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What's the right price for a theme park admission?

Burbs said:
Maybe you had a poor experience there, but to compare Parc Asterix to the others you mentioned is like chalk and cheese. It's leagues ahead, in my opinion, and should be around the £35-40 mark.
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Yeah, maybe. My memory is a bit fuzzy. Looking at photos I'd happily put it in the middle bracket.
 
Trooper said:
£50ish = Disney, Universal, Europa, Cedar Point, SFMM and SFGA
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I would pay a lot more for Disney parks with normal operations due to the fireworks and other additional entertainment. SFMM didn't offer any of that. Disney is almost in its own tier. They aren't worth the one-day £100 price, but £50-80 seems fine. I think I paid £80 per day (over $200 for a two day one park per day ticket) last time I did Disney California and I didn't feel completely ripped off. Florida works out cheaper as there are more parks, so you do more days and the cost drops the more days you do.
 
rob666 said:
Personally, my record is about 20p per ride about a decade ago.
Cheap passes make longer queues in the race to the bottom sadly.
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Didn't think the queues were too bad at all really.

On the Saturdays i went about 30-40 minutes average, on the weekdays 5-10 minutes.

In no way would pay per ride be better. For a start you'd have have to queue to pay, or try and get decent internet while standing around, then you'd have to scan your ticket somewhere, it would cost most people more as well. Just more hassle.
 
Been checking queue times with the Alton Towers app this week. I know it is not always 100% accurate but for all of this week wait times for the main 8 coasters have been fluctuating between 6 and 8 hours in total for a big part of the day. (I am assuming this is a quieter October half term week than usual due to covid)

And that (to me anyway) is a big issue when you are talking about value for money. At those queue lengths - which is not unusual for towers and other major parks at peak times - I wouldn't even say £20 is VFM , let alone £30 or £40.

30 minutes in a queue is about my limit for an experience that lasts 2 minutes at most.

The alternative is fast track - which effectively becomes a glorified pay per ride system on top of your entry fee - making it a very expensive day out.
 
shakey said:
Been checking queue times with the Alton Towers app this week. I know it is not always 100% accurate but for all of this week wait times for the main 8 coasters have been fluctuating between 6 and 8 hours in total for a big part of the day. (I am assuming this is a quieter October half term week than usual due to covid)

And that (to me anyway) is a big issue when you are talking about value for money. At those queue lengths - which is not unusual for towers and other major parks at peak times - I wouldn't even say £20 is VFM , let alone £30 or £40.

30 minutes in a queue is about my limit for an experience that lasts 2 minutes at most.

The alternative is fast track - which effectively becomes a glorified pay per ride system on top of your entry fee - making it a very expensive day out.
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But hasn't this broadly always been the case at AT for the last 20-25 years, the biggest rides get 1-2hr queues on busy days such as school holidays.
The issue is there is now only big rides (No submission, Ripsaw, Boneshaker etc) so coasters are the major option.
 
jon81uk said:
But hasn't this broadly always been the case at AT for the last 20-25 years, the biggest rides get 1-2hr queues on busy days such as school holidays.
The issue is there is now only big rides (No submission, Ripsaw, Boneshaker etc) so coasters are the major option.
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Yes, and I would say probably as long has it's been a theme park - I remember a trip to AT with my friends in about 1984 when we queued at least 2 hours for the log flume.

The lack of filler rides does make it worse of course.

My point is that time stood in queues directly affects what is VFM, and if a park is unable to keep its queues to a reasonable length at peak times (which by definition is when most people visit) then charging £30 or £40 to get in is not good value at all, and you either have to spend most of your day stood in a queue or use the pay per ride addon which is fast track (in towers case).

Theme parks on quiet days are generally very good value for money, but most people go on busy days (which is why they are busy), and I think busy days is how we should judge a parks entrance fee value.
 
But I try to never go on busy days shakey!
But I know what you mean, and it is the reason why the Beach is always my season pass of choice.
Many many years ago, when each new ride opened at the Towers, the new this year ride had a two hour queue, with half the punters on the park in that ride queue.
A lot of the other rides were about half an hour.
Exceptions were the water rides on hot days and school trip season.
Then fasttrack turned up and ruined things, then cheap season passes really buggered things up.
But you all know the real solution to get rid of all the long queues...
Pay per ride!!!
 
shakey said:
My point is that time stood in queues directly affects what is VFM, and if a park is unable to keep its queues to a reasonable length at peak times (which by definition is when most people visit) then charging £30 or £40 to get in is not good value at all, and you either have to spend most of your day stood in a queue or use the pay per ride addon which is fast track (in towers case).
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and this is where variable pricing gets complicated and Disney, Alton Towers and Blackpool all are now back using off-peak and peak pricing.
But going off-peak gets you a lower price and lower crowds so the value is good. A peak day is a high price and high crowds so terrible value. But if the peak days were cheaper they would sell out and the crowds would be even worse.

Edit to add this is also the issue with season passes, all days become one price. They attempted to solve it by blocking out summer weekends, scarefest and fireworks on standard passes. But even the premium pass may still be too cheap. This is why Disneyland California has major issues as a lot of locals crowd the park on days the cheaper passes are not blocked out so the park gets busier on those days than the blocked out days!

In the US I think Disney is trying to get their flexible pricing to the point where there are no longer any really quiet days as the lower prices entice more people to book off-peak.

I agree though the value is significantly better on a weekday. But I normally visit AT for the fireworks and I have still managed to ride everything I wanted to at least once, take a leisurely lunch, watch the fireworks, play in the arcade so the crowds on the Sunday were fine and I got value at £34 for the day. (although food quality at rollercoaster restaurant for the price is a different matter).
 
Just playing devil's advocate here.

It is still very easy to get value for money at Alton Towers if you plan your day well and don't mind experiencing some filler rides (since that's the main thing that this debate is about).

If you arrive before 10am you should get on at least two rides with no queues straight away (not Smiler or Wicker Man).

Somebody has mentioned that queues for older coasters never went above half an hour "back in the day". I've still yet to witness a day outside of Scarefest or fireworks when Oblivion or Nemesis have actually had a queue longer than this (although they are sometimes advertised as such).

"Filler" rides and attractions such as Duel, Hex, Sharkbait Reef and Marauders Mayhem hold mass appeal and never build up big queues (apart from Hex this year). That's four attractions ridden without queuing at all!

If you arrive at 11am and just go from coaster to coaster to coaster then you only have yourself to blame when you don't get value for money. You could do the same at Europa Park in the summer with the same end result.

Yes more flat rides, dark rides, shows and general filler attractions would improve things, but I think giving an example of queuing for coasters all day is misleading.
 
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To be fair to Alton Towers, you can still get a decent ride count if you visit on a quiet day and don't mind spending all day on the tea cups.
 
Ive visited over summer when queues were very large and got multiple rides on nemesis, then galactica and Th13teen before 11/11:30, then I’ll walk the gardens for a bit, maybe do duel, wickerman on my way out and be gone by 2 when everything is heaving. I’m sure I probably get more rides in that early period that those walking in at 12pm or later even!. I’ve had plenty value out my season pass this year, mostly visiting mid week, but the odd weekend when booking in advance, and even if your friends don’t have a season pass you can get bring a friend for £15.
 
People paying on the day don't tend to leave at 2 because it is busy!
This is about day ticket admission prices.

Here we go...
Men in white coats at the entrance, remember them well!
They take a tenner parking, and direct you to whichever car park you prefer...just like the old days.
Have smaller car parks all round the edge of the park areas, using coaster corner (an old coach park), the staff parking areas, at the back of Oblivion (more old parking from the seventies, and some of the current parking...no need for barriers...free entry!
Make every ride pay per ride, on a fluid, supply and demand price, with one staff on a turnstile, who would also check heights.
Special offers in low and peak season...Oblivion and Nemesis at a quid occasionally would still turn a profit with their throughput.
Fluid pricing would shorten the ridiculous queues on busy days.
More people in the gardens, more grandmas and grandads, money to be made all year round from the "stately home" side of the estate.
And a whopping great coaster on the black slab car park down to the hotels.
Sorted.
 
D4n said:
Somebody has mentioned that queues for older coasters never went above half an hour "back in the day". I've still yet to witness a day outside of Scarefest or fireworks when Oblivion or Nemesis have actually had a queue longer than this (although they are sometimes advertised as such).
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I was under the impression that queues were often huge compared to today, and ride counts were often extremely low back in the 1990s or so compared to today? At least, that’s what my parents always tell me about 90s Towers, anyway...
 
Yup, it was trendy and super busy at the top.
As always, school trips and holidays were packed.
Four hours for nemesis, four hours for the Big One, three for the Corkscrew!
As ever, always the new ride.
First exception was Oblivion...absolute queue muncher.
Don't think it got much past an hour on our off peak visits.
Rapids and flume were the same for years in the summer at first.
All those people in the one queue made the other queues really short in the mornings though...same as now with smiler///wickerman.
 
I think Parks need to offer better deals for families.
Currently Drayton offer 4 for £90 deal on any age groups plus £6 parking so u can get a whole day out for less than £100.
On the other hand my m8 took his wife and 4 kids there last year and I gave them my £18 each vouchers so with parking cost him £114 which I think is great value for 6 of them.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I think Parks need to offer better deals for families.
Currently Drayton offer 4 for £90 deal on any age groups plus £6 parking so u can get a whole day out for less than £100.
On the other hand my m8 took his wife and 4 kids there last year and I gave them my £18 each vouchers so with parking cost him £114 which I think is great value for 6 of them.
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Using vouchers from Kelloggs, Cadbury or similar it works out £26.50 per person so not much more for Alton Towers. The issue is you have to have a voucher to get the deal.
But I would say that for adults and teenagers Alton is definitely worth a higher price than Drayton now, If you book online its £125 for a family of four, which is a lot of money but probably in line with what we paid 25 years ago, maybe even cheaper.
The biggest draw at Drayton Manor is Thomas land, which is for under 10s so I don't think the park is worth paying as much as Alton.
 
Thinking about going to Drayton Manor and Alton Towers with my parents in 1992-1994 I remember we couldn't afford Alton and only did it once, but we did Drayton annually for a while (loved Splash Canyon and pirate adventure). So I was thinking about historic prices.

When trying to find some old prices for Alton Towers I found this thread
https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/adult-ticket-prices-1980-present.2978/

That shows a price of £16.50 in 1995. Which with inflation would be £31 in 2019 according to https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

So the current online price of £34 is a little high, but with a voucher £27ish is reasonable.
 
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