Six flags is now charging you to print tickets at home.

And then all the craziness on the turnpike? And at home? Maybe God never gave any of us brains in the first place... ;)

So basically people who visit theme parks are crazy and sometimes have limited intelligence... it all makes sense now. :)

And that's why the parks charge you a fee to print your tickets. :)

<ob-econ>No, that's just a straight value proposition.<\ob-econ>

Brian Noble said:
So, what you're saying is guests don't check their brains at the turnstiles. They leave them in their cars!

I dunno... have you seen people drive? Seems a lot of brains don't even make it to the cars.

There was probably some guy at the front of the line with a garbage bag full of soda cans, and he wanted a discount for every one of them.

The bottom line is that if there were no value to the customer in printing the tickets at home, no rational person would ever pay for it. Period. Apparently there is at least $5 worth of value in "getting it over with" to me and several others who paid for it. There's nothing really dishonest about it. In fact, it theoretically allows more flexibility. Instead of charging everyone $45, they charge $40 and an extra $5 to print at home. That way everyone pays for exactly what they want.

"There's nothing really dishonest about it."

Kinda like being "sorta pregnant" or "only a little gay" eh? ;)

I just noticed that the rest of my post was cut off. But It looks good that way, so I'll leave it.

RatherGoodBear said:
There was probably some guy at the front of the line with a garbage bag full of soda cans, and he wanted a discount for every one of them.

Sadly, that happened once. He figured he had enough cans to get his group of 5 in for free. He was not happy when I told him it didn't work like that.

I think it would be better if paks built self serve ticket kiosks like they have at the movie theaters.

It would cut down on the lines, and make the whole process faster.

There has been many times that I have gone to a ticket booth at a park with my money ready in hand, and have the worlds slowest employie.

I believe a lot of parks already have those things. They work great if you don't have any discounts.

I don't know if self serve ticket machine would be any faster. Have you ever been behind an idiot who doesn't know how to use the self-checkout at Walmart?

I've seen self-serve ticket kiosks at more than a few parks. Most recently at Kings Island.

I'm wondering who exactly is still buying tickets at the gate. Who are these people? It just seems so much easier on every level to do it online.

Well I think it's fair to say that if you are vacationing in a city and did not have the original intent on visiting that certain park until you were in that town, that you would buy tickets at the park.

Lord Gonchar said:
I've seen self-serve ticket kiosks at more than a few parks. Most recently at Kings Island.

I'm wondering who exactly is still buying tickets at the gate. Who are these people? It just seems so much easier on every level to do it online.

There are still some people who don't do credit card transactions online, some who prefer not to charge "fun" expenses, and people who manage to forget or lose the tickets they printed out at home. (I know people in all of those categories.) Not to mention those who are using bread wrappers, soda cans, and coupons from fast food joints for discounts.

RatherGoodBear said:
There are still some people who don't do credit card transactions online, some who prefer not to charge "fun" expenses, and people who manage to forget or lose the tickets they printed out at home. (I know people in all of those categories.) Not to mention those who are using bread wrappers, soda cans, and coupons from fast food joints for discounts.

1. Wackos
2. Debit Cards
3. Buy a clue
4. Still cheaper online

Short and sweet. ;)

It's still their prerogative to do whatever they like. Not everyone has to live according to what the Coasterbuzz podcast team decides what is right. And why should it bother you anyway? You just take your pre-printed tickets and walk right past them.

Besides, didn't you point out that tickets on Hershey's website were not discounted and had a transaction fee? That makes #4 not necessarily true.

No, you're right. I know. I didn't mean that as seriously as you took it.

I just always wonder when I see the lines for tickets and, like you said, walk right past thinking, "What made this many people decide to buy a ticket here at the gate?"

It'll be even funnier in the future when the full flip-flop has taken place and there's a bunch of kiosks and one or two manned lines selling tickets because most people just do things like that electronically. Interesting 'in-between' time that we live in now.

I can't think of the last time I bought a ticket for something (a park, show, movie, travel, anything really) through actual human interaction. Someday my kids or grandchildren will look back on the idea of standing in line for a ticket and chuckle at how far we still had to come the same way I look back now and do the same. :)