• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
I've just come from a weekend in Blackpool and I have to give it to Pleasure Beach, for a weekend where it literally didn't stop raining for 5 minutes, when I visited on Friday, everything was open and the only time I saw a ride break down was when The Big One broke down with me on it :tearsofjoy: but other than that. I thought they dealt with it very well.
 
Pleasure Beach infuriates me because it's a wonderful place but it just feels so mismanaged.

The guest experience is poor in many areas and sadly it doesn't surprise me to read that their Halloween event has failed to deliver on what should really be very basic standards of customer service. Promising people a special ride on Icon and putting them on Skyforce instead is a disgrace regardless of what the terms and conditions say.
 
Really gutted to see the reviews from this. I’ve thought for ages Blackpool has the potential to put on a really special scare event thats up there with the best in the UK and possibly Europe so it’s frustrating to hear how much they’ve messed it up. I really hope the park do a bit more research into what works for other parks and come back stronger next year with a top quality event like the park deserves
 
In my honest opinion, if you have no experience putting on a Halloween event, then work with a company that do. Pleasurewood Hills, Fantasy Island etc have bought in Atmosfear, which essentially do all the legwork and run it. They should have dipped their toe in first before going full throttle. It's a shame, because it looked good from the hype, but the execution is obviously lacking.

Maybe next year they should try a more 'tried and tested' Halloween event, pop a couple of horror mazes in the park and open until late, instead of this odd 2 hour experience.
 
I definitely think running horror mazes alongside a later park opening would be a much better (and probably more profitable) way to go.

The way they've run this event also means they can't extend park opening hours if it's busy during half term? Madness really, does anyone there have a clue what they're doing?
 
I actually quite enjoyed the actual experiences for the most part, the theatre bit in Planet Rock was really good.
The use of the hedge maze was really good, properly eery going through that. From photos it looked like it was open on the Saturday as well. It wasn't on the Sunday or today.
The tunnels was again really well done and it was lengthy as well.
Pasaj at the end was great, not been in it for years.

The acting throughout from the guides and the actors you encountered throughout was really good.

Unfortunately there were some issues, firstly there was a lot of standing around which was inevitable as they were cutting the groups down to smaller sizes for the mazes. But even before that from the ticket office to fy4 seemed to take an age.

Icon was unavailable which meant going on sky force in a blind fold. Can't really blame the park too much as rides can have mechanical issues.

The ending was a bit meh if I'm honest which was a pity.

For a first go by the park it was admirable for them to try something so ambitious and I hope it was just some opening night issues. I'll give it a go next year as well.

I do think the park should however be considering using more of what they have. The dome arcade could be cleared out at this time for something in there, the area where the wild mouse used to be as well.
The ghost train with live actors.
Use the railway tracks as well, could be a brilliant experience walking from the burger King Station through the animals/dinosaur section through to the station by nickland. Some clever lighting and a decent amount of scare actors and it would be ace.
 
pj said:
No doubt the local fan club will come out with a blog saying how wonderful it was!
Click to expand...
According to Pleasure Beach Experience:
*Journey To Hell Freak Nights - Full Review Containing Spoilers!*

Last weekend we experienced Freak Nights at Blackpool Pleasure Beach twice, once during the staff preview night on Friday and last night (Sunday 27th). Tonight we are going to give our full review which will contain spoilers.

Highlights

We found each of the scare mazes/zones to be well executed, a particular highlight was the use of the underground tunnels which were creepy and had a couple of different scenes going on, the 'bar scene' was well done with very good acting but all of it was well executed and immersed you into the event with it suddenly feeling like you were nowhere near the Pleasure Beach. We really like the creativity behind this idea, the use of them is fantastic and well thought out.

The audio throughout the park set the tone for the event perfectly, it was dark and mysterious making you wonder what would come next.

All of the actors played their roles exceptionally well, without knowing the background of the actors in terms of, is it their first time as scare actors or not?, they all did an exceptional job in their roles. We really enjoyed the way the soldiers in our group played their roles.

The use of the Chinese Puzzle Maze for the Clown maze was excellent, also the use of Planet Rock was very good with excellent acting throughout this section!

Lowlights

There's two particular things that stick with us which we felt impacted on the experience over both nights we did it, and we'll go into those first. The first one is the story, whilst the actors play their roles to a story line, it's never really made clear what the story line is other than it is a Journey to or through Hell. Spoilers are coming now; the event starts with the safety briefing which is well done but doesn't give you much insight into what is happening, following on from this is where you meet a solider at the Safe Zone which it isn't really explained where we've come from or what we are escaping from, you plunge straight into this new world without knowing why or how you find yourself in this place. The above is followed by the Major addressing you and all of the other groups on the same slot as you, even though you have already been assigned separate groups at this point you end up back with everyone on the same slot as you, then some things happen (no spoilers here) and then everyone is separated back into their designated groups again which is where each group is taken off on a different route (but all experience the same chain of events at different points). You go between each scene without really having much of a story in between, there's no clear link between the chain of events.

The biggest complaint we heard is the standing around waiting between each activity within the chain of events, we felt this was dealt with really well on Friday as our group had 'two soldiers' with us at all times so when one of them was checking up on the rest of the group to see if they were nearly done and ready to move on, the other solider would continue in his role keeping the groups minds focused on what was going on, sadly on Sunday our group only had one solider/guide which meant the waiting around was quite frustrating and didn't allow for you to be fully immersed into the experience. The Solider actors here did their best, but sadly the long waiting between the chain of events took away the immersion.

Summary

Journey to Hell, Freak Nights at Blackpool Pleasure Beach has HUGE potential to be one of the UK's best theme park Halloween events, if not the best, and for a first time event they have nailed some parts of this experience. We encouraged people to do it on the back of our experiences on Friday, and we still encourage people to try it especially if they have purchased tickets already!

In our opinion, Halloween has a place at the Pleasure Beach but could perhaps be implemented into the park's opening hours, use the Puzzle Maze as a Clown Maze again but with a dedicated queuing area (empty space outside Pizza Kitchen) with sensible batching, same for the Tunnel maze but again with separate queuing within the area to incorporate these experiences into a full park Halloween offering. On top of this, roaming actors would work a treat as they already do (Werewolf), coaster train lights given the spooky green LEDs we saw at Vampire Beach and maybe a whole scare zone outside of the Ghost Train to fit in with that area of the park.

Have you been to Journey To Hell, Freak Nights at Blackpool Pleasure Beach?! If so, what did you think of it?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on our review from the event, and how you think Halloween can work at BPB!
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: pj
Pleasure Beach Experience attended the staff preview
I guess The Beach pulled out all the stops for them

Watching their vid .. how much do they keep fapping about smell pods !

Best thing since sliced bread.

Ooo smell pods made the event for them
 
Poopoohead said:
It was an absolute mess. Good idea terribly executed and massively over sold, spent most the night just stood about queuing. Will be trying to get some of my £29 back!
Click to expand...

Sounds like once again greed has overtaken guest enjoyment. Lets hope that they learn from their mistake and next time either sell tickets in more limited number or actually be prepared and with enough to occupy the number of guests they expect and keep them flowing through the event at a decent pace without making them stand around too much. I'm not a Halloween fan anyway so I most likely wouldn't have paid a fiver for this, let alone £29.

About possibly using the Dome, good idea in theory but that building seems to be more of a dump each season. Walked through recently, countless buckets on the floor at Crevettes side for leaking roof, and the whole raised area at the back was taped off and old machines just dumped up there. I'm not sure its in a fit state for anything really.
 
Looking at the dome with a critical eye this afternoon with dippy, I must say that from the outside it looks in good shape.
Apart from the silly exterior light globes.
 
As far I remember, the lights don’t work.

Given that the interior is in such a bad state it could have been used for a Freak Nights set, those dodgy glove lights are probably the least of their worries.
 
Some more old stuff for y'all. I don't remember to post everything on the forum so check out the site https://www.themepark.org.uk

I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't date no girls that do

Any questions to @rob666

TheCarousel_BlackpoolPleasureBeachPoster1980.jpg
 
Just come home from journey to hell.
First of all the actors were great it was not in any way their fault how poor it was. I’ll keep spoilers to a minimum (even though it’s finished)
The first bit from when we collected our wristbands to when they actually started the story in fy4 must’ve took a good 20 mins so I was bored already. The part in the theatre was ok but you really had to immerse yourself.
Next we stood around for another 10 or so minutes In come the people with the bags. Oh they ran out of them so we just casually had to walk to Icon. The one plus Icon was running like an absolute dream. Then lead to the Chinese maze, we had to get a photo with a clown, pretty pointless.. then more waiting around before actually going into probably one of the worst scare mazes I’ve ever been in, which was *themed* with plastic sheets, fake cobwebs and space hoppers.
The maze in the tunnel was actually quite good, that should be a scare maze on its own. However.
They batched us before we went in but when it came to actually going in, my partner was pushed in, door slammed and I was left outside. I pointed it out and he was like “oh you’re with them?” To which I said yes and the security guy started kicking the door to try get them to open it but they didn’t. I didn’t wanna spoil anyone’s experience indoors so I said it was fine I don’t mind going through in the next group.
This is where it all went wrong.
When our group walked out, there was no one to greet us so we just started walking toward fy4 at which point I saw my partner with security.
Turns out they’d forgot that they sent my group in, the actor said my partners group was the last one so they just carried on without us! It was an absolute shambles so I can see where Shawn was coming from!
As we were exiting we had to get another photo this time with some scantily clad ladies who when we walked up to them simply said “which one of you wants to hold the dildo” I mean....?
The only redeeming feature was pasaj!
In summary it was a hell of a lot of waiting around, unnecessary swearing and no fixed storyline and obviously I completely missed the ending
2/10
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top