• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Ban all wristbands and "Pay one price".

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.
 
rstly, 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.

It might have been different in the early 90s, but when I visited in the 2000s, the system at BPB was nothing like Winter Wonderland.

Take a look at this brochure from 2001
TheCarousel_BlackpoolPleasureBeach_Guide2001_5-989x1024.jpg


A majority of guests would have either gone for a white knuckle ticket sheet or a wristband. From memory, the wristbands back then were very expensive compared to now, the equivalent of the "£25 wristband" was the white knuckle ticket sheet. I remember we didn't get wristbands as they were something like twice the price of the white knuckle ticket sheet.
The tickets were letters AA, A, B, C, so to ride Valhalla or the big one you needed an AA ticket, Big Dipper probably an A ticket, Rollercoaster (now Nick Streak) was a B I think and the kids rides were C tickets. The white knuckle sheet I think had one or maybe two AA tickets, several A and some B. So you could only ride Valhalla once from that ticket sheet, but it worked out that all the B tickets were pretty much "free" (so if the sheet was £20 it might have cost £5 just for Valhalla). Therefore you didn't end up spending huge amounts to ride everything, but got a decent selection for the price and the if you did use all the tickets you could buy more.
This system spread people out (as you had to choose which rides were worth each level of ticket as there were more rides than you got tickets for on a sheet). But you didn't feel ripped off as that price got you a reasonable number of rides in. There were also discounts for the shows as part of the sheet (and with the wristbands for years too) and the matinee performances were then very cheap if you bought a sheet of tickets. Also there were discount coupons in leaflets and similar (bit like Tussauds/Merlin who had £5 off entry) for the ticket sheets, but no discount on unlimited wristbands.

For me this system worked very well, there was still a "pay one price" option of getting a sheet of tickets and that then gave a fixed "budget" for the day.

Here are the ticket classifications from 1993 https://www.themepark.org.uk/the-carousel/pleasure-beach-know-your-abcds/
 
Good find there Jon.
I cant remember AA tickets, just using two A tickets to get on Big One.
By then I was on a season pass, but yes, the usual fix was a book of white knuckles.
Your tickets could be carried over during the year, so when they had low season two for one offers, you could bulk buy for the next few months.
They had to be used up by season end, so always an excuse for a last visit to get your value!
And a few a tickets in your wallet was better than money.
Probably.
The ride costs are currently overpriced to force you into a wristband.
More realistic pricing would be a fiver for the bigger rides, maybe three for the other coasters, and two for the small stuff.
 
A few points Matt...

....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.
Yes almost everyone goes to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for a full day out, but you cannot read anything into that because it is the only realistic option to get value for money. Everyone who goes (if you are not a season pass holder) is pretty much forced to go for a full day to get value for their wristbands.

...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.
Again you are correct but this is because the PPR prices are far too high so nobody in the right mind is going to do that. If you make it £5 a ride (for the bigger rides) and free entry - (which is comparable to other seaside parks) - then you would get plenty of punters coming in the park to do 3 or 4 rides.

....I doubt they would have been so keen had the park been free entry based on my mum’s experience in the 90s...
A fair point, but there is nothing stopping the park from having a gated entry system that is still free (or a paid entry that gets you your money back in ride tokens)

It is still a seaside park and still has a lot of potential walk up trade who would be perfectly willing to pop into the park for a few rides or let their kids do a few rides while the parents grab a drink - if the price was right!

You can have the best of both worlds and run two systems, but pleasure beach simply choose not to.

I think they would probably be best scrapping wrist bands all together and go completely pay one price because they are clearly not interested in walk up trade.
 
As others have said, a significant factor in to ticketed entry was to improve the atmosphere, particularly for families and school trips.

I never noticed it was particularly dangerous in the 1980s and early 90s, because it was like that everywhere. Back then, people would accept the problems were down to individuals behaviour; now they go on social media and the newspapers expecting the park to make them millionaires.
Having said that, a sheet of tickets starting at £10 or £12 could still be a ticket, and would be attractive in the evenings.
 
I remember going to Blackpool back when it was pay per ride...I was young so much of the drama didn't really affect me but I can see with the current population of Blackpool why they wouldn't want free entry. People coming in to doss around and cause trouble no thanks. Sure its down to individuals but that doesn't mean it doesn't affect other people enjoyment of the park.

I would support maybe a reduced price evening ticket for people going later when they do late night riding. Pay per ride would be more faffing about at ride entrance and I was enjoying wrist band free Pleasure Beach.
 
cant remember AA tickets, just using two A tickets to get on Big One.

I might be wrong on the AA tickets then and it was just two As, but I do remember having to decide which rides were really worth doing as we didn’t have enough for two headliners.
 
Also on the gated thing, to compare with Winter Wonderland (which does have a huge amount dedicated to beer drinking!) that might be free entry but it is also heavily restricted and has bag checks and similar on entry.
 
A fair point, but there is nothing stopping the park from having a gated entry system that is still free (or a paid entry that gets you your money back in ride tokens)

It is still a seaside park and still has a lot of potential walk up trade who would be perfectly willing to pop into the park for a few rides or let their kids do a few rides while the parents grab a drink - if the price was right!

You can have the best of both worlds and run two systems, but pleasure beach simply choose not to.

I think they would probably be best scrapping wrist bands all together and go completely pay one price because they are clearly not interested in walk up trade.
I think that sounds fair. If the park operated a hybrid system, then I think it would be quite good; say if the park had a walk-up entry fee of £3 to walk around the site that’s refunded in ride tickets or F&B/retail vouchers, but they also had wristbands available like they do now, with some rides perhaps at a lower price than they are now, then I think they could do quite well. It would satisfy the customers wanting to pop in for a quick bit of walk-up trade, but also offer the benefits of a pay-one-price park. I believe Liseberg and other successful city centre parks abroad operate a similar system, and they seem to do fairly well out of it.

When I wrote that post, I was looking through the lens of whether I’d prefer pay-one-price or pay-per-ride, and if I was asked that, I would firmly support pay-one-price. However, I think a blend of the two, sort of like they have now, would work very well for them, and as you say, it could offer the best of both worlds.
 
I think that sounds fair. If the park operated a hybrid system, then I think it would be quite good; say if the park had a walk-up entry fee of £3 to walk around the site that’s refunded in ride tickets or F&B/retail vouchers, but they also had wristbands available like they do now, with some rides perhaps at a lower price than they are now, then I think they could do quite well. It would satisfy the customers wanting to pop in for a quick bit of walk-up trade, but also offer the benefits of a pay-one-price park. I believe Liseberg and other successful city centre parks abroad operate a similar system, and they seem to do fairly well out of it.

When I wrote that post, I was looking through the lens of whether I’d prefer pay-one-price or pay-per-ride, and if I was asked that, I would firmly support pay-one-price. However, I think a blend of the two, sort of like they have now, would work very well for them, and as you say, it could offer the best of both worlds.

Like many people on here, I also prefer a pay one price system if I had to choose between the two.

But if you visit other seaside parks in the UK you will see just how popular pay per ride is at seaside destinations, because people aren't there just to visit the park.

This is a pointless discussion though really because we all know that Blackpool are not suddenly going to offer amazing value ride ticket prices.

I think the best we could hope for, as far as Blackpool concerned is to have reduced evening entry that can be paid on the gate. But even that I would suggest is unlikely to happen.
 
Cash gate turnstiles, all the rides had them pretty much in the sixties!
One of the main reasons for the movement to wristbands was the amount of staff fraud...losses were considerable apparently.
Tickets were palmed by staff instead of going in the box, to be resold later.
Cash was lost by turnstile staff pushing two small kids through the turnstile together, then pocketing one ride payment, the cash often being passed on to a stooge customer.
I was one of those small children, pushed through the turnstile together, while the staff checked all around that nobody was watching.
The favourite old tale was the lady who ran the old maze, behind the Derby Racer.
She had two signs, the true one for sixpence, and another for nine.
She used to switch signs for half an hour, pocketing three old pence, or 1.25 of your new pennies, for every punter.
Dont know if it us true, but I have heard the tale a few times from different people.
Wristbands stop the fiddles, cash and tickets are ripe for fraud in an industry notorious for low wages, short time contracts, and casual labour.
It looks like bands are here to stay.
 
Cash gate turnstiles, all the rides had them pretty much in the sixties!
One of the main reasons for the movement to wristbands was the amount of staff fraud...losses were considerable apparently.
Tickets were palmed by staff instead of going in the box, to be resold later.
Cash was lost by turnstile staff pushing two small kids through the turnstile together, then pocketing one ride payment, the cash often being passed on to a stooge customer.
I was one of those small children, pushed through the turnstile together, while the staff checked all around that nobody was watching.
The favourite old tale was the lady who ran the old maze, behind the Derby Racer.
She had two signs, the true one for sixpence, and another for nine.
She used to switch signs for half an hour, pocketing three old pence, or 1.25 of your new pennies, for every punter.
Dont know if it us true, but I have heard the tale a few times from different people.
Wristbands stop the fiddles, cash and tickets are ripe for fraud in an industry notorious for low wages, short time contracts, and casual labour.
It looks like bands are here to stay.

I expect this is why parks that are heavily reliant on tickets (such as Dreamland) use electronic cards now so paper tickets can’t be re-used.
 
Some of the kosks at ride entrances survived into the 2000s - a few of the older pics on RCDB show them on Nash, Ghost Train and others. The ones on PMBO were probably the last to be removed.
 
I expect this is why parks that are heavily reliant on tickets (such as Dreamland) use electronic cards now so paper tickets can’t be re-used.
Yeah a small park I've been to that used tokens changed to those cards a while back
 
Some of the kosks at ride entrances survived into the 2000s - a few of the older pics on RCDB show them on Nash, Ghost Train and others. The ones on PMBO were probably the last to be removed.
I think what is now bradley and bellas house at the entrance to the learning garden, used to be the kiosk for the crazy golf course.

Sent from my ELS-NX9 using Tapatalk
 
Just to change the subject from BPB, weirdly enough since we’re having this discussion, IMG Worlds of Adventure theme park in Dubai, which has been closed for the past few months due to covid, will be reopening this week and moving away from pay one price to a pay per ride system.

Entry to the park will be 20AED (about £3.75) and, once inside the park, guests will pay 25AED per ride (about £4.75). More information here: https://www.imgworlds.com/language/en/pay-as-you-go/

By the looks of the press release, there will be no option for wristbands and all rides will be 25AED.

This is a surprise move as all the other major theme parks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are very much pay one price.

Very funny that this has been announced just a few days after this thread started.
 
Last edited:
Top