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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2026 Discussion

Blackpool clearly not content with Merlin getting all the disability headlines.

www.bbc.co.uk

Blackpool Pleasure Beach scraps free admission for carers

The theme park introduces a £25 charge for carers to accompany people with disabilities.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

I especially like the "generous" offer of allowing passholder carers one free visit. Then tough £25 please.

The lack of understanding disabilities in 2026 isn't surprising but you do genuinely wonder what goes through the heads of those in charge.
 
Grim times at BPB. Half a dozen or so rides mothballed entirely, several other closed outside of a few weeks over summer. Low capacity on almost all rides as standard.
 
Benzin said:
Blackpool clearly not content with Merlin getting all the disability headlines.

www.bbc.co.uk

Blackpool Pleasure Beach scraps free admission for carers

The theme park introduces a £25 charge for carers to accompany people with disabilities.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

I especially like the "generous" offer of allowing passholder carers one free visit. Then tough £25 please.

The lack of understanding disabilities in 2026 isn't surprising but you do genuinely wonder what goes through the heads of those in charge.
Click to expand...

Paultons introduced this last year too.

Do Blackpool not do annual passes for carers? The person interviewed suggests not which if correct is very unfair to introduce on existing holders.

Only a matter of time before Merlin follow suit.

With the exponential increase in diagnosis i don’t think the parks have much choice.
 
Benzin said:
Blackpool clearly not content with Merlin getting all the disability headlines.

www.bbc.co.uk

Blackpool Pleasure Beach scraps free admission for carers

The theme park introduces a £25 charge for carers to accompany people with disabilities.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

I especially like the "generous" offer of allowing passholder carers one free visit. Then tough £25 please.

The lack of understanding disabilities in 2026 isn't surprising but you do genuinely wonder what goes through the heads of those in charge.
Click to expand...

Paultons introduced the same thing last year.
 
Bowser said:
Paultons introduced this last year too.

Do Blackpool not do annual passes for carers? The person interviewed suggests not which if correct is very unfair to introduce on existing holders.

Only a matter of time before Merlin follow suit.

With the exponential increase in diagnosis i don’t think the parks have much choice.
Click to expand...

Yeah was annoyed at Paultons for doing it as well.

Just make it half price entry for both disabled person and carer like theatres do.
 
Benzin said:
Yeah was annoyed at Paultons for doing it as well.

Just make it half price entry for both disabled person and carer like theatres do.
Click to expand...
Half price for both is the same as the previous buy one get one free?

Although having taken a look at Paulton they do offer a half-price ticket "for people where support is needed that is significant and substantial and in excess of what could be reasonably expected of family/friends already accompanying the guest".
So slightly better than Blackpool's blanket £25 for carers as half-price would be lower.
 
Hid said:
Isn't that what all businesses want is money.

On another note Valhalla will be opening 20th May and Grand National won't be available till June so neither opening with the park. And Dora's World Voyage is still shut
Click to expand...
I felt like this 🤬🤬🤬, this morning in my head when I saw that Pleasure Beach updated this last minute when with Valhalla having a set date to reopen, why wasn't it updated sooner when it was clear that it wasn't going to open?

Before I heard about work going on at the exit, first thoughts was cost cutting.

Nash to some lesser degree and more of relief 😮‍💨

A load of us thoosies are sharing the same frustration at this moment as Valhalla was pretty much expected to be open (with nothing saying it's got an extended closure).
 
owenstreet7 said:
I felt like this 🤬🤬🤬, this morning in my head when I saw that Pleasure Beach updated this last minute when with Valhalla having a set date to reopen, why wasn't it updated sooner when it was clear that it wasn't going to open?

Before I heard about work going on at the exit, first thoughts was cost cutting.

Nash to some lesser degree and more of relief 😮‍💨

A load of us thoosies are sharing the same frustration at this moment as Valhalla was pretty much expected to be open (with nothing saying it's got an extended closure).
Click to expand...
Its been fairly standard across several UK parks that water rides don't open until the warmer weather for the last few years, most rapids aren't open in March either.
 
jon81uk said:
Its been fairly standard across several UK parks that water rides don't open until the warmer weather for the last few years, most rapids aren't open in March either.
Click to expand...
Valhalla has always opened at the start of the season, including back when the full park opened at the beginning of February. It's also always been very popular even in the colder months.
 
jon81uk said:
Its been fairly standard across several UK parks that water rides don't open until the warmer weather for the last few years, most rapids aren't open in March either.
Click to expand...
That applies more for rapids in the last couple of seasons, I'd say so don't think this is standard at all.

Pleasure Beach tend to run Valhalla and Rugrats for longer than most water rides in previous years.

At the same time, the flumes and shoot the chutes including Tidal Wave and Stormforce 10 tend to be open from some point in March to the start of November.

Coaster said:
Valhalla has always opened at the start of the season, including back when the full park opened at the beginning of February. It's also always been very popular even in the colder months.
Click to expand...
This hits the nail on the head!☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻
 
Valhalla has always opened at the start of the season???

Apart from the seasons it didn't open at all of course.

And in the colder weather, it has only been popular with very moist thoosies, most sensible visitors won't touch the thing until spring bank at the earliest.

It gets worse every year, and people are still suprised!

As long as Crevettes and a couple of coasters are open...it will be worth £125 a year.

Just.
 
Merlin struggling, Blackpool struggling, lots of smaller UK parks struggling / closing.

Even Six Flags over in States are struggling and have sold off another 6 parks in the chain this week. The merger with Cedar Fair seems to have been a sticking plaster more than anything.

I think sometimes we're quick to blame everything on poor decision making and operations but there is quite clearly a lot more to all this. Costs and bills are soaring for Americans and Brits and wages are sadly not keeping up. If people have less disposable income then they have less money for days out. And if governments continue to squeeze businesses with higher taxes then they employ fewer people and deliver a poorer product.

We're all so critical of what they do but they're really not in great position to do a great deal else right now. Many of these parks are going back to basics and massively scaling down investments in new rides because they just can't continue to operate at those levels.
 
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