Enter Valhalla
TS Member
To be honest it’s surprised me, for the last 5 years or so, that Paultons don’t charge for parking. They have the size and profile now that you’d expect them to be charging.
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Paultons Park: General Discussion
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
They do charge for parking. They are just smart enough not to itemise it on the receipt. As I demonstrated earlier, a family of four visiting Paultons pays significantly more per head than at Alton Towers, even after you factor in Merlin's exorbitant £12 parking fee. Paultons haven't "not started charging", they have simply baked the cost into the gate price.
This works extremely well psychologically because parking is the ultimate "grudge purchase". It feels like a tax on arrival, it starts the day with a transaction that feels like a rip off, and it ends the day with a queue at a barrier. Bundling the charge allows Paultons to remove that friction. You arrive, you park, you walk in. You leave feeling like you have been treated like a valued guest rather than a cash cow to be milked at every turnstile.
If they introduced a barrier charge now, they would lose the "premium, hassle free" brand differentiator that sets them apart from the Merlin budget airlinesque model. They are making the profit anyway, why ruin the vibe with a barrier?
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
Yeah yeah I know, I read your previous posts. Stop being a smart Alec
All I’m saying is that they could get away with implementing an overt parking charge as the park is now large enough and well known enough for the majority guests to expect it, and it therefore not be a “grudge purchase”
We’ll see what happens. But if they did bring in parking barriers, I’d not be that surprised.
Bowser
TS Member
Yeah yeah I know, I read your previous posts. Stop being a smart Alec
All I’m saying is that they could get away with implementing an overt parking charge as the park is now large enough and well known enough for the majority guests to expect it, and it therefore not be a “grudge purchase”
We’ll see what happens. But if they did bring in parking barriers, I’d not be that surprised.
Would be awful in the current layout if they did as there would only really be room for one barrier.
jon81uk
TS Member
I disagree, with the entry prices as they are I think an additional charge to park would be a big negative.
Would actually be easier for Merlin to do the opposite and add £3-4 onto every ticket price and abolish parking charges, they'd get a lot of good reviews for removing parking charge and the few quid on the ticket price likely won't be noticed.
Whereas at Paulton a £3 reduction in the ticket wouldn't really be noticed, but a £12 parking charge would.
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
See I think that the mood has shifted in the UK now.
20 years ago when Alton Towers first brought in their parking charge, people were not too happy, but I think that the public expect to pay for parking now. The major parks (including Drayton Manor) have been charging for parking for years now. Paultons have a nice selling point of being able to say “we don’t charge for parking” and this gets them lots of good feedback because the guests expect to have to pay.
Paultons has a USP essentially by having free parking, it’s a great USP, we love it and the public love it. All I was saying is that I’m surprised that Paultons has kept this USP, and I don’t think people would be at all surprised if a parking charge came in, it’s just what people have become accustomed to at the larger UK parks.
20 years ago when Alton Towers first brought in their parking charge, people were not too happy, but I think that the public expect to pay for parking now. The major parks (including Drayton Manor) have been charging for parking for years now. Paultons have a nice selling point of being able to say “we don’t charge for parking” and this gets them lots of good feedback because the guests expect to have to pay.
Paultons has a USP essentially by having free parking, it’s a great USP, we love it and the public love it. All I was saying is that I’m surprised that Paultons has kept this USP, and I don’t think people would be at all surprised if a parking charge came in, it’s just what people have become accustomed to at the larger UK parks.
Bowser
TS Member
You could apply the same logic at least somewhat to Fast Track and i definitely don't see them doing that. I think they take pride in offering things the other parks don't, especially things that people dislike, hence why it's part of their advertising (free parking, no fast track tickets, no long queues).
owenstreet7
TS Member
The only time I see them doing Fast Track at some point is if it's an exit pass virtual queue like at Europa and maybe once they build a headliner coaster in the ilk of Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland. Not an Xtreme Spinning Coaster but something of a similar intensity filling the gap, I used Plopsaland because it is one of the closest European parks to Paultons to make that comparison to. Efteling, Toverland and Djurs Sommerland would be fair comparisons too.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
Paultons Park already explicitly offer "Unlimited Fast Track Ride Access" through their VIP packages.
VIP Packages | Paultons Park
Our VIP experiences are a perfect way to make a visit to Paultons extra special. Please enquire now for 2025.
It's curious, their marketing actually states when purchasing the ticket: "No additional FastTrack needed." - Which is not the same as saying that they don't offer fast track tickets.
Having said that, if you hover over the info button it states: "We do not offer a separate ticket or fee to skip ride queue lines, as our average wait times are usually very low!" - Which actually isn't the case, as you can buy a VIP ticket which explicitly states includes Fast Track Ride Access as its selling point.
It's another example of disingenuous marketing again, to the point of becoming false advertising. Either false advertising for the VIP package, or for the standard ticket.
I appreciate that Paultons Park's wide offering and availability does make fast track, or even a VIP package, rather pointless, which is to be commended.
I do not appreciate the marketing suggesting that they do not offer a fast track option at all, when they clearly do and it's priced accordingly.
Skyscraper
TS Member
Technically they are telling the truth by saying "We do not offer a separate ticket or fee to skip ride queue lines", as Fastrack is only available as part of the (expensive) VIP package- you genuinely cannot buy it separately.Paultons Park already explicitly offer "Unlimited Fast Track Ride Access" through their VIP packages.
VIP Packages | Paultons Park
Our VIP experiences are a perfect way to make a visit to Paultons extra special. Please enquire now for 2025.paultonspark.co.uk
It's curious, their marketing actually states when purchasing the ticket: "No additional FastTrack needed." - Which is not the same as saying that they don't offer fast track tickets.
Having said that, if you hover over the info button it states: "We do not offer a separate ticket or fee to skip ride queue lines, as our average wait times are usually very low!" - Which actually isn't the case, as you can buy a VIP ticket which explicitly states includes Fast Track Ride Access as its selling point.
It's another example of disingenuous marketing again, to the point of becoming false advertising. Either false advertising for the VIP package, or for the standard ticket.
I appreciate that Paultons Park's wide offering and availability does make fast track, or even a VIP package, rather pointless, which is to be commended.
I do not appreciate the marketing suggesting that they do not offer a fast track option at all, when they clearly do and it's priced accordingly.
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owenstreet7
TS Member
Yeah, I was meaning a regular fast track pass rather than a VIP package which Thorpe Park offer where a VIP host will take guests to the front of the queue on each ride.
What Paultons offers is more like the Thorpe Park VIP packages than a skip the line ticket at a lot of theme parks.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
They aren't even being technical. They are simply lying.
The VIP package is a separate ticket. It is a separate fee.
If I buy a standard ticket, I queue. If I pay an additional fee for the VIP package, I skip the queue. The fact that this fee also includes a lanyard and a human host to hold my bag does not negate the fact that I have paid a specific, separate sum of money to bypass the line.
To claim "We do not offer a fee to skip ride queue lines" while selling a product that explicitly lists "Unlimited Fast Track Ride Access" as a perk is demonstrably false. It is like an airline claiming "We do not charge for extra legroom" because you can only get it by buying a Business Class ticket. They do charge for it; they just bundle it into a more expensive tier.
The mechanism of delivery, whether it is a QR code on a phone, a paper ticket, or a human host in a polo shirt walking you up the exit ramp, does not change the fundamental product. The product is priority access in exchange for capital. The host is just a fleshy Q-Bot.
Paultons state "No additional FastTrack needed" because queues are low. That implies that if you did buy Fastrack, it would be a waste of money. Yet they happily sell a VIP package where the primary selling point is... unlimited Fastrack.
It's quite the masterclass in cognitive dissonance. They are simultaneously telling the casual visitor that the queues are negligible, whilst whispering to the affluent visitor that the queues are significant enough to warrant a three figure premium to avoid them. They are selling a solution to a problem they insist doesn't exist, and are lying about (or at the least being very misleading) even offering the option.
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
I mean, it would be a bit weird to sell a VIP package and not include priority ride access as part of the package.
There’s no specific fast track/ speedy pass/ queue jump ticket. There’s just a much bigger VIP package which has fastrack access slotted in to it. If a guest said “do you have a ticket which allows us just to get priority ride access?”, the answer would be no.
There’s no specific fast track/ speedy pass/ queue jump ticket. There’s just a much bigger VIP package which has fastrack access slotted in to it. If a guest said “do you have a ticket which allows us just to get priority ride access?”, the answer would be no.
But they still sell fasttrack!
To suggest otherwise is wrong.
If a guest asked for queuejump only, the park would try to upsell VIP, as the fasttrack package.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
Describing it as "much bigger" is quite the overstatement. The base "Bronze" package includes only the following:
That leaves the "Host".
Unless you are paying hundreds of pounds for the privilege of having a stranger engage you in small talk about the weather in Ower, the Host's primary, and arguably only, function in this tier is to facilitate the queue jumping. They are a biological Q-Bot. They are a human Fastrack wristband.
If you strip away the entry ticket (value: £46.75) and the parking (value: £0.00), you are paying the remaining balance of the substantial £280.00 VIP fee entirely for the privilege of skipping the line. To suggest this is a "much bigger package" that just happens to include Fastrack is disingenuous. It is Fastrack with a pulse.
Why does this idea stimulate me in strange places???
Do they do season passes?
Bowser
TS Member
Can't say i've ever seen anyone using the VIP service. I'd be surprised if there is much uptake tbh, especially at those prices relative to what you get. The amount of people who would prefer to pay that (potentially well over £1000 for a family of 4) rather than queue for 10 minutes or so must be tiny and rather uninformed.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
I concur, it is a solution in search of a problem.
My grievance lies not with the existence of the package, but the dishonesty of the statement. If they had stopped at "Fast Track is not needed", that would be marketing puffery and completely fine. Explicitly stating "we do not offer a separate fee", and suggesting that fast track isn't something which is on offer at the park, strays into falsehoods and is arguably false advertising.
It channels the exact same disingenuous energy as listing "Free Parking" as a headline perk for an Annual Pass, at a park where the concept of a parking fee does not exist, which you pointed out earlier this week.
Bowser
TS Member
This doesn’t bother me in comparison to the parking claim because in practice it is not fast track as we know it. It has no impact on the (already short) queues which is the main gripe at other parks and it is very much the luxury VIP service it claims to be rather than something sold separately.