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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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ScottishChris said:
You're right. The park do lots of thing we probably don't always notice too. Things like overhaling the water feature at Eddie Stobart, replacing the Steeplechase sign and a complete refurb of the bears at Avalanche. Things that you don't notice because they look good, but if they are left to deteriorate you certainly would.
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Ahh yes I'm a big fan of those bears. Merlin tended to leave animatronics just broken static for years.
 
Ethan said:
Towers and Thorpe are the UK equivalent of Iphone and Samsung. Pleasure Beach is more of a Nokia
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As in the former is overhyped brand over substance and the latter folds in half easily at any given opportunity?

Compared to international parks, Alton and Thorpe are the equivalent of an avocado coloured spin dial landline phone from the 1970's (retroactively painted purple) and 2 plastic cups attached by string, respectively.
 
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It’s also worth noting that BPB’s prices have increased drastically over the last few years. If BPB management want to make those sort of comments, they have to be really confident that their product is good value for money. We see Ryanair give customers a bit of attitude but they get away with it because their fares are so cheap that they know people will keep coming back. The same logic can’t be applied to BPB.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
We see Ryanair give customers a bit of attitude but they get away with it because their fares are so cheap that they know people will keep coming back. The same logic can’t be applied to BPB.
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Exactly this. She can't give passholders lip when they pay well over the odds. Pleasure beach season passes are frankly a rip off and not good value for money so for her to have the audacity to say 'passholders think they own part of the park' is hilarious. Ye guess what Amanda passholders do own the park they have the right to demand when they pay the big bucks. Honestly she can get lost I don't care how she meant it but Bianca would never say anything about loyal passholders 'being entitled'.
 
Ethan said:
Pleasure beach season passes are frankly a rip off and not good value for money
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Really? How can you justify this comment? It costs around £40-£50 for a single visit depending if it’s on or off peak. You only need 3-4 visits to make a season pass pay for itself. Major nerds who practically live there and go multiple times a week are getting ridiculous value for money.
 
I listened to the podcast; came across fairly well to me. She said she appreciates everyone that comes to the park. Yes, there was a slight swipe but it was fairly toothless and in good context.
 
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Tom said:
I listed to the podcast; came across fairly well to me. She said she appreciates everyone that comes to the park. Yes, there was a slight swipe but it was fairly toothless and in good context.
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I posted a full transcript of the podcast on the TST Discord, of anyone fancies a root around there too.
 
Dipper_Dave said:
Really? How can you justify this comment? It costs around £40-£50 for a single visit depending if it’s on or off peak
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£25 single day ticket and £100 season pass more reasonable. You can get a day ticket at Towers or thorpe for cheaper than Blackpool. The difference is you're getting Hyperia Nemesis Smiler Wicker man
 
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Dipper_Dave said:
Really? How can you justify this comment? It costs around £40-£50 for a single visit depending if it’s on or off peak. You only need 3-4 visits to make a season pass pay for itself. Major nerds who practically live there and go multiple times a week are getting ridiculous value for money.
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I agree with this Season Passes are excellent value for money, I got mine for £139 for 2024, with zero restriction dates plus 6 European parks included when a trip to Europa Park/Portaventura is 60EUR each. Valhalla and Icon will not be cheap to run so getting this for a year unrestricted is excellent value. As long as she doesn't go the Phantasialand route and axe season passes completely.
 
Ethan said:
£25 single day ticket and £100 season pass more reasonable. You can get a day ticket at Towers or thorpe for cheaper than Blackpool. The difference is you're getting Hyperia Nemesis Smiler Wicker man
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Which park has that ride line up ...I would like to ride them all in the same park.
That's a bit like saying the Beach also has the Tower.

This conversation is taking the site back a decade, I thought we had long given up on...
"My park is better than yours, yours is crap because..."
 
Ethan said:
£25 single day ticket and £100 season pass more reasonable. You can get a day ticket at Towers or thorpe for cheaper than Blackpool. The difference is you're getting Hyperia Nemesis Smiler Wicker man
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You need to be careful with subjective views. In my opinion Icon is a better coaster than Nemesis. I'd rather ride Revolution than Smiler, and Nash, Dipper, Megaphobia and possibly Nick Streak is better than Wickerman. In my view (and many others would agree) but the overall ride lineup at Pleasure Beach is better than that at Towers. The food at Pleasure Beach is better than that at Towers too... if you go to the right places.

Also, the cheapest advance ticket you can get for the Pleasure Beach is £31, Towers is £35 and Thorpe is £33.

I feel that you suffer from the cognitive issue that is... it's Blackpool so it's s***. I don't blame you because the bark have done absolutely squat to market the Park properly to shed that image. My view is PB is the best all-round park. It has the best selection of rides and offers [by far] the best ride line up and operations of all the major UK parks.

@rob666 - I have clearly bitten. Sorry!
 
ScottishChris said:
You need to be careful with subjective views. In my opinion Icon is a better coaster than Nemesis. I'd rather ride Revolution than Smiler, and Nash, Dipper, Megaphobia and possibly Nick Streak is better than Wickerman. In my view (and many others would agree) but the overall ride lineup at Pleasure Beach is better than that at Towers. The food at Pleasure Beach is better than that at Towers too... if you go to the right places.
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Depends on what you like in a lineup I suppose. Some people prefer modern thrills like me and some prefer classics. Blackpool have 3 woodies older than my nan so I'm personally not gonna enjoy them because they're not thrilling. Well actually National is somewhat thrilling but its not like a moder woodie like Wicker or Megaphobia. The difference for me is the dark rides. Now don't get me wrong Valhalla is top level and easily the highlight of the park alongside Icon, but Towers just have a better variety of dark rides. Curse, Sub-terra and Hex that is an amazing lineup. Thorpe are also the flat ride kings. Samurai, Vortex, Rush, Detonator is a lineup I could only dream of at Towers
 
Ethan said:
The difference for me is the dark rides. Now don't get me wrong Valhalla is top level and easily the highlight of the park alongside Icon, but Towers just have a better variety of dark rides. Curse, Sub-terra and Hex that is an amazing lineup.
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Steady on there lad

Hex has been shut for most of 2022 and 2023

Sub terra only re-opened in 2023 after being closed for about 7 years

And curse only opened in 2023

So if hex remains closed in 2024 , then that's 2 dark rides (And that's assuming they don't close sub terra again), compared to 5 at Blackpool (6 if you count impossible).

If there is anything that towers lacks ( apart from decent coasters, decent food and short queues ;) ), it's dark rides.
 
Ethan said:
Totally not like Nemesis and Smiler absolutely obliterate the entire pleasure beach coaster lineup put together
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And nemesis was shut last year as well !!

My coaster dig was of course a bit of fun as that is very much subjective. Personally, I don't rate Smiler at all.

I know you are a big Merlin fanboy @Ethan , nothing wrong with that, but lets not get into the whole "Towers is better" - "No Blackpool is better" nonsense. We all know which is best ;)
 
We've had to make this request before and I'm going to have to make it again; please can we not have another BPB vs Alton Towers debate in this thread? It's perfectly acceptable for people to have their own preference.

Let's keep this thread for discussion of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Thanks.
 
Quite honestly I think those comments from Amanda have been blown out of proportion somewhat. Seems like a storm in a tea cup to me. I agree that quite often she doesn't help herself with her tweets, etc. And that's just from those things that end up on here, as I don't use Twitter, and am happy for it to remain that way. I also agree that at times what she says comes off as treating the paying customer with contempt. I do find this ridiculous at times, I mean we are paying to keep the place afloat after all. Yes, they get more money out of one-off visits than whatever they get from season pass holders making a one off payment to go unlimited times, but we are also buying food & drink, merch, hiring lockers, some paying to park etc, whilst there.

I think it's a bit laughable though to choose to be offended by the fact that she calls regular visitors 'nerds'. Have I missed something? I mean, they are, aren't they? I'm not sure how you could argue that someone who visits an amusement park / theme park multiple times a week isn't a nerd, or that other word which I won't use. I get that we like a moan, and we all want the park to operate well, and our favourite rides / food outlets to be open every time we go, but the reality is that those things simply won't happen every time we visit.

We can choose to enjoy each visit for what it is, regardless of what rides are available, or we can whinge and moan about how hard done by we are. Long-winded tweets to the park are rather pointless. If someone is bothered enough about peeling paint, an item not available on the menu, or a ride closure, that they have to stomp their feet about it and threaten to not renew their season pass, then quite frankly, who cares? Vote with your wallet. Don't renew it. At the same time you give yours up, someone will be buying their first one. As @rob666 says, there will be a 'fresh set of mugs' each season anyway. I've lost count of the times someone has talked of considering giving up their season pass, only to still be there next season.

From what I can see, getting mad at Amanda is a bit of an 'old man yells at cloud' scenario. She won't change. Though maybe someone else speaking for the park would be a good idea! She has a point though - they are limited to what they can do on the park, I guess relating to both major and minor projects, so people should cut them some slack at times. It looks like we're not getting a new ride anytime soon, so there's not much to get excited about, which is a shame. I think the demise of the park can be over-exaggerated at times, it's not the toilet that some make it out to be, though it has lost its character & charm somewhat in the last few years. It's still a great place full of unique, historic rides. I can't help but agree though with @shakey that the ride lineup was better 20 years ago. I'm not sure the park is on its arse to the degree some think it is, but they could do with having something on the horizon to look forward to, even if it's a few years away.

B&M dive machine anyone?
 
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