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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Seriously? £86 for family entry?

311 replies

biggirlknickers · 04/07/2021 20:35

This is for a visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park for 2 adults and 2 children.

I mean, who can afford £86 on tickets? That’s before you’ve factored in petrol, extortionate icecreams / coffees and no doubt a huge gift shop that you are forced to exit through with kids.

We are professionals on decent enough wages - we’re not rolling in it but we are doing ok. But that is truly beyond our reach for a single day out!

I’m thinking too of all the lower income families that I work with every day as a primary school teacher, for whom this couldn’t even be a consideration. Yorkshire children who don’t have a hope in hell of ever going to Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

AIBU to think that it’s really too much?

OP posts:
MrsKoala · 04/07/2021 21:16

It's standard from what we've been to. We go to Drusillas in East Sussex and it's £130 for the 5 of us (everyone over 2 pays the same entry price) if we book in advance and £150 if you pay on the day. We take a picnic, but buy a tea and coffee and ice cream there and give the kids £5 each for the gift shop. The whole day is about £180. We tend to go for ds2 birthday in the summer hols. It has a great splash park and playground and about 10 fairground type rides as well as the zoo. I much prefer it to Legoland and it's a full day out.

Just going to a chain like Wagamamas or Pizza Express for lunch costs us about £100.

NautaOcts · 04/07/2021 21:16

See someone’s already mentioned Paultons… crazy money was something like £130 for our family of five.
Felt that it was a one off thing to do though and dc3 (5) hadn’t been. She did love every minute but I would’ve been seriously annoyed if it had been raining!

DaphneDeloresMoorhead · 04/07/2021 21:17

@MrsKoala you can do Drusillas on clubcard points, did you know ?

randomkey123 · 04/07/2021 21:17

We were going to take our grandkids out to a local farm park the other weekend.... it was timed entry, only 3 hours maximum stay and was going to cost us well over £90.

Our NT membership on the other hand is £120 a year and covers all the kids.

BarbaraofSeville · 04/07/2021 21:18

Like others have said, they've massively suffered in the pandemic and had all the normal costs to care for the animals while they weren't allowed to open.

But definitely take a picnic. We tried to get drinks while we were there but gave up after standing for 10 minutes in a queue that had barely moved

BobbidyBob · 04/07/2021 21:18

Can you imagine how much it costs to keep the animals in spacious, well-maintained, enriching enclosures? To feed them and make sure they’re healthy?

Would you compromise on that so you can save on entry? It is expensive but it’s justified IMO. A once-a-year visit that we’d save up for, probably.

Jent13c · 04/07/2021 21:19

I feel like things are going up very quickly in price. I recently took my kids to a little fake street and it was £25.
Thought it might be nice to take them up to a local national Trust Gardens to play at the park (obviously not visiting the castle with toddlers)....£46. Think it will be our local park instead.

wombleflump · 04/07/2021 21:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AndAllOurYesterdays · 04/07/2021 21:20

I think the problem with taking your own food and saying no to ice creams and gift shops is that is you've paid ££ to get in somewhere, you want to have a good time once you are there. And for many of us that includes not being nagged incessantly by a tiny child for a lolly and an overpriced balloon.

DingDongThongs · 04/07/2021 21:20

Genuinely surprised they got away with that in Yorkshire.

purpledagger · 04/07/2021 21:21

There are often deals to be had for places like that;

(Hope this is okay to post)

I'm a member of CSSC sports and Leisure which is a membership organisation for public sector workers. I can get 25% off tickets for Yorkshire wildlife. CSSC Membership cost £50 a year, but I save way more than the cost of membership. It includes English heritage corporate membership, cheap cinema tickets, discounted Merlin tickets, discounted zoo tickets etc. We will often go to places we can get good deals on.

endofjune · 04/07/2021 21:21

I like a picnic but not on a day out like this. You have to lug it round with you all day!

DeflatedGinDrinker · 04/07/2021 21:21

I'd pay it if I wanted to go. It is what it is.

saraclara · 04/07/2021 21:23

What everyone else said. It's a standard price for full day attractions, and it's easy to get discounts. I just typed Yorkshire wildlife park discount into google and instantly got a page full of 30% off codes.

BarbaraofSeville · 04/07/2021 21:25

@AndAllOurYesterdays

I think the problem with taking your own food and saying no to ice creams and gift shops is that is you've paid ££ to get in somewhere, you want to have a good time once you are there. And for many of us that includes not being nagged incessantly by a tiny child for a lolly and an overpriced balloon.
But a good time is seeing the animals not paying £££ for crap food and plastic tat.

We saw baby wallabies in their mum's pouches, that was worth the entry fee alone. We need to go again because they have bears now.

OrangeBananaFish · 04/07/2021 21:25

We're looking to go to Flamingo Land for the day in August. That's £110 for a family ticket. Since we are not going to France this year we are going to splurge on it, but agree days out are bloody expensive nowadays. I remember when it was a fiver to get in.

I didn't think to look at Tesco clubcard vouchers. Thanks PPs who suggested it. I have googled for other vouchers, but can only find for July as yet.

MrsKoala · 04/07/2021 21:26

[quote DaphneDeloresMoorhead]@MrsKoala you can do Drusillas on clubcard points, did you know ?[/quote]
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info i'l have a look. I don't collect them at the moment - I assume it's Tesco? I'd have to do online shopping if so and I currently shop at Lidl and Sainsbury.

cranberryspade · 04/07/2021 21:26

I'm 'lucky' as we rarely pay the full price for tickets to attractions - DD and I both get disability benefits so DH usually comes free as my carer, and sometimes I take DD out on my own and just pay for her ticket and get in free as her carer. We do get out to a lot of day trips as a result (no travel costs as I have a Freedom Pass, we bring our own food, no ice cream/coffee due to diet and DD isn't interested in gift shops). We've got London Zoo membership this year which we've used loads of times (needed 3 visits to break even). But obviously having 2 disabled people in the family has an impact on our family income and the carer ticket/free travel is far less than a second income if I could work and bring a wage into the household.

AndddddHerewegoagain · 04/07/2021 21:27

You can pay £1 for a kids pass for the first 30 days and get 50% off Yorkshire wildlife park. Though £67.50 for an annual pass is a bargain. We pay £270 for whipsnade Envy

OnTheBrink1 · 04/07/2021 21:27

It’s very very standard.
That’s how much a treat day out costs for 4!
I’ve just paid £125 for a 1 hour activity for 5 of us so in comparison that is cheap and a whole day!!!!

Minniem2020 · 04/07/2021 21:27

Edinburgh Zoo is really expensive and I've seen more animals in my back garden than I did the last time I went there.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 04/07/2021 21:27

Animals at YWP now include...
8 Polar Bears
9 Lions
4? Tigers
Leopard
Sealing
Wallabies
Monkeys
Wolves
Lemurs
And lots more. The food bill alone must be massive!

Blueberriesonmyshreddies · 04/07/2021 21:28

Unless the attractions are full all the time wouldn't it make sense to lower the price and have higher footfall. That would mean more money spent on food, drink and merchandise. Especially if a family goes back multiple times as opposed to once a year.

LubaLuca · 04/07/2021 21:28

What do you think a fair price would be, op? Genuinely, how much did you have in mind before you looked at the prices?

Smartiepants79 · 04/07/2021 21:29

How exactly do you think they pay their staff and feed their animals? Never mind all the other overheads.
Yes, it’s a lot of money for a day out but I don’t think they charge it just to piss you off.
I wouldn’t think they’re making vast quantities of cash, especially not this year.
It’s fairly average when compared with lots of other similar attractions.