Morey's Piers is going ticketless

Plastic tickets are MOR-EZ!

Very cool...

Makes sense, the gaming places have been using these for years in place of tokens. Sounds like they have some nice features for use with the card as well.

I think the best thing about this for the park is the ability to track guest spending habits, and then send out promotions accordingly to get them to come back. Perhaps all parks, even POP parks should consider this for their concessions, souvenir, games, etc as an option. Instead of sending the kids out with cash, give them a card. Parents wouldn’t have to worry about carry cash and change about the park. Plus they would be awesome gift ideas for parents and kids for some off season revenue.

I thought of this a while back actually, was waiting for some place to pick it up. Does anyone think other ticket places might pick up on this? Possibly Knoebels? I wouldnt mind if they did, but maybe keep the ones you can buy only for Phoenix, Twister (probably flying turns) and Haunted Mansion. They have their own special tickets you can buy for them that look pretty cool. Not that you would HAVE to buy them, you could use the card, but just in case you want to.

Two years ago I drove down to Ocean City MD to catch the coasters there. Not sure about Trimpers Rides, but Ocean City Pier Rides and Jolly Roger both use the cards (both under the same ownership).

Does eliminate always having to tear off tickets.

But what happens if a "card reader" malfunctions and can't scan?

Trimpers used tickets a few years ago.

Rye Playland also uses such a debit system.

I agree that this would be a good system for Knoebels to streamline their operations. This is especially worth considering for them since they use a dollars and cents pricing system for rides.

*** This post was edited by Arthur Bahl 12/14/2006 4:07:11 PM ***

Why introduce the 'middleman' card? How about just letting the transation go right from my credit card to the ride rather than using my CC to credit another card and then using that? Just walk up to the ride and swipe my credit card. I've seen these systems at a few FEC's and it always feels stupid to pull out the credit card to add credits to a....well, credit card.

(Seems like you'd get more impulse 'buys' that way too. :) )

(I also possibly set the record for the use of the word 'credit' in one post)

I agree that would be easier, but I can think of a few reasons.

1. Transaction Cost-Credit Card Companies charge the merchant for each transaction. A park charging 80 cents for a ride would end up making next to nothing once they take out the fee.

2. Kids can’t carry credit cards (Holy Alliteration!).

3. They can’t stalk us as easy, finding what rides we go own, games we play, and food we eat. :)

A few other problems I see with a credit card system...

- You could spend spend spend until you hit your credit limit. With a "middleman card", a person could determine how much they want to spend... or how much they want their kids to spend... and only put that much on the card.

- If I lose a "middleman Card", its not a BIG deal. I lost only the money I put on the card. Even if someone finds it and uses it, I am only out as much as is on the card. If I lose a credit card however, it is a much larger problem.

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In theory Moreys was doing this "card swipe" a few years ago for their multi day POP options. My wife and I each bought their 3 day option and we received a card. On our first visit, we went to guest services, they swiped a card, it said we were using day one of our 3 day option, it deducted a "day", and they gave us wrist bands. The next day we went, they swiped the card, it showed that we were using day two of our three day option, it deducted a day, and they gave us a wrist band for that day. Technically, I suppose we could still use that card since we never used our third day. They said that there was no expiration date on it... but if we would try and use it now after six years and they said "Sorry", I couldn't complain.

Now this brings up another issue. If Moreys would go to a card swipe instead of tickets, would those buying POP options still get wrist bands? Or would they get a card identifying them as POP purchasers. They would swipe this card like the "ticket" users. It wouldn't deduct anything since they are POP users, but it would be used to track their activity.

If they would stick with the wristbands for POP purchasers, it would be slightly faster (just flash the band), but then they would only be tracking the "Ticket" users and not the POP users.

*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 12/15/2006 8:57:44 AM ***

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1. Transaction Cost-Credit Card Companies charge the merchant for each transaction. A park charging 80 cents for a ride would end up making next to nothing once they take out the fee.

2. Kids can’t carry credit cards (Holy Alliteration!).

3. They can’t stalk us as easy, finding what rides we go own, games we play, and food we eat.

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1. Good point.

2. Sure they can:

- According to a recent study conducted by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, about a third of high-school students have used a credit card, either belonging to their parents or issued in their own name. (source)
(other crazy info there too - like: "...kids aged 12 to 17 in the U.S. spent over $100 billion in 2004...the average teen reports plunking down more than $250 a month.")

3. Well, it wouldn't be a propietary system, but tracking purchases made on a card would still be pretty easy.

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- You could spend spend spend until you hit your credit limit. With a "middleman card", a person could determine how much they want to spend... or how much they want their kids to spend... and only put that much on the card.

- If I lose a "middleman Card", its not a BIG deal. I lost only the money I put on the card. Even if someone finds it and uses it, I am only out as much as is on the card. If I lose a credit card however, it is a much larger problem.

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1. That's the point! :) The customer is much more likely to get caught up and spend more.

2. That's an interesting angle that I never thought of. I always have a least one card with me at the parks. I prefer to carry them rather than cash. I am much more worried about losing cash than a card. Funny how we're all different that way.

^ No, I carry (at least one of) my credit cards to parks too. It might get me through the gate (if I don't have a season pass for that particular park), it might get me a Q-bot (love 'em or hate 'em, in a crowded park they are worth their weight in gold), and it might get me something "big" at the souvineer stands (food and drink usually get Cash).

While it is with me, for the most part it is safely in my wallet, which is secured in a deep pocket of my cargo pants / shorts and zipped, snapped, buttoned, velcroed, or how ever else they might close. I am not constantly getting it out of my wallet / pocket to swipe it every time I go through a turnstile for a ride.

Yeah, I could lose my wallet... but the chances of losing a card that is constantly being used is much greater.

Face it... I have already "lost" a credit card at a park. In June 2002 when we went to check into a hotel in Erie PA, I felt my stomach flip and my heard drop when I realized that my credit card was 2hrs away at the Superman Ride of Steel gift shop at Darien Lake.... either the clerk didn't give it back to me, or (more than likely) I laid it down when I signed the receipt and never picked it back up. (Long story short... we had a debit card that got us though our vacation, and we contacted SFDL and they had the card and mailed it back to us).

*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 12/15/2006 3:12:09 PM ****** This post was edited by SLFAKE 12/15/2006 3:18:21 PM ***

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Now this brings up another issue. If Moreys would go to a card swipe instead of tickets, would those buying POP options still get wrist bands? Or would they get a card identifying them as POP purchasers. They would swipe this card like the "ticket" users. It wouldn't deduct anything since they are POP users, but it would be used to track their activity.

If they would stick with the wristbands for POP purchasers, it would be slightly faster (just flash the band), but then they would only be tracking the "Ticket" users and not the POP users.

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At Rye Playland, POP purchasers are given a wristband. The wristband has a barcode on it, which must be scanned to get on rides. This allows the park to track the POP users, although the real reason Rye Playland does this is so they can make the POP wristbands expire after six hours. I'm not sure if Morey's would do this or not (and if they do, I hope there isn't a time limit on the wristbands).

I found it interesting when I was over in the USA a few months ago - it was the first trip I've done where I nearly entirely replaced cash with credit cards. Here in Australia if you want to buy anything on a credit card - say a measley $5 lunch - you have to wait for them to print out the receipt, sign it and then the cashier verifies the signature. It was interesting to see that in many situations over there you've done away with signatures and just a simple swipe will suck the money from my account. Almost a bit disconcerting (though a hell of a lot easier) because it does away with all the formality of a transaction.

As someone who has almost entirely made the shift to credit because it is safer, easier and financially logical, I'd personally prefer to put credit onto a separate card for this kind of thing. Pulling out a credit card every 5 minutes in a crowded amusement park just screams 'steal me'. I'd prefer to do it once or twice in a day, also allowing me to not accidently spend $300 marathoning because it was a light day.

Another problem that nobody mentioned yet is when you are on a ride and it ends, you can no longer just sit in the car and get a quick "re-ride" with a wrist band or card swipe system.

Even if there is no line, you have to leave the ride, re-enter, re swipe and re board.

Totally inefficient from a rider's point of view.

Although I would love being able to swipe for food, drinks, coaster-crap, etc, with one wristband.

Splish Splash had a new deal last summer where you could tie into a regular credit card and have your wristband swiped for everything you do. The only problem with that was that...they didn't let you just pay cash out at the end of the day for the total. You had to leave it tied to a credit card.

so i suppose this eliminates the wristband that offers unlimited rides. I hope it doesn't. For the value of the tickets the wristbands were a good value

Why don't all of you check Morey's website, or email the marketing department directly with some of these questions.

Wristbands are not being eliminated, and if you have to exit and walk back, well so be it. Show me a seasonal park with lines less than Morey's? Anyone? Thought so.