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Wild Mouse at BPB Closure - R.I.P. 1958-2017

JoshC. said:
I agree it's a weak statement, but I don't think many people are that hung up about it now, 1 year on. Yes, they had an opportunity to make more out of it, but they didn't. And so life moves on.

Don't know how many times it has to be said that visitor numbers aren't the only way to judge success. And the first year of an attraction doesn't always define it's success either.

Equally, a ride's queue time can't always be used to judge popularity. It could simply be that with the people visiting on, and the throughput it has, 30 minutes it's a current natural maximum. And people aren't going to choose to wait longer than that when they know it will be quieter at a different time. For a fun example to show this - I have never seen the queue for Black Mamba at Phantasialand get longer than 20 minutes: does that mean it's an unpopular ride?
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But now, a year on, it's become evident that the reasons they gave (an "exciting new development") are yet to materialise.

Sure, queue times and visitor numbers aren't everything, but it's still strange for a huge new coaster to only draw queues of 30 minutes. The park were hoping to increase gate figures for definite with Icon.

Look at Wicker Man for example, that got huge queues. Of course it's great as an enthusiast to be able to ride Icon without waiting long, but it can't really be a good sign.

Black Mamba isn't brand new in fairness, unless it only got 20 minute queues in its opening year I don't follow the comparison. It reached 40 minutes on my last visit.
 
You have literally just said what I said about 'those enthusiasts' basing YOUR visits to the park as a benchmark of hos busy it was. Did you spend literally every single day of the season there and do the same for the past couple of years? No. Therefore until the actual visitor numbers are released you literally cannot comment on it because you're speculating and pulling numbers out of the air. Another reason Icon's queue rarely exceeded 30 minutes is due to the better operations that the ride had. Mostly on three trains, or at LEAST 2, it operated really well and the staff broke their backs to keep it that way, so it has absolutely nothing to do with popularity.

You are acting so hurt about this makes it look like you took it super personal and quite frankly, it's laughable.

All of this hostility is from the way they decided to announce it, just because it wasn't how you thought it should be announced. What would you have preferred - a Daily Mail style photo of Amanda and Nick crying with a packet of Kleenex in front of the Wild Mouse under the deadline "Heartbroken Siblings Say Goodbye to Dearly Beloved". Get over it.
 
Jamie, you did say that you regretted getting a season pass this year, over the fuss of paying a tenner more for renewal than others.
All your recent posts about the Beach have been negative, and you spent a great deal of time last year grumbling about minor issues...Dusty Icon mirrors and scratched paint on barriers comes to mind.
Stop beating yourself up and find a park that you are happy to attend.
Vote with your feet if you are not happy, to keep banging your head against the wall, then complain of a headache, gets very boring very quickly.
Get back to Thorpe.
 
Coaster said:
But now, a year on, it's become evident that the reasons they gave (an "exciting new development") are yet to materialise.
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Well of course not. They've only just added a new major coaster, and the decision to remove the Mouse was not one that was planned far in advance. They need time to make and fund new plans; nothing happens overnight.
 
I think the Big One was about six years between first plan and opening...A new coaster will probably take as long.
 
Lofty said:
You have literally just said what I said about 'those enthusiasts' basing YOUR visits to the park as a benchmark of hos busy it was. Did you spend literally every single day of the season there and do the same for the past couple of years? No. Therefore until the actual visitor numbers are released you literally cannot comment on it because you're speculating and pulling numbers out of the air. Another reason Icon's queue rarely exceeded 30 minutes is due to the better operations that the ride had. Mostly on three trains, or at LEAST 2, it operated really well and the staff broke their backs to keep it that way, so it has absolutely nothing to do with popularity.

You are acting so hurt about this makes it look like you took it super personal and quite frankly, it's laughable.

All of this hostility is from the way they decided to announce it, just because it wasn't how you thought it should be announced. What would you have preferred - a Daily Mail style photo of Amanda and Nick crying with a packet of Kleenex in front of the Wild Mouse under the deadline "Heartbroken Siblings Say Goodbye to Dearly Beloved". Get over it.
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So now it's changed to sarcasm.

I've already said, the way Efteling have handled Bob closing is how it should be done IMO. You're asking questions I've already answered so clearly you haven't even read my posts or just want an excuse to be sarcastic.

I'd suggest Wicker Man has equally good operations once they ironed out the teething issues, yet it still got queues of well over an hour on a regular basis.

I don't think it's true to say it had nothing to do with popularity, new coasters usually get much longer queues even when the throughput is in excess of 1000pph.
 
Coaster said:
So now it's changed to sarcasm.

I've already said, the way Efteling have handled Bob closing is how it should be done IMO. You're asking questions I've already answered so clearly you haven't even read my posts or just want an excuse to be sarcastic.

I'd suggest Wicker Man has equally good operations once they ironed out the teething issues, yet it still got queues of well over an hour on a regular basis.

I don't think it's true to say it had nothing to do with popularity, new coasters usually get much longer queues even when the throughput is in excess of 1000pph.
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Bob's closure was annnounced a year before it would close. Blackpool didn't have that luxury. And Efteling have millions to spend, so can easily churn out an immediate replacement. Few parks have that luxury.

Alton Towers is significantly busier than Blackpool. Of course Wicker Man is going to have longer queues.
 
JoshC. said:
Bob's closure was annnounced a year before it would close. Blackpool didn't have that luxury. And Efteling have millions to spend, so can easily churn out an immediate replacement. Few parks have that luxury.

Alton Towers is significantly busier than Blackpool. Of course Wicker Man is going to have longer queues.
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Very true. So why then say it closed to make way for "exciting new developments", insinuating that it'll be a quick transition and that it's all in the name of progress?
 
Coaster said:
Very true. So why then say it closed to make way for "exciting new developments", insinuating that it'll be a quick transition and that it's all in the name of progress?
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No they didn't? Where did they say soon, or within the next year, or in the immediate future? They simply said "Future developments" that's it.
 
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CSLKennyNI said:
No they didn't? Where did they say soon, or within the next year, or in the immediate future? They simply said "Future developments" that's it.
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They didn't, but it'd be logical to assume it's inferred based on the fact it wouldn't really make sense to remove it if there wasn't something else planned unless there was another reason for the removal (which there was - but PB didn't make it clear enough).
 
Clearing anything at Blackpool makes room for future developments, whatever or whenever it may be. Its not unusual for any business to limit information which could be confidential, unconfirmed or just none of our business to know.
 
Just to add to this, comparing Icon and Wickerman is irrelevant. Icon was built by a small family run theme park operator with limited funds for marketing, in a town that has an aging population and a bad reputation for being run down.

You’re comparing that with a ride built at a theme park who’s owned and operated by the company who is second only to Disney in terms of visitor numbers (their words not mine) and has access to the media / marketing team on a similar scale to that of a multi-million pound retailer.

The only comparison that can be made is that they opened in the same year.
 
emoo said:
Clearing anything at Blackpool makes room for future developments, whatever or whenever it may be. Its not unusual for any business to limit information which could be confidential, unconfirmed or just none of our business to know.
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Of course, I totally agree that they shouldn't give away confidential information but there were still much better ways of wording a statement than what they did.

Something like this, for example;

"We are very sorry to have to announce that the Wild Mouse roller coaster will no longer form part of the ride lineup here at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Over the course of the past few years, we heavily invested in trying everything we can to sustain the future of this ride, but unfortunately on this occasion this has not been possible and the ride has come to the end of its operating lifespan.

We appreciate this is sad news for fans of the Wild Mouse, and therefore would like to encourage people to share their best memories of this wonderful ride here"
 
You aren't half coming across as awfully entitled in here Coaster.

Ignoring the fact that it's none of your business why they removed the ride, to then boil it right down to you being unhappy with the terminology they've used when announcing the rides removal is beyond petty.

Better to remove it whilst they can than have it SBNO for a year whilst they get the money and planning sorted to fill the space.
 
Smithy said:
You aren't half coming across as awfully entitled in here Coaster.

Ignoring the fact that it's none of your business why they removed the ride, to then boil it right down to you being unhappy with the terminology they've used when announcing the rides removal is beyond petty.

Better to remove it whilst they can than have it SBNO for a year whilst they get the money and planning sorted to fill the space.
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Is it, though? It seemed a very rushed decision.

If I'm coming across as "entitled" then apologies, that isn't my intention. However, I don't see what the issue is with having a different view on it; some people think the removal of the ride and the way they handled it is fine, some don't. Always happy to debate things like this but when someone starts calling you an idiot, especially when I try to keep my posts impersonal, that's what I can't abide with.
 
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Smithy said:
You aren't half coming across as awfully entitled in here Coaster.

Ignoring the fact that it's none of your business why they removed the ride, to then boil it right down to you being unhappy with the terminology they've used when announcing the rides removal is beyond petty.

Better to remove it whilst they can than have it SBNO for a year whilst they get the money and planning sorted to fill the space.
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This. A bit of ugly, unused space is far, far less noticeable to most visitors than a closed ride.
 
Coaster said:
Is it, though? It seemed a very rushed decision.

If I'm coming across as "entitled" then apologies, that isn't my intention. However, I don't see what the issue is with having a different view on it; some people think the removal of the ride and the way they handled it is fine, some don't. Always happy to debate things like this but when someone starts calling you an idiot, especially when I try to keep my posts impersonal, that's what I can't abide with.
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Yes. Particularly for a ride that looked the way it did.

It's not that you can't have a different opinion, it's that when you were challenged on your initial opinion you then kept changing what it was that you were arguing. First it appeared the removal, then it was the lack of a replacement, then it was the messaging used to announce the ride's removal.
 
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