Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2024 Discussion

[Dipper_Dave]

I find it interesting and kinda amusing how some Blackpool Pleasure Beach fans like yourself think you have a better idea of how to run the park than the actual park management

I think he most likely does to be fair

 

[lee2804]

Im afraid BPB is on its way out 2 good rides in icon and valhalla 3 of the worse rides ive ever ridden. National, dipper, infusion. Numerous rides shut with no prospect of any new ones opening anytime soon.

They have sky high maintenance costs and high on the gate prices. With the amount of ppl in blackpool at weekends it should be busier than it is.

I give it 5yrs tops and itll be shut.

 

[shakey]

Im afraid BPB is on its way out 2 good rides in icon and valhalla 3 of the worse rides ive ever ridden. National, dipper, infusion. Numerous rides shut with no prospect of any new ones opening anytime soon.

I don't think PB having 3 of your least favourite rides is in any way indicative of the park failing. There are many reasons it's failing but that isn't one of them.

I am no fan of the Nash , but there's at least three coasters at towers I like less.

I find it interesting and kinda amusing how some Blackpool Pleasure Beach fans like yourself think you have a better idea of how to run the park than the actual park management

I think @rob666 would probably make a right pigs ear of running the place. But at this point I am willing to let him have a crack at it.

The current owner couldn't run a piss up in a brewery. They have no business acumen whatsoever, other than being lucky enough to be the 4th generation of the original owner.

Rob does actually run his own business and it wasn't passed on to him by his daddy. I am pretty sure he fully understands the concept of customer satisfaction, which is at least one thing the current owner of PB could do with learning.





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[rob666]

I find it interesting and kinda amusing how some Blackpool Pleasure Beach fans like yourself think you have a better idea of how to run the park than the actual park management

To respond, after others have kindly reponded on my behalf...(I went to bed at eight, I'm a gardener).
I have run my own business, successfully, for fifteen years.
I could have easily doubled my customer base, every year, for the last ten years... by people coming to me, not me seeking out them...at a very good hourly rate.
This year alone, I have turned down about fifty new customers, so on a repeat basis, I have turned down ten thousand pounds of new trade expansion, this year alone.
Mandy hasn't had any expansion in trade since the false market of covid.

As I have said at least a hundred times in this topic...management is not the issue here, they have had some excellent managers who were frustrated with a park owner who would not take lengthy, requested paid advice from consultants brought in by the lady herself.

I have no idea of how to run any form of funfair (that's what it is), but if I paid a lot of money to experienced consultants, I wouldn't be so stupid as to ignore their advice after paying for it.

I have been doing the Beach, every year, often multiple times, for fifty odd years.
I have seen the slow fall over the last twenty years, and management leaving every few years out of frustration with the lack of development.
So I have knowledge and lengthy experience of how the park is being run into the ground, we have seen it at Camelot, Frontierland, Granada Studios and Belle Vue.

The park is in a nosedive...read shakeys post from the other days visit.
Is that level of operations acceptable to you...getting on for half the major rides closed?

And reading the posts following yours quoted above, a large number of people on here seem to be in agreement with me.
Could you give us some examples of how the park are doing really well, as most of us seem to think that regress, not progress is happening on the Beach.

 

[rob666]

I too find it amusing that a member who can't even keep track of his own house keys does have a better idea of how to run the park.

At the very least, the gardens would be top notch

House key sir, singular.
If it was a bunch I would have felt/heard them.
Probably dropped out of my pocket when pulling poop bags out of my pocket, a single key dropping onto a lawn goes down quietly.
But hey, I do it all the bloody time.

The talk of overgrown hedges in the maze does make me twitch badly though.

 

[Relife]

I think we have forgot that there is further competition even in Blackpool that's coming in the form of indoor leisure offerings in the next few years

Pleasurebeech need to recognise they are not the only party in town, being competitive is part of business. If you have had nothing new to offer in seven years what is the motivation to visit?

 

[rob666]

Pleasure BEACH have indoor competition coming?
Have you read the plans?
Small indoor family entertainment centre.
Hardly competition, and I don't think they actually have a commercial developer in hand yet have they, all just unfunded plans in the air...only the car park has been built so far.
They have never been the only party in town, back in the sixties and seventies, there were two other fairs, one on the central station site, and another, larger, indoor fair, roughly where the Sealife is now.
The piers have had large numbers of rides for decades too.

 

[Bowser]

Er yeah they do. Otherwise they wouldn't be in charge. They might not run the park the way you and other enthuasists and fans wish they would but it is what it is

Are customers satisfied?

Is the park profitable?

If the answer to both is consistently no then you’re probably not very good at your job.

Edit: Sorry page hadn’t updated, I think this has been covered extensively.

 

[rob666]

...and the piers are doing a roaring trade mopping up all the old casual visitors who don't want a forty quid or nothing option.
There is no Beach monopoly in Blackpool.
Never was.

 

[Benjsh]

Personally don't think having so many fair ground rides a short walking distance to the park is particularly good business sense by Blackpool council. It's essentially taking business away from one of your main attractions in town.

I am quite biased though with this view as I hate fair ground rides more than most folk so I would say that. You'd not catch me on there really as I think they are incredibly dirty and chavy places even for Blackpool. Ha!

In an ideal world the PB would go back to being PPR with a wristband as an additional option for those who want it and they removed all that tacky crap on the pier.

Never going to happen though is it?

 

[rob666]

PPR fine, just don't bring back free entry.
Pickpockets, prostitutes, fraud operators, counterfeit ticket sales, and football hooligans, together with massive crowds, half of the mob determined to spend absolutely nothing in the park.
Keep it paid entry and gated please,

Not that I know anything about running a business though.

 

[Coaster]

I find it interesting and kinda amusing how some Blackpool Pleasure Beach fans like yourself think you have a better idea of how to run the park than the actual park management

So why are there SBNO rides, 5pm closes on Saturdays, opening at weekends to just a few hundred guests, if the park know what they're doing?

 

[Bowser]

PPR fine, just don't bring back free entry.
Pickpockets, prostitutes, fraud operators, counterfeit ticket sales, and football hooligans, together with massive crowds, half of the mob determined to spend absolutely nothing in the park.
Keep it paid entry and gated please,

Not that I know anything about running a business though.

I know it's purely nostalgia but the chaotic nature of BPB from my childhood is somewhat endearing. Had more of a party atmosphere.

Bit like going to Glastonbury now versus mid 90s, it's objectively "better" but it's not quite the same.

Nice not to get robbed though.

 

[John_P]

Even as a kid I noticed how much more grotty the hotels seemed to get as you moved away from the tower towards Pleasure Beach. So god knows what I didn't notice and my parents were ushering me away from on those trips.

Since 2000 the best decision the park has made was building the two hotels. And building quality high end ones at that, really seperating them from the cheap and cheerful options that the majority of Blackpools hotels are. Doing great breakfasts and cracking evening meals as well. So perfect for people visiting the park who have a bit more cash to spend (though last time I stayed it was cheaper than the travelodge) or attracting people visiting for conferences, filming strictly etc.

 

[BSwiss]

Nice not to get robbed though.

It’s gone bloody woke.

 

[shakey]

Opening times cut again.

No 7pm closes at all now. The designated Twilight Thrills and fireworks days are still 9pm and 10pm, but other than that it's 6:30pm at the latest with quite a few 6pm closes in August !! - So that's 5pm in Nickland in the middle of the summer holidays !!

 

[Alastair]

Good lord, this thread is in worse condition than the Bowl-A-Drome. As much as I've chuckled whilst reading it, could we please keep things family-friendly? I've removed a number of posts that haven't really added anything to the discussion.

There's absolutely no need for petty back and forth - don't rise to it! Thanks in advance.

 

[Bowser]

Opening times cut again.

No 7pm closes at all now. The designated Twilight Thrills and fireworks days are still 9pm and 10pm, but other than that it's 6:30pm at the latest with quite a few 6pm closes in August !! - So that's 5pm in Nickland in the middle of the summer holidays !!

In fairness Legoland is 6pm in the summer too (currently advertised as 5pm but expect that to change), Chessington is 6pm with a handful of 7pm days, AT is 6pm all summer, TP is the latest Merlin park with 7pm in the summer, Paultons 530pm all summer and Drayton 5pm except weekends.

Another win for Adventure Island and Fantasy Island with between 8pm and 10pm, yes 10pm closing times all summer

And there, ladies and gentleman, is the benefit of pay per ride systems.

Again with the nostalgia but wandering around BPB in the dark as a young child was magical, such a vibe so shame to see it's essentially non-existent now.

 

[shakey]

In fairness Legoland is 6pm in the summer too (currently advertised as 5pm but expect that to change), Chessington is 6pm with a handful of 7pm days, AT is 6pm all summer, TP is the latest Merlin park with 7pm in the summer, Paultons 530pm all summer and Drayton 5pm except weekends.

Another win for Adventure Island and Fantasy Island with between 8pm and 10pm, yes 10pm closing times all summer

And there, ladies and gentleman, is the benefit of pay per ride systems.

Again with the nostalgia but wandering around BPB in the dark as a young child was magical, such a vibe so shame to see it's essentially non-existent now.

You can't compare it to inland parks though, although PB's owner clearly thinks they are an inland park.

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[MAC]

on a different topic, how come big one often has a big queue yet runs with back train sandbagged? I assumed it was weather related but even happens on the nicest of days