its optimal running speed.
 
Regarding opening hours..maybe the council put conditions on opening hours when they made bale out loans to the park over the years.
Could never understand daily opening when it must have cost them a fortune for years.
Perhaps the council set conditions to give the other (non financially assisted) amusements fair crack of the whip.
Would be better opening at one pm and opening until at least eight through the summer and loonymations.
 
There's also a view that running less boats typically means that the ride runs more reliably throughout the day so less can be more in the capacity stakes. If you stick the whole current fleet on the ride (14 boats, from an original 25), it will be closed more than it's open, so that is a consideration.

They have worked to address the issues and made some headway, but I think it's fair to say there's more to do. Six Flags gave up on their model of the same ride, after all.

I don't doubt cost plays a role, but that only really pertains to the costs associated with operating the effects. The ride system itself is eyewateringly power hungry irrespective of the number of boats operating.
 
All true enough, but four boats on Valhalla, slap bang in the middle of summer, is absurd whichever way you slice it. I mean, BPB is a bit quiet, but it's not that quiet.
 
siralgenon said:
It's only the same ride system as Storm Force 10 at Drayton isn't it? And that doesn't have any problems I know of?
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It's similar but built by Intamin rather than BEAR. Stormforce has been closed for whole seasons and runs many fewer boats than it was designed for. When it finally reopened after its last slumber it was running only a handful, wasn't it? @Ciaran @Themeparksandy1981

Plastic Person said:
All true enough, but four boats on Valhalla, slap bang in the middle of summer, is absurd whichever way you slice it. I mean, BPB is a bit quiet, but it's not that quiet.
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I get it, but like I say, stick 12 on and it'll be closed all day and no one will be able to ride it. They're working on the underlying issues and doing what they can in the meantime, but I understand the frustration.

One thing that doesn't help that ride is that it's now understood in the public at large just how wet it is, so irrespective of the weather, the profile of ridership throughout the day is very uneven meaning in the final few hours, riding Valhalla is very much part of people's plans - less so before midday.
 
Park rammed today with around 6,000 on. Supposedly the ‘quiet’ day this week too. Word of warning for those going midweek this week, 9,000 - 10,000 due on Weds to Fri. Couldn’t be bothered waiting for anything. Too hot and kids everywhere. Had wander round, some lunch, look in the shop and then left. Highlight of the day was the top of a woman’s burger bun being lifted clean off by one of Bernard’s FY4 seagulls. Safest place to eat there is under the bar canopy!

Icon on 3 trains, with queue just round bend from gates. Big One on two (actual full trains with no sandbags!) with queue filling all cattle pens & to photo desk. No thanks. Revolution queue halfway to ground. Avalanche to ice cream van. Dipper on 2 with queue to steps. Nash on 2 sets but when I walked past the Perspex screens one pair was stuck on the lift hill. FY4 balcony shut and now has a proper ‘no entry’ gate as opposed to the bin they used to shove there to (partly) block it off. Closing the balcony on a busy day with barely a spare table downstairs is a bit odd. Apparently there are some ‘loose boards’ up there. They should fix them then! Just got a nice cordless drill & impact driver set for my 40th today, I will do it for a few free Icon & Big One queue jump passes! Is it September yet?

To be fair the staff seemed to be doing their best to eat up the queues so this is not a critical post, I just dread to think what it will be like with today’s crowd and half as many again, later in the week. I wonder if there will be a few speedy pass sales ! You have been warned. Stay away unless you have urgent coaster needs to scratch. Oh and the ‘exclusive season pass holder’s’ East entrance was shut. Decided to write it off and beat the traffic home in good time
 
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Out of interest, how many visitors does BPB get per year these days? Does it still get 6 million like it did in the 2000s?
 
Rick said:
It's similar but built by Intamin rather than BEAR. Stormforce has been closed for whole seasons and runs many fewer boats than it was designed for. When it finally reopened after its last slumber it was running only a handful, wasn't it? @Ciaran @Themeparksandy1981


I get it, but like I say, stick 12 on and it'll be closed all day and no one will be able to ride it. They're working on the underlying issues and doing what they can in the meantime, but I understand the frustration.

One thing that doesn't help that ride is that it's now understood in the public at large just how wet it is, so irrespective of the weather, the profile of ridership throughout the day is very uneven meaning in the final few hours, riding Valhalla is very much part of people's plans - less so before midday.
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The ride systems are both similar, obviously built by different manufacturers. They’re both extremely unreliable though so I guess that’s a similarity? Stormforce doesn’t run all of its boats anymore, even though it should do because it would vastly improve the throughput.
 
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