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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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Half term will half fill the park, then June sees the students finishing and the dreaded school trips, then comes the holidays...
I can see them holding out with the stupid no cheap entry, but they are losing out on a shedload of secondary spenders who do not ride, but like the Beach.
Probably half of their prime customers have been effectively told..."Forty quid instead of your usual tenner, or sod off."
They will go bust in a couple of seasons if they keep this up.
 
So am I getting this right; Pleasure Beach has removed the non-rider entry fee?

Interesting move; it does seem as though that would remove one of the main advantages of Pleasure Beach’s pricing model from a value for money perspective compared to the Merlin parks.

Although I guess if the long term goal is to make themselves a fully pay-one-price theme park, then it is probably a necessary move; the Merlin parks don’t have any non-rider entry fee, so I guess this move would put BPB level with its competitors in the pay-one-price market.
 
Has anyone had a detailed look at the parks accounts to see where they are financially?

Amanda seems to be associated with lot's of companies. The one that made me laugh is that she is still the director of an active company called Frontierland Limited.
 
Haven’t BPB been making losses for a number of years now? Or am I wrong there?

I could have sworn that someone posted the park’s accounts and they didn’t make for good reading, but I could have imagined that.
 
As a private company, the figures can be misleading...salaries of directors etc are buried in the costs.
The park binned free entry decades ago, to much fuss, but it kept out the rabble and pickpockets, and the overbearing crowds on peak days, you literally couldn't move at times.
Fiver entry became six, then ten I think.
Then covid killed it all off, and my wife never got to use her diamond pass...all year entry for £40, but we got a (very good) discount.
The park made good money through (allegedly) limiting entry through covid, and justified no cheap entry for crowd control reasons during covid...fair enough.
Now the park is dead, with many thousands unhappy that mum/grandad have to fork out four times more than they used to, to do the same thing.
So the whole group goes elsewhere, and the park, and concession holders, lose an absolute forune on attendance overall, and the huge loss of the secondary spend.
 
I used to defend the park’s business model on the basis of the fact that they’ve been doing it since 2007, and they haven’t changed it so it must be working.

But based on that tweet from Amanda (and a few other things of course) I’m not really not sure.

The impression I get for that tweet is:

- She knows that the park is failing
- She knows that we know that the park is failing
- But she doesn’t seem the slightest bit bothered that it’s failing or that it’s obvious it’s failing, and is therefore carrying on with it being that way

It’s confusing to say the least. I honestly don’t buy this whole argument that she’s too stubborn to admit she got it wrong. Come on, it’s been 15 years now, you can’t hold on to something out of stubbornness, especially since covid forced them to change how they do business anyway.

But to be seemingly revelling in the park being empty is a strange position to adopt, no matter how you look at it.
 
She is probably too busy fannying about with her "award winning" (and constantly loss making) ice show to be bothered about running a poxy funfair.
Not had that toy out of the box to play with for a couple of years.
She is the boss.
She will call the shots.
It is her way or highway.
The constant joys of operations in medium sized private limited family firms that are major local employers in poor areas.
The council will bail them out in desperation if they have to, then the Beach will pay 'em it back in the next boom, if they have to.
There are strong rumours that they did very well out of covid thank you, all those captive staycationers meant that every day was a busy day.
So they can ride it out for a while.
Allegedly.
 
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So I'm just on my way home from a day at PB today. The weather's been lovely in Blackpool all weekend and the beach has been very busy but as mentioned before the park has been dead.

Today they've been letting people ride Enso for free if there was no one waiting for it in the station so that saved us £30.

As for Valhalla I rode Ice Blast facing the ride and it's no where finished, the station is still gutted although the facade and roof have been partially re cladded. Apart from that the exit walkway is still in the old style and has partially broken theming and the old knackered theming is still in place outside the ride with no new work taken place.
 
The saddest part of BPB doing poorly recently is that they should be cleaning up with how crap the rest of the industry has been recently, most agree that Alton, their strongest competitor has lost the plot, there's no Camelot anymore, Gullivers I can't remember doing anything over the past decade and Southport is well, southport. Nobody else in the country even has close to a line up, dark rides, roller coasters, flat rides ect, that's as well rounded as bpb imo, but they don't feast in an industry doing so poorly so clearly something is going wrong up the management chain.
 
When we were there a couple weeks ago we experienced what potential customers are doing first hand.

A family of four left the ticket centre saying there’s no way they’re paying that much to get in, last time they’d come it was nearly half that price. They head off in disgust promising the kids who were in tears that they’d go on the rides on the pier…
 
Groundking said:
The saddest part of BPB doing poorly recently is that they should be cleaning up with how crap the rest of the industry has been recently, most agree that Alton, their strongest competitor has lost the plot, there's no Camelot anymore, Gullivers I can't remember doing anything over the past decade and Southport is well, southport. Nobody else in the country even has close to a line up, dark rides, roller coasters, flat rides ect, that's as well rounded as bpb imo, but they don't feast in an industry doing so poorly so clearly something is going wrong up the management chain.
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Gulliver’s have in fact actually opened a brand new park in 2020, Gulliver’s Valley in Rotherham. You have to commend them for building a new theme park from the ground up, something that doesn’t happen very often these days, but it is definitely very much a park aimed at a young audience so it tends to be forgotten compared to other family orientated parks.
 
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Groundking said:
The saddest part of BPB doing poorly recently is that they should be cleaning up with how crap the rest of the industry has been recently, most agree that Alton, their strongest competitor has lost the plot, there's no Camelot anymore, Gullivers I can't remember doing anything over the past decade and Southport is well, southport. Nobody else in the country even has close to a line up, dark rides, roller coasters, flat rides ect, that's as well rounded as bpb imo, but they don't feast in an industry doing so poorly so clearly something is going wrong up the management chain.
Click to expand...
Alton Towers have lost the plot? Not sure I can agree with that one, they had a very successful 2021 for a start. Sure investments since Wicker Man have not been great but the same can be said of pretty much every UK park (bar Paultons) over the past few years.

As for BPB having the most well rounded selection of rides, well in terms of quantity then yes, they do have a wide selection of coasters, flat rides and dark rides. However I would argue that most of these are average to poor. There is not a single ride at BPB that makes me think "I really need to get back so I can have that amazing experience again".
 
Rob said:
Alton Towers have lost the plot? Not sure I can agree with that one, they had a very successful 2021 for a start. Sure investments since Wicker Man have not been great but the same can be said of pretty much every UK park (bar Paultons) over the past few years.

As for BPB having the most well rounded selection of rides, well in terms of quantity then yes, they do have a wide selection of coasters, flat rides and dark rides. However I would argue that most of these are average to poor. There is not a single ride at BPB that makes me think "I really need to get back so I can have that amazing experience again".
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Over the past 10 years, let alone 20 can you honestly say that Alton Towers has improved as a park? I just don't see any arguments for it, they've had a multitude of rides ripped out and what they do have has declined in quality, 2 clear examples being Duel and the Rapids. The park was 100% a more well rounded family experience back in the year 2000 vs today, and it's reflected in the punter numbers, they were pulling ~3m people through the gates and since the turn of the century they've been closer to 2m people vs 3m people. As a comparison, Efteling since the early 90s has added over 2m people to their attendance figures. How is this not an example of a park that's lost the plot?
 
Groundking said:
Over the past 10 years, let alone 20 can you honestly say that Alton Towers has improved as a park? I just don't see any arguments for it, they've had a multitude of rides ripped out and what they do have has declined in quality, 2 clear examples being Duel and the Rapids. The park was 100% a more well rounded family experience back in the year 2000 vs today, and it's reflected in the punter numbers, they were pulling ~3m people through the gates and since the turn of the century they've been closer to 2m people vs 3m people. As a comparison, Efteling since the early 90s has added over 2m people to their attendance figures. How is this not an example of a park that's lost the plot?
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In that case you could argue that most theme parks in the UK have lost the plot over the past 10 years, BPB included.

We're drifting off topic here but the UK industry is sadly not at all comparable to the European industry these days. And that is why I much prefer visiting European parks to those in the UK.
 
venny said:
When we were there a couple weeks ago we experienced what potential customers are doing first hand.

A family of four left the ticket centre saying there’s no way they’re paying that much to get in, last time they’d come it was nearly half that price. They head off in disgust promising the kids who were in tears that they’d go on the rides on the pier…
Click to expand...

While I agree that turning up and finding out the price isn't good and it probably is overpriced as they think they can charge the same as AT.
HoweverI didn't realise quite how much the price has changed, checking on Wayback it was £25 to book online or £30 on the gate in 2012 for a wristband or £5 for entry only. This year it is £46 on the day or £37-44 to book online (depending on the date).
So although not double, it is now £16 more on the date, so a 50% increase from 10 years ago and as Rob says, no more entry only pass.
Alton Towers was £42 on the day or £31.50 in advance 10 years ago, now £65 on the day or £36-42 in advance depending on the date.

So both parks have increase and its AT who have jumped the on-the-day price more (but that is becuase of the vouchers), but its mainly BPB matching their online price to AT that has pushed their price up.

Groundking said:
Over the past 10 years, let alone 20 can you honestly say that Alton Towers has improved as a park? I just don't see any arguments for it, they've had a multitude of rides ripped out and what they do have has declined in quality, 2 clear examples being Duel and the Rapids. The park was 100% a more well rounded family experience back in the year 2000 vs today, and it's reflected in the punter numbers, they were pulling ~3m people through the gates and since the turn of the century they've been closer to 2m people vs 3m people. As a comparison, Efteling since the early 90s has added over 2m people to their attendance figures. How is this not an example of a park that's lost the plot?
Click to expand...

But Blackpool has also had a similar decline in quality too really.
 
jon81uk said:
While I agree that turning up and finding out the price isn't good and it probably is overpriced as they think they can charge the same as AT.
HoweverI didn't realise quite how much the price has changed, checking on Wayback it was £25 to book online or £30 on the gate in 2012 for a wristband or £5 for entry only. This year it is £46 on the day or £37-44 to book online (depending on the date).
So although not double, it is now £16 more on the date, so a 50% increase from 10 years ago and as Rob says, no more entry only pass.
Alton Towers was £42 on the day or £31.50 in advance 10 years ago, now £65 on the day or £36-42 in advance depending on the date.

So both parks have increase and its AT who have jumped the on-the-day price more (but that is becuase of the vouchers), but its mainly BPB matching their online price to AT that has pushed their price up.



But Blackpool has also had a similar decline in quality too really.
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And you could argue that Towers is more suitable for non-riders than BPB, as you have the gardens, towers and Sealife, plus walks.
 
Rob said:
In that case you could argue that most theme parks in the UK have lost the plot over the past 10 years, BPB included.

We're drifting off topic here but the UK industry is sadly not at all comparable to the European industry these days. And that is why I much prefer visiting European parks to those in the UK.
Click to expand...

Correct, the UK industry is in a bad place.
 
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