Parking Lot Costs...Your Opinions/Thoughts

Using my local park Valleyfair for example. In 1976 admission was $6 for an adult and today it is $32. More than a five-fold increase! Parking was only $.50 today it is $7.00!! A 14x increase. Figure minumum wage at least $2hr multiply that times 5 and that would be equal to over $10 an hour. But minumum wage is only $5.50 to $6 an hr which means a poor person have to work almost twice as many hours to go to Valleyfair which is consider one of the cheaper major parks to visit. Sure VF has more things and may justify some of the increase outpacing wages but the bottom line in a VERY VERY BAD ecomony with more and more poeple falling below the poverty line most parks will struggle if they can't offer as good of a deal as HW! HW is likely to do extremely well because of the value they pack into admission. CP will do very very well simply for ONE reason! TTD! Almost all of the upper middle class and weathy within 250 miles of the park will take a trip there or anyone who has the time & money! Exception are only people who don't like going to theme parks. Valleyfair I am still a little worried about. Last Sunday the longest wait for Steel Venom was about 10 minutes for me and reports are that the park was only moderately crowded on Saturday when you'd expect it to have 45min-over a hour wait for SV but bare reaches 30 min. from what I've heard. I hope SV brongs in enough crowds so that VF can add more coasters more often. More patrons=more money for new coasters and VF needs that!

The SFOT example, where stadium customers would otherwise take advantage of the SFOT lot, is a perfect example of when a parking fee actually makes sense. But I think it's kind of silly for a park that provides ample parking, out in the middle of nowhere, to charge anything for parking when that parking fee really should be included in the "all-inclusive" admission fee.

And you know that's what a lot of parks do. Why is it that two parks that have no additional charge for parking (Holiday World and Kennywood) provide transportation from your car to the park gate, while major parks that charge $8-$10 per car don't provide any service at all? Why is it that parking on the third tier of Kennywood's parking lot for free means a much shorter walk to the gate (albeit a longer trip) than paying the $4 to park in the "preferred" lot?

--Dave Althoff, Jr

PFF: Sure it was 10 minutes--but you have to bear in mind SV's capacity. Corkscrew and High Roller run at half that capacity with a single train and only WT was operating at similar capacity. So a SV 10 minute wait = 20 mins anywhere else. It's no indicator of doom and gloom.

As for prices increasing in the park, I can think of a few reasons for that. Wait--make that about 40 million reasons if not more.

-'Playa

------------------
The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.

---

RideMan said:
Why is it that two parks that have no additional charge for parking (Holiday World and Kennywood) provide transportation from your car to the park gate, while major parks that charge $8-$10 per car don't provide any service at all?

---

Well you can add SDC & CC to that list as well. While CC's parking is right next to the gate, SDC has parking all over the place! At SDC they provide trams to and from the parkinglots, and they aren't so spuratic (like those at WDW parks) either. I guess liablity plays a lot into the equation. Most parks have to "protect" the guests from themselves and I believe this is why the tram services are not as abundant as they used to be. Case in point both SFStL and WOF used to have trams.

------------------
SW:):)SH
midwestinfoguide.com

That's why I will support the small independent parks...

... I know Martin's Fantasy Island, practically in my backyard, still offers free parking...

... nothing like riding a CCI whenever you want, w/ no hidden costs after a season pass, and i continue to support them for a great little park which is deserving of attention. I'll spend my money there, unlike at the parks which dont treat guests as well. I think this is comparible to a little park known as Holiday World we all hear about... if only big could take lessons from the "real" pro's.... i hear complaints all the time from families @ MFI in line, that they dont visit SFDL because of the parking costs....
*** This post was edited by SFDL_Dude 5/22/2003 3:24:04 PM ***

Why does Kennywood do it? To get you to the gate and into the park ASAP so you can spend your money inside that's why. Just good old fashion business sense.Plus, I wager they have to pay taxes on the income from the prefered parking. Perhaps kpjp could fill us in on that aspect.

SDC really isn't a "small independant park" anymore in my opinion. The company owns 3 theme parks, 4 counting that big "rock" in Atlanta. ;) Oh well, I'm am just happy I dont have to invest in season parking passes. Too much more money. ;)
------------------
Do you bleed Blue?

Actually, SFDL_Dude, I figure MFI can FOAD for all I care. No parking charge, but their treatment of CUSTOMERS is pretty shabby at times... :(

There are two parks I am in no hurry to visit again--
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Martin's Fantasy Island
In both cases, I say, "I am not your 'guest,' I am your 'customer'. You will treat me as such, or I shall not be your customer any more."

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Yes RideMan I agree about BGT especially with stacking trains on Gwazi. Is that the bad experience you had @ BGT. As far as VF is concerned I forgot to mention that there are ways around the "overpriced" parking and ticket cost that is of course buying a season pass. Yes it's probably true that SV can handle more people than a one train full circuit coaster like HR but most of the time the line BARELY when outside of the station and only the front and back had more than a one train wait since if you ride in the middle (why waste my time with that?). So if you wanted to ride in the middle you'd only wait at most a measly 2 minutes. But I do love that straight spike in the back seat which I think IS the greatest single thrill in VF's history! Note I didn't say coaster. A brakeless or near brakeless Wild Thing would easily be the best ride in the park if you are very lucky to catch it with a brakeless HR a close second. Excalibur is great too but not a long enough ride.

---

RideMan said:
Actually, SFDL_Dude, I figure MFI can FOAD for all I care. No parking charge, but their treatment of CUSTOMERS is pretty shabby at times... :(

---

hmmmm I'd like to hear about this one... what exactly happened, or did you experience? You can e-mail if you want, but i'm just curious as I find that kind of odd.... thanks!

---

HardRider said:

---

By the way Swoosh, SFStl has the lowest cost Seasons parking passes by far, only $20!

---

Actually, SFStl only charges that your first year. Renewals are only $7! I think they charge $8 for one day so I visit once and still save money.

Too bad more chain parks don't include parking with their season passes. I love my Platinum Busch pass; premium parking is included in Florida and regular parking is free at all other Busch parks. Universal Studios includes parking with theirs also.

---

My home park is a Six Flags park. Not that it matters, but it's SFoG. Why does it NOT matter? Because what SFoG makes goes into the SF pool anyway. I've visited 4 different parks already a total of 6 times and will hit SFKK during my SRM trip.

I have spent 40 bucks on my season pass and 25 bucks on my season parking pass.

I feel like I have gotten my money's worth. But I don't expect phenomenal customer service or multi train usage all the time either. I feel good when I go to a park a DON'T spend any additional money. NO MORE do I feel like I need to play games, buy food, buy souveniers to help my park.

Go to SFoG on a Saturday during the summer and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's unvisitable (to coin a phrase). If I felt, or knew that me spending money would get garner them the hyper I covet so much, I would spend accordingly, but I know better.

------------------
I'm not an enthusiast. I just play one on message boards.