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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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Partially Pleasure Beach related, has it been confirmed what the illuminations calendar looks like this year? If not, is there a view on whether it's likely it'll be extended again?
 
Rick said:
Again, I am not sure the common consensus is that people are being ripped off, the park has been so incredibly busy.

I agree that the value proposition changes for a subset of the visitor base when certain rides are closed, but I am not sure it's really beyond the pale.

Alton were charging £16 without a single major ride at Christmas.
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Indeed Towers did charge £16 for that event, and it was also a rip off. I don’t have issue with comparing Towers in general, but defining value for money by comparing the beach to a closed theme park is baffling.

I would also argue that the total footfall doesn’t indicate whether people are being ripped off or not.


John_P said:
At least the Pleasure Beach are being upfront with ride closures. Seemed like numerous rides at Towers were just shuttered in the closing weeks of the season without any where official notifying guests.
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As above I’m not the one bringing other parks into this and I don’t think Merlin parks avoid ripping off their guests, quite the opposite. Im sure we can all criticise more than one UK park without feeling conflicted.
 
Dave said:
Indeed Towers did charge £16 for that event, and it was also a rip off. I don’t have issue with comparing Towers in general, but defining value for money by comparing the beach to a closed theme park is baffling.

I would also argue that the total footfall doesn’t indicate whether people are being ripped off or not.
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"Rip off" is entirely subjective, surely. I think paying four figures for a Canada Goose jacket is a "rip off" but the folks who stick one on their Klarna don't, it would seem.

My barb regarding Alton and Thorpe was to indicate the Pleasure Beach are pretty much the only game in town at that time of year, which if you want to experience something of that ilk, paying a premium is not a strange concept. The only club open that wants £10 entry, or Uber surge pricing.

In a world of pre-booking, I think footfall is a great indicator of whether a target audience think the price that they are being asked to pay is in line with their expectation, or not. Much more so than where online sales channels are less prevalent, where we can all relate to the "Ah we've come all this way" or "Go on then, we're on holiday" mindset.

By lots of metrics, £9 for Olympia at WW is a "rip off" but the army of people queueing up to tap their debit cards seemed to think otherwise.
 
WillPS said:
Partially Pleasure Beach related, has it been confirmed what the illuminations calendar looks like this year? If not, is there a view on whether it's likely it'll be extended again?
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The illuminations are due to run from the switch on in September 2022 through to January 2023. Seeing as it's clearly been a success you'd imagine provided they can maintain the lights still this might become a permanent change.
 
Lots of the weekdays were very quiet indeed through the loonymations after half term, and the second "Ride the lights" was very poorly attended compared to the first.
With the increased financial/carbon cost of leccy, and Blackpool Council being on the skint side of skint, they might get better value out of just lighting up the weekends after half term next year.
 
Yeah, I arrived the last Sunday in November (the week the masks returned) and it was pretty quiet (although much busier than when I had visited during late November in the past).
 
I think that away from the pricing model for a moment, Pleasure Beach are doing a lot of good at the moment. There is a lot to look forward to this year;

  • Valhalla 2.0. Yes, it's taking ages, but it needed doing - back in 2019 it was so poor, I commented at the time that it would be better off closed than open in that state. So, the fact they are finally doing something with it is very exciting.
  • Grand National - I have seen photos over the last few days, and it seems to be getting the Big Dipper treatment (a complete re-track in places) which is excellent. Station is also getting work as we saw at the end of last year.
  • Big One - every year for the last 3 years they have re-tracked significant amounts of it with brand new specially manufactured track, this can't be cheap to do and it's great to see it being looked after so well.
Going back to last year, they did;

  • Big Dipper - first drop re-track and work on the turnaround by Big Blue made a huge difference.
  • River Caves & Alice – significant lighting and scenic presentation improvements.
  • Steeplechase – brand new sign in the original style.
  • Avalanche bears completely refurbished and full soundtrack restored.
  • Mr Funshine back on the arches, a more vibrant brand image, 125 anniversary effort made across the park.
The year before we had an upgrade to some Ghost Train scenes, etc.

They are investing a lot into improving/sustaining what they have, much better than they were 4 years ago in my view. It's just unfortunate that the benefits of this year's investment & changes won't be felt by those paying £39 in February. As season pass-holders we can be patient, but it's a different outlook for 'once a year' guests.

I think the biggest annoyance for me (as a season pass holder) this year is potentially having to wait until summer for Valhalla. It's adding another half a year on top of the two we have already waited - but if it's worth the wait in the end, then fair enough.

To conclude though, I do feel that PB are making much better long-term decisions for their existing rides now than they were in 2018/19. With that in mind, a price increase is to be expected in my opinion.

Whether the increase they have made is fair all of the time (e.g., in Feb) and the right level of increase is another debate altogether.
 
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I must admit, I'd have to agree with you @Coaster!

I'm not exactly a frequent Pleasure Beach visitor (my last visit was in 2019, and living in the South West, I've only ever been to the park twice), but I must say, all the recent goings on do make me excited to go back at some stage!

As much as Valhalla wasn't personally my cup of tea in its original form (or at least, its 2019 form), I am excited to see what they do with it, as I think this refurbishment could surprise people!

And Grand National and Big One are coasters I'm looking forward to getting back on, as I think both are coasters I'd like considerably more if they were retracked and made a bit smoother; Grand National in particular has an excellent layout, in my opinion, and talking from a personal preference point of view, I honestly think that it being smoother would make it leap from being one of my least favourites right up to being one of my favourites! I'm also looking forward to trying out retracked Big Dipper too, come to think of it...

But in conclusion, I certainly agree with you; it appears that a lot of positive improvement is going on at Pleasure Beach for the 2022 season!
 
Agree there's a lot going on Jamie, but would perhaps suggest work on Big One and National is largely being done out of necessity, rather than due to a desire to improve. Valhalla you could perhaps argue either way.

Some of the other examples are certainly stuff they didn't have to do, but did anyway. My preferred target in this ilk for future seasons would be the River Caves frontage or some self dusting mirrors for the Icon station.
 
Good point on River Caves. After they completely removed any scenery from the facade, it’s become awfully drab. There needs to be something reinstalled there and I’d say the other area of major aesthetic improvement would be covering the back of the Alice warehouse, which looks pretty appalling at the moment.
 
The wagtail nesting on the River Caves frontage over two seasons was brilliant.
I'm looking forward to riding the new spinny seats on Icon with dippy.
 
rob666 said:
Nickland is going nowhere.
If it was, we would have heard from two sources by now, and that would make it true.
I am looking forward to a nice wet ride on Dora in the next few weeks.
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Oh yes of course! I forgot we must here it from a second source.
 
Must be a slow news day as BBC News are also reporting the sale of pieces of Big One's track.

Rollercoaster fans have "gone mad" for the chance to buy a piece of an amusement park's record-breaking star attraction.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach's The Big One was the tallest and steepest ride of its kind when it opened in 1994.

Bosses at the seaside fun spot have been upgrading its track and selling off pieces of the original.

Enthusiasts as far afield as the US have paid up to £450 for a piece of coaster history.
 
Having a weekend in Liverpool and just been to Gheto Golf (indoor crazy golf)

Is this one of the old kiosks from pleasure beach? Is it big Jim Rowland?
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