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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Icon sitting pretty on the front page of today's Grauniad.

Nice to see it finally get some national publicity. ;-)
 
I went to Sunday and I was surprised at how well they did. Lots of rides were available and the queues were pretty short. They managed to enforce the mask rule which really surprised me as that is where I thought they would fall down but nope. Most people were making an effort to stick to distancing in the queue and wearing masks in the queues too. I would certainly good back in the current situation.

The only issue was closing early. I didn't mind too much as I was ready to go home at that point but I at about 5:30 the weather got awful so I get why they closed. Before that it was windy but there were a few sunny spells. Got on lots of rides so I have no complaints.
 
They didnt close early because of the weather, they closed early because expected gate numbers failed to materialise
They planned for the tartan army arrival, but they are (or were) still pretty much grounded.
With all the extra staff, I dont think there were any profits from Sunday.
They had six staff working the east gate, normally two, then another three outside the arena.
 
About the wind, I had forgotten just how sheltered the park is, behind Ocean Boulevard buildings & amongst the rides, station buildings, restaurants, etc. Very windy walking back to the car & it was blowing a hooley a few miles down the coast in Lytham as we attempted to eat take away fish & chips in it. Its easy to be in the park and feel annoyed that The Big One is shut when it doesn't feel windy in there. Yet it is out there, and up there.

Good to get straight in at East entrance. Once your E-ticket is scanned, you don't have to present it for the rest of the day. I think the park did as well as can be expected. Sanitiser at each ride, queue spacings marked out, enforcing face masks, etc. I was a little surprised to have to wear the mask on every ride though. The advance info said that it would be required on some rides, yet it appeared to be every one when you get there. On the likes of River Caves, 3 people from same party / household in a boat wearing masks seems totally OTT, when you don't even come close to another boat. Did anyone encounter a ride where you didn't need masks?

Have to say I don't really get the stopping to clean the seats thing. I mean you can sanitise your hands right before and after getting on the ride anyway. Not sure how often this is taking place but I got hit with the wait on most rides. To give an idea of how much it impacts queues, we joined Icon (2 trains) with queue halfway back past the station, then it stopped for cleaning, then by the time it restarted, the queue was outside the gate. Also I presume that the whole system needs restarting after a certain number of minutes, as a few empty trains went by after each break. It was particularly slow on Nash too. Oh and Ghost Train because one man was spraying / wiping down every car by himself. It was bearable in that it was just nice to get back after a few months of closure, and the park wasn't too busy. If numbers pick up this Summer, it will be very slow getting on rides.

On bits of metal flying off rides 'all the time', I am yet to see it happen once.

@rob666 on which ride did you give a ball-locking to people not keeping their distance? I must say that the Avalanche station corridor & steps up were a nightmare for this. Plenty of people looked to be standing only a foot or two away from those in front. I think particularly for rides with sections of queue that are out of sight of staff, they could make announcements reminding people to stand behind the yellow line, but as we know from Revolution, they are probably not listening anyway. I fear it will be stupid people like these not obeying the rules that will have us back to square one. One thing they did well on Avalanche was to stagger the exits, so the back car got off first, and so on, to the front of the train, at the Op's instruction, cleverly avoiding the usual huddle to get through the exit door onto the steps. Still, painfully slow on one train. Wouldn't have bothered if had figured that out first.

Shame about the early closure but with no Big One, Flying Machines and Wild Mouse we had done everything we wanted to by then anyway. Pizza Hut outside still not open yet.
 
No rodent alert there dippy, shakey will be in tears.
No ball locking, just a polite request to the young uns behind me in the Icon queue to back up a bit, they were happy to do so with a smile and nod.
I want one of the Icon space markers they have put on the fence...better for spacing than floor markings.
Would make a good virus souvenir to go with the funshine/Icon masks.
With the size of my gob, I need two.

Now is a tricky time for me.
Following the forecast, I was up at five, worked six until nine, then got rained off.
Usually use such as an excuse for the Beach...but didnt book last night, so I cant play out.
My rainy day impule coastering...always the best, has lost its spontaneity.
I havent been to the Beach in ages...

Might just check things out with the lovely people in customer services.
 
Not sure what BPB are using for hand sanitizer, but you might well be over the limit after a day there with the alcohol you"ll have absorbed. It's powerful stuff.

I was half expecting to see the odd person with a shot class filling it up from those pumps.
 
FreakOut said:
We also visited yesterday, to which was rarther eventful.

We ended up eating at Burger King by the Banked Hill of the Dipper’ near the new hotel entrance/exit for further reference. Anyway, eating away then all of a sudden a Big Bang hit the floor which came flying off one of the Cars on dipper. It was one of the anti rollbacks on the car that had just passed. Anyway reported it and took the part to guest services.

Took 2 rides managers 20 minutes to come to guest services to talk to me, to which (whom
I won’t name) we’re very arrogant and said because it didn’t hit me or hurt anyone they can’t really do anything about it, and compared it to a motor way, and that these things are a common occurrence and happen all the time? Not a reassuring comment considering I used to work for towers myself.

ANYWAY! Came off the big one and said ride managers literally pointed at us from a Distance which we saw from the Big One exit so went over to see what the issue was, little did I know it was the Park Operations manager who then escorted me to Guest Services for a full refund and further information and told me that the way those two acted was unacceptable! He was a very nice man so hats off to him, just didn’t appreciate the arrogance and how I was spoken to in the first place by two “ride managers”.
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I think that BPB has historically the PB hasn't had the best
rob666 said:
I was driving...so no.
And I know there was free sanitiser, but £2.85 for a tiny bottle in the Icon shop is a little excessive!
Even the young lady on the till blushed when I pointed it out.
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It's branded though @rob666 !

My local garage is selling a similar size for £2.50 so considering it's a themepark I don't see at as too bad. And as you say, there was plenty of free stuff around, so it would be personal choice.
 
Asking for masks on all rides makes sense in terms of keeping it simple. No arguing why this one and not that one. People get into a good habit of just putting them on. I would say personally I think having them in the lines more so than the rides makes sense because that is where people are going to be close together because we know people can't estimate distance well.

I'd feel comfortable going back and had a nice time there.

I really enjoyed not having to scan a wrist band. It slows things down and sometimes it doesn't work and I have to twist my wrist in a weird position. Without wrist bands everything seemed really smooth. I hope they are gone for good. I also home they change it so that you can just scan your annual pass to get in.
 
Error said:
Brand is just a name, no need to charge a fortune for it....just plain greed.
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I don't think it's plain greed - they have lots of free hand Sanitiser around the park. Greed would be making people buy it.

What they are doing is offering people the option of buying a bottle to keep with them. If you don't want to buy one you can either bring your own or use the copious amounts of free stuff.

Also, given the park will likely make a loss of £millions this year you can surely give them a pass on this one.
 
Error said:
Brand is just a name, no need to charge a fortune for it....just plain greed.
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It's hardly greed, you'll pay more for any brand on the planet, it's hardly out of the ordinary. I'm pretty sure I've seen somewhere that Thorpe Park were selling sanitiser at £5 a bottle so I think upto £3 is more than fair for a theme park.

I think all the parks have set out the Coronavirus restrictions very well, the problem is getting the guests to stick to them.
 
Orange Ribena said:
Asking for masks on all rides makes sense in terms of keeping it simple. No arguing why this one and not that one. People get into a good habit of just putting them on. I would say personally I think having them in the lines more so than the rides makes sense because that is where people are going to be close together because we know people can't estimate distance well.

I'd feel comfortable going back and had a nice time there.

I really enjoyed not having to scan a wrist band. It slows things down and sometimes it doesn't work and I have to twist my wrist in a weird position. Without wrist bands everything seemed really smooth. I hope they are gone for good. I also home they change it so that you can just scan your annual pass to get in.
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We went as a family of four on Sunday. The first time I have been to BPB in 15 years and had a great time. The mask wearing was fine, although I struggled with it at first wearing glasses. My 7 year old kept his mask on pretty much the whole day due to a lung condition he has had previously. I felt the social distancing was very well policed by both BPB staff and the visitors.

The bathrooms were constantly being cleaned near Revolution and I was really impressed. The whole family had a great day.

The only one worrying note of the day was queuing up for Revolution with the high winds. I didn't feel safe at all so made myself and my eldest son to come back down.

I can't believe they have not spent some money since I last went on enclosing that stairway.
 
Ils said:
The only one worrying note of the day was queuing up for Revolution with the high winds. I didn't feel safe at all so made myself and my eldest son to come back down.

I can't believe they have not spent some money since I last went on enclosing that stairway.
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It’s been like that since 1979! Can you imagine how claustrophobic it would be having that enclosed? I’ve stood on there in wind, yes you feel it, but the railings are high enough that it would take a cyclone to blow someone over them, and if there was one then the place would shut anyway. The wind and feeling the platform wobble when the ride is going are part of the fun
 
Ils said:
We went as a family of four on Sunday. The first time I have been to BPB in 15 years and had a great time. The mask wearing was fine, although I struggled with it at first wearing glasses. My 7 year old kept his mask on pretty much the whole day due to a lung condition he has had previously. I felt the social distancing was very well policed by both BPB staff and the visitors.

The bathrooms were constantly being cleaned near Revolution and I was really impressed. The whole family had a great day.

The only one worrying note of the day was queuing up for Revolution with the high winds. I didn't feel safe at all so made myself and my eldest son to come back down.

I can't believe they have not spent some money since I last went on enclosing that stairway.
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I'm glad to hear they're doing a good job with the Coronavirus precautions.

As for the Revolution, I realise it's windy up there and it can move slightly but it's no different to any water slide tower or anything other attraction with external stairs. There's no need to enclose it although it would be nice to have a partial roof over the station.
 
Ils said:
The only one worrying note of the day was queuing up for Revolution with the high winds. I didn't feel safe at all so made myself and my eldest son to come back down.

I can't believe they have not spent some money since I last went on enclosing that stairway.
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Enclosing it would make it worse, as the wind hitting the solid side would surely make it more likely the whole thing will fall over.
 
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