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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2026 Discussion

Benjsh said:
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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Yet the highest rated park that people cite the most as making great decisions (Paulton's) is thriving to the best of our knowledge...
 
Benjsh said:
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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You're right that we can't these operational failures in a vacuum.

Looking at the news from the last week, however, the "economic headwinds" you mention are about to become a hurricane.

The illegal and unequivocally condemned attacks against Iran (and now Lebanon) over the past few days is going to send energy prices into the stratosphere. We're already seeing oil futures spike and theme parks are incredibly energy intensive businesses.

When the cost of a barrel of oil jumps, the cost of everything jumps. Manufacturing steel for coasters, importing merchandise from China, heating the water park... the margins evaporate.

Compounding everything; when governments pivot their focus (and their budgets) towards destruction and "defence", the domestic economy always suffers. Infrastructure investment gets cut, social safety nets get squeezed, and disposable income becomes non-existent.

The sale of the Six Flags parks is the inevitable hangover of the merger. It's debt consolidation. They borrowed billions to become a mega corp, and now they are selling the family silver to service the interest payments. It's the exact same playbook we see throughout the asset management world.

It could be that we're about to an era of "Managed Decline" across the entire industry... but that's a topic for another thread.
 
Bowser said:
Yet the highest rated park that people cite the most as making great decisions (Paulton's) is thriving to the best of our knowledge...
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They don't have the heritage hardware that Blackpool does that is likely to be a little more expensive to run, Paultons oldest currently operating coasters are 23-26 years old and they are just Zierer Tivoli. The oldest significant coaster is Raven at 20 years old. Also the coasters are generally smaller. Newer hardware will be easier/cheaper to maintain. Even compared to Alton Towers this will be a big factor of newer and smaller coasters being cheaper to run.

Paulton have also been sensible with their entry price, they charge what they need to run the park, no discounting or promotions, no silly pricing other than on-the-day being more expensive than advance bookings. Blackpool seem to overcharge some days and are too cheap other days, when a more consistent approach might work better. BPB at least doesn't have the silly discounting that Tussauds/Merlin have done with the over-reliance on vouchers.

Also sensible and measured investment at Paulton, several big new areas but spaced out and without huge spends on hardware, the area itself has been marketable. Whereas BPB added a big new coaster (Icon) which didn't really sell the park well. Maybe several smaller investments would have worked better for them too.
 
Benjsh said:
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.
Click to expand...
Rather than struggling the parks simply aren't adapting to new situations quick enough nor using new more effecient equipment
 
Hid said:
Rather than struggling the parks simply aren't adapting to new situations quick enough nor using new more effecient equipment
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Rides need energy,
for instance it takes x joules to lift a train from the station the top of the lift hill, that is a matter of fact, the motors and mechanisms are very basic (an induction motor and some gears) I doubt there is much efficency gains to be had, and if there was then the inefficient devices Could be replaced quite easily as they are designed to be.

Launches are a bit fdiffernt, but in the uk they are few and far between.
 
For some reason when I look at the ride closures page I don't see a mention of Valhalla or Grand National: https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/ride-availability/ though it could be a cache that hasn't updated.

So for larger rides that is Red Arrows, River Caves, Grand National, Valhalla closed while I'm there at the end of the month and presumably the rest of the rollercoasters on one train each? Sounds like it's going to be a fun time.

Hopefully, they will bring Revolution's second train out at least for more throughput :p
 
Bowser said:
Yet the highest rated park that people cite the most as making great decisions (Paulton's) is thriving to the best of our knowledge...
Click to expand...

Wouldn't go as far as thriving. They are doing well but their larger rides aimed towards the more adventurous guests are often walk ons even on peak days.

Peppa Pig Land is making them all their money though quite clearly. That's been an absolute gold mine for them.
 
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