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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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And it was so popular, because they were "real" cars.
When did they stop calling it the Turnpike?
Was it when we lost the "cloverleaf" track.
 
There are also at least 30 rides in that photo that an adult could go on (without looking stupid).
Compared with about 20 today (at a push)
 
Those ride tickets remind me of how the ABC grading used to push you to certain rides. Rollercoaster for a B ticket was a bargain and we were on it all the time.

C for a ride on Derby Racer or Gold Mine seemed cheap compared to a B for Ghost Train.

A double A for Big One always seemed like an indulgence, but also obligatory.

Hardly ever went on Big Dipper because when you’re 11 it seemed like a poor man’s Grand National for the same price.

How things have changed…
 
Yup, the tickets actually spread the punters around the park better, instead of all the coasters being packed out and the minor rides dead, all the rides took steady footfall.
Far far better system than POP, and all those grandparents not going on the rides, buying food, drink and tat, and feeding the arcade machines.
POP killed off the arcades and half of the secondary spend in the park overnight.
Fiver gated entry to keep the pickpockets and scum out, then our Ricks lovely inflation adjusted ticket prices for rides.
Sorted, and the park wouldn't appear half empty most of the weekdays outside school trip season and holidays.
 
I still think they could have designated Pay Per Ride days. Just to see what happens.

Obviously season tickets wouldn't be valid on those days but if they picked maybe 10 peak days a year as designated Free entry Pay Per Ride days (and marketed it), then I think it would be worth a try.

They have the infrastructure in place with the scanners so it shouldn't be a massive job to sort it out.

@Rick - See what you have done !!
 
Na, just scrap POP, give season pass holders a limit to the number of days, and enjoy that millionaire feeling of half a dozen "A" tickets in your wallet left over from your last visit!
 
rob666 said:
Na, just scrap POP, give season pass holders a limit to the number of days, and enjoy that millionaire feeling of half a dozen "A" tickets in your wallet left over from your last visit!
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Scrapping POP could have the downside of making the park less attractive to families though as it could end up being a more expensive day out. At least with POP you can budget your trip and know exactly what you’ll be paying in terms of the cost of entry. But with PPR it can get expensive quite fast, especially if it were a quieter day with shorter queues, hence lots of rerides.

But I agree though that a low cost entry only non-rider ticket would be a very good thing to have.
 
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I don't think BPB really has many rides you can redistribute guests towards any more, what would you under-price to try to ease some of the pressure on more popular attractions? Things like Alice get queues stretching way across the path on busy days, Ghost Train's queue was doubled in length not so long ago and still spills out the entrance regularly.

Unless they put in a significant effort to improve capacity, I'm not convinced full PPR would even be viable for the park on a peak day now. Surely they'd have to charge at least 50% more (after inflation) to account for all the rides running fewer and/or smaller trains? Then it becomes a question of whether you could attract enough people willing to pay those prices to fill the rides.
 
Flying Machines and Derby Racer run half empty most of the day, and significant effort would be put in improving capacity, because the park would be cash driven, the queues ran far far faster when it was worth their while.
POP came in, all operations slowed down.
Many families avoid the park now because the all or nothing approach doesn't work for them...forty quid to hold the coats?!
Busy days can mean four or five rides for forty quid...not good value by any means, and the park has been rather quiet this season so far, hasn't it?
 
We're having a few day in blackpool first week of the school holidays

I know it's a bit of a silly question but i seem to recall fridays being less busy on BPB....am i remembering right?
 
Correct.
The weekenders are arriving, the cheap weekday packagers are going home (spot all the coaches outside the hotels at the top end of the prom), so you get mainly daytrippers.
But as it is the school holidays...
And of course, it is donkeys day off.
No donkey rides in Blackpool on Fridays.
...all part of the above.
Edit...best day for the Beach in the holidays is usually Sunday, the park is often quiet until lunch, you can get all the coasters done in an early couple of hours.
 
rob666 said:
Less than three grand in total, over three years, spread over a dozen staff.
5p an hour off minimum wage by the sound of things.
Stop the press...
THEME PARK PAYS STAFF CRAP WAGES

Trying to register as an education centre to avoid paying foreign trainees the minimum wage, now that would be a better story.
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Disagree that it's as trivial as that.

I feel that as enthusiasts, the way parks treat their employees across all departments is something that we should care about and want to improve. We have to demand better, and a step towards this is to bring these issues to light when they happen. Without these staff our hobby wouldn't be possible.
 
Come on mate, get off your soapbox.

The whole world knows how badly ops staff in funfairs and theme parks are paid, and junior management not much more.
Been that way for fifty years in my personal knowledge.
Students and the semi retired provide fresh staff every year, and always have, in an industry where retention is very low overall...
Why wait unpaid for four months in winter for a minimum wage job, when there is better paid full time work readily available elsewhere.
How exactly do you demand better???
Without these staff our hobby wouldn't be possible.
Absolute cobblers, sorry.
They would just recruit another bunch.
 
rob666 said:
Come on mate, get off your soapbox.

The whole world knows how badly ops staff in funfairs and theme parks are paid, and junior management not much more.
Been that way for fifty years in my personal knowledge.
Students and the semi retired provide fresh staff every year, and always have, in an industry where retention is very low overall...
Why wait unpaid for four months in winter for a minimum wage job, when there is better paid full time work readily available elsewhere.
How exactly do you demand better???
Without these staff our hobby wouldn't be possible.
Absolute cobblers, sorry.
They would just recruit another bunch.
Click to expand...
Recruit another bunch and lose years' worth of engineering and staff experience, leading to operational issues, rides opening at midday, shorter operational hours and lower staff motivation.

I see familiar staff faces at BPB year on year, so it's not always a case of a whole new team of staff every year. It's important to keep that experience and know-how, surely.

Without theme park staff in general, our hobby would not be possible. Not the same staff, just staff. But also, the way a park runs improves with retained staff working under good conditions.

Plus, I don't think it's a bad thing to want better conditions for staff to work in. You're making it out like that's a bad thing to ask for.
 
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