Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

[Enter Valhalla]

As I keep saying, BPB haven’t operated free entry for nearly 20 years, and they’re still in business. There must be a reason for this. Obviously Amanda has been in charge for all this time but other senior managers have come and gone, presumably with new ideas, knowledge and experience of what works in the industry.

If pay per ride seriously works apparently so much better than the current system, it would have been trialled or implemented. The fact it hasn’t suggests that they perhaps know what they’re doing better than a few people on a forum. Just a thought.

 

[rob666]

Other senior managers, consultants and paid advisers have come and gone.
Their advice, in the strongest terms, has been ignored by the head of the organisation.
Allegedly.
Repeatedly.
...and recently.
Ed...
Free entry was crap, thugs, pickpockets and football hooligans making the place vastly overcrowded, together with large families who wouldn't spend a penny on the park.

 

[IDB]

I'm not an old BPB fan but I can speak anecdotally to counter this point. Not all families want to go and ride everything.

My mum and dad didn't take the two grandchildren to Pleasure Beach specifically because it was bad value for them. They needed two wristbands and two entry tickets (maybe paying for a couple of smaller things) but this wasn't an option, so they didn't go at all.

We visited Liseberg last Friday for their Halloween event. Guest Services told us there was 12,000 due that afternoon/evening and it was great to see the park busy with multi generations.

Plenty of families with the children riding and adults spending their money in the restaurants and bars which were all packed. And an old school wristband to get you on the rides, no scanning faff.

 

[Adam H]

Liseberg is a great park and we go there more often than BPB. What Liseberg are doing is working obviously because they seem to just be consistently investing and they can do no wrong. BPB on the other hand are quite clearly struggling, which means something needs to change. All of this noise isn't for no reason, even the most hardcore supporters are getting more negative.

 

[venny]

Just to point it out. Again.

Parks in affluent European cities attracting local custom are not analogous to Pleasure Beach which resides in a pretty deprived town reliant mainly on tourism.

 

[rob666]

Yesterday, for the first time ever on Halloween itself, I could have walked on the Ghost Train.
The queue when I walked past, three times, was less than ten people.
Have waited an hour or more on many occasions.

 

[shakey]

Had a few days off the forum so it's glad to see the old talking points back again.

I am not going to mention PPR/POP or who should run the park but a couple of things I picked up reading the last few pages of posts......

Food It's been mentioned a few times that food is better at pleasure beach. Have you been recently ? - It's crap. Really crap. Loki's chicken is about the only decent place to eat and they have inflated the prices in there by about 25% since the start of the season. Everywhere else ranges from poor to awful.

Everyone Paying £35+ No, not really. I am guessing that most off peak days the majority of punters will be season pass holders, and even on peak days there will be a fair percentage of season pass holders, and many of those won't spend a penny in the park.

I wish pleasure beach would just buy a tin of paint and draw some markings on the floor so we could all get excited

 

[Matt N]

Everyone Paying £35+ No, not really. I am guessing that most off peak days the majority of punters will be season pass holders, and even on peak days there will be a fair percentage of season pass holders, and many of those won't spend a penny in the park.

But even if this is the case, those season pass holders are still giving Pleasure Beach the cost of a season pass at some point in the season, which must make a difference (as you need to have a certain amount of visits per year to pay for an annual pass).

Whereas in the free entry days, you could quite easily have had millions and millions of people waltzing through paying the park absolutely nothing.

I also question how much Blackpool relies on season pass holders. Unlike somewhere like Alton Towers, Blackpool Pleasure Beach is located in a tourist town and probably has a pretty significant amount of its visitation come from holidaymakers, who aren’t likely to come more than once or twice a year.

 

[ScottishChris]

First off - I love the Pleasure Beach. It is my favourite park in the UK, and [for me] has the strongest ride line-up up there.

I went yesterday. I arrived at about 2pm and left at 3:30-ish. My visit included:

• Icon (Operating 2 trains). Wait time: 0 minutes – walk on
• The Big One (Operating 1 train). Wait time: 6 minutes
• Revolution. Wait time: 0 minutes – walk on
• Nick Streak. Wait time: 0 minutes – walk on
• Big Dipper. Wait time: 4 minutes
• Infusion. Wait time: 0 minutes – walk on
• Grand National. Wait time: 0 minutes – walk on

The place was dead. Staff were, understandably standing around looking miserable. Many of the catering places were closed, and it even looks like they can't give away their JTH merch.

This frustrates me massively, as at the same time Towers queues were:

• Galactica. Wait time: 75 minutes
• Rita. Wait time: 35 minutes
• Spinball Whizzer. Wait time: 70 minutes
• Thirteen. Wait time 70 minutes
• The Smiler. Wait time 80 minutes
• Wickerman. Wait time: 80 minutes

Walk-on's always seem like a good thing in theory - but they aren't. People will leave Towers thinking they have had better value, because for their £40 (or whatever) admission they have had a full day out. If you can complete a park in a couple of hours, does that seem good value for your admission? I actually passed a family arguing on their way out as I entered - it was about what they were going to do now. They must have spent £150+ for 3 or 4 hours on-park.

Someone needs to stand up and take accountability for Pleasure Beaches failures. They have a good hard product, so how come it is failing?

Halloween at the Pleasure Beach should be packed. The fact that the Illuminations bring thousands to the town, should be an easy way to get people in the park... but they aren't. Look at every other park - they follow the same model of up-charging for mazes along side general admission and it works. Even Drayton Manor seem to manage to sell their scare attractions out and have a busy park. Why does PB not follow the model everyone seems to want?

I actually posted something on Facebook regarding Pleasure Beach's marketing following Valhalla's Golden Ticket win. The engagement I got back was a message from a person in the marketing team pretty much chastising my opinion - this attitude speaks volumes. And my view was that if you win an award stating you have the worlds best something, you need to push this out everywhere and quickly... which they didn't!

Anyway, this turned into a rant. But it only done so because I really want PB to succeed and be better than what it is.

 

[Adam H]

Just to point it out. Again.

Parks in affluent European cities attracting local custom are not analogous to Pleasure Beach which resides in a pretty deprived town reliant mainly on tourism.

Quick search online and visitor numbers to Blackpool in 2021 was 19 million. And another story was writing about the boom in numbers the town is having since covid. Why is sentiment in regards to BPB becoming more negative and the visitor numbers are probably not scaling with Blackpool as a whole? I understand Blackpool isn't affluent, but you have to cater for your market and BPB seem to be missing the mark.

 

[MattyH]

BPB really should look at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach's entry system.

Three entry options

1) A wristband, valid for unlimited rides
2) A fun card, £5 to purchase but valid all season for free entry and PPR.
3) An annual pass, allowing unlimited visits and rides all year.

They have installed lots of barriers this year alongside a few security guys. This would be a great idea for BPB as they've already got 99% of the infrastructure to implement this system.

 

[ScottishChris]

BPB really should look at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach's entry system.

Three entry options

1) A wristband, valid for unlimited rides
2) A fun card, £5 to purchase but valid all season for free entry and PPR.
3) An annual pass, allowing unlimited visits and rides all year.

They have installed lots of barriers this year alongside a few security guys. This would be a great idea for BPB as they've already got 99% of the infrastructure to implement this system.

I honestly don't feel any other model than the one-entry-price system is right for the park. Their ride assets are of a high enough quality and standard where a £35-40 price ticket should be easily justifiable. From a business point of view fixed ticketing makes business sense as you can budget more appropriately too.

I feel that where Pleasure Beach fails massively is choosing what perception of themselves they want people to see and marketing it accordingly. If you were to do some market research and ask people what they think Pleasure Beach is, I know you would get some interesting answers. People often see it as 'funfair rides' or somewhere you would spend an hour-or-two - because that is what it was. I have taken friends to the PB over the last couple of years and they have been genuinely surprised by the standard, and the aesthetic of the park. Why are they not selecting the image they want people to have of the park and conveying this through marketing this out?

I feel that going back to a pay-per ride model is almost de-valuing the product. The product they should want to deliver is a great day out at the best amusement park in the country. Not a place to pop-in and ride a few rides.... like the piers are.

 

[rob666]

My friends yesterday said the park was looking very worn.
Our wait times were not walk on all day, Avalanche had a half hour queue late afternoon, the Dipper had a fifteen minute wait on a single train, we waited twenty minutes for the Big One, with back seats sandbagged...but they did agree it was good value overall for rides, most of the rest were walk on, though often then with a ten minute wait to fill up.
If pop is right for the park, how come it has been so dead at half term, and all summer?
Can't be the good option if the park is empty.
They didn't even open Coasters yesterday, the only busy bit for food was the overpass food stalls for about an hour at lunch.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

If you were to do some market research and ask people what they think Pleasure Beach is, I know you would get some interesting answers. People often see it as 'funfair rides' or somewhere you would spend an hour-or-two - because that is what it was. I have taken friends to the PB over the last couple of years and they have been genuinely surprised by the standard, and the aesthetic of the park.

I fall into this category. We went for the first time this year, both of us had preconceptions that the park was like any other end of pier attraction, with similar rickety rides (with The Big One being the only exception). I guess that's a southern bias for you though.

 

[Sharko]

I don't think it matters what entry system is used. Simple put, it is failing due to poor customer satisfaction. I'm positive that management don't listen to customer feedback...why?...Stubbornness. I'm sorry but this 'like it or lump it' attitude coming from park, does not make anyone want to go back. It's sad really because it seems as though parks like Towers and Thorpe actually take customers feedback into account. You don't have to agree with everything the customer says, but at least explain why you can't change something or make improvements. It's a total lack of communication. Poor 'arrogant' attitude to marketing. Unwillingness to invest in the areas that customers will appreciate. Hot Ice? Its an amusement park for god sake. Customer Customer Customer...start listening to your customers BPB.

 

[Alexsniff7]

I honestly don't feel any other model than the one-entry-price system is right for the park. Their ride assets are of a high enough quality and standard where a £35-40 price ticket should be easily justifiable. From a business point of view fixed ticketing makes business sense as you can budget more appropriately too.

I feel that where Pleasure Beach fails massively is choosing what perception of themselves they want people to see and marketing it accordingly. If you were to do some market research and ask people what they think Pleasure Beach is, I know you would get some interesting answers. People often see it as 'funfair rides' or somewhere you would spend an hour-or-two - because that is what it was. I have taken friends to the PB over the last couple of years and they have been genuinely surprised by the standard, and the aesthetic of the park. Why are they not selecting the image they want people to have of the park and conveying this through marketing this out?

I feel that going back to a pay-per ride model is almost de-valuing the product. The product they should want to deliver is a great day out at the best amusement park in the country. Not a place to pop-in and ride a few rides.... like the piers are.

that's the thing, I hate it when people class pleasure beach as a "little seaside funfair" because it's far from it now, "little seaside funfairs" don't have UK record holders (until 2024) Mack Rides double launch coasters, A world class water ride and a themed land based on a major American IP

those days have long passed it

 

[Enter Valhalla]

that's the thing, I hate it when people class pleasure beach as a "little seaside funfair" because it's far from it now, "little seaside funfairs" don't have UK record holders (until 2024) Mack Rides double launch coasters, A world class water ride and a themed land based on a major American IP

those days have long passed it

Exactly. And this is exactly why when people use the “BPB aren’t following the seaside parks business model”, I always feel that this is an unfair comparison.

 

[rob666]

A world class water ride (when the effects ever work), that was walk on when I strolled past it three times yesterday.
I would say it was getting a hundred punters an hour, if that.
It really isn't world class, it is a mediocre flume in a shed when the effects don't work...which is again most of the time.
The park needs more entry options, POP alone at the Beach is failing, without doubt.

 

[ScottishChris]

Simple put, it is failing due to poor customer satisfaction

I don't 100% agree with that. I feel that they are failing in getting people to come to the park. The vast majority of reviews (Trip Advisor) are very positive - generally on-par or better than Towers.

Where they are failing is marketing. It's incoherent, poorly targeted and not engaging. If you don't remind people how great you are, people won't come. This is something the Merlin attractions are exceptional at.

 

[ScottishChris]

I fall into this category. We went for the first time this year, both of us had preconceptions that the park was like any other end of pier attraction, with similar rickety rides (with The Big One being the only exception). I guess that's a southern bias for you though.

No, it's not southern bias - it's because BPB haven't done much to convey the fact that this isn't what they are. Heck, I had a site in blackpool, and despite being in the same town some of my staff had the same opinion as you. Only the Pleasure Beach can change the perception of the place, but they seem intent on not doing so.

Interestingly, Merlin almost take manipulating the perception of their parks too far. Jumanji is the perfect example - the disappointment I've heard from people expecting a large scale land... and it isn't.

Double post - whip me...