Geauga Lake Just Raised The Parking Price!

Chitown - here's the thread where it was discussed in 2002.

I understand Cedar Fair not wanting to have outside vendors to contend with during Octoberfest but I think the leaders are making a huge mistake by getting rid of this long standing tradition.

Cedar Fair came in saying they were going to bring back the Geauga Lake that locals remembered. Well, Octoberfest is as Geauga Lake as the Big Dipper. There were years when I went to the park ONLY for Octoberfest. Tactical error in my judgement.

As for the increase in parking during the season, I say BOONDOGGLE! Cedar Point did this some years ago and I didn't like it then. I think it smacks of greed. So, you didn't have a good year. Suck it up for crying out loud. Don't penalize the folks that want to come to your park in the waning months of the season.

I'm a "fanboy" that doesn't mind criticising these too ignorant decisions.

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Gemini said:

I'm all for letting the public dictate the price...

Of course, 99% will gripe ... and then they will pay the extra $1.

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I think that one answers itself. Heck, for as many people who are vocal about not liking the extra dollar, not one has said it would stop them from visiting.

I guess $9 still isn't 'too much'. Cedar Fair gets a slight profit boost and the world continues to move along...

Which makes me wonder how much actualy is too much. What parking price would literally stop you from visiting a park?

I honestly don't know where that line is for me. I've paid as much as $11 to park at PKI. I paid $10 every time at SFGAdv. On both my visits to SFOG we parking in that little private grass lot thingy just before the park entrance and that's $12 if I remember correctly. I guess those prices still aren't 'too much' for me which is why I don't even bat an eye at a $1 increase to $9 for GL or CP.

Do you guys feel the same way about parking at sporting events or concerts? Those prices can be very high too. Go see a Pirates game here in Pittsburgh and you'll pay $18 to park in the lot directly across the street from the stadium. Park as far as 6 blocks away and you're still in the $7 to $10 range.

I still don't see it as out of line compared to similar situations.

It still makes me wonder though, how much would be your 'too much'? (open to anyone wanting to play along) What parking price would a park have to charge before it kept you away?

$18? Could have sworn it was $25 for the Red-1 lot? Or maybe that's just for Pitt games ...

Then again if you're willing to walk across the Clemente Bridge, it's only $5 at all Pittsburgh Parking Authority garages ;)

But back on-topic, I haven't read through the entire thread, but if you have a season pass with the parking on it, will I have to pay an extra dollar to park now or is my on-pass parking still good? (I have it for both parks)

Good Point, Gonch.

I remember the first time I went to the R&R Hall of Fame a couple of years ago in Cleveland DURING a Browns game. The cheapest parking anywhere near the stadium/museum was about $18.

When I lived in Philly parking for events was anywhere between $10-$20, and that was almost 10 years ago.

$8 and $9 parking is nothing.

-Tina

Like I said, I think parking is different. People will do without food items, games, etc. But there are no other parking options. Even with big city parking, you walk a few blocks and the price drops. I work in the heart of downtown Cleveland and I attend various events here. There are expensive lots, but there are always cheaper alternatives. $18 to park near Browns Stadium? There are many cheaper options available. Besides, we're talking about cities where space is usually at a premium. It's not really the same situation for many amusement parks who can get away with charging a fee simply because they know people will accept it.

What if a park added a $1 fee to each admission to help cover maintenance costs? Would people complain, pay it and then continue their day? Sure they would. So why not use that to get a slight profit boost?

Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean it's OK.

*** Edited 9/13/2004 1:44:08 PM UTC by Gemini***

I think we ended up parking about 5-6 blocks away, and it was much cheaper. :-) It's worth the extra walking.

-Tina

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Chitown said:

. You made the trek to the park and notice the parking fee increase. Is a buck going to make you do a 180 and leave?

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That is what i said, Thank you

Yeah, I almost brought up the ticket idea myself, Walt.

Would there be such an uproar over bumping ticket prices a dollar? Probably not, which is really ironic considering that would bring even more money in. You got to figure each car has more than one person in it. If they bumped admission price by a dollar they could be getting as much as $4 or $5 a car and people would probably be less upset.

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Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean it's OK.

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And just because a price is raised doesn't mean it isn't OK. (or greedy, or capitalism gone wrong, or whatever)

You know, come to think of it - it really is mostly about perception. Why not make parking 'free' and add $5 to the admission price. They could get upwards of $20 or $25 or more per carload and still trick the plebeians into believing they got free parking.

Uh oh. Wait! Maybe they do that already. What if the real admission price to GL is only $24.95 and the other $10 is actually a hidden parking fee and now we're all really paying and additional $10 per person to park. When my family of 4 visits GL we're really paying $49 to park!!

I don't see the difference. The cost of 4 full price admissions (keeping it simple, I know discount are readily available) and parking for a family of 4 is $148.80. (139.80for tickets and 9 to park) It doesn't matter how they split it up on paper (108 for tickets, 40 for parking or 78 for tickets and 70 for parking, you get the point) - a day at GL is either worth that to you or it's not.

Seriously, what if $9 was too much for parking for you? How much would you pay to visit GL? Would you pay $37.95 instead of $34.95? That still sounds very reasonable to me for amusement park tickets. Quitely change the price of tickets during the offseason to $37.95 then just before 2005 proudly announce that parking has dropped from $9 to $5 a car. Now when I take my family of 4 to GL it costs 156.80 - but hey, that parking sure is a good deal, right?

In fact, I find the idea of hiding additional parking fees in admissions even more deceptive and 'wrong' (admission is not an optional charge either) than just saying "we've decided for whatever reason that it makes more sense that parking at our facility is $9" - it seems to be all about the perception of the breakdown rather than the price to visit as a whole which is weird to me.

*** Edited 9/13/2004 2:08:25 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

I am not opposed to a higher parking fee. I agree that sporting events charge out the butt...but...we still go. I think it is asinine to do it with a month or so remaining in the season.

Attendance has already been lousy. So, the reward you give to your guests who may be coming back again for fall special events is a price increase for parking. I'll bet the parking lots haven't been repaved or restriped. So, it costs $1 more than it did last month for what? Nothing.

This is a last ditch effort to make a buck before the season is over. I am a unitholder but I think this is just plain stupid.

Maybe it is just perception. If they rolled parking into admission, at least the traffic flow would improve!

I guess my point is that charging a fee for something like parking seems a bit off. Maybe it's because it comes after everyone rallied behind Cedar Point when they fought the city of Sandusky on the parking tax issue.

I understand there are costs associated with maintaining a parking lot. But there are lots of other costs associated with maintaining an amusement park. Why don't parks collect a $5 "trash removal and midway cleanup fee" from guests upon entering? I bet people would pay it! Parks charge for parking because people accept it.

A mid-season parking fee change also happened in 1998.

*** Edited 9/13/2004 2:32:20 PM UTC by Gemini***

People already do pay a "midway cleanup fee" in a sense. It's the part of the money rolled into the ticket and merch and food prices that help pay those people's wages.

If they dropped ticket prices by $5 and began demanding a $4 "midway cleanup fee" people would be out of their heads over it even though they were paying a dollar less to enter the park.

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If they rolled parking into admission, at least the traffic flow would improve!

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LOL! See, it works on so many levels :)

Let me run GL, next year parking will be free, tickets will be $38.95, the combined parking/admissions revenue will be higher and the hassle of entering the park will be lessened (assuming the same attendance numbers and stats, but from the looks of this thread, I'm guessing 'free' parking could trick people into bumping attendance numbers up).

Because let's face it, most parks offering 'free' parking either have no/low maintenance grass and gravel lots and/or have simply rolled the costs into admissions.

*** Edited 9/13/2004 2:38:59 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

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If they dropped ticket prices by $5

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I meant adding the fee without dropping admission prices. That's $5 more and people would still pay it. Then the city of Sandusky could start a "miscellaneous fee" tax. :)

I'm a good Republican - really, I am :)

*** Edited 9/13/2004 2:43:20 PM UTC by Gemini***

I understood. I was jumping on the opportunity to drill my point way too far into the ground.

Gonchar, you're making sense again...

Thing is, bunping the parking fee is not going to make most people turn around and not go to the park, and for that reason, parks look at their parking lots as sources of "free money".

What they tend to overlook is that the "free money" they collect in the parking lot isn't free. In fact, it's far from it. Getting bent over for $10 at the parking kiosk might not prevent me from going into the park. But it does make me mad. It means I'm already grouchy before I even get to the park gate. It also means I have less cash in my pocket once I am inside. And because they've already stolen $10 from me for the parking, that means that even if I do have the cash on me, I am less willing to spend it in the park.

There are so many reasons I can think of for rolling the parking fee into the admission and calling it 'free' that I can't understand why more parks don't do it. Consider this one, for instance: Food, drink, games and parking are all cash transactions. Admission frequently is not. Increasing the admission a little to defray the parking, then, won't change the amount of cash the customer is carrying around. Sucking his wallet dry before he gets in the gate, though...that puts a huge crimp in the walking-around money.

Why not take that parking fee out of the credit transaction at the ticket window, leaving the customer more cash to spend in the park? The result would be a higher take at the end of the day!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave, all good points. The problem would be in the initial year of the switch-over. Assuming a park will likely increase gate admission but a couple of bucks, that on top of rolling the parking into the ticket would appear to be extreme.

A $50 admission would suddenly jump up to $61 (give or take) which would be a tough sell. They would spend the whole summer saying, "...but we rolled the parking fee into admission."

As for the comments about eliminating the parking fee to make getting into the lots easier I say this. The parking fee probably helps to control the flow of traffic into the lot. Without cars stopping to pay I can't imagine what it would be like in the lot.

Again, it is the mid-season (or end-of-season) change that is the issue to me. I've paid a lot more for parking at a Dolphins game. But, they don't change the fee in the middle of the season.

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wahoo skipper said:
Again, it is the mid-season (or end-of-season) change that is the issue to me. I've paid a lot more for parking at a Dolphins game. But, they don't change the fee in the middle of the season.

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But, most parks don't *deteriorate* in mid-season the way the 'Fins game does...;)

These kinds of changes SHOULD realistically be held off until the off-season. Come '05, most people won't even remember what GL charged for parking the previous year...

bill, just happy he can FINALLY root for the Jags...Coughlin is someone else's problem now, LOL....:)

wahoo skipper - to cover "free" parking, the gate would not have to be raised by the full parking fee - 10 or 11 or whatever dollars, as the parks knows the average car carries considerably more than just one person. In other words, if the typical vehicle entering CP has, say, 2.5 passengers, to offset the loss of money collected for parking the gate would only have to be raised $3.60. Of course, there are many variables to that (i.e. busses, pass holders), so for all I know they wouldn't have to raise it even that much.

And, of course, the park could then advertise "Now with Free Parking!" and look like good guys. Or at least until people buy their tickets ...

spewey, good point. I didn't consider the multiple people in a car but it would still be a significant increase over the "normal" increase.

There was a riot at CP off sorts with the $3 pop in 2002 according to this.

http://www.pointbuzz.com/cpplace.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=8012

I had a nice cheap shot on CP vs. holiday world pricing in that thread too ;)