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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Jamiec94 said:
Put your faith in the owners to get this right, fill the gaps and make the park successful. Accept that this isn't the 90's any more, and that the owners are looking at the park trying to always keep it up the scratch. Remember where the park has come from and be excited for where Amanda and co is going to take it, instead of CONSTANTLY criticising her and her staff for things that sometimes are simply out of control of the park.
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The trouble is the owners have been getting things wrong for a number of years, yes we have Icon and a refreshed children's area, but for me I cannot say that any year in the last 5 has been an improvement on the year before.

Some examples.... Opening times cut year on year, historic rides removed, speedypass introduced - over sold - and poorly implemented, entry fee introduced and now doubled, car park fees massively increased, prohibitive gate prices , rides running under capacity, miss-information, closing earlier than advertised, badly maintained rides, nicland closing an hour early, staggered ride opening, charging for hotel parking....

Have I missed anything ?
 
I enjoy Blackpool Pleasure Beach and think it is one of the better U.K. parks (whether that’s a good thing) and has a varied selection of attractions. However I cannot help but feel the Park has slipped in many ways over the last few years I have been visiting.

Big One is probably one of the worser operated main rides. They seem to take a while loading now. Magnum XL at CP operated far more efficiently in comparison.

The wooden coasters seem to have gotten noticeably rougher in the last few years alone, especially Grand National to the point it’s almost unreadable. Easily the roughest wooden coaster I’ve ridden and makes Stampida look smooth.

The way they removed Wild Mouse was absolutely disgraceful. Whilst it was never to be an easy task, they could’ve at least been open with a statement of the ride as opposed to the news being exposed by fans. The area looks noticeably more bare as a result.

I too have noticed the dramatic parking increases and noticeable decreases in operating hours.

The professionalism with some staff and management is also questionable. Some can be quite friendly, but others rude and unprofessional. On my last visit, Nash closed suddenly and when someone in my group asked if it would reopen a staff member responded very aggressively towards it. I’m unsure if this has always been like this at BPB.

Icon is a great addition to the park, however I cannot help but feel the advertising and promoting could’ve been done a lot better. It feels like they missed a lot of opportunities here and as a result wasn’t as successful as it should’ve been.

The park has more character and soul than Merlin parks in most ways, but still can’t really hold a candle to quite a few of the european parks such as Efteling, Phantasialand and even Liseberg. For some people in the south, it is easier and sometimes cheaper to visit those parks as opposed to trekking to Bpb. They could do so much more than what they already do,
 
"WARNING...The following submission may contain small pieces of undomesticated small rodent".
Something along those lines?
And did you miss anything else shakey?
What about the East Gate.
Dedicated to season pass holders.
And anyone else who wants to get on that way.
When we feel like opening it of course.
And if the wristband printer is working in the Arena after noon.
And if someone has decided to boot up the Arena wristband till.
 
Jamiec94 said:
All I see on here are either people whinging about it being too quiet and how they are 'worried' about the park, OR people whinging that it's too busy and that they are sick of queues, make your minds up
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I shall help you with this. BPB has invested heavily in cleaning the park up, rebranding (to some degree) and of course Nick Land, Skyforce and Icon. It deserves to be busy, not just on the occasional day of decent weather, let's be truthful a 10pm close and warm weather will always bring out the crowds, with or without Sky force, Nick Land and Icon. However while we want BPB to attract the crowds, we also want it to be able to process said crowds in a timely manner. That doesn't involve stacking, 1 train service's and minutes wasted between dispatches.

Jamiec94 said:
Put your faith in the owners to get this right, fill the gaps and make the park successful.
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I am sorry but I would feel safer betting my house on a three legged rocking horse to win next year's National than to trust BPB to get things right. They have gone about destroying things that were regarded as classics world wide with no thought for the chances for final rides on anything since 2006. I include the Whip, Turtle Chase, Noahs Ark and Wild Mouse, not to mention a longer list of rides at Pleasure Land.

They conduct research that tells them the one night of the year they should be open later than any other is switch on night, yet they see fit to continue to close before the sun goes down then open till midnight in November. They see visitor numbers decline and complaints about the entry fee so they doublet the fee.

You seriously want me to trust these people?
 
I’ve got to say I cannot disagree with the majority, if not all, of the sentiments expressed above. Pleasure Beach is not perfect. Indeed there are certain elements which have gotten worse over the years. However, I do feel there is also at least a small case of familiarity breeding contempt here. I still believe that, despite its faults, which are numerous, that the park delivers excellent value for a day out. More so than any of the Merlin parks.

I have to talk in the round, because I’m making comparisons, there are always exceptions. However, when compared to the Merlin parks, which I would consider the other “big” parks in the country, Pleasure Beach wins in many ways:

Shorter queues
Customer service, although perhaps inconsistent, is better on average
The resort hotel is vastly superior
Food locations are more diverse and open
Food quality is on the whole better
Beer is very reasonably priced
Opening hours, whilst reduced, are still better
Cleanliness is better
They hold reasonably regular events, fireworks etc
The location is arguably the best of any UK park for accommodation, other attractions etc
The kids area is superb
Hot Ice is by far the best park show in the UK
It has far and away the most unique selection of rides in the country
The best resort restaurant in the White Tower


I appreciate some of these are subjective, however my overriding point is that Pleasure Beach isn’t that bad. Appreciate that there are positives in the park. I can’t defend some of the short sighted decisions they do make, but the park remains unique and far from the shambles many make it out to be.

Don’t take it for granted, as that’s when we may lose it and then there would be even less competition for the Merlinopoly.
 
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Afternoon Ladies and Gents, heading to Blackpool Pleasure Beach Tuesday August 6th. Bearing in mind its the air show and late night opening that weekend, will the park likely be quieter than your average summer holiday weekday? Just can't make the decision weather to buy a speedy pass or not.

Also (off the Blackpool subject) we are then heading down to towers on a 2 day ticket which although a weekday is sure to be rammed. Does anyone know if you can get discounted fast passes on any of the voucher sites? 100 pounds per person is a ludicrous price (staying in a b and b so the 50% discount offered in the big blue isn't an option) . I went to Portaventura last August and a fast pass for my son and I were around 70 pounds each and that was for the full week we were staying at a portaventura hotel.
 
It does seem like BPB can’t win, no matter what they do people seem to moan.

Opening hours- Times have changed greatly since the 90s, the way people visit parks and buy their tickets has changed in this digital age. People now plan their trips weeks in advance and buy online tickets. They’re far more likely to get to the park and 10am and view it as a day trip making late closings unnecessary during most periods of the year. There are far less casual, walk up visitors these days, you just have to look at how many hotels have closed down in Blackpool as well as the ageing clientele of Blackpool, many of whom would have no interest in visiting the park. This is very different to the 80s and 90s when Blackpool was booming and relied on walk-ups and would keep going till late to accommodate this.

The entrance charge- Basically the same as above. Visitor trends differ now. The wristbands are actually really good value for money when you think about what you actually get for your cash, so of course the park want to discourage people from getting the no rides pass. How many other major U.K. parks offer a non-rider fee? None. BPB do but people still moan purely on the basis that the park used to be free- a time when the park was much tougher and unpleasant and did not feel at all family friendly after certain times in the evening. I am 100% in favour of the entrance fee and those who are riding (which is about 99% of visitors I’d imagine) get better value as a result of it.

Wild Mouse- Yeah ok, the manner in which they removed it wasn’t great, they could have managed it differently but people are talking about it like they’ve committed mass genocide. I remember the uproar back in (I think) 2013 when it was rumoured the mouse would be closing. People were threatening to chain themselves to it. Understandably BPB wouldn’t want to do a “one last ride” event when the Mouse wasn’t capable of achieving throughputs of more than about 200 per hour. Every fanboy and his dog would have turned up at the park if they’d announced it was closing and there’s no way that the ride could have handled that capacity of people.

Other historic rides closing- Whilst I know nostalgia is important to a lot of people, these historic rides are likely to be much more costly to maintain and harder and more costly to constantly keep in a state whereby they comply with modern H&S standards. BPB have made the right decision in closing the less popular or less relevant ones and keeping the more relevant ones such as Nash, Dipper etc. Whilst it would be nice to still have attraction like the Arc, realistically how many guests would actually have ridden it? I mean, I’m baffled that they’ve bothered to keep Impossible. The rides which BPB removes are mostly rides which had reached the end of their shelf life. They’ve done a really good job in preserving so many classics which can’t be an easy or cheap thing to do year in year out. Give credit where credit’s due.

At the end of the day, I’m not saying BPB are perfect but, at the end of the day, they’re are a business same as any other and have to move with the times. They’re in a tricky position in that they have to remain relevant but still respect the nostalgia that people have. A tough job indeed for any park and I’d say that given the difficult position they are in, the usually handle this responsibility well. I think far too many people just cling on to their rose tinted view of the park in the 90s and don’t recognise that this business model just isn’t applicable in this day and age. I’m old and, to me, the 90s seems like only yesterday. But we’re talking about a world 20-25 years ago.
 
Very insightful post @Enter Valhalla; a post that I also agree with quite a lot of.

It might also be worth noting; I certainly don't think BPB had plans to close Wild Mouse at all. For starters, they invested in a new braking system or something like that less than a year before it closed; they wouldn't have done that if they'd known it would be closing. Also, I think the Thompsons do care about the park's heritage; I remember reading a news article around when the Mouse closed saying that Amanda was "in tears" at the prospect of having to demolish the ride.

Furthermore, as you said above, people are trying to get better value for money out of days out in this day and age. If BPB had stuck to free entry and pay-per-ride, the amount of rides the average guest does in a day at the park would likely end up costing far more than the £39 (I think?) that a wristband costs, and that's on the day! At present, there are 43 attractions in the park, and that's excluding the entertainment, so with the on-the-day cost of the wristband, the cost per attraction is approximately £0.91. Compare that to when the park was entirely pay-per-ride in the 1990s; even back then, 1 ride on the Big One cost £4 (taken from the BPB documentary aired in 1997), which when adjusted for inflation comes to £7.22 in 2019 money. The other rides cost £2, which is £3.61 in today's money. So even if you were to only have one ride on each of the 10 coasters (I'm presuming that Icon would also cost £7.22 like the Big One, as they are currently the same price), it would set you back £43.32; £4.32 more than the wristband giving you unlimited access to all 43 rides in the park. So in theory, the park has become substantially better value with the introduction of the wristband. I'd imagine that 90% of visitors to Blackpool use the wristband now, as the park definitely seems to be positioning themselves to be more of a day out.

As for the introduction of the entrance fee, I think it was a good decision. I thought that BPB had an incredibly pleasant, classy and family-friendly atmosphere when I went for the first time last year, and my family seemed to agree. However, my mum visited in the late 90s when entry was free, and she did not have positive things to say about park atmosphere based on her visit back then; she was very pleasantly surprised by how much the park had improved in this regard when we went last year, and she thinks this could be down to the entry fee. Also, wasn't Blackpool in quite a bad financial situation in the 2000s, so wouldn't it have been a decision to ensure the long-term future of the park?

As a final point, it might be worth me noting that Blackpool as a whole has likely seen a decline in visitor numbers. We now live in an era where discount sites like Skyscanner as well as various low-cost airlines can get you to a sunnier seaside destination in a country like Spain for less money than it costs some people to get to Blackpool in petrol. For that reason, less people are visiting Britain's seaside towns as a whole than 20 years ago, so BPB have to adjust to this and market themselves more as a standalone park than they did back in the 1990s in order to attract custom.
 
Nice day on park today with the only sad face due to Dipper only being on one train and therefore generating a queue I CBA to wait in (especially with Icon munching the queue on 2 trains and running beautifully!)

There was a good atmosphere on park, staff were excellent as usual and decent queue lines helped by a seemingly low number of queue jumpers (sorry, SpeedyPass holders) which let the main queue flow nicely!

Random question for anyone in the know... how many boats is Valhalla running at the moment? There seemed an age between boats!
 
D4n said:
Valhalla is currently running 5 boats, resulting in a throughput around 300pph.

Shocking.
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Thankies :) I was guessing at 4 as there was such a long wait for a boat to exit the ride! It opened late today and there was a chunky queue when I left around quarter to five as the sun had just come out! The queue was hardly moving, it looked like a looooong wait :(
 
Out of interest, which row do you guys think is your favourite row on Icon? I've ridden it before, but I managed to ride it in row 2 and row 6; I didn't get it in either dead front or dead back. I seem to remember preferring row 6 last time, but I wonder if Icon is any different in the very front row or the very back row. Part of me would quite like to queue for the front of Icon when I visit BPB in August, as I think there's a separate front row queue, and I loved Nemesis on the front when I went to Alton in June, so I wonder whether the same would be true on Icon.
 
D4n said:
Valhalla is currently running 5 boats, resulting in a throughput around 300pph.

Shocking.
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You're kidding? That is absolutely mental.

I think BPB need to seriously regroup, at this stage. I do like Valhalla, but it's clear it's far too expensive for the park to operate within the park's current financial and operational framework. Icon was also very expensive, and is pretty expensive to run, too. It's too late now, but I seriously think they would have been better with a couple of flat rides and a few mid-tier coasters. The inevitable redux of PMBO is on the horizon, and I suspect that might be the next 'major' coaster we see at the park. That will also cost, but will likely be easily marketable as, yes, 'The Bigger One'.

Also, while I appreciate the enthusiasm and statistical nous of some in this thread, it's pointless equating the pay-one-price ticket tier of the nineties with the wristband system of modern times. Ah, to revisit BPB in the early noughties, when both systems sat alongside one another. Coaster nirvana. ;-)

I expect there are few easy answers for some of their woes, but the politics and management of BPB remain interesting to an outsider, at the very least.
 
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@Matt N I really cant decide on my favourite row on Icon! I rode 4 times today, 2 back row and 2 front and my favourite is the one I'm on at the time :p

Front row is a great "wind in your face" rush, awesome over the top hat and feels so fast! It was a bit crazy early in the year when cold NW temperatures, speedy coasters and water mist combined nicely to freeze my face off :D Back row gives amazing airtime over the top hat and the most incredible floaty airtime after the second launch and Immelman :)

There is now a dedicated front row queue so you'll be able to get on the front for sure. The staff are great and are generally happy to let you ride on the back row and then fill spaces in front with less fussy (geeky) peeps if you ask nicely when you get to the ticket scan point ;)

Enjoy your next visit and definitely ride front and back to see which you prefer :cool:
 
Plastic Person said:
I do like Valhalla, but it's clear it's far too expensive for the park to operate
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I was thinking the same myself watching hardly any boats running which is why I asked the question about boat count. All the electricity to pump the water around and work the effects and hardly any guests floating along to see it! It would surely make more sense to close it until more boats are available?

It also looks ridiculous and members of the public were questioning the lack of boats and slow queue while I was hovering about watching the ride
 
On recent trips to BPB I've started checking the sign in the Valhalla station stating the number of boats in service as it can make such a difference to the queue time. It's bad enough on 8 on a busy day as speedy pass takes a fairly big chunk of the 600 or so per hour it'd be getting so with just 5 boats it must be an utter misery to wait for. Hopefully they've done the sensible thing and cut speedy pass allocations accordingly.
 
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