Enter Valhalla
TS Member
After a recent discussion comparing Europa Park with PortAventura where someone said family run parks do things better it really got me thinking in alot more detail about it.
On the one hand, we have Europa Park, which is family run and generally agreed by everyone to be one of the best parks in the world. I've yet to hear any really bad reviews for the place and many say that this is an example of how family parks are better because more pride goes into everything and it's not all about increasing revenue.
However, looking at it in the UK, we have two family run parks which are arguably the opposite of Europa Park's flawless operations, Flamingo Land and Drayton Manor.
Flamingo Land is known for not training their staff well enough to give a damn about customer service and giving the guests a good day, operations are dire, literally dire. Kumali never runs two trains even with an hour and a half queue on bank holidays despite two being available, you see rides where staff could literally double the throughputs if they cared and I never really feel like a valued guest there.
Drayton Manor, again family owned, has better staff than Flamingo Land but they aren't great. The park itself went through a very long stagnant period in between G-Force and Thomas Land during which time very little investment took place and the park started to look shabby and run down, possible because they didn't have enough money to spend on it, a possible other argument against family parks. Many would also say that now Thomas Land is a few years old, things are starting to stagnate again. Some areas look really shabby and it doesn't feel like a park with a plan.
One thing I find very interesting about Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the UK's biggest family run park, is that they do what PortAventura (run by a bank and often considered inferior to Europa Park for operations) do with late openings of rides and reducing availibility at quiet times. If you go to BPB on a quiet day, just like PortAventura you'll find several smaller rides closed as well as often one major ride such as Big Dipper and they will be closed for the whole day, presumably to save on operating costs. They also open rides on a staggerred basis, again like PA. If you go for the first half hour all that's open is Derby Racer and Flying Machines and you often wont find everything open until 2 hours after opening time.
Another big problem with family run parks is that when they fall on hard tims they have nobody to bail them out. Look at Oakwood, they were in £7 million debt and ended up having to sell. BPB seem to be in alot of financial trouble and some would say that because the park is family run it isn't achieving it's full potential as it isn't able to make any investments to get more people in. If, say, Merlin were running BPB (not that I'd EVER want them to), they would have the option of spending £20 million on an amazing new investment which would be an almost guaranteed success. Family run parks with little money don't have that luxuary.
So my question is this, when people say how great family parkks are and use the example of Europa Park, is this always the best way to be? Could a major family park ever be possible in a small country like the UK?
Europa Park is run extremely well but families who run parks in the UK simply don't have the money that they do to invest. You could also say that because Europa Park is run by a compay who make rides it was quite easy for them to build up the park at a cheap price. Would that ever be possible for someone like Amanda thompson for example.
I'm not convinced that family parks are the way forrward. I kind of think Europa Park is one in a million.
Any thoughts?
On the one hand, we have Europa Park, which is family run and generally agreed by everyone to be one of the best parks in the world. I've yet to hear any really bad reviews for the place and many say that this is an example of how family parks are better because more pride goes into everything and it's not all about increasing revenue.
However, looking at it in the UK, we have two family run parks which are arguably the opposite of Europa Park's flawless operations, Flamingo Land and Drayton Manor.
Flamingo Land is known for not training their staff well enough to give a damn about customer service and giving the guests a good day, operations are dire, literally dire. Kumali never runs two trains even with an hour and a half queue on bank holidays despite two being available, you see rides where staff could literally double the throughputs if they cared and I never really feel like a valued guest there.
Drayton Manor, again family owned, has better staff than Flamingo Land but they aren't great. The park itself went through a very long stagnant period in between G-Force and Thomas Land during which time very little investment took place and the park started to look shabby and run down, possible because they didn't have enough money to spend on it, a possible other argument against family parks. Many would also say that now Thomas Land is a few years old, things are starting to stagnate again. Some areas look really shabby and it doesn't feel like a park with a plan.
One thing I find very interesting about Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the UK's biggest family run park, is that they do what PortAventura (run by a bank and often considered inferior to Europa Park for operations) do with late openings of rides and reducing availibility at quiet times. If you go to BPB on a quiet day, just like PortAventura you'll find several smaller rides closed as well as often one major ride such as Big Dipper and they will be closed for the whole day, presumably to save on operating costs. They also open rides on a staggerred basis, again like PA. If you go for the first half hour all that's open is Derby Racer and Flying Machines and you often wont find everything open until 2 hours after opening time.
Another big problem with family run parks is that when they fall on hard tims they have nobody to bail them out. Look at Oakwood, they were in £7 million debt and ended up having to sell. BPB seem to be in alot of financial trouble and some would say that because the park is family run it isn't achieving it's full potential as it isn't able to make any investments to get more people in. If, say, Merlin were running BPB (not that I'd EVER want them to), they would have the option of spending £20 million on an amazing new investment which would be an almost guaranteed success. Family run parks with little money don't have that luxuary.
So my question is this, when people say how great family parkks are and use the example of Europa Park, is this always the best way to be? Could a major family park ever be possible in a small country like the UK?
Europa Park is run extremely well but families who run parks in the UK simply don't have the money that they do to invest. You could also say that because Europa Park is run by a compay who make rides it was quite easy for them to build up the park at a cheap price. Would that ever be possible for someone like Amanda thompson for example.
I'm not convinced that family parks are the way forrward. I kind of think Europa Park is one in a million.
Any thoughts?