Blackpool Pleasure Beach

[Coaster]

That's a simulator though, not really a ride.

[Jordanluke2009]

Simulators are still rides they move. Even a car is a ride it moves.

[EC!]

Good news for BPB!

 

 

Blackpool Pleasure Beach is hoping that another warm summer and its new Red Arrows ride will send profits soaring in 2015, after it released its results for 2013/14.
The parent company Blackpool Pleasure Beach Holdings reported that, during the period ending March 2014, turn-over was up at the attraction but it was still making an overall loss.
Although they do not include revenues for the summer season just gone, the losses have narrowed to £397,000 compared with £1.5m for the year before when the weather was abysmal.
Turnover rose to £30.3m compared with £30.2m for the same period the year before and gross profit also increased from £11.5m to £12.6m.
The group, which includes the theme park, the Big Blue Hotel and South Shore Mutual Insurance Company, said the season had “seen improvement” at the amusement park, with turnover rising from £25.3m to £25.89m and a reduction in pre-tax losses from £2.55m to £1.87m.
It said the improvements were due to the better weather during the 2013 season than the previous year.
A spokesman said: “The period saw an improvement in turnover and expenditure levels plus a reduction in the level of losses compared with the financial year ending March 2012.
“Attendance levels remained at a similar level to the previous year, a reflection of the economic climate and individual disposable income of our visitors.
“This year we are confident that a new strategy focused on pricing and marketing will address the economic factors affecting the business which, combined with our investment programme, gives us confident optimism for the future”.
The group said since that trading period attendances had been up 11 per cent and it was delighted to announce the opening of a new ride this spring.
Red Arrows Sky Force is a collaboration between Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the famous air display team where the rider takes a seat on their own themed plane and controls their own thrill seeker experience.
No significant capital expenditure was made in 2013/14 and the company is not recommending paying out a dividend to shareholders.
The Big Blue Hotel made money, despite a “challenging year”, with turnover of £3.8m, down from £4m the year before and pre-tax profit down from £744,000 to £690,000.

Source: http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/community/community-news/new-ride-hopes-for-a-high-flying-fun-park-future-1-7051685

[Mark9]

Yay. That's good to hear. As long as next year they can start returning a profit. I'm not sure if the red arrow ride is capable of doing that alone though.

[Coaster]

BPB are bringing out a new app called Rollercoaster Rush, based on The Big One!

 

Feel the rush of The Big One with our brand new app, coming soon! Rollercoaster Rush will take you on a thrill ride you’ll never forget as you take on the twists and turns of The Big One, collecting coins along the way while trying not to go off the rails!

Look out for this new app, coming soon to the Apple store and Android. Get ready to take on the park with your fingers and feel the real rush of a rollercoaster!

To keep up to date with the news surrounding Rollercoaster Rush and it’s release please sign up using the form below!

Thank you, we will ensure we keep you up to date with Rollercoaster Rush development!

https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/rollercoaster-rush/#usermessage20a

 

Sounds very good in my opinion!

[pognoi]

Well, they didn't tell us much. It could be anything from what they've said, they haven't mentioned the developers, the style of game, the objectives... All I got from that is the big one and coins. 

[Tom]

Sounds like it's just a layover of the original Rollercoaster Rush game with Big one colours

[pluk]

 

 

 Rollercoaster Rush will take you on a thrill ride you’ll never forget 

 

Whereas The Big One takes you on a thrill ride you will barely remember

[Coaster]

Interesting article about the work that goes on at Blackpool Pleasure Beach throughout the closed season.  Anyone who says they don't do maintenance, read this! 

 

 

It’s a classic horror movie cliché, the closed down fairground; eerily quiet and strange characters lurking in dark corners.

 

And on a bitterly cold February morning, Blackpool Pleasure Beach could easily be the set of a scary movie.

You don’t realise just how noisy a theme park is until you set foot inside the gates when it’s closed.

There’s no rattling of the Grand National, no whooshing of the Big One, and no splashing of the river flume in Nickelodeon Land.

There’s certainly no screaming as thrillseekers brave the rides, nor the cheerful hubbub of friends and families racing round the 44-acre South Shore site.

Instead, you might catch glimpse of a fork lift shifting tubs of water or crates of weights, a mini digger clearing debris or sky-high cranes around the park’s oldest ride, and the latest recruits to the team arriving for training.

And perhaps the ‘scariest’ thing you might encounter are the independent inspectors, who actually make regular visits to the park throughout the year to keep tabs on the rolling programme of works.

The finishing touches are being put in place for the new season, which sees the Pleasure Beach reopen for weekends on Saturday, but there’s surprisingly a lot of work still going on – even with just a few days to go.

Among the biggest changes taking place for 2015 is the demolition of the old monorail station, opposite the Wallace and Gromit Thrill-O-Matic – opening up the overpass area which links the two ends of the park.

Another major project has been refurbishing the 110-year-old Flying 
Machines, complete with new aircraft although they’ve retained the old-school, traditional feel.

From the oldest to the newest, also under way are the groundworks for Skyforce – a Red Arrows-inspired flying experience, due to open in the spring, which allows visitors to make their ride as thrilling or as simple as they choose in self-piloted ‘planes’.

Alex Payne and Jason Taylor are among those in charge of preparing the park to open again after the winter break.

As technical director, Alex’s job behind the scenes is to oversee the maintenance work onsite as well as the new build schemes.

In his office, tucked between the Grand National and Valhalla, it’s seldom quiet.

In-season, the never-end of the whirl of the attraction goes on around them, and come the ‘short’ winter the team springs into life.

“You only really notice the noise, or lack of it, when it changes,” he said. “So as the park reopens or closes, that’s when you pick up on it.”

Alex’s team fights a never-ending battle against corrosion, as the park’s buffeted by the winds off the Irish Sea, blasting the sand and salt water into the rides.

Skyforce, in the shadow of the Big One’s main climb, will be one of the most 
exposed rides onsite, and a special method has been developed to hopefully delay the onset of corrosion, while existing rides are showered with love by the team onsite and contractors.

“There’s a team of abseilers working on the Big One during the closed season, chipping off the paint, repairing corrosion and reapplying paint.” Alex said.

“At 120ft up, at the return bend of the Big One, it’s battered by everything. The paint is blasted off by the sand in the air and then the sea air gets into the metal-work. We have to give it as much love as we can. With all the rides, it’s a case of delaying the onset as we’ll never stop it given where we are. I cannot emphasise what a problem corrosion is for us.”

The 75-strong in-house team of engineers works year-round to look after the site, with contractors providing additional specialist services.

This week the last of the rides are being pieced back together, and water tanks are refilled – as no matter how cold the forecast may be, guests to the park will still want to tackle the water rides such as the soaking-promising Valhalla, the kids’ Rugrats Lost River log flume and white-knuckle coaster Infusion.

Valhalla is one of the first rides back in action each year after the closedown maintenance programme, as it takes so long to be ready for riders.

“It takes about a week to refill,” Alex explained. “So the maintenance works have to be complete pretty much straight after Christmas, to allow it to refill and to then be able to do testing.

“There’s so much to the ride, with integrating the effects system and the mechanics, that’s it’s always a big task.

“Servicing the boats is a rolling programme, and they’ll go into the workshop throughout the season, and that applies across the park.”

Jason Taylor, production and logistics manager, is more front-of-house, heading up the on-park entertainment team among other things. Most of his Team Nick staff have winter jobs with the Pleasure Beach, and new recruits will be auditioned later this month, with preparations under way for a host of fun activities.

“Last year we introduced on-park activities and this year we want to really push it forward,” he said.

 

“We’ve got a Summer Of Slime planned, which is awesome and will be the first time we’ve had slime on park – for the guests and the staff. Where we had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ film last year, this year there will be Spongebob Squarepants and Shaun the Sheep movies and they’re both so popular as characters here – so that’s another great way to enhance the experience for visitors.”

Taken from Blackpool Gazette: http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/features/getting-ready-for-the-new-season-at-the-pleasure-beach-1-7088414

 

 

Also another article with a progress update on Skyforce:

The countdown to take off for the Red Arrows’ latest high-flying white knuckle adventure is on.

 

The Blackpool Air Show favourites will be taking to the skies in the new UK exclusive ride Skyforce, opening this spring at the Pleasure Beach.

At a cost of £2m, Skyforce will see the Pleasure Beach become the world’s first tourist attraction to have a ride based on the top aerobatic display team.

Ahead of the South Shore park opening for 2015 this weekend, work is well underway both in Blackpool and at a factory in Germany.

Pleasure Beach technical director Alex Payne said: “The ride is all on track – the foundations are in and as is standard, there’s a 28-day wait to fully strengthen the concrete.

“The ride is well on with the manufacturers now, and is with the galvanisers.”

Protecting the Pleasure Beach’s rides from the corrosive effects of sand, sea water and strong winds is the foremost challenge for the site’s design team and a new system has been created to protect the metal work of Skyforce in conjunction with manufacturers Gerstlauer.

Skyforce is nestled under the main climb of the Big One rollercoster, and will be decorated with Red Arrows livery, with its own control tower.

The 12-seat ride will allow thrillseekers to soar to 23-metres while taking a personalised 360-degree tour of the skies, in control of their own Red Arrows cockpit.

When the ride was announced in the autumn, Pleasure Beach managing director Amanda Thompson hailed the partnership with the “British institution” as being a “perfect fit”, while promising visitors a “unique thrill”.

The site will include a briefing area, where riders will be told how to get the most from their ride.

Alex added: “Each of the 12 riders will get their own experience, which is very unusual and it’s one of the things which attracted us to the ride.

“The base for the ride is quite small, but the area it actually covers is 25m by 30m, and it goes up to about 23m. In relation to the Big One, it’s not that high but it’s probably higher than the Revolution.

“And of course, us being us, we like to push things – it will fly pretty close to the Big One and will go over the Big Dipper track too. That’s the gag of what we do; engineering fear into things, but with safety.”

The Red Arrows are firm favourites at the Blackpool Air Show each summer and last year the team celebrated its 50th display season.

Their Hawk jets were built by BAE Systems which manufactures the jet at Warton.

 

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/business/local-business/2m-red-arrows-ride-on-track-for-its-big-take-off-1-7088542

[Coaster]

Construction update from Skyforce:

 

[/url]

 

I imagine that this will be the pre-show building;

[/url]

 

Banners advertising the ride;

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The groundwork is finished and needs 28 days to set before they can install the ride.

[Coaster]

Not very impressed with BPB at the moment, yesterday they closed an hour early because it was quiet, and they did the same two weeks ago.

It's not acceptable to do this, they are not providing the service advertised and in fact the website is still showing 6pm for yesterday, which is a straight out lie.

They do let people in for free the next day, but that doesn't cut it IMO, not everyone can visit the next day (daytrippers etc.), and it affects their plans. I have a season pass but planned to do the tower dungeon and circus yesterday morning followed by two and a half hours on park, due to them closing early I only got an hour and a half. Furthermore, I saw lots of disgruntled guests finding the PMBO shut at just gone five, so I imagine it was the same across the park. They aren't doing themselves any favours.

They chose to become a theme park infrastructure wise, it's time they start acting like one. You don't see Thorpe or Towers closing early just because it's quiet - I know the weather was bad yesterday but that is irrelevant.

[AstroDan]

Whilst closing times are largely solid at Blackpool, I agree that closing earlier than advertised is poor show. I don't know of any other park that does this.

[Matt 236]

Closing before closing time is definitely not on, even if the park is dead quiet.

I'm thankful Merlin do far don't do this (yet).

[Chaz]

^They used too. Well, it used to happen at TP anyway. Even during FN's (when they were open all month with the event).

[Coaster]

Operations are also poor this week, with lots of coasters being run on one train. It isn't Thorpe style bad (the rides are actually open), but I'm quite disappointed as I usually don't have much to fault with BPB.

[AstroDan]

Operations have declined at BPB in recent years.

[Coaster]

Operations have declined at BPB in recent years.

I thought they were improving over the last two years, and last October was good all through half term week but this week has just been poor so far. I know operations have declined from the 90s, but I found them to be a lot better last year than they had been for years, however so far this year I haven't been too impressed.

[Matt 236]

( chuckle brothers meme omitted)

Dear oh dear!!! The UK theme parks have just been so disappointing this year so far with their downtime, operations, budget cuts and everything in general. Everything needs a good shake up.

Europe couldn't call any sooner!

[Coaster]

( chuckle brothers meme omitted)

Dear oh dear!!! The UK theme parks have just been so disappointing this year so far with their downtime, operations, budget cuts and everything in general. Everything needs a good shake up.

Europe couldn't call any sooner!

It does seem very odd, but the UK theme park industry is just going down the drain at the moment. Thorpe and Chessie can't even get their rides open, Towers keep trying to make cuts, Oakwood isn't even worth talking about and now BPB is going the same way!

[JoshC.]

It does seem very odd, but the UK theme park industry is just going down the drain at the moment. Thorpe and Chessie can't even get their rides open, Towers keep trying to make cuts, Oakwood isn't even worth talking about and now BPB is going the same way!

 

You ignore the fact that all of Chessington's rides are now open (and they all were after the first weekend, bar Vampire), Drayton Manor is doing alright for itself, Paulton's is coming on leaps and bounds, Dreamland Margate is reopening, etc.

 

It's a dull year for UK theme parks, yes, but I would hardly say the UK industry is going down the drain!

[AstroDan]

But Josh, it mostly is.

[Coaster]

You ignore the fact that all of Chessington's rides are now open (and they all were after the first weekend, bar Vampire), Drayton Manor is doing alright for itself, Paulton's is coming on leaps and bounds, Dreamland Margate is reopening, etc.

It's a dull year for UK theme parks, yes, but I would hardly say the UK industry is going down the drain!

Yes, Chessington's rides are all open, but they have been having considerable downtime and are being run on awful capacity. Paultons is doing well, so hats off to them, and the same for Dreamland reopening, I am looking forward to that but two parks aren't going to save an industry. Drayton have opened with five rides closed this year (not sure if this is still the case), however I was impressed with it two years ago when I visited.

Previously the only park I actually found really good was BPB. Thorpe's availability and one train operation bores me to death, Towers is good when it's on form but from my experiences it rarely is, Oakwood has gone completely down the pan (unless they improve this season), and BPB has left me very unimpressed this week - considering how impressed I have been with the place for years it is hard to watch the current operations. Don't get me wrong, it's still miles better than most other parks in my opinion, as they can actually get their rides open, but compared to this time last year and the usual standards they have provided on my visits it is a farce.

[Mitchada04]

I still can't stand how Blackpool take trains off 30 minutes before close. Never have I seen any park do that ever! Infusion was happily running two trains with a queue just outside the station and then they spend 10 minutes taking a train off so now the queue is about 40 minutes and it's on one train. Brilliant logic. Also, staggered openings at any park annoy me, I've paid to go on the rides, why can't I go on them when I want in your opening times? Yes lots of parks are culprit to this but it bugs me, and Blackpool do this so it bugs me. 

 

Oh, and I dislike the lame "Big One can only run one train today due to the wind" yet it's a summers day so the queue is well over an hour. Why not just make all the trains fast?? Seems silly to have a slow, medium and fast train. Oh, and the Trauma Towers front looks stupid with nothing there, the massive building from the old Space Invader is pointless, operations aren't that fantastic. They stack Big One on 2 trains... how that ever ran three I don't know... Oh, and does Steeplechase even run 3 tracks anymore? Blackpool have longer hours but some rides close before the closing time and some open after opening, and it's on the seaside. Adventure Island is all rides 11-10:30 over the summer months. Food is also ridiculously overpriced and not that amazing. Never got the Blackpool hype for all these reasons

[Coaster]

I still can't stand how Blackpool take trains off 30 minutes before close. Never have I seen any park do that ever! Infusion was happily running two trains with a queue just outside the station and then they spend 10 minutes taking a train off so now the queue is about 40 minutes and it's on one train. Brilliant logic. Also, staggered openings at any park annoy me, I've paid to go on the rides, why can't I go on them when I want in your opening times? Yes lots of parks are culprit to this but it bugs me, and Blackpool do this so it bugs me.

Oh, and I dislike the lame "Big One can only run one train today due to the wind" yet it's a summers day so the queue is well over an hour. Why not just make all the trains fast?? Seems silly to have a slow, medium and fast train. Oh, and the Trauma Towers front looks stupid with nothing there, the massive building from the old Space Invader is pointless, operations aren't that fantastic. They stack Big One on 2 trains... how that ever ran three I don't know... Oh, and does Steeplechase even run 3 tracks anymore? Blackpool have longer hours but some rides close before the closing time and some open after opening, and it's on the seaside. Adventure Island is all rides 11-10:30 over the summer months. Food is also ridiculously overpriced and not that amazing. Never got the Blackpool hype for all these reasons

They can't make all the trains fast because it would E - stop on non-windy days, I've seen it happen before, the ride emergency stops itself if the train enters the brakes too fast.

Taking trains off annoys me but I have seen it happen at lots of other parks (happens at Thorpe quite often, so it isn't just BPB). However it is poor and very frustrating if you are in the queue.

Agreed about staggered openings, it's poor and, apart from Valhalla everything should be open at the beginning of the day.

The Trauma Towers and Space Invader buildings should be removed but sadly it won't happen anytime soon, Trauma's building is full of asbestos and SI2 is built into the pizza restaurant.

Three lanes do work on Steeple but annoyingly they seem to swap between yellow and red unless the queue is really long.

[Coaster]

Skyforce construction update:

 

 

Control tower?

 

The ORP building/shop looks good.

 

 

Banner advertising the ride;

 

May opening is looking likely for the ride, with the official opening date on the 25th which will feature an airshow from the red arrows themselves over the park.  However it might soft open before that if it is ready, the same thing happened with W&G in 2013.

 

Parts of the ride have arrived since I took these photos, here is the link to BPB's Facebook page where they have been shared: https://www.facebook.com/blackpoolpleasurebeach