Paultons Park: General Discussion

[rob666]

The fact you don't like the style of marketing is fine.
But it has gone on for many decades, at a far harder level, by a large number of other big corporations.
It is simply part of modern life...honest marketing.
Paultons isn't naming any other firm...many do direct comparisons...Hertz/Avis, Pepsi/Coke, Tesco/Aldi...it is universal and accepted.
It really isn't an issue in most peoples eyes, and the firm are simply focusing on their positive features, not dissing the competition.

 

[Mi-Nigle]

I’ve never heard Merlin say “we have better coasters than other parks”, there’s a big difference.

But Paultons didn't say "You don't need fastrack like at other parks". That would be a comparison.

They just referenced a policy they run at their park. No other parks mentioned.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

The fact you don't like the style of marketing is fine.
But it has gone on for many decades, at a far harder level, by a large number of other big corporations.
It is simply part of modern life...honest marketing.
Paultons isn't naming any other firm...many do direct comparisons...Hertz/Avis, Pepsi/Coke, Tesco/Aldi...it is universal and accepted.
It really isn't an issue in most peoples eyes, and the firm are simply focusing on their positive features, not dissing the competition.

Oh yeah absolutely. I’ve stated several times that I’d be crap at marketing because I’m a bit uncomfortable with businesses marketing themselves in this way. I know that lots of other businesses do it, I’ve never denied that.

If this was in the early to mid 90s when no UK parks had fastrack systems, there’s no way they’d have said “we don’t have fastrack” This is clearly meant to, at very least, make people think of other parks and their longer queue times. Several people are claiming that it’s only me who made the connection, but I can’t accept this. Paultons clearly wanted people to make the connection, which is fine. It’s how they market, but I’m not keen on this style of marketing. I’ve not seen many other UK parks market themselves in this way.

 

[pluk]

Shouting about what they offer is exactly what I think they should be doing.

I mean, the marketing you are upset about does EXACTLY that. The fastrack is secondary to the headline and point of the post, which is short queues, and just goes on to highlight one of the consequences and benefits of the short queues (and highlights a factual consequence of paid queue jump systems) which might not be immediately obvious to a more casual visitor who is used to being hit with supplementary spends elsewhere.

Unanimously positive comments on this Facebook post by the way.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

We’re going round in circles here. You like this style of marketing, I do not. Nothing new seems to be being said anymore. Although I’m not a fan of this style, I hope that their marketing works for them, because ultimately I want the park to succeed, something we can all agree on.

 

[AstroDan]

That is absolutuly what they've done, and in doing so they've pissed off quite a lot of their old customers who considered themselves loyal but in reality were contributing nearly nothing financially while filling up the park. The passes are now over double the pre pandemic price for unrestricted visits, even the 'star' off peak pass is a lot more expensive than the old unrestricted pass.

But to say they've done it 'in order to promote a marketing strategy' isn't really right, they've done it to provide a better day out. That they can market that better day out is I suppose part of it, but it's more that the premium product they offer is appropriate for and justifies the premium gate price they can charge. I suspect people largely go because of how much they've enjoyed it and from word of mouth, but shouting about the good things as marketing also makes complete sense.

Their park entrance spend per guest is probably massive compared to Merlin parks, so they ddknt have to hide and hustle other charges. Lovely!

This is exactly what Phantasialand have done.

Only Phantasialand scrapped passes entirely. Ouch.

 

[Sam]

Fasttrack is obviously unethical.

It's a zero-sum game. If a park sells fasttrack, it makes the queues longer for everyone who doesn't buy it by the same degree. It's actually quite surprising trading standards consider it legal. It'd be like if you could go into a pub and pay to have 20% of someone else's pint poured into yours.

I think Paultons should go out of their way to market the fact that they don't do it. And they should directly name-and-shame parks that do. Because it's an unethical (yet sadly not illegal and very widespread) business practice.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

People in the UK sadly expect fastrack these days. I used to work at a UK theme park which didn’t have fastrack, and so many guests used to request it, and many moaned that we didn’t do it.

That said, I would love to see a world without fastrack, as it causes way more problems than the actual benefits that it’s brings to a small amount of people.

 

[Benzin]

Fasttrack is obviously unethical.

It's a zero-sum game. If a park sells fasttrack, it makes the queues longer for everyone who doesn't buy it by the same degree. It's actually quite surprising trading standards consider it legal. It'd be like if you could go into a pub and pay to have 20% of someone else's pint poured into yours.

I think Paultons should go out of their way to market the fact that they don't do it. And they should directly name-and-shame parks that do. Because it's an unethical (yet sadly not illegal and very widespread) business practice.

If they were an American park they could, but under our advertising standards they'd have to do "unlike other leading theme parks".

UK seems to have a real obsession with fastrack. Inherently cultural as seems to be an expectation rather than an added bonus.

 

[BigShadowtinytree]

People have come to expect fast track when queues are long, because parks began offering it to them and a lot of people don’t like to wait in line for their turn, they breed a sense of entitlement in my opinion, especially if guests seem put out if a park doesn’t offer them. What guests don’t often realise is that by using fast track they are contributing to those long slow moving lines - or they do realise and don’t care because “I’m alright Jack” and damn anyone else who might not be able to afford to pay again to cut in line. Fast track might not be the only reason for slow moving queues but it certainly is one of the reasons, especially if my recent experience at Disneyworld is anything to go by. I mean I don’t blame the customer entirely, they’re just paying for what’s on offer, I blame the people running theme parks for realising there’s money to be made from allowing paid queue jumping instead of keeping things fair for everyone.

The fact that there is still at least one uk park not offering a fast track system is a good thing, Paulton’s should highlight it and the reasons why they don’t implement it because it makes them stand out from their competitors which is literally how marketing works. It might make people see fast track systems in a new light when they visit a park that doesn’t implement one. My visits to parks with no fast track have been very pleasant so far when it comes to queueing, and whilst fast track isn’t the only reason it’s certainly a contributor. A long but consistently moving queue is much better than a long queue that barely moves at all because all the fast trackers are taking priority. It’s entirely psychological but at least when it’s moving you feel like you’re getting somewhere.

 

[rob666]

Fasttrack is obviously unethical.

It's a zero-sum game. If a park sells fasttrack, it makes the queues longer for everyone who doesn't buy it by the same degree. It's actually quite surprising trading standards consider it legal. It'd be like if you could go into a pub and pay to have 20% of someone else's pint poured into yours.

I think Paultons should go out of their way to market the fact that they don't do it. And they should directly name-and-shame parks that do. Because it's an unethical (yet sadly not illegal and very widespread) business practice.

Fasttrack is unethical...But...
Theme parks themselves are completely unethical though!
Non productive, massive consumers of concrete, steel and energy to provide brief seconds of entertainment for misguided souls to waste their time on useless trips back to where they started.
Nothing really ethical about such use of essential limited resources on a burning planet I'm afraid.

 

[Sam]

Fasttrack is unethical...But...
Theme parks themselves are completely unethical though!
Non productive, massive consumers of concrete, steel and energy to provide brief seconds of entertainment for misguided souls to waste their time on useless trips back to where they started.
Nothing really ethical about such use of essential limited resources on a burning planet I'm afraid.

This doesn't make any sense.

 

[rob666]

What part exactly?

 

[Sam]

What part exactly?

Theme parks themselves are completely unethical though!
Non productive, massive consumers of concrete, steel and energy to provide brief seconds of entertainment for misguided souls to waste their time on useless trips back to where they started.
Nothing really ethical about such use of essential limited resources on a burning planet I'm afraid.

The whole premise that theme parks are inherently unethical haha.

There's nothing unethical about collective joy. Similar to public transport, theme parks provide a huge amount of joy for a very small amount of energy per person. Compared to say, a quad bike, which uses a lot of energy for one person's enjoyment.

They also use a miniscule amount of concrete and steel compared to almost every other industry on earth.

The only environmental problem with theme parks is how you get to them. Weirdly, Disney World is the worst for this (generating a vast number of flights which are environmentally catastrophic) while DLP are probably the best (the only park in the world I know of with a public transport link that's better than the car infrastructure).

 

[Coaster]

Advertise that you have short queue times, of course, although doing so does put them into a difficult position in future if the park ever does start to get long queues and they have to drop this marketing line.

But as I keep saying, if they’re specifically referencing fastrack, which is something that they know other UK parks offer, then I don’t like this style of marketing.

Shouting about what they offer is exactly what I think they should be doing. Saying “you don’t need fastrack” is very clearly a reference to the parks which do have fastrack. Merlin advertising record breaking coasters is marketing something which they do have. I’ve never heard Merlin say “we have better coasters than other parks”, there’s a big difference.

Alton Towers literally calls itself the UK's biggest theme park. That imples bigger = better.



Thorpe Park calls itself the UK's most thrilling theme park (a claim I actually disagree with but hey ho). That literally does say "we have better coasters than other parks."



If we apply your logic to both of those examples, Alton Towers are shockers of the highest order because that is very clearly a reference to other parks which have more limited space.

And as for Thorpe? Well, that is appalling, because they know full well that Legoland and Chessington do not have rides that are as thrilling, therefore that is a very clear reference to the rides at those parks.

Serious hat back on though, I really genuinely do not understand what your argument is. Fastrack at the Merlin parks is an utter shambles, wrecks guest experience, and therefore Paultons are absolutely right to highlight that you don't have to experience any of that misery when you visit. They have worked hard to create a business model that makes excellent customer service profitable, so they should absolutely be shouting that from the rooftops!

 

[rob666]

The whole premise that theme parks are inherently unethical haha.

There's nothing unethical about collective joy. Similar to public transport, theme parks provide a huge amount of joy for a very small amount of energy per person. Compared to say, a quad bike, which uses a lot of energy for one person's enjoyment.

They also use a miniscule amount of concrete and steel compared to almost every other industry on earth.

The only environmental problem with theme parks is how you get to them. Weirdly, Disney World is the worst for this (generating a vast number of flights which are environmentally catastrophic) while DLP are probably the best (the only park in the world I know of with a public transport link that's better than the car infrastructure).

The original premise was that fasttrack was unethical...the discussion was extended to whole world reality...but I'm glad I amused you.
There is nothing wrong with collective joy, though I sometimes prefer theme parks in my own company...nothing collective about it for some.
Public transport is essential for civilisation, for work, health and education...theme parks are only for the people that can afford them...currently less than half of the population of the UK.
Huge amounts of joy...for some...who can afford it...some of the time...when they get lucky.
Not a miniscule amount of concrete and steel...what did the new Disney multi storey weigh again, and at what cost to the planet...and theme parks just aren't an essential part of the system... they are a rich toy for those lucky enough to afford them...unlike most other industries on earth, which are needed, not wanted.
How much energy is wasted running a rapids ride 95% empty on a wet day...that in itself is an environmental problem, then times it by the number of parks.
Staff paid peanuts to do a physical job in all weathers, but hey, got to keep the share price up for the shareholders.
The whole right wing industry, pandering to the rich with its energy burning, money making schemes like fasttrack, is obviously unethical to the very core.

Good job I love coasters, but balancing a daft hobby with the rest of the world is a little tricky at times.

 

[Tim]

Just to loop back to the point that people in the UK expect Fastrack, its definitely not a unique thing to the UK. EP also receive (or at least received) many complaints that they didn't have a Fastrack. They have the virtual lines now. But I suspect the reason it's on so few rides and the numbers available are so restricted is so they can claim to have a line skipping system, without having to sacrifice the otherwise very efficient queues.
Also in regards to EP, they don't make the bold claim that no Fastrack equals short queues, because on busy days and with really efficient operations it's still likley the queues will go over an hour. No way to stop that without putting a fairly major attendance cap in place. Does Paultons do this? Otherwise I'm sure that claim of quick queues must look like a cruel joke on some days.

 

[D4n]

Paultons definitely had a very low attendance cap as of 2021. I visited on a sold out day and queues topped out at around 35 minutes for the headline coasters, more like 10 for Storm Chaser.

This might have been covid related though so no idea if the cap is still so low.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

I guess if they genuinely are calling the numbers at a really low level, then I suppose there is some justification to their “super short queues” claim. But like @Tim said above, if they do become busy and long queues form, it seems all the more painful to have to wait in long queues when you’ve been promised short ones.

When I visited Paultons in April 2021, although not rammed, the queues for Flight of the Pterosaur and Cobra were both on 45-50 minutes and the queue for Trekking Tractors and the dinosaur cars ride were also pretty long and all moving at a very slow pace, admittedly mostly because of these rides being low capacity rather than issues with fastrack. If the cap is now lower than it was that day, then great, the claim of “super short queues” is valid. Back then they weren’t marketing anything about having short queues, so it seems perfectly plausible that they’ve lowered their cap since then, as well as pricing people out.

Like I say though, I struggle to get 100% behind this business model and rarely visit Paultons for the simple reason that me and my family are being somewhat priced out, when we can get tickets to Merlin, Drayton Manor, Oakwood, Wicksteed and BPB all on Tesco Clubcard vouchers, representing a much better value day out for us.

 

[John_P]

My first visit in August 2020 I asked going in how busy it was to be told they'd sold out that day. Longest queue we had was 20 minutes for Flight of the Pterosaur.

I think with them advertising free parking and no fast tracks (and low queue times) is that Paultons entrance price is higher than almost all their main competition who usually have plenty of 2 for 1 offers floating about.
So they're putting over you might be paying slightly more to get in but you'll be getting a more premium experience and get on plenty of rides during your visit.