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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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MakoMania said:
Park closing one hour early today. I arrived about half an hour ago for 90 mins worth of rides and now I'm only getting 30 minutes.
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Hang on a minute though, is it even raining today? Weather looks fine on Met Office/BBC Weather but happy to be proved otherwise from someone who's actually there.

In relation to the Mouse car, I was told from a member of ticket centre staff at BPB that they would be auctioning it off for charity, however it appears that they've ditched that idea to make more money. The amount they're profiting from Mouse going is pretty shocking considering the way they handled it, IMO.
 
Coaster said:
In relation to the Mouse car, I was told from a member of ticket centre staff at BPB that they would be auctioning it off for charity, however it appears that they've ditched that idea to make more money. The amount they're profiting from Mouse going is pretty shocking considering the way they handled it, IMO.
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They’re a business, so it’s not that surprising that they are choosing to make money out of a defunct ride, if the alternative is taking it to the tip and getting nothing for it. Actually as they’re a business, they have to PAY to take things to the dump anyway, hence why their old garbage is always dumped round the edges of the park. So, someone is actually doing them a favour by removing the rodents for them, and it gets them some money back too. Can’t blame them really. Nobody is forcing anyone to bid on the mice. Well, unless it’s a fix and new accounts are bumping the price up for the eventual winner.

I agree though that it’s a poor show if they declared one would be sold for charity and then decided not to bother.

Oh and closing early during fine weather. . . very very poor. Do they not care about long term damage to reputation & putting people off repeat visits ?
 
It's very clear that they have no regard for customer service, their fallback of "it's due to weather" is now completely invalidated when they're closing early on sunny days.

The park may be quiet but questions need to be asked, why is it so quiet in the summer holidays with a brand new coaster open? Providing atrocious service like this is hardly going to entire guests in, it'll damage their reputation and alienate repeat visitors.
 
MakoMania said:
On one positive note, I got on more rides at BPB in just over 30 minutes than I did in 6 hours at Alton Towers the other day.
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This is where I will give BPB credit. Their ride operations, availability and maintenance department is generally much more solid and professional than parks like Towers, meaning a better ridecount is possible. Of course there are exceptions to this, but 9 times out of 10 the ride staff at BPB come across as much more professional than at other parks.
 
Such as the instances where 5 minutes to queue close, the PMBO op announces over the tannoy they've been there since first thing in the morning (despite the ride only running from 12 onwards due to wind) and to go to another ride instead. Quite.
 
I remember on the Wild Mouse :( last year ride ops were arguing over whether to close the queue 5 minutes early. They eventually did stay open until ride close but it was quite amusing to watch.
 
I noticed that the figure of Victor from Wallace and Grommit was missing from the ride on Sunday! I hope he returns soon.

Also Valhalla was running really well on Sunday! Pretty much everything was working, the ice room was cold but not much frost! At the bottom of the first drop there seemed to be loads of mist, which looked supberd and really effective!
 
Danny said:
Such as the instances where 5 minutes to queue close, the PMBO op announces over the tannoy they've been there since first thing in the morning (despite the ride only running from 12 onwards due to wind) and to go to another ride instead. Quite.
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MakoMania said:
I remember on the Wild Mouse :( last year ride ops were arguing over whether to close the queue 5 minutes early. They eventually did stay open until ride close but it was quite amusing to watch.
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These are exceptions and experiences like this reflect very poorly on the park. I have witnessed PMBO and Mouse closing early on numerous occasions, however this does seem to have improved over the past two seasons IMO.
 
Coaster said:
This is where I will give BPB credit. Their ride operations, availability and maintenance department is generally much more solid and professional than parks like Towers, meaning a better ridecount is possible. Of course there are exceptions to this, but 9 times out of 10 the ride staff at BPB come across as much more professional than at other parks.
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Really?

The ticket sales staff have always been really good but the ride teams are incredibly variable, the food and beverage teams are pretty dire and ride availability is nothing to write home about. There is no major throughput push until the end of the day when they want to go home.

There is no major park in the U.K. with great customer service or fantastic maintenance standards currently. It’s all incredibly mediocre.
 
Dave said:
Really?

The ticket sales staff have always been really good but the ride teams are incredibly variable, the food and beverage teams are pretty dire and ride availability is nothing to write home about. There is no major throughput push until the end of the day when they want to go home.

There is no major park in the U.K. with great customer service or fantastic maintenance standards currently. It’s all incredibly mediocre.
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I think staffing is much better at BPB where they retain ride staff and promote from within than say the Merlin parks, where everyone loses their job at the end of a season and the experience goes with them. Of course BPB's operations are far from perfect in terms of capacity etc but I've had very few complaints to make in terms of ride staff recently.
 
Pleasure Beach staff have always been "variable" as far as customer service is concerned!
My absolute hero favourite is always as rude to me as he can possibly be in front of other customers, and his subtle hand signals from the other side of the park never cease to amaze.
Most are very good, some amazing at what they do, but the minority tend to let the side down.
Must say the Icon team have been stunning, not seen them slow down once, and they have an awful lot to put up with.
 
rob666 said:
Pleasure Beach staff have always been "variable" as far as customer service is concerned!
My absolute hero favourite is always as rude to me as he can possibly be in front of other customers, and his subtle hand signals from the other side of the park never cease to amaze.
Most are very good, some amazing at what they do, but the minority tend to let the side down.
Must say the Icon team have been stunning, not seen them slow down once, and they have an awful lot to put up with.
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New ride teams are usually pretty good everywhere, the wicker man team put the rest of the park to shame (when it’s working) but I suspect it’s because managers probably pay more attention to the new rides in a park.
 
Does anyone know why the shields have been removed from Valhalla's boats? They look terrible now;



So much for a "themed experience" :(
 
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