Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[shakey]

I think we all need to put a lot into perspective here:
1. the Valhalla over-run proved costly for the park
2. the bill from Covid is likely still being paid off
3. the poor summer kept people away from Blackpool
.

I think COVID actually helped the park rather than hindered it. 2021 was a very good year for the park , largely due to it being the year of the staycation.

They also made the most of government hand outs which is why the last set of accounts were profitable for a change. And by quite a large amount too.

Can't see the next set of accounts being great though, which will largely be for the 2022 season.

And what poor summer ? Seemed pretty typical to me.


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[Craig]

I've removed a few posts which aren't relevant to discussion about Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

As always, if you have issue with a creator's work, then use their own comment channels to feedback and not park topics on TowersStreet. Thanks.

 

[rob666]

I think COVID actually helped the park rather than hindered it. 2021 was a very good year for the park , largely due to it being the year of the staycation.

They also made the most of government hand outs which is why the last set of accounts were profitable for a change. And by quite a large amount too.

Can't see the next set of accounts being great though, which will largely be for the 2022 season.

And what poor summer ? Seemed pretty typical to me.


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The summer was very poor indeed shakey, you jogging tyke.
Not a single dry week since the beginning of July until now, never more than three dry days in a line.
Triple the usual July rain, and probably looking at the wettest year on record for the north west.
I know, I was mowing the swamps,
Still got most of my hedges to cut as well.
The Beach didn't have a quiet day when open in 20 and 21, but 22 was a slow down in trade, and 23 has been pretty awful.

 

[shakey]

The summer was very poor indeed shakey, you jogging tyke.
Not a single dry week since the beginning of July until now, never more than three dry days in a line.
Triple the usual July rain, and probably looking at the wettest year on record for the north west.
I know, I was mowing the swamps,
Still got most of my hedges to cut as well.
The Beach didn't have a quiet day when open in 20 and 21, but 22 was a slow down in trade, and 23 has been pretty awful.

I forgot the weather over the other side of the pennines is total pants.

Stupid place to build an amusement park. Should have built it in Yorkshire.



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[QTXAdsy]

I forgot the weather over the other side of the pennines is total pants.

Stupid place to build an amusement park. Should have built it in Yorkshire.



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How about Fife? God's kingdom on Earth IMO.

 

[ScottishChris]

I think COVID actually helped the park rather than hindered it. 2021 was a very good year for the park , largely due to it being the year of the staycation.

There was a 'boom & bust' aspect to Covid. The staycation boom was certainly a thing, but it dwindled very quickly. I know a lot of hotels in Blackpool invested in their facilities with thanks to that boom, in the hope that there would be some legacy. Sadly a good number of hotels closed the following year as people flocked abroad, and from my experience, holiday numbers this past year seemed lower than pre-covid. Anecdotally, this seems to be a trend seen at BPB.

This [anecdotally] seems to be a similar trend in other places too. I know there was a massive boom in the Lake District which has subsided too... it now only seems to hit really busy levels on really nice days... like pre-covid.

 

[John]

I do sometimes wonder if the covid boom at BPB hindered them long term. Lots of people visited who might not have otherwise and as a result the place was often packed out with excessive queue times across the board, so people haven't bothered going back.

 

[WillPS]

Not sure if this is something that happens every year, or if anyone cares, but Boulevard Hotel is closing from Jan 1st to Jan 18th. Apparently Big Blue will also be closed for 2 other weeks over the next month or so.

 

[rob666]

Figures, Blackpool is very dead in winter after Christmas.
When you have two nearly empty hotels right next to each other, it makes sense to shut one down.

 

[venny]

Makes it easier to complete a soft refurb when the hotel is closed.

 

[AT86]

Tbf Towers do the same thing. Hotels, Waterpark & Spa close for around 2.5-3 weeks in Jan. It’s the quietest time of year and so is ideal for maintenance/deep cleans etc.

 

[Matt N]

I was just watching this really interesting video from Your Experience Guide assessing whether the Valhalla revamp has been a success or a failure:


With this in mind, I thought that now the 2023 season is over at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and "new Valhalla" has bedded in a little more, I'd be keen to know what people's thoughts are on this. So, do you feel that the Valhalla revamp has been a success or a failure overall? How has it turned out relative to your expectations? In hindsight, do you feel that it was the right decision to take?

Now I should clarify that I haven't personally ridden new Valhalla, so take my views with a large pinch of salt. My last (and only) ride on Valhalla was in August 2019.

However, based on what I've heard about new Valhalla, I'm not sure I'd declare the revamp a resounding success myself. From reviews, it doesn't sound like an awful lot has changed with it compared to before the revamp. Based on what others describe, it sounds to me like many of Valhalla's commonly cited problems still persist. The ride is still unreliable, the ride is still wildly inconsistent in terms of the functioning of effects, the ride still has numerous boat-related problems (most notably with drainage and having many inches of stagnant water sat at the bottom of the boat), and the ride is still obscenely wet (although this may not be a problem for everybody, admittedly).

I concede that COVID, Brexit and such may have had an effect on what they were able to deliver. Had the pandemic and other events not happened, we may have had a very different result come out of the Valhalla revamp. I fully accept that COVID may have drained more of the budget, timeframe and such than Blackpool had originally planned for.

With that being said, it does seem like they've spent a lot of money on the ride for not much material improvement. The refurbishment supposedly cost £4m, which is no insignificant sum, and based on reviews, it sounds as though they haven't really rectified many problems or made many tangible improvements with that money. If the refurbishment was always intended as more of a technical improvement than a proper "reimagining", then that's fair enough in terms of not making too many significant thematic changes, but it doesn't seem like the ride's technical woes have been solved either. As I said above, people's anecdotes suggest that the ride is still rather unreliable and the various boat-related issues still persist, which are things you'd hope may have been solved in a technical refurbishment.

With all of this in mind, I'm afraid to say that I do think that the Valhalla refurbishment has turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment overall. I'm not sure whether I'd necessarily say it was "the wrong decision to take", as Valhalla is undeniably popular, but I do feel that the project has been a bit of a failure in terms of solving the ride's commonly cited problems, such as ensuring greater consistency with the effects, ensuring greater reliability and preventing boat-related issues such as the huge amount of water held at the bottom.

Do you guys agree with me? Or do you think I'm being way too harsh, and that the refurbishment has been a huge success?

 

[Rob]

I guess it depends how you define success. If the only way for BPB to keep it was to spend money on it to improve reliability and/or other issues then I guess you'd have to say that it has been a success, as I doubt they could or would install a similar ride experience from scratch had it gone. Although as you say, it's not as if the reliability issues have all be cured.

From a ride experience point of view, I think it has been less of a success. I did ride it earlier this year and if we are being completely honest, it's not massively different compared to what was there before. But then they weren't going for a complete re-theme like Duel to Alty Mans for example.

There's been a lot of fan service with the re-launch of Valhalla but how well did they manage to get any hype or excitement out to the general public? A bit like Icon, I'd hazard a guess that they once again failed spectacularly here. Was there even a TV ad (genuine question)!?

So overall I'd lean more to no than yes.

 

[ScottishChris]

Was there even a TV ad (genuine question)!?

Yes - but it didn't tell you what the ride actually was or [believe it or not] where it was either (other than some small print). And when they won the Golden Ticket they never used the "the world's greatest water ride" strapline... which is silly at best or moronic at worse.

The Pleasure Beach's marketing has been atrocious for some time. Over and above the 'nice to haves' and further development they need to actually get a proper marketing plan together. They do seem to be doing some recruitment in their marketing team at the moment which hopefully helps. There brand recognition needs a lot of work!

Blackpool Pleasure Beach should be the easiest thing on the planet... it's the easiest amusement park to get to in the UK. It likely has the best mix of attractions for the whole family out of any park in the UK

 

[Matt N]

it's the easiest amusement park to get to in the UK.

I know this is a bit of an aside from the original topic, but; out of interest, what makes you declare this so conclusively?

Surely the ease of getting somewhere depends largely on personal location, doesn't it? I'd imagine that Blackpool Pleasure Beach isn't "the easiest amusement park in the UK to get to" for anyone who lives south of Birmingham, possibly even south of Manchester. From my standpoint, as someone who lives in the South West, I could name numerous easier parks to get to from where I am than Blackpool, by car or by public transport.

 

[ScottishChris]

I know this is a bit of an aside from the original topic, but; out of interest, what makes you declare this so conclusively?

Mrom a marketing point of view... motorway all the way, has its own train station, buses stop at the door, tram stop over the road. It's maybe not the easiest for 'everyone' but its something a descent marketing team should push because on paper the argument could be made. So what I am saying is that it is a claim that the park could make and easily justify.

I also argued at the launch of Icon, the park should have clipped up video of all the enthusiasts saying it was their #1 coaster and marketed it as "Is this the UK's best Roller Coaster?" instead of the double-launch and 'woven into the earth' nonsense they were trying to push out.

Flowery marketing is nice, but a place like PB needs to hit hard to get people through the doors. They need to hit the buttons that are important to people to convince them the PB is the best park for them.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I was just watching this really interesting video from Your Experience Guide assessing whether the Valhalla revamp has been a success or a failure:


With this in mind, I thought that now the 2023 season is over at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and "new Valhalla" has bedded in a little more, I'd be keen to know what people's thoughts are on this. So, do you feel that the Valhalla revamp has been a success or a failure overall? How has it turned out relative to your expectations? In hindsight, do you feel that it was the right decision to take?

Now I should clarify that I haven't personally ridden new Valhalla, so take my views with a large pinch of salt. My last (and only) ride on Valhalla was in August 2019.

However, based on what I've heard about new Valhalla, I'm not sure I'd declare the revamp a resounding success myself. From reviews, it doesn't sound like an awful lot has changed with it compared to before the revamp. Based on what others describe, it sounds to me like many of Valhalla's commonly cited problems still persist. The ride is still unreliable, the ride is still wildly inconsistent in terms of the functioning of effects, the ride still has numerous boat-related problems (most notably with drainage and having many inches of stagnant water sat at the bottom of the boat), and the ride is still obscenely wet (although this may not be a problem for everybody, admittedly).

I concede that COVID, Brexit and such may have had an effect on what they were able to deliver. Had the pandemic and other events not happened, we may have had a very different result come out of the Valhalla revamp. I fully accept that COVID may have drained more of the budget, timeframe and such than Blackpool had originally planned for.

With that being said, it does seem like they've spent a lot of money on the ride for not much material improvement. The refurbishment supposedly cost £4m, which is no insignificant sum, and based on reviews, it sounds as though they haven't really rectified many problems or made many tangible improvements with that money. If the refurbishment was always intended as more of a technical improvement than a proper "reimagining", then that's fair enough in terms of not making too many significant thematic changes, but it doesn't seem like the ride's technical woes have been solved either. As I said above, people's anecdotes suggest that the ride is still rather unreliable and the various boat-related issues still persist, which are things you'd hope may have been solved in a technical refurbishment.

With all of this in mind, I'm afraid to say that I do think that the Valhalla refurbishment has turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment overall. I'm not sure whether I'd necessarily say it was "the wrong decision to take", as Valhalla is undeniably popular, but I do feel that the project has been a bit of a failure in terms of solving the ride's commonly cited problems, such as ensuring greater consistency with the effects, ensuring greater reliability and preventing boat-related issues such as the huge amount of water held at the bottom.

Do you guys agree with me? Or do you think I'm being way too harsh, and that the refurbishment has been a huge success?

I still do not get it.

Coasters you like that others don’t and coasters you don’t like that others do

Sticking with the same park: Blue Fire. It's ... fine, but it really dies just over halfway through and then you're just waiting for it to end so you can go join the queue for Wodan which is actually exciting. Also that final inversion is surely someone's idea of a joke? I get that it saved...

towersstreet.com

 

[John_P]

I know this is a bit of an aside from the original topic, but; out of interest, what makes you declare this so conclusively?

The park is easily accessible via public transport with a major train station in Blackpool North and soon you'll be able to get a tram from the station to right outside Pleasure Beach. Or change at Preston and get a train to Blackpool Pleasure Beach train station.

On top of that Blackpool is full of accommodation that's suitable for everyone's price range from a cheap and cheerful b and b up to the parks own hotels by the way of numerous chain hotels as well.

 

[pjanvil]

So my take on the Valhalla revamp, overall I consider it a success and an improvement over what was there before. I have ridden it a lot this season, up to 4/5 times per visit and have visited 14 times this season. I think overall it has been a lot more reliable then it was, it's still not 100% reliable but its definitely more then it was. I've seen the Ring of Fire working more times this season then in years including on the final day of the season. I know people say its a ride of pot luck and it's true you never know what effects will be working each time but most (but not all) effects were working on most of my visits this yeah which has been a marked improvement compared to previous years. That being said, I only remember 1 maybe 2 goes out of that where as far as I could tell, ALL effects were working.

I also think the lighting and story telling is a lot better now, though I do miss the Ice room actually being an ice room

So I think usually you get most but not all effects working this season.

As for the wetness/boats issues I agree the drainage doesn't seem improved, I'd have thought they could have done some improvements to the drainage of the boats though maybe this is due to more fundamental design flaws in the ride it isn't possible to easily fix. I think the wetness/splashness on Vahalla is OK in the ride, I find it similar to Storm Force 10, but the huge difference is the lack of drainage in the boats, I think this makes the ride wetter too as the extra weight causes more water to come in. When I have ridden early before the boat is full of water (especially when I've had a boat to myself) not too much water comes in (not ridiculous anyway) its more when boats are full and there is already 30cm of water in the bottom of the boat.

As for the overall if the ride needed this or the alternetive was its removal I'm VERY glad they spent the money to refurbish it to keep it going vs the alternative of removing it as if they removed it there is no way they would replace it with anything near as good. (Park benches anyone?) I was also very relieved that most of the fire stayed since when they were initially talked about sustainability I was terrified that was the removal of all the fire in favour of LEDs and screens. Not a screen in sight still which is excellent all still grand spectacular effects and props.

 

[benpicko]

The park is easily accessible via public transport with a major train station in Blackpool North and soon you'll be able to get a tram from the station to right outside Pleasure Beach. Or change at Preston and get a train to Blackpool Pleasure Beach train station.

On top of that Blackpool is full of accommodation that's suitable for everyone's price range from a cheap and cheerful b and b up to the parks own hotels by the way of numerous chain hotels as well.

Surely that only makes it the easiest park in the country for people in Blackpool to get to? Thorpe is far easier to get to for more people both living in the UK and visiting the UK, surely? It's extremely easily accessible for anybody in or around London.

I used to live in Yorkshire and even though I've been tempted to go to Pleasure Beach, the hassle of getting to Blackpool via train was far too much so I've still never been unfortunately. And that's from Yorkshire.