Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[AT86]

It was just an attempt a bit of free publicity in the local rags.

 

[rob666]

Made the nationals and uk wide breakfast tv.

 

[IDB]

I mean he performed near New York the day this supposedly happened but I guess most people wouldn't know.

Guess most people also wouldn't know he's got tattoo sleeves on both arms.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

wait that rollercoaster tester job was just a stunt?

The roller coaster tester job offer was widely reported about in the media, including the national press, and Andy Hygate even made an appearance on BBC Breakfast to talk about the job (and also of course about the park, mentioning it’s opening date for the season, the fact they have 10 coasters, etc) and lots of footage of the park was shown. Pretty good advert for it really.

https://youtu.be/Igdc8xkDTts

The job application mentioned that the winning applicant would need to be available to spend a day at Pleasure Beach in the week beginning March 13th however that day came and went and no winner was announced. In fact Pleasure Beach have never referred to the job again after that initial round of publicity. You’d think that if someone really had won the job then the park would have mentioned it on their socials, or done some follow up publicity but there’s been nothing, and as far as I’m aware nobody has ever claimed to have been the winning applicant*. Seems like it was just a thing the park did they did to get themselves talked about in the media and it definitely worked. There were a couple of users here I believe that genuinely applied in earnest thinking it was a real job.

* Apart from [mention]rob666 [/mention] that is.

 

[b2311e]

BPB are currently advertising a £99 'Autumn 2023 Season pass'

AUTUMN 2023 SEASON PASS

An Autumn Season Pass entitles you to an eTicket for every day between 1st October to 26th November! Subject to park opening times.

Enjoy all the fun of our white knuckle and family rides including the 12 amazing rides in Nickelodeon Land.



Included in your Season Pass – Journey To Hell 2023:

Endure all of Journey To Hell and brave the scare zones as many times as you dare with your autumn 2023 season pass. Journey to Hell is reserved for guests aged 10 years or older. An adult must accompany under 16’s. There must be no more than a 6:1 under 16 to adult ratio. Please note, Journey To Hell is a scare zone live actor and action based experience which will include rides as part of Journey To Hell.

Online price: £99.99*
Includes an eTicket for every operational date between 1st October and 26th November 2023. Park visits can be booked using the BPB eGuide APP.
Journey to Hell admission can be reserved for any date the event is on and can be booked suing the season pass portal: https://today.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/season-pass

Season Passes - Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blackpool Pleasure Beach now offers a choice of season passes. more to be announced soon… Autumn 2023 Season Pass An Autumn Season Pass entitles you to an eTicket for every day between 1st October to 26th November! Subject to park opening times. Enjoy all the fun of our white knuckle and family...

www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com

 

[Tom]

Stingy not to include September as well.

 

[Alexsniff7]

if it had included september i would have been tempted but i am not now

 

[Katy]

25 days in October and 4 weekends in November, not quite "every day between 1st October and 26th November". It does include unlimited Journey to Hell (think that's about £40 a go usually) although how well would that work really - how many people would want to do it repeatedly, and it's limited availability so unless it had loads of unsold slots last year it'd be fully booked rather quickly.

They've also mentioned something about a "range of season passes" coming which could mean this, plus the full season pass, Hot Ice season pass, and maybe the diamond pass ("walk-round" season pass) if they bring that back. Or it could mean tiered passes with exclusion dates like the Merlin system.

Glad I actually read it through before clicking on this one though, when I got the email I first thought it was renewals for next year's season pass.

 

[John_P]

I do wonder with this sudden autumn pass if the pass renewal sale which usually starts early September might be pushed back a bit this year.

 

[venny]

I’m not sure I see many people buying this. There can’t be many people who want to visit more than once across those two months who aren’t already season pass holders.

 

[WillPS]

I’m not sure I see many people buying this. There can’t be many people who want to visit more than once across those two months who aren’t already season pass holders.

I think it's really intended to be a 'half term pass', just not limited to any one particular half term and with the rest of October and November weekends bolted on.

As always with Pleasure Beach, the marketing effort isn't brilliant; referring to it as a Season Pass (and pricing it the same as actual Season Passes sometimes are) just makes them seem stingy, but I can imagine for a family with older children holidaying in Blackpool it could be a no brainer for the kids.

 

[pjanvil]

It comes back to why don't pleasure beach do Annual passes over season passes? Then it doesn't matter when you buy it you get the same value. With a season pass its less worth it the longer you leave it.

 

[WillPS]

It comes back to why don't pleasure beach do Annual passes over season passes? Then it doesn't matter when you buy it you get the same value. With a season pass its less worth it the longer you leave it.

There's issues with it for the business though - like accounting; effectively each annual pass sale incurs a debt over a financial year. Not insurmountable but worth consideration. It also blocks the path to making changes to ticket issuance between seasons without requiring a migration process or manual steps for existing card holders (Tussauds/Merlin pass holders in the year after the Merlin takeover will remember this caused a faff back then - and possibly more recently Drayton Manor too?).

I agree that'd be more flexible - another option would be just to throw in October for free with a purchase of next season's pass, a lot of parks used to do this before they moved to Annual Passes (and before halloween events became the money spinners they now are).

The problem is October half term(s) tend to be the busiest weeks of the year in Blackpool, so it doesn't really make sense to "give away" access in that period.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

The hot ice show must be dead on an evening as I been send a email for 2 for 1 tickets. Like if they can’t even fill it when it’s free then there must be next to no one paying to watch it.

 

[WillPS]

The hot ice show must be dead on an evening as I been send a email for 2 for 1 tickets. Like if they can’t even fill it when it’s free then there must be next to no one paying to watch it.

I'm sure @rob666 has a note on file somewhere with recent attendence figures. If it's anything like previous years then it's safe to say that there will be a massive amount of seats available.

 

[Poisson]

Bank Holiday Saturday evening:



Bank Holiday Monday evening, no Sunday show:



It doesn't look good does it?

 

[rob666]

Looks pretty typical from last year.
I have deliberately avoided the queuetimes and ice show booking figures this year, I have been having far too much fun watching lawns dry.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

It should be buy 1 get 10 free just to fill the place.

 

[Tom]

No reason to wish it away. The Ice Parades (bring the name back!) are an institution as far as I'm concerned, even though I don't think I've been.

 

[Katy]

I think the thing that doesn't help is it runs 6 days a week for 2 months. If it was a more limited run then it'd likely be busier on each performance.