Reduced price tickets at theme parks for non-participants

[DMCWelshcakes]

I'm at a theme park with my family and for endless medical reasons I can't go on a single ride. I'm quite happy here on my blanket with Mumsnet and a book, looking after the backpacks while everyone else has fun on the rides. But it occurs to me that I'm not getting value for money on this deal.

Does anyone else think there should be a reduced price for people who can't go on any of the rides and are basically acting as luggage monitor for the day?

It could be administered with an indelible stamp on the hand to stop people sneaking onto stuff they shouldn't and just pretending to be a non-participant.

(Nobody feel sorry for me though - I've got a sneaky millionaires shortbread in my bag that I can eat all by myself and not have to share, as wells all this peace and quiet. )

@Marmite27 the issue is threefold... I'm too fat, DH I has lost his youthful fearlessness and 18m DD would not take kindly to queuing

All the rides have now shut and the music has started. My day is picking up!

@Questioningeverything

Not just me that eats their bodyweight whilst at theme parks then!

Blackpool pleasures beach used to run on a wristband system which was great.
Grandparents would come in, and maybe buy token for the carousel, but otherwise would watch.

They would never have wasted entry fee to other these parks

Drayton manor do a free pass if you are pregnant as can't go on anything

Blackpool pleasure beach still does this.
You can get just a park pass (£6 I think) or a full access wristband.
Or you can buy the park pass and then buy separate tickets for the rides, so if you only want to go on one ride you can.
They should definitely do that everywhere. Especially Alton towers which is astronomical.
I did get a expectant mother’s pass at Drayton manor once but it wasn’t that heavily discounted.

Southend do the wristbands, works out so much cheaper.

@IgnoranceIsStrength

Drayton manor do a free pass if you are pregnant as can't go on anything

It isn’t free sadly

I used to think the same as I’ve often paid to spend the day looking after the bags however, theme parks are often very crowded (looking at you legoland!). I think if you could pay less to enter but not go on the rides it would become unbearably over crowded.

To be fair, for Alton Towers and the other big parks at least there are always so many BOGOFs and other offers that I’m always amazed many people pay full price anyway. So if you got half price entry for AT, for example, you could at least look at it as enjoying the gardens.

And as PPs have said, a lot of places do do concessions for pregnancy and parent swaps (not enough, IMO, but I’m not running the places...).

I appreciate that doesn’t solve the actual bagminding cost issue... think a change of mindset as previously suggested is the only short term solution there.

I just think that in 2020 it can't be beyond the wit of man to devise a way to do this.

Although as it's 2020 they're all just trying to keep from going broke so I may keep my suggestions to myself for a bit. Telling them to make less money now is not going to be well received!

Our small local theme park does this. They issues wristbands to ride and they're colour coded and priced accordingly. For example:

Blue - under 5s
Red - under 12s
Green - adult rider
Purple - non-rider (for example pregnant women, medical issues, grandparents tagging along for the day).

You are limited to how many non-riders you can have in a group, so you can't just buy 1 child wristband and everyone else pays the non-rider fee, so that it's not taken advantage of and the place isn't crowded out with people tagging along.

If the theme parks offered cheaper entry to people not using the rides, they would have to charge more for people who do use them.

I think that Alton Towers charge something like £50 a head if you just turn up. Obviously not everyone will do that, some will pre-book or use deals, but let’s say £50 for the sake of the example.

Suppose they have capacity of 20,000 on any day. That’s £1m in revenue.

If you offer eg parents of children who won’t use the rides entry for £20, and you assume that 20% of the visitors are parents in that position, then your revenue reduces. Now it’s £880k.

If you think that the theme park is going to be at capacity on certain days, why would you voluntarily reduce your own revenue by £120k? You wouldn’t. So to compensate for the people paying less, the people using the rides would have to be charged more. £58, in this example, to keep the revenue at £1m.

Which means that if you take three children, and don’t use the rides yourself, you’re not going to be much better off, plus it disadvantages groups where everyone wants to use the rides, because they have to pay £8 a head extra.

Some places do this with wristbands but it's hard to police in big theme parks. If you have medical reasons then most parks have a reduced entry/carer scheme.

I personally would like a spa area for me, I could lounge around by the pool reading my book, pay a fortune for extra treatments ... wouldn't quibble at it costing £45 or whatever a theme park costs!

We did it by using two-for-one vouchers at Alton Towers last year (there are 4 of us so it would have cost the same for only 3 to go). I had a nice relaxing day with coffee and kindle. I agree that they are unlikely to do it though, no incentive business-wise.

Yeah maybe the workaround is better facilities for those who don't ride rather than a reduced entry price.

I hate rides.
I wanted to go to flamingoland to see the animals just as lockdown had eased.
I emailed the park As to a reduced price ticket as I know they do this in winter and got no reply

I was worried about those poor animals starving and wanted to do my bit.

Flamingo land do a Zoo only entry in the winter but only when the rides are closed.

I'd love it if this was possible, because I don't enjoy many rides. But (leaving aside Covid impact) it really comes down to the commercial judgement of the park. If I paid half price to get in, would I (and any people who might come with me paying full price) end up going more often than if we all paid full price?

A compromise option might be to offer this at non-peak times when the park might not otherwise be full.

Incidentally, when they first reopened, Flamingoland had lots of rides closed, but they were still charging full price entry. I have a friend who works on the entry gates and she was getting SO MANY people complaining ever day!

Yes, I spent over £100 for 2 adults and 4 year old to go to Alton Towers. We only wanted to go to the CBeebies bit!
We had planned to use 2 for 1 vouchers,but because of the new pre booking system there was no availability until the end of August! I’m not that organised.
Sounds like you had a nice day though op