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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2025 Discussion

Could Steeplechase be opening at 12:00 due to the current colder weather? I know that it’s one ride that struggles to make it around at the best of times. Throw cold weather and empty horses into the mix and there could be all sorts of valleying/stalling issues. At this colder time of year I can see why they’d want to wait until it’s warmed up before running it.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Could Steeplechase be opening at 12:00 due to the current colder weather? I know that it’s one ride that struggles to make it around at the best of times. Throw cold weather and empty horses into the mix and there could be all sorts of valleying/stalling issues. At this colder time of year I can see why they’d want to wait until it’s warmed up before running it.
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No, its definitely cost cutting
 
Bowser said:
For that to be true you’d have to know the number of people refusing to attend for that reason compared to the number willing and their relative spends once inside. For example just one non-rider paying a £40 entrance could equal the spend of 10 free entry non riders who only buy a drink inside.
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I'm not talking free entry, I'm talking paid entry, at a tenner, like it used to be.
So the ten tenners will have spent a hundred quid getting in, without a single ride queue getting longer, and zero increase in staffing costs.

And shakey, I don't think they sold many entry (diamond) passes, they sent out one email, once, then they vanished in the advertising without trace.

I know at least fifty locals who no longer do occasional visits with family, simply because it is full price or nothing.
So they chose nothing.

When the park is losing money and routinely rather quiet, turning any costless trade away is downright crazy.

And just what you expect at the Beach.
 
Wasn't one of the big reasons they scrapped the non rider pass due to the rise in anti-social behaviour on park? Some teens would go for the day to hang out there but not ride anything as they didn't have the money.

Surely it's not that difficult to introduce a non rider pass with every full paying child type deal? That way you don't attract anti social brats and you also don't cut off a very lucrative income source.

Honestly just open Facebook and read the comments of any of the Blackpool group pages about the new ride. And I'm not talking about PB dedicated pages here either just ones for the whole town. Literally full of people saying they won't return until the pass comes back as it's too expensive for them to sit in the sun with a drink and/or book whilst their kids/grandkids go on the rides.

Absolute insane how the penny still hasn't dropped with Amanda and her team. It's literally being posted all over social media for them. Give the parents and Grandparents some wiggle room and attendance and profits are surely going to improve.
 
Benjsh said:
Wasn't one of the big reasons they scrapped the non rider pass due to the rise in anti-social behaviour on park? Some teens would go for the day to hang out there but not ride anything as they didn't have the money.

Surely it's not that difficult to introduce a non rider pass with every full paying child type deal? That way you don't attract anti social brats and you also don't cut off a very lucrative income source.

Honestly just open Facebook and read the comments of any of the Blackpool group pages about the new ride. And I'm not talking about PB dedicated pages here either just ones for the whole town. Literally full of people saying they won't return until the pass comes back as it's too expensive for them to sit in the sun with a drink and/or book whilst their kids/grandkids go on the rides.

Absolute insane how the penny still hasn't dropped with Amanda and her team. It's literally being posted all over social media for them. Give the parents and Grandparents some wiggle room and attendance and profits are surely going to improve.
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No, the non rider pass was brought in to keep the skint/rabble/pickpockets/knifecarriers/footie hooligans/pimps and prostitutes out of the place.
The gates and paid entry really did a good job, and you got the train and caves thrown in.
My wife used to sup a grandsworth of posh lager on the Beach a year...money that now goes to country pubs on the way home or the Velvet.
The Beach misses out on the multi generation groups now, I've often sat with five proud generations of the tartan army in Crevettes, they are now on the South Pier...all of them.
Five years now, so in "normal conditions" that's five grand lost from my household that they need and we were happy to spend, absolute madness in lean times.
 
Benjsh said:
Wasn't one of the big reasons they scrapped the non rider pass due to the rise in anti-social behaviour on park? Some teens would go for the day to hang out there but not ride anything as they didn't have the money.
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This was definitely why they scrapped free entry; I'm not sure the non-rider pass was ever utilized by teens or wronguns. I personally didn't see marauding youths occupying the PB Express or getting blazed in the Chinese Puzzle Maze. The pass seemed to disappear after COVID, another sweeping decision without much perspective.

The initial removal of free entry was long ago enough now that I can imagine that a newer generation of BPB visitors don't recall those 'good old days', but that aspect of the park was so much of it's identity, that it's obvious from Facebook comments that some people will never forget.
 
Yeah my bad. I didn't word that particularly well. I meant the free entry.

Charging a tenner was definitely a better idea but really they could scrap that all together and just make it free with a full paying child / adult ticket. People aren't going to come vandalize the place with a full paying friend or family member are they?
 
Yeah, and stopping granny nicking souvenirs in the gift shop when she got her "twice a year tipsy" episode at the seaside.
Always fun, what she could fit in that handbag.
 
IMG_9804.jpeg Their marketing department really need to get to grips with the website and pricing. So much inaccurate information on their. £34 showing as lowest price when tickets now £30. Late night riding and fireworks link still going to 2024 page. Varies prices for the seasonal season passes. £85, £125, £88 depending on which page you look at. New two day tickets on sale for more than two separate day tickets. On the day price for juniors still advertised as £40 but has gone up to £45. The list goes on. Just doesn’t create a good impression to anyone looking at buying tickets when even their marketing team doesn’t know what the prices are and so many different prices on website for same thing
 
I booked tickets on Sunday, and it took me a minute to work out whether tickets for my intended day were £35 or £30. It isn't at all clear at present.
 
I don't think free entry should return but there totally should be a £6-£10 non-rider pass.

Currently if two grandparents and two grandchildren are on a day out in blackpool and they happen to turn up at pleasure beach around midday / 1pm they have to pay approx £200 for entry for the four. If this pass was returned it would be approx £120 (which is still pricey) but would allow the grandchildren to ride unlimited and you can be pretty certain the grandparents would buy themselves a coffee and a cake each.
 
Fairly negative story on BBC North West Evening News tonight, reporting ride closures and job losses.

No representation from the Pleasure Beach apart from a statement. It could have been an ideal opportunity for them to talk about new investments and £30 advance tickets. But I think the BBC was always going to put the boot in. Negative news sells better.

7.30 mins in.
www.bbc.co.uk

North West Tonight - Evening News: 25/03/2025

The latest news, sport and weather for the North West of England.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
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IDB said:
Fairly negative story on BBC North West Evening News tonight, reporting ride closures and job losses.

No representation from the Pleasure Beach apart from a statement. It could have been an ideal opportunity for them to talk about new investments and £30 advance tickets. But I think the BBC was always going to put the boot in. Negative news sells better.
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Rob may be right with the non rider pass, there was a few people interviewed talking about how it costs £30 just to walk around and not go on rides, someone was complaining you had to pay for food as well (I think), and other people were complaining about the cost, and age of the park.

I do also wonder what would happen if BPB goes under. They are losing quite a bit of money, and now the hotels aren't making money (from earlier in the chat), and it is starting to look like it could be the start of a death spiral if they aren't able to turn it around, if the gyro doesn't work out then it could be quite bad. I can't see it going (even if the park goes, isn't big dipper listed so it can't be removed?) but I also can't see merlin taking it over, or another theme park operator due to their average age of rides (very old) meaning parts are probably hard to get and they are probably expensive to maintain (let alone insure) and there is very little opportunity to expand without removing large amount of rides.

on the other hand I do think the Gyro should be easy to advertise (you should be able to easily see it from out side the park adding a massive bill board, and since it is the UK's largest Gyro swing it should advertise it self (not like Icon)
 
They make their own parts for the older coasters.
A number of rides are listed, not just the Dipper.
The Beach could have taken part in the local news feature, they always offer on camera time, so they have shot themselves in the foot, again.
They have been in this situation before, on a number of occasions, the council has bailed them out in the past, allegedly.
 
I don't think it's difficult to understand what the public want, and who the audience is at Blackpool. It's multi-generational families where the spend is, and has always been.

FREE Entry for 0-3 Year Olds
FREE Over 65's Non-Riders Pass
£10 Standard Non-Rider Pass

Grandparents would love to come along for free and mind the bags or the younger children and have a day out, and they're likely to give out money for arcades, sweets and F&B too to the kids whilst mum and dad relax.

Include Pleasure Beach Express in that for the grandparents to go round with the kids on, and River Caves whenever it eventually re-opens earliest seems like 2027.

I would then just make one simple, marketable price point - £30 on Weekdays and £35 on weekends when booking online.

Otherwise you have to commit to a simple +10% on the gate fee which isn't too hard to swallow i.e £33 and £38.50. Even that few pounds will make a difference to people.

It just feels punishing to visit the promenade and fancy popping into BPB and see a £50 gate fee, it's enough to make an average GP family never even consider going again or checking online as they may not even realise the online prices, which again, vary so much it's confusing for recall.

I've spent tens of millions on social media ads in my job, and only ads with one clear marketable message work and stick. It is far too confusing for even us thoosies at times never mind the GP to even understand when purchasing online let alone discuss the cost of a visit via word of mouth.

BPB survives and thrives by catering to the biggest advantage it has in the entire UK theme park market for a park of it's size, which is family walk ins off the promenade. They have neglected these customers for years with this policy and now it's coming home to roost.

On the door afternoon tickets will cater to this for sure, but it needs to be concise and easy to understand. Whilst I'm for testing a decreasing hourly amount as I've even suggested myself, I think you could still just sell a singular afternoon ticket i.e 1pm-5pm (Nick Land 4pm close and adjust for late night riding days) for half the walk in price or a fraction above to still be reasonable but focus on day tickets i.e £20 weekday and £25 on the weekend where there's more supply and more demand to charge just over the half price point for afternoon walk ins.
 
You've hit the nail on the head, a park this size in a very popular seaside town is gold dust. To their credit they know they are in trouble amd are trying to sort things on.the budget they are now faced with. But thet keep shooting themselves in the foot. Mistakes everywhere on the website as has been pointed out on here if you confuse people before they even decide whether to come or not then that's 50%of the battle lost. Launchpad not ready for opening day despite having a whole year to get it ready, Nash still needing winter maintenance that couldn't be done over the winter for some reason. One train operations everywhere on opening weekend, I get it they've always done that but with social media having such an impact nowadays and it being obvious that every content creator would surely attend then why show to the world " hey look we only run 1 train on our big coasters so you can wait for ages.
They have an uphill battle to get out of this but you need to get the details of what you've got right when people will be looking for anything and everything at this stage
 
It’s remarkable just how long it’s taken the perk to even adjust to the drop in passing trade. Since they’ve effectively priced themselves out of that market for all but a small few, it was only really Covid that finally sealed the fate. Before that I’m sure we all remember the slowly curtailed closing times and even a couple of seasons of the infamous “earliest closing times”.

As for the opportunity presented by the news report, my mind immediately goes to how Geoffrey would have jumped at the chance of an interview to inevitably steer the conversation to new investments, good value tickets and any other positive PR spin he could dream up. It’s a reflection of how much the park has changed that all we now get is a bland statement.
 
Ares said:
BPB survives and thrives by catering to the biggest advantage it has in the entire UK theme park market for a park of it's size, which is family walk ins off the promenade.
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It's a shame they can't or won't go back to the old model of free entry and tickets/wristbands for rides as it's so much more suitable for the park.

The system still works for Adventure Island in Southend. I understand the downsides but that vibe and atmosphere of a hustling and bustling seaside amusement park is what makes them. I wonder if it would be worth trialling some kind of middle ground like Winter Wonderland where there's a nominal entry fee for all then up-charges for attractions.

When did they change? The last time i went must have been mid 2000s, i was there for work so a group of us popped in and went on a few rides, that's what it's all about.
 
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