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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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The £15 (£25 if you’re a bit mad) on top of these new ticket prices makes for a very expensive trip.

I was recently in Blackpool, and had the entry prices been at their old rates I would have popped in for a couple of hours and got a few rides in. At these new prices, sorry not worth - decided to go the piers instead. I am by no means hard up so I really do wonder how many other people will take that same view once the main season comes along.

Anyway, I do hope Enso is somewhat of a success for them but I can’t see it. I’ll probably do it once.


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Alsty said:
That's true but is it normal to not pay a bean towards any of the loans you have?
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As Rob says they probably took a repayment holiday during covid. The actual debt burden isn’t really that high when you consider the value of the entire asset (which is ultimately what the banks use as assurance they will get their money back.

I’m not saying pleasure beach is flush with cash, but it will be making more profit than you realise and as it doesn’t have shareholders the profit can be tapped off to the Thompsons in other ways (salary for instance).
 
Dave said:
I wouldn’t pay much attention to the companies house accounts, a lot of companies post losses as they take their profit out through other (legal) means that then don’t pay corporation tax. The fact they got finance suggests banks still see them as viable.
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The evidence over the last few years points to a business that is struggling.

Since 2017 we have seen entry prices and parking prices almost doubled. Early season cheap entry scrapped. Hotel parking gone from free to now £15 per night. Big increases in food prices. Park opening hours cut. More rides unavailable off peak. Speedy pass up from £15 to £25 and now a big upcharge for spinning seats on icon.

Add to that the costs of ongoing ride retracks and valhalla changes, plus the clear failure of icon to bring in extra punters which the park were expecting, then its not hard to come to the conclusion the park are in a tough spot financially.

That's without studying the accounts.

I really hope they can continue to invest and somehow get themselves profitable.

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shakey said:
The evidence over the last few years points to a business that is struggling.

Since 2017 we have seen entry prices and parking prices almost doubled. Early season cheap entry scrapped. Hotel parking gone from free to now £15 per night. Big increases in food prices. Park opening hours cut. More rides unavailable off peak. Speedy pass up from £15 to £25 and now a big upcharge for spinning seats on icon.

Add to that the costs of ongoing ride retracks and valhalla changes, plus the clear failure of icon to bring in extra punters which the park were expecting, then its not hard to come to the conclusion the park are in a tough spot financially.

That's without studying the accounts.

I really hope they can continue to invest and somehow get themselves profitable.

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Yes and no, I agree Icons marketing was shambolic (I live in the North and all the online adverts being pushed at me the year it opened had Ice-blast on them and no mention of Icon). Some of the price increase will be related to inflation as well.

As I say I suspect the beach is not raking in cash hand over fist but I don’t think a company on the edge would be doing retracks and February openings.
 
I am not saying the park are in danger of closing, I am sure that won't happen but the price rises are far and away above inflation. And some of the decisions in recent years do look like cost cutting measures.

The retracks are positive signs, totally agree so let's hope its not long before the next big ride investment. Maybe they are just trying to raise funds for it.

One thing is certain, they really need the next big ride to be a success.

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You can say what you like about Merlin but they know how to market rides. Pleasure beach need to do better with their marketing.

They also need a parking solution, most people I know won’t go for the day because it’s a nightmare to park. A multi-storey car park with a reasonable price would be ideal:
 
shakey said:
The evidence over the last few years points to a business that is struggling.

Since 2017 we have seen entry prices and parking prices almost doubled. Early season cheap entry scrapped. Hotel parking gone from free to now £15 per night. Big increases in food prices. Park opening hours cut. More rides unavailable off peak. Speedy pass up from £15 to £25 and now a big upcharge for spinning seats on icon.

Add to that the costs of ongoing ride retracks and valhalla changes, plus the clear failure of icon to bring in extra punters which the park were expecting, then its not hard to come to the conclusion the park are in a tough spot financially.

That's without studying the accounts.

I really hope they can continue to invest and somehow get themselves profitable.

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Right, here we go you tormented tyke...
Entry and parking prices doubles...park has been busy, car park has still been used, a lot, so income probably increased overall
Early season price increases...bloody stupid now staycation is over, but...
Speedyp!ss price increases...that was probably to manage demand, there are still loads using it, so an increase in income.
Spinny seats, fitted just for dippy dave, another new income stream.
The Valhalla changes are self funding from the savings on gas, staff and running repairs over the last god knows how long.
Hotel parking...lots do that in resorts now...extra income source. If you want to be a tight tyke, which you do, there is always the free parking outside your favourite slum hotel south of the Beach.
They had extra costs and closures through covid, but the park had a good "late" covid run, lots of punters paying high prices and buying extras.
Mandy and mob aren't going to run out of Range Rovers any time soon.
 
Dave said:
They also need a parking solution, most people I know won’t go for the day because it’s a nightmare to park. A multi-storey car park with a reasonable price would be ideal:
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They don't need a parking solution, maybe just needs advertising better.

I know not everyone wants to park on the road, but there are 2 council car parks within easy walking distance .

South Beach Car Park has 172 spaces and is literally across the road from the park. £8 for 12 hours or £9 for 18 hours.

South Beach car park Blackpool. Blackpool South Shore parking

www.blackpool.gov.uk www.blackpool.gov.uk


South Car Park has 919 spaces and is a 10 minute walk away. £10 for 12 hours or £11 for 18 hours.

Blackpool Council car parks | South car park

www.blackpool.gov.uk www.blackpool.gov.uk
This is a very easy car park to get to , just get to the end of the M55 , go straight on down Yeadon way then take your 1st left into the car park.
The car park is rarely busy and you can just exit via foot onto lytham road. From there it is less than 10mins to the pleasure beach.

Obviously Blackpool Pleasure Beach are not going to want to advertise alternative parking to their own extortionate offering, but it only took me a 5 minute google search to find full info on the 2 car parks above.
 
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enthusiasts know that, and people who live local will to. But look at it this way, if I’m driving from Leeds to Alton Towers (2hrs) I don’t even have to think about what I do with my car when I get there. If I’m driving from Stoke to Blackpool (2hr) you need to plan parking. I know it sounds pathetic but people don’t see Blackpool pleasure beach as a destination as it doesn’t do well at presenting itself as one.

They would do better to work with the council to advertise the parking options on their website and get more people through the gate rather than stress about people using their stupidly priced car park.
 
I think BPB have lost the plot in terms of their prices. Gate & parking prices have gone silly in recent years, and I can't see many people except uber nerds and/or spinny freaks forking out for Enso.

Anytime BPB comes up in discussion with non coaster nerds, people are always shocked at the entry prices (40 whatever quid against £27.50 at Towers with crisp packet / cereal box / soap bottle). I am a little surprised based on past half price Wow weekends, that they have been charging full price to get in, with a reduced ride lineup. I get that the usual maintenance season was cut short due to open season being extended, totally fine, but at least promote these early visits as such. "We will be running a reduced lineup during Feb and March weekend opening, and have reduced the entry price on these dates to reflect this." It's not rocket science.

Right now I could visit for a bargain price, as a season pass holder, but not sure I CBA with all those rides still closed, so how they expect the GP to turn up paying £40+ in cold weather, with several major rides shut I have no idea. And @shakey Yes I am including Nash as a major ride!
 
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People go on about the high cost of parking, however when ever I’ve been to PB since the price went up the main car park has always been busy, last summer was was completely full. So clearly people are definitely willing to pay for it. So you can’t blame PB for it.
 
djtruefitt said:
People go on about the high cost of parking, however when ever I’ve been to PB since the price went up the main car park has always been busy, last summer was was completely full. So clearly people are definitely willing to pay for it. So you can’t blame PB for it.
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Yeah, I guess so. Despite me posting about it, personally it doesn't bother me as I don't pay a penny to park generally. As posted before though, I have seen people turn around and drive off at the barrier upon seeing the price, several times.
 
Dave said:
enthusiasts know that, and people who live local will to. But look at it this way, if I’m driving from Leeds to Alton Towers (2hrs) I don’t even have to think about what I do with my car when I get there. If I’m driving from Stoke to Blackpool (2hr) you need to plan parking. I know it sounds pathetic but people don’t see Blackpool pleasure beach as a destination as it doesn’t do well at presenting itself as one.

They would do better to work with the council to advertise the parking options on their website and get more people through the gate rather than stress about people using their stupidly priced car park.
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To give them credit, advice on getting to the park and google map for all parking are literally two clicks away on the park website. .."Plan your visit".
They plug their parking, but the google map is right there...all you do is click the google parking button.
Even I can do that from my cave.
 
Blackpool Pleasure Beach does seem like a big park to go bankrupt, but then again, so did Drayton Manor. Admittedly Drayton Manor had more specific problems with the Splash Canyon accident and the flooding, but being a big British institution won't protect the Pleasure Beach. I agree that we can't read too much into the last couple of years because of Covid, but the problems do go back before that. At the same time, this isn't just a problem with the Pleasure Beach. You'd think the place would be doing really well given that most of the local competitors have closed (Frontierland, Camelot etc). It does seem to be very difficult to make money out of theme parks in this country. Not just theme parks though. Also farming, manufacturing, the arts... basically anything that doesn't involve property, finance, law, or money laundering.
 
shakey said:
South Car Park has 919 spaces and is a 10 minute walk away. £10 for 12 hours or £11 for 18 hours.

Blackpool Council car parks | South car park

www.blackpool.gov.uk www.blackpool.gov.uk
This is a very easy car park to get to , just get to the end of the M55 , go straight on down Yeadon way then take your 1st left into the car park.
The car park is rarely busy and you can just exit via foot onto lytham road. From there it is less than 10mins to the pleasure beach.
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Yep back almost 20 years ago or so when I drove up from Birmingham to Blackpool for the first time I didn’t research just turned up and followed the signs from the M55 and ended up in South Car Park. The road signs basically force all the tourists to the car parks off Yeadon Way.
One trip we arrived later and decided to park at the Pleasure Beach and was harder to find their car park!
 
Dipper_Dave said:
Anytime BPB comes up in discussion with non coaster nerds, people are always shocked at the entry prices (40 whatever quid against £27.50 at Towers with crisp packet / cereal box / soap bottle)
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The main issue there is the two for one vouchers. BPB is too expensive but the online price is comparable to the online price for Alton Towers. I don’t think BPB is worth more that AT, but the prices being within a few quid of each other feels reasonable.
I think that although the online price is fair, Alton Towers is selling themselves short with the constant 2for1s and the overinflated gate price to make them the right price.
 
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