$15 to park at SFMM!
They want to drive up attendance? I hope these new crown bearers of the company realize that a lot of revenue the company's parks bring in is from REPEAT visits from locals. With parking at $15 a pop and a day's admission exceeding $50 at some parks, I strongly believe these new changes will do anything to help out with the debt load or company's image in the long run.
Wow, someone finally had the balls to do it! Cool. :)
I tend to measure value by how much fun I have. Fun translates many different ways.
For some it's power riding a woodie on the cheap in the middle of eastcentral-bumfartnowhere PA. For others it's a selection of 12 big steelies to choose from. It might be simply spending a day with your family or beating the summer heat in the waterpark. It might even be a $4 pretzel. (What's feels more decadent than that? Decadence is fun!) It might be plopping down $20 to win your sweetie some stuffed trinket that will remind her of the day you spent together long after summer has faded away. It might be the satisfaction of the ear-to-ear smiles on the kids faces as they tell their friends of their travels and conquering the 'biggest coaster they've ever seen.' It might be plunking down $45 bucks to do the skycoaster and laugh for the rest of the day about the face you made when the cable released.
Then again, for some people spending even $2 to ride a rollie coaster seems like a stupid waste.
To each his own, I suppose.
You two sound like fun people to spend a day in a park with.
Peabody said:
For $15, my car should be valet-parked by Jeff Gordon, and I should be personally carried up to the gate by no less than 6 Playboy bunnies.
LOL! I would agree, Jeff. ;-)
Personally I am not surprised by the increase. A lot of my friends have decided to "boycott" SF parks this year for whatever reasons. The only ones I plan on going to this year is St. Louis, Great Escape, and SFNE since I haven't been to any of those. I will pay the crappy parking fees, and not worry about it.
I haven't been to the Texas parks either. Damnit.
Oh, I forgot about Spring Fling at SFOG. I LOVE that park. Is it April yet?
-Tina
*** Edited 1/21/2006 10:26:19 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***
What's feels more decadent than that? Decadence is fun!
Amen to that, brother. I'm still a fan of the private cabanas at waterparks. For $75 on a summer's day in Soak City, my family gets:
... a semi-private covered area with 4 chaise lounges, a dining table with umbrella and four chairs, four wave pool tubes, and a lockable storage drawer. ... Food and beverages, including adult beverages are available through a walk-up server and/or courtesy phone.
That's serious living. We did this a couple of years ago, and I'd love to do it again this year.
Sure, if you get there early, you can throw your towels on one of the few lounge chairs under shade. And I suppose you can hover around the entrance to the wave pool waiting for people to give up inner tubes until you have enough for the family. And I suppose you can wait in line to get food, and try to find a corner of the grass somewhere to eat it, and save yourself the $75. And, really, I don't mind doing any of these things. We probably have visited SC 9 times in the past two years, and all but one of those visits was on the cheap.
But decadent is exactly the right word for being able to sit in your pool-side cabana, dipping into the wave pool from time to time with your personal tube, and then hopping out and flagging down the server to bring you lunch and a beer.
The bottom line? While I might not want to spring the $35K+$2K/yr for one week in a 3BR condo on site at WDW, I'm happy to drop a Franklin on a day's pampering for the family every so often.
The difference between the cabanas/DVC timeshare and the parking fees is that the cabanas/timeshare are optional luxury items that I can decide to buy, or not buy, as the mood strikes. Parking, not so much.
RGB, who scoffs at wusses who can't drive up and down hills. :)
Ok, so my family of 5, now has to pay $5 extra to park, but the family gate ticket is still the same?
Ahhh??? Didn't I just spend 5$ on less then half a gallon of unleaded?
For ME and my FAMILY, the cost to the park changed by less then a half-gallon of gasoline.
IF I buy hot dogs for everyone, the lower gate price is made up with the extra $$$ on catering sales.
The gate price only HURTS seasonal pass holders that repeat, repeat, repeat, etc, the same park. Those people SHOULD pay for their "beyond normal vists".
Bash SF all you want with this one, but in my opinion, it really makes sense. I think I should buy more PKS now.
RatherGoodBear said:
I'll finally agree with something you posted, Gonch. Fun means different things to different people. And Six Flags is obviously going after the underserved market of people who enjoy colonoscopies.
Ha! Right?
The problem is it's the wrong crowd to attract for such a procedure.
They need to bring in exactly the opposite people and loosen things up for them so they can find their wallets.
Sprig said:
Hail CBuzz Warriors,Ahhh??? Didn't I just spend 5$ on less then half a gallon of unleaded?
For ME and my FAMILY, the cost to the park changed by less then a half-gallon of gasoline.
Uhh. I don't know where you're from but a half gallon of gasoline costs about a buck in NJ, so wtf are you talking about.
And perhaps they are trying to get rid of people like me (Poor College Student who spends less than those with more money), but like many others are saying, at somepoint there has to be a line to be drawn. What's next? $5 to use the restroom?
If the service is good and the rides are running, I may be willing to deal with it since i have the pass, but if not, I would rather not pay $15 in the future, especially if I am paying that much for "Six Flags X-Box Village!"
25 Parks..............
123 Coasters........
....and still going!
Imagine the Crystal Beach Cyclone with a Gerstlauer train
Cedar Point, which is arguably the best coaster park on the planet (but it's not really arguable... it just is), has lowered their admission down to $39.95 for an adult, and a ridiculous $9.95 for children. Not to mention that it's only $8 to park there. Let's see how a family of 4 would fare:
Cedar Point:
1 x Parking ($8.00) = $8.00
2 x Adult Tickets ($39.95) = $79.90
2 x Child Tickets ($9.95) = $19.90
Total: $107.80
Six Flags Magic Mountain:
1 x Parking ($15.00) = $15.00
2 x Adult Tickets ($59.99) = $119.98
2 x Child Tickets ($29.99) = $59.98
Total: $194.96
That's a grand difference of $87.16 (or 81%) and you're not even in the park yet!
Just thought I'd share.
PS. If you want to throw in FreeWay (free) vs. Lo-Q (not), then go right ahead.
I still think the CP thing was a knee-jerk reaction (as mentioned in the Podcast a while back), while I don't think the price increase at SF will hurt them nearly as much as speculated.
My predicition for the end of the 2006 season:
- CP sees no significant difference in attendance or per cap spending beyond the normal trends.
- SF sees no significant change in attendance or per cap spending beyond the normal trends, but they have a lot more money in their pockets than they would have otherwise.
I think the big surprise will be how little these changes affect either park.
The one place SF may have mis-stepped was in Season Pass pricing. Obviously, they couldn't jack up prices halfway through the selling season, but it really could come back to bite them in the ass. It's the old 'why even buy a single-day ticket when the pass is the same price (or less)' thing. Had they made the change and bumped pass prices up accordingly (which I'm guessing we'll see next season) then the plan would feel a lot more solid in my eyes.
Feel free to bookmark this and tell me how wrong I was come October. I'm big enough to admit I'm wrong. :)
*** Edited 1/23/2006 11:57:01 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***
1) No one begging to ride the kiddy coasters this year.
2) No one leaving mid-day for credit whoring at other near by parks.
3) No scathing on-line reviews on coaster web-sites.
4) No one claiming Tatsu as their new #1 "steelie".
5) No Voyage vs Hades debates in line this year...oh wait, that's still going to happen. Nevermind.
WTF are these idiots thinking pissing us off like this? ;)
what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.
Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
SFoGswim said:PS. If you want to throw in FreeWay (free) vs. Lo-Q (not), then go right ahead.
Yeah... Lo-Q is there and FreeWay is gone. ;(
Neuski said:
Yeah... Lo-Q is there and FreeWay is gone. ;(
Did not know that. That sucks. I am still going to Coaster Mania.
(Well, at least not until May.)
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