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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Rick said:
I was at Pleasure Beach on Wednesday last week and the park was DEAD! Valhalla was running four 6-person boats and they were waiting for people in the station. Likewise, the Big One had 60% of a single train open and there was no queue - at all.
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Midweek in Autumn before the Autumn half term is the best time to visit theme parks. I have had plenty of good days at both AT and PB during this period where everything is pretty much walk on. Don't get the chance to go midweek in school time these days with an 8 year old I tow.
 
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^ @shakey Absolutely, which is why you have to be careful when it comes to volume of rides. Pleasure Beach is unfortunate to have some rides which suffer an awful combination of high resource, low throughput.

However, it also has some rides that have a pretty sizable throughput (Derby Racer, Flying Machine etc) that have a single operator.
 
Jordan said:
As much as I love Blackpool (and I really do!), Alton is just in a completely different league when it comes to scale.

There's a difference between a park where every ride has a fairly modern ride system and a full operations team, and a park where the majority of rides you go on are old, cramped and patched up. It certainly has plenty of charm that way, but you simply cannot compare the two.
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I won't be told that "the majority of rides are old, cramped and patched up". Frankly I don't care how old a ride is (actually, the age actually adds to it for me), the coaster lineup at BPB is far better than that of Alton IMO, then again it's all down to opinion to be honest.
The rides are not "patched up".
 
Jamie said:
The rides are not "patched up".
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Course they are, that's part of the charm of the Pleasure Beach. The approach has always been make do and mend - they're proud of it. Look how the Valhalla facade was built, back in the day. Most rides have something retrofitted on to them, just the way the park is and always will be.

There are more Big One supports with track clamps than those without. Patch ups everywhere for a myriad of reasons.

In terms of the coaster line up, if you like old - you're in heaven. If you like quality in a steel coaster, or a design produced in the past couple of decades, you're going to struggle, aren't you.
 
Whoa guys, just cool it a minute please.

Firstly, I am (as some may know) one of BPB's biggest fans, and even I am fed up of the capacity issues, all coasters with the exception of the Blue Flyer and Infusion have been reduced in the last decade and in most cases it is without just cause. (For those who do not know, that is the Grand National, Wild Mouse, Nick Streak, Big Dipper, Avalanche, Revolution, Steeplechase, and Big One, plus Valhalla, Derby Race, Ghost Train, and Grand Prix have also seen a massive capacity cut. On top of that, the park has lost the following rides (that I can think off of the top of my head)

Cableway
Vikingar
Noahs Ark
Superbowl
Trauma Towers
Black Hole
Astro Swirl
Monorail
Spin Doctor
Swamp Buggies
Turtle Chase
Whip
Bling

I have no idea of how much they have lost per hour just by removing those and not replacing them, thats before the cuts on the rides I mentioned above are taken into account,

BPB cant cope with demand anymore, and speedy pass is an insult to injury. However technology and Alton Towers have nothing to do with it, BPB would hold its own against them, as it has for decades, if they would run the park correctly, its up to BPB to decide if they want to be top of the tree or not, it's unfortunate that they are happy to be lead by the likes of Alton, Thorpe and even Flamingoland.....but if they wanted to BPB could be back in the number one spot in a matter of weeks....it however seems like the owners prefer to follow rather then lead...

Ash
 
^ @Ash84 I wish you posted like this on PBE, your last response to me on there began with "Listen up softlad".

I don't disagree with a lot of what you say, but I would suggest that technology has a lot to do with what you mentioned, both directly and indirectly. Many of the rides on that list had technical obstacles with them, some of them didn't fit with Amanda and Nick's vision and some were plain old worn out and their upkeep didn't warrant their continued operation.

In terms of the rides that continue to exist with reduced capacity, the fairly primitive technology employed within them means that operating them in the current climate (or to a satisfactory standard, in terms of safety) means that capacity has been hit.

Others, Valhalla in particular, has never operated correctly since it was built. We all know that.
 
I would still say that there are less queues on a busy day at Blackpool than there are on a busy day at Alton.

Obviously what is currently a busy day at Blackpool is far less people than a busy day at Alton which is why the rides at Blackpool can just about cope when they run them as best as they can with todays restrictions on them.

So unless Blackpool's attendance figures rise significantly then I don't see the ride capacity as a major issue at the moment.
 
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shakey said:
Obviously what is currently a busy day at Blackpool is far less people than a busy day at Alton which is why the rides at Blackpool can just about cope when they run them as best as they can with todays restrictions on them.

So unless Blackpool's attendance figures rise significantly then I don't see the ride capacity as a major issue at the moment.
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As much as I wish this was true, sadly the Nickelodeon Streak, Ghost Train, Grand Prix, Grand National and Wild Mouse do not have adequate capacity. Nick Streak, Ghost Train and Grand Prix in particular get stupidly long queues with even just a few thousand on park due to the capacity being absolutely dismal, not helped by the fact that they are very popular rides (apart from the Grand Prix - but anything which fails to get 100pph will gain a long queue very quickly).

For me personally, it's not a problem as I leave the rides until the queues are shorter (or in the case of the Grand Prix, just leave it full stop) but the GP won't realise that a short-looking queue on the Ghost Train will take an hour and a half, or the staircase on Grand Prix taking a similar amount of time. This is where I think BPB fail the most these days, as coupled with the poor dispatches on the higher capacity rides and "speedy" pass, it leads to long slow-moving queues on rides which shouldn't be the case.

Compared to Alton, I still find the queues at BPB much more manageable on the majority of attractions, but I wish they would sort out their operations as they have the ride hardware to shift queues really well.
 
Jamie said:
...Nick Streak, Ghost Train and Grand Prix in particular get stupidly long queues with even just a few thousand on park due to the capacity being absolutely dismal....
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Yes, they are the 3 worst, especially grand prix, which has a capacity close to zero people per hour :(

Streak can be a problem on very busy days and its a ride to do early or late.

I've queued for ghost train from well outside the queue pens before but it was still only about 45mins.

I don't think Nash is that bad if they are on the ball which I know they quiet often are not, but I had a queue of no more than 30 minutes from well below the bottom of the steps last October half term.

If rumours are to be believed then maybe Grand Prix will be saying goodbye fairly soon anyway :)
 
shakey said:
Yes, they are the 3 worst, especially grand prix, which has a capacity close to zero people per hour :(

Streak can be a problem on very busy days and its a ride to do early or late.

I've queued for ghost train from well outside the queue pens before but it was still only about 45mins.

I don't think Nash is that bad if they are on the ball which I know they quiet often are not, but I had a queue of no more than 30 minutes from well below the bottom of the steps last October half term.
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The Ghost Train depends on how bunched up the queue is, but in reality when you look at the size of the actual queue, 45 minutes is still much too long for a queue that should be 20 minutes tops (going by how long it actually is).

If you look at the actual length of the queue on the Grand National from the bottom of the steps, that really shouldn't take any longer than 15 minutes. Thankfully there are two sides, if that was all one queue (i.e. if it was a single track ride) then the queues would be unbearable with the modern day capacity.

shakey said:
If rumours are to be believed then maybe Grand Prix will be saying goodbye fairly soon anyway :)
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Good, it's been long overdue and would free up a huge amount of space.
 
Hopefully Project 2017 is actually a thing as from what I've heard it's replacing the go karts & Grand Prix and should it turn to be a Mack coaster similar to Helix or Blue Fire, then we should not just receive another great ride but one that can handle queues.

I love Blackpool, which is currently my 3rd favourite park (with DLP & Towers topping it), however the park in its current form would start to buckle guest wise at around 10,000 (considering Towers can handle over three times that), rides with low throupught (200 or less) don't help it such as Wild Mouse, Ghost Train, Grand Prix & impossible.
 
Nash has reopened, but according to the official website Mouse will be closed for maintenance from 5th-9th October, suggesting it will still be around next year.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Is the Grand National back open now? Any other ride issues at the park?
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All rides (apart from the tea cups) were open on Saturday and ride operations were pretty good. Longest queue we had was 45 minutes for steeplechase. Everything else was under 35 minutes. Nash and mouse were about 15-20mins.

Park was reasonably busy but not rammed.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
Is the Grand National back open now? Any other ride issues at the park?
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Yeah Grand National was open. It has had a considerable amount of track work done, especially on the bottom of the second main drop on the right track (right hand side of the station) so that section now runs smoothly - too smooth IMO!

Mouse was also open and running better than ever!
 
A few thoughts after a nice trip last Friday:
- Infusion has gained the honour of being the first ride to actually bruise my shoulders.
- Wild Mouse was closed for maintenance with new timber clearly visible, hopefully putting to rest the rumours that it's going after this season
- Big Dipper was actually the best running woodie, with plenty of floater air
- Conversely, Streak was running really poorly with bangs, knocks, and little airtime.
- Nash has had some track replaced at the bottom of the first drop on the left track which has actually helped make that section mostly passable and almost back to how it used to ride pre-fire. However, that's let down by the bunny hills after Valentine's trying their best to smash my coccyx into my ribcage. Still too rough to be ridable at the moment, but hopefully they'll be replacing more track over the close season.
- Big one seemed to be on the fast train, even though it wasn't very windy? This meant there was a hint of air on the star pub hill, and it was actually quite fun! Still a terribly designed heap of steel that's going to cost them dearly when it comes to replacement or more critical repair, but at least it can be fun.
- Sky Force was really fun, got 37 spins on my first and only ride. Don't think I like it more than Bling, but it's alright.
- The park seemed very tidy and looked quite neat, which was nice :p
 
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