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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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shakey said:
Yes, the park should be giving out a standard speedypass to the disabled person (and another guest) - We will have to disagree on how many other guests should get a free speedy.

The trouble is that at Blackpool this is not what happens. Anyone with an EvE wristband, and their guest can simply jump the queue on any ride at any time without waiting. And it looks as though the new system also gives them a VIP+ pass for 9 of the busiest rides on the park. Meaning no waiting, virtual or otherwise.

I don't have a problem with disabled guests not standing in queue lines. My partner has severe osteoarthritis and is eligible for a disabled pass for very good reason (unfortunately her condition also means she is unable to ride most of the coasters). What I do have a problem with is disabled guests not being made to wait in a virtual queue when they have a system in place that can do that.
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I completely agree, it should be used as another way to wait, not to skip the queue altogether.

I think 4 is a fair number including the pass holder but obviously everyone's opinion will differ. I think 1 other person (BPB) is too low but Merlin's upto 8 is too high.
 
siralgenon said:
I completely agree, it should be used as another way to wait, not to skip the queue altogether.

I think 4 is a fair number including the pass holder but obviously everyone's opinion will differ. I think 1 other person (BPB) is too low but Merlin's upto 8 is too high.
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I thought it was 6 for Towers?

(Also I think this convo should move to the Access pass discussion thread)
 
Going back to the current Blackpool system, I was advised, twice, by ride staff, of how it "should" work.
You select a ride.
You go and ride via exit/speedypass gate.
You select your next ride.
When you have waited for the queuetime of your first ride, you go to the second ride exit/passgate.
So over a typical day, the eve passholder gets, in effect, one extra ride free.
They in effect, queue for each ride after they have ridden it.
However, during the opening weeks, it just sent you to the next ride without a wait.
Teething problems, to be sorted by the main season I was told.
Anyone heard if the arena gate will be open?
 
rob666 said:
Going back to the current Blackpool system, I was advised, twice, by ride staff, of how it "should" work.
You select a ride.
You go and ride via exit/speedypass gate.
You select your next ride.
When you have waited for the queuetime of your first ride, you go to the second ride exit/passgate.
So over a typical day, the eve passholder gets, in effect, one extra ride free.
They in effect, queue for each ride after they have ridden it.
However, during the opening weeks, it just sent you to the next ride without a wait.
Teething problems, to be sorted by the main season I was told.
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If it works properly then it is a step in the right direction, but I still think it should be implemented for all rides and not just 9 of them. At the moment you can still walk straight onto any other ride at any time you want with an EVE pass.

rob666 said:
Anyone heard if the arena gate will be open?
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I am sure there is some complicated formula that the pleasure beach use to open the gate based on wind direction, tide currents and number of seagulls overhead - but I haven't worked it out yet !
 
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To be fair, last year was better than the year before.
Always open mornings, if no till slip security to the Arena tills, and when their wristband printer is dead again, body swerve arena security to get a band at guest services.
But that was pre virus.
Now we have etickets, with pictures.
Scary for luddites.
 
skyscraper said:
I think the PB is too compact for a system like that actually. It works at Towers because the rides are so spread out- by the time you've walked to your next ride the time will've elapsed. With the PB you'd have to walk aimlessly around to fill the time.
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But if you are not disabled you still need to wait in a queue line before riding.
The access pass is there to either allow people to avoid stairs or to allow them to wait elsewhere because they cannot handle being in the queue line in close proximity to others.
It is not designed to give a shorter wait than able-bodied people have. I can't say Nemesis has a 30 minute wait but it took 20 minutes to walk to the ride so I only want to wait 10 minutes.
 
Maybe in the future we will see a full speedy pass type of system implemented for every guest on the park.

So the only queuing done would be virtual queuing . They could still up-sell VIP versions that give shorter wait time.

There would be no need for a separate disabled system (apart from to avoid steps)

And with a system like that, punters will spend money while they are waiting in their virtual queues... arcades, games, shops, bars, ice cream.... anything to pass the time. I could see that being a big money earner for a park like Blackpool if they ever implemented it.
 
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shakey said:
Maybe in the future we will see a full speedy pass type of system implemented for every guest on the park.

So the only queuing done would be virtual queuing . They could still up-sell VIP versions that give shorter wait time.

There would be no need for a separate disabled system (apart from to avoid steps)

And with a system like that, punters will spend money while they are waiting in their virtual queues... arcades, games, shops, bars, ice cream.... anything to pass the time. I could see that being a big money earner for a park like Blackpool if they ever implemented it.
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This would actually suit Pleasure Beach IMO simply for the fact that the rides don't have much space to queue in in the first place. I wouldn't recommend it for larger parks like Towers as the queue lines can handle the people but I think it would work well in Blackpool.
 
rob666 said:
Now we have etickets, with pictures.
Scary for luddites.
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? You have to upload a photo for every booking at the moment, do you?

Edit: Just read the very in depth info on their website. All seems clear enough so fair play to them for putting such good info on. They also say that if you prefer not to use your phone or paper E-ticket you can on the day still go to Guest Services (Soda Fountain for the old timers) and be given a wristband. Sounds like a good idea. Not sure I can be bothered getting the phone out joining every ride or tatty paper ticket out of pocket
 
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Just been reading through the details of the new system and it looks like scanning on every ride will return in 2021, the difference is you will be able to use your phone or paper eticket (as well as wristband option) to scan on the ride. And it looks as though you will be able to scan once for multiple people.

More potential to create utter chaos :fearscream:

https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/eticket/
 
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shakey said:
Just been reading through the details of the new system and it looks like scanning on every ride will return in 2021, the difference is you will be able to use your phone or paper eticket (as well as wristband option) to scan on the ride. And it looks as though you will be able to scan once for multiple people.

More potential to create utter chaos :fearscream:

https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/eticket/
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I thought the whole point of wristbands was so they weren't transferable.
Although I expect most guests won't go to the effort of doing this, but you could get an entry pass for someone and then share the "wristband" ride ticket so they can go ride some rides. So with four attendees, two get "wristbands" and hand the printout to the other two after riding.
 
jon81uk said:
I thought the whole point of wristbands was so they weren't transferable.
Although I expect most guests won't go to the effort of doing this, but you could get an entry pass for someone and then share the "wristband" ride ticket so they can go ride some rides. So with four attendees, two get "wristbands" and hand the printout to the other two after riding.
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You have to upload a photo for your ticket so I'm guessing staff will be checking your photo against each person.
 
Yes, it would also be pretty easy to enforce from a technical perspective if the existing infrastructure allowed for it (though I suspect that PBB’s barcoding system may be much simpler). You could prevent a barcode from being scanned more than once within say a 5 minute window. Basically long enough to ensure that a group can’t all access on the same code, but not so long that it blocks you from quickly going to another ride if the first one was walk on and had a fairly short ride cycle.

However, like I say, I don’t know how sophisticated the system used at PBB is. It could be as simple as the barcodes being encoded with the date and time that they are issued, which is used to say “Was this band issued today?”. That would then mean access can then easily be calculated by the turnstile at each ride, as oppose to using a centralised system with all turnstiles networked together. If that was the case it might be a bit trickier to implement, though not impossible if the turnstiles are capable of storing codes scanned in the last 5 minutes to lookup against and prevent double scans, and each barcode contained a unique identifier to distinguish it from other wristbands. Some barcode scanner actually have double-scan prevention built in to stop two codes being scanned in quick succession, but I think these are only normally used one code deep.

Does anyone know anything about how the system is actually set up at the park? I’ve never really looked at it in any sort of detail, but it probably wouldn’t be too hard to figure out by comparing a couple of barcodes from the same day to identify any patterns.
 
I don't think the current system is very sophisticated at all, if it does anything other than check the validity of the wristband I'd be surprised. I once rode Mouse several times back to back when it was walk on, so you can't really have a time-out of any more than a couple of minutes.

From my own experience with the equipment, if you try to push the turnstile too soon it sometimes won't unlock, even if the scanner accepts the wristband, so you have to rescan - it seems that there's nothing to stop the same wristband being scanned more than once at a single location (though I've not tested this in any depth).
 
Plus you now scan your wristband directly on the entrance turnstiles instead of a separate ticket. Did anyone visit back in Feb and do this?
 
skyscraper said:
Plus you now scan your wristband directly on the entrance turnstiles instead of a separate ticket. Did anyone visit back in Feb and do this?
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Yes, that was working in February on opening weekend.

So assuming that in 2021 your e-ticket will have your photo and your barcode on, either on your phone or on paper. That's just another faff for ride staff to check photos - if they can be bothered.

Also not sure how having multiple people on one e-ticket will work, unless it shows photos of everyone in the group ? - but it would be quite difficult to display 4 photos and barcode on a small phone screen and make them big enough for ride staff to see.
 
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John_P said:
Renewed my pass for 2021, for £48 it's a bargain.
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It seems a bit early to be paying for next season's pass renewals, but at that price its a no-brainer. Must have missed your post, I just logged on to state my intention to keep my 2020 pass instead of deferring it. I thought then that the discounted 2021pass would just be activated later in then season with some kind of payment deadline, but it pretty much adds it to your basket and expects you to pay there and then. I've done it anyway.

Also booked my E-ticket for Sunday. Do we even know if Crevettes will be open? My expectations are not high for this visit, it could well be a dog's dinner, but going by the park's website they seem well prepared. I'm not sure if they were due to open til 7 anyway or if its a kind of sweetener because it may be frustrating trying to get on rides, empty rows left, etc. But even with a Sunday WOW weekend visit, it seems a very long time since I've been, its been like closed season all over again, so I'm chomping at the bit to go. Streak could be a nightmare to get on, one train with half the rows blocked off, and speedy passers to get on. May have to be first thing ride for that.

Just saw article about possible local lockdowns for high risk areas, I am a bit surprised that Blackpool wasn't amongst the 36 places listed, fingers crossed it stays that way. Do we still not know what the daily visitor number is capped at?
 
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