BPB: Tickets to Ride

[Gary]

Anyone remember having to buy tickets to ride the rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach?

Image: Gary Radice / themagiceye at Joyland

[mesmoland]

I remember it well and used to have to spread my £20 or so of tickets out to last the day.I think it's better now just one price on the door I could have spent £100 in a day with the old system if I could have afforded it.

[Gary]

It was quite expensive back then wasn't it when you think about things?

I remember they introduced a "D" ticket as well at some stage and I remember during the illuminations the White Knuckle sheet being increased to £23

I suppose they stayed open later and there were more rides back then.

Geoffrey Thompson went on record to say that an "A" ride should cost the equivalent of a pint of beer in a club. - Not sure which club mind

When The Big One first opened I think it was a "Double A" ride

[mesmoland]

I remember going for the best value ticket which was a mixture of A-D, and yes I remember The Big One as being the only AA.Back then you could pay cash at each ride too, I think The Big One was about £7:00 for cash.Also there could be offers at the bottom of the sheet like free Ice Show matinee or money off Coasters which was my favourite eating place.Do you remember the lady who worked on the maze ? And made her own sign with a raised admission price and pocketed the difference.

[Gary]

...Do you remember the lady who worked on the maze ? And made her own sign with a raised admission price and pocketed the difference.

Not only do I remember her my dad, my little sis and I fell victim to her

I could never work out why all the rides we had gone on this one particular day were 40p but the maze was 45p.

There was another tkt system (before?) the ABC&D...Must have been early 80s..You just bought a sheet of tickets (This one time I distinctly remember that they worked out at 17p each) and could save money supposedly on rides by using the tickets rather than pay the cash per ride alternative. The Steeplechase was 50p or 3 tickets.....er..thats 51p. I argued with the lady on the paybooth that it wasn't a saving and she just said "Yes."

Sheesh..I can remember all that but ask me what I did yesterday and you have no chance....

[SuburbanHomeboy]

I remember the Coaster Club visits - we were given an impressive discount on ride tickets and we stocked up for the year.

The best thing about the ticket days was that the park stayed open until the rider numbers dropped below a certain level. In the first year of The Big One, I remember riding the machine until nearly 1.00am, then heading off to the Pizza Hut on Ocean Boulevade... Those were the days! With the wristbands, BPB is just like all the other pay-on-entry parks with little chance of night rides.