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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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I went to Adventure Island in Southend last year, that's a free entry park. Loved the park, but EVERYONE was in there, a lot of jostling and bumping, and kids running around, wasn't the most pleasant experience. Very conscious of where my valuables were too.

I mean, if the local scrotes want to pick pocket it's very easy for them
 
Mikw said:
I went to Adventure Island in Southend last year, that's a free entry park. Loved the park, but EVERYONE was in there, a lot of jostling and bumping, and kids running around, wasn't the most pleasant experience. Very conscious of where my valuables were too.

I mean, if the local scrotes want to pick pocket it's very easy for them
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I may be missing something here, but Coral Island is almost always rammed on a weekend more so when it's bad weather, I don't hear of this crime wave hitting them, or the piers, both of which are free entry, noisy, crowded and compared to BPB have bugger all in terms of security.

I don't doubt the need for security would increase to some degree, but that would be of set by increased spending within the park.

In response to Enter Valhalla''s earlier post, that TV series was filmed over almost a full season, that's how they covered easter weekend, the Ice Show opening, Playstation opening, the Tokaydo stopping followed by footage of the Ice Rink that replaced it, along with the illuminations.

Metal detectors are in place now so getting weapons in should be a lot harder, the yo yo selling was outside the gates and still happens with or without the entry fee (on the rare occasions the park is open late enough for them to bother being south of the pier)
 
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Ash84 said:
I may be missing something here, but Coral Island is almost always rammed on a weekend more so when it's bad weather, I don't hear of this crime wave hitting them, or the piers, both of which are free entry, noisy, crowded and compared to BPB have bugger all in terms of security.

I don't doubt the need for security would increase to some degree, but that would be of set by increased spending within the park.
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But this is kind of the point I’ve been making all along.

Other seaside parks, as well as piers, have a reputation for being tacky, dated and dirty places. I’m not saying that I agree with that preconception but it’s a preconception that people have.

BPB have been working hard to shake off that reputation over the past 10 years. Whilst I know that many BPB fans don’t like them moving more towards the “theme park” business model, in doing so they have moved away from the old reputation of the 80s and 90s, which other seaside parks as well as the piers still have.

You’re also making quite a bold assumption that free entry would definitely mean the park would make more money. We have absolutely no evidence to support that assumption.

For all any of us know, if the park was still free, they could be making less money. Wristband sales could be lower. Time sooner in the park could be lower meaning people spend less on food, drink and souvenirs. We just don’t know that. You don’t know, I don’t know. To say that the park would make more money with free entry is an assumption not a fact.
 
I know so many people who were proud of the fact that they spent half a day on the Beach without getting their wallets out.
A considerable proportion of them came from t'other side of the pennines.
Charge a tenner entry, give f&b vouchers to that value, and make the Derby Racer and Flying Machines free, as they are cheap, good queue munchers.

Wonderful full day on the Beach yesterday with the usual suspects, typical summer Sunday.
No queue longer than twenty minutes, good crack with the staff and mates, no complaints at all.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
You’re also making quite a bold assumption that free entry would definitely mean the park would make more money. We have absolutely no evidence to support that assumption.

For all any of us know, if the park was still free, they could be making less money. Wristband sales could be lower. Time sooner in the park could be lower meaning people spend less on food, drink and souvenirs. We just don’t know that. You don’t know, I don’t know. To say that the park would make more money with free entry is an assumption not a fact.
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The evidence is in the same BBC series you were referring to a few days ago. A day''s taking's of half a million pounds, followed by another days not far behind it. Do some mathematics, let's say the park opened at 10am and closed at 12 midnight, the Big One at £4 a head on a 3 train service had 90 people on it every 3 minutes. That's £120 per train or £360 every 3 minutes. Even taking into account occasion empty seats and slight delay's that is an impressive amount of money if you bring it down to £300 every 3 minutes.

The we have the Nash, 24 people per train, 4 on the track at £2 a head cycling every two and a half minutes.

The Coaster, 32 per train with 2 on the ride is 64 people. £2 per person that's £128 every 2 minutes. Again work that out even with occasional empty seats, it's a staggering amount of money. No way do that net the kind of money we are talking are out here these days.

Do that for a couple of other rides, then remember the likes of the Black Hole, Space Invader, Monorail and Trauma Towers, just those 4 could have anything up to 160 people on them at once between them all paying £1.50 a head and often with lengthy wait times.

The arcades (4 of which have now been closed) were also a lot busier back then which means more money was coming in.

I actually don't see the harm in having people in the park who aren't spending, grandparents for example with a grandchild who is spending has to be better than having none of them in and none of them spending?

I also don't seen a massive difference (other than the initial outlay) between that and a pass holder coming in, after taking breakfast at the Velvet Coaster, leaving for lunch to dine at the same place, then leaving and heading home.

You only have to read a very recent topic on PBE to see that's what the majority do. I however am far too fond of a beer on park, just like you Rob lol.
 
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Ash84 said:
The evidence is in the same BBC series you were referring to a few days ago. A day''s taking's of half a million pounds, followed by another days not far behind it. Do some mathematics, let's say the park opened at 10am and closed at 12 midnight, the Big One at £4 a head on a 3 train service had 90 people on it every 3 minutes. That's £120 per train or £360 every 3 minutes. Even taking into account occasion empty seats and slight delay's that is an impressive amount of money if you bring it down to £300 every 3 minutes.

The we have the Nash, 24 people per train, 4 on the track at £2 a head cycling every two and a half minutes.

The Coaster, 32 per train with 2 on the ride is 64 people. £2 per person that's £128 every 2 minutes. Again work that out even with occasional empty seats, it's a staggering amount of money. No way do that net the kind of money we are talking are out here these days.

Do that for a couple of other rides, then remember the likes of the Black Hole, Space Invader, Monorail and Trauma Towers, just those 4 could have anything up to 160 people on them at once between them all paying £1.50 a head and often with lengthy wait times.

The arcades (4 of which have now been closed) were also a lot busier back then which means more money was coming in.

I actually don't see the harm in having people in the park who aren't spending, grandparents for example with a grandchild who is spending has to be better than having none of them in and none of them spending?

I also don't seen a massive difference (other than the initial outlay) between that and a pass holder coming in, after taking breakfast at the Velvet Coaster, leaving for lunch to dine at the same place, then leaving and heading home.

You only have to read a very recent topic on PBE to see that's what the majority do. I however am far too fond of a beer on park, just like you Rob lol.
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True, but the day which you’re referring to was a busy Saturday during Illuminations.

The park still is extremely busy during Illuminations but now has a much safer atmosphere than what we saw in that documentary.

Last summer I went to Vienna Prater, one of the only examples of a park which operates the way BPB used to. It has 13 coasters and numerous other support rides and there is no wristband option. Every time you want to go on a ride, you have to cough up. It is so frustrating and you leave feeling like you’ve had poor value for money.

We went on about 8 of the 13 coasters, a couple of flat rides and a water ride, didn’t re-ride anything and yet we spent around 70 euros per person in the park and stayed there for only around 3 hours.

Now I don’t care how much you say BPB of the 90s was better, there’s no way I’d want to return to that at Blackpool. People are so money conscious these days, far more so than in the booming 90s. People won’t appreciate spending such huge amounts of money for only a few hours entertainment. It’s a really poor perception and people leave feeling cheated.

In the short term yes, the mathematics which you listed Ash, does equate to a lot. But again it boils down to reputation. In the long term BPB would become seen as an unaffordable place and people will take their custom elsewhere.

It’s also worth noting that in Vienna Prater, plenty of people were walking around the park, it was school holidays, but I didn’t see a single ride filled to capacity.
 
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Enter Valhalla said:
People are so money conscious these days, far more so than in the booming 90s. People won’t appreciate spending such huge amounts of money for only a few hours entertainment. It’s a really poor perception and people leave feeling cheated.

In the short term yes, the mathematics which you listed Ash, does equate to a lot. But again it boils down to reputation. In the long term BPB would become seen as an unaffordable place and people will take their custom elsewhere.
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I am not too sure about that, how much is a cinema ticket these days? You don't get much change from a tenner for around 90 minutes-2 hours entertainment, football matches are 90 minutes and manage to pull the crowds still and cost a lot more than a sheet of white knuckle tickets ever did. I certainly don't believe charging two parents £20 to watch a child have one ride on the Big One at £10 represent's any better VFM!

People will spent if the product is what they want.

You will always get someone moaning it's overpriced at some point, just as you do now, you don't have to go back weeks on the parks Facebook page to see it, and there is no question there is advantages and disadvantages to both. But I think it goes without saying people are more likely to spend once they are inside the park rather than outside, and that fee is doing a good job of keeping people out.
 
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Mentioning tight season pas holders, this one wants to know if there is any discount on beer anywhere? And is discount available in coasters? Thanks
 
Like Ash, I'm a little bemused about this legend of BPB being the hang out for all of Blackpools degenerates when it was free entry. I lived in Blackpool in the 1980's and spent a lot of time on park on busy Saturdays and I can genuinely say I always felt safe even when you could barely move. Never once was I warned about pick pockets or even thought about the possibility of them and no friends or anyone I knew ever had an issue.

The only fight I ever saw on BPB was outside Nash one Saturday teatime in the last year of free entry. But I've seen fights at Tesco, rail stations, cricket grounds etc.

I would prefer BPB to go back to free entry and proper opening times for what they are, a seaside amusement park! But I know that even if they had a very visible security team like Adventure Island the chances of free entry are next to zero due to the supposed agreements in place with Nickelodeon which enabled Nickelodeon Land in the first place.

So why not incentivise people. Charge £6 and you get a £5 PB pounds voucher on shopping or food. People think they are only being charged £1 to enter with that and BPB gets money it might otherwise not have got on secondary spending. Lower the on the day wristbands and introduce an evening wristband from 5pm, of course they have to be open longer than 6pm for that to work!!

But above all make the pay per ride a realistic price for those only wanting a few rides. For example millions of people earn less in one hours work that it costs to go on Icon, how on earth can they make any sense at all!!

Finally, improve capacity on rides by better operations and more trains/horses etc, but above all get rid of the wretched speedy pass that is good for one thing and one thing only, destroying ride capacity. These things are the very reason I'm not bothering going tomorrow even with a season pass advice just dont want to move in very slow moving queues as it wrecks my back doing so.

Like so many businesses in the UK the current BPB smacks of short term thinking, lets fleece them while they are here. They need to look beyond that and see the bigger picture of a theme park that gives the impression of at least trying it's best to give a great day out is more likely to get repeat visits than one that doesn't.
 
Poopoohead said:
Mentioning tight season pas holders, this one wants to know if there is any discount on beer anywhere? And is discount available in coasters? Thanks
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No. Unless you get lucky and the staff make a mistake. Always worth a shot.

As for Spoons, Velvet Coaster is one of the most expensive Wetherspoons in the country. Therefore the beer prices aren’t actually that different between BPB and Spoons, for example a pint of Fosters is £3.45 in Velvet and £3.55 in the park.

It always confuses me why people leave the park at lunch to visit Velvet when their food is... well, Wetherspoons food, the beer prices (at least lager) are comparable and if you’re in the park, it’s nice to soak in the atmosphere.
 
venny said:
It always confuses me why people leave the park at lunch to visit Velvet when their food is... well, Wetherspoons food, the beer prices (at least lager) are comparable and if you’re in the park, it’s nice to soak in the atmosphere.
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Their meal and a drink deals are pretty good. And I don't think the food is too bad for a wetherspoons , probably as good if not better than anything you can buy inside the park.

We usually stay in park to eat but it was so quiet on Sunday we had plenty of time to nip out.



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Spoons food is decent value for money, with more variety.

BPB can't even manage half decent chips. Don't know why the seagulls bother pinching them.
 
venny said:
It always confuses me why people leave the park at lunch to visit Velvet when their food is... well, Wetherspoons food, the beer prices (at least lager) are comparable and if you’re in the park, it’s nice to soak in the atmosphere.
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<Deranged rodent warning>

There’s not much in it price-wise, as most of Velvet Coaster’s meals come with a drink anyway. On the likes of a school trip day, when I have seen the Burger King queue to the entrance doors, it is most definitely quicker to walk to Velvet Coaster to eat. I’ve never had a poor meal there and never had to wait long for food either.

As for soaking in the atmosphere eating on park, at FY4 there is none since Wild Mouse was ‘dismantled’. There’s only so many times one can enjoy the fountain show, after that it becomes rather tedious especially with the overly loud music as you try to eat! You can eat at the Infusion area if you can get a table, and spend the whole time watching for seagulls. Coasters is ok but not the same without all the heritage pictures. Balcony overlooking Icon is nice though. Only done Big Pizza Kitchen twice, as I don’t think pizza and/or an eat all you can buffet and an afternoon of rides mix well at all. Just ask @shakey how he felt after his massive Velvet Coaster pizza and a couple of Icon rides :)
 
As far as "bitter beer" is concerned, BPB has none, spoons has a dozen.
There is a full menu at spoons, food offerings are limited on the Beach in comparison.
Personally, I can't understand why people don't go to spoons for food...cheaper, better, quicker...three minutes walk away.
Foolish not to.
Edit...and the speedypass functions from spoons as well.
 
Ringwood, Hobgoblin, Wainwright’s all available on park.

I know they’re nothing special, but equally finding a real ale at Velvet which hasn’t run out is no small challenge.
 
They are bottles at five pounds each aren't they?
Nitrogen gassed.
Real ale at spoons starts at two pounds a pint, and I have never had a choice of less than five cask beers.
Always quick service on the top floor too.
You must be unlucky in there Venny!
 
Tell me Rob. It’s kind of a running joke with us that they constantly run out of the guest ales in Velvet, yet they still have the clips on. Always the one I order as well. If you’re going for the regular lines (Doom Bar, Ruddles etc) it’s a bit more dependable, but I’d rather try the local stuff.

Or there’s the unholy blueberry ale they always seem to have on, probably because no one in their right mind would drink that stuff. Not even in Blackpool.
 
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