To think that Theme parks/Zoos etc.

[GenderApostatemk2]

Are now priced beyond the means of ordinary families?
I looked for Chester zoo tickets, haven’t been for years and was horrified at the cost - £25 adults/£20 kids. For 2 adults /3 kids would be £110! That’s obscene, factor in food and petrol you are talking £200 for a day out, that could be 3 weeks food shopping for a family.
I don’t remember things being so relatively expensive 20 - 25 years ago when DD was little, we used to go to lots of places without worrying about the cost.
It’s £70 just for me, DH and 2 year old Dgs, we can easily afford it but it horrifies me.
Even when DD /Dsil + 3 kids go to soft play it’s £35 for only 2 hours!

Am I just hopelessly out of touch?

They're not running a charity. Zoos must be absolute money pits.

It's a whole day out - Chester is massive and you could easily arrive at 10am and still be there at 5pm. Take a picnic.

In terms of "enjoyment per hour" it's better value than a cinema ticket or something. Tenner for 2 hours in the cinema. £25 for as long as you want in the zoo.

And the soft play by me is around £3 - £5 per child depending on age so you'd need to have a lot of kids to be spending £35.

Always been expensive imo. I take the kids to the zoo and it’s about the same price, for myself and my 4 children it’s £110 for a day out at the zoo!

And people wonder why a lot of us don’t want to “staycation” in the UK and would rather go abroad and lie about with a pool!

lots of theme parks etc like alton towers do really good offers where you can easily get a free ticket from a cereal packet, its such a good deal. just on coco pops etc.

We had a similar conversation at the weekend as we'd driven past Whipsnade turning on the M1 and had the "oh, shall we go, it's not too far? HOW MUCH???" conversation. No family tickets, only £££ individual tickets.

With theme parks it's the cereal packet "free adult" tickets that get me. If you book in advance you get the whole family in for less than the offer tickets. Rup off.

Zoos have enormous costs and do conservation work so I don’t begrudge them the money.
Soft play is a different matter, yes that does seem overpriced.

I was going to say same as PP - I only ever go to theme parks etc with a ‘2 for 1’ or ‘child goes free’ ticket which makes it slightly more manageable!

They are certainly a "special day out" rather than a "every weekend" type day, but lots of families can afford them.

It’s always been like that though. As a child I very rarely went on days out, I think I only went to the zoo twice as a child. Surely these places are a once a year thing and not every weekend?

That's what things cost. I think most "ordinary families" (whatever that means) know that. Who do you think all the families there are, if not ordinary families?

Most zoos struggle generally with money, that's why they also ask for donations etc. Some are not-for-profit organisations (so yes, some are running a charity but not for visitors!) and have very tight margins.

Aren't there usually buy 1 get 1 free deals on cereal boxes for these sorts of things?

It is really expensive, I agree, and whilst I take PP's point that running a zoo is an expensive business it does seem a huge shame that the cost of going is simply beyond the means of many families.

We're lucky to have family membership of our local zoo, and we def get our money's worth (knowing we have the membership means we can do the bits we fancy on any given day rather than stressing to fit it all in, plus like good music it becomes more enjoyable with familiarity rather than growing boring). But I have a good salary which enables that (plus days out is a priority for me with disposable income whereas there are other areas I cut costs). It's certainly not accessible to everyone.

I have two kids and I wouldn't want to pay upwards of £10 total (London!) for soft play, though.

@tryingtocatchthewind

It’s always been like that though. As a child I very rarely went on days out, I think I only went to the zoo twice as a child. Surely these places are a once a year thing and not every weekend?

Or if they are an "every weekend thing", you become an annual family member for £300. Even if you only visit every other weekend, say 25 times a year, that's £12 a visit for everyone.

Similarly the Merlin annual passes - yes expensive at £200 per person ish but if you live within easy reach of Chessington, Thorpe Park, Legoland, SeaLife, London Dungeon, London Eye... you could be doing something every weekend.

Animals cost A LOT and the staff qualifoed to care and vets don't come cheap either. Now they have the added damage if limited numbers.

Theme parks. I can imagine the care for rides and development of new ones costs hell of a lot of money for them to be safe.

Chester is probably one one the top three zoos in the UK and its a really good day out. I was shocked though at the cost of the nearby Blue Planet. Yeah it was very educational and well done- but it churns you round in an hour - and isn't much cheaper than the zoo.

Zoos I see as a bit different to normal places like soft play etc but I do agree with you it is an expensive day out even if you take a picnic.
They seem to have so many ticket offers out there is does baffle me why they dont just make it cheaper for everyone.
I actively avoid Alton towers etc unless its term time otherwise your literally paying £100 to stand in queues all day.

I paid £20 each for London zoo a good 15 years ago, but sometimes there's vouchers (I used Tesco)

They have very high costs! You can take a picnic to save money.

They seem to have so many ticket offers out there is does baffle me why they dont just make it cheaper for everyone.

Because no one wnats to pay standard price and people would still be asking about discounts. Same with food for example. Let's say galaxy chocolate. It can be £2.50 normal price but lots of time it's on offer for £1.99. People are used to that price but it has the "special offer on" so they feel like getting a bargain. If you put it for £1.99 all the time, people would lose that great bargain feeling and demand new bargain so you would have to go lower with price to give special offer.

If you see what I mean. Probably not really clear

You could always go to the Welsh mountain zoo rather than Chester. It's £15 per adult and free under 3 years old. Plenty big enough for a day out with a toddler.

Chester zoo is awesome but priced accordingly.

That does seem expensive, but I can see that it must be really expensive to run a zoo. Just feeding and maintaining the animals and enclosures, let alone staff costs etc.

Though we went to cotswold wildlife park recently, and paid £81 for 3 adults, 2 seniors, and 3 kids (2 were under 3s, so free). That seemed excellent value for a whole day out.

Yes!!! We did LEGOLAND yesterday and it was very pricey. £8 to park, £16 for two kids mediocre burger and chips and drink each. Wouldn't bother again.

Chester Zoo is massive and one of the big ones. I would consider it a one off for a special day out/part of a stay-at-home holiday. In that context I don’t think £110 is really all that bad - and how you’re spending £90 in one day on food and petrol I cannot fathom. There’s lots of smaller zoos that are much cheaper and for little kids I find a half day at a smaller place is better than an all day marathon round Chester or Colchester or London Zoos.

Also, “most ordinary families” don’t have three children to pay for. That’s not a judgement on how many children people have, it’s just a fact. Having that many is going to seem expensive.

There’s absolutely loads of other stuff that’s much cheaper you can do with kids, especially little ones. They’re not missing out anything vital not going to Chester zoo age 2. It’s like me complaining a 5* resort for a fortnight in the Maldives is out of reach for ordinary families- it is. So what?

It was in news last year btw because zoos got shafted. I donated to chester one and one abroad where I grew up.
They said it costs vlose to 2 million a month to run Chester Zoo if I remember correctly.

Yeah it's totally unreasonable that after a year of being closed/unable to function at capacity they need money from their customers to present the same experience theyve always had 🙄

We have annual passes for nearest zoo. It's worth it as it's less than 15minutes from the school gate. So we go every couple of weeks. Cost £280 for the family. Our next door neighbours, elderly couple, like to go for a walk and tea and cake in the cafe with their passes.

One off visitors is where they get their biggest profit though. Not the annual ticket holders. (Causing a bit of controversy at the moment as they have to limit numbers and Member places go quicker than public places, unless you want the unpopular late afternoon tickets)

I wouldn't be happy paying a full day ticket for the 3.30 tickets for example, it closes at six!