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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Icon - 2018 Mack Double Launch Coaster

Coaster said:
The hard fact is, or rather appears to be, that Icon hasn't increased attendances or made the park any busier on the usually quieter periods. Something's not right.
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Remember though that efficient ride staff and 2 trains ops on Icon are eating the queue. We would be complaining if the park was too busy and it was taking an hour to get on each ride, and on top of that we'd be complaining about speedy passers! Yes I like to see the park doing well but if the park is quieter than you expect on a given day, we should just enjoy it instead of overly worrying about it. Let the park's management do the worrying. If needs be they can always demolish a ride behind closed doors (again). There is a great vibe around the park, especially relating to Icon, I am sure that over time through word of mouth, etc, the park will get the numbers in. I noticed quite a few people repeat riding Icon yesterday, and plenty of people going into the Icon shop afterwards to buy overpriced merch (£30 for a small box frame with 5 tiny daggers in it, really?). You don't see many people repeat riding Grand National or Infusion! Even I did 3 back to back rides on Icon, and I normally spread out my inversions over the day !

shakey said:
Gate Price: £39
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I do agree that this is a bit much. There's always some who will pay it though, I saw a couple recently pay the full £78 to get in, last Summer I paid £2 more than that to be able to visit for the entire 2018 season. It will put many off though. As you have said, given the sheer amount of products on which you can get half price AT vouchers, their walk up gate price is effectively £27.50, as you would have bought that box of cereal anyway!
 
Do you normally have to renew season passes as early as the summer of the current season for next season? It’s my first year as a pass holder
 
Poopoohead said:
Do you normally have to renew season passes as early as the summer of the current season for next season? It’s my first year as a pass holder
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It will all depend on what offers they throw out. I think I renewed my season pass around September/October time last year. Can't quite remember exactly when it was, but they were offering £80 renewals so I couldn't turn that down. They also usually have offers on in Jan/Feb.
 
Sorry to burst the 'the ride has a great through put' bubble, but it uses 16 seater trains. With 2 on the track that's the equivalent of the Big One on a ONE train service but for two seats. Now when the Big One crashed a week after opening it was forced to run one one for a few weeks, during which time it often hit a 3 hour queue. Icon with a similar ride time and almost identical capacity can't even attract a third of that long of a queue despite being a far superior coaster.

Something is definitely very wrong somewhere.
 
shakey said:
It will all depend on what offers they throw out. I think I renewed my season pass around September/October time last year. Can't quite remember exactly when it was, but they were offering £80 renewals so I couldn't turn that down. They also usually have offers on in Jan/Feb.
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Do they ever have similar offers for new takers? I might think of getting one next season if the price is right.
 
Renewals are always a bit cheaper than new purchases.
Offers crop up from time to time...but rarely if ever in the summer peak.
 
IDB said:
Do they ever have similar offers for new takers? I might think of getting one next season if the price is right.
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I got mine in the Black Friday sale in November last year ... think it was about £90. I've certainly had my money's worth on Icon already this year :)
 
Ash84 said:
when the Big One crashed a week after opening it was forced to run one one for a few weeks, during which time it often hit a 3 hour queue. Icon with a similar ride time and almost identical capacity can't even attract a third of that long of a queue despite being a far superior coaster
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Personally I prefer the big one to icon, not that I don't think icon is a great coaster but the big one is still the iconic ride at Blackpool for me and I expect it to remain the most popular coaster on the park.





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I really enjoyed icon, i think it's one of the few coasters at BPB you can ride all day. I did most of the other rides too but found the big one painful, Nash was a kidney assault, Valhalla great,but a real soaker.

So, i'm ever so glad they got Icon, i'll repeat visit for sure
 
shakey said:
Personally I prefer the big one to icon, not that I don't think icon is a great coaster but the big one is still the iconic ride at Blackpool for me and I expect it to remain the most popular coaster on the park.





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It's certainly the focal point of the park, but in terms of the ride it offers, I don't rate it overly high. I'd put the 3 wooden coasters and the Rev above it without a second thought. Each to their own though, I do still enjoy it, it's just not all its cracked up to be IMO.
 
Ash84 said:
It's certainly the focal point of the park, but in terms of the ride it offers, I don't rate it overly high. I'd put the 3 wooden coasters and the Rev above it without a second thought. Each to their own though, I do still enjoy it, it's just not all its cracked up to be IMO.
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It would be a dull world if we were all the same.

I love the views from the lift hill and the first drop doesn't disappoint however many times you ride it. Then it's all about the speed, height and views round the park. It's a bit bumpy but that just adds to the ride and the bumps are nowhere near as bad as you experience on Nash.

Night rides add an extra dimension aswell.

It gets slated by enthusiasts but they still won't visit the park without riding it.

Icon is a fantastic coaster but I don't think it will be more popular than the big one in the long run.



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Poopoohead said:
Do you normally have to renew season passes as early as the summer of the current season for next season? It’s my first year as a pass holder
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I seem to remember the season pass sale being held in early September last year, earlier than usual. It was shortly after Mouse closed, but it hadn't been closed long enough for people to suss it out...

But that may just be me being cynical!
 
I don’t think you can equate queues to the individual success of a ride with wristbands in place, the same as you could with Big One on pay per ride. A lot of people queueing 3 hours for Big One may have only been riding that one ride.

Having said that it is probably the closest thing we have to comparing success of major coaster installations at BPB. And I’m not suggesting that queue lengths on Icon or across the park are invalid as a metric for success. I too don’t buy the great throughputs argument as to why the Icon queue never seems to peak above 30 minutes. Operations are great, but capacity is still only moderate - Oblivion on opening year was probably around double Icon’s capacity as a benchmark.

There’s no doubt that BPB generally has not been noticeably busier than at this point last season. Yes, we don’t have the numbers, but Icon clearly hasn’t been quite the success I’m sure everyone hoped for at this point. The park has certainly never been heaving even on sunny weekends. If you have a new coaster and great weather you certainly would expect the park to have been a bit busier than it appears to have been.

Having said that I am hoping that an upswing in attendance will come moving into summer, which has always been BPB ‘s peak time along with Illuminations. People may be holding off on visiting until their usual visits at these times, so perhaps these usually busy times may be even busier. I can only hope.

I think one of the things with Icon is that it is a quality piece of hardware which doesn’t rely on a gimmick. Because of this it should be an excellent long term investment which continues to attract attention and rerides for many years. Even if BPB doesn’t see an immediate visitor bump, I’d still argue it was a good long term investment. Now whether that sits with the park’s finances is another thing.
 
Apparrently they closed Icon today to do filming?!

Like, surely that should be done outside of park hours - especially on a 5pm close with glorious weather.

Absolutely atrocious customer service, and they wonder why no-one's visiting!!
 
Filming sounds like a new ad may be in the works. I’m still yet to see any advertising for Icon. The only reason I know Blackpool have a new Coaster for 2018 is from this forum.

Even the email I got from their marketing list for fireworks nights only had a small mention of Icon. You would think they would lead with it. ‘To celebrate the arrival of ICON our brand new rollercoaster for 2018 our late night riding and fireworks nights are back! Experience the UK’s first double launch Coaster only at BPB’. Or something.

The lack of marketing has to be behind the lack of uplift in guest numbers.
 
Coaster said:
Apparrently they closed Icon today to do filming?!

Like, surely that should be done outside of park hours - especially on a 5pm close with glorious weather.

Absolutely atrocious customer service, and they wonder why no-one's visiting!!
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Icon is currently open :)
 
Coaster said:
It was closed for an hour during park hours today I believe, for filming.
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When I visited on the Friday of half term week it was closed until 1pm for filming.

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AT86 said:
I’m still yet to see any advertising for Icon.
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They are definitely showing TV adverts on Channel 4 in the Norfolk area. If like me you are avoiding love island then you are missing the adverts. I saw the last TV add for icon last night as Jess was watching love island :rolleyes:
 
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