If this was a Merlin park we’d say this was to increase fastrack sales
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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: Icon - 2018 Mack Double Launch Coaster
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
If it was a merlin park it probably would be to increase fast track sales.
Cause it's BPB it's because it's no longer PPR.
Coaster
TS Member
But as it's BPB, it's to increase Speedy Pass sales
(I don't actually know why they don't run 3/2, but they certainly need to as they're very popular family coasters and cannot cope with demand).
The problem with the Streak is when it was the RollerCoaster it was always in the shadow of the Nash and Dipper, both for historical importance (which I never understood) and the overall ride (again, it depends what you wanted from a ride,for me the experience of riding a full sized wooden coaster with absolutely no restraint system was always appealing in itself)
However, in its final years as the Coaster with the heavier train that included lap bars it actually became a slightly faster ride and had a bit more of a kick to it, you did occasionally hear people saying it was better than the Big Dipper as they exited, but with the peeling pain and bland name not everyone knew this ride even existed.
Then comes 2011 with its bright orange can of paint and it's less than fitting name, and all of a sudden every man and his dog wants to ride it. It's in NL sonic has to be for babies (till they see the height restrictions and leave) the kids love it cause it's big enough to be classed as a big ride, it's smooth enough for those who don't like the Nash to enjoy, and because it's the same height as the other woodies (it's actually a few feet taller than the Dipper) it can be seen easily from outside NL and appeals to older teens and thrill seekers who have no interest in the rest of NL. It probably has the widest appeal of any coaster on park, yet it's grounded on 1 train, it's madness.
However, in its final years as the Coaster with the heavier train that included lap bars it actually became a slightly faster ride and had a bit more of a kick to it, you did occasionally hear people saying it was better than the Big Dipper as they exited, but with the peeling pain and bland name not everyone knew this ride even existed.
Then comes 2011 with its bright orange can of paint and it's less than fitting name, and all of a sudden every man and his dog wants to ride it. It's in NL sonic has to be for babies (till they see the height restrictions and leave) the kids love it cause it's big enough to be classed as a big ride, it's smooth enough for those who don't like the Nash to enjoy, and because it's the same height as the other woodies (it's actually a few feet taller than the Dipper) it can be seen easily from outside NL and appeals to older teens and thrill seekers who have no interest in the rest of NL. It probably has the widest appeal of any coaster on park, yet it's grounded on 1 train, it's madness.
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I'm not really sure why they've even bothered returning the other train to the transfer track. It's split in two (three technically, as the front car is currently with rear on one track with middle on the adjacent track) so it's not as if they're going to be bringing it in and out of service as required. It's just sat there taunting people with the false promise of better capacity like the last time it mysteriously reappeared.
An extra train on Avalanche seems a bit of a lost cause too, more often than not it stacks on 2 trains anyway due to how slow loading is with speedy pass. The benefit of a 3rd would be pretty much zero unless you had extra platform staff running around checking restraints at incredible speeds. Now they've extended the queue line the wait can get far longer than used to be possible even before accounting for the increased loading time and further loss of capacity to speedy pass. I wouldn't be surprised if the queue hits an hour at peak times now.
An extra train on Avalanche seems a bit of a lost cause too, more often than not it stacks on 2 trains anyway due to how slow loading is with speedy pass. The benefit of a 3rd would be pretty much zero unless you had extra platform staff running around checking restraints at incredible speeds. Now they've extended the queue line the wait can get far longer than used to be possible even before accounting for the increased loading time and further loss of capacity to speedy pass. I wouldn't be surprised if the queue hits an hour at peak times now.
The avalanche queue gets to ninety minutes on peak days, could be longer in the past before they limited speedypass.
I still say trains are restricted to increase pass sales, especially with PMBO and Streak.
And the second streak train is sat there taunting us with false promises of Ash getting his bits out on Bond St.
No logical reason for it, just clear economic ones...jump the queue for just a few quid more.
I still say trains are restricted to increase pass sales, especially with PMBO and Streak.
And the second streak train is sat there taunting us with false promises of Ash getting his bits out on Bond St.
No logical reason for it, just clear economic ones...jump the queue for just a few quid more.
It doesn't work like that though. The park want the shortest queues possible because people standing in line aren't spending. Speedypass sales do not make up for this. They want people on a ride, off a ride as quickly as possible so they can be buying photos, drinks, food, merch etc.
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
I can see both sides of this possibly being true. Without delving too much into the minefield that is The Big One (queue lengths, how many trains, fast & slow wheels, sandbags, etc), to some degree I agree that the park want you on & off a given ride so you are spending money on the park, but of course they are a business so no doubt they’ve weighed up the cost & effort of having extra trains on, which perhaps gets people spending money on the park, against making it look like queues are too long for impatient folks who are happy to throw more money at BPB to jump queues.
I suppose it would take a long time, if they did redesign the Streak station (ie, revert to how it used to be) to allow for 2 train operation, to get that money back in (hopefully on their part) sales of food, drink, merch, etc.
The difference is that we as park nerds know not to touch certain queues with a barge pole. I genuinely feel sorry at times for families waiting an hour for Streak. As a parent I know how infuriating a long queue can be, and kids are unpredictable, needing the loo etc at the drop of a hat. I waited 45 mins for Streak with my son and I hated it. Stuck in that claustrophobic corrugated tin corridor with impatient whinging kids and litter everywhere was not my idea of fun.
Surely with a second train now on site, albeit in bits, it is time for the park to sort this out. The sooner they get kids through this ride, the sooner they are buying Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys in the Nick Land shop !
Edit: Just noticed that this is in the Icon thread, a lot of these recent posts are general discussion really !
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...and back on topic.
Icon was doing an impersonation of a dinosaur chicken laying an oversized egg yesterday afternoon, a screaming squawk, at the peak of the immelman, and where the track jumps the queueline.
Horrible racket, very loud, you couldn't miss it.
Dodgy bearing I presume.
Also heard they managed a throughput of 59 trains in an hour over the weekend, a new record, bet they only missed out on one a minute because they keep having to shovel lard in at the back.
Icon was doing an impersonation of a dinosaur chicken laying an oversized egg yesterday afternoon, a screaming squawk, at the peak of the immelman, and where the track jumps the queueline.
Horrible racket, very loud, you couldn't miss it.
Dodgy bearing I presume.
Also heard they managed a throughput of 59 trains in an hour over the weekend, a new record, bet they only missed out on one a minute because they keep having to shovel lard in at the back.
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
Icon queue halfway back to steps on one train with large school group packing it out
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
Yeah, there’s a lot, perhaps it’s whole year groups. Can someone explain to me why they get a trip to a theme park just a couple of days into the school year when they’ve just had 6 weeks or more off? I thought the whole point of these trips were that they were end of year rewards. Absolute ball locks
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Dipper_Dave
TS Member
In all fairness, most of the Coasters here are ok on one train today, but Icon is picking up the Big One’s punters because that is closed. With this in mind you wouldn’t think it would be too much to ask for them to run 2 trains on Icon
shakey
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Wild Mouse - Blackpool - :(
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
It’s not that windy at ground level anyway!
Spin-Ride-Lover
TS Member
Well to be fair the summer holidays are now over and it is a weekday.
As a shadow of what the operation is once were at Pleasure Beach there are still far worse operated coasters out there.
Coaster express at Park Warner seen in this PBE blog is a truly atrocious and they don't even let you near the air
gates!
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