Tim
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Air / Blue Fire
I want to talk a bit about wristbands but for the sake of staying on topic thought I should add that I think entry should be done on height as it’s much less ambiguous than age and relates to what you can actually ride. Just having a height post next to the pay both shouldn’t really add much complication.
If you wanted to be really sneaky there’s also a clever trick you could use to stop parents kicking up a fuss when their child is on the borderline. Rather than put the marker at 1.4m you have it at 1.35m (or there about) so that the cashier knows that if someone’s on the line they are actually under it. They can then pretend they’ve taken sympathy on the family by charging the lower value. In actual fact they’ve been paid the right amount but the family feel they’ve got a better deal and won’t complain: Win, Win.
If trading standards point you out on it just make sure there is a line at the real 1.4m but have it unmarked so that only staff members know what it is.
But about the wristbands:
The trouble with a wristband service is that in theory it is a good idea but in practice adds a lot of complications.
In an ideal world you’d give a wristband only to the people that don’t want to ride. But then there’s nothing stopping them for tearing them off or hiding the wristband and riding anyway. This means that almost everyone needs a wristband. Now you could further reduce the number of people that need a wristband by allowing Annual Pass holders to just show their passes but most of the guests will still need one. The effect on this will be to slow down the entry process which during peak summer can already be a nightmare.
Then you need to equip every ride with a way of detecting wristbands. For the Roller Coasters this won't be too much of an issue as there's normally a staff member at the queue entrance regardless. But for the smaller rides it either requires another staff member, a Barcode machine or to check the guest while they're loading (damaging throughput). Again none of these are real issues on a quiet day but can be when the park is rammed.
Then there's the whole issue of escapism which Jordan has already mentioned but I wanted to expand on:
Let’s think about why Wristbands were first introduced. They exist as part of an Amusement Park model which for decades got by just with tokens. But then someone realised that the limitations of a token system meant that those guests that wanted to stay the whole day were less likely to do so because they'd very quickly end up spending a fortune on every ride. So the Wristband was introduced to allow guests to still come and go as they pleased but also pass through ticket barriers with ease. Bear in mind that originally a wristband was a premium product that only a few guests were expected to buy. Hence it worked well for them.
The difference between a Theme Park and an Amusement Park is that you’re not paying for just the rides (in theory). Plenty of people visit Disney without going on many rides but they are still happy to pay full price because they are there for the Disney experience. The trouble that Alton and other British parks have is that they've become all about the rides. I’d go as far as to say they are little more than Amusement Parks with some good themes. If the park was to up its game and add more to the shows and general feel of the place then people would pay full price to visit the gardens because they’d be getting exactly the same value out of there day as someone that is enjoying the rides.
If you wanted to be really sneaky there’s also a clever trick you could use to stop parents kicking up a fuss when their child is on the borderline. Rather than put the marker at 1.4m you have it at 1.35m (or there about) so that the cashier knows that if someone’s on the line they are actually under it. They can then pretend they’ve taken sympathy on the family by charging the lower value. In actual fact they’ve been paid the right amount but the family feel they’ve got a better deal and won’t complain: Win, Win.
If trading standards point you out on it just make sure there is a line at the real 1.4m but have it unmarked so that only staff members know what it is.
But about the wristbands:
The trouble with a wristband service is that in theory it is a good idea but in practice adds a lot of complications.
In an ideal world you’d give a wristband only to the people that don’t want to ride. But then there’s nothing stopping them for tearing them off or hiding the wristband and riding anyway. This means that almost everyone needs a wristband. Now you could further reduce the number of people that need a wristband by allowing Annual Pass holders to just show their passes but most of the guests will still need one. The effect on this will be to slow down the entry process which during peak summer can already be a nightmare.
Then you need to equip every ride with a way of detecting wristbands. For the Roller Coasters this won't be too much of an issue as there's normally a staff member at the queue entrance regardless. But for the smaller rides it either requires another staff member, a Barcode machine or to check the guest while they're loading (damaging throughput). Again none of these are real issues on a quiet day but can be when the park is rammed.
Then there's the whole issue of escapism which Jordan has already mentioned but I wanted to expand on:
Let’s think about why Wristbands were first introduced. They exist as part of an Amusement Park model which for decades got by just with tokens. But then someone realised that the limitations of a token system meant that those guests that wanted to stay the whole day were less likely to do so because they'd very quickly end up spending a fortune on every ride. So the Wristband was introduced to allow guests to still come and go as they pleased but also pass through ticket barriers with ease. Bear in mind that originally a wristband was a premium product that only a few guests were expected to buy. Hence it worked well for them.
The difference between a Theme Park and an Amusement Park is that you’re not paying for just the rides (in theory). Plenty of people visit Disney without going on many rides but they are still happy to pay full price because they are there for the Disney experience. The trouble that Alton and other British parks have is that they've become all about the rides. I’d go as far as to say they are little more than Amusement Parks with some good themes. If the park was to up its game and add more to the shows and general feel of the place then people would pay full price to visit the gardens because they’d be getting exactly the same value out of there day as someone that is enjoying the rides.
