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

[jon81uk]

Following on from posts in the Blackpool thread about price increases, what do people think is the right price for a UK theme park day?

It is often dependant on what is offered (entertainment etc), the hours on the day and other factors too, but is £30-40 the right price?

Go Ape is £33 for about a three hour low capacity experiance, a cinema ticket is £5-12 depending where you are in the country for around 2 hours of entertainment. So £35ish for for a seven hour theme park day seems OK to me, if you manage to get on a reasonable number of attractions.

 

[shakey]

It all depends on what your disposable income is and also how many people you are paying for.

A single adult £35 as a one off park visit doesn't seem too bad - as long as..
a) you get enough rides in and are not spending most of the day stood in a queue.
b) All or nearly all of the parks attractions are open.

Those 2 points are are quite important otherwise your £35 day out can end up costing you more than double that on fast track (at a merlin park), or maybe missing out on several attractions due to closures (which happens a lot at certain parks on off peak days), or just having to spend most of the day stood in long boring queues on busy days - if you aren't prepared to fork out extra on queue jumping.

If you are paying for a family of 4 with parking, food, and the potential for paid queue jumping then your day out could rapidly run in to several hundred pounds, which simply isn't viable for a lot of families.

It's a difficult balancing act for parks to get the pricing right, but if they are going to charge around £35 to get in then they need to be offering a premium product with excellent customer service.

And Go Ape is just a complete rip off !

 

[jon81uk]

And Go Ape is just a complete rip off !

Personally I find it fine, I get as much enjoyment out of it as I do at a day at Alton Towers and there are no other costs on top (except parking) really. As the capacity is lower it seems right. Although one slow group can ruin the whole thing when you have to start queuing.

If you are forking out for a family of 4 with parking, food, and the potential for paid queue jumping then your day out could rapidly run in to several hundred pounds, which simply isn't viable for a lot of families.

I agree that family pricing is a bit off.
Back in the early 90s when I was about 13 my family visited Drayton Manor several times, wristbands were a reasonable price and my Mum who didn't ride, didn't need a band.
But we only did Alton Towers once, everyone had to pay entry and the prices were higher so we needed to use an offer.

 

[John_P]

Having a MAP and a BPB pass means I'm slightly insulated from what's the 'correct' price.

However this year I've paid £35 to visit Paultons Park, and £30 to visit Drayton Manor and felt they were reasonable prices for what the parks had on offer.

 

[Ian]

I think ultimately it’s case by case. You have to weigh up how long you will be in the park for and how much there is to do, and the general quality of the product on offer.

UK Merlin parks are all overpriced but as we all know that’s just a byproduct of their model of flooding the market with vouchers. For me the Merlin parks are £30-£35 parks, if you wanted me to give an honest bracket of what I think they’re worth. None of them though represent the level of quality and service I’d expect from a true £40-£50 priced park. Yes, vouchers and deals make it feel like you’ve got a good deal, but the expectation is still set high by the initial price.

Pleasure Beach has always felt like a bit of a steal, but on the flip side, it probably makes sense given a trip to the park would be a part of a bigger Blackpool holiday for a lot of guests, so disposable income may be getting eaten up by accommodation or similar.

You have parks like Europa, Phantasialand and Efteling who never really seem to have much in the way of offers. They aren’t cheap, sitting in the £40-£50 bracket, but offer a full day out (or multiple days) and I always feel offer good value for money with the sheer amount of things to see and do. I’ve never come away from any of the parks feeling like I ran out of things to do, which is how I would measure a park’s price:value ratio at that level. I will admit I think Phantasialand push it a bit though for even a premium offering, sitting close to £50 and more expensive than Europa. Fine if they’re doing the return ticket offer, but that’s not always running.

For me though, if I can pick up a ticket to a park at around the £25 mark I’m generally not too concerned about what I get. There’s parks like Walygator for example which sit in this bracket. I’ve paid that, gone in, rode Monster a couple of times, hopped on the Vekoma and rapids, then left. I didn’t feel robbed and came away satisfied. Again though, I appreciate that’s quite different to some people with different levels of disposable income.

Then of course you have the Disney’s and Universal’s which offer a great experience but are more akin to the “designer” brand of park. Again though, DLP is a perfect example of a park where you can rarely pay full price, especially if booking as a holiday. We’ve had 4 days, stopping in Newport Bay with full board for something silly like £350 each before!

 

[shakey]

....For me though, if I can pick up a ticket to a park at around the £25 mark I’m generally not too concerned about what I get.....

I would probably agree with that, but with UK parks edging past the £30 mark, it does feel like you should be getting a better return on your investment in some cases.

Take Monday at pleasure beach. Ticket price £32. Valhalla shut (refurb), Nash shut, Airbender shut, Grand prix shut, Impossible shut (due to covid), Big one closed in afternoon due to wind, flying machines closed in afternoon due to wind. Several other kids rides shut, some rides not opening till 12pm and some rides closing at 3pm.

Tuesday was slightly better but it really is pot luck what sort of day you are going to get.
As a season pass holder it doesn't bother me too much but if you are paying £32 it really isn't good enough.

I cannot comment too much on other parks as I don't visit them that often and I haven't been to towers at all this year, but from previous experience the queues (unless you are able to go off peak) can make the day poor value for money - especially if you want to ride smiler and wicker man which can be half your day gone on 2 rides.

 

[jon81uk]

I cannot comment too much on other parks as I don't visit them that often and I haven't been to towers at all this year, but from previous experience the queues (unless you are able to go off peak) can make the day poor value for money - especially if you want to ride smiler and wicker man which can be half your day gone on 2 rides.

I used to have a Tussauds and then Merlin pass for about 12 years but got rid in about 2013. Since then I've only visited Alton Towers on fireworks weekend really and Its always felt worth £35 as that visit includes the fireworks show, plus a ride on every coaster. Not had to queue half a day for anything ever fortunately. But some of the school holiday weekends must be really poor value, no fireworks show and bad queues.

 

[shakey]

But some of the school holiday weekends must be really poor value, no fireworks show and bad queues.

Yes, school holidays is what I was referring to. 2 hour+ queues for rides are not that uncommon on busy days.

 

[BarryZola]

For Alton and Thorpe I'd probably say around £30 give or take a few quid on an average day would seem OK to me.

 

[D4n]

I'd happily pay £50 for a day out a top theme park; Europa, Phantasialand, Universal or Disney.

UK parks? I think £25 is fair for the Merlin ones, and I think that's generally about what you would pay with a 2 for 1. Personally I wouldn't pay more than £15 for a day but I've done them to death.

Blackpool £25 is also fair. I might pay the £35 for a Saturday in December though so I guess I must consider it worthwhile at that price, but certainly not good value.

I think Oakwood, Drayton Manor etc are kidding themselves if they think their product is worth more than £20pp.

 

[shakey]

Blackpool £25 is also fair. I might pay the £35 for a Saturday in December though so I guess I must consider it worthwhile at that price, but certainly not good value.

Yes £25 was fair, but a new minimum price of £32 (and £35 on Saturdays) (apart from wow weekends), just seems a bit much to me. (Although I am a Yorkshireman)

£35 for a December Saturday when it's the only major park open may be a price point they think they can get away with, but at that price they need to be on the ball with operations and keeping rides open wherever possible.

December weekends may get scuppered anyway if things keep getting worse with covid.

 

[Pleasure Beach Valhalla]

Flamingo Land offer way to much for what they give in return tbh and they keep on putting up their prices meaning i'll hardly visit. If you're Disney, then it's fair enought to have good high prices and tbh the Cedar Fair prices fro some parks are less than Flamingo Land so i'd say about $30 in the US unless you're Disney or Universal and in UK for Merlin, £30 is fine with me but Flamingo Land should be LV prices!

 

[AstroDan]

I think people suggesting £25 for a Merlin park in the UK are pushing it to be honest.

Alton Towers, with a decent operating day (as we have seen quite a lot this year) is a £35 park. I think that is a fair price - not cheap but not overly expensive.

 

[DistortAMG]

I would even say you could push Alton to a £40 park. Aslong as its a decent operating day.

Yeah it has its floors but it does have the best coaster lineup of any park in Europe. That alone commands a price premium in my oppinion.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Been a family man for 8 years now I only paid for Alton Towers once when we stayed over for her birthday every other year we just used the sun free tickets as on our last visit in 2019
she was just under 1.2m tall and £80+ for Tickets(2 for 1) Parking and Food is a lot of money when she was really too old for CBeebies land but not tall enough for the good rides/coasters.
I always see how much she enjoys herself by value for money. Like in 2018 we went to the Milky Way theme park it cost £38 for 2 adults and 1 child and everything was included in the price and Watermouth castle was roughly the same price. So we had 2 days out for roughly £50 each. Merlin parks would cost More double that but they know families would more likely buy annual passes or Merlin passes.

 

[Rick]

I really struggle to come up with a number that I can stick at because it changes depending on my thought process. If I compare it to other activities, the price paid does bounce around quite a bit. Take the Go Ape example, it is quite expensive on the face of it, for a ~2 hour experience ... but I don't want that particular experience for 8 hours, so the price feels reasonable ... despite the 'per minute' cost being far more.

We're lucky that we're not a family that does have to scrimp, I dare say "it costs what it costs" - I haven't ever really left a park thinking "that was a waste of money" - we almost always have a good time.

I certainly understand some of Merlin's strategy in recent years, but some of it really makes me scratch my head. Irrespective of what someone thinks admission is worth, if Merlin & The Sun offer it for nothing, that will inevitably have a long lasting impact. Although there are many good things to come out of MAP, I do think the balance has now tipped too far that way, whereby people expect too much for too little.

It is worth remembering that the theme park industry is a very expensive industry to operate in - there are far easier ways to make money. The costs can be crippling. When visiting Alton & BPB in the past couple of weeks, I was amazed how few staff there were around the parks compared to just a few years ago, particularly in games & catering. So much so, I gave up trying to eat at the Pleasure Beach and went to 'spoons.

Anecdotally, I was talking to a friend who runs a halloween event in the North West. His entire operating budget is less than the number that I know makes up the maintenance budget for an Intamin Accelerator at a UK park. However the entrance fee for 3 hours halloween entertainment is only fractionally less than a daily theme park admission.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

I think it’s really down to how well your day been if it’s been a good admission price. Like the vlog Shawn just done from Legoland the park was dead and his got on rides his not done in a long time. Now I would have been happy to pay £40 each if I get on nearly every ride but not if I had to queue a hour plus per ride. Alton Towers was a lot busier in the 90s and I remember queuing to get to the park on the other side of the village but the queues wasn’t so bad as it had a mixture of coasters and flat rides so I could guarantee double figure ride count. Festival park was full of flat rides with the icon of the corkscrew but now many don’t go into the dark forest if the queues are a hour+ for both coasters.

 

[pluk]

The ticket price should be what it needs to be for a park to turn an acceptable profit when enough visitors pay it. Sounds obvious but it's not what Merlin do and that's what I find offensive about their pricing.

If the ticket price is under sold the opperaters put themselves into a position where they have no choice but to exploit the captive audience they have. This leads to the absolute nonsense that is millions upon millions of free tickets bring given out to visitors not paying the headline price and everyone being turned over for what I consider hidden cost and aggressive upsell. This, even when the total spend remains actually quite reasonable, leaves a bitter taste in the mouth that shouldn't be associated with a fun day out. For me what they do is basically as close to dishonesty as it's possible to get without committing actual fraud.

It seems I'm always going there as an example when talking about excellence and doing the right thing in theme parks, but Paultons have it spot on. The price is quite high and (almost) never discounted, but that's the price. You won't pay for parking, you won't pay for fastrack, you won't be completely ripped off for food and drink. You leave not feeling ripped off at all.

Merlin don't need to charge for parking at theme parks. Merlin don't need to destroy their own throughputs by selling everyone fastrack at a stupid rate. But they do, because their headline price is too low and only serves as the set up to a con trick.

Nothing wrong with a £50 headline price if that's the real price of a fulfilling and full access visit.

 

[rob666]

BPB could sell tickets for a tenner currently and wouldnt sell out the park.
In a recession, companies in the UK would struggle to get punters in at fifty quid a head.
Unless they threw in a season pass.

 

[pluk]

BPB could sell tickets for a tenner currently and wouldnt sell out the park.
In a recession, companies in the UK would struggle to get punters in at fifty quid a head.
Unless they threw in a season pass.

Only because guests have been conditioned by the parks themselves to think it should be cheaper, and they believe they will be given a poor value highly upsold day out. Again, Paultons doing exactly that says hi.

To say people won't pay it in a recession is a bit too simplistic (especially when foreign travel is so restricted, people will always find something for leisure time treat spends), people will pay it if it's worth it. It's currently not worth it, but easily could be.

This season has proven the fallacy of practically free season passes, as soon as capacity is limited the model doesn't work. If everyone just paid their way evenly the numbers could easily still stack up and everyone apart from those currently getting something for practically nothing would be better off.

I'd love to see Merlin take this opportunity to press a big reset button on their pricing, marketing and operations. I bet they won't though.