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?

Zoos very often are registered charities.

I don’t think this is a new thing: a theme park or zoo trip would be a once a year treat when I was growing up.

Some of our local kids attractions have frequent visitor passes for locals so we go to them quite regularly as they work out as value for money. Soft play and swimming are other cheap options. Theme park/Go Ape/zoo is a special treat once or twice a year. Otherwise it’s the local park!

Oh, and we idly looked at Leeds Castle for a family day out. £90!! It’s not National Trust or English Heritage, though the tickets are apparently valid for a year.

We did a lot when we were kids, though a lot of it was National Trust or local. Theme parks have always been really pricey but I do think the prices of some other attractions have increased disproportionately.

Then again, my parents would let us have a drink or an ice cream but not both, whereas I can’t imagine not buying extra bottles of water if we needed them, so I guess a lot of it is relative!

YABU

Chester Zoo is world class and at the forefront of so many excellent conservation projects. What they do costs many millions a year.

It's a once a year trip for most - maybe less frequent.

I am proud to be a sponsor and we look forward to our visits very much.

The thing is, if these places were cheaper in the first place, people would go a lot more often. I live pretty close to London zoo. If it was say £5 to get in I wouldn’t think twice about on a nice day, grabbing a sandwich and going there. Just looked at the ticket prices now and it’s £32.50. So I won’t go at all.

I went to Tokyo zoo when I was in Japan. Entry cost for adults was just over £4. Huge difference.

It is just acceptable in the UK to exclude children from this environment, that as a consequence becomes very unfriendly for children.

If it's Ueno quick google ahows why as well.
It's 14ha compared to Chester's 45ha, it has 2600 animals compared to Chester's 35000.
It's not comparable

The thing is, if these places were cheaper in the first place, people would go a lot more often.

most of these places are full anyway! It works.

And frankly, I prefer paying more and have less crowds.

Also. There si always a limit on how many people can be in so the fact that someone would go every month for a fiver is not that important if they have always full capacity on £32.

See I don't think those prices are that bad as a lot of attractions close to me are aimed at out of county visitors and are overpriced for what you can see/do. Just looking at their website Chester zoo seems to have a lot to do for the entry fee.

Our local animal attraction also has a soft play so we have an annual pass which works out at brilliant value. We go there for the soft play alone around every two weeks.

We booked Chester zoo and I didn’t think the price was too bad completed to some of the big theme parks 😬.

We would rather give our money to a zoo than to a theme park that does nothing for wildlife, obviously zoos cost a lot to run, it costs enough to take my cat to the vet so I can only imagine what surgery on a tiger must cost 🤣.

We go to the zoo at least once a month, it's such good value at less than £15 for all of us. It has loads of play areas and a soft play (in normal times) as well as all the animals.
Pick one or two good local attractions and get passes.

Are now priced beyond the means of ordinary families?

YABU because they are full of ordinary families all the time. Are they overpriced for what they are and why do people pay are probably the questions you should be asking.

@Meruem

The thing is, if these places were cheaper in the first place, people would go a lot more often. I live pretty close to London zoo. If it was say £5 to get in I wouldn’t think twice about on a nice day, grabbing a sandwich and going there. Just looked at the ticket prices now and it’s £32.50. So I won’t go at all.

I went to Tokyo zoo when I was in Japan. Entry cost for adults was just over £4. Huge difference.

Y'know, I've got a feeling that places are actually aware that price has an impact on the number of people who attend and set accordingly. Just a hunch.

I’m not sure about zoos but lots of places offer tickets that are good for a year. So it might seem expensive to go to somewhere like The Deep, but if you go a couple of times during the year it’s fantastic value for money.

Plus many museums are completely free of charge meaning you can go on lots of days out without spending much at all.

@Meruem

The thing is, if these places were cheaper in the first place, people would go a lot more often. I live pretty close to London zoo. If it was say £5 to get in I wouldn’t think twice about on a nice day, grabbing a sandwich and going there. Just looked at the ticket prices now and it’s £32.50. So I won’t go at all.

I went to Tokyo zoo when I was in Japan. Entry cost for adults was just over £4. Huge difference.

Many of the places have season tickets that mean it quickly becomes a cheap day out.

I last went to Chester Zoo in 2010 and it was £120 for 4 adults and a child so I don't think its a new thing!

I also looked at the Eden Project a couple of years ago and it was £54 for 2 people. We had our dog down there with us so we wouldn't have been able to go in the domes either.

Chester Zoo is expensive but it is a good day out and the cost clearly doesn’t put people off - it’s always busy when I’ve visited in the past.

We had annual membership to our zoo as kids and went loads as we could walk and be free to see the animals- now we have kids my mother pays for family membership for us for Christmas gifts.We do go a lot, we like the space, the park and we see the animals. Always get a drink and a cake. Our friends are members too so we can meet up there too. We only need to go twice a year to make it better value and even with lockdown we have achieved that. We try to go monthly or I take DS on my own if we have a free afternoon.

But yes I would hesitate to go for a day visit at the cost of it. It would be a treat day.

We went to Edinburgh Zoo between the lockdowns and it was about 60 pounds for all 4 of us
we stayed over night for about 45 pounds in a PremierInn. It was when the eat in eat out deal food was delicious homemade chips and pizza.

Zoos etc I can understand to an extent.

I recently looked at going to Waterworld in Stoke on Trent and it was £20pp. I thought that seemed a lot. I know swimming pools have a cost to maintain etc but £80 to take the children to the swimming pool just feels a lot.

I wouldn't mind higher prices if numbers were actually limited places - we went to soft play recently, it was eye wateringly expensive and absolutely rammed. I know they've struggled being closed for a year but it was not a pleasant experience and very very expensive to boot.

They are expensive, but there are quite often discounts to be had if you look around.

@NotPersephone

Well a few years ago I would have said “join as a member - it’s much cheaper” but since that particular zoo seems to be very difficult for members to book post-Covid, I won’t!

It does seem incredibly expensive, I agree.

Colchester?

I also looked at the Eden Project a couple of years ago and it was £54 for 2 people

I wouldn't like to think what the Eden Project cost to run each year

One place we like to go but the cost is eye-wateringly expensive is Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It's around £40 per adult!!
Again the running costs must be huge.