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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion
- Thread starter rob666
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Dipper_Dave
TS Member
No
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
Would be good to get a log flume back.
I wouldn't be surprised if its £20
Pay per ride making a comeback. What a novel idea
You are not the only one
Regarding the entry price, it is definitely a risky strategy. £44 is a lot of money . A family of 4 is easily going to off load £250 or more for a day out if you factor in food, travel and parking. They are in danger of having the park mainly filled with season pass holders.
If you can get 10+ major rides in then £44 does on the face of it look like reasonable value when you consider that the star flyer near the tower was £7 a go, and maybe thats how the pleasure beach are looking at it.
But perhaps people are happier to pay £7 a pop for a single ride than fork out nearly 50 quid for a full day on the park, so I don't think the value is as straight forward as dividing the entry cost by the number of rides.
On a busy day when you will be be stood in a queue for the majority of the time it makes £44 seem like pretty poor value, even if you do manage 10 rides.
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I would pay £45 for Pleasure Beach far sooner than I'd pay £30 for Towers.
Ignoring the fact I rate the ride selection higher, it's a better value proposition.
I already go to Blackpool several times a year, so what I'd pay for hotels, parking etc is a sunk cost for me (and of course where one can avoid the charge easily in Blackpool, not least by not using a car which is a viable option, the same cannot be said of Alton Towers).
To some extent lunch is too - I can't remember the last time I actually ate at Pleasure Beach, and Wetherspoons is a relatively cheap lunch while on holiday. In either case I could not eat on park - but in the case of the Pleasure Beach doing so is simple and a load of options are nearby; contrast to Towers where the only non-park option is to pack in advance, depark, pay extra or monorail there and back etc etc...
And that sort of is the problem with Alton Towers in a nutshell value wise - you're on their estate, it doesn't integrate in to a break away (other than a multi-day trip to Alton Towers), you are entirely in their ecosystem. In Blackpool, when you've had enough you walk out the gates, stroll up the prom and you have a plethora of options ranging from free (the beach) to basically any budget (in 2p increments!).
Perhaps I'm just rich and entitled, but £40-50 for most of a day's entertainment really doesn't feel like an extreme amount for a day out in 2022. Neither is cheap, but I'd prefer to be spending an amount which is sustainable for the park without them having to fill the place to an uncomfortable extent so my 2-3 visits per year (max) are pleasant.
Ignoring the fact I rate the ride selection higher, it's a better value proposition.
I already go to Blackpool several times a year, so what I'd pay for hotels, parking etc is a sunk cost for me (and of course where one can avoid the charge easily in Blackpool, not least by not using a car which is a viable option, the same cannot be said of Alton Towers).
To some extent lunch is too - I can't remember the last time I actually ate at Pleasure Beach, and Wetherspoons is a relatively cheap lunch while on holiday. In either case I could not eat on park - but in the case of the Pleasure Beach doing so is simple and a load of options are nearby; contrast to Towers where the only non-park option is to pack in advance, depark, pay extra or monorail there and back etc etc...
And that sort of is the problem with Alton Towers in a nutshell value wise - you're on their estate, it doesn't integrate in to a break away (other than a multi-day trip to Alton Towers), you are entirely in their ecosystem. In Blackpool, when you've had enough you walk out the gates, stroll up the prom and you have a plethora of options ranging from free (the beach) to basically any budget (in 2p increments!).
Perhaps I'm just rich and entitled, but £40-50 for most of a day's entertainment really doesn't feel like an extreme amount for a day out in 2022. Neither is cheap, but I'd prefer to be spending an amount which is sustainable for the park without them having to fill the place to an uncomfortable extent so my 2-3 visits per year (max) are pleasant.
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Until about 2019 (the only time I've ever bought a BPB season pass), I'd felt for a while that the price was starting to look strangely cheap - I'm pretty sure wristbands were £25 on the door in about 2004 and you could still get them for that price 15 years later providing you booked in advance.
A "correction" seemed inevitable, but they've gone much faster and further than I thought they would. It's rather a bitter pill to swallow for those of us used to paying £25 for the annual day trip, especially since on peak days you could now apparently end up queueing 2hrs for Icon, roughly 3 times the waits it attracted back in 2018.
A "correction" seemed inevitable, but they've gone much faster and further than I thought they would. It's rather a bitter pill to swallow for those of us used to paying £25 for the annual day trip, especially since on peak days you could now apparently end up queueing 2hrs for Icon, roughly 3 times the waits it attracted back in 2018.
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
It was £25 in the summer of 2019. Still got an email saying it was £25 for any day during the summer.
I think it was £24 in 2018.
So that is a massive price hike to £44, not to mention the main car park going from £10 at peak times to £18. And hotel car parking going from FREE, to £5, £10 and now £15 a night in the space of 3 years.
Also the basic speedy pass jumped from £15 to £25 in one season.
The only thing that hasn't sky rocketed in price during the last 3 years is the Season Pass, which was still avaiable for under £100 for early purchase in September last year.
Poisson
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Giant Squid
I think there's 2 separate questions to be asked.
Will you pay 44 quid for a day?
Will you pay 44 quid for a day in February with very limited hours and several big hitters unavailable?
Now on a normal day, something like £39 seems reasonable enough. £44 is breaking through the magic £40 mark and people don't like breaking such an invisible line.
Feb H/T however is taking the mickey. Considering it is a day where snow is possible still, it could be around 0 all day etc then several rides confirmed closed and full price, it really is a bit far.
Will you pay 44 quid for a day?
Will you pay 44 quid for a day in February with very limited hours and several big hitters unavailable?
Now on a normal day, something like £39 seems reasonable enough. £44 is breaking through the magic £40 mark and people don't like breaking such an invisible line.
Feb H/T however is taking the mickey. Considering it is a day where snow is possible still, it could be around 0 all day etc then several rides confirmed closed and full price, it really is a bit far.
Rick
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
I don't buy this, the value attributed to the invisible line has changed so many times. When Alton was £2.50 entry, was the 'magic' mark £40 then?
My threshold for what to pay for a pint used to be £2, then £2.50, then £3 and now I'm happy if I get change out of a fiver. Things move on.
I agree ride closures make things a bit stickier, but equally you can't always account for that. If Thorpe's pricing responded like that, plotted on a chart it'd look more fun than their coasters.
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
But when a day is overpriced it can actually make the day better value.
The winter weekends were around £40 last year with Valhalla and Nash shut and the park running short opening hours, but the park was so quiet that most rides were walk on and you could easily get 20+ rides in without any trouble if you wanted to.
I suspect after opening weekend it will be the same story up until easter.
It's the peak days that are poor value, when you are stood in queues all day.
Poisson
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Giant Squid
Why'd you think things are priced at £9.99 in the shops rather than a tenner? PB being £39.99 even rather than £44 makes it seem better in value. We know it isn't really massively different but if you aren't focussing entirely as we do on such a topic, it's all about appearance.
WRT the closed rides, the difference is these are announced, as are the short hours. If Towers opened full price at Feb H/T sans Smiler, Nemesis and Wicker Man with short hours, I'd be questioning it in the same way
WRT the closed rides, the difference is these are announced, as are the short hours. If Towers opened full price at Feb H/T sans Smiler, Nemesis and Wicker Man with short hours, I'd be questioning it in the same way
This time of year on the Beach has had a very long tradition of cheap, early season rides.
I can remember 20p, then 50p, cash rides before Easter, which were around half price, and popular, then heavily discounted early season ticket books, which became so popular the whole place was heaving.
So to suddenly go from that to forty quid plus, with three headline rides being shut with plenty of prior notice, and no cheap entry for non riders, is bang in line with the Beach's high standards of customer service.
If you don't like it, get stuffed, there is nowhere else open.
Staycation is very nearly over...god help 'em come May, the park will be dead midweek.
I can remember 20p, then 50p, cash rides before Easter, which were around half price, and popular, then heavily discounted early season ticket books, which became so popular the whole place was heaving.
So to suddenly go from that to forty quid plus, with three headline rides being shut with plenty of prior notice, and no cheap entry for non riders, is bang in line with the Beach's high standards of customer service.
If you don't like it, get stuffed, there is nowhere else open.
Staycation is very nearly over...god help 'em come May, the park will be dead midweek.
John_P
TS Member
Alton Towers were operating in October and November with a number of major rides closed (but nothing on their website saying as such) and they weren't discounting entry due to this.
I'm not sure if in this country due to the way the merlin parks have become addicted to 2 for 1 vouchers that we've lost all sense of what a day out at an amusement/theme park should actually be costing. Compared to visiting the top end parks across Europe.
I'm not sure if in this country due to the way the merlin parks have become addicted to 2 for 1 vouchers that we've lost all sense of what a day out at an amusement/theme park should actually be costing. Compared to visiting the top end parks across Europe.
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Could the cost of entry be getting affected by the current high rate of inflation and cost of living crisis, by any chance?
Things like power costs to operate the rides must surely be going up two-fold, so the park might be viewing the entry fee increase as a way to pay off those additional costs.
Things like power costs to operate the rides must surely be going up two-fold, so the park might be viewing the entry fee increase as a way to pay off those additional costs.
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
I think the cost of entry is more likely being affected by the failure of Icon, and the need to repay a very large loan.
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