Flashpass prices at Great Adventure have gone through the roof

While at the park tonight, I noticed the park has raised flashpass prices a lot. It used to be $33 on weekdays, $35 on weekdays for 1 person with regular and I think $72 for 1 person with gold. I think even gold with 6 people was around $250. Apparently it didn't stop anyone as I saw a lot of people using it considering how short lines were.

Here are the new prices:

Regular
1 person - $45
2 people - $74
3 people - $103
4 people - $132
5 people = $161
6 people - $190

Gold
1 person - $90
2 people - $144
3 people - $198
4 people - $256 (I can't read the last number but it looks like a 6, I took a picture of the price list with my phone so it was a small picture)
5 people = $306
6 people - $360

Demand is high, jack up the price. You get less people clogging up the system for those with and without QBots, and the park takes the cash to the bank. Paying to cut doesn't really work that well when half the park is doing it and you have to wait 2 hours to procure your gadget in the first place.

Finally, this horrible idea has outpriced itself

Pay-to-cut is a very Republican concept

What's the difference between regular and gold?

Regular means you wait the length of the line before you can come back, gold cuts the wait 75%.

If Nitro for example in an hour wait, with regular your return time before you can get in the flashpass line is an hour away, with gold it is 15 mintues.

Rye.D.Ziner said:
Finally, this horrible idea has outpriced itself

Just the opposite, man. This shows how much demand there is for it and how willing people are to use the system.

^They sell on crowded days, but they don't chop the price on not-so-crowded ones.

'P.O.P. will eat itself' becomes 'P.T.C. will eat itself'

My feeling based on everything I've seen, read, and experienced tells me that "regular" bots do chop a little off the line, and that "Gold" chops between 85-95% off the waits. Makes sense if you think about it, since they want people to want the things, right? Price increases probably mean that demand exceeded expectations.

As hard as I am on this system, I see this as a good thing. I say raise it even more. The less people cutting in front of everyone else, the better the park experience will be.

Lines at the park are ridiculous every time I've been there, ESPECIALLY after they hired Lo-Q. Lo-Q is not the answer to the problem. Lo-Q makes the problem worse. More capacity is the answer. Pretty simple really.

Maybe they should just fire Lo-Q and only do VIP. That would make my day. Anyone could have figured out that letting people cut would make money. Lo-Q doesn't care at all how it affects the rest of the park's patrons.

Lo-Q is evil.

Rye.D.Ziner said:
'P.O.P. will eat itself' becomes 'P.T.C. will eat itself'

Yeah. Been hearing that for years - it doesn't change anything to ignore the truth and keep trying to claim it's dead.

It's a system that's been around for a better part of the decade and as far as the good folks on this forum can tell is so popular that the park continues to raise the prices.

Sure, that reeks of death. (still need that rolleyes smiley)

In other words, the park has no idea what to do now. A system was created that allows people to pay to cut in line and people bought into it... so many people bought into it that now there is a diminished advantage to paying to cut in line. What's a park to do? Raise the prices so less people feel inclined to pay for the advantage. I'm curious to see how much they can charge before people stop paying... or how much they can nickel and dime people before they say "screw it" and spend their money elsewhere.

Wow, Rob. Just wow.

I know you know better.

It should be interesting to see if these prices stay for next Spring as a permanent increase or was it just a Fright Fest increase.

I honestly think they can still raise the price and people will still pay. On a night where I was able to get 31 rides in a little over 6 hours without a Flashpass and lots of people were still using it, shows that people don't want to stand in any line.

Same with the locker policy. I consider that nickel and diming and before the season started, there were lots of expectations on coaster boards how people were going to be annoyed and guest relations would have a huge line. From what I have seen, most people don't seem to have a problem with it and will gladly pay the $1.00 at each ride.

What I think it comes down to is that people want to ride Kingda Ka, Nitro, Superman and El Toro and even though there are other parks out there that don't have Flashpass and these policies, people still go to Great Adventure over other parks.

How is jacking up the price having no idea what to do?

If I had a service that was so popular that the sheer number of people demanding it actually hurt the experience, you'd bet damn well I'd jack up the price as fast as I could.

I dislike SFGAdv as much as anybody but you'd think LESS people using pay to cut systems would be considered a welcome thing by everybody - those who chose to pay for it and those who don't. Those who don't pay for it get to see fewer trains going out on Superman loaded with 100% Flashpass users and those who do pay for it don't have to deal with so many other Flashpass users gumming up the works. Sounds like a win win for everybody, I just regret the prices aren't even higher.

I don't have a problem with it as long as it's organized. Dollywood has a system that is much more affordable and worked well the last time I was there. I think it was like $25 for up to four people. You could "queue" your ride from anywhere, even in the bathroom. ;) You didn't have to physically go up to the signs like you do at the SF parks. Then again, at the time Dollywood was just introducing the system and not many people knew about it. That was last year. I don't know if they are still doing it or not or if the prices have raised.

Great Adventure's, from my experience, was just chaos. The first time I tried the Qbot thing we waited well over an hour just to GET one. I thought it was hysterical that we were waiting in line (which was the biggest line in the park) to purchase something to help prevent us from waiting in line. ;)

Sometimes the Qbot line is just as long as the regular line, at least in that park. If people want to fork out that much money then the more power to them, but I don't see the point if you are going to wait just as long.

-Tina

coasterqueenTRN said:
You could "queue" your ride from anywhere, even in the bathroom. ;) You didn't have to physically go up to the signs like you do at the SF parks.

That's changed at SF, Tina. You can queue from anywhere now. (at least at SFGAdv)

matt. said:
How is jacking up the price having no idea what to do?

It's indicitive of a greater symptom of these forums - ignoring reality.

It seems like this is one place where people just keep saying the same things and completely ignoring the reality of the situation. How many of the 'same old, same old" threads still come up?

-High prices are losing parks money.

-VQ is killing parks and people won't stand for it. It'll be gone any minute now.

-Rides should be traditional - bells and whistles are wasted money.

-SF's current management is out of touch and they'll be gone or the chain will be gone any second now.

It goes on and on.

The thing is all of the above have been in play for years now with no adverse effects. In fact, most have been successful moves, but people seems to ignore what's happening around them and spout the same old, "I don't like it so it's a bad idea that will fail" mantra.

It'd be funny that we're still debating VQ after nearly a decade if it weren't so sad.

Something that has been around for almost 10 years, draws a line of people waiting to get in on it and continues to draw that interest while continually raising prices and we still have people calling it a failure or predicting it's imminent demise? How do you even reason with that mentality? It's completely ignoring the reality of things because the reality doesn't suit you. Sorry you don't like it, it's here to stay and wildly successful.

Now repeat that rant for every "same old, same old" issue. In fact, that's why they're 'same old, same old" issues - they've been around so long that we've discussed them for years.

Sigh.

Are you gonna be alright, Gonch? Perhaps you should lay down for a while. ;)

(points well taken, though)

Breathing deeply...

(you do see the point though :) )

The whole system works on the idea of exclusivity. A limited number of people have access to this perk for which they pay. If too few or too many people buy into it, it doesn't work. If too few, you invested in equipment that's taking too long to pay for itself.

Too many and it's like Tina said-- the Qbot line is as long as the regular line. After a while people are going to question the value of spending the extra money if their wait times don't go down. In that case, you need to make it more exclusive. Since the only legal way to do that is by money, the answer is to raise the price.

There's probably a critical point in there where just enough, but not too many people will want to pay for the gizmos.

Lord Gonchar said:
It's indicitive of a greater symptom of these forums - ignoring reality.

What? You're a socialist or hang out with terrorists or something.