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Blackpool Pleasure Beach


Dan_Rush

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Anyone know how the Merlin parks got on then?

 

Oh wait... they're shut.

 

I had a brilliant day at BPB today, regardless of one train.

The reason(s) for PMBO being on one are that the second and third trains are/were still in maintenance and the lifthill has been replaced and therefore needs to be run-in.  I'm just greatful that they've got it up and running so early in the year.

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58 minutes ago, Coaster said:

Anyone know how the Merlin parks got on then?

 

Oh wait... they're shut.

 

I had a brilliant day at BPB today, regardless of one train.

The reason(s) for PMBO being on one are that the second and third trains are/were still in maintenance and the lifthill has been replaced and therefore needs to be run-in.  I'm just greatful that they've got it up and running so early in the year.

 

1)  Chessington is open ;)

2)  No one said anything about Merlin parks.  But oh well.

3)  At no point during any of the Merlin parks' February events have they ever experienced long queues.  The line up they provided suited the crowds that came.  

4)  Marc's point was a tad tongue-in-cheek.

 

Seems to be a case that the masses descended to Big One at a certain time.  What other rides are actually open at Blackpool atm?  Might be a case that the place needs to try and be better prepared for the crowds in future, by adding more rides or more capacity to what they've got open.  But then that'd require more money for more engineers and whatnot, so seems doubtful.

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34 minutes ago, BaronC. said:

 

1)  Chessington is open ;)

2)  No one said anything about Merlin parks.  But oh well.

3)  At no point during any of the Merlin parks' February events have they ever experienced long queues.  The line up they provided suited the crowds that came.  

4)  Marc's point was a tad tongue-in-cheek.

 

Seems to be a case that the masses descended to Big One at a certain time.  What other rides are actually open at Blackpool atm?  Might be a case that the place needs to try and be better prepared for the crowds in future, by adding more rides or more capacity to what they've got open.  But then that'd require more money for more engineers and whatnot, so seems doubtful.

It's a relevant comparison, BPB are being slated over this but it's worth remembering that very few parks are actually open at this time of year.

 

Blackpool has all rides open except for Wild Mouse (due to new brakes being fitted), Pleasure Beach Express (due to ongoing construction in the area) and Crazy Daizy teacups.

 

As much as I agree that some of the queues today were too long/slow, I think that anyone turning up in February expecting everything to be running flat-out is being unrealistic.

 

 

On another note, Valhalla was really good today! :D

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Using 'well they're actually open' seems a bit of a non-point.  Regardless of when a park is open, if the operations are poor, they're poor.  People weren't sympathetic to Thorpe, for example, during their half term event when things didn't go to plan, despite all the good things.  Just a case of a bit more perspective really.

 

Wasn't expecting to hear that practically everything is open though - that's a good thing!

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Having one train operations when the park will pretty much know expected figures (although I assume the milder weather in the north probably pushed a few extra visits, as well as this being the 'crossover' weekend of north/south half terms) is poor though, even with valid reasoning, you would have hoped Blackpool would've pushed for two train operation on their biggest ride...

 

It's a fair complaint, and I'm sure if this was Thorpe having two hour queues with one train operation on a Saturday in a school holiday you would've been first in line to stick the boot in...

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1 hour ago, BaronC. said:

Using 'well they're actually open' seems a bit of a non-point.  Regardless of when a park is open, if the operations are poor, they're poor.  People weren't sympathetic to Thorpe, for example, during their half term event when things didn't go to plan, despite all the good things.  Just a case of a bit more perspective really.

 

Wasn't expecting to hear that practically everything is open though - that's a good thing!

I don't think it's a non-point, BPB leave themselves a shorter time period for winter maintenance than places like Thorpe so to expect everything on capacity is unrealistic.

 

Other parks have issues such as this on their first weeks of opening, even taking into consideration the extra time they have to prepare.

 

I remember Thorpe's half term event being much worse than BPB's Wow Weekends, with only one major coaster open at some points.  Similarly, when Alton used to open during half term I remember hearing about Nemesis running one train with only three rows open!

 

Today was frustrating at times with the low throughputs, but it is what I was expecting for February; and as said previously, I still really enjoyed my visit.  If capacity was like this during main season it would be a completely different story IMO.

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the issue is, as has been spelt out over years and years of bickering, you are perfectly fine to slate merlin parks for parallel problems but as soon as blackpool has similar goings ons you flip it all on its head, which is great because you're seeing the best of a situation, but it's also bad because it's a highly hypocritical thing to do when you seem to reserve it for parks that aren't merlin.

 

It is bad that pmbo only has 1 train running. that's a fact, but at the same time their ride line up this early is pretty acceptable (sorry, I'm not very bright and have a limited vocabulary) (no). Considering the vast majority of their attractions are open already is very good, it's just disappointing they didn't prioritize work on their biggest one. This is technically the start of their season, with weekend openings at least now until the end of the year, so I'd expect a similar response from all members if other parks have a similar issue. If not then you're all silly :)

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8 hours ago, wegloo said:

the issue is, as has been spelt out over years and years of bickering, you are perfectly fine to slate merlin parks for parallel problems but as soon as blackpool has similar goings ons you flip it all on its head, which is great because you're seeing the best of a situation, but it's also bad because it's a highly hypocritical thing to do when you seem to reserve it for parks that aren't merlin.

 

It is bad that pmbo only has 1 train running. that's a fact, but at the same time their ride line up this early is pretty acceptable (sorry, I'm not very bright and have a limited vocabulary) (sorry, I'm not very bright and have a limited vocabulary) (sorry, I'm not very bright and have a limited vocabulary) (sorry, I'm not very bright and have a limited vocabulary) (sorry, I'm not very bright and have a limited vocabulary) (no). Considering the vast majority of their attractions are open already is very good, it's just disappointing they didn't prioritize work on their biggest one. This is technically the start of their season, with weekend openings at least now until the end of the year, so I'd expect a similar response from all members if other parks have a similar issue. If not then you're all silly :)

As I've already said, it isn't main season yet.  If Pleasure Beach were operating like this during main season it would be an entirely different kettle of fish to a cold weekend in February when all the Merlin parks are closed (or, in the case of Chessington, have three rides open).

 

I think it's too easy to underestimate the quick turnaround the park has during the winter, in comparison to other parks which open a whole month and a half later.

 

Of course, it would have been much better if PMBO was on two trains, but to replace a lift chain and get it up and running so early in the year is still pretty good IMO.

 

Maybe if the Merlin parks were actually open, I'd have something positive to say about them :)

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firefly.gif

 

I guess all those years Merlin parks had a half term event when Blackpool didn't count for nothing then eh? Granted they weren't always perfect (cold weather was usually the reason for Thorpe's problems, I'm sure if they'd attempted it this year it would've been fine given the weather recently), and when they did it majority of the time was on capacity (unless Nemesis decided to pour oil on everyone)...

 

But you know, some parks get away with murder in some people's eyes...

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40 minutes ago, Benin said:

I guess all those years Merlin parks had a half term event when Blackpool didn't count for nothing then eh? Granted they weren't always perfect (cold weather was usually the reason for Thorpe's problems, I'm sure if they'd attempted it this year it would've been fine given the weather recently), and when they did it majority of the time was on capacity (unless Nemesis decided to pour oil on everyone)...

 

But you know, some parks get away with murder in some people's eyes...

What does previous years have to do with it?  We're talking about this year!

 

Pleasure Beach have had February weekend events for years, so I'm really not sure what your point is.

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8 hours ago, Coaster said:

Maybe if the Merlin parks were actually open, I'd have something positive to say about them :)

 

I don't understand your logic? 

 

This discussion is all about Blackpool.  You're the one who mentioned Merlin parks.  How has the state of the Merlin parks got anything to do with Blackpool's operations?  

 

Yes, credit where it is due, it's great Blackpool had got essentially the whole park open in February.  But if they're not ready to cope with the crowds they will receive, should they open so early? 

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52 minutes ago, BaronC. said:

 

I don't understand your logic? 

 

This discussion is all about Blackpool.  You're the one who mentioned Merlin parks.  How has the state of the Merlin parks got anything to do with Blackpool's operations?  

 

Yes, credit where it is due, it's great Blackpool had got essentially the whole park open in February.  But if they're not ready to cope with the crowds they will receive, should they open so early? 

If you read the post I was responding to, you'll see that I was being called out for not being positive about Merlin.

 

However, since the parks are closed, there's nothing for me to say about them.  That's all I meant.

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Yet you brought them up because people were being negative over Big One having one train operation...

 

You got called out because you decided to bring Merlin into something they had nothing to do with; as you needed to one up them and defend Blackpool over something that you will no doubt moan over when you visit Thorpe this year...

 

What do previous years have to do with it? As Josh said, people moaned about the situations at Thorpe and Towers because they went wrong, it's not like everyone was positive about them because they were open... Given your critical nature surely you would understand others being so about one train operation on a massively advertised half term event that Blackpool hadn't tried to this level before...

 

Just take the rose tinted glasses off and accept that Blackpool isn't perfect...

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3 hours ago, Benin said:

Yet you brought them up because people were being negative over Big One having one train operation...

 

You got called out because you decided to bring Merlin into something they had nothing to do with; as you needed to one up them and defend Blackpool over something that you will no doubt moan over when you visit Thorpe this year...

 

What do previous years have to do with it? As Josh said, people moaned about the situations at Thorpe and Towers because they went wrong, it's not like everyone was positive about them because they were open... Given your critical nature surely you would understand others being so about one train operation on a massively advertised half term event that Blackpool hadn't tried to this level before...

 

Just take the rose tinted glasses off and accept that Blackpool isn't perfect...

Thorpe doesn't open until the end of March so is hardly relevant in this discussion.

 

I'm baffled as to what you mean when you've said that it's a half term event Blackpool "hadn't tried to this level before"?

They have opened at the beginning of February for years! :lol:

 

It's not a "half term event" either, the park is open every weekend until full season starts at the end of March - but not during the week.

 

Blackpool is far from perfect, I'll be the first to say that - just that in this case I think people are being harsh.

Maybe better not to make assumptions over one discussion point?

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They've been doing it for years, so why weren't they able to do their maintenance in time then? It shouldn't matter what time of year the park opens, but whenever they do they should be fully prepared for the crowds. Using the "it isn't main season yet" isn't an argument. If they can't get the maintenance done in a shorter period they shouldn't rush to open. And as they're open every weekend now till November that to me is their season. 

 

 

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54 minutes ago, Mitchada04 said:

They've been doing it for years, so why weren't they able to do their maintenance in time then? It shouldn't matter what time of year the park opens, but whenever they do they should be fully prepared for the crowds. Using the "it isn't main season yet" isn't an argument. If they can't get the maintenance done in a shorter period they shouldn't rush to open. And as they're open every weekend now till November that to me is their season. 

 

 

Because they have 14 weeks to complete their maintenance as opposed to the 19/20 weeks that other parks leave.  They had all rides apart from three open, I'd much rather that than the park not open at all.

 

Whether it's "main season" to you or not is irrelevant, that isn't how BPB operate.  Wow Weekends is between February - March, then main season starts at the end of March when the park is open every day until November.

 

If you don't like the way Pleasure Beach operate at this time of year then wait until the main theme park season starts, it's as simple as that.

 

I find it amusing that those moaning about one train in February will be defending Thorpe when they open in March with half the rides shut and low capacity on those open.

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45 minutes ago, Coaster said:

I find it amusing that those moaning about one train in February will be defending Thorpe when they open in March with half the rides shut and low capacity on those open.

 

I equally find it amusing you'll go out your way to defend BPB for something which if it was at Thorpe (or any Merlin park for that matter) you would be spitting nails at..and to add to that - No ones moaning about it - as Josh said my post was very much  tongue-in-cheek! 

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Oh, I assumed due to the rush of defence they were opening for all half term rather than every weekend like before...

 

Of course, one could say that Blackpool's older rides actually help in terms of maintenance turn around, less confusing parts and all that stuff...

 

Just wonder why you tell me Thorpe are irrelevant to this discussion when you yourself brought the Merlin parks into it...

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Thorpe/Merlin have opened rides on inappropriate one train operation on and off peak for a variety of reasons and have been rightly derided for it. Blackpool have done the same here and are being rightly derided for it. There's not much more to it really, and if you don't agree that this is not how a park should be operating then you are probably wrong.

 

But really I just wanted to make the 1000th post in the topic. 

 

Carry on.

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In all fairness though, it's not just Merlin and BPB that suffer from maintenance and reliability issues though as pretty much every park has or will go through something major from time to time. 

 

River Quest at Phantasialand has had numerous issues last year resulting in the ride having reliability issues and reduced capacity too (thus resulting over 2 hour queues). Not to mention Big Thunder  at DLRP has been having reliability issues since it's refurb too. 

 

 Thorpe may appear to have a tendacy for one train ops (especially Colossus), but given various maintenance situations this may not always be avoidable. I can't remember the last time I waited two hours for any of their coasters on two trains, let alone one.

 

Not to mention on my previous trip to Blackpool, I saw several coasters running just one train, when demand could've easily warranted two. These included Grand National, Big One, Avalanche and Nickelodeon Streak. 

 

In short, all park's have their fair share of problems.

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