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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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Tenner for early rides in 2005, roughly £16 at current prices.
50p rides last ran around the millennium, less than a pound at today's prices.
So the Beach has roughly the same rides open as back then, due to the current closures, but are charging nearly three times as much.
Plain stupid.

If it was charging twenty quid, they would more than double the visitor numbers, and they would make a bomb on food, drink and tat.
Edit...sorry double post...was responding to the £44 cost.
Whip me again.
 
Poisson said:
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.
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I can half get on board with that, but we're doing so without any understanding of how well the pricing is going down. A few folk complaining about it on here is not indicative of very much.

How much closer to £50 does the £44 have to go to before you think "I'm glad it's not £50" - that day can't be all that far off with inflation being what it is. Interestingly, the minimum wage is rising from £8.91 to £9.50 from April, that's a 6.6% increase.

In other news, this Mack is coming to China this year. To think this & Helix come from the same 'platform' as ICON really makes you wonder what Pleasure Beach were doing with that thing.

 
Rick said:
In other news, this Mack is coming to China this year. To think this & Helix come from the same 'platform' as ICON really makes you wonder what Pleasure Beach were doing with that thing.

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With regard to Hurricane; I believe Mack hired a new layout designer after Icon was built, and their influence is why their recent rides like Ride to Happiness and Hurricane are producing so much more hype and seemingly being more highly rated (their first ride only opened in 2020 or 2021, I think; this is a fairly new development). This new layout designer is believed to be behind Exodus at Thorpe Park, as some of the elements shown on that were said to be ideas they had previously talked about wanting to do.

Even excluding that, though, I think Blackpool were possibly seeking something a bit different from Helix et al out of Icon based on interviews with the Thompsons and the like. As well as Helix, Amanda and Nick also cited Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa (often touted as a “family thrill ride”) as their main big source of inspiration, so maybe they were seeking more of a starter thrill coaster than something really extreme like Helix?
 
Icon was always planned as a whole family thrill ride, which it is.
That caused problems for the thrill seeking geeks, and because it isn't a super thrill ride, it never caught the spark of interest with the public generally.
A nice, smooth flop.
 
I don't buy the 'family thrill coaster' reasoning for Icon being underwhelming.

Taron is also a family thrill coaster, potentially even more accessible to families than Icon due to it not having inversions. It's fast-paced, frantic and throws you around like a roller coaster should do.

Icon is just poor IMO, the pacing is woefully bad, there are a few good moments outweighed by slow meandering, and the finale of the ride is so slow, uneventful and dull.
 
Matt N said:
With regard to Hurricane; I believe Mack hired a new layout designer after Icon was built
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Maybe they sacked the old designer after they realised what had happened with Icon !!

Do we think we will see any new rides of any description in 2023 ?
 
shakey said:
Maybe they sacked the old designer after they realised what had happened with Icon !!

Do we think we will see any new rides of any description in 2023 ?
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I’m not sure whether it was directly related to Icon or not, but this new designer did join not too long after it opened, and the company’s ride layouts appear to have taken a drastically different approach since.

In terms of whether BPB will see any new rides in 2023; I think that’s anyone’s guess, really. I’m inclined to believe that it might be a quieter year after the high CAPEX spend on Valhalla’s refurbishment in 2022, but anything could happen, really!
 
Wicker Man was a much better success in the same market for technically an inferior coaster. Difference was it was marketed well.

New for 2023? I'm not sure. I'm a bit worried Icon was their boom or bust moment and they fluffed it. I hope not. With them throwing money at Valhalla I'm slightly hopeful things aren't too bad in Mandy's coffers. PMBO was always going to get the money thrown at it, Valhalla is less iconic.
 
With Icon you had the inevitable anticipation of the park finally building a new bespoke coaster for the first time since the big one. Mack was an expensive choice, obviously we had the family connection which would've certainly been a plus, plus who knows what other potential deals this potentially will be a precursor to (possibly scrapped now).
Plus Helix being an top enthusiast coaster probably didn't help.

Maybe if the park had plumped for a new Vekoma, this would've been cheaper, but also would've lessened anticipation. Well until Lech and Formula opened up in Poland.

However the main issue was the constraints of the site the park chose to build in and decisions they'd have to make regards to the layout and and elements, I believe from the q and a I attended other manufacturers advised any coaster they'd be able to make would involve the removal of Steeplechase.

Maybe in winter 2015 the park should've flattened the bowl-a-drome/planet rock and built a new coaster on that space and the car park. Thus giving them a nicely sized area they could do anything they wanted with.
 
Icon just needed a single memorable moment in the ride. One giant top hat or something the GP would look at in awe and amazement.

What it does it does fairly well but it's just not a WOW coaster. I like it and it's easily the best coaster at the park but every time I come off it I think Good coaster but could have been so great if only they had pushed the boundaries a bit more.

The new Thorpe Coaster looks really short and fairly bland but it's got a huge USP and thus will probably be a huge hit for the park unlike Icon was.
 
I was looking at going to Blackpool for the weekend of my birthday in March as not been for 12 years when the wow tickets were £15 each I can’t believe I got to pay £39 each for me and the misses.
 
Benjsh said:
Icon just needed a single memorable moment in the ride. One giant top hat or something the GP would look at in awe and amazement.

What it does it does fairly well but it's just not a WOW coaster. I like it and it's easily the best coaster at the park but every time I come off it I think Good coaster but could have been so great if only they had pushed the boundaries a bit more.

The new Thorpe Coaster looks really short and fairly bland but it's got a huge USP and thus will probably be a huge hit for the park unlike Icon was.
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It's the best coaster in the park because it's the only one that doesn't try to turn you into a milkshake. :p
 
I think they should look at what towers did last year and bring in some old fashined fairground rides, they are a cheap stop gap until the park can afford something better.

Its something the pleasure beach did regularly in the past but Amanda seems to have wanted to move away from the funfair image. I think it's time for a rethink while the coffers are low.

Plenty of room near the fountains and it will bring some atmosphere back to that part of the park.
 
New promotional picture. Still no re-opening date, "summer 2022" is the official line at the moment.

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Can't wait to get back on it. It's been a huge loss to the park really with it closed.

I hope the new version retains the atmosphere of the original but I definitely agree that it needs to tone down the wetness factor as it puts people off riding who don't want to get utterly drenched.
 
Building upon the thread from earlier, but linking in more generally with Pleasure Beach itself to keep things on-topic; I had a look at Blackpool Promenade on Google Street View, and I must ask; did Pleasure Beach used to have a lot more operating park entrances than it does now, as there are a fair few metal arches that bear a striking resemblance to the current park entrance along the length of the Pleasure Beach when walking along the promenade? I assumed they were something to do with BPB, anyway, as some of them were marked "Pleasure Beach"... confusingly, though, others were marked "Ocean Boulevard".

I remember noticing this when I was last in Blackpool, come to think of it...
 
Yes. Prior to the new Ticket Centre opening in the Casino Building, there were entrances littered around the park. From the Bowl-O-Drome, Arena (sometimes still open) by the Star Pub etc.

Those entrances reduced when the security scanners were implemented and then the South entrance closed to day guests to just leave Noah’s Ark and the Arena intermittently.
 
venny said:
Yes. Prior to the new Ticket Centre opening in the Casino Building, there were entrances littered around the park. From the Bowl-O-Drome, Arena (sometimes still open) by the Star Pub etc.

Those entrances reduced when the security scanners were implemented and then the South entrance closed to day guests to just leave Noah’s Ark and the Arena intermittently.
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Is there an entrance at the arena, then? If so, where is it?

I only ask because that may explain why Apple Maps was often directing me into the middle of the park when I was searching for a walking route from BPB train station earlier...
 
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