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Blackpool Pleasure Beach


Dan_Rush

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10 hours ago, Mega-Lite said:

Coaster my friend, the other day when leaving the Pleasure Beach they scanned our wristbands as we left the park, what's this policy about?

 

Simply people counting or are they disabling wristbands so you can't leave and re enter?

I believe they scan the wristbands to see which rides people have been on - just a research thing I think :)

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2 hours ago, rob666 said:

...and the chavs don't  care that you didn't get in, they have made a fiver.

True, but that doesn't affect BPB if the customer can't get in!  Also, you'd have to be daft to buy a band for a fiver expecting to get in! :lol:

 

I'm sure it's a means of measuring the popularity of rides as well as consumer behaviour, could be wrong though!

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1 hour ago, Project LC said:

BPB have started selling icon boarding cards. The VIP lets you ride before the park opens on a booked day. 

Surprised Merlin don't do that sort of thing on new rides tbh. 

Everyone would just complain how they are ripping people off making as much money as possible etc ;) 

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Guess difference is that at Blackpool you pay per ride anyway (well, if you don't buy a wristband)? So Merlin couldn't really implement something like this (unless they did an ERT thing, but tbh they should just bring back Premiere Screaming events for MAP holders)...

 

Like yeah, it's a weird thing, since surely it's being included on the wristband? Guess you're mostly paying for the certificate (which a big majority of goons will lap up)...

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I saw this on sale in the park on the last day of the season and was so tempted to buy it as a Christmas present for a friend of mine who hates Mack launch coasters!

 

Personally I see no issue with it, just a bit of fun and a way to build hype.

 

I'm very interested to see how this beast gets marketed actually and I'm hoping the answer is extensively.

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22 hours ago, Marc said:

Everyone would just complain how they are ripping people off making as much money as possible etc ;) 

It's perfect money making - that buyers are riding before opening does not inconvenience other guests, like fastack does. 

There are no losers, only winners, including the park!

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Valhalla rant incoming...

 

I'm aware I may care more about this than most people do, especially with it being my favourite ride and all, but it makes me so sad to see how crap Valhalla is these days :(

 

Most of the effects being broken and the general state of the scenes has been highlighted a few pages ago in this thread, but seeing these two stills of the ice room really shows how one of the world's most impressive dark rides has been reduced to a poorly presented, unimpressive mess.

 

Ice scene, 2011;

38489854211_623d630214_b.jpg

 

A recent shot of the same scene;

37602878885_82f9c6bed7_b.jpg

(Image sources; https://youtu.be/FJ2oF8OMVUEhttps://youtu.be/k6SN9ho5P6U)

 

I think Valhalla is misunderstood by the park's current management, and is being maintained as a piece of ride hardware rather than the themed, theatrical experience it was built as. All the creative thought and detail that went into the original ride, from the hugely impressive effects to tiny little things such as the colour of lighting used, or how the audio triggers, is lost.

 

Personally, I would be in favour of the ride remaining closed during WOW Weekends in 2018, with the operating costs instead being ploughed into getting the experience back to the standards it has previously set.  Failing this, I would rather see it removed for the park's next big investment (after Icon) rather than continued to operate as a shadow of its former self.

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1 hour ago, Benin said:

You can have all the creative thought in the world, but it's always limited by budget...

 

Blackpool just don't have the budget to operate a ride of Valhalla's scale... Even when it opened it struggled a lot...

 

Geoffrey really did bite off more than he could chew with it...

Very true, I think Valhalla has always caused problems for the park however my argument for keeping it was that it was brilliant... now I don't see any point in the ride being there when it still takes up a huge chunk of the park's resources and doesn't even offer a good experience in return.

 

With that considered, I do think some of it comes down to a lack of care; whilst the cost of maintaining the biggest effects will be high, I would argue that fine-tuning the lighting and audio and ensuring the presentation of the ride is up to scratch (for example, some of the sheets which separate the scenes have been torn for months!) comes down to creativity and taking pride in their attraction.

 

The effects have never been 100% consistent (that would be near enough impossible with Valhalla), however they used to get fixed much more quickly than they do these days.  Several of the ride's biggest and most talked-about effects have been broken for the majority of this season, for example.  Combined with the terrible upkeep of the scenes, exterior and audio systems, I really don't think the ride is worth keeping unless BPB are prepared to invest a lot into restoring it.

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But if nobody cared, why was it designed differently in the first place?  It's the difference between giving people an outstanding experience, or being happy with an average log flume in the dark.  Whilst some people may still enjoy Valhalla, it won't be as highly regarded or talked about as it was when it was amazing.

 

I heard a lot of comments from people on the ride this year along the lines of "didn't this used to be better" or "I thought this ride had good reviews" - but it's probably the difference between enthusiasts who will drill down to work out what the ride is missing, whereas the majority of guests will just see it as a forgettable experience.

 

Ridership was noticeably lower towards the end of this season than it has been in previous years despite the park being busy.

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Back when it opened Valhalla was a spectacle. Worthy of winning the best water ride awards (it winning it this year just proves how silly those awards are).

 

But look at Blackpool as a park since then, rides started closing all over the shop due to declining gate figures and profits. And with Valhalla being stupidly expensive to run cuts have to be made. And, the problem with making cuts is then reversing them down the line. Management will see that the ride operates fine, it still looks okay to new riders who know nothing else and it is still popular.

 

I'm sure you could have Valhalla back to the good old days, but you certainly wouldn't be getting Icon.

 

And then imagine removing it, fanboys would go mad, Blackpool would lose one of its iconic rides. It's a difficult situation and Blackpool still just doesn't make enough money to justify solving it.

 

It is a real shame but that's just generally the theme park industry in this country nowadays.

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5 hours ago, Mitchada04 said:

Back when it opened Valhalla was a spectacle. Worthy of winning the best water ride awards (it winning it this year just proves how silly those awards are).

 

But look at Blackpool as a park since then, rides started closing all over the shop due to declining gate figures and profits. And with Valhalla being stupidly expensive to run cuts have to be made. And, the problem with making cuts is then reversing them down the line. Management will see that the ride operates fine, it still looks okay to new riders who know nothing else and it is still popular.

 

I'm sure you could have Valhalla back to the good old days, but you certainly wouldn't be getting Icon.

 

And then imagine removing it, fanboys would go mad, Blackpool would lose one of its iconic rides. It's a difficult situation and Blackpool still just doesn't make enough money to justify solving it.

 

It is a real shame but that's just generally the theme park industry in this country nowadays.

It's certainly true that the park's finances took a turn for the worse after Valhalla was built, and I'd argue that if it was replaced with an easier and less expensive ride to run (in the long term), BPB would have much more money to spend elsewhere.

 

I disagree with your point about it looking okay to new riders, it looks shabby and lots of people comment on how tired it all looks.  This isn't limited to Valhalla either, River Caves is looking neglected as well for example - but it's much more noticeable on a ride which is marketed as one of the world's best examples of its type.  Effects wise, they have always tried to repair them whenever possible, but this year it just feels like everything has been left - there was literally only a handful of effects working towards the end of the season!

 

Budgets are of course an issue, but I'd suggest there are improvements which could be made to the dark rides without spending huge amounts of money.

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It needs to be remembered that Blackpool Pleasure Beach aren't a large organisation and don't have swathes of financial fat like Disney or Universal.

 

Although hopefully the dark days of when the park was deeply into the red and closing things left right and centre are over, the park's financial growth was still down this year. There's still some way to go before the park is to shine a healthy financial green once again. 

 

It must be rememebered the park are building a major coaster next year and for a park like Blackpool it will be a lot of money and won't be cheap for sure. If there was the choice to install this major addition or restore most of Valhalla's effects, I'd certainly choose Icon. Who knows, if Icon is (hopefully) a success and brings the park lots of money, they will get sufficient budget to retain running Valhalla's effects. It can't be easy for them to upkeep such a massive dark water ride.

 

The park can't be all neglected though if they've done things like reprinting Revolution (agsin) and other things. Every Park unfortunately will have some areas rundown/not look their best. Even parks like Efteling and Phantasialand dare I say!

 

 

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