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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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That's the issue with POP - it's all or nothing. In a cost of living crisis a family might not be in the position to pay for a day out at the Pleasure Beach, but might have had the funds to pay for a few goes on a couple of rides and some food.

Whether the increased revenue for POP vs the lost revenue for walk up visitors adds up, anyones guess.
 
I was wondering how long it would take for the POP vs free entry discussion to rear its head again.

As many people have previously pointed out, time and time again, when it was pay per ride without wristbands, it cost way more to spend a day at the park than the single cost of entry that we have today. I honestly can’t see how that can possibly be beneficial in a cost of living crisis. People wouldn’t stay in the park for as long and the place would be even more deserted.

To use possibly the only other comparable example, Vienna Prater still operates a pay per ride without wristbands system, and when I visited a few years ago, I’d spent more in two hours than I’d spend in an entire day at BPB under the current system, yet I still had a load of rides which I hadn’t ridden. I left feeling pretty broke and with no desire to return. Not to mention, despite it being July school holidays when I visited Vienna, the park was deserted and most rides were running less than half empty.

To use an example closer to home, think how broke you are after a few hours at Winter Wonderland.

BPB needs a radical change in operation, but pay per ride is not the answer. The world is a very different place to what it was in the 80s and 90s, and I feel that arguments for returning to pay per ride are based on a false nostalgia which relates to a completely different time to what we’re living in now.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
I was wondering how long it would take for the POP vs free entry discussion to rear its head again.

As many people have previously pointed out, time and time again, when it was pay per ride without wristbands, it cost way more to spend a day at the park than the single cost of entry that we have today. I honestly can’t see how that can possibly be beneficial in a cost of living crisis. People wouldn’t stay in the park for as long and the place would be even more deserted.

To use possibly the only other comparable example, Vienna Prater still operates a pay per ride without wristbands system, and when I visited a few years ago, I’d spent more in two hours than I’d spend in an entire day at BPB under the current system, yet I still had a load of rides which I hadn’t ridden. I left feeling pretty broke and with no desire to return. Not to mention, despite it being July school holidays when I visited Vienna, the park was deserted and most rides were running less than half empty.

To use an example closer to home, think how broke you are after a few hours at Winter Wonderland.

BPB needs a radical change in operation, but pay per ride is not the answer. The world is a very different place to what it was in the 80s and 90s, and I feel that arguments for returning to pay per ride are based on a false nostalgia which relates to a completely different time to what we’re living in now.
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Right, and I'm not arguing that. I'm saying if little Timmy sees the Big One from the promenade and begs his mum to let him have a go, she's more likely to stump up £10 for a ride vs pay £30-£40 each to get on park.

As I said who knows if POP makes up for that missing passing trade - only BPB can really know that.
 
With Prater (and winter wonderland) everything is ran by different showmen so a wristband system isn't really possible. I did the winter wonderland charity night back in 2018 when it's wristband and they certainly weren't running the coasters with as many trains as they'd do during normal operating days.

Looking at other Blackpool attractions the Tower (under Tower World branding) was a pay one price attraction until the council bought it in 2009. Were ticket price got you into every attraction they had at the time. And when it reopened with Merlin as the operator they were now seperately ticketed attractions.

The park needs to bring back the walk around pass, and if that means wristbands come back then so be it.
 
The non-rider passes could be reinstated almost immediately. It’s baffling why they aren’t when the infrastructure is there. The turnstiles at the moment just serve as an annoyance to people without any real purpose.

The benefit for the park of the non-rider passes is that it is (was) a differentiator for them, versus say Alton Towers. If a family with a non-rider wants a theme park day out, they could previously utilise the non-rider pass. My (admittedly anecdotal) experience is that getting rid of those passes has meant that those types of families are now choosing to visit Alton Towers or other attractions because there’s now no difference in pricing for the non-riders, so they opt for a change.

Pretty short sighted from Pleasure Beach, but that’s how they roll.
 
Unless of course they are making more money now. Otherwise as you said they could bring it back near instantly. They do have some differators still like 3 months season pass. Rides tend to be longer there and the food is much better than Merlin
 
Fuct said:
As I said who knows if POP makes up for that missing passing trade - only BPB can really know that.
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This is a very good point.

BPB scrapped free entry nearly 20 years ago, and to be honest I’m sick and tired of hearing so many old school BPB fans proclaiming “knowledgeably” that a return to free entry would be better for the park. It’s a baseless claim.

BPB have been operating this way since 2004. If pay per ride worked so much better, they’d have gone back to it by now. There’s clearly reasons why they haven’t. If people are honestly trying to claim that the only reason they’ve kept POP is because of Amanda’s stubbornness, then I’m sorry but I just don’t buy that argument.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
This is a very good point.

BPB scrapped free entry nearly 20 years ago, and to be honest I’m sick and tired of hearing so many old school BPB fans proclaiming “knowledgeably” that a return to free entry would be better for the park. It’s a baseless claim.
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I’m assuming that these old school BPB fans that want POP scrapped and PPR reinstated definitely aren’t people that take a family with kids to the park. Pay Per Ride would instantly make Pleasure Beach become an extremely unattractive and/or unaffordable proposition for a lot of families compared to the price of a day ticket or season pass to allow a whole days riding compared to burning through your money paying out for your kids to ride PPR.
 
It is entirely possible that the park’s intransigence would mean they don’t make a change through sheer bloody mindedness. That said, POP allows them to more easily accommodate the lucrative school group market, is more appropriate to extract maximum per capita spend from the reduced visitation to Blackpool generally and is also more in line with the general public’s expectation of a visitor attraction on this scale. Plus all the usual trope of not needing to provide facilities for people who spend no money or are just intending to cause trouble.
 
Id like to see PB do more offers to bring people in during quieter periods or even introduce a family pass offer. PB always had offers in local and national papers when it was pay per ride. Im not suggesting bringing that back but they need to be more aggressive with thier offers similar to what Drayton Manor have been doing.
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
I’m assuming that these old school BPB fans that want POP scrapped and PPR reinstated definitely aren’t people that take a family with kids to the park.
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I'm not an old BPB fan but I can speak anecdotally to counter this point. Not all families want to go and ride everything.

My mum and dad didn't take the two grandchildren to Pleasure Beach specifically because it was bad value for them. They needed two wristbands and two entry tickets (maybe paying for a couple of smaller things) but this wasn't an option, so they didn't go at all.
 
I think its sad that Blackpool has alienated the mainstream market at the resort that many familys / visitors don't attend due to a weekend break not wanting to exclusively do rides, the piers must make a killing when the revenue could still feed the park if they so wished. I can personally only compare BPB with adventure island in Southend both are busy seaside resorts on slightly different size scales but Adventure island is a free entry park and is often very busy with both wristband and ride tickets in use for families that are on a budget or only wanting to spend a couple of hours there.

BPB is in the wrong location for mainstream visitors wanting to visit just for a day.Another negative is Being coastal it also only has half the geographical coverage of an inland park, it should play to its strengths of the market and not try to be a day ticketed theme park
 
Alsty said:
I'm not an old BPB fan but I can speak anecdotally to counter this point. Not all families want to go and ride everything.

My mum and dad didn't take the two grandchildren to Pleasure Beach specifically because it was bad value for them. They needed two wristbands and two entry tickets (maybe paying for a couple of smaller things) but this wasn't an option, so they didn't go at all.
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A hybrid model of a modest admission charge for non-riders and POP wristbands for those that want to ride all day (combined with the option of paying for a single ride) would seem to be the logical solution to this. Several European city centre parks such as Liseberg and Tivoli Gardens have successfully operated like this many years.
 
I don't see why they can't have a tiered wristband system - something like Red = Thrills, Amber = Family rides, Green = non-rider. So the more you want to do the more it costs you. I'm sure this has been implemented successfully elsewhere.

There will always be the issue that some visitors just don't get their money's worth if you operate any sort of POP system - even my parents don't go to Alton Towers much and it is on their doorstep, because there's not enough for them to do that would justify the admission fee. They would go a lot more if they could have non-rider or even non-thrill membership.

It's questionable whether it is worth trying to target and make money from people who don't actually want to go on rides though when that is your business. Unless you can afford to invest in such a broad range of attractions, shows, walkthroughts etc. to appeal to everyone.
 
Went to the Beach yesterday, dead for (half) half term Halloween.
My wife, and my friends wife, didn't go as paying £35 to not ride the rides is a rip off.
So a group of four instead of six, and the two big spenders...in the bars supping like fish, and large scale pre Christmas buying that usually happens, souvenir stuff, and food buying, simply didn't happen.
The trip cost far less than usual, because people didn't join us as non riders.
The loss of paid entry is the real stupid issue, if the park had been busy all season then fair enough, but it has been far from busy.
South Pier and Spoons have been very busy though, funny that.
Paid entry was stopped because of Covid.
Covid has gone.
Why keep a stupid rule in a half empty park???
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And the wristbands are still there, all the facility for them, they still use them as access bands for some.
They make punters use their phones to save 5p on a wristband.
 
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I think the only evidence we need to see that the current system isn't working is to see how dead the park has been on multiple occasions through the season, when Blackpool itself is full of people. When it was free entry, most people in Blackpool would do a few rides on the Pleasure Beach.

The solution in my opinion has been mentioned above. Have pay per ride but also an unlimited riding wristband, but have free entry again. That increased footfall can then have the option how long to stay, just think of the potential extra ££ they'd make in merch sales with a few thousand more on park. BPB merch team no doubt knows what they're doing.

I've said before, people go to Blackpool for a day trip and want to do the piers, arcades, drink in thier favourite "showbar', shop, play bingo, go up the tower, go to the sandcastle etc. People want to go to the seaside for the "seaside experiance" and that isn't to pay over £100 for the family to drive in to Blackpool, do just the Pleasure Beach and then drive out later in the day.
 
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