Why would you want a picnic I think Pleasure Beach has the 2nd best food offering in the UK lots of options and high qualityLooks like it will be a lovely place to enjoy a picnic when its finished. Oh, wait...
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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2025 Discussion
Squiggs
TS Team
It's often a popular choice with families. If you're at a theme park with three kids, mum, dad and the grandparents an/or extended family, dining costs can soon add up, especially when theme parks often charge premium prices for everyday products.
So picnics can offer a good alternative to reduce the costs to make a family day out more affordable.
Matt N
TS Member
Not to mention that it also takes away the potential faff of deciding on a food option to go for (people in a group may have wildly varying tastes) and having to actually wait in line to buy food (on a busy day, I’d imagine they could get long!)
In a park where I had the option to, I would nearly always take a packed lunch. In Alton Towers, for example, it’s been some years since I’ve had hot food from a park restaurant for lunch!
In a park where I had the option to, I would nearly always take a packed lunch. In Alton Towers, for example, it’s been some years since I’ve had hot food from a park restaurant for lunch!
Launch Pad held a long, slow queue today, 90 mins at one point.
Normally this would be something to applaud given the recent investment, but the queue really wasn't visually very long. The problem, in my observation, was the sheer number of speedy/easy pass users. I queued for around an hour from just inside the gate. Each cycle, nearly the entirety of the gondola was filled before the main queue was called in. It was slowed down even further by difficulty with the turnstile, and the working practice of filling the holding area before opening the gate.
I appreciate they keep the area after the turnstile clear in case the launch fails (as guests would be returned there), but it's frustrating to see the gondola back down and empty before the turnstile is enabled
Normally this would be something to applaud given the recent investment, but the queue really wasn't visually very long. The problem, in my observation, was the sheer number of speedy/easy pass users. I queued for around an hour from just inside the gate. Each cycle, nearly the entirety of the gondola was filled before the main queue was called in. It was slowed down even further by difficulty with the turnstile, and the working practice of filling the holding area before opening the gate.
I appreciate they keep the area after the turnstile clear in case the launch fails (as guests would be returned there), but it's frustrating to see the gondola back down and empty before the turnstile is enabled
shakey
TS Member
The batching system is terrible on launch pad. It was a much quicker system a few years ago when they had two batching areas that they filled ready to quickly load the ride after each cycle.
It is now painfully slow. Just one more example of poor customer service that they could easily put right if they could be bothered.
It wouldn't happen with PPR !
It is now painfully slow. Just one more example of poor customer service that they could easily put right if they could be bothered.
It wouldn't happen with PPR !
The usual one train service on Big Dipper has finally changed! Unfortunately, it's now zero, as it's closed on weekdays according to the ride availability page.
www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com
Ride Availability - Pleasure Beach Resort
ride Availability At Pleasure Beach Resort, we want you to have the best possible day when you visit us, and we know that can sometimes be impacted by ride availability. Sometimes, our rides need routine maintenance which can put them out of normal operation. Where we can, we’ll always update...
www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com
Matt N
TS Member
It is ludicrous that Big Dipper has gone this late in the season with only one train… those throughputs were slow back in April. Dispatch intervals were somewhere in the order of 6 minutes!
It should always be on two, really. The ride is far too long to get a good throughput on one.
It should always be on two, really. The ride is far too long to get a good throughput on one.
shakey
TS Member
It was on one train most of last season too. I think it is something to do with a shunt the trains had and they need to update the breaking system... possibly.
But even if thats the case , why isn't it sorted after a full year, and if they can't sort it then at least speed up the lift hill , which was slowed because of a previous accident. But if its running one long term then speed the lift hill up.
More poor customer service and CBA
For clarification shakey, that is cba.
CBA is abbreviation for "old person sex"...
Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary (only).
Like Kylie,
I should be so lucky.
TLA lesson over for today.
And back on topic...Beach is heaving today with quite a few closures...
Not that I do ridetimes.
CBA is abbreviation for "old person sex"...
Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary (only).
Like Kylie,
I should be so lucky.
TLA lesson over for today.
And back on topic...Beach is heaving today with quite a few closures...
Not that I do ridetimes.
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
The usual one train service on Big Dipper has finally changed! Unfortunately, it's now zero, as it's closed on weekdays according to the ride availability page.
Ride Availability - Pleasure Beach Resort
ride Availability At Pleasure Beach Resort, we want you to have the best possible day when you visit us, and we know that can sometimes be impacted by ride availability. Sometimes, our rides need routine maintenance which can put them out of normal operation. Where we can, we’ll always update...
This is absolutely terrible. It would be bad enough if it was just a few weeks later in the season, but in the middle of Summer, this is utterly ridiculous.
It can’t need that much maintenance if they still plan on running it at weekends. The place is getting worse every season.
Matt N
TS Member
I did notice on my most recent trip that operations seemed more sluggish than I remember them being in 2018 and 2019.
Granted, it was a termtime weekday, so I don’t know whether the park still fires on more cylinders on peak days, but every coaster bar Icon was on 1 train. And even Icon itself was on 2 trains and dispatching slower than I’d previously remembered, only hitting dispatch intervals of around 100s when my previous memories had it hitting 60s or less on 3 trains.
If that’s the park just operating on B mode because it’s a weekday, that’s fair enough. The Merlin parks don’t do it, but I can understand running only 1 train on a day where the park is not particularly busy if maintenance resources are stretched. I still got on 26 rides and had a brilliant day, so I can’t really complain about my own visit in isolation.
But if this is the default mode of operation on peak days as well, I’m mildly concerned. Even on a day where the park was not particularly busy (but I’ll grant you that it wasn’t deserted either, certainly not to the extent that Paultons was in June), I still queued 30 minutes for Avalanche at one point. I can imagine that the queues for some of these rides on 1 train would get lengthy on peak days!
Granted, it was a termtime weekday, so I don’t know whether the park still fires on more cylinders on peak days, but every coaster bar Icon was on 1 train. And even Icon itself was on 2 trains and dispatching slower than I’d previously remembered, only hitting dispatch intervals of around 100s when my previous memories had it hitting 60s or less on 3 trains.
If that’s the park just operating on B mode because it’s a weekday, that’s fair enough. The Merlin parks don’t do it, but I can understand running only 1 train on a day where the park is not particularly busy if maintenance resources are stretched. I still got on 26 rides and had a brilliant day, so I can’t really complain about my own visit in isolation.
But if this is the default mode of operation on peak days as well, I’m mildly concerned. Even on a day where the park was not particularly busy (but I’ll grant you that it wasn’t deserted either, certainly not to the extent that Paultons was in June), I still queued 30 minutes for Avalanche at one point. I can imagine that the queues for some of these rides on 1 train would get lengthy on peak days!
It's no different to what Chessington did with Rattlesnake, Tiger Rock and Zufari last year is it could be down to staffing.
Not defending it but clearly its a data driven decision. Think we have got to be patient with Pleasure Beach they are in a transitional phase at the moment North Side of Pleasure Beach is pretty much back to normal It's the south and middle sides that need work
Not defending it but clearly its a data driven decision. Think we have got to be patient with Pleasure Beach they are in a transitional phase at the moment North Side of Pleasure Beach is pretty much back to normal It's the south and middle sides that need work
Matt N
TS Member
Blindly accepting a decision on the pretence of it being “data-driven” is risky.
I fully agree that some decisions the parks make are likely informed by data and make some sense when you consider the sort of data informing them, even if they might be received badly by enthusiasts. I would argue the ride closures earlier in the year at Pleasure Beach fall into this category, for example; they weren’t ideal, but at least appeared to make some sense based on low ridership or similar.
But the key variable you need to ask is; what data is informing this decision? Using data as a tool to mislead is very, very easily done, and if you use the right data, you can come to just about any conclusion. I personally would be questioning the logic of shutting a headline coaster midweek during a peak time of year, and would question whether the sort of data underpinning that decision is quality data that makes sense to use. I wouldn’t think that any robust cost-benefit analysis rooted in variables that would have a positive impact on guest experience or the bottom line would churn out shutting a key coaster midweek during the busiest time of year as a good decision, so I would personally question the sort of data underpinning that decision if it is “data-driven”.
Plastic Person
TS Member
Big Dipper closing midweek during peak season is madness.
A genuine question from a concerned former fan: Will the park even survive this decade? I realise this seems like a provocative query and perhaps naive, given that we can expect a relatively major investment next year, but to see an attraction of BPB's scale and profile close down a major coaster as a cost-saving exercise for summer is unfathomably bleak.
A genuine question from a concerned former fan: Will the park even survive this decade? I realise this seems like a provocative query and perhaps naive, given that we can expect a relatively major investment next year, but to see an attraction of BPB's scale and profile close down a major coaster as a cost-saving exercise for summer is unfathomably bleak.
Transition phase means in-between old and new developments.
Like Chessington and Paultons