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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Dave said:
If you mean IAAPA then yes i imagine she is though the Thompson's are already well connected to IAAPA (and the MACKS it seems). I just like the fact it's still a family run park which is rare for big parks these days.
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Thanks mate that's the job! I'm glad I'm not alone in the desire to have it remain independent. There are very obvious things Merlin could bring, I can't deny that, but I'd rather have slower steady investment/repair and build, and have it maintain it's original feel. Credit to Mandy on that too. She has also worked brilliantly to get quality IPs in which I believe actually quite suit the park in many ways, but has ensured the survival of some very decent attractions.

She does say and do some daft things mind you, but as you say, that's a character and I've warmed to her over the years too, when the Mouse etc topics came up earlier though, that temperature dropped for a while!!
 
The debt is illustrated poorly there. The loans which were taken out for the Nickelodeon Land development have only just started becoming repayable, and is a fair amount of Local Government loan and bank financing. The Wallace and Gromit development has added further to this, and again the true impact hasn't been added to the accounts yet.

The profit warning is quite serious. The guest figures for the period were actually up, but were under budget for what the Nick Land development forecasted. Operating costs have rocketed following the installation, and has resulted in a bottom line loss. If W&G doesn't pull in the guests required, then these new developments won't be sustainable and will be detriment to the parks future.

Unless they turn off the fountains, and focus on capital expenditure that will bring in the crowds, rather than closing several attractions and not replacing them
 
One of the woodies will have to go sooner or later if the park is to develop. My money and hopes are on Big Dipper. It serves no purpose what-so-ever. It's not as classic as the other wooden coasters and takes up a large footprint, plus it's devoid of thrill or character. The structure & station is more iconic than the ride.

Whether she will or not is another question all together.
 
The £99 price is part of their January sale, the passes will return to their previous price at the end of the month.

BPB's season passes have been overpriced for ages, but the price hasn't increased in many years (I know it was £189.60 when Merlin were charging £125 in the days before standard and premium). It's still overpriced now, but not by as much as the price difference between BPB and the competition has decreased.

As for the offer, £94.80 is a pretty good price, I'm rather tempted...
 
Spike said:
Tom said:
I'm sure Adam doesn't want to self-plug, so allow me:

Airgates are running a promotion to enable you to buy a season pass for £94.80 http://airgates.co.uk/2013/01/17/offer-receive-your-discounted-pleasure-beach-season-pass-with-airgates/

Looking at the Blackpool website, it seems that the normal price has now halved to £99? Seems they've finally seen sense as nearly £200 was a joke really.
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They do it every year, just like Merlin do around this time.
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Yeah I know, but there is no mention of a special offer against the £99 and it seems unlikely they'd run an discount with a website that can be used against a half-price offer.
 
I bought a pass last year for £80 and only ended up visiting twice.

Blackpool is a park I always think I should visit more, but in practice, I never would do.
 
That's pretty much the reason why I haven't bought one already.

I'm already planning on visiting in Feb (1/2 price wristbands - mini meet topic coming soon!) and September (TST Merlinpool) at a minimum, and may do some of the CPBE events. It's possible I could get value for money out of it, but at the same time I can't help thinking about my slightly foolish purchase of a DMP season pass last year. If I lived a little further North it would be a no brainer for me, the long train journey that can be pretty expensive is the main thing holding me back.
 
I'll probably invest in a BPB AP this year, already go 5 or 6 times a year which is more than enough to cover it. Ridiculous that even at half price it's the same as the current MAP standard that's also on sale.
 
Let's not forget that only 3-4 years ago, Alton Towers was reporting bottom line losses and I'd suspect that the resorts liabilities are probably more than £25m too!

Blackpools finances appear to be in a much stronger position today than they were 10 years ago. As pointed out, there has been some pretty hefty investment over the last couple of years which is starting to take it's toll. If like for like visitor numbers were up, that's promising if it can be maintained. The park will also start to benefit from the improvements being made in the wider Blackpool area, especially the much improved Tower experience.
 
I didn't even go to BPB once last season... I do feel kind of bad about it, but they keep failing to add anything that actually gets me excited about going back. Sure, I enjoy Mouse and the Nash, but other than that nothing really floats my boat :(
 
haydn! said:
Let's not forget that only 3-4 years ago, Alton Towers was reporting bottom line losses and I'd suspect that the resorts liabilities are probably more than £25m too!

Blackpools finances appear to be in a much stronger position today than they were 10 years ago. As pointed out, there has been some pretty hefty investment over the last couple of years which is starting to take it's toll. If like for like visitor numbers were up, that's promising if it can be maintained. The park will also start to benefit from the improvements being made in the wider Blackpool area, especially the much improved Tower experience.
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It's hard to compare Towers as its part of a group and Tussauds used to put a lot of their debt on Towers name as it was a safe bet for banks. Recently Towers has been folded into a new company for all Merlins parks and rumour has its second best performer in the division.
 
Rumoured to be Chessington - makes sense give that it's not hard to perform financially when you're not really spending on anything :p

Blackpool is a park that I love visiting and feel bad for not going to more often... It would just be nice to see some major new investment now they've shown they can do a great job at repainting a coaster and adding smaller attractions in :)
 
I believe the Lego parks come under their own separate division? The best performing park in the Merlin portfolio when you look at margins, and profit per guest is actually Thorpe Park, or certainly was a few years ago.
 
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