Theme parks are ruined if you don't pay for a fast pass?

[Twoweeksinaugust]

AIBU to think it's hardly worth even going to a theme park on a sunny day unless you want to pay the £300 extra for a fast pass?
The queues are absolutely awful, and it's very hard for the dc to understand that although it looks like we'll be on the next turn, a dozen people come through woth a fast pass and teh queue doesn't move at all.
It just feels beyond the reach of a normal (but expensive) day out, and is now in the realms of a once every two years thing if you want to buy the passes?

When you say boycotting…. Are you saying your kids loved the experience and desperate to return and you’re saying NO?!

or is it that you and family didn’t enjoy the experience and so sensibly… simply not returning @AlwaysHungry123 ?

Just sheer greed and a rip off like so many things in the UK now.

Oh don’t be silly
it is capitalism
If the owners sensed that fast passes was having a negative impact on their bottom line ie putting of a material amount of people going who wouldn’t buy a fast passes…. They would stop selling them.

And yet… years after introducing fast passes, they haven’t done this.

They did like it but not asking to go back and I don’t mention it. There are plenty of other places where the experience is more enjoyable and doesn’t cost the price of a city break.
I understand they want to make a profit but paying hundreds of pounds to stand in queues with small children is an absolute rip off imo.

It's greed, not all theme parks have them nor are an appalling experience. The food in some parks in the rest of Europe puts us absolutely to shame as well. We only very occasionally went to the Merlin type parks when the DDs were younger and when they were old enough they could go to Thorpe Park on their own. The customer experience at bigger parks is in general far worse than it was 30 years ago. It's greed - all about the bean counters, not about being the best they can be as a customer experience.

Oh dear.

If it wasn’t working, they would stop it.
It is capitalism

It seems thousands fill their parks to the brim and many pay extra for smart passes too … so where the incentive for Merlin to spend money on making their parks more attractive! Merlin is a business not a social service!

This.

So they’re not asking to go back
so no boycotting. You have just decided not to return because your kids aren’t particularly enthused about returning

those that do return… presumably had kids that were enthused about returning

Good god you’re making out these crowds have been forced to attend!!! They go on their own free will!

Running a business should be about being the best at what you do. Yes, they have to make money, but it doesn't have to be about trying to milk as much money as possible out of people while providing something that is substandard. Yeah, they will make that money because too many people take too long to catch on.

They can also use the word "no".

That’s not always case. I’ve just renewed one.

for a child who always had+1.
dla wasn’t enough. So I sent his ehcp that says 6 hours a day of 1:1 in a Sen school. (Yes it’s specified)
still wasn’t enough.

ended up sending dla, ehcp, about 9 medical reports and the entire year of restraint reports from school and a letter from school saying they manage him at all times on a 2 adult to him ratio.

though my other child got all her symbols with no issue. Completely different needs as she’s non verbal but she was so much easier.

It wasn't working for us so we didn't go. It's called making an informed choice.

Capitalism can come in lots of forms, read a book.

Businesses exist to make money, not provide excellent customer experience…

The only reason they aim for excellent customer experience is when it helps them make money!

If people are willing to hand over their money in their droves for the customer experience they’re being offered, then where’s the incentive to improve things. If people didn’t feel they were getting value from these places, they’d vote with their feet.

As long there remain plenty of people willing to pay £100s to endure a long journey to then spend their day in a sun-scorched, wasp-infested, concrete jungle… waiting hours in queues, all for just a few minutes of being thrown around and over-stimulated in various gaudy metal containers, then theme parks will continue as they are….

And if enough people think like you (and me) then they’d change their business model… but as long as theme parks are packed out with people who don’t think like us, they won’t.

One answer from a capitalist perspective is to permit more theme parks to be built to increase the competition, causing theme parks to need to compete for customers rather than being overwhelmed by them as they currently are.

Many of us on this thread are old enough to remember theme parks before the days of fast passes. But young people and children will know no different. For them, either spending hundreds on fast passes or standing in a barely moving queue is normal.

But they want, quite naturally, to visit a theme park - their peers will be going, they'll also nowadays be seeing videos on social media of people going on thrill rides and raving about how amazing they are.

There are so many things nowadays that have become shit. It's OK for a middle-aged person like me to think, well, I 'did' theme parks when I was younger, I've been to many nice restaurants before they went downhill or closed, I've had nice days shopping on high streets before they filled up with vape shops, I've been on trains in the days when there was reasonable prospect of getting a seat etc. But young people are growing up in a really crappy world and they won't know that things can be better.

Business are constantly thinking 'how can we make/save more money' - and that is reasonable as long as they don't lose sight of the customer. That's what theme park operators have done by monetising queuing, making a poor experience part of their business model. Not a 'standard' 'ordinary' 'does the job' experience, such as flying Economy rather than business class, but an experience that is unpleasant and frustrating. And anyone born in the last 20 years ago will think 'normal = unpleasant'.

No, my point is that 1000’s go to these places and “endure” them by their own free will. They willingly choose to do so and pay Merlin or whoever lots of cash for the privilege!… so why would Merlin make spend money or take less revenue to make them even more attractive places, and make the over-crowding even worse!

It seems 1000s of people are desperate to go despite all the queues, ride-closures, infuriating jingles, over-priced junk food.

The desire for a few minutes of thrill on a handful of rides seems to be so massive that many people will endure lots of shit.

If they are just there to print money and are not interested in providing a really fun day out then they need to get into banking or gambling instead.

I work for a trade association. Yes the member small businesses need to make money to pay their staff and keep going, that's called the bottom line. But primarily they are interested in providing a good product for their customers in the business they are in that stands the test of time and providing decent jobs. Otherwise they could get into another line of work which is not about quality products.

Not all theme parks are alike. Not all industries are alike. Not all businesses are alike. Not all brands of capitalism are alike.

My view was that we could afford it at the time but it’s such a waste of money, so we just stopped going.

So glad my dd hates rides so l don't have to suffer this torture

There are so many things nowadays that have become shit

what a depressing view on the world. I am 45. I don’t think this at all. How old are you?

Indeed

and the crap ones that no one enjoys go out of business. People vote with their feet

So you think these 1000000/s of people that “endure” these people are mindless thick robots?

I can’t stand theme parks
but I grasp that many many many others love them
and the fast pass issue is no biggie to them because they return year after year
hence the theme parks don’t withdraw fast passes

simple really