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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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Would Merlin even be allowed to buy Pleasure Beach if worse case scenario they went bust?

Purely for the fact they own the tower and obviously other attractions up there and it would mean it being a monopoly and not really any other competitors.

Obviously amazing for MAP holders but maybe not so much for fierce competition.
 
What I don’t get about Enso, why would you pay £10 more to get straight on, when the normal version is. Virtual queue anyway, so you are free to go and do other things whilst you virtually queue.
 
Damned no matter the choice. If it was £5 a go no one would get on it and people would be saying it should be a higher price to deter people.

We all know what cheap Fastrack does to a park. Blackpool is already bad enough with Speedy Pass too.
 
Excalibur said:
Would Merlin even be allowed to buy Pleasure Beach if worse case scenario they went bust?

Purely for the fact they own the tower and obviously other attractions up there and it would mean it being a monopoly and not really any other competitors.

Obviously amazing for MAP holders but maybe not so much for fierce competition.
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Merlin do not own the Tower.
Blackpool Council does, Merlin just run it on their behalf.
Can't see Merlin ever owning the Beach...too much of a monopoly.
Don't think they own any of the other attractions either, pretty sure it is all rented.
 
With their close familial ties to the Thompsons, would the Mack family be interested in buying Blackpool Pleasure Beach if the opportunity ever arose? It could make for a nice contrast to Europa Park within Mack's portfolio, and Blackpool has a fair amount of Mack rides already!
 
Alsty said:
The Mack family have said they have no ambitions to expand their portfolio. Their business already takes up all of their time as it is.
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Things change though, circumstances change. Just because someone has said something once doesn't mean they can't change there mind in the future. Do I think it's likely? No but we shouldn't rule it out just because they've said that in the past.
 
In my eyes, Enso is an indicator that gives more believability to the consensus that Icon was not the roaring success that an investment of over £16 million should have been. It feels like a quick short-term way of re-marketing the ride, which is an idea that I already don’t like, but the real problems with this come from the logistics and upcharge.

I just don’t think it’s reasonable to expect guests to pay an additional £15 for this. A peak day ticket for PB costs £44 online, £46 at the gate, adding another £15 on equates to around £60 for a day at Pleasure Beach. That’s before you even look at the £25 option!

Logistically I feel like it’ll be a complete nightmare. Icon’s operations were unbearably slow in 2021, and that was just with the addition of seatbelts. The station isn’t built well for Speedy Pass, let alone having a mix of Enso and Speedy Pass riders going in (presumably) the same way, waving their phones at staff who are trying to run the ride safely and efficiently.

I just can’t envisage a way in which this won’t impact on operations of the ride – and that’s terrible.

An upcharge experience should not wreck the customer service for everyone else, nor should it provide a bad experience for those paying for it, but unless BPB have something up their sleeve, I cannot see any other way than Icon having its operations well and truly wrecked.

I am not onboard with the feeling that it was “inevitable” that it was going to be a high upcharge because of the logistics. To me, the logistics of only having 2 seats, a very low throughput, are all ‘Pleasure Beach’ issues. Why should guests pay more because the park has essentially implemented something really badly?

There is also the factor of the larger seats in the back row – how will Enso affect this? It’ll be hard for the staff to communicate with so many people, “sorry you have to wait, this is an Enso train, sorry you can’t go on yet, this is a standard train, etc. etc.”

What if the Enso train needs taking out of service for any reason, but there are guests who have paid turning up at their slot to ride it?

It just brings so many potential problems with it and in a year where the focus should be on Valhalla, it feels like a last-ditch attempt. It doesn’t give me faith in other things to be honest, if they’re having to fall back on this.
 
Out of interest, why are we all so sure that Blackpool will pull off Enso badly? I haven't heard of any major problems from Steel Taipan at Dreamworld, and Blackpool could well be planning to implement changes to the queue that make it more efficient, for all we know.
 
I don't think anyone is denying that there won't be a positive impact in terms of the ride. Having something new on what is ultimately a relatively bland coaster for many is a good thing. However, it's the implementation of it all that's a bit of a mess. Taking rows off a ride that already struggles capacity wise on busy days, and adding yet another up-charge, with yet another up-charge on top of that if you want to ride it quickly is the issue people have with the whole thing.
 
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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