SFGADV Raises Parking Price

Six Flags Great Adventure has just raised the parking price from $20 to $22. (Please ignore my username, I made it several years ago, and it's no longer accurate.) $22?!?! What a joke. That's got to be the highest parking price of any park in the USA...if not the world. Can anyone name a higher price? This is just one more reason for me to make the 2.5 hour drive to Hershey instead of the 30 minute drive to SFGADV.

I feel like the price was $15 in 2010...how do they justify an almost 50% increase in 2 years?!

Cue Gonch saying $22 is fair.

Given the high parking costs, I've always thought it made more sense to stay at the on-site hotel and take the shuttle over to the park.

Yes, it sucks to pay that much for parking, but I've paid way more at sporting events and concerts. In 2010, I paid $35 to park in Pittsburgh for a few hours, and had to drive through knee deep trash to get out of the lots when we left.

Part of the problem here is that it's the first time you part with your money during a park visit, and there is little to no value in paying to allow your car a space to occupy while you are inside the park. People will pay whatever the parks charge if they want to ride some roller coasters.

So, would you say that charging for parking is bad customer service? ;-)

Well, Over-charging for parking is bad customer service. Whatever over means.

Depends... what's the capacity of the parking lot?

When did SFGAdv get an on-site hotel? Have I been living under a rock?

If SFGAdv needed a rock, you'd already be under it.

Kpjb, what is really scary is that the lot is not that big! One could look at that and say they need to charge more because there are NOT as many cars in this lot. However, they barely do any maintenance on the lot, so I'm kinda baffled as to why on earth they need to charge the amount they do. At the rate Six Flags is going with their prices, they will soon cost as much as a visit to Universal. And Six Flags is NOT Universal. Sure, the coasters are better, and I will always adore Nitro and Toro, but other parks in the price range they are heading towards are a million times better for atmosphere, maintenance, and total immersion into a different world.

It's the 3rd increase since the start of last season. Parking went from $15 to $17 from 2010 to 2011, then midseason last year it was raised to $17, raised to $20 at the beginning of this season and raised to $22 at the beginning of the month. Season Pass parking is $60 and it's almost to the point where parking is as much as the pass ($65 for 2012 when purchased early).

They need to get the trams back and fix the lot. It is set up horribly where you are walking past the preferred parking exit area to get to the part of the main lot near Superman and Green Lantern and there are always cars and the shuttle buses going by. I always stay to the right near the curb but most people don't do that and walk in the middle of the road.

Curses! I used to be up on the recurring jokes. I've been under my rock for so long I've missed a few.

SFGAdv lover said:

Cue Gonch saying $22 is fair.

Well, I don't need to now.

Sometimes, I wonder just how expensive thing would have to get before Gonch would not be all for it. :)

I'll take a stab at it and say "when they start to see decreases in attendance". bunky666 says "I'm kinda baffled as to why on earth they need to charge the amount they do." - but they don't NEED to charge any amount - instead, they do charge the highest amount they CAN. Expect $25 next year...

LostKause said:

Sometimes, I wonder just how expensive thing would have to get before Gonch would not be all for it. :)

It would have to be expensive enough that everybody would not be all for it. I'm pretty average in that sense.

That is to say (and it's the same old, same old):

If it gets too high people will quit paying and something will break.

I have a feeling that $22 to park your car for the day in the NY/NJ area isn't really all that shocking. And event-based parking most places makes $22 seem like a steal.

And based on cost-of-living differences, $22 in that area of NJ is the same as $15 or $16 in most of the rest of the country.

Perspective, I guess.

I still think they'd be better off playing the mind games other parks do and doing something like calling parking free, but raising tickets $5 each. The resistance always comes in what you're being told you're paying for. No one wants to pay $22 to park. Most wouldn't mind paying $46 instead of $41 for a ticket to a park like Six Flags.

With that said, you guys do realize that prices for nearly everything go up year-after-year, right? Someday parking at the parks will be $30...and eventually $40 and then $50 - even if we don't necessarily see it in our lifetime...although at SFGADV's rate, we might.

If they continually raise prices at a much higher rate than inflation, something has to give.

I didn't even think of the cost of living differences, Gonch...as always, you raise an excellent point. However, the parking for Great Adventure is still excessive. If you look at it in your way, somewhere with a lesser cost of living like...Hershey we'll say, charges 12 dollars for parking. Dorney charges less than even that. I find it hard to believe that the cost of living is SO much more that they need to charge that kind of money. Or at LEAST is it really necessary to then up charge for VIP parking? Yes, they CAN charge what they want, but I still think they SHOULDN'T.

They draw a lot from New York City, and the cost of living there is pretty freaking high. The last time I went into the city, we were warned to not even think about bringing a car along as a. we wouldn't need it and b. parking is WAY expensive, and I'm not talking about $22 for a full day.

Yeah, New York is ridiculous in cost of living, and I guess if Six Flags is smart enough to realize that their main demographic population thinks 22 bucks is nothing, it makes sense. I still don't think I'll be going back there much at this point, my favorite coaster being there or not. It is getting to be too much.