Put a dollar value on a single ride

I have an interesting question that I have been thinking about for some time. It came about when I realized that I can spend an entire day at a busy park and only ride a couple of major attractions and a perhaps a few minor attractions and leave the park feeling somewhat satisfied. But even as a season pass holder I’ll easily end up spending somewhere between $40 and $100 for the day (I realize that this is discretionary ie. I could pack lunches and tailgate and refuse to spend any money in the park). But this still puts my “per ride” or “per attraction” cost at more than a few dollars.More interesting still is that there are a large number of park patrons that are paying gate admissions and riding just a handful of rides (on a busy day).Now this will probably sound like a very vague and hard to answer question (as a matter of fact I am sure that I will get a WIDE variety of answers), but anyways here goes. If you had to, what would you consider to be the dollar value of a single ride on some of your favorite rides (or not so favorite rides) at your home park? Examples that would come to my mind would be something like: $15 for a single ride on S:UF$12 for a single ride on DejaVu$10 for a single ride on RB Looking at riding this way would make an early spring or late fall day at the park an incredible value (assuming the waits were short and you could get some power riding in)! So what are your thoughts?

If I had to put a dollar value on a single ride, any ride, it would probably be in the neighborhood of $1.50. When I went to Kings Island in late May, I got in about 26 "rides" in 10 hours at the park, which is pretty much ideal for me. I paid roughly $40 for admission and parking, and dividing that by 26, you'll get about $1.50 per ride/attraction.

For a good example of putting a dollar value on a single ride, look no further than Las Vegas. I skipped Manhattan Express because I really didn't feel like parting with $12 to get my head knocked around. But I thought $5 for Canyon Blaster was definitely appropriate.

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Come on fhqwhgads!

It depends on the waits. For 20 minutes or less, maybe $5 for DV, $3 for RB, SUF and V2.

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Buy "Stereotype Be" from Kevin Max at Amazon.com

$40-$100 with a season pass?

How much do you eat?

Conneaut Lake Blue Streak price with tickets: $2.50

Wristband cost: $15

Cost per ride: only pennies :)

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Ripple Rock Amusement Park
Flying Scooter coming soon!

Refillable drink cup, $9.95

Admission $32.00

First ride ever on MF, at midnight, Priceless.

Someone had to do it.

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http://said.uc.edu/students/oakleysd/cp/CP.jpg
Now tell me Cedar Point is running out of space.

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millrace said:
$40-$100 with a season pass?

How much do you eat?

LOL - I should have clarified that. I was figuring for my family. Me and my wife, plus a 8,7, & 4 yr old.

So if we eat just one meal and spend little else it's still 40 - 50 bucks!

But that would reduce the per ride cost substansially I guess.

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For me just this year, I'm in the few cents per ride range at all parks. I've been to Six Flags parks 8 times on my SFWoA pass ($60) and spent probably about $35 total in the parks, all on shotglasses at the west coast parks (never buy food in the park). Cedar Fair, $85, one Knott's visit at $10 (two shots), 7 CPs at $5 a piece (averaged) - all on slow days, I've taken these guys for all their worth. I feel kinda bad about it at times, but hey, they offered, I took. Not my fault that their deal can work out to no cash flow for them - I'm sure they can get by without $500 more from me ...

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Give me launched or give me ... uh ... more launched!!
--Brett

I never figure food into my trip expenses because you have to eat anyway.

I'd love for parks to go back to pay per ride like Knoebels but then most parks couldn't afford to build all of these cool rides. PPP really keep the lines short.

Bartman

For me, I don't count food and souvinirs. I count admission and parking. Everything else is discressionary. At Cedar Point this year, where I spent about $130 for my season pass, with parking and Joe Cool Club, I have been on 129 rides, including flats (116 coasters). This comes down to about $1 per ride. I think thats a great value.

Now when it comes to food, gas, onride photos, games, etc, $30-$40 per trip can easily be added, maybe more.

But its fun, and I am willing to pay!

-Sam
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Avalanch Run - My first Roller Coaster.
Magnum XL-200 - The BEST Roller Coaster!

At SFKK, I go out of my way to not spend a single penny. I don't like to give SF many more many than I'm paying for my season pass. Therefore, it's now costing me about 3 cents a ride. (Which more than what some of them are worth. ;))

--Ryan

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No thanks, I've already got a penguin...

$1.60 for a ride on the Phoenix

$2.00 for Twister

Hersheypark is pay per ride for their Halloween and spring time events. I believe they charge between $5 and $6 for a ride on the coasters.

Anyway when I go to a park I don't go in with the idea of "I just spent $40 to get in the park I need to ride at least 30 rides to get my moneys worth." I figure things will come up like meeting new people, talking to the greeter guy who worked at the park for 35 years. Stuff like that.

If I was keeping track I'd say between $1.00 and $4.00 per ride would seem about right.
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Signature will be closed today. Sorry for the inconveinance.

Also, the park I am NOT getting a good value at is SFWoA. For that, its $3 a ride so far this year, but thats because I only come for the last 2 hours of the day to avoid paying for parking. Like the other guy said, I don't like giving SF my hard earned money (or even money I didn't work hard to get).

-Sam (who has been to Cedar Point 12 times this season, and SFWoA 4, even though Cedar Point is 3 times further away!)

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Avalanch Run - My first Roller Coaster.
Magnum XL-200 - The BEST Roller Coaster!

I think coasters should be no more than $5(and it better be a good coaster), and flats no more than $3(same rule applies)

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Since I'm no longer considered "funny" I will not be including a signature with my comments.

Well Firday I went to Cedar Point for 3 hours and rode Maggie 3 times, Gemini once, and Corkscrew once.

My costs were $1.90 for the toll from Delta, $8.00 for parking, $2.35 for Happy Friar Fries (but I would have eaten anyway), and $5.95 for a Dragster decal. My gas for the 150 mile round trip at 25 MPG for sake of ease, would be 9 bucks.

For 5 rides my cost was $25.90 or $5.18 per ride.

However, riding Maggie in 1-3 after a terrible week at work was priceless and well worth it.
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If given the choice I'd choose a hamburger over a hotdog anyday of the week.

At Indiana Beach Cornball, LoCoSuMo, and Hoosier Hurricane are $4 a peice but you can buy the bracelet for around $15

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-Dan
If you don't like the ride shut up and get out of line.

I will pay up to $18 for a single ride on GhostRider.