I am a hypocrite. I bought Fastlane.

Bozman:

I hope that is not a sign of things to come. It dilutes the value of the single use FL+ for Prestige passholders.

I'll take it a step further and say that all all forms of Fast Lane dilutes the value of the park experience for the average guest.

Many enthusiasts don't understand what the average (non-enthusiast) guest is looking for in a park visit. Look at everyone through the lens of their own visits. Plus anyone buying a ticket/pass without also buying whatever FoL access is available is paying a price that has FoL access impact already priced in. People who don't find sufficient value at that price (for amusement parks and any other type of entertainment) presumably don't go (unless they want to go and complain, and I am sure there is some of that but its at the extreme margins). But parks are offering more in terms of rides and attractions than they were back before FoL access. So its tough to make an apples to apples comparison. Would it be better if parks just increased prices across the board but didn't have FoL options? Some people may prefer that but others would not.

"I'm going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there."

I don't see the price inflation of admission, parking, food, really anything at all slowing down or decreasing because of the increase of profit with Fastlane and the like.

Going to Busch Gardens Tampa today with my son. We are buying the quick queue passes as well. Am I an A-hole?

does Busch do a good job of moving the quick queue lines quickly like Disney does?

Tommytheduck:

I don't see the price inflation of admission, parking, food, really anything at all slowing down or decreasing because of the increase of profit with Fastlane and the like.

The $13.99 + tip beers at the Grand Pavilion agree with you.

Those are 25 Oz beers, though. Given that I paid $17 for a 19.2 Oz, before tip, and $24 for a double MacAllan 12, before tip - at a LiveNation venue last Thursday, I’ll take $14 for 24/25 Oz beers.

The_Orient_of_Express:

does Busch do a good job of moving the quick queue lines quickly like Disney does

What city? At Stage AE in Pittsburgh the big cans are considerably less than $17.

I am just agreeing with Tommy. Fast Lane is adding to the pile of money, not reducing the price burden at the rest of the park.

Stage AE isn't a Live Nation venue, they're Promo West. Roxian is Live Nation, and their beer prices are right around that price, IIRC.

eightdotthree:

Fast Lane is adding to the pile of money, not reducing the price burden at the rest of the park

There are a couple of different ways to look at this.

One way is that premium products are strictly additive, and so don't change anything at all about pricing for non-premium customers.

But the other way is that management has a revenue target in mind for the year. They want to hit that target (in part because that's the target that Wall Street analysts believe). One way to hit that target is to just raise general admission high enough to get there, accounting for people who just won't come at the higher price. Another way is to generate premium products that will allow you to keep your gen-admission increase a little lower (preserving more attendance) because the premium customers generate more per capita.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, and it's probably not the case that premium products are strictly additive.

Long story short:

That $14 beer might be a $17 beer without Fastlane.

It also might still be a $14 beer.

We'll never know.

How do we get the beer down to $5?

$200 for a one day ticket

Mulfinator:

How do we get the beer down to $5?

Drink it in the parking lot.

If you sell admission at $100 or a given product at $15, there are people who would have been willing to pay more. Premium offerings allow businesses to capture some of that with customers who are less price sensitive and offerings that are higher margin. Dynamic pricing can do the same and with technology is more efficient/practical. With more people paying with credit cards (cash less of an option) with a tendency to spend more when doing so.

Mulfinator:

How do we get the beer down to $5?

Here at Busch Gardens Tampa now. Ride ops suck. A lot of rides shut down or running only one train. This ain’t no Disney

Yep. That's par for the course for that park.

BrettV:

Yep

Is sea world Orlando any better? I was debating checking them out.

There is more to do there as far as non-ride shows and entertainment. But the ride operations are usually just as bad as BGT, save for Pipeline when I was there last month for the passholder previews. One train ops, 5 minute dispatches, and random unannounced ride closures are the norm at both parks though.