Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
I’m not personally sure that pay-per-ride would be sustainable in today’s climate, or at least full pay-per-ride in the manner that was operated at Pleasure Beach in the so-called “golden age” of the 1990s.
I know that pay-per-ride might potentially mean more efficient operations (I witnessed PPR operations first hand at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and the operations on Olympia Looping in particular are perhaps some of the most efficient I’ve ever witnessed, with almost scarily fast dispatch times; great job, guys!), but in the context of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which I’m assuming the topic was targeted towards, then I don’t really think that full pay-per-ride would be sustainable for a park like BPB today, and I have a number of reasons as to why I think this.
Firstly, as some have already said, spending habits are very different today to what they were in the 1990s. Most people who visit a big park like Blackpool Pleasure Beach nowadays go there for a full day out, so pay-per-ride would not offer anywhere near the value for money, therefore putting people off who want to go for that type of visit. For reference, I went to Blackpool last August for a Late Night Riding event, and according to the trip report I wrote, I got on 10 rides. My parents were able to get those wristbands for £25 each. Compare that to when I spent an evening at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, when I think I got on 7 rides. I seem to remember that costing us about £70-80, give or take; I’m not sure exactly how much, but it was definitely quite a high amount. Using that as a reference, using PPR to get on 10 rides at Blackpool would cost about 3-4 times as much as using a wristband, and when you take into account that some of Blackpool’s ride prices are quite high (For example, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Icon’s individual price £15, as well as the Big One’s?), and having a full day at Blackpool would cost a significant amount of money. For some idea, I don’t think your average Disney park costs much more (if any more) than the £75-100 range I just gave if you use a 1-day ticket for one park as a reference. As much as I personally enjoy Blackpool more than any Disney park I’ve been to, I’m not sure your average guest would want to pay nearly a Disney level price for a day out at somewhere like Blackpool Pleasure Beach, once you add together all of the ride prices, whereas £25 (or even the £39 on-the-day figure) seems far more palatable. You know what, I’ll actually go and calculate how much my day at Blackpool would have cost using pay-per-ride. Using the info on Blackpool’s website, my last day at the Pleasure Beach would have cost £85 using pay-per-ride (no data is listed for Valhalla, but I think it was £10 from memory?). My wristband cost £25, and even if I’d purchased on the day, it would have cost £39; that’s a substantial saving. Before I ramble on, my point is; a wristband represents far better value for your average visitor, and is able to be sold at a much more compelling price. I think pay-per-ride works at somewhere like South Pier down the road because as much as South Pier is very good at being what it’s trying to be, it’s not really somewhere you go for a day out. Most people tend to pop down there, maybe ride 1 or 2 rides or go to an arcade to spend an hour and then leave. I’d even wager that it’s sustainable for some of the country’s smaller seaside parks, which only tend to have a few rides. Another place where it works is Fun Spot Kissimmee, which I visited when I went to Florida last April, but again, they don’t have that many rides (I’d personally say that the only real standout was Mine Blower), and I think even they offered some sort of wristband. But Blackpool is a huge park, with so much to do, so people are not going to be able to cram all of those activities into their budget on pay-per-ride prices.
Another thing to point out is that even though Blackpool doesn’t release its attendance figures anymore, I’d wager that they are substantially lower than they were in the park’s “golden age”, and I don’t think that’s due to the transition to the entry fee as much as some suggest. Even in 2007, when Blackpool last reported its attendance figures, the TEA report pegged them at 5,500,000 guests; that was roughly on par with Universal Studios Florida, more than Islands of Adventure, and made it the second most visited European theme park behind Disneyland Park in Paris. And I get the impression that even that is quite some time after the park’s so-called “golden age”; in the 1990s, the park was frequently reporting figures of 7-8 million guests per year from what I can tell, whereas now I think they get around 1.5-2 million from what I’ve read (correct me if I’m wrong)? Counter in the fact that I think visitation to seaside resorts in the UK in general has declined since the 1990s for various reasons (or if not declined, at least shifted demographic to an older demographic less likely to visit Pleasure Beach), and I don’t personally feel that Blackpool could feasibly operate as a pay-per-ride park now.
Furthermore, there’s also the issue that the entry fee may well make the park more appealing to families. I’ve never personally had any problems with the town of Blackpool myself (from my admittedly limited experience of it, being from the South West), but my mum went to the park in somewhere around 1997-1998, when free entry and pay-per-ride were still in full force, and she absolutely hated it to such an extent that she was very hesitant to go back in 2018, and that’s down to the type of atmosphere it had. When we went back as a family in 2018, she said that she was really pleasantly surprised, and that the park had a far nicer, more enjoyable atmosphere than on her visit 20 years earlier. Her and my dad were perfectly happy to go back in 2019, and my mum even suggested we could potentially return in 2021; I doubt they would have been so keen had the park been free entry based on my mum’s experience in the 90s. Also, the Pleasure Beach documentary portrays that the park had quite a lot of crime in the 1990s; the security guards seemed to be reeled out at least once every episode! Whether it was drunk people, sexual assault towards the beavers in Beaver Creek, outside sellers or even a bomb scare (those are just a few I remember from the series), there often seemed to be crime & misbehaviour within the park, and that’s not the type of reputation that any family theme park wants itself associated with in 2020.
I know that pay-per-ride might potentially mean more efficient operations (I witnessed PPR operations first hand at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and the operations on Olympia Looping in particular are perhaps some of the most efficient I’ve ever witnessed, with almost scarily fast dispatch times; great job, guys!), but in the context of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which I’m assuming the topic was targeted towards, then I don’t really think that full pay-per-ride would be sustainable for a park like BPB today, and I have a number of reasons as to why I think this.
Firstly, as some have already said, spending habits are very different today to what they were in the 1990s. Most people who visit a big park like Blackpool Pleasure Beach nowadays go there for a full day out, so pay-per-ride would not offer anywhere near the value for money, therefore putting people off who want to go for that type of visit. For reference, I went to Blackpool last August for a Late Night Riding event, and according to the trip report I wrote, I got on 10 rides. My parents were able to get those wristbands for £25 each. Compare that to when I spent an evening at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, when I think I got on 7 rides. I seem to remember that costing us about £70-80, give or take; I’m not sure exactly how much, but it was definitely quite a high amount. Using that as a reference, using PPR to get on 10 rides at Blackpool would cost about 3-4 times as much as using a wristband, and when you take into account that some of Blackpool’s ride prices are quite high (For example, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Icon’s individual price £15, as well as the Big One’s?), and having a full day at Blackpool would cost a significant amount of money. For some idea, I don’t think your average Disney park costs much more (if any more) than the £75-100 range I just gave if you use a 1-day ticket for one park as a reference. As much as I personally enjoy Blackpool more than any Disney park I’ve been to, I’m not sure your average guest would want to pay nearly a Disney level price for a day out at somewhere like Blackpool Pleasure Beach, once you add together all of the ride prices, whereas £25 (or even the £39 on-the-day figure) seems far more palatable. You know what, I’ll actually go and calculate how much my day at Blackpool would have cost using pay-per-ride. Using the info on Blackpool’s website, my last day at the Pleasure Beach would have cost £85 using pay-per-ride (no data is listed for Valhalla, but I think it was £10 from memory?). My wristband cost £25, and even if I’d purchased on the day, it would have cost £39; that’s a substantial saving. Before I ramble on, my point is; a wristband represents far better value for your average visitor, and is able to be sold at a much more compelling price. I think pay-per-ride works at somewhere like South Pier down the road because as much as South Pier is very good at being what it’s trying to be, it’s not really somewhere you go for a day out. Most people tend to pop down there, maybe ride 1 or 2 rides or go to an arcade to spend an hour and then leave. I’d even wager that it’s sustainable for some of the country’s smaller seaside parks, which only tend to have a few rides. Another place where it works is Fun Spot Kissimmee, which I visited when I went to Florida last April, but again, they don’t have that many rides (I’d personally say that the only real standout was Mine Blower), and I think even they offered some sort of wristband. But Blackpool is a huge park, with so much to do, so people are not going to be able to cram all of those activities into their budget on pay-per-ride prices.
Another thing to point out is that even though Blackpool doesn’t release its attendance figures anymore, I’d wager that they are substantially lower than they were in the park’s “golden age”, and I don’t think that’s due to the transition to the entry fee as much as some suggest. Even in 2007, when Blackpool last reported its attendance figures, the TEA report pegged them at 5,500,000 guests; that was roughly on par with Universal Studios Florida, more than Islands of Adventure, and made it the second most visited European theme park behind Disneyland Park in Paris. And I get the impression that even that is quite some time after the park’s so-called “golden age”; in the 1990s, the park was frequently reporting figures of 7-8 million guests per year from what I can tell, whereas now I think they get around 1.5-2 million from what I’ve read (correct me if I’m wrong)? Counter in the fact that I think visitation to seaside resorts in the UK in general has declined since the 1990s for various reasons (or if not declined, at least shifted demographic to an older demographic less likely to visit Pleasure Beach), and I don’t personally feel that Blackpool could feasibly operate as a pay-per-ride park now.
Furthermore, there’s also the issue that the entry fee may well make the park more appealing to families. I’ve never personally had any problems with the town of Blackpool myself (from my admittedly limited experience of it, being from the South West), but my mum went to the park in somewhere around 1997-1998, when free entry and pay-per-ride were still in full force, and she absolutely hated it to such an extent that she was very hesitant to go back in 2018, and that’s down to the type of atmosphere it had. When we went back as a family in 2018, she said that she was really pleasantly surprised, and that the park had a far nicer, more enjoyable atmosphere than on her visit 20 years earlier. Her and my dad were perfectly happy to go back in 2019, and my mum even suggested we could potentially return in 2021; I doubt they would have been so keen had the park been free entry based on my mum’s experience in the 90s. Also, the Pleasure Beach documentary portrays that the park had quite a lot of crime in the 1990s; the security guards seemed to be reeled out at least once every episode! Whether it was drunk people, sexual assault towards the beavers in Beaver Creek, outside sellers or even a bomb scare (those are just a few I remember from the series), there often seemed to be crime & misbehaviour within the park, and that’s not the type of reputation that any family theme park wants itself associated with in 2020.
