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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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The ride's dynamics have changed very little in the 20 years minimum. I would suggest it is older, unfit bodies that are possibly becoming sensitive to it.
 
Each time I visit I always see small children on both Mouse and Grand National, then a significant reduction in this demographic when riding PMBO. I've always thought both are family thrills, or at least they should be when not attempting to deform the skeletal assembly.
 
It's utter nonsense to say that wild mouse is not a thrill ride. It probably provides more thrills than most modern coasters.

And of course pleasure beach is a family park. So is alton towers and almost every other park.
 
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I am not disputing that Wild Mouse isn't thrilling - it's a great coaster and one of the best in the country. It's just crazy. What I am saying is that kids will easily, without too much concern, ride it. This is simply not going to be the case with the Pepsi Max Big One. Simply due to its scale. It is the same with many large coasters. Silver Star at Europa-Park is, ostensibly, a thrill ride. But in truth, the far smaller, family appealing Eurosat is more intense... even if the park would internally reckon that Silver Star is the more obvious thrill ride than Eurosat. If you asked BPB whether PMBO or Wild Mouse was considered the most marketable thrill ride, PMBO would win every time.

If Wild Mouse was to close, it would be a dark day for the park. Nickelodeon Streak is boring so I am less concerned.
 
Regardless of how we personally perceive Wild Mouse, I think that the majority of the public see it as a family ride. Kids love it, and most people now expect thrill rides to be tall, striking and 'scary' looking, which Wild Mouse is not.

Other than PMBO, infusion and possibly Skyforce most of BPB's rides are family rides. That doesn't mean they are boring or provide no thrills. In the same way as Disney rides they have low height restrictions, don't break loads of records and can be enjoyed by adults, teenagers and kids. This isn't a problem, some family coasters can be pretty thrilling. Anyone who's ridden LIsebergbahn will understand what I mean here. But this is why I really don't think it's fair for BPB fans to dismiss Disney as kids parks because this simply isn't the case. I find that a day at Hollywood Studios for example provides just as many thrill as BPB if not more.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Regardless of how we personally perceive Wild Mouse, I think that the majority of the public see it as a family ride....
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The mouse could be viewed as a family ride by some who have not ridden it, but they will probably not have the same view once they have been on it. Also the height restrictions are the joint highest on the park at 1.32m so small kids can't ride it anyway, and on my visits I have seen very few under 12's riding it.

Enter Valhalla said:
Other than PMBO, infusion and possibly Skyforce most of BPB's rides are family rides...
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Sky force is actually much more of a family ride than the mouse. The height restrictions or less and the ride itself is a fairly sidate affair if you don't want to spin it. In fact my 8 year old loves it but he won't go on wild mouse even though he is just tall enough.

It is true that you get younger kids riding more of the rides at pleasure beach but that is mainly due to the lower height restrictions in place. If you could reduce the height restrictions on some of the towers coasters then I am sure loads of kids would ride them too, and more families with 6-9 year olds would be attracted to the place. Kids are much more adventurous these days.

A final note on ride types...

Here is my attempt to quantify a type of ride :)

Kids Ride - A ride that adults/teenagers will probably not want to ride unless they are with younger kids.
Family Ride - A ride that can be enjoyed by all age groups from the very young to the very old.
Thrill Ride - A ride where the main elements are designed to assert G forces on the rider

So a lot of rides will go into more than one category.
 
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Enter Valhalla said:
Regardless of how we personally perceive Wild Mouse, I think that the majority of the public see it as a family ride. Kids love it, and most people now expect thrill rides to be tall, striking and 'scary' looking, which Wild Mouse is not.
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Part of the reason the Mouse is so good is that it looks so innocent and takes you by surprise.
 
Track work has begun on the Grand National and has been finished for the time being, I am expecting that there's going to be a lot more of it done over the winter months before the new season. I wouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't open in February considering it does need a lot of track work doing to it, something us BPB fans are likely to be keeping an eye on over the closed season.

Nickelodeon Streak isn't likely to be removed, or go onto two trains anytime soon, the question mark over the Wild Mouse's future has been there for at least 3 years now and while people in the park continue to tell us regulars that it'll be going at the end of the season, it's difficult to believe it has a long term future at BPB.

In terms of the Disney debate that was going on a few pages back, I left DLP in June with the feeling that it was more suited to children than an adult, there's no denying they have a few thrill rides (some of them very good) but it mostly felt like a kids park and I really didn't enjoy the overall experience, I thought the staff were extremely rude throughout the park too which was a surprise. I will try the American Disney parks when I visit Florida but DLP is somewhere I have no intention of going back to for a lot of years.
 
Disneyland Paris does have easily as many thrill rides as BPB though, if not more. The whole thing that I find odd is how BPB fans constantly seem to dismiss Disney as kids parks yet BPB has very little in the way of what a modern public would class as thrill rides. Shakey's point of how kids ride most of BPB's coasters and are more adventurous nowadays highlights my point that, whilst BPB's coasters used to be seen as intense thrill rides, they are no longer viewed as such. This doesn't make them bad rides, they do the job of being family rides very well and are popular as such. But nobody can say Disney is a kids park and then in the next breath claim that BPB is a park full of thrill rides. That attitude is either ignorant or delusional.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Disneyland Paris does have easily as many thrill rides as BPB though, if not more. The whole thing that I find odd is how BPB fans constantly seem to dismiss Disney as kids parks yet BPB has very little in the way of what a modern public would class as thrill rides. Shakey's point of how kids ride most of BPB's coasters and are more adventurous nowadays highlights my point that, whilst BPB's coasters used to be seen as intense thrill rides, they are no longer viewed as such. This doesn't make them bad rides, they do the job of being family rides very well and are popular as such. But nobody can say Disney is a kids park and then in the next breath claim that BPB is a park full of thrill rides. That attitude is either ignorant or delusional.
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I find more thrill on the rides at BPB than any other park in the country, therefore I consider a lot of them to be thrill rides - the fact that families can ride them doesn't change how thrilling they are as it is purely down to height restrictions.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Disneyland Paris does have easily as many thrill rides as BPB though, if not more. The whole thing that I find odd is how BPB fans constantly seem to dismiss Disney as kids parks yet BPB has very little in the way of what a modern public would class as thrill rides. Shakey's point of how kids ride most of BPB's coasters and are more adventurous nowadays highlights my point that, whilst BPB's coasters used to be seen as intense thrill rides, they are no longer viewed as such. This doesn't make them bad rides, they do the job of being family rides very well and are popular as such. But nobody can say Disney is a kids park and then in the next breath claim that BPB is a park full of thrill rides. That attitude is either ignorant or delusional.
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I didn't claim Pleasure Beach was a park full of thrill rides, my point is/was I left DLP feeling like it was a park aimed at children rather than adults but not denying there is a few thrill rides there.

I wouldn't define the Wild Mouse as a family ride, I consider rides like Alice in Wonderland, W&G etc to be aimed mostly at children and families, the Wild Mouse is a thrill ride and certainly not for the faint hearted, just because a child or young teenager goes on it doesn't make it a family ride, if that was the case then I think we'd have to define everything as a family ride.

As enthusiasts we may not view the rides at Pleasure Beach as intense thrill rides but that's not to say others don't take that view, the general public still consider the likes of The Swarm and Air as intense thrill rides when in reality there's nothing to them at all and you get far more of a thrill from something like the Wild Mouse. They are completely different rides from different eras, I know that, but the point is us enthusiasts have a totally different view on what is and isn't an intense thrill ride compared to your average non enthusiast.
 
More thrill on the rides than at any other park in the country? Which rides specifically are you referring to here? You can't honestly tell me that you think that BPB's coasters are more thrilling than the likes of Megafobia, Nemesis, Stealth and The Ultimate? BPB has fun family rides which can provide some thrills but they are really not that intense for a modern public. I like them and they're still fun rides but in terms of intensity they really aren't up there with a lot of the UK's other coasters.

Going back to BPB's high rating in the Golden Ticket Awards, which I believe is what started this debate, I think that the uniqueness counts a lot for the reasons as to why ACE and other organisations rated BPB so highly. It's certainly a very unique park in the UK and has a lot of character which is why I love the place. But do the public really care about that? Probably not. British public seem to be very rides focussed and see BPB as a park with mainly 'old fashioned' rides whilst other UK park provide the modern thrill rides that a modern public expect. The UK audience being rides focussed also explains why theming and attention to detail seem to be so less important in this country than elsewhere in Europe.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
More thrill on the rides than at any other park in the country? Which rides specifically are you referring to here? You can't honestly tell me that you think that BPB's coasters are more thrilling than the likes of Megafobia, Nemesis, Stealth and The Ultimate? BPB has fun family rides which can provide some thrills but they are really not that intense for a modern public. I like them and they're still fun rides but in terms of intensity they really aren't up there with a lot of the UK's other coasters.

Going back to BPB's high rating in the Golden Ticket Awards, which I believe is what started this debate, I think that the uniqueness counts a lot for the reasons as to why ACE and other organisations rated BPB so highly. It's certainly a very unique park in the UK and has a lot of character which is why I love the place. But do the public really care about that? Probably not. British public seem to be very rides focussed and see BPB as a park with mainly 'old fashioned' rides whilst other UK park provide the modern thrill rides that a modern public expect. The UK audience being rides focussed also explains why theming and attention to detail seem to be so less important in this country than elsewhere in Europe.
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Yeah, I find several of BPB's coasters more thrilling than those coasters listed, Grand National and Wild Mouse are on par with Megafobia in terms of thrill level IMO and I find PMBO more thrilling than the likes of Stealth and The Ultimate.

I don't find a lot of coasters thrilling that are marketed as such and I find much more thrill in the coasters at BPB.
 
Jamie said:
Yeah, I find several of BPB's coasters more thrilling than those coasters listed, Grand National and Wild Mouse are on par with Megafobia in terms of thrill level IMO and I find PMBO more thrilling than the likes of Stealth and The Ultimate.

I don't find a lot of coasters thrilling that are marketed as such and I find much more thrill in the coasters at BPB.
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Well everybody is entitled to their opinions but to be honest I don't think that your opinions represent the views of the majority of enthusiasts or the general public. You finding Grand National as thrilling as Megafobia and finding PMBO more thrilling than Stealth is an opinion which I really can't get my head around. It's a very strange opinion if you ask me but, as I say, everyone is entitled to their opinions, I just can't understand this, that's all.
 
Disneyland Paris has Space Mountain Mission 2.

One of the most intense coasters in Europe.
 
You can say what you like about BPB's line up not impressing the so called modern public, but the parks attendance has not dropped massively in years, despite the fact nothing of any significance has gone in since 2000. Care to name any other park that would manage that? Of course that excludes the drop when free entry was scrapped but only a fool would expect that not to have an impact.

Ash
 
Also only a fool would suggest that BPB achieves anywhere near the success that Alton Towers or Thorpe Park does. The lack of major new rides and reliance on outdated technology and nostalgia keeps the park out of the UK big league. It's still an enjoyable place to visit but the UK public don't think of it in the same league as more major parks. It doesn't get anywhere near as busy. Whilst BPB don't publish their attendance figures it's pretty clear that it's a smaller park with rides which are much lower capacity than the major UK parks yet the queues never get particularly excessive, despite the land size of the park being just a fraction of others in the UK.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Also only a fool would suggest that BPB achieves anywhere near the success that Alton Towers or Thorpe Park does. The lack of major new rides and reliance on outdated technology and nostalgia keeps the park out of the UK big league. It's still an enjoyable place to visit but the UK public don't think of it in the same league as more major parks. It doesn't get anywhere near as busy. Whilst BPB don't publish their attendance figures it's pretty clear that it's a smaller park with rides which are much lower capacity than the major UK parks yet the queues never get particularly excessive, despite the land size of the park being just a fraction of others in the UK.
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I wouldn't be so sure, this year BPB has been rammed over the summer (apart from bad weather days, no-one seems to visit if it's raining) and these September weekends whilst Thorpe and Alton have been struggling with attendances. Not saying that there more guests in actual gate figures, but the park does seem to have been much busier this year than previously.

As for capacity, Thorpe rarely run their rides on full capacity so it's probably quite similar, plus factor in that there's probably at least three rides closed which further reduces this...
 
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