AIBU - children's ticket prices

[LassLassLass]

I know this isn't a new problem, but am I alone in being completely boggled by the prices of children's tickets for events/activities/attractions? Some examples - some Santa events cost well over £30 per child near me at Christmas. We're looking at planning a trip to London from the north later this year - it's £39.95 per child for the Warner Bros Harry Potter experience in London. My friend found out that it's £29.00 for Lego Land (£58 on the gate!). And it costs at least £20 to see Frozen in the West End.

There's apparently 4.3 million children in the UK living in poverty. Food bank use is through the roof. I grew up in poverty myself, so am very familiar with the free museums (in some areas) and events that children can attend. I am aware of the benefits of taking a picnic, looking for discount vouchers, taking public transport, and other tips and 'hacks' that can mean a cheaper day out. It just seems so wrong to charge such a high price for events, meaning some children will simply never have any chance of attending...AIBU?

Capitalism, innit.

"Giving all children a chance to participate" is not the motivation for the people providing these services.

I think it's right that public amenities should not charge - I love that our museums are free, and I was - for example - really cross when the Science Museum swapped a free (and brilliant) interactive children's area for the paid, ticketed Wonderlab. (I was especially cross that they gave family discounts to two-parent families, but not to one parent families, and wrote to them to say so.)

But I don't know that we can decree what private businesses charge. There's lots of things I would like to do but can't afford to - I would like it if they gave me a discount for being low income, but I can't insist on it.

It’s not right, but it’s all about making money, that’s the aim of most things these days.

^ MasterBeth said it better than me.

Totally agree - I was brought up just by my DM who was on benefits - she used to sometimes notice that a family ticket with two children and two adults was only very slightly more expensive than tickets for me and her.

Re Lego land. Get yourself some cornflakes. Free tickets for adults when a full price child ticket is bought. Assuming you have 2 kids? Two packs of cornflakes should save you some cash

They need to make enough money to cover the costs of the show and ideally make a bit of profit, so they can invest in new productions, or refresh the current ones.

If they drop the DC ticket prices, they'll have to make it up somehow - probably by increasing the adult prices ( so still effectively pricing out many families) or reducing the quality of what they offer (which might be the start of a downward sprial|)

Unlike (some) museums, they probably don't get central government or council grants.

It's the adult ticket price that annoys me. Small theme park near us is £20 for adults, you can't even go on the rides because they are all for kids!
So you just pay for the privilege of being the coat holder!
These places and their over priced food outlets are always packed though because people do pay, however begrudgingly.

The problem is the costs with these events. A west end show is hugely expensive to run, a friend worked for years as sound engineer for one and it gives you an insight of it. Cinderella was cancelled and made huge losses in the short time it run. A place taken by a child can’t be sold to an adult, so they have to sell it for a similar amount.

a seasonal event often is now an experience people love to boast about on on Instagram and some organisers do jump on it. Others like Lego or WB have huge licence fees organisers have to pay in order to use the name.

While we like going to shows, I started looking more for touring ones and not going into West End anymore unless I can get decent priced tickets like a promotion on Tickemaster recently or it is something special and often DD is given tickets for birthday and Christmas.

It annoys me more when the adult prices are the same, at venues where only the children can actively participate, as the child's.

I've paid £30/£40 before to watch DS have fun.

It is a shame. Maybe there should be some kind of scheme that gives vouchers for some of these things to low income households.

I grew up in poverty and can probably count the number of days out like this I went to during my entire childhood on one hand.

I took my kids to a panto at Christmas and it was £200 for the 4 of us. It's out of reach for a lot of families.

These things are not in any way essential! I grew up in a comfortable middle class family and we didnt do any of these sorts of trips. DH and I have a pretty high household income and we don't really do any of this stuff with our kids! Legoland is just a theme park with rides

These are premium experiences. If you look at small local theatres and attractions there are loads of fun things to do with children for far less money.

They're businesses and not social enterprises, what 'should' arguably be the case morally isn't the actual case. Many of the workers will have families to support themselves and aren't on much more than min wage on seasonal or zero hour contracts; would you propose they are somehow paid less to subsidise tickets? We didn't go anywhere as children except for witn the local church youth group- its sad things haven't changed but this isn't a new problem.

A lot of this stuff is just gimmicky crap, though. I’m 35 and we would never have gone to LegoLand or seen Frozen on stage when I was a kid - largely because child-oriented entertainment sort of stuff didn’t really exist in the same money-making volumes as it does now, but also because it wasn’t the sort of stuff my parents were interested in wasting money on - and I don’t feel especially hard done by as an adult.

I think parents worry about it all more than children do as well. A lot of it is instantly forgettable. I’ve often asked my goddaughter what she did at the weekend and listened to her reply that she played in the garden or they went to the supermarket and she got a new colouring book - when I know full well she also went to some kind of expensive attraction which clearly hasn’t held in her memory.

Lazerbeen is it a "problem" at all?

Life isnt one long carousel of expensive entertainments and day trips.

The UK has lovely beaches and woodlands, fantastic national trust and english heritage attractions more affordably priced, lakes and mountains, and we think kids are missing out because legoland and west end shows are expensive.

I’m 35 and we would never have gone to LegoLand or seen Frozen on stage when I was a kid - largely because child-oriented entertainment sort of stuff didn’t really exist in the same money-making volumes as it does now, but also because it wasn’t the sort of stuff my parents were interested in wasting money on - and I don’t feel especially hard done by as an adult.

This @ComtesseDeSpair.

I run a little theatre venue that takes in small scale touring shows. We keep prices for children's shows at about half that of adult ones (flat rate for show, so adults & kids pay the same) BUT that means it's almost impossible to cover the company's fee with ticket sales. It's no cheaper to make a children's show, you can't pay the actors less or get a discount when buying props, so we shouldn't expect children's theatre companies to be paid less. It's definitely not fair on poorer children when ticket prices are high, but without subsidy for everything its inevitable.

Would you rather the child ticket at these places was £60-80 and the adults are free? Even if the adult isn’t enjoying the facilities, they still count towards the venues capacity limits, take up seats on rides, need loos, spaces to eat, maintained paths and gardens, all ancillary staff, development for future projects there.

This is the sort of thing I mean. It was similar prices at our local small theatre, and these are often suggested as being cheaper - they're definitely not always.

I also want to point out that I have never said these experiences are 'essential.' I'm saying that in many cases they'd be a lovely and special day out for children, many of whom will never be able to go due to their high costs.

With regards to English Heritage and National Trust memberships being cheaper, yes they are, but many NT properties near us are not accessible by public transport so for families unable to afford a car, they're not an option.

It just seems so wrong to charge such a high price for events

What do you mean by 'wrong'? These are companies selling a product, they have costs to cover (plus profit).

"Giving all children a chance to participate" is not the motivation for the people providing these services.

They're not providing services, they're selling a leisure and entertainment product.

Unlike (some) museums, they probably don't get central government or council grants.

No probably about it, they're commercial enterprises and aren't subsidised by tax-payers' money.

If you go into a shop and there are items you can't afford, do you think "It's so unfair these prices are too high for me, they should lower them so that everyone can afford them"? Probably not, you just accept that you can't afford a Chanel handbag or a Mercedes. So it's the same with leisure and entertainment events. There are ways to find cheaper alternatives (subsidised or amateur productions) but not necessarily the 'branded' product.

I'm saying that in many cases they'd be a lovely and special day out for children.

The majority of families, even those on low incomes, could put some money aside for the occasional special experience. I think noting that the volume of this sort of child-focussed entertain has increased exponentially is useful. I’m hardly ancient, but when I was a kid, for most children of all income levels, this sort of stuff was a special occasional treat. There might be pantomime at Christmas; in the Easter and summer holidays you might go to a wildlife park once and a theme park once. But for my 9-year-old goddaughter and her friends, it seems like every weekend and several times a week in the school holidays is a brand new amusement park or theatre show or immersive experience or spin-off theme day out to the latest movie. And as such it’s no longer special, it’s just a big money-making machine. We can’t expect that everyone is going to be able to keep up with that, and nor should we.

Sadly this offer is nowhere near as good as it seems. The offer is essentially a buy one get one free but it is only valid for the "on the gate" price, not the advance price you get online.

So if you used the "buy one get one free" for a family of 4 it works out as follows:

On the Day Price - £62pp = £248 total
With BOGOF = £124 total

Buy online in advance = £32pp = £128 total

So you actually only save £4 AND the BOGOF tickets are only valid for certain dates.

It's really very simple. I'm saying that in a country where 30% of children are living in poverty, it is wrong (in my opinion) to charge such high prices for these 'products', as you call them.

Buy a cereal packet - I think Kellogs Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, have the buy 1 full price adult get 1 kid or adult free voucher code. Or use Tescos club card points. Makes these things a LOT cheaper.

Alternatively - buy a net and a bucket go pond/stream dipping
Kite flying, bug spotting, etc etc . I think some of the best fun mine had was hosepipe down the slide, and out onto a roll of plastic obtained from somewhere, but maybe that's a bit of a waste of water in today's climate. You don't HAVE to be entertained when there's plenty out there to entertain yourselves.