Preferred parking - Right up front baby!

Busch Gardens Tampa still has them. As do the WDW parks (minus Epcot).

Dollywood and SDC as well.

I’m one to turn right around if I get to my home park and the lot is packed. But I will take advantage of the upgrade policy at parks that honor my season pass. In other words since I get free parking anyway all I have to pay is the difference between the regular parking fee and the premium for a better spot. Then should I choose to stay or if I’m out of town the parking fee seems negligible.

If you are paying in advance it's an extra $5. Hardly a crime against humanity.

https://www.sixflags.com/am...ay-add-ons

I started this post to point out how parking a few hundred, or a few thousand yards closer to the entrance does not affect me at all, it's meaningless. I walked 7.8 miles in one day the last time I went to the park. So why is Six Flags taking away prime time parking for people who would like/need to be closer to the entrance for whatever reason? It doesn't matter to me, but seeing huge, empty parking lots right in front of the entrance is crazy. Especially at at SFA. Maybe it's the new CFO at Six Flags trying to drum up new ideas on how to possibly make more money and pushing the Platinum passes? That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

I'm on a boat. (NSFW)

Wait. Paying to park closer? I thought you were supposed to park at the far BACK of the parking lot. Then "at the end of the day when the lot's all full, and everybody's fighting to get out of here, we'll be the first ones out!"

Or was Clark Griswold lying?

LOL, Vater that's awesome. Welcome to Six Flags America. Sorry Folks

If there’s a dime to be made, you can bet parks have at least thought about it.

how much longer until we get ‘lightening lane’ passes for food lines? Cut that 30 minute wait for food down to 1-2 minutes. Front of the line access at busy lunch and dinner times!

That's a skip the line pass I will gladly pay for.

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool communitarian. I choose to live in places with higher taxes because they provide more services. I vote for tax increases almost without fail. I believe taxation should be progressive, in that higher-income earners should have a higher overall tax rate--and that negatively impacts my own earnings. I'm a fan of social safety nets, and think work requirements are counter-productive for them. I'm leaning in favor of a universal basic income, but don't have a fully-formed opinion about it yet. I am rooting for the graduate students who are striking at my current institution, because I think they should have a better deal even though it will make my job harder if they prevail.

But even I can't get worked up over the fact that a for-profit company that provides a leisure activity is charging more for parking closer to the gate, or for cutting down a wait time, or or or. When it feels like it is getting out of hand and the juice is no longer worth the squeeze, I will go do something else. And, that's happening. We are drifting away from Disney and spending more time doing other things. Some of those things are other amusement parks (see: Universal). Some of those things are just entirely different--sitting on a beach, hiking in the mountains, kayaking on lakes and rivers, whatever.

Edited to add: Another thing we've gotten into is hyper-local sporting events. We've had memberships to the local (amateur) soccer club for several years now. It's about $300 for the two of us, for admission to all matches for both the men's and women's sides. That's actually a little more than it would cost us to just buy tickets to the matches we will eventually attend, but it also supports a lot of the club's community-building activities. One of my favorites is a refugee youth club.

Premium products/services cost more. Phone with a bigger screen or more memory will cost more. BMW 7 Series costs more than a 3 Series. And both more than a Civic. Haircut at a salon costs more than one at Great Clips. Some people find value in the higher prices product/service; others don't. Some people can afford; others can't. Don't see how either reality would support not making the higher cost items available. And given we aren't talking about necessities, not sure of a connection to views of tax/labor policies.

That last bit is exactly my point, but I didn't make it all that well.

The_Orient_of_Express:

how much longer until we get ‘lightening lane’ passes for food lines? Cut that 30 minute wait for food down to 1-2 minutes. Front of the line access at busy lunch and dinner times!

Isn't that pretty much what mobile ordering is? No wait in line, then go pick it up at at separate window when it's ready. In essence it's same as the OG virtual queue.

Yeah but it doesn’t cost more.

Yet.

RCMAC:

I’m one to turn right around if I get to my home park and the lot is packed.

You live in Columbus. Is the home park you're referring to the mall we met at where you wouldn't even ride the Spinning coaster with me? hahahahaha!

Yes.

I often do preferred parking. I’m not in the best of shape, and I have a (mildly) bad back. I can still hang out in a park all day and night, but when I’m done, I’m DONE. That last walk through the parking lot is torture sometimes. Also, I visit parks typically alone or with one other person, also usually a female. The less time I’m walking through a fairly dark and unguarded parking lot by myself, the better. I never used to worry about that stuff, but since we have gone so backwards with how we view certain groups of people (women seemingly one of them), I’m much more alert and cautious.