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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2024 Discussion
- Thread starter Quantum
- Start date
Why does Icon usually run on 2 trains then, with zero queue and sometimes sending trains half empty? If it was to upsell speedy passes surely they would want to do it on icon
Simply because the Big One is still far more popular than Icon?
The vast majority of their casual customers (who have sometimes been known as the general public) do not even know of Icons existence.
Icon, apparently, was never designed to run on one train...that was from the original senior ride supervisor who was lucky enough to spent a few weeks at Europa
for practice...he said it would always run on at least two trains.
Like all the very good supervising staff, he was gone after another season.
The vast majority of their casual customers (who have sometimes been known as the general public) do not even know of Icons existence.
Icon, apparently, was never designed to run on one train...that was from the original senior ride supervisor who was lucky enough to spent a few weeks at Europa
for practice...he said it would always run on at least two trains.
Like all the very good supervising staff, he was gone after another season.
venny
TS Member
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.
This really is an indictment of where the park currently is.
Closing times seem to get earlier every season, but can you imagine closing at 6:30pm in the summer of the 2000s? They’d be throwing out thousands of customers and forfeiting massive revenue.
I’m guessing nowadays it’s 30 people and only 2 of them aren’t seasonpass holders who “support the park” but go to Wetherspoons for lunch.
I remember the joys of the mad illumination weekends in the seventies and eighties, when the Beach used to get rather lively when the pubs kicked out, (which was 3pm to 5:30pm if I remember rightly) and on sunny September weekends, with pay per ride of course, the park was often open well past midnight.
Individual rides would shut earlier, but I have ridden the National more than once after midnight.
Individual rides would shut earlier, but I have ridden the National more than once after midnight.
Bowser
TS Member
There's a joke about the aforementioned sex worker to be made here but i'm going to rise above it.
A few thoughts from a visit this week, the first for quite some time:-
1. Big One is now unrideable on the wheel seats in my opinion. Non wheel seat was just about bearable. For some reason it’s rougher on the sections that have been retracked. Running a 3/4 train service which meant a reasonable queue built up. Would new trains help, or is it all due to the track?
2. Icon was running really well. It’s still really smooth and imo a top class coaster that’s underrated by a lot of people. 2 train service all day, very low queues.
3. Big Dipper was running surprisingly well, not too rough
4. Grand National extremely rough. This has definitely had it’s day. Didn‘t seem very popular
5. Rollercoaster - same as National, way too rough. I don’t see what this adds to the park.
6. Infusion - same as the woodies, it’s had it’s day. Not an enjoyable ride in any way. Water effects not working, water half empty. Somebody got trapped in seat as restraint wouldn’t open, sounded like this was a common occurrence.
8. Revolution - still a great ride, really forceful.
9. Valhalla - about half effects working. Great ride but you get far too wet. This stops it being re-rideable. The overhaul was a great opportunity to change this.
10. Ice Blast - this will never open again, looks derelict
11. Park looks very run down. Ride exits, even for Icon, are in a poor state. So much TLC required, it’d be difficult to know where to start
1. Big One is now unrideable on the wheel seats in my opinion. Non wheel seat was just about bearable. For some reason it’s rougher on the sections that have been retracked. Running a 3/4 train service which meant a reasonable queue built up. Would new trains help, or is it all due to the track?
2. Icon was running really well. It’s still really smooth and imo a top class coaster that’s underrated by a lot of people. 2 train service all day, very low queues.
3. Big Dipper was running surprisingly well, not too rough
4. Grand National extremely rough. This has definitely had it’s day. Didn‘t seem very popular
5. Rollercoaster - same as National, way too rough. I don’t see what this adds to the park.
6. Infusion - same as the woodies, it’s had it’s day. Not an enjoyable ride in any way. Water effects not working, water half empty. Somebody got trapped in seat as restraint wouldn’t open, sounded like this was a common occurrence.
8. Revolution - still a great ride, really forceful.
9. Valhalla - about half effects working. Great ride but you get far too wet. This stops it being re-rideable. The overhaul was a great opportunity to change this.
10. Ice Blast - this will never open again, looks derelict
11. Park looks very run down. Ride exits, even for Icon, are in a poor state. So much TLC required, it’d be difficult to know where to start
- Last year the entire of the summer holidays was changed to a 6pm close. Then days that ended up being busy enough to justify spending an addition hour of wages/ utilities were extended to 7pm. Looks like they have took middle ground on days likely to be extended this year. Mondays. Fridays and Sundays being 6pm I assume due to being main days people arrive /go home. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays when not 9/10 are 6.30 as these are generally busier. I would guess an hours staff & utility costs could quite easy be the difference between making a profit for the day and not if it is a quieter day with how much these have risen over last two years. Plus for many people they plan other things for the evening such as a meal/seeing a show or night out so leave around this time anyway. It just comes down to balancing what’s best for business vs being open long enough for customers to have a value for money and id say overall they do a good job with this. Personally the only thing I would try to see it’s effect is the addition of a half day / 3 hour ticket for people that just want a few hours to try increase on the gate sales but would depend on additional up take vs numbers downgrading to see if it was worth it.
Only seen it on quite days, maybe it’s cos if there is no queue and not a full train depending on wind speed/ direction it wouldn’t be heavy enough. 12 additional seats per train can make a big difference to whether there is a queue or not. Or could be just to make train heavier regardless of how busy idk. On another topic has anyone seen the podcast with Andy Hygate and Adam Slevin, a few interesting things in it.
But shortening your opening hours through the summer is all part of the slow spiral of death, it really is.
Belle Vue is a classic example, everything pretty much, circus, funfair, zoo, beer hall, sports track and concert hall used to have something on every day.
Then individual parts of the group started to fade, less concerts, limited hours in the (amazing) beer hall, zoo closing before the rides, fewer hours opening for the rides, then rides and sports arena only left open, the collapse of trade because of the new limited selection of offering, further reduced offering because of loss of trade, loss of big rides due to trade level reducing further...death.
I would put BPB in the middle of that death spiral.
Reduced show levels, major ride closures, reduced hours, further loss of trade because of a smaller offering of attractions...
See also Camelot and Morecambe...that is how park death through neglect happens.
Many said Belle Vue would never close as it had a massive local market (the whole of the massive Manchester/Salford conurbation...but it did.
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D
Deleted member 18184
I find it hard to believe the park would stay open till past midnight back then. A midnight closure is pretty much unneeded for any theme park.
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Shaggy_Dog_
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
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That’s a really weird take. The amusement industry was very different back then for one, even in parts of Europe you can still find amusement parks open till midnight now. If Rob says that the park was open till after midnight 40 years ago then that’s what happened, he knows his stuff when it comes to how the park operated in the various eras over the years. Given Pleasure Beach’s location in what would have been a thriving seaside holiday town back then it seems like it would have just been giving people what they wanted by staying open until very late during the illuminations (and also good business sense as well).
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Believing what I say is entirely optional, but as others on here could bear witness...(come on Ash where are you)...the Beach often stayed open on Illumination weekends, well past midnight, because they still had plenty of punters on the park, in Beery Blackpool, after the pubs shut at eleven, who were still happy to pay real hard cash on the rides.
Saturday nights in September, the park would often shut around 1am.
The smaller rides shut, the main woodies stayed open until the last paying customers had run out of money.
But you believe what you like my friend.
The Beach often shut with the Illuminations...one in the morning.
D
Deleted member 18184
You know I wish I could believe you... but I don't. If I was in charge of the Pleasure Beach I wouldn't keep it open until 1 in the morning. That's just pure lunacy. And by keeping guests in the park until wallets are cleaned out that's being extremely money hungry obvs. And people say the current owners and management are too greedy
Shaggy_Dog_
TS Member
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- Ride To Happiness
I was going to ask you if actually understand that Rob is talking about how Pleasure Beach was operated 40 or more years ago in a very different era but I really don’t think it’s even worth trying to debate this with you given the stance you are taking on these forums and the things you are coming out with.You know I wish I could believe you... but I don't. If I was in charge of the Pleasure Beach I wouldn't keep it open until 1 in the morning. That's just pure lunacy. And by keeping guests in the park until wallets are cleaned out that's being extremely money hungry obvs. And people say the current owners and management are too greedy
Ryan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Hex
Lots of amusement parks operate like this nowadays, Tivoli in Copenhagen for example. That's open until midnight tonight. What's so weird about that?You know I wish I could believe you... but I don't. If I was in charge of the Pleasure Beach I wouldn't keep it open until 1 in the morning. That's just pure lunacy. And by keeping guests in the park until wallets are cleaned out that's being extremely money hungry obvs. And people say the current owners and management are too greedy
Understanding there's a demand, and offering a product to meet it, isn't being "money hungry" - it's literally the reason every single theme park and amusement park open their gates every day. I think it's called "business"
No, you wouldn't keep the current Pleasure Beach open for that many hours, nobody would, but when it's pay per ride, when your takings for the day increase the longer you're open, why would you close the gates in the face of hundreds of potential customers?
D
Deleted member 18184
Depends on what your idea of early is. A 4 or 5pm closure during the school holidays? I agree too early. A 8pm closure would be late enough imo. Or is that too early too?
Craig
TS Administrator
A (large) number of posts have been deleted from this topic about late opening hours. It seems this caused a fair bit of heated debate and just turned into outright arguing. I think we can leave the discussion about midnight opening etc - as has been pointed out, it's a very different time these days so we're unlikely to see a return to that.
If we're going to continue discussion about opening hours (and it should be noted it's one that pops up on a yearly basis so has probably been discussed already!), let's try and keep it relevant to the times we live in now, rather than reminiscing about a time when Blackpool as a resort was much, much busier than it is today.
Above all, please keep responses on topic, polite and constructive. There's been a lot of sniping back and forth between members which hadn't progressed discussion. As pointed out in other topics, if you have a problem with an individual post, please just report it - reporting it and then replying to said post only serves to escalate the situation. Leave it to a team member to resolve appropriately, and just respond to on topic points being made. Thanks
.
If we're going to continue discussion about opening hours (and it should be noted it's one that pops up on a yearly basis so has probably been discussed already!), let's try and keep it relevant to the times we live in now, rather than reminiscing about a time when Blackpool as a resort was much, much busier than it is today.
Above all, please keep responses on topic, polite and constructive. There's been a lot of sniping back and forth between members which hadn't progressed discussion. As pointed out in other topics, if you have a problem with an individual post, please just report it - reporting it and then replying to said post only serves to escalate the situation. Leave it to a team member to resolve appropriately, and just respond to on topic points being made. Thanks
.