Holiday World Free Drink Fun Fact

Unlimited Pepsi is great, but 8 days out of the week I'll take the Busch method. Free beer, zebras, Montu, lions, free beer, giraffes, peacocks, and Kumba= me buying an expensive season pass even though I'm in the Tampa area once, maybe twice a year. In contrast, I live an hour from Great America and as much as I'd love to (and have for about a decade or so), I haven't felt the urge to buy a season pass for the last three years. I have three malls within ten minutes of my house that I could go to for free (zing). Shame, but that's my opinion of the direction my home park has gone since 2003- thru no fault of management, because families are a legiit market, but I don't have kidlets yet, and I don't hold shares of PKS, so additions such as Superman and a pair of wild mice (but one is in a box!!!! omg lolz) along with the subtraction of Shockwave and Deja Vu have dampened my enthusiasm significantly.

Kidding aside, for a smaller park (read: a park families are more likely to visit) free soft drinks are effective as they add to the Charmland factor, but based on the clientele an average Six Flags park draws (or has drawn in the past), it would probably be both costly and ineffective in my (uneducated) opinion. This is based on the idea that many teens nowadays act as if they have wallets deeper than a Journey song. Perhaps my homily covering the subtraction v. addition in my home park (and probably others in the chain... Chiller, out- Lame Rat in a box, in...etc.) validate the strive for a family park that Mr. Shapiro has been singing about. In that case, make the pop free. It would make me feel so much more valued as a guest despite the fact that they've found another innovative way to rape me without lube for parking. Ya know... $20 bucks to park, $60 admission, but the pepsi and sierra mist are on us!

Edit: PKS, not FUN. *** Edited 6/11/2008 7:08:50 PM UTC by BullGuy***

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0g said:
In the "Pepsi Oasis" buildings mentioned above, they have just about every Pepsi product available in the USA that you can think of, and the lines move quickly through the building.

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At Lake Compounce there is no building and no defined line or in and out points. Imagine that with children who are drinking Pepsi and Mountain Dew because its a special day AND its free. Good times! Holiday World planned it out right...

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kpjb said:
Convenience is worth money to me.

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Normally, I agree with that, but I just can't get behind that concept with the free drinks. I'm not sure the required cost is worth the little bit of convenience.

No idea exactly how much that works out to in HW's case, but the $40 gate still feels too high to me.

A better (and more clear) example is when Magic Springs went to free drinks & sunscreen last year. They increased the gate by $7 and parking by $2.

That's $30 for a family of 4. Or $9 for a single visitor.

Just doesn't seem worth it to me from any angle and I suspect that over the 8 years since this was started at HW that the included costs to cover the freebies are very similar.

You'd have to track an entire day's worth of spending at HW and whatever park(s) you want to compare it to, and see how the costs vary. Or at least compare HW's gate to other parks' gate+parking+what you spend on soft drinks.

HW's pricing seems to fit pretty well in the supply and demand realm though. I mean, the place gets crazy crowded, and they're building high capacity water rides to service all of those people. To a certain degree, the pricing helps keep the attendance on a controlled growth path while financing expansion. I truly believe that they nail the sweet spot.

The 500 billboards around Louisville for Kima Bay are no doubt helping draw too.

Shaggy *** Edited 6/11/2008 9:02:33 PM UTC by Shaggy***

Shoot, I was in Nashville, TN and there was billboards for HW and coupons at the Mc Donalds!

I don't know about all the statistics (nor do I care) I just know from the amount of gas I splent going out there and back I felt much better knowing I "made up for it" by all the free soda. ;)

I literally had a cup in my hand, all day long. Then again I probably consume three times as much soda and Gatorade than the "normal" person. ;)

-Tina

*** Edited 6/22/2008 11:55:06 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

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eightdotthree said:
A lot of other parks don't have the same opportunity to raise the gate price and include "free" drinks. Take Kennywood for instance. Their gate price is already $32 and $17 for the evening. Can they really add $3 more to that? People in this region already consider that too much money.

And while I am at it, can we have a season pass please? If they only knew how much money I would spend there in a summer... :) Seriously though...

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You have got to be kidding me. $32 is too much for all that Kennywood offers? Pittsburgh is a major city, and you're telling me people are that broke that they can't fork over that small amount of money?

KW is miles ahead of HW in terms of flats, dark rides, steel coasters (okay, that's not fair since HW doesn't have anything above a kiddie coaster)--not to mention atmosphere.

The park is exceptionally well-landscaped, not to mention the terrain which adds something different to the average themepark experience.
Sure, HW has Splashin' Safari which does give it that advantage.

I doubt KW will have a season pass anytime soon. They don't want to become babysitters for potential troublemakers.

As for the HW entrance fee, I think that most of that money is being funneled north into the pockets of ProSlide:) RGB, I know I've seen videos and pictures of the drink oasis's online.

4 out of 5 dentists approve of the business they get as a result of the free soda.

$32 + $3 for "free" drinks would be too expensive. I am just going by what I hear from inside my family about the prices being too much.

The funny thing is, in the case of my fiance and I, Kennywood would make more money by selling a season pass. We would love to go for dinner there, ride a couple rides and go home. But at $17.50, its too much money to do that.

I'd pay $35 for Kennywood even without free soda.

I agree Jeff. As long as they don't make me eat those Patao Patch fries! Yuck! :p

-tambo

Jeff, to be fair you are an out of town guest making a special trip less than once a year.

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Lord Gonchar said:
Yeah, we all know this is the angle. But given the idea that we now know people drink just 48oz on average - it goes back to being rational versus feeling fuzzy and warm.

I understand that, as a whole, people are stupid. Most don't stop to think about how little 'free' drink they're using and how much more they're paying in comparison to get it.

In general I feel HW's gate is MUCH too high for what they offer and as I've said plenty of times, over the past 8 years it's grown faster than just about any other park's gate price.

At what point does the 'free' drinks admission no longer become a deal at all and actually cost the same as admission and drinks at other parks, it's pretty much there. We're in the range of $10 either way of most other regional parks.

As a thinker to a fault, I just can't get past the idea that I enjoy the bigger parks as much (usually more) and in the long run am still paying the same price per person (give or take $5 or $10) in most cases.

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You are right. Holiday World is too expensive.

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BullGuy said:
Perhaps my homily covering the subtraction v. addition in my home park (and probably others in the chain... Chiller, out- Lame Rat in a box, in...etc.) validate the strive for a family park that Mr. Shapiro has been singing about. In that case, make the pop free. It would make me feel so much more valued as a guest despite the fact that they've found another innovative way to rape me without lube for parking. Ya know... $20 bucks to park, $60 admission, but the pepsi and sierra mist are on us!

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Six Flags is saving their money in a piggy bank. That's why you have the "family friendly" thing going around along with advertisements for families. Also, you might say that families spend, but yet some families are on budgets, and won't pay the ridiculous prices.

Why did they put in another mouse coaster? It was geared towards the teenagers, and Shapiro thought that he could trick the teens from not knowing what the ride is going to be in, and thus that's why it's in a box.

The teens aren't stupid like they planned, and it's somewhat of a failure from what people are saying. Yes, it does have a lower height requirement, but that's just because it is that type of coaster. Also, the coasters are cheaper than those big B&M, Intamin, or another coaster company.

How about we talk about the big B&M they probably aren't getting at Great America next year. Euro Fighter sounds cheap enough. I said no Intamin, but Farenheit didn't cost that much money. That's because it has quite a low capacity though.

Right now, the company just doesn't want to spend more than double digits on coasters. Evil was 7 million. Yes, I know X was 10 million, but that's still lower than 15, 20, or more million. Batman the Ride just moved from a park, and so on. Blah. Back on topic.

So, Holiday World is expensive as I thought before, but because of free drinks it's not. ??? If the park didn't have great roller coasters like people think they do, this park would hardly be talked about. *** Edited 6/23/2008 3:57:30 PM UTC by Spinout***

My family of seven just spent an entire day at Holiday World. My dad had six free tickets from his workplace and I used my ACE discount for the seventh. Lunch was $24. $14 for ice cream. 27 + 24 + 14 = $65. That is less than $10 a person for a full day of fun. My dad's company is not the only one that buys tickets for employees. This is why it continues to be perceived as a great value among the gp. I agree that $40 is steep for that park, but no one should pay that price as there are many discounts available. Especially to those of us on here. Most of us can get in for $27 as we either belong to the Coasterbuzz Club or some other organization listed on that site. http://www.holidayworld.com/clubs/#discounts
http://www.holidayworld.com/prices.html

P.S. Most grocery stores and hotels in the area sell discounted HW tickets as well. I really doubt anyone is paying the full $40.

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eightdotthree said:
Jeff, to be fair you are an out of town guest making a special trip less than once a year.

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What difference does that make? As a park without season passes, as far as I'm concerned it's not going to be that different for the locals.

They are only going to be able to raise the price so much before locals stop going as often as they do.

^Based on what research? Come on now, this park keeps adding new attractions almost every year, and they're usually fairly expensive.

At first glance HW does seem over priced at $40. But think about it in a different way.

They have one of the better water parks in the country and if it was anywhere else just as a water park I could see a gate price of $25 (and then with the regular discounts that float around, lets say $20).

Now take the rides side and transport it to say Myrtle Beach or other regional vacation destination or the like. A POP ticket for all you could ride (including 3 world class coasters) would be around, what, maybe $15-18.

Huh, that's weird, that adds up to right around $40. And with the discount found right on their website, HW is only $35 with a Pepsi can. Now throw in free parking and drinks.

So HW overpriced, really?