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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2024 Discussion

Ares said:
If anyone doesn't mind a change of subject, I wanted to ask; If the park were to be sold, who would you want it sold to? I.e Merlin, Six Flags / Cedar Point, a private investment company etc.

I'm curious what people think could happen should the Thompsons ever sell the park. Thanks!
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The Mack Family for sure, but I’d love in theory to see what ideas Andreas Anderson of Liseberg would have for Pleasure Beach.

I definitely wouldn’t want to see Merlin owning it, the park needs to be in strong healthy competition with Merlin, not part of it.
 
Mellors Group. They know how to run a seaside amusement park, have access to a lot of rides and can refresh the ride line up on a regular basis.

But the park will not be changing owners. There is almost zero chance of that happening.

I also don't think anyone would want it because it is an absolute money pit.
 
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Shaggy_Dog_ said:
The Mack Family for sure, but I’d love in theory to see what ideas Andreas Anderson of Liseberg would have for Pleasure Beach.

I definitely wouldn’t want to see Merlin owning it, the park needs to be in strong healthy competition with Merlin, not part of it.
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Liseberg is owned by the city afaik but yes I don't disagree with your point about Andreas
 
People have always typically been very against the idea of Merlin running the park, which in the past I’ve always agreed with.

But to be honest, things have got so bad at BPB now that I honestly wouldn’t mind it. I think Merlin would, without doubt, be doing a better job of running the park than the current owners.

Yes, I appreciate the need for diversity of theme park operators in the UK, and in an ideal world, another company would be running BPB in competition to Merlin. But this isn’t an ideal world, and the current situation at BPB is a million miles away from ideal. In fact, let’s be honest, over the past few years, BPB has been pretty awful. We want the park to succeed, and Merlin would invest more and manage operations better than what we’ve currently got.

So would Merlin really be such a bad thing, compared to what we’ve got now?
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Merlin would invest more and manage operations better than what we’ve currently got.

So would Merlin really be such a bad thing, compared to what we’ve got now?
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Would they manage ops better, though? You only have to look at the state of the ride availability at Towers to think... do we really want the same at BPB? Besides the opening day mess, and excluding rides closed for maintenance at both parks, ride availability feels much better to me at BPB than Towers currently, at least on all the trips I've made this season.

There's no denying it needs a huge cash injection and better management overall, not quite sure Merlin is best placed to do that.
 
Ares said:
If anyone doesn't mind a change of subject, I wanted to ask; If the park were to be sold, who would you want it sold to? I.e Merlin, Six Flags / Cedar Point, a private investment company etc.

I'm curious what people think could happen should the Thompsons ever sell the park. Thanks!
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It’s hardly a ‘change of subject’ as (in case you didn’t already know) some people seem hellbent on returning to this topic over and over. It’s a family business and will surely remain so until whoever is in charge at any given point abdicates / decides they CBA anymore. I can’t see it leaving the clutches of the Thompson family anytime soon.
 
shakey said:
Mellors Group. They know how to run a seaside amusement park, have access to a lot of rides and can refresh the ride line up on a regular basis.

But the park will not be changing owners. There is almost zero chance of that happening.

I also don't think anyone would want it because it is an absolute money pit.
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I’d agree that Mellors know how to run a seaside amusement park well but I don’t think that they would be a good choice for Pleasure Beach as that needs someone a little more visionary that can really unlock its potential. The Mellors have added a few interesting rides to Fantasy Island (such as Harrington Flint) but I don’t see them adding any real headline rides to their park and that’s what Pleasure Beach needs, someone who can bring in some special rides and rejuvenate it rather than just keep it ticking along and adding profitably.

If you look at how European amusement parks such Grona Lund adding a B&M invert in Monster or how Prater are adding a Mack Big Dipper in Wiener Looping (which construction has actually started on now after it appeared to be cancelled) and how Liseberg added Valkyria and Loke it shows how those parks are wanting grow and add real quality attractions. Whereas the Mellors I feel aren’t really ones to do that at Blackpool. I could see them adding a crazy golf and bowling alley in to the park and sticking in a few flats from the funfair circuit and whilst they might be nice additions I think the park could be so much more than that. We need someone that can bring the magic back to Pleasure Beach.
 
Dipper_Dave said:
It’s hardly a ‘change of subject’ as (in case you didn’t already know) some people seem hellbent on returning to this topic over and over.
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Dave, there are only a limited number of subjects available.

a) Who would run the park better ?
b) New ride rumours
c) Why did they demolish the wild mouse ?
d) Is hot ice a waste of money ?
e) Availability, capacity and the state of rides
f) Park hours, entry policy and prices
g) Catering
h) PPR v POP
i) Is Amanda bonkers ?

Rinse and repeat

Pick the next one to discuss :)
 
shakey said:
Dave, there are only a limited number of subjects available.

a) Who would run the park better ?
b) New ride rumours
c) Why did they demolish the wild mouse ?
d) Is hot ice a waste of money ?
e) Availability, capacity and the state of rides
f) Park hours, entry policy and prices
g) Catering
g) PPR v POP
h) Is Amanda bonkers ?

Rinse and repeat

Pick the next one to discuss :)
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i) Why do we have to scan our phone at each ride?
 
Katy said:
Would they manage ops better, though? You only have to look at the state of the ride availability at Towers to think... do we really want the same at BPB? Besides the opening day mess, and excluding rides closed for maintenance at both parks, ride availability feels much better to me at BPB than Towers currently, at least on all the trips I've made this season.

There's no denying it needs a huge cash injection and better management overall, not quite sure Merlin is best placed to do that.
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I’d be interested to compare the downtime statistics of BPB against the Merlin parks. I’d include the ridiculous staggered openings and early closures as downtime too. Whilst I agree that Alton’s downtime hasn’t been great lately, overall I’d agree that Merlin’s operations are far better than what we’re currently seeing at BPB.

Downtime aside, this statement includes the following:

- Capacity: Two trains or more on all coasters when busy is standard at Merlin and this has got even better in recent years. BPB are terrible for running coasters on a single train. Merlin nearly always run rides at full capacity when it’s busy, and often when it’s quiet too. BPB are, to put it mildly, inconsistent in this area.

- Staggered openings: BPB have been dreadful for this over the past 10 years. Whilst Merlin parks do dabble in some from of staggered openings, it never tends to stay in place for more than a few months and is far less impactful than at BPB. The fact that virtually the whole park opens at 10:30 on a 10am opening is pitiful.


- Opening hours: Ok, forget Alton. Their opening hours are awful. But look at Thorpe Park, Chessington and LLW. Their standard off peak hours are 10-5, and 6pm closes apply in the weekends and school holidays, yet BPB seem to close painfully early these days, and keep adding early closures of Nick Land, something which Merlin rarely do at their parks.

- Merlin don’t make you scan your phone at every ride.

- Access to Merlin parks to/ from their hotels is far better than the weird system that BPB have.

- Merlin have better apps and keep on top of updating their queues times far better than BPB.

So yeah, overall, Merlin do in my opinion have better operations than BPB.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Merlin cheerleader by any means. I always used to be dead against them taking over BPB. But things have just got so bad at BPB that I think Merlin would do a far better job of running the place than what we’re currently seeing.
 
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