Brand new for the 2021 season is a fully incorporated Blackpool Pleasure Beach E-Ticket system for park and ride entry.
Scanning an E-Ticket on your phone at the park entrance and on each and every ride you board within the park is the new norm for 2021.
Using a QR system on your phone you have to scan your way through every attraction at the park.
So, how did this new system perform?
Here are my thoughts.
Park Entry
Park entry is always hit and miss at Blackpool Pleasure Beach simply because you just don’t know who you’re going to be stuck in front of.
One day you could be behind a couple with no bags and no metal detector beeps and you’re straight into the park.
Other days you could be behind someone with a full-sized camping bag that is being searched through by security or some other thorough search that takes up valuable time.
Also, Who brings a camping bag to Blackpool Pleasure Beach?!
Well, the day we went, after queuing quite some time to get in the park we had that very scenario.
Then to have the issue of not only finding the E-Ticket on their phone but having no signal to bring up said E-Ticket on their phone made the whole entry to the park a rather interesting discussion topic as to why E-Tickets generally just aren’t a good idea.
This was apparent throughout the day and all subsequent days after at BPB in 2021.
Are E-Tickets A Bad Idea?
To put it simply.
We’re not a very organised species.
The majority of us.
Me included.
Why change a good thing?
Something that was working and working well last season with a scan at the entrance only.
That leaves all potential issues at the gate and doesn’t disrupt anything within the park.
Thankfully after last year we’re now more used to E-Tickets on our phone as they were used to get into the park and then after that you’re free to go but this season you have to scan your phone on every single ride.
This meant a ridiculous amount of issues all day where families were trying to sort their tickets on each other’s phones, phone batteries were running low, the scanners weren’t picking up the QR codes so staff were telling people to increase the brightness on their phones which in turn drains the battery and delays boarding.
It was a nightmare for people.
As the day went on people got more and more used to it to the point where even I was scanning like a pro and it was effortless but it’s that introductory hurdle of getting used to it that you’ll get with people at the park every single time you go.
That’s when the scanners are working that is, only a week later we revisited and whilst the scanner beeped the turnstile wasn’t letting anyone through so we had to be let in through a different gate.
What a fuss.
So whilst E-tickets aren’t a bad idea for entry to the park I certainly think the scanning per ride is ridiculously annoying but if it helps the park with a good set of data over a season I’m all for it.
But just for one season ONLY.
Why Are They Doing This?
Last years system felt like a proper theme park instead of the usual amusement park style that Pleasure Beach has always adopted over the years.
You scan at the gate and boom you’re free to go.
The year before that you had wristbands to scan at every ride.
Last year was the best for getting into the park, a little hassle at the entrance but then no hassle for the rest of the day.
Simple, easy and efficient.
This new E-Ticket method for 2021 is certainly a case of market research as BPB can track what rides are popular and what isn’t and they can pinpoint where people are in and around the park.
Your E-Ticket is also linked to your face due a selfie you upload before you visit so there can be no exchange of wristbands or QR codes without your face being flagged up on the screen.
This new process is naturally going to slow operations down with numerous staff on the days we visited just letting families through who were having issues with tickets as to not hold up the queues.
Not to mention all the staff we spoke to throughout each and every visited being very open and honest about what an issue it has become.
ICON has had seatbelts installed for 2021 so on top of E-Tickets, new seat belts and up until the end of the first week of re-opening just a two-train service ICON was certainly feeling the impact of a much slower throughput.
Overall
So here are my quick pros and cons for the Blackpool Pleasure Beach E-Ticket system.
Pros
*Allows the park to dissect information about their guests and the popularity of their ride offerings
*Saves other people using tickets they haven’t purchased
*Does get easier the more you get used to it if the system is working properly
Cons
*Slows down entry into the park
*Slows down entry onto the rides
*Extends queues
*System is very temperamental
*Makes staff a little more stressed
So whilst the pros help the park the cons don’t help the public so guest satisfaction will probably be a bit wishy-washy with some people in 2021.
It’s definitely a bold move from the park.
I’m happy to embrace it for one season and like I said I got used to scanning it but you have to make sure your phone battery is charged and I’d even recommend screenshotting your QR code so you don’t have to keep going on the internet to get it.
Whilst I’m happy to use it I can see families and older generations struggling to use it but for the majority of our generation with our heads glued to our phones, it should be no issue at all other than a bit of a faff trying to get the scanner to scan your code.
It will slow queues down, I’ve never seen ICON move so slowly and with additional cleaning measures, lesser trains (until recently) and now this, it all doesn’t help move things along smoothly.
These issues will resolve themselves in time.
Pleasure Beach already added an extra train on ICON to combat the issue within days of opening and the seatbelt throughput issues seemed to have been ironed out within the same number of days as staff and the public get accustomed to it.
Hopefully, this new entry system is a one-season system and not a permanent measure but rest assured no fiddly Blackpool Pleasure Beach E-Ticket is going to stop me visiting one of the UK’s best theme parks!
Book your tickets to Blackpool Pleasure Beach today at https://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com
