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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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John_P said:
Think every park I visited in America last year sold at least a few different ride layout models.
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I would love a kit to be able build a model of the wild mouse ride.

Not sure how easy something like that would be to produce but I would be prepared to part with a fairly big chunk of cash to buy something like that.





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shakey said:
I would love a kit to be able build a model of the wild mouse ride.

Not sure how easy something like that would be to produce but I would be prepared to part with a fairly big chunk of cash to buy something like that.
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I think the closest would be the Faller Wilde Maus, but not quite the same ... failing that, there are a couple of chassis in my garden you can measure and 3D print a mini version of to get you started!

John said:
The number of rides being suggested as being important to do early is an indicator of one of my main issues with BPB at present - there are too many rides with inadequate capacity that are a misery to queue for on busy days. Valhalla would be on that list too if it was open. Meanwhile if you visit off-peak there's basically no-one in the park.
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There aren't a huge number of days each year where you can't ride pretty much everything you want if you're there for a full day, unless you want to ride every single thing in the park.

What I think is a fair criticism, is that you often have to wait a lot longer than you should be doing and/or a lot longer than you would have done 10 - 15 years ago. That's not to say there aren't justifiable reasons for it, but it's little comfort when you're in a 2 hour Big One queue, on one train because of the wind. Likewise, Valhalla has topped out on 8 boats for a good while, compared to the 25 it opened with. There are many examples where capacity is nowhere near what it was / can be ... Ghost Train, Grand Prix, Derby Racer, Revolution, Avalanche, Grand National, Streak are among the worst offenders.

Whereas, at Alton Towers - even if you're in an hour long wait for Nemesis, it's often still churning through 1400 per hour on two trains.
 
Out of interest, what would you guys estimate the current ride throughputs to be like at BPB?

If I had to guess, I would have said that Icon and the Big One were the park’s highest throughput attractions at present, but I could be wrong!
 
Rick said:
What I think is a fair criticism, is that you often have to wait a lot longer than you should be doing and/or a lot longer than you would have done 10 - 15 years ago. That's not to say there aren't justifiable reasons for it, but it's little comfort when you're in a 2 hour Big One queue, on one train because of the wind. Likewise, Valhalla has topped out on 8 boats for a good while, compared to the 25 it opened with. There are many examples where capacity is nowhere near what it was / can be ... Ghost Train, Grand Prix, Derby Racer, Revolution, Avalanche, Grand National, Streak are among the worst offenders.
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Out of interest, how are Derby Racer and Revolution lower capacity than they could be? All seats are used, and this has always been the case.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Out of interest, how are Derby Racer and Revolution lower capacity than they could be? All seats are used, and this has always been the case.
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Just in terms of how they are operated. Revolution used to park, unload, load and dispatch in less than 45 seconds with a good crew. No seatbelts, visual check of harnesses and away you went. Even in the '90s and early noughties you'd have ops doing 'The Arrow Dance' on the pedals as the train came back into the station with a stern "wait 'til it stops". Those foolish enough to stand up would be thrust back into their seats as the train slammed into the dolly.

Derby Racer is less problematic, but it's not unusual for the new(ish) 'walk around' by the second member of staff to take as long as the ride cycle. In the old days, the ride would be in motion the second the last person had got their leg over their nag.

It's most notable when you're trying to take photos of the park. You could stand under the Revolution loop for 5 minutes and get four trains, these days you'd be lucky to get two. Like I said, there are good reasons why they aren't operated like that now, but it's hard not to compare.

Arrow Dance ...

 
Rick said:
Derby Racer is less problematic, but it's not unusual for the new(ish) 'walk around' by the second member of staff to take as long as the ride cycle. In the old days, the ride would be in motion the second the last person had got their leg over their nag.

It's most notable when you're trying to take photos of the park. You could stand under the Revolution loop for 5 minutes and get four trains, these days you'd be lucky to get two. Like I said, there are good reasons why they aren't operated like that now, but it's hard not to compare.

Arrow Dance ...

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By far the longest process on Derby Racer, from my experience, is the loading of people on to the ride, not the walk around.

It used to be an issue that the turnstile was at the loading point which meant that getting people loaded on to the ride was slow. No that the loading system has changed, this has improved slightly. But it’s still slow to load. And surely this has always been the case?

I can’t comment regarding Revolution. I rarely go on it, so wouldn’t know.
 
Slow to load for sure, sheer volume of people and complexities of getting kids up to that height (once they have chosen a horse ... ) means that takes as long as it takes, but the walk around never used to happen. Sometimes it can be quick, sometimes it can take forever, depending on how compliant people are and the size of the crowd.
 
Procedural changes like the above are part of the reason that I doubt BPB could make a success of fully returning to pay-per-ride. Whilst I don't doubt that part of the reason throughputs have dropped is that there's no longer a financial incentive to keep queues moving (quite the reverse, thanks to the existence of speedy pass), the modern H&S culture means the park just couldn't risk operating rides the way they used to.
 
John said:
Procedural changes like the above are part of the reason that I doubt BPB could make a success of fully returning to pay-per-ride. Whilst I don't doubt that part of the reason throughputs have dropped is that there's no longer a financial incentive to keep queues moving (quite the reverse, thanks to the existence of speedy pass), the modern H&S culture means the park just couldn't risk operating rides the way they used to.
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I’d mostly agree with the points made here. On the whole, I still think that the ride ops at BPB have a great approach to throughputs and keeping queues moving. They load guests on and off, and carry out checks at appropriate speeds, whilst obviously prioritising new safety protocol.

The big problem I have with BPB capacity is that they seem to love running rides on fewer vehicles than they are capable of running on, often significantly fewer. This used to be an issue at some other U.K. parks but has improved in recent years. At BPB it hasn’t improved. They frequently remove the second train from Dipper towards the end of the day when it gets quieter for example, despite the queue being long enough to justify keeping it on. I use Dipper as one of many, many examples of the park running fewer vehicles than, what I believe, they should be running. This applies to multiple rides.
 
3 weeks without a post, how depressing. Surely we are due another round of:
  • @shakey moaning about Nash
  • @rob666 moaning about the Rev steps
  • Wild Mouse removal
  • Someone asking about The Bigger One
  • Debate about the park’s business model
  • Rebuilding The Reel
  • What can be done with Noah’s Ark
  • Can anything be done to Nash as it is listed: / RMC it / leave it alone, etc
  • Big One fast / slow trains, sandbagging, etc
  • Bring the Monorail / Log Flume / <insert ride here> back
  • Will @rob666 finally get to swim the River Caves anytime soon?
 
Well the Big Blue Hotel cancelled my booking for opening weekend the other day so they've certainly abandoned any hopes of the early February opening. There best off planning for Easter weekend at this point I think.

I'm gutted but then I'm also relieved I won't be convincing myself the weather will be OK in early February.
 
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