Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[rob666]

Or lack of punters due to a ridiculous pricing system...
I know so many locals who refuse to visit because of the loss of the basic entry ticket.
Gran can't get in for a tenner so the Beach lose a couple of hundred quid.
They have lost a couple of grand from my wife's bar bill at Crevettes alone.

 

[MattyH]

Mates were up in Blackpool for some transport stuff.

The oldies asked them if the visited the beach. They said not at £45 a go they wouldn't.

It's people like this that the beach is missing out on

 

[Rick]

Warning - Alternative opinion

Is £44 a lot for what you get ? I have just been to my local for the pub quiz. 568ml of Fosters is pushing £4 and the quiz has doubled in price from £1 to £2.

Ten hours riding £100m of ride hardware for £44 feels pretty cheap in comparison.

The comparisons to the Merlin parks are pretty lazy and predictable, if you compare it to other leisure activities I am not sure how out of step it is. It feels like we're potentially falling into the trap of "Pleasure Beach is worth £25 a day ... " but that can't be true for decades at a time.

 

[Matt N]

I do think the value discussion is an interesting one; even though theme parks have always had the reputation of being overpriced, I'd actually argue that they offer better value for money in terms of minutes of entertainment provided per pound than many other leisure activities.

Let's take Pleasure Beach's £44 entry ticket as an example; this is the highest "bottom price" theme park entry ticket in the UK, as far as I'm aware. But for that money, you are still getting at least 6 hours of entertainment, often more because the £44 price only applies on peak days (I think?).

If you take something like the cinema as an alternative form of entertainment, a ticket for a film plus snacks and drinks can be getting on for the £20-30 per person mark if you go to the right cinema... yet that only offers 2 hours or so of entertainment.

Or let's take a West End musical... tickets for these can cost upwards of £50 per person even before refreshments, but you're getting only a few hours of entertainment.

Or let's take Go Ape, for a similar adrenaline rush... only 2 hours of entertainment, yet costs £25 per person.

I know these aren't perfect comparisons by any means, but I think they do make theme parks look better value for money than they're often made out to be.

 

[rob666]

Warning - Alternative opinion

Is £44 a lot for what you get ? I have just been to my local for the pub quiz. 568ml of Fosters is pushing £4 and the quiz has doubled in price from £1 to £2.

Ten hours riding £100m of ride hardware for £44 feels pretty cheap in comparison.

The comparisons to the Merlin parks are pretty lazy and predictable, if you compare it to other leisure activities I am not sure how out of step it is. It feels like we're potentially falling into the trap of "Pleasure Beach is worth £25 a day ... " but that can't be true for decades at a time.

You are missing my earlier point though Rick...this is about the non riders who are being excluded by cost of entry...the ones who hold bags, sit at the bar, play in the arcades, eat chips and hang around the shops, while the sensible people ride the coasters.
The park didn't need them during covid, they were filling their pockets fine, and by all accounts they did.
Now the park is often more than half empty, they need the non riders in family groups to fill out the park, but the whole groups are refusing to attend because nan has to pay £40 to sit with the coats, something that used to cost a tenner.
My gas leak fitter will not be going back, my extended family of boozers won't be going back, my cycling mate won't be going back, because one or two in the group refuse to pay full price entry for not riding.
One couple with 2 grandchildren I work for, their trip to the Beach has gone to Lytham (poor kids!), because it was £60 more for the same visit!
That's just the anecdotal stuff in the last couple of weeks.
This is going to cost the Beach many millions over the summer, but Mandy knows best, apparently.
Forty quid or sod off...so masses sod off.
Stupid.

 

[D4n]

What cinema are you going to that costs £20-30 a person Matt?

Vue is £5 a film all day every day. Snacks are secondary spend (much like a meal is a separate expense on a theme park trip). The price charged has dropped dramatically in recent years.

Which brings me to my point. Leisure activities are worth whatever people are willing to pay for them. I think it's clear that people don't value a day at Pleasure Beach at £44. With current standards of customer service, random ride closures on off peak days and silly rules like not being able to bring a packed lunch, I don't blame them.

If people aren't willing to pay £44 it is in the park's interest to lower to price. Perhaps if they offered a quality day out for £30 then people would be eager to return at a higher price in the future.

 

[Dave]

Pleasure beach need the £10 non rider tickets, it’s a resort town, people are far more likely to be on holiday with relatives who have no interest in rides and might make some discretionary spend at pleasure beach, and the riders are unwilling to abandon the non-riders mid holiday. So now you limit yourself to holidaying groups who all like rides or people who are going to Blackpool for the pleasure beach only (not a small number but not the beach’s primary audience).

It’s not an inland theme park where the entire group are making a conscious decision to attend a theme park and the non-riders stay at home, and Mandy needs to make peace with that.

 

[rob666]

It is, at the end of the day, a seaside funfair, with bits round the edge.
Nothing more.

 

[Skyscraper]

What cinema are you going to that costs £20-30 a person Matt?

Vue is £5 a film all day every day. Snacks are secondary spend (much like a meal is a separate expense on a theme park trip). The price charged has dropped dramatically in recent years.

Which brings me to my point. Leisure activities are worth whatever people are willing to pay for them. I think it's clear that people don't value a day at Pleasure Beach at £44. With current standards of customer service, random ride closures on off peak days and silly rules like not being able to bring a packed lunch, I don't blame them.

If people aren't willing to pay £44 it is in the park's interest to lower to price. Perhaps if they offered a quality day out for £30 then people would be eager to return at a higher price in the future.

Problem with Vue though is the legroom is terrible. I haven't been to my local one since better (and slightly more expensive) cinemas opened up.

 

[Matt N]

What cinema are you going to that costs £20-30 a person Matt?

Vue is £5 a film all day every day. Snacks are secondary spend (much like a meal is a separate expense on a theme park trip). The price charged has dropped dramatically in recent years.

Which brings me to my point. Leisure activities are worth whatever people are willing to pay for them. I think it's clear that people don't value a day at Pleasure Beach at £44. With current standards of customer service, random ride closures on off peak days and silly rules like not being able to bring a packed lunch, I don't blame them.

If people aren't willing to pay £44 it is in the park's interest to lower to price. Perhaps if they offered a quality day out for £30 then people would be eager to return at a higher price in the future.

OK; I apologise, as I digress that that included snacks and was based off of a very poor estimate from the last time I went to the cinema, which was a good couple of years before COVID.

Looking at the Cineworld website now, though (I’ll use Cineworld, as it’s the last cinema I remember going to); the new Minions film, as an example, is 88 minutes in length, so around 1.5 hours long. This new film costs £10 per ticket to watch. As such, if you scaled the amount of entertainment up to the minimum 6 hours that BPB would offer on a £44 ticket… that would cost around £40, so like-for-like, it’s broadly similar in value.

I did actually look up the prices of other examples I cited, though; Go Ape was an actual price I found on their website for a Treetop Adventure, costing £25 per person for a 2 hour expedition. On an equivalent number of “entertainment hours”; Go Ape would cost £75, so worse value than BPB.

And from having looked up Hamilton (I know next to nothing about West End musicals, but this one seems to be all the rage at the moment), the lowest priced ticket I could find was £75, even on days where seat availability was high, which is even more expensive than I’d expected… for reference, Hamilton is 2h 40m long according to a quick Google, so on an equivalent number of “entertainment hours”, that comes out at £168.75; significantly worse value than BPB.

I appreciate that some people may simply be daunted by something costing £44 regardless of the number of entertainment hours on offer, however, and I guess it is arguable that not all 6 hours in a theme park will technically be “entertainment hours”.

 

[Plastic Person]

There are so many variables in what people personally seek in an experience that number crunching 'time x cost = value' fails as a measuring stick. Go Ape is a much more personal, intimate and intensive experience than riding Icon, which itself is radically different from seeing the latest instalment in the Minions franchise or watching a live performance of Hamilton.

 

[shakey]

There are so many variables in what people personally seek in an experience that number crunching 'time x cost = value' fails as a measuring stick. Go Ape is a much more personal, intimate and intensive experience than riding Icon, which itself is radically different from seeing the latest instalment in the Minions franchise or watching a live performance of Hamilton.

Yep that's a good point.

If a family goes to something like go ape for example, they will be entertained for the entire time they are there (most likely), and not all family members need to take part. Some will be happy to watch and it costs them nothing. They will also possibly turn it into a day out by doing other free stuff like taking a picnic or enjoying nearby countryside.

A theme park is not a full days entertainment if it is busy. It is a day of standing in queues, interrupted with the occasional 2 minute ride.

What the pleasure beach need to do is come up with a radical new idea like pay per ride. You get exactly what you pay for and spend little time queuing, you can take grandma with you for free, and you can go and have a picnic on the beach when you've had enough of the rides, or do something else as part of your day out.

The decision to cut late night riding to early evening riding is disgraceful and once again it highlights the financial troubles that PB must be having at the moment if they are willing to upset punters to save a few quid.

 

[jon81uk]

Pleasure beach need the £10 non rider tickets, it’s a resort town, people are far more likely to be on holiday with relatives who have no interest in rides and might make some discretionary spend at pleasure beach, and the riders are unwilling to abandon the non-riders mid holiday. So now you limit yourself to holidaying groups who all like rides or people who are going to Blackpool for the pleasure beach only (not a small number but not the beach’s primary audience).

It’s not an inland theme park where the entire group are making a conscious decision to attend a theme park and the non-riders stay at home, and Mandy needs to make peace with that.

I still think the best pricing was the old ticket sheets, I went to BPB in the early 2000s and I can remember getting tickets which then forced me to spread out across different types of rides as you get a selection of tickets. Also I think we watched the matinee magic show in the horseshoe for free with the ticket sheet (or could have got large discount on evening show).
Whereas now its either pay a fortune for a wristband and most people will ride most things.
Or (pre-pandemic) pay a reasonably high price of £10 to get in and if you want to do it then a high price (£10+) in tickets for one ride, its not worth riding multiple things with the current ticket system.
I would have thought BPB could do better now if it was £35 wristband, or £10 entry (incl maze/caves) or £20/25 for entry and a ticket sheet for one AA (Icon/Big One), one A (National, Dipper etc), one B (Avalanche, Revolution etc) and one C (ghost train, derby racers, flying machines etc).
Extra revenue, spreads crowds on different rides, some may then want to ride more after those three tickets so may purchase more or go up to a wristband. Those who are just going in because they walked past get a good value couple of hours in the park.

Also a discount for a show drives people to those locations where secondary spend is possible. When we went to the horseshoe show, we bought drinks and photos.

 

[rob666]

Pay per ride...now there's an idea shakey.
Never ever had a problem with crappy queues and ride capacity on the Beach for twenty years.
Then "wonderful" pay one price came along, and the queues instantly became twice as long, then they shut a third of the rides to make up losses.
This is progress.
Was doing the coast to collect a punter this morning...the coaches of schoolkids on the 55 were scary!

 

[Matt N]

The problem with pay per ride is that it often (albeit not always) significantly reduces value for money, and it may put families off if they are only able to do 1 or 2 rides for their money.

For instance, I went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2019, and I got 7 rides while there. From memory, this cost a fair amount more per person than BPB’s entry ticket. Olympia Looping on its own cost £9 per ride!

 

[jon81uk]

The problem with pay per ride is that it often (albeit not always) significantly reduces value for money, and it may put families off if they are only able to do 1 or 2 rides for their money.

For instance, I went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2019, and I got 7 rides while there. From memory, this cost a fair amount more per person than BPB’s entry ticket. Olympia Looping on its own cost £9 per ride!

But if offered in addition to wristbands (as BPB used to) it can increase value for money. If you only want to do one or two rides then you could be £35-44 for a wristband, or £20 just to do a few rides, before you walk up the prom and do something else in Blackpool.

Or for your Winter Wonderland example, many people would do one ride, some ice skating, maybe watch the circus and then go along to the shops on Oxford St. If you were forced to pay £40 just to enter winter wonderland many people wouldn't do the ice skating or circus, or they might not go at all as the price is too high.

I went to Adventure Island at Southend a few months ago. Its £25 for a wristband, or free entry and (and this isn't properly mentioned on the website) £2.50 per ride. We only wanted to do one coaster, so £2.50 each for a wander round and a ride on Rage. If the only option (like at BPB) was a wristband, we wouldn't have even entered the park (and we also spent £2 on doughnuts).

 

[shakey]

The problem with pay per ride is that it often (albeit not always) significantly reduces value for money, and it may put families off if they are only able to do 1 or 2 rides for their money.

For instance, I went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2019, and I got 7 rides while there. From memory, this cost a fair amount more per person than BPB’s entry ticket. Olympia Looping on its own cost £9 per ride!

I think it would encourage families if anything.

Lets take a hypothetical family visiting Blackpool for the weekend. Mum, Dad, older child, younger child and Grandma.

Currently it would cost them £214 if they were all to go to the pleasure beach for the day. And if Grandma isn't doing the rides and Mum isn't really bothered about thrill rides then they would almost certainly not even consider going.

But lets look at pay per ride at a reasonable price - e.g £7 for the thrill rides, £5 family rides and £3 kids rides.

Grandma doesn't bother with the rides.
Dad and Older child go on 3 thrill rides each.
The four of them go on 3 family rides each
And the two kids go on 3 kids rides each.

Total cost £120 - Almost half the price.

They would also spend less time queuing and have time in their day to do something else.

Pay per ride is poor value for enthusiasts, totally agree, but for an average family that visits Blackpool once a year, pay per ride can be the better option if they don't all want to ride all day long.

 

[Tim]

Double post, sue me.

If anyone was planning on visiting late night riding this saturday, note that the opening hours have just been slashed by 2 hrs - the park is now advertising an 8pm closure. I guess if you were really desperate to look on the bright side you could argue that maybe the queues won't be as long as you thought they might be..?

I've booked for the late night riding on Saturday! It's my first visit since 2009.

I've got an email telling me I can enter at 2pm as compensation, but I'm not getting to Blackpool until 6 anyway, hence why I got the late night ticket.

 

[Matt N]

One question I have is; why can’t Blackpool function with both pay per ride and wristbands?

Many seaside parks in the UK do, and places like the Fun Spot parks in Orlando do as well, and I’d argue this could offer the best of both worlds. Those who want a fuller theme park day could still buy a wristband, whereas those who only want a couple of rides could still only do a couple of rides, and both pricing models could exist in harmony!

Admittedly, I think this would require some pricing changes for both models, but I think it could work!

 

[jon81uk]

One question I have is; why can’t Blackpool function with both pay per ride and wristbands?

Many seaside parks in the UK do, and places like the Fun Spot parks in Orlando do as well, and I’d argue this could offer the best of both worlds. Those who want a fuller theme park day could still buy a wristband, whereas those who only want a couple of rides could still only do a couple of rides, and both pricing models could exist in harmony!

Admittedly, I think this would require some pricing changes for both models, but I think it could work!

Well we (as in the TS posters) think it can and it did to an extent before the pandemic (I think the ride prices were too high), but BPB obviously think there is more money in being pay-one-price.