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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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@Dipper_Dave you are correct I never visited in the 90s, so maybe I am talking BS :p, but I know plenty of people who did visit in the 90s and they are positively shocked at the nice atmosphere when they visit with me nowadays.
 
Very rarely was there a bad atmosphere, there weren't many Blackpool home games that were an issue, but when there was trouble, it was scary.
Certain teams had a reputation, and the trouble didn't happen at the ground as much due to the policing levels there...easier to pick fights on the Beach after a few beers.
Pickpockets were a real issue, especially on the busy days, and the biggest problem was crowd control on very busy days, when non spenders choked out the park...And they stopped you spending your money!
Walking was reduced to an absolute crawl round the main pathways.
In my opinion, it is better now, though they struggle for capacity on the rides on very busy days...so I just avoid the place on peak days.
 
MakoMania said:
@Dipper_Dave you are correct I never visited in the 90s, so maybe I am talking BS :p, but I know plenty of people who did visit in the 90s and they are positively shocked at the nice atmosphere when they visit with me nowadays.
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Are you sure that your mates haven't got BPPB mixed up with Thorpe Park :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:

I do love it when people love to argue about a things that they don't have first hand experience of :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:

I've been visiting the pleasure beach every other year since the late 1980's and all that I can say, it has always have a lovely atmosphere, day or night, even when you could walk through the park when it was free. It use to be fairly busy during the illumination season, however I've never visited it during the summer season.

I remember used to watching the TV reality program on the pleasure beach many years ago, I remember on one episode that they would have a whole group of wheelchairs users descending on the park protesting about the lack of wheelchair access to the rides. I wonder if the £6 entry fee is to stop groups of wheelchair user from turning up to protest in the park again :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
 
RoyJess said:
Are you sure that your mates haven't got BPPB mixed up with Thorpe Park :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:

I do love it when people love to argue about a things that they don't have first hand experience of :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:

I've been visiting the pleasure beach every other year since the late 1980's and all that I can say, it has always have a lovely atmosphere, day or night, even when you could walk through the park when it was free. It use to be fairly busy during the illumination season, however I've never visited it during the summer season.

I remember used to watching the TV reality program on the pleasure beach many years ago, I remember on one episode that they would have a whole group of wheelchairs users descending on the park protesting about the lack of wheelchair access to the rides. I wonder if the £6 entry fee is to stop groups of wheelchair user from turning up to protest in the park again :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
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Everyone is likely to have had different experiences at different points. If you were younger you may not notice things that you would as an adult, you may have visited on a particularly bad or good day. It’s all just circumstance that doesn’t tell a full story.

For what it’s worth, my impression is that the park presentation has definitely improved, which adds to the perception of a family atmosphere. This is balanced against what you could argue is less of an atmosphere. There certainly seems to have been a reduction in security staff over the years, which is perhaps the closest thing to a metric you could use to get the big picture of how the security issues have evolved.

Whether later openings should have continued is a discussion that will never end. I think what is probably easier to agree on is that the park could do more to be attractive to passing trade. How they do this without cannibalising their ticketing model is a more difficult question.
 
I have seen some pretty bad behaviour at pleasure beach during the 90’s but they had a pretty responsive security team.
 
I grew up going to Blackpool every September in the 90's and remember feeling pretty uncomfortable and unsafe, on multiple occasions once it got to 8/9pm and the "grownup parties" came through on their back to the south shore B&B's (r.i.p.). I look back now and see it as par for the course as an adult, but as 9-year-old it was pretty scary and put me off going back in the evening.
 
My oh my. How long does this have to go on? BPB's biggest problem is the entry system. A lot of people simply don't like it and as such won't go.
 
Dave said:
Pleasure beaches biggest problem is Blackpool, a lot of folk I know won’t go anymore because they see it as a bit rough and I don’t think people see pleasure beach as a separate destination.
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But that has always been the case unless you are going back to the late 1800''s when it was 'South shore'

To discover what has changed people's attitude towards an attraction you have to focus on any changes made around the time of significant customer shifts. The only significant change's are a steady reduction in ride line up (not major rides many of the public are likely to care about) and the entry fee.

This is backed up by the fact that on most weekends everything North of the central pier remains busy until after dark, all part of Blackpool. So it can't just be blamed on the town. BPB has to sort it' own problems out.
 
Ash84 said:
But that has always been the case unless you are going back to the late 1800''s when it was 'South shore'

To discover what has changed people's attitude towards an attraction you have to focus on any changes made around the time of significant customer shifts. The only significant change's are a steady reduction in ride line up (not major rides many of the public are likely to care about) and the entry fee.

This is backed up by the fact that on most weekends everything North of the central pier remains busy until after dark, all part of Blackpool. So it can't just be blamed on the town. BPB has to sort it' own problems out.
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For sure it does and Blackpool has never been a middle class haven, but the stag/ hen culture has had a big impact on the family market for BPB. I do think pleasure beach has spent too much time worrying about the other theme parks (look at mandy’s Tweets about Icon and the Orlando eye) instead of celebrating what makes the park unique, which to my mind is the idea it is an amusement park (folk need to get over the idea there is an inherent problem with being an amusement park, the best of their class have great atmosphere).

I woukd hazard a guess though that the security issues around having an open site are too costly to want to return to.
 
See what BPB need to remember is that no matter what security you have on the gates, when you have a public highway under the park you are a potential target, so the entry fee and scanners are of little relevance if a car bomb turns up in the tunnel.

That aside I have no issue with the entry fee, I'd just sooner that money be given back in ride tickets or food vouchers and the PPR system by made more user friendly (I mean cheaper) £ 3 a coaster, except Big One, Icon and Blue Flyer for example.

Promote the use of that system and the park would see more traffic in an afternoon, I'd bet my life on it.
 
Ash84 said:
See what BPB need to remember is that no matter what security you have on the gates, when you have a public highway under the park you are a potential target, so the entry fee and scanners are of little relevance if a car bomb turns up in the tunnel.
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Ash, I know this is a bit of a sore subject for you, and your admirably arguing your case. But you're nowhere near naive enough about BPB to know that this isn't the sort of thing that the park security are most concerned about. The entry charge isn't there to keep out ISIS, although maybe it helps!
 
If people think that BPPB sometimes pulls in riff raff, then they obviously haven't seen some of the trouble that we used to get in London back in the days when I used to work there. From my experience, you can get riff raff anywhere whether they paid to enter a park or not. The park entry fee won't stop trouble makers from entering the park. But it will certainly line the pockets of the park owners with more money.
 
Ash84 said:
See what BPB need to remember is that no matter what security you have on the gates, when you have a public highway under the park you are a potential target, so the entry fee and scanners are of little relevance if a car bomb turns up in the tunnel.
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It's not about bombs though really. The only time BPB security will detect ISIS is if they try to enter the park with a few cheese butties and a couple of Mr Kipling's cakes.
 
I think Ash makes a good point, make the £5 have in park value (even a voucher) and folk might be more willing to go in even if they don’t like rides.
 
I've always thought BPB should offer something like free adult entry with the purchase of a child wristband and/or free entry with £x purchase of ride tokens. That way they can keep the current system of not having people just wander in, but offset most of the negative publicity that came with the loss of free entry.

The main thing that bugs me about the current system though is the fact they've never bothered making wristbands work for park entry, that's just irritating.
 
Or they could just cut the crap and become a "pay one price" NORMAL park. Scrap the wristbands and those stupidly narrow turnstyles on every ride alltogether.
I'm sure the wristband system does not help the perception of the place as "a tacky seaside grothole", given the only parks that ever use wristbands are tacky seaside grotholes. ;)
 
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