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coastergraham

BPB £20 charge for October.

I just thought I would let you all know that in October anyone visiting BPB will have to pay £20 to enter the park, nobody will be allowed on the park if they have not payed to enter.

There is no mention at all of non riders being charged £5 like they will be next year, or should I say like BPB have said they will be next year. After this little stunner from BPB, who knows?

Personally I think this is very wrong by BPB as they have sprung this on people with less than two weeks notice, people may have already made plans to go with family only to find out that they will not be allowed to enter the park unless they stump up £20. I have no problem with doing the entry fee next year as they have made it clear that is what is happening, but that is not the case with this.
reg

£20 just to enter? Are they going to a POP system? If its £20 and still ride tickets or a wristband, then no-one will go, simple fact.

What are they trying to do to the place???
coastergraham

reg wrote:
£20 just to enter? Are they going to a POP system? If its £20 and still ride tickets or a wristband, then no-one will go, simple fact.

What are they trying to do to the place???

The £20 gets you your unlimited rides wristband so that is excellent value for money and I do applaud BPB for that, however coming up with POP with such short notice is very wrong.

I do share your concern about BPB at the moment, Space Invader has been shut for 3 weeks to save money, other rides like Valhalla are shut some days midweek to save more money, but yet they still want guests to pay £32 even though some rides are shut, beaver creek is only open for 3  hours to save money as well. PMBO is for some reason only running 3 cars on a train midweek even if the queue gets large.

To top this off Infusion is most likely shut for a week due to a chain snap!!
c anderson

The general public will not know about the £20 so cannot plan in advance. What happens to all the families who turn up & some not riding what do they do.? This has been handled badly, why not start it all next year ?
krusty_the_clown

maybe its being trialled this year to see how the public react, if it doesnt go well they could pull the plan for next year and save some face. It would be difficult to do it half way through the year if its going very badly!
bluea61

coastergraham wrote:
...but yet they still want guests to pay £32 even though some rides are shut..


The problem here is name a park that doesn't charge full price when rides are shut. The towers do it, alton do it, drayton do it. I'm sure there is a term in the T/C's which says something like they may withdraw a ride/serive without prior notice for whatever reason.
Rogue

coastergraham wrote:
reg wrote:
£20 just to enter? Are they going to a POP system? If its £20 and still ride tickets or a wristband, then no-one will go, simple fact.

What are they trying to do to the place???

The £20 gets you your unlimited rides wristband so that is excellent value for money and I do applaud BPB for that, however coming up with POP with such short notice is very wrong.

I do share your concern about BPB at the moment, Space Invader has been shut for 3 weeks to save money, other rides like Valhalla are shut some days midweek to save more money, but yet they still want guests to pay £32 even though some rides are shut, beaver creek is only open for 3  hours to save money as well. PMBO is for some reason only running 3 cars on a train midweek even if the queue gets large.

To top this off Infusion is most likely shut for a week due to a chain snap!!


Graham, I'm not sure if you have heard anything, but the ride operators on Avalanche said it is unlikely that Space Invader will re-open
frosty

Charging full admission but keeping many rides closed is a nice little earner, but with the weather still quite nice and especially at weekends it seems unfair to shut them.
butler

Call me a cynic but maybe they are doing this to boost their bank balance in readiness to sell.
coastergraham

Bunnie wrote:

Graham, I'm not sure if you have heard anything, but the ride operators on Avalanche said it is unlikely that Space Invader will re-open

I have half suspected that may be the case, it ties in with what may happen to Rollercoaster and the extension of Beaver Creek, thanks for the info though Rachel.
bluea61 wrote:

The problem here is name a park that doesn't charge full price when rides are shut. The towers do it, alton do it, drayton do it. I'm sure there is a term in the T/C's which says something like they may withdraw a ride/serive without prior notice for whatever reason.

I have no problem with BPB doing this but I done think they should be charging top whack when quite a few rides are closed, to me it is not the way to get people coming back.

I know Alton shuts Skyride midweek to save money, but I would rather them do that than shut a rollercoaster. Even though it does make for a more tiring day Laughing
Coaster Toaster

Think the reason blackpool shut rides compared to alotn and the likes of them is that they get school trips through out the year and always popular where as blackpool i think relie on tourism more as their name i dont think is that widely known and its further up the country compared to the others
ForeverBlue

Another stunning bright idea by the Thompsons. Here is what the local rag is saying:

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk...ure-Beach-to-charge-20.4517397.jp

Hopefully this idea will die a very quick death...much like the stupid land trains that are no longer blocking our street.
bluea61

Its good business sense really. There must be a good proportion of people who don't ride and pay nothing. That is money they are loosing out on. I guess the thinking is that the other big parks make people pay so why shouldn't they. If the rides are good enough people will pay the price.

From an enthusiast point of view it is excellent, as the price is a lot cheaper than usual. But that just a selfish point of view!!  Cool
nemesis scribe

bluea61 wrote:

From an enthusiast point of view it is excellent, as the price is a lot cheaper than usual. But that just a selfish point of view!!  Cool


Ohhhhh yes! I agree. I may have to plan a visit in October now  Very Happy  Plus i have never seen the 'legendary' illuminations  Very Happy  Hmmmmm but where to stay . . . . ahhhh the Sparkroyd!!  Wink   Very Happy
ForeverBlue

Adamski - have you not caused enough damage for one year....shower cord wrecker!

As a hotelier, this is going to seriously impact on our business. The pleasure beach is already offering a useless service to our guests - they ignore published closing times and shut when they have screwed enough money out of people in wristbands that they only get to use for a couple of hours. We get a lot of guests moaning about it. Now people will have to pay to go in, whether they want to ride or not, only to get chucked out when the powers that be decide there are not enough people in the park. If numbers are dropping when it's free, can someone tell us how making everyone pay is going to increase the numbers? We are going to have a lot of extremely annoyed guests as this has been dropped on everyone with a matter of days notice.
coastergraham

^After seeing your post I thought I would show you my TR from last Thursday that I posted on the BPB guide.

WHO WENT

Me
Caroline
My mum

After spending 3 great days at Alton Towers BPB had a very hard act to follow and on a purely personal level it did, as we managed to get loads of rides done. However and this is a pretty big however.

I do feel sorry for people who went today and payed the full amount, being season pass holders you are able to shape your day more than people who go as a one off. The reasons why I feel sorry for people who payed the full amount are

- The park shut one hour earlier than the time on the website, one family were really kicking off in the globe this morning about this as on the internet confirmation it said park close time of 7pm, no mention of it being estimated.
- Big Dipper closed, but we knew that it was due to the work being done so that is ok.
- Space Invader closed
- Noahs ark closed
- Valhalla closed
- Trauma towers closed
- Various food places closed including thors plaice and embertons!!!
- Beaver creek only open 2-5pm

Now as I say being season pass holders you can miss rides one day and the next time you go you can catch up with them again, but one off visitors dont have that luxury. To be charged top whack price of £32 when quite a few things are closed is not right imo.

RIDE COUNT

Infusion - 17
Steeplechase - 3
PMBO - 5
Revolution - 1
Avalanche - 2
Monorail - 1
Rollercoaster - 2
Ghost train - 1
Derby racer - 1
Iceblast - 3
Alice in wonderland - 1
Grand National - 4
Wild Mouse - 13

TOTAL RIDES = 54

HIGHLIGHTS

- Superb ride count
- Weather was lovely
- PMBO was running really well
- Wild Mouse was totally insane

LOWLIGHTS

- The park being so quiet, where is everyone?
- PMBO and the messing around with sandbags, we waited 15 mins for our first ride due to the back two cars being sandbagged off, then the staff had to keep fastening them again after each ride while a queue was starting to form because of this.
- PMBO staff, at one point there were 3 of them in control either listening to MP3 player or texting. While one poor lad was checking all the restraints on his own.
nemesis scribe

Ahhhh so visiting the BPB in October dont look so great afterall.

Shame, i felt like breaking a few more shower cords . . .  Laughing

Do i read previously from Sparkroyd / ForeverBlue that the 'land train' is no longer running? Shame that as it looked 'really' good . . . ho hum . . .
ForeverBlue

That's right Adam la Sparkle...no more land trains. I have to say that I was never a fan of them, so I'm dead chuffed!!!
nemesis scribe

ForeverBlue wrote:
That's right Adam la Sparkle...no more land trains. I have to say that I was never a fan of them, so I'm dead chuffed!!!


Do you think that this latest idea of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach had 'run out of steam' . . . .  Laughing
STEALTHYBUTBAD

lmao adam ! wicked mate !    Laughing
Nimmykins

Some of you may be aware I work for the same newspaper company that owns Blackpool Gazette.

I decided to be a little nosey and see how the £20 story is doing.

It's the most-read story of the week with 10,142 hits
butler

It's the cynic here again,
The only way to protest at the increased charges, early closing times etc is to not go to BPB.
BPB was the only theme park my wife, a non rider, would go to as it was free to get in.

John
coastergraham

butler wrote:
It's the cynic here again,
The only way to protest at the increased charges, early closing times etc is to not go to BPB.
BPB was the only theme park my wife, a non rider, would go to as it was free to get in.

John

With the state of things midweek at the moment I think that people have started to boycott BPB before they even need to.  Laughing
Steven Burns

I always felt Dreamland was a better place when you had to pay for entry at the front. Felt safer and was a better place to ride. I love Blackpool but never liked the open entry to be honest. People that go to parks and don`t ride are dull anyway lol. They would have to pay everywhere else. Bout time Blackpool became a normal park. Hate the idea of early closing and rides closing or going but like the pay to enter idea myself.
smiler

Ive got a 3 for 2 ticket to the pleasure beach which is valid to the 2nd of November can I still use this or not dosent say anything else on the voucher. Yeah be a saving of like £5 but hay thats a bucket of chips  Very Happy
marshall hill

ForeverBlue wrote:
Adamski - have you not caused enough damage for one year....shower cord wrecker!

As a hotelier, this is going to seriously impact on our business. The pleasure beach is already offering a useless service to our guests - they ignore published closing times and shut when they have screwed enough money out of people in wristbands that they only get to use for a couple of hours. We get a lot of guests moaning about it. Now people will have to pay to go in, whether they want to ride or not, only to get chucked out when the powers that be decide there are not enough people in the park. If numbers are dropping when it's free, can someone tell us how making everyone pay is going to increase the numbers? We are going to have a lot of extremely annoyed guests as this has been dropped on everyone with a matter of days notice.
The whole idea is to increase quality not quanity ! Had a long chat with one of the family last week and i aplaund the fact how they intend to change the image of the park and the way it operates.
Boozytwin1

I was in the Blackpool area on Sunday so decided to pop to the Pleasure Beach to have a walk around before the £20 entry starts.

I used one of their own car parks last year, and got a voucher for 2 for 1 meal at one of their restaurants when paying to park so I thought this would be ok again...  

Imagine my shock when they wanted £8.00 to park the car this year...!!!!!!!!!  I think this did include some kind of 2 for 1 food voucher but £8.00!!
smiler

Not so much bout the £20 charge but bif of news bout the whip etc.
Taken from the pleasure beach Guide.

I've been informed that the Whip is going to be replaced by Superbowl, however there will be a huge changes regarding Superbowl. Swamp Buggies are being removed to make way for a water ride, which will run around the empty space by PMBO's drop, near TC's old land and by Swamp Buggies. Therefore the company who take money for Swamp Buggies, will be the new owners of the newly placed Superbowl, to compensate them losing the Swamp Buggies, which ultimately means Superbowl will become a pay to ride attraction next year.
bluea61

I think we heard about this new water ride last year, aren't they supposed to be building a rapids in the space left by infusion and perhaps now this space as well???
frosty

bluea61 wrote:
aren't they supposed to be building a rapids in the space left by infusion and perhaps now this space as well???

By 'space left by infusion' - does this mean in some empty space near infusion or has infusion gone! I hope not.
bluea61

Wow that would be a good bogus rumour to start, yeah Infusion has been removed to be replaced with the Corkscrew from Alton Towers!!!

No, If I remember rightly there is a gap between the infusion brake run and the big one lift hill, Smiler??
Magic

An ABC Rides rapid ride has a fairly small footprint thanks to the vertical lift, it's also relatively cheap and is really good fun. Would make a good addition to the park. But not as good an addition as a decent coaster.
Nimmykins

Magic wrote:
An ABC Rides rapid ride has a fairly small footprint thanks to the vertical lift, it's also relatively cheap and is really good fun. Would make a good addition to the park. But not as good an addition as a decent coaster.


Would this be similar to the cracking rapids ride at Steinwassen?
Rogue

Apparently if you ask for a guardian or non-rider pass they will let you in for £5
Boozytwin1

I bet they will buy a 2nd hand rapids like the one from the American Adventure, make it fit into the space they have and then come up some crazy marketing idea like its the "Worlds Only Rapids by the Sea...!!!"  Only at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool.
smiler

Taken from someone of the UK rides forum.

It seems PBB has had a change of heart, re' the admission charge and people wanting to walk round but do no rides.

oh yes indeedy, you can now on announcing you have no intention of riding anything enter the park for the teeny sum of ten english pounds.

yep you read that right, it costs a tenner each, to enter and do NOTHING.


needles to say many are less than happy about this new money making twist, in fact more families than ever are turning their backs on the pleasure beach in a complete snub branding this latest ploy as absolutely diabolical.

as much as i hate soundbites, the following i had to write down word for word.

James Watson and family from Glasgow Scotland.

" We come down this way twice a year for a week and a bit, in the summer holidays and for the illuminations, and have always supported the pleasure beach whenever we come, often visiting upto four times in any one visit. we arrived yesterday to find a charge in place to enter the fair { sic } and that equals £50.00 { theres 5 of them } just to do what we did during two of our visits in august, walk around the park and soak up the ambience, while spending around that amount of food drink and souveneers, and the occasional ride if the mood strikes, this time theyve lost out that x 2 plus the days we would have gone to ride the rides, we wont be going back in any great rush, if ever again."
coastergraham

Yet another mystifying decision in a season full of them from BPB.
Magic

According to a review elsewhere the park was really busy this past weekend. All the rides had queues. So perhaps the wristband idea isn't the total failure some predicted.
coastergraham

Magic wrote:
According to a review elsewhere the park was really busy this past weekend. All the rides had queues. So perhaps the wristband idea isn't the total failure some predicted.

The park is very busy at the weekend as you would hope so. A fantastic offer for people who want to ride and at Blackpools peak season as well.

However midweek is totally different, it is like a ghost town with some side stalls shut as well as quite a few eating places, add to that the list of rides closed midweek and it does not look good at all.
Magic

Guess the proof is in the takings. If they take more doing things this way then it's a success, if they take less it's a failure. During the current financial crisis all that matters is the bottom line, sentiment will just lead to bankruptcy.
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