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Blackpool Pleasure Beach


Dan_Rush

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Blackpool Pleasure Beach has been voted the best park in the UK (and ninth best in Europe) on Tripadvisor!

 

 

News: Global travellers have named Blackpool attractions among the best in Europe

Blackpool Pleasure Beach was voted the ninth best amusement park in Europe in a list compiled by the TripAdvisor website from millions of reviews.

Blackpool’s Sandcastle Waterpark also proved a favourite with travellers - being placed eighth in a list of best European water parks.

Paultons Park, home of Peppa Pig World, at Romsey in Hampshire, was 10th in the top European amusement park table, while Alton Towers in Staffordshire was 12th.

Four other UK attractions made it into the European amusement park top 25. Drayton Manor in Tamworth in Staffordshire was 13th, Thorpe Park in Chertsey in Surrey 14th, Brighton Pier in Sussex 18th and Fishers Farm in Wisborough Green in Sussex 21st.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Paultons Park were first and second in the best UK amusement park list, with Alton Towers third, Drayton Manor fourth and Thorpe Park fifth.

The world’s top amusement park was Discovery Cove in Orlando, Florida, while the leading water park was Siam Park in Tenerife, which also topped the European water park table.

Europe’s best amusement park was Europe-Park in Rust, Germany.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach managing director Amanda Thompson said: “We are thrilled to be named the UK’s best amusement park.

“We pride ourself on offering the best experience for a great day out.”

TripAdvisor spokesman James Kay said: “Blackpool Pleasure Beach is not just the country’s best-rated amusement park, it is also one of the cheapest for a family day out among the UK top 10, proving that great value often trumps bigger rides in the eyes of consumers.

(Article taken from Theme Park Logic Facebook)

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I'm cool with that outcome. Alton, Thorpe, Chessington and Legoland are all going backwards whilst the Pleasure Beach is getting a new lease of life of late. Good to see the classic rides can outdo the newer, bigger stuff.

 

Tis probably the truth of it tbh, the other non-Merlin parks certainly have a lot more focus on the value, of which Blackpool, on a price per ride basis, easily wins out...

 

Drayton is a weird one, but I guess the lure and reasonable quality of Thomas Land wins out... Paultons is an excellent park for the family market too, combining that charming independent owned park feel into a top quality IP area...

 

The Merlin parks have been certainly attracting the negative crowds in a relative growing fashion on the decent reviewer end of TripAdvisor...

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pleasure beach may still have the old feel, but they've certainly updated it and probably looks the best appearance wise in comparison to other parks. the rides at the likes of paultons park, drayton manor and bpb may not be anywhere in the league of the merlin parks, but the guest experience is what matters on trip advisor, and they clearly care about their customers... wish we could say the same about merlin.

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I don't know what all the negativity around Drayton is about - I really enjoyed my first visit last year.

Awful queues and operations over a few years made the difference, with crap food and staff in a general sense... Thomas Land helped them turn a corner... Still lack a good coaster though...

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Awful queues and operations over a few years made the difference, with crap food and staff in a general sense... Thomas Land helped them turn a corner... Still lack a good coaster though...

I know we're on the bpb topic... but I've pretty much only good things to say about drayton - have visited 3 times over easter back in 2008, twice over may bank holiday weekend 2012 as well as in the summer holidays, and summer holidays and fireworks last year, and may bank holiday weekend this year. not sure how their operations are so bad (except for pirate adventure this year where I swear there was only like 1 or 2 boats running which is ridiculous!), never had a problem with the food, staff seemed a bit miserable but nothing to effect my day. admittedly you can see how thomas land has helped them so much, but unfortunately they do lack another big coaster (I say another big coaster, but none of them are big or anything special really actually) to even think about competing with the main theme parks which you know will give them higher gate figures coming from people other than families with young children!

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Awful queues and operations over a few years made the difference, with crap food and staff in a general sense... Thomas Land helped them turn a corner... Still lack a good coaster though...

I really enjoyed Shockwave and G Force, and I don't see what the problem with them is.  No they aren't the absoloute best but they are both unique and great fun!

Shockwave ran a two train service with minimal queues the whole day (10am - 9pm), but G Force was only on one train (they need another one!)

I did visit on the fireworks night though so maybe they put more effort in?

Whoops, going very off topic now!

 

 

pleasure beach may still have the old feel, but they've certainly updated it and probably looks the best appearance wise in comparison to other parks. the rides at the likes of paultons park, drayton manor and bpb may not be anywhere in the league of the merlin parks, but the guest experience is what matters on trip advisor, and they clearly care about their customers... wish we could say the same about merlin.

 

I disagree, I prefer BPB's rides to the ones at Merlin parks.

I agree about the appearance though.

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I'm cool with that outcome. Alton, Thorpe, Chessington and Legoland are all going backwards whilst the Pleasure Beach is getting a new lease of life of late. Good to see the classic rides can outdo the newer, bigger stuff.

It's all to do with value really. Blackpool are heavily promoting £20 entry, Drayton Manor heavily promote £25. As they're two smaller parks they get smaller queues and do well out of it.

 

Most distaste comes from the pricing structure from Merlin it seems. Everyone basis the value of the park to be £49 or whatever, whereas everyone basically pays £25. They expect a £49 product from a £25 pricing range because of it. You don't get those feelings with the smaller parks.

 

But it's good on them. Hopefully the whole change in pricing with thorpe and cwoa this year will be pushed to all merlin and they start doing sensible pricing.

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Unrelated note. Have Pleasure Beach upped their marketing game recently?

Living in the South East I rarely see any advertisements for the park whatsoever but in the past month I have seen billboards, banners and Facebook sponsors all using the strapline 'The UK's most ride intensive park'. Had me wondering whether they were attempting to reach people further afield or whether I just never acknowledged this advertising until now.

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Unrelated note. Have Pleasure Beach upped their marketing game recently?

Living in the South East I rarely see any advertisements for the park whatsoever but in the past month I have seen billboards, banners and Facebook sponsors all using the strapline 'The UK's most ride intensive park'. Had me wondering whether they were attempting to reach people further afield or whether I just never acknowledged this advertising until now.

I have also seen lots of online adverts, which is good. Also, the way they manage social media channels has improved 100% this season, with replies to almost everyone.

They have three new TV adverts this year but I haven't seen any on television (but I don't live that close to BPB unfortunately!)

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