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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Can anybody either post here or PM me the renewal code for Season Passes for £90? I never got the email with code and don't have a FB or Twitter account...
 
There's some very 'interesting' marketing for Vampire Beach this year :tearsofjoy:

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https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/whats-on/vampire-pleasure-beach/
 
Dipper_Dave said:
Real shame they closed at 7 when in years gone by it would have been 10/11/midnight, but fair play for extending beyond 5 and giving at least some dark riding time during school hols..... I don’t think 2 trains on Dipper in school holidays is too much to ask, but great atmosphere today and super effort from all ride staff
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I don't think it was a case of extending beyond 5pm, just not closing earlier than originally advertised. This week has been down as a 7pm finish since the opening times were published at the start of the season, so they were obviously expecting bigger crowds.

The fact that dipper was on one train, nash on one set and big one closing early for no apparent reason would suggest they have fewer guests on park this week than they were expecting.

Today's closing time has been cut to 6pm so looks like another fairly quiet day unfortunately. I wonder if they have messed up with choosing the 7pm week. A lot of areas have half term next week and next week is scheduled to be a 5pm close all week.

Perhaps different areas having half term on different weeks has diluted the crowds somewhat but this seems to be another example of PB not getting the footfall they were looking for.

Don't want to be all doom and gloom (although I am from Yorkshire - as Rob666 will no doubt point out) but this season seems to have been one huge disappointment for the park (and possibly a total disaster). Nowhere near as many guests as they were expecting and probably no more than last year despite a new shiny coaster and very good weather for most of the summer. £16 million spent and nothing to show for it in returns. Perhaps in hindsight they should have spent £16 million saving the wild mouse instead !!

Time to go back to free entry and affordable PPR options perhaps ???? - Sorry if i've just reopened that old can of worms again !
 
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I always keep an eye on half term to duck the queues, seems locally this week for Lancashire, next week for Yorkshire.
Can't help but agree the year has been great for us coaster freaks, but not what the park owners were expecting.
Not that I like agreeing with elderly tykes.
 
rob666 said:
Can't help but agree the year has been great for us coaster freaks, but not what the park owners were expecting.
Not that I like agreeing with elderly tykes.
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I know there have been days where apparently icon did make a little bit of a difference I saw at least I seem to remember somebody saying that.

Is a little bit worrying to say the least.

Is it possible that it might take more than one season for icon to pay for itself?

If they've not had the turnout they were hoping for maybe that might be the thing that gets them to make some changes to their opening times?

One thing that doesn't help is Merlin have much bigger advertising budgets for their attractions and having a most monopoly on the UK theme parks probably aggravate this.
 
shakey said:
I don't think it was a case of extending beyond 5pm, just not closing earlier than originally advertised. This week has been down as a 7pm finish since the opening times were published at the start of the season, so they were obviously expecting bigger crowds.

The fact that dipper was on one train, nash on one set and big one closing early for no apparent reason would suggest they have fewer guests on park this week than they were expecting.

Today's closing time has been cut to 6pm so looks like another fairly quiet day unfortunately. I wonder if they have messed up with choosing the 7pm week. A lot of areas have half term next week and next week is scheduled to be a 5pm close all week.

Perhaps different areas having half term on different weeks has diluted the crowds somewhat but this seems to be another example of PB not getting the footfall they were looking for.
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I know they didn't extend the hours as such, I just meant fair play to them for setting a 7pm close for that week months in advance. But as you say, when other areas within 1-2 hours drive are on half term on different weeks, its a shame they don't book 7pm closes for those weeks too. Perhaps they haven't properly researched who is off when.

What is quite funny though is to watch those with speedy passes jump what is a fairly short queue anyway. On Mon they were gaining very little really for what they paid. I have learnt that SP's go to the front of Avalanche, so head for the back cars if you don't want you seat stolen from under your nose, PMBO is more of a pain in that SP's go to the front, but if you have a half sandbagged train, if you go near the back you'll have to wait an extra train to get on anyway.

I am just glad that my 7pm close wasn't altered as that final hour in the dark was gold. I would have been genuinely gutted if the park had closed an hour earlier than their 'earliest ride close time', especially with kids in tow who had been looking forward to dark rides all afternoon. Apart from something like extreme weather, I think it is really poor to shut an hour earlier than advertised simply because there are not as many people on park as the owners would have hoped for. Unacceptable.
 
This might be straight out of the Merlin school of business but I feel like the ride needs a gimmick to draw people in. Something that really sets it apart from other UK coasters, as I suspect most of the GP don't even realise it's a double launch coaster. Maybe going back to Mack and asking for a spinning trailing car like Blue Fire had or something equally as bonkers.
 
October half term has been a very busy time for PB over the past few years. They've just opened a brand new multi million pound roller coaster, the park should not be quiet. Something is not right.

PB are out of touch with Halloween events IMO, when you have Thorpe, Alton, Chessington and even Dreamland putting on events (even Chessie is open until 8pm!) BPB's one-day event just doesn't cut it anymore. Vampire Beach has proven its popularity yet PB seem unable to build on it - weird.

Ultimately 7pm is a poor closing time for illuminations and they are once again losing out on custom through being too stubborn to change their business model; the paying public are then the ones paying for this through loss of an hour, as has been seen today.

BPB can't keep shafting their guests because their own business model doesn't work. It's shambolic.
 
They do technically have a week of Halloween events, albeit it’s low key.

I agree that it seems strange not to put some more weight behind such an event when there is a proven market out there for this stuff.

Is it perhaps that they feel the Illuminations are already doing a similar job? That’s all I can think.

On the wider issue of poor attendance, I have to admit, I just don’t fully understand the reasons. Marketing perhaps, but that can’t entirely account for what seems to have been a year where there is no apparent increase to visitor numbers. The only other explanation I have is that Wickerman is drawing away crowds. That may be a marketing issue.
 
Late night opening are good at the weekend as you can drive home afterwards like I used to go the wow weekends when wristbands were £10 each and get a b&b £50 for the night with food and booze back then you be spending £120 at least so during main season now a day and night in Blackpool would cost a minimum of £200
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Late night opening are good at the weekend as you can drive home afterwards like I used to go the wow weekends when wristbands were £10 each and get a b&b £50 for the night with food and booze back then you be spending £120 at least so during main season now a day and night in Blackpool would cost a minimum of £200
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Pretty much my problem, cost.

With Alton's season pass at £55, and it being about 90 minutes away from me, then it's fairly cheap for a day out.

Blackpool is about 3 hours away from me and needs to be an overnight stay really. Can't justify the cost of a season pass, as the costs over multiple visits for accomadation would be too high
 
More people now go to Blackpool, but spend less overall.
Large numbers go through the lights without once stepping out of the car.
The town itself is an absolute turd with a very thin layer of glitter.
The vast majority of my punters haven't been in years because of its reputation for drugs, thugs and mugs...as one of my more verbose punters puts it.
This year they have struggled with the trains...I blame dipper Dave...and brexit financial uncertainty has been mentioned more than once at the bar, people are holding on to liquidity "just in case".
 
It’s very simple for me why we haven’t been more than twice this year - poor customer service and not knowing if the park is closing 2 hours earlier or not.

Previous years we’ve visited multiple times and each visit results in Speedy Pass VIP being bought so we are the complete mugs Pleasure Beach want visiting as we supply pure profit.

We’re giving Pleasure Beach a rest next year and won’t be visiting at all, hopefully they’ll improve for 2020.
 
ringo said:
It’s very simple for me why we haven’t been more than twice this year - poor customer service and not knowing if the park is closing 2 hours earlier or not.

Previous years we’ve visited multiple times and each visit results in Speedy Pass VIP bring bought so we are the complete mugs Pleasure Beach want visiting as we supply pure profit.

We’re giving Pleasure Beach a rest next year and won’t be visiting at all, hopefully they’ll improve for 2020.
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I agree.

We still haven't made a decision on renewing our season passes for 2019, my enthusiasm for the rides is still there but even then, one of my favourites is gone and another is a shadow of its former self. Also difficult to justify renewing when turning up on opening day 2019 to find (for example) Nash gone isn't out of the question based on this year's events.

The service this year has gone from poor to worse and availability of certain rides has been shocking yet prices parkwide have risen, and for me Icon isn't enough to make up for all of the above despite being a fun coaster.
 
When you say service has gone downhill, are we talking about the early closes (which are inexcusable) or something else?

Generally I feel that staff at Pleasure Beach are rather good. At least until you have a real problem. On a run of the mill visit though, I find the service pretty good.
 
I very often used to drive to the park for the last 2 or 3 hours of opening. Ever since I went this year only to find the park closed 2 hours earlier than the "earliest closing" time, I haven't been back half as much and doubt I will renew for 2019.

Merlin have many flaws but at least you can guarantee that their parks will be open when they say they will be.
 
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