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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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I think there's a lot of people out there that remember the days they could just walk in the Pleasure Beach instead of this day and age that requires everybody to buy a wristband to get any rides in due to the ludicrous PPR costs. So this stops some people going to the Pleasure Beach. If at the very least they charged £1 per person to enter to cover security costs and then lowered the PPR costs they would attract more people to the park. Some people don't want to be forced to choose one option (wristband), but if you can get them in, let the rides sell themselves then people would impulse buy either one off rides (that may account to more than a wristband cost) or would buy a wristband. The current model just keeps too many people away from South beach nowadays and ultimately affects surrounding businesses.
 
Doublethink said:
Icon is what as an enthusiast brought me to PB in the first place but none of my colleagues or even freinds living across the bay in Southport know about. The marketing was just so poor.
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We are just waiting for someone to build a bridge between Southport & Blackpool. I’d go twice as often then!

Edit: Wild Mouse station signs on eBay for £499 each. Must be the person who spent £750 in the shop in one go on 3 of them!
 
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MakoMania said:
Despite the fall in attendance, these figures are actually an improvement. It suggests that they have been able to effectively push up their revenue per capita figures, which when we look at the steep rise in parking charges and more modest rise in admission is not surprising.

At the end of the day, the park will obviously be dissapointed that Icon did not draw in the crowds, but I must say the marketing campaign was the most abysmal I have ever seen. However, the finance team can be pleased that they have managed to improve profitability despite this, so it's not all doom & gloom.
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Many of the decisions and/or price rises Pleasure Beach made in 2018/19 made them unpopular with guests, on a much bigger scale than just enthusiasts.

Whilst these changes may have increased their revenue in 2018, a year where they saw gate figures fall, they might well be doing more damage long term. And considering gate figures are already down, that's bad news.
 
Coaster said:
Attendance was down 5.8% in Icon's first season, however the loss was 1.2 million compared with 1.6 million the previous year.

https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/...or-weather-reduces-visitor-numbers-1-10189718

In my opinion, it's very concerning that after such a long wait for a new coaster, it didn't draw in any more guests.

Improved turnover could be attributed to things like all the new merchandise, increased fees etc - but if the overall gate figures are down in the year a 16 million pound coaster opens...

Wild Mouse's closure may well have had some bearing on gate figures even if not turnover, IMO.

I don't think things will improve until the park stop blaming external factors and start focusing on what they can actually do to improve.
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Out of interest, is it known what sort of ballpark Blackpool Pleasure Beach's yearly attendance sits in these days? Back in the 2000s, it got 5+ million visitors, and allegedly hit a peak of 7.5 million in the 1990s, but it doesn't even appear in the TEA attendance reports anymore.
 
Coaster said:
Many of the decisions and/or price rises Pleasure Beach made in 2018/19 made them unpopular with guests, on a much bigger scale than just enthusiasts.

Whilst these changes may have increased their revenue in 2018, a year where they saw gate figures fall, they might well be doing more damage long term. And considering gate figures are already down, that's bad news.
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Car parking going from £6 to £18 is a prime example
 
It’s amazing how many people pay that amount given the other options a few minutes away.

I do worry for Blackpool. Icon has definitely not seen the bump you would expect it to generate. I’m not sure it can be fully explained just by the poor marketing campaign - it’s quite extraordinary for attendance to drop in a year when such a sizeable investment has opened. There are more fundamental issues at play here.
 
Poopoohead said:
Car parking going from £6 to £18 is a prime example
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I thought that the £18 parking at BPB was their equivalent of the Alton Towers Express Parking, which charges a similar amount? The £18 car park we parked in the first time we visited was certainly very close to the entrance!

To be fair to them, I think there is also quite a wealth of parking spaces within Blackpool if you don't want to park on Pleasure Beach property.
 
venny said:
It’s amazing how many people pay that amount given the other options a few minutes away.

I do worry for Blackpool. Icon has definitely not seen the bump you would expect it to generate. I’m not sure it can be fully explained just by the poor marketing campaign - it’s quite extraordinary for attendance to drop in a year when such a sizeable investment has opened. There are more fundamental issues at play here.
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The bigger issues are apparently kicking in as well from it's failure. The supposed double ride deal for a Mack spinner has gone as I think I mentioned before and the design has been built elsewhere. I just can't see where is next for BPB.
 
Matt N said:
I thought that the £18 parking at BPB was their equivalent of the Alton Towers Express Parking, which charges a similar amount? The £18 car park we parked in the first time we visited was certainly very close to the entrance!

To be fair to them, I think there is also quite a wealth of parking spaces within Blackpool if you don't want to park on Pleasure Beach property.
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It never used to run that way but they are selling what was once the normal car park as an express/premium car park now.
 
MakoMania said:
It never used to run that way but they are selling what was once the normal car park as an express/premium car park now.
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Ah OK; thanks for the clarification @MakoMania!
Poisson said:
The bigger issues are apparently kicking in as well from it's failure. The supposed double ride deal for a Mack spinner has gone as I think I mentioned before and the design has been built elsewhere. I just can't see where is next for BPB.
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Wait, there was a Mack spinning coaster planned? I kept hearing about a Mack BigDipper for BPB, but never a spinner! I wonder where the design went to? Maybe it was Paultons, as Storm Chaser is a brand new Mack spinner...​
 
Matt N said:
I thought that the £18 parking at BPB was their equivalent of the Alton Towers Express Parking, which charges a similar amount? The £18 car park we parked in the first time we visited was certainly very close to the entrance!

To be fair to them, I think there is also quite a wealth of parking spaces within Blackpool if you don't want to park on Pleasure Beach property.
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Pleasure Beach's car park has varied the price from £5 - £10 for years based on how busy the park is expected to be and the day of the week; it was only in 2018 that they got greedy and raised the price to £15, then £18 and £20 on busy days.

I have a theory that the spinner for Plopsaland could have been designed for BPB, if you look at how the layout and supports are set out it looks as though it's designed to stretch over paths etc. Of course, this is just a wild theory and not based on anything!
 
If there was another Mack coaster designed, it would need to be particularly bespoke to fit within the park’s congested footprint. I seriously cannot imagine anyone would transplant that design to another park. It would incorporate design elements that just wouldn’t make sense in another location.
 
The Beach have reduced their losses by increasing revenue per head.
They are now heading more towards the family market as an overnight resort, and making clear progress, as the teen thrill market has faded overall.
The second Mack was never actually fully planned, but would have probably been ordered if Icon was a financial success.
It wasn't.
There were good detailed rumours from one in the know, who has gone very quiet on here recently, that the second coaster would have linked in with Icons second launch hill, threading the eye of the needle, so to speak.
 
Poisson said:
The bigger issues are apparently kicking in as well from it's failure. The supposed double ride deal for a Mack spinner has gone as I think I mentioned before and the design has been built elsewhere. I just can't see where is next for BPB.
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where’s it been built
 
Icon was a huge mistake in hindsight. A coaster enthusiast's dream perhaps but not a big hit with the public.

I accept that a better marketing campaign could have boosted figures somewhat but ultimately ICON isn't anything new to the GP. Launches aren't new and they're not even that fast anyway and neither are loops.

For the amount they invested they could have probably got an RMC and that would have blown the UK Theme Park market wide open. Merlin wouldn't have liked that.
 
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