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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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If Towers announced that select rides in CBeebies Land and CCL, along with Oblivion, were to be closed Monday-Friday in April and May then there would rightly be uproar, regardless of the reasons for the closures.

If Big Dipper, along with other rides, need to be closed for work to take place on Icon then that is fair enough. Although a blanket midweek closure for over a month suggests there is more to it than that. Maintenance/TLC is the middle of the season is hardly an excuse in my eyes, the park have a closed season for that!

:)
 
Personally I think they have accessed how many are on the park, and have closed rides that have low ridership and for once I think they have it spot on.

Like I said earlier, BPB have bigger issues facing them, like how long the Avalanche line will be once the Icon extra custom spreads itself around the park, and the bizarre decision to close Nick Land an hour before the park in peak season.
 
Coaster said:
Words absolutely and utterly fail me. First they demolish one of the most wonderful coasters ever built in a horrendous way, then they close 1 or 2 hours earlier than the advertised "earliest ride closing time" on multiple occasions, now this.

It's clear to me that BPB have absolutely zero concept of customer service. A park which treats its customers with such contempt is never going to be a success, IMO.

Just for reference...

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The rides are good at BPB, but as an organisation they're terrible.
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If I were you Jamie, I would never ever visit BPB again...but I am sure you will renew your season ticket again.
Had a great afternoon on the Beach yesterday, everything walk on, polite friendly staff, didn't hear anyone complaining about the few rides that were closed.
If you don't like it..,don't whine, simply vote with your feet.
See you in the Icon queue.
 
I too don't understand why the park opens midweek when they are running at a loss, especially considering it would make more sense to use the hours to extend during busier times.

However, since the park is open and they have customers paying to go in, I don't agree with a number of rides being closed - in addition, if Big Dipper, Grand Prix and PBE are closed for Icon work (which may well be the case), this still doesn't explain why Revolution and Steeplechase have been closing at 4pm - whilst Steeple may well be due to Icon work, this clearly isn't the case with Rev unless it is staff training - in which case, I would suggest this should be done after hours to minimise ride downtime.

I do think a promotion along the lines of "visit now and return again for half/a reduced price" would have been beneficial to gate figures, especially over the Easter period.
 
Rob said:
If Towers announced that select rides in CBeebies Land and CCL, along with Oblivion, were to be closed Monday-Friday in April and May then there would rightly be uproar, regardless of the reasons for the closures.

If Big Dipper, along with other rides, need to be closed for work to take place on Icon then that is fair enough. Although a blanket midweek closure for over a month suggests there is more to it than that. Maintenance/TLC is the middle of the season is hardly an excuse in my eyes, the park have a closed season for that!

:)
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A pretty poor comparison from your own point of view, haven't the majority of rides from CCL already vanished for a variety of reasons, including the Toadstool, which has been under TLC for over 18 months. Rather a long time to spend of a standard wave swinger, which was relocated and rethemed in less time some years earlier.

I have seen BPB take a coaster out of service during the week before to allow work to be done, and you can always actually see that work taking place from one place or another if you are observant enough. Remind me, what exactly is happening with Sub Terra, Charlie and the Toadstool to justify their rather extended closures?
 
No ride had a queue yesterday, you walked into a seat or waited for the next train.
You could cover every available coaster, and a dozen flats (eat that towers!) In a couple of hours.
Rev was going out with 2 riders, streak with one rider.
Early closures, again, only appears to be an issue with those who were not on the park.
Not happy with operations...don't go.
 
rob666 said:
No ride had a queue yesterday, you walked into a seat or waited for the next train.
You could cover every available coaster, and a dozen flats (eat that towers!) In a couple of hours.
Rev was going out with 2 riders, streak with one rider.
Early closures, again, only appears to be an issue with those who were not on the park.
Not happy with operations...don't go.
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On days as described above I see no issue at all with a few very minor rides closing to save money, and a coaster down for maintenance or to allow construction to take place on a near by attraction.

Do I think the parks operations are spot on? No I don't, they are miles away from being able to cope at peak times, but nit picking over the things being described here is insane.
 
What would be the odds of the park saying "oh we're gonna close midweek between now and here" and then people would go all OUTRAGE on them for that?

They cannot win...
 
As enthusiasts should we not be holding parks to a standard? Not making excuses for them.

I’m all for accepting reasonable explanations which are balanced. That’s markedly different from excuses which include words like T&Cs, ‘it was quiet’ or just ‘don’t go then’. These are the same knee jerk responses coming out of Alton Towers’ mishandled Twitter account and it’s clear in that circumstance that the GP don’t accept those poor excuses.

The fact there are no fewer than NINE rides just shut is not good enough. For the once a year visitor who has bought a wristband in advance for one of these days, the excuse that Infusion was walk-on does not compensate their four year old for not getting on the rides they wanted to.
 
venny said:
As enthusiasts should we not be holding parks to a standard? Not making excuses for them.
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You can try and hold them to a standard but you can't do that blindly without trying to understand the motivations for their actions.

Look at the trip reports - the park is dead, it cannot be making money (clearly losing, heavily) on weekdays so they have to address that.

The world isn't like RCT, it's not that simple.
 
They used to have several closed days during term time until a few years ago IIRC.

My only ever midweek visit was during the soft opening phase of Skyforce and the place was unbelievably quiet, to the extent that if you saw Nash dispatch whilst walking down the ramp from Dipper you'd have time to ride Ice Blast and still be one of only a handful of people on the next Nash dispatch.

If some of the ride closures are even remotely related to Icon (which is plausible), it surprises me that they're not saying so. It would be a more palatable reason for all visitors, though undoubtedly some enthusiasts would still moan about it being a smokescreen for cuts.
 
I don't understand why people defend BPB for doing the same thing Alton were crucified for mere months ago? If you're open, open everything, if not, close mid-week.

What kind of message (being careful not to get feelings involved in business) does it send to the family that booked up their few days on the coast, only to find the park is either closing earlier than stated, or closing a few major attractions to save a bit of cash?
 
John said:
If some of the ride closures are even remotely related to Icon (which is plausible), it surprises me that they're not saying so. It would be a more palatable reason for all visitors, though undoubtedly some enthusiasts would still moan about it being a smokescreen for cuts.
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Big Dipper is getting a paint job... presumably so it looks nice next to Icon in the press photos.
 
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