• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
shakey said:
I agree with a lot of what you say Scott but the trouble with their market research is that I suspect it is probably all done by emailing out to people who have visited the park and booked in advance, so in a sense they are preaching to the already converted.
Click to expand...

Not many know how they go about things and those who do generally won't say because they're either not in a position to do so or can't be bothered with the aggravation that'll come in the replies for passing on what they do know. A lot of these comments are guess work, unless any of us stand on the front and literally ask every person who walks past BPB or wherever in Blackpool then nobody can say for sure what Pleasure Beach need to do to get more people through the gates.

Pleasure Beach do their market research in a number of ways, they have a set target audience (which isn't season pass holders*) and they approach their target audience in a number of ways to see how they can do things better, what prices are respectable, what opening times people want and so much more.

*Season pass holders are not their target audience, you've already paid up and made your decision to visit regardless of what BPB are doing.
 
Rick said:
What's the £21 associated with? Regardless, I don't think £6 is too much for entry to the park with the rides/attractions that it includes. It serves its purpose in terms of offering a deterrent to those who wish to enter to cause trouble.

In terms of offering a rebate on the entrance fee... The £6 entrance fee is currently £6 revenue without cost with supplementary spending on top. Under your suggested system the £6 entrance fee would be £6 revenue minus the cost of the food/drink.

If you offer an option to ride coasters via a 'back door' that is directly in competition with your wristband price, those visitors who don't want to ride much, but who would currently spring for a wristband will inevitably spend less by adopting the PPR option.
Click to expand...

The £21 comes from £6 to get in, plus the 15 quid price tag that's attached to Icon. Now no matter how much my mum wants a go, she will not pay that amount of money. Further more, my dad won't pay £6 to watch. Now bring the price for the ride down somewhat and offer him a cuppa and we might get somewhere, and like I said, there is a good chance that once he's in he would have a go on certain rides again for a realistic price.

The PPR system even with the prices dropped is unlikely to effect wristband sales. They are amazing value and those people who want to full day on park won't suddenly decide to PPR, why would they?

So with that in mind, wristband sales remain consistent, but instead of not many arriving after 3pm you now have a more attractive system likely to entice people in, which may even see the park justify staying open that bit later, so the wristbands are even better value!

The school trips are not the massive source of income people seem to think they are either. Any parent knows, you send you kids off (once you have paid a cheaper than standard price to get in) with as little money as possible, A) you don't
want thme to lose the money, B) you know they plan to spend it on crap anyway. A kid spends more money on a day out with parents cause they bring their own spend, plus the make hourly withdrawals from the bank of mum and dad, so the fiver you send them off with on a trip doesnt really go that far.

As for the 'market research' that BPB do, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. There is little point asking prebooked people about the day they had. They need to capture the unknown quantities that are not going in and ask them why. Emails to people are no good, get outside the gates and watch for anyone walking towards the park and walking away 2 minutes later, they are the ones who need to been quizzed.

Q1. Have you been on park today?
Q2. If not, why not?
Q3. Would a system (for example outlined above) make it more likely you' return in the future?

3 key questions that could go a long way to helping make BPB a lot of money going forward.

I'd like to finish by saying one more thing. None of what I am saying is for my own gain, I am genuinely concerned about how quiet the park is, and I am not in favour of this new policy on the Big One either. So now unless there are 2500 wristbands booked online it's stuck on 1 train. Sod anyone else who walks in that day, they don't count.

Not the way to go BPB, not a wise move.
 
You can still get an Icon boarding pass for fifteen quid including park entry.
School groups bring in loads of money Ash, you are a bit behind the times.
I have seen a fortune being handed over in the shops and stalls by schoolkids in the last couple of seasons, some kids leaving with two carrier bags stuffed.
Also quite a number last year with speedypasses, Bernard taking a bomb on soft drinks and hot chocolate, queues in the shops at the tills.
They had a thousand school kids in at the end of last week...all stuffing their faces with junk from the stalls.
 
Dipper_Dave said:
Was about to ask about this too. Ash, where is that info from? I must say that with a queue spilling out of the station and down the ramp, not running 2 trains is rather poor.
Click to expand...
That was quoted to me on my trip to BPB this week by 2 different sources. They both said that under 2500 predicted on park with a 2 train service can cause issues due to the ride eating up its queue meaning they have to play musical sandbags on a breezy day to keep the ride running. Of course you could argue that they could do like they have many times in the past and keep the back car of both trains sandbagged.

I'm guessing the higher figure of 2500 from the previous 2000 is because of the extra people that will go to Icon rather than PMBO at anyone time.

At one point the other day on a single train service the queue was just past halfway down the ramp leading to a 30mins+ wait at a guess.
 
rob666 said:
You can still get an Icon boarding pass for fifteen quid including park entry.
School groups bring in loads of money Ash, you are a bit behind the times.
I have seen a fortune being handed over in the shops and stalls by schoolkids in the last couple of seasons, some kids leaving with two carrier bags stuffed.
Also quite a number last year with speedypasses, Bernard taking a bomb on soft drinks and hot chocolate, queues in the shops at the tills.
They had a thousand school kids in at the end of last week...all stuffing their faces with junk from the stalls.
Click to expand...

I didn' realise you could still buy boarding cards, but even so, erm see you later Dad, have a nice time doing nothing on the seafront while we go armed with our bands/cards, you enjoy yourself old boy.

It kinds of goes against the idea of a family day out wouldn't you agree. Anyway, that's BPB''s lose, but I'd get pretty favourable odds that my family are not alone in this situation.
 
It seems very short sighted to base capacity purely from online bookings and not looking at events on the day, availability of other rides etc.

Not good for customer satisfaction...
 
I do wonder if they may take the plunge and scrap ride tickets altogether at some point and go completely pay one price.

There would be advantages for both the park and punters in scrapping the ride tickets and wristbands...
  • Easier/quicker entry into the park, thus less queues to get in.
  • No ongoing cost of printing wrist bands or maintaining the scanners.
  • Less staffing costs
  • Better ride throughput
Of course you would probably then get more complaints from people who do not want to ride but they could counter that by offering a decent OAP and disabled price.
 
Coaster said:
It seems very short sighted to base capacity purely from online bookings and not looking at events on the day, availability of other rides etc.

Not good for customer satisfaction...
Click to expand...
In fairness to BPB I'm under the impression that they don't do that. They I'm told have a formula to add walk ups based in weather etc to give them an estimated figure of guests for the day, a bit like Towers do.

One thing I don't understand is if PMBO is set up for one train service these days they can't put a second train on, even if that we'd train is the same speed of train as the one already on track. Over the years many times over seen them use the demag to get another train on track. But these days no.
 
Graham73 said:
under 2500 predicted on park with a 2 train service can cause issues due to the ride eating up its queue meaning they have to play musical sandbags on a breezy day to keep the ride running.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, but with a queue halfway down the ramp I’m not sure how that queue could ever eat itself up to the point of the staff worrying about empty rows and the ride valleying out etc.

So one train is out and the other is being filled with up to 30 riders. A few minutes later the other train returns and is loaded with up to 30 riders. I don’t see that being an issue really, you’d think they’d want people through the ride so they can then roam about the park. You can’t put money through their tills if you’re in an hour long queue. I understand that on a really really quiet day one train on PMBO is enough, but surely a queue down the ramp is enough to justify two. Then again, it could be part of the ploy to boost speedy pass sales
 
The Big One is still remarkably efficient on two trains. A queue down the ramp will not remain so for long with two trains. If they were able to run empty trains with any confidence, it would be less of a problem.
 
Rick said:
The Big One is still remarkably efficient on two trains. A queue down the ramp will not remain so for long with two trains. If they were able to run empty trains with any confidence, it would be less of a problem.
Click to expand...
What's the problem with just waiting for the train to fill up?

I would much rather sit on a half full train for 10 minutes than wait in a queue for 30 minutes.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
shakey said:
What's the problem with just waiting for the train to fill up?

I would much rather sit on a half full train for 10 minutes than wait in a queue for 30 minutes.
Click to expand...
10 minutes in a half full train and a further 10 minutes on the brake run when you return. Idiocy of the highest order.
 
Rick said:
10 minutes in a half full train and a further 10 minutes on the brake run when you return. Idiocy of the highest order.
Click to expand...
That is still 10 minutes less than a 30 minute queue though.



Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Rick said:
And double the wear on every wheel, tyre, bearing and bolt.
Click to expand...
Well not if it's shared between 2 trains instead of one.

Anyway, I still can't see why they can't come up with a system where they can still run 2 trains when it's breezy. Which is a lot of the time in Blackpool.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top