Drink Prices & No Re-entry (new takes on the same old)

Brian Noble said:
I know people who live in cokeland, though.

I knew a couple. One, specifically, who was a pretty good looking girl but for obvious reasons, I could no longer pursue said relationship.

Oh. That Cokeland...

I don't think cokeland is near Charmland . . .

What about the counties with no data? Or the ones where the most popular name is only 30%? There must be some real soft drink battles there.

I think the next map they should make is for large sandwiches. Do you call them hoagies, subs, grinders, or other?

That's another good one, RGB.

I grew up calling them 'hoagies' but in moving around so much have found that 'subs' is a much safer, more universal term.

Raven-Phile said:

Brian Noble said:
I know people who live in cokeland, though.

I knew a couple. One, specifically, who was a pretty good looking girl but for obvious reasons, I could no longer pursue said relationship.

Oh. That Cokeland...

Maybe I'm desperate, but I wouldn't dump the girl just because she says coke. Granted I also dated a Michigan fan, that was interesting before she went crazy, cheated on me, and dumped me. It reaffirmed by faith in OSU. ;)

Lord Gonchar said: What exactly are other terms? The only think that comes to mind is 'soft drink'

My cousins in the Boston area refer to it as "tonic." (Use the appropriate accent and it's, "Mutha wants to know what kind of tawnic you want fuh suppa.")

I didn't know what the heck she was talking about.

Paula

^LOL, I've heard that usage, and my first thought was "tonic water is gross". It is, of course, but that wasn't exactly what they MEANT...Other terms: Cola, soda water, seltzer, and my personal fav - carbonated beverage. :)

Should have asked for a Vodka! ;)

My cousin's name was Muffy and she scared me half to death.

All I could think of was hair tonic.

She must have thought I was a half-wit; I kept asking, "What? Excuse me? I don't understand..."

So she just repeated it, only louder...

Ultimately, I suffered from dehydration on that trip.:)

Paula

Thankfully, HW doesn't offer its guests "free tonic." :)

(Tonic always reminds me of that stuff Granny used to brew on the Beverly Hillbillies.)

I was just thinking...Dollywood might be a place to find a "tonic".

They do have that still that you pass twice on the train ride...

Raven Maven said:
All I could think of was hair tonic.

Tonic makes me think of the guys going town to town selling 'miracle tonic' to unsuspecting local off the back of their wagon.

Buy Pirelli's Miracle elixir
Anything wot's slick, sir,
Soon sprouts curls.
Try Pirelli's; when they see how thick, sir,
You can have your pick, sir, of the girls!

Toby: Wanna buy a bottle, missus?
Sweeney: What is this?
Mrs. Lovett: What is this?
Sweeney: Smells like piss...
Mrs. Lovett: Smells like "EW!"

Lord Gonchar said:

You can speculate all you'd like about how many drinks people buy, but KI is telling us - it takes $9 to make unlimited drinks work for us.

Now it's as simple as multiplying that by the average number of visits a season pass makes - and if we assume the price of a pass compared to the gate tells us that number then we're at about 4 visits on average.

Voila! $36 on a season pass and you get free unlimited drinks.

I agree with you math but now comes the sticker shock that I mentioned before. If I was purchasing a pass for a park that I had never previously gone to and the $36 is buried in the price I probably don't even think about it because I have no point of reference for that park. But if the price of my CF pass next year goes up by $36 as compared to what I payed this year now I have a problem. The drink price is not transparent in that case. Now I have to decide if paying an extra $144 for my family of 4 to have "free" drinks is worth it. I can do the same math that the park does but from my perspective. Figure two drinks per visit and 6 visits a year - that equates to $6 per drink with my pass as compared to $4 per drink if I buy drinks on my own. Simple economics tells me that the drink pass option is bad but that I will buy the pass anyway because the pass is still much less expensive than paying with for individual gate tickets. I guess that makes for a win-win situation for the park in my case. They get more money out of me for a higher pass price I do not drink my quota.

Shades said:
I agree with you math but now comes the sticker shock that I mentioned before. If I was purchasing a pass for a park that I had never previously gone to and the $36 is buried in the price I probably don't even think about it because I have no point of reference for that park. But if the price of my CF pass next year goes up by $36 as compared to what I payed this year now I have a problem. The drink price is not transparent in that case.

So no park can ever do this because people will see the price change?

Again, we know it works because of place like HW, LC and MS and they all bumped their prices.

Hell, CF even jacked prices on their passes when they went from the "Maxx Pass" to the "Platinum Pass" - by a lot. Sure people complained, but people also bought them. This year no one's even mentioning the price of their CF pass.

Change is scary to people. The flipside is that people adapt a forget very easily.

Simple economics tells me that the drink pass option is bad but that I will buy the pass anyway because the pass is still much less expensive than paying with for individual gate tickets. I guess that makes for a win-win situation for the park in my case. They get more money out of me for a higher pass price I do not drink my quota.

The magic of such a deal. The whole reason for doing it. The point, if you will.

Technically I agree with you and that's been my argument against included drinks for years - that it's not really a deal for the guest. But people seem to go happy-stupid when you say unlimited or free and, as I've mentioned, I think the timing is right with the economic fear and all for someone to take a stab at it on a bigger scale.

The beauty for a chain like CF is that they could still offer a platinum pass with chain-wide admission and parking, add drinks to that list and still offer it for under $200.

I am not disagreeing with you - we know parks have done this and will continue to do so. I am just grumbling because it cost me more. But like everyone else I would pay for it. I would just have to drink more to stick it to the park:)

Heh. Got it. :)

The Mole said:
Maybe I'm desperate, but I wouldn't dump the girl just because she says coke. Granted I also dated a Michigan fan, that was interesting before she went crazy, cheated on me, and dumped me. It reaffirmed by faith in OSU. ;)

See, the problem was... She wasn't saying coke, rather doing.

Soon as she mentioned that I was like "well, cool - there won't be a 3rd date." :)

^^^^ I don't think people fear change as much as wanting to feel they're getting something for a sizable increase in the cost of a season pass.

Some people may perceive that not having to pay for drinks in the park is a worthwhile perc. Others may not. The parks might know what the per cap on drinks is, but I'd say most people can only approximate what they consume themselves. And I'm not sure how close their approximation is.

For some people, having the cost added up front might seem like a burden. Yet they'd drop $8-10 per visit on drinks all season. I don't know enough about psychology to say whether people would
1) gladly accept the perc
2) grudgingly accept it but try to get their money's worth out of it, or
3) decide not to renew their season pass
and would the revenue in groups 1 and 2 offset the loss from group 3?