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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2021 Discussion

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Cracking lonesome last day of the season, Icon on two, and, in one of those rare lifetime experiences, I even experienced zero gravity on Crevettes balcony.
No, I'm not making it up.
Fireworks were nice too.
Took a "last ride" on Dora, just in case the ride is pulled over the winter.
You never know.
 
Anyone got any thoughts on the impact of Thorpe's planned coaster on BPB?

Arguably PBMO is the flagship ride of the park and it'll be stripped of it's USP with Thorpe taking the 'UK's tallest' tag. Will that have any noticeable impact on visitor numbers? Are people actually drawn to BPB because of PMBO or are they visiting because it's just another activity at a seaside resort?
 
Fuct said:
Anyone got any thoughts on the impact of Thorpe's planned coaster on BPB?

Arguably PBMO is the flagship ride of the park and it'll be stripped of it's USP with Thorpe taking the 'UK's tallest' tag. Will that have any noticeable impact on visitor numbers? Are people actually drawn to BPB because of PMBO or are they visiting because it's just another activity at a seaside resort?
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It will make no difference.

Geographically the two parks are not really in competition, and I think BPB has a lot more on offer to draw in visitors than just the moniker of the tallest coaster in the UK: lots of other coasters on offer, night riding (esp during the illuminations), vintage rides, shows etc. Half the time PMBO doesn't seem to be open anyway because of the weather and the park still gets busy.
 
I’ll admit I was thinking about the Big One when Thorpe’s coaster was revealed, and I’ve got to say I did feel for Blackpool a bit when it was announced. The Big One may have lost the world height record and the European height record, but they still had the UK height record going for them. I wonder what they’ll market the ride as once Exodus opens, because that will lose it its main USP within the sphere of the UK? “The tallest coaster in the North”, perhaps?

I don’t think BPB would be too profoundly affected by losing the UK height record, however; the impression I get is that unlike the Merlin parks, Pleasure Beach doesn’t rely as much upon attracting people to Blackpool solely for it as it does attracting people who are already in Blackpool to tie it into a wider Blackpool holiday. As such, I don’t think the loss of the height record would really lose them a lot of business from the park’s captive audience of Blackpool holidaymakers.
 
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No one really cares all that much about how tall the Big One is anymore. Shouting about a world record was a huge marketing tool back in '92 through to it opening a few years later, with said record now obviously long disappeared. I don't think anyone really cares all that much about it being tallest in the UK, certainly not after so long.

Nowadays, the fact it now forms an iconic part of Blackpool's landscape is the big selling point. Between that and Valhalla, it's usually the ride everyone asks if you've been on should you mention you've been/are off to the Pleasure Beach. It's a structure you can see from miles away, and I dare say one that's almost as iconic as the Tower itself when people think of the town.
 
Craig said:
No one really cares all that much about how tall the Big One is anymore. Shouting about a world record was a huge marketing tool back in '92 through to it opening a few years later, with said record now obviously long disappeared. I don't think anyone really cares all that much about it being tallest in the UK, certainly not after so long.

Nowadays, the fact it now forms an iconic part of Blackpool's landscape is the big selling point. Between that and Valhalla, it's usually the ride everyone asks if you've been on should you mention you've been/are off the Pleasure Beach. It's a structure you can see from miles away, and I dare say one that's almost as iconic as the Tower itself when people think of the town.
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Well said.

Too bad it rides like a shopping trolley.
 
John_P said:
I'd imagine if you told Geoffrey Thompson in 1994 Blackpool would still have the tallest roller coaster in the UK 30 years later he'd have imagined they'd have built something bigger themselves at some point.
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Not quite related to your point but...

It is quite possible they won't actually have the record 30 years later, The Big One opened 28 May 1994(according to Wikipedia). I expect Exodus at Thorpe to open for the beginning of the season, so 23 March 2024 is likely. Therefore I expect Thorpe will take the record two months before the Big One reaches 30 years, unless there is a major construction delay.
 
I’m sure they’ll still advertise it as the tallest in the country for a few year’s after Thorpe’s coaster has opened.

It took them about five years to recognise Fujiyama had opened and then, after a quick “Europe’s tallest” rebrand, about another five to acknowledge Silver Star existed.
 
I did wonder how long Blackpool actually referred to Big One as the world’s tallest coaster for, as even though it only held the record for 2 years (Fujiyama opened in 1996 at 259ft), I noticed that the 1998 Blackpool documentary consistently referred to the Big One (213ft or 235ft depending on which source you believe) as “the world’s tallest roller coaster”, even though Fujiyama (259ft) and the Intamin Reverse Freefalls (377ft and 415ft, respectively) had both comfortably beaten it by this point. (Although I know some don’t technically class the Intamin Reverse Freefalls as eligible for the record due to them being shuttles… I’m not entirely sure why this is.)
 
I imagine Blackpool will want to set some sort of record for themselves over the coming years. Taking back the tallest coaster record won't happen due to funds and available space obviously.

Replacing / revamping Ice blast, which is in a truly terrible state these days, with a modern world class drop tower with tilting seats etc would be a good pull for the park. Very marketable also.
 
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