Is Blackpool Pleasure Beach Still GOOD In 2024?
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Is Blackpool Pleasure Beach still good? Is it still worth visiting in 2024? Join Scott & Stephen for a review of how the Pleasure Beach is this year with both a look at all the reasons to visit as well as things that could be better.
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0:00 Intro
0:29 Blackpool Pleasure Beach Reviews
14:25 Outro
I've been watching your channel for around 2/3 yrs now, and this was by far your best yet! Loved the editing, quick cuts & explanations. You managed to pack so much info into it. 👍
Thank you 🙏
Much of the park has been neglected over the years, and now everything has come home to roost. I just hope the situation can fix itself within the next 2-3 years. As of right now, not having River Caves running is a major downer.
Pretty much this. It's not just replacing closed rides but modernising the ones they have. Pleasure Beach seems to be happy to be second best, Icon arguably second best coaster in the UK, The Big One - second tallest roller coaster in the UK. I love the idea of a Universal in the UK especially if it's half as good as Orlando, but you're right PB needs to up it's game otherwise that could be disastrous for PB and Blackpool in general. Oh and I can't imagine Universal would come here to be second best so PB might fall further.
Not so much in the park but is it just me or did there used to be more store and things on Ocean Boulevard?
I'm struggling to see the strategy here. Pleasure Beach Resort. I like what they have and Big Blue is perfect for us but it doesn't feel like a resort.
You can't beat the Plesh! I went for the first time in years the other month (when it was quiet also) with my family. We had an amazing day. The park looked immaculate, the staff were really helpful, the food at a good price point and decent quality and the rides fantastic...all in a smallish area on the Las Vegas of the North.
Glad you had fun
They should bring back the monorail and the cableway... Both were great rides and different ways to see the Pleasure Beach.... I rode both many times.
Probably won’t be allowed in this day and age now due to the crazy health and safety laws going over peoples heads in and around the park but I agree, 2 of my most missed rides at the park
They’re both missed
Really enjoy you and Steve working together. It’s a good duo to watch and you speak the truth and know your stuff.
Thank you 🙏
loved your comment about the Blue Flyer being for younger thrill seekers and then saw us two goldie oldies enjoying the front seat ride, made our day we havnt had the YOUNG title for many a year cheers brill content as usual
Haha oh yeah 😅
I think although the pleasure beach may have some imperfections, it’s important to remember there’s still no park like it and a lot of things there that make it so special that you just can’t get at other theme parks, for example all the interactions between rides, views onto the beach, a double launch coaster, worlds best water ride, ect and it’s just such a beautiful place. Obviously it has its flaws but so does every theme park but they still get massive queues, I think pb is absolutely worth visiting and it’s the best place to be in the summer! I might be biased cause I love that place more than anything but it’s an amazing park either way 😊
really love you and Stephen on the videos have to say you make a great duo. jus the right amounts of fun and laughter yet good information. If this could be a regular thing you would be hands down the best channel on this subjects.
Thank you, I’m sure we can find some more subjects to cover like this 😊
Love watching people who know stuff talk about stuff they know about - thanks!
Thank you 🙏
I recently enjoyed my visit to BPB so much I went again the following week. Booked online for £33.00 each time. Rode over 15 rides each time. Put my phone on stamina mode and the app/scan process was absolutely fine.
The park was tidy, well presented, the rides were great, the atmosphere was great. No scallywags or threatening individuals. No massive que times.
All this anti BPB is so strange imo.
I cant wait to go back and see what they have planned for some of these unused areas.
£33 online is excellent value for riders, £50 on the gate for impulse visitors isn’t.
The park is well presented and tidy in some areas, and not in others.
None of this was anti-anything.
Good to see you & Stephen at BPPB for this review you both did Scott 👍
The one really big negative about BPB is the "on the gate" ticket price, £50 pp is too much. If they lowered that price and brought in a lower cost for non rider/walk round tickets, you will see pleasure beach attendance grow!
It’s far too much
Now that’s how you produce a theme park vlog 👍🏻👍🏻 awesome work guys !!! Stephen’s presenting was better than mine 👌🏻👌🏻 top vlog
Thanks Andy, much appreciated
you 3 would make a great team.
@@latts88 We’ve all been in vlogs together 😁
Still a lot of room for improvement at PB, other than Valhalla there hasn't been a major change for the better since 2018, just e-tickets, higher prices, removal of the half price February weekends, less late night riding and rides removed/closing with little to no communication. It's not a bad park but as I discover more of Europe I find myself wanting to visit the local less and less
The tiered system makes so much sense and not having it is simply turning away money. Some people only go for Nickelodeon land for example but they’re paying the same price as people who’ve come for every ride. But it can be off putting. Would also increase money made through catering & merchandise etc which is currently being turned away by 1 price.
Great video from you both it was very constructive 🙂
Thank you 🙏
Great video Scott and Stephen. Really good balanced opinions
Thank you 🙏
Here's what i would like to see £40 full day wristband £25 from 3pm wristband . Free entry to walk around and for those who only want to do a few rides a token system .Reasonably price the food and Get some atmosphere at the park as at the moment it has none .
I still think £40 is expensive especially for an amusement park when WOW Weekends used to be £15 not so long ago
An all day wrist band is currently £33 when you book online
@@jbeattie02 which I think is great value.
@bunkerboy02 it is, where else would you get 6ish hours of entertainment for £33.
@@jbeattie02 absolutely agree. 90 mins watching a Chamipionship game costs roughly the same. A three hour concert costs £100. It’s a steal really.
Good to see a balanced view. Hopefully will be some news from the park regarding ice blast and river caves soon. Ticket wise a half day ticket is probably the best option as scanners could still go then too
Ice Blast will probably disappear over winter without any announcement (hope not)
Great to see such a positive vlog from you of the pleasure beach Scott. Most of them became on the negative and from other enthusiast! no park is perfect as you said, but still doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it and have a great day. When I book the pleasure beach online I don’t think it’s overly expensive tbh ! What price do you think it’s should be ? May I ask 😃
I thought you were actually walking and talking on the Pleasure Beach Express track until I noticed the red seating behind you. It was just the camera angle. Every point you and Stephen made, good and bad, were so on point and true. I still think the park is worth visiting but so much needs to be done to improve the guess experience i.e. remove the entry scanners on the rides and bring back the walk around pass. The list could go on and on but if Pleasure Beach doesn't start implementing positive changes soon, it could end up being a once and done park.
the thing is people of a certain age have grown up with this park ,gone with parents etc and now going with their kids, are our kids going to have the same nostalgia like we had and still have when they see rides not working, missing rides paint peeling off things, broken bits. certain food outlets charging a fortune for not very good food no i don't think they will , for me its still a decent park in the main but it can be a lot better and i believe when the new rides open in 4/5 years it will become the no 1 attraction in the uk again.
As it stands it’s hard to see how it becomes the industry leader in the UK
Captain Negative 😂
Great video as always chaps xx
Thank you 😁
We visited for our first time yesterday. Every coaster was open and running decent. Im gonna cover some of the things i liked and disliked here:
Icon is by far my second favourite coaster in the UK. Really fun!
Valhalla is insane! Loved every last bit of it. Definitely a sleeper hit for us
Big One is definitely overrated but still enjoyable!
Big Dipper was our favourite of the woodies. Grand National is up there in some of the worst coasters ive ever ridde
Toilets are a bit grubby, but it was pretty busy yesterday
Overall presentation is nice, i loved revolution and the area around it, particularly the main path next to avalanche
Theres a lot we didnt do, i wish we had more time to explore the park, plenty of SBNO rides but lots of operating ones
Thank you for watching and commenting
I haven't been to the park since 2021 for one reason or another, but my parents went on Friday and were pretty shocked at how many rides were closed. 10 in total! When you've paid full price in, that's pretty terrible. I get that winds can't be helped for some rides but that should mean that everything else that can be open, should be open. I'm a former annual pass holder and to see my childhood theme park in the state it's in is really quite sad
Still worth it as a season pass holder .some great rides still available.
I think the full on the day price is too high for families..
Good for pass holders but the on the gate prices are daft
@@yourexperienceguide quite right
On Steve’s point about there being a mostly classic rides lineup, the thing is they’ve got the space to install new rides without having to take anything out, it’s just getting the funds to build those attractions in the first place, and they would be in a much better position to do that if they would just sort out the main problems that are preventing people from repeat custom/and new guests.
They’re not going to add more rides without taking stuff out unless there’s a big change of mindset.
One out one in seems to be the way it is.
@@yourexperienceguide which is why the sooner a new managing director/someone else in the family to take over in the future, the better.
Nick Thompson said himself that he had designs for things without having to take anything out, so it’s pretty obvious that Amanda is the problem in that regard and possibly her boardroom cronies.
@@dougbriglmen716 Nick has said a lot of things but they’ve not happened, harsh truth is the park will eventually be sold on.
@@yourexperienceguide if they don’t change what they’re doing soon that is, I don’t think Amanda is going to be in charge for much longer, I think she’s going to retire very soon.
@@yourexperienceguide and the reason they’ve not happened is probably because Amanda and her cronies have probably gotten in the way.
I've had multiple emails recently from the pleasure beach saying half-price entry, so clearly, the park knows people aren't willing to pay the full price. I think they should bring back wrist bands and ride tickets, two-tier pricing (for kids and adults), £2 per ride, and then do like 2/3 ride tickets for the bigger rides (icon/big one, etc) and 1 for the likes of ghost train, W&G, Alice, etc.
Big one was £4.40 30 years ago and £10 a go back in 2019. Hardly feasible to be charging less than prices 30 years ago. This is the exact reason pay per ride doesn’t work, because people expect the prices to be same as they were 30/40 years ago which is impossible to run at even at 100% capacity. £33 is a bargain for rides all day.
@@David-fj3mntotally agree. £33 for a full day entertainment is very cheap. Yes if there are multiple people it gets expensive but that’s the same everywhere. I’m not sure £50 on the door makes sense compared to somewhere like EuropaPark, but not sure they could drop it any lower than the online price.
@@David-fj3mnpay per ride won’t work now anyway, not with the current approach to throughputs
it is a really good place to go still even tho have river caves down for maintenance and the grand prix now been fully moved ad ice blast no longer running you can still make the of your day at PB if you pick the right day for it. unfortunately for me i was unlucky as i went an Monday 24th and all yh big main roller-coaster rides like icon big dipper and big one even Valhalla didn't really open up until around 1-1:30pm that lead to massive ride waiting times on other sides. but ether way they will be shore to improve on they little problems that they having and fixing. and many people will still come back.
Thank you for watching and commenting
BPB are promoting heavily on STV. Almost every ad break now. And to be fair, the ads looks very good and I can see it working in encouraging more people to visit. Hope it’s the start of its revival!
That’s good, but now they’ll need an admission policy that works for families and their location
@@yourexperienceguide True… it’s bizarre that they aren’t changing this quickly.
I can go back to the days of buying a sheet of tickets with A B and C on them with each ride having its on class cost about £12.00 but going back a few years
Back to the 90s
Hi may I ask what day this was filmed on, I visited on 26th and looked out for anyone who was filming to see if I could spot you but didn’t
22nd
I think the pre-booked price is fine. £50? Too much imo. Bring a walk around and “parent” pass in at £15 and I bet they’d be so much busier. It’s nice as a punter to not have to queue for long but some atmosphere would be nice. BPB needs to make a big statement with whatever is coming next. Worrying to see how quiet the park is on a consistent basis. I also feel the park could be much better at communicating - their PR is dreadful and social media is very poor. All said , I have so many great memories from Pleasure Beach and I really hope it continues for many others.
I’d love to see them offer a non rider pass alongside every eTicket bought. Encourage families to go in.
@@yourexperienceguide great idea!
I actually thought the monorail had been demolished but if Universal are coming to the UK PB need to invest in some new attractions and the general upkeep of the park a bit more
It was closed 12 years ago, majority of the structure is gone, some bits are still there as they'd be awkward to remove without major works to other items
Wouldn’t say majority of it has gone, there’s large sections of it remaining.
So many great rides gone! Monorail should brought back in some form. Biggest loss was the Wild Mouse in my opinion. Pleasure Beach definitely needs some window dressing and investment. Still it’s an amazing place with so much nostalgia for people.
Amazing place but can be better
I'd say it's good, though I will say they do need do away with that E-Ticket System as it's a pain to have to whip your Phone before every ride! I feel they should do deals like what Thorpe Park & Alton Towers do, like an Annual Pass System or a 2 Day deal etc! I also think that the park could benefit from adding new rides too & livening the place up a bit with some TLC here & there!
A decision needs to be made;
Bring back the non rider pass and keep the scanners, *or* scrap the scanners and stay as a pay one price park.
I absolutely love the park but I do agree with captain negative. Its not a good first impression with so many closed rides and neglected areas. So much has been left to need done all in one go instead of doing it bit by bit. I feel the park really need to start listening to the guests cause without the guests there is no park. All the lack of information is doing them no favours. Great video Scott.
Thank you, everywhere you look there’s a closed ride
I only come back last week from there most the good rides was clossed till around midday and tje cue was massive for all tje good rides and yet again the main water ride was not open never seems to be open
Not great
At Southend they do tickets vbased on what rides you can go on. You then get a wrist band. Tickets are half price after 5 and it's open until 9/10
Pleasure Beach used to do this
I recently paid a visit to Pleasure Beach, I paid £36 which I thought was pretty reasonable.
My prime reason for visiting was to ride the coasters. Unfortunately apart from Icon which is in my opinion a superb ride all the other coasters beat me up so much I left the park at 2pm I had had enough.
I wish Pleasure Beach & its staff all the very best but until they get something new I see no reason to visit again anytime soon.
Sad to read but understandable. I’m currently on a theme park trip in the states and rides older than what BPB have are running smoother. It’s sad.
I would just like to see extended hours. I totally get inland amusement parks closing at 5pm as people are traveling to get to them. But when you have got tens of thousands of people looking for things to do on an evening who are staying in the resort they are just throwing money away and actually not doing Blackpool any favours as a whole. Weekends and school holidays it should be 10pm with the option to purchase a £25 evening pass from 5pm.
Extended hours would be great but sadly makes no business sense in an empty park
I went for the first time in years at the beginning of the month, my daughters first time there and we loved it, first time on Valhalla and icon and honestly the queues were non existent which we thought was great obviously, straight on and off, only queues were for the big one and avalanche so we never got on either of them
Thank you for watching and commenting 🙏
Yep, they need to bring back the non-rider pass and have it been no more than £5 maximum!, And the option for individual ride tickets, and if they want to upgrade to a wristband or ET later and then the options are there, it’s giving people a choice!
As long as the insist on this P1 price business model they’re going to continue to struggle, it’s a simple as that.
Yes, they really need to take advantage of their location and clientele on their doorstep. Stop trying to run the park like it's Alton Towers, BPB has its own unique possibilities and they need to take advantage.
The ticket scanners should be used to their potential with non rider passes, half day/3 hr ride passes and tiered passes as mentioned in the mentioned in the video. This in itself would have a big impact on visitor numbers.
They definitely need to use their location to their advantage
Gave up my pass this year due to the increase and can’t really say I have missed it . We just got board of the same rides when there is so many rides out there we haven’t been to
So many have said this
I haven't been pleasure beach since 2001. Doesn't look anything like it used to. Do they still have the turtle ride?
It’s long gone
Was there in at the start of june, had a good time but not value for money. I still recommend bpb to everyone. The place needs a strata coaster or a big dive coaster felly
Strata coaster 🙏
It's really gone downhill since I first went 5 years ago. I hope they can come back from this better than ever. I have noticed all UK parks other than Paultons seems to have gone downhill in terms of ride reliability. Chessington used to be one of my favourites but every time I go, most things are closed.
Chessie throughputs have always been bad
Main reason for me is the classic Revolution 👌
Ride it early when its empty (less weight for the pull launch) and its steams down the first drop. Best air--time in the park!
Do you think the ice blast will be open by start of September ?
Wish they done something for non riders it’s a disgrace that my dad cannot come into the park with us without paying full price , which he isn’t going to do. Shame really as he would spend money in the food and drink outlets . So it’s a loss really for the park too.
I’ll be shocked if it ever opens again
For me, Valhalla is one of the very few things that modern day pleasure Beach has done right for me🙂
Hmmm 🤔
@@yourexperienceguide I know that sounds insane with it still being very temperamental and inconsistent and everything, but I genuinely think some of the new effects are better than what we’re in there before, for example those flying skeleton ghosts before the final drop, that’s light-year is better than the crap that was in that room beforehand.
Down hill month by month year by year such a shame get people in new owners new management who care about bppb .cheers for the vlog you pair of belters ❤
Thank you 🙏
Nearly every ride is a classic, well I don’t know if I’d go that far, infusion certainly isn’t, as I wouldn’t count the now close Grand Prix either IMO
It’s old enough to be a classic
@@yourexperienceguide I personally don’t consider a classic, or if it is it’s not a very good one even for a family ride.
Bring back the wristband system, get rid of E-tickets, they are so pointless and no other theme park use them, less stress on the staff too when people struggle with the Machines, I love Blackpool and always will, do think a few improvements are needed though
No issue with eTickets except the faff of scanning onto rides
Yes it's definitely still worth it! But it could be better
Thank you for watching and commenting 🙏
It firstly depends what age Generation is answering your question.
Comparing the PB to the 70s and 80s then the park is pretty bad, as the ride line up has virtualy reached it's all time low which does now question value for money.
I also think the futher you live from the PB makes the park less appealing, because is it worth travelling a distance to visit a park where a lot of the rides have been removed or are now none operational, obviously visitors who live nearby who have season tickets also have an advantage to get their value for money through out the year.
The park needs to attract visitors of all generations and visitors from up and down the country.
The line up would never have the number of rides as in the past since moving to a pay one price park. Would cost too much to run and maintain now. Value wise they still have a comparable number of rides ( even taking into account ones closed maintenance ) to other uk parks. If you compare to Thorpe park they actually have 12 more rides than they do. For anyone visiting for the first time or who never visited in the 80s/90s it will seem normal. Most parks seem to have a couple of rides closed for maintenance or that are SBNO. No one seems to give them as much stick. The hex situation at Alton for example, Still not open and nothing said about it
@David-fj3mn imagine wanting to go on the tallest rollercoaster in the UK and finding it was only open for a day and has been closed since, yet no ones giving Thorpe park abuse about that
@@jbeattie02I literally went on Hyperia a few days ago
Do you think 2 for 1 would work maybe through the week or pay for adult get child free ?
It doesn’t help walk up customers which is a big thing in Blackpool
Definitely the wettest water ride in the world though scott 😊
Not even close, the Florida attractions take that title 😉
Probably time for management to change. And time for lots of investment. Not going to be easy but needs to be done.
It’s hard to say what has to change
Trouble with having a tiered ticket system, you’d have many buy the cheaper option and still try their luck on the bigger rides wasting many people’s time and annoying the staff
It can easily be policed like pay per ride was
I like it so do my kids
We didn’t say we don’t like it 😮
I can remember years ago I'm trying to remember if it was blackpool you used to walk on like a pier there was a dragon in the water or am I going mad lol
Maybe noahs ark
Ghost Train entrance
It's safe to say BPB has lost its sparkle! I still love it but its defo lost alot of magic through the years. While its great having older rides you need to have a good balance of keeping a balance of new and old and BPB doesnt really do new. Personally feel Infusion, Playstation, Avalanche, Red Arrows (newish but so crap) & Steplechase have all had their day and everyone of them needs replaced. Revolution is old but is a great ride and still packs a punch!
That’s become the issue, there’s just no balance, we can’t pretend ICON is new anymore.
6:17 no it was one ride and a haunted house walk-through attached to it😉
Come on Doug it was obvious what was being stated
Wish ice blast would open... or at least know whats happening 😅
It’d be good to get an update
Absolutely - Not. Not being Mr Negative, but I'll doubt I'll return for a few years tbh. Seem to be oenny snatching by hiking prices up, yet not investing in the park. It looks so tired and run down and has for years. Its on a rapid decline imo.
It is sad to see the current decline
The whole of Blackpool isn't as good. I was there 3 weeks ago & South Pier rides weren't on, half of the wee stalls along the prom were closed & there weren't even half of the amount of holidaymakers you would expect in June.
It was absolutely rammed on the sea front last time we were there
Greed is the problem born and bread In Blackpool Amanda Thompson needs to sell up
There’s many problems
The answer is no.
Shame
The second part of this video, the negatives is a bit disingenuous. Grand Prix, is being removed not renovated, and you know that as it was announced ages ago, it was rarely open anyway, the second they get rain they closed it. He also talks about rides that have been gone for a long time, like monorail, it's been gone 12 years and rarely got many riders. Others are no big loss such as millennium bug or the rock show. In terms of price £33 for a day's entertainment in this day and age is a bargain
Also ride scanning does have a place, they get statistics as to use and through put, as well as fast pass use.
Stephen is well aware Grand Prix is being removed not renovated, slip of the tongue that wasn’t worth a second shoot.
If you think it’s acceptable to close attractions and leave them sat mothballed for 10+ years, fair enough.
Used to do the Monorail every visit and had to queue every time.
No, it's in decline, expensive and full of old rides !
Thank you for watching and commenting
To summarise: no. No it’s not.
Shame
@@yourexperienceguide that is literally the perfect word to describe BPB in 2024. Everything about it is just a shame these days.
Its a bad value plain and simple. And unless they start creating more value for people? I don't think it will survive the next 5 years.
It’s going to keep being a tough situation without some change
sorry blackpool its not a resort its a dump ,they got vanhalla working properly for the vloggers then when punters go its a b and m log flume, grand prix broke on its farewell ice blast gone river caves shut do i need to go on and then you have to use your phone all the time to get on a ride but the price never changes we have to put up with this i was there last year thats my last time for a while .
They print you a card to scan if you ask, and I managed to get on valhalla last August, it was working properly then
@jbeattie02 I was to busy queuing up for valhalla after it opened late in the resort
Thank you for watching and commenting