Cash or Crud?

[slappy mcguire]

I heard a phone in on the radio today debating hospital car parking charges, and was struck by the dilemma that the money harvested goes towards front line services. Irritating, but bearable, in context.

With most of the Merlin parks now charging to park, it could be argued that the money goes into investing in a better park, which may or may not be the case. Either way, do you prefer to pay more for a better experience at a Themepark, or do you detest the fact that the better parks cost more to deliver the bigger hits?

Would you rather pay for the park in the form of a big 'one off' charge, or do you prefer 'stealth taxes' such as Car parking charges, and Fastpasses?

 

[Ben]

EVERY park (OK, 90%) in American and Mainland Europe charges for practice. We are SO lucky to have survived for so long without it, and we're lucky there's still only a few parks that do it.

Car parks aren't going to maintain themselves, and since I doubt anyone here has ACTUALLY ever paid for Alton or Thorpe's carpark, this whole issue gets blown out of proportion by people who don't even pay...

That's my thoughts.

 

[Pierre]

I prefer a big one off charge and ****ing hate car park charges anywhere, I think its a ****ing outrage.

Stealth charges such as car parking and fastpasses make me so mad and remind me of Ryanair... Haha imagine if Ryanair ran a theme park... (Its OK slappy I'll leave that one for you to start under another cheesy name..... RYANRIDES? [please])

 

[Gazza]

I personally don't care about car parking charges, so long as public transport options to the park are decent. (That goes for anywhere actually)

It's not only the maintenance costs of car parks that need to be paid for. Accommodating cars in the built environment is expensive to provide in the first place, and takes up a lot of land .
On the latter point this would be a burden for theme parks because they have to have to provide parking for a full capacity day, even though most of the time it will have tumblweed blowing through, pay land tax on all that, and can't use the space for more profitable purposes (Eg entertainment districts, hotels etc), and

So yeah, for parking, definitely user pays.

 

[T0M]

Car parks aren't going to maintain themselves, and since I doubt anyone here has ACTUALLY ever paid for Alton or Thorpe's carpark, this whole issue gets blown out of proportion by people who don't even pay...

How exactly can you get away with NOT paying at Alton or Thorpe? (Alton now have the barriers in place). Or are you assuming everyone here is a MAP holder?

 

[gavin]

^I think you'll find that a large proportion of UK Coasterforce members are, yes.

 

[nadroJ]

Like Ben said, it's something people all over the world are used to with theme parks, it's just a given, not a massive hinderance and I'd like to think any profits would go to something good.

Isn't there that myth that Disney or something can pay all of their staff from their car park takings?

 

[Martyn B]

Parking charge at Thorpe, huh?

 

[T0M]

Car parks aren't going to maintain themselves

Forgive me, but nothing maintains itself. Perhaps you would be equally content with being charged to use the toilets?

 

[Anonymous]

Surely part of it is to stop people driving and encourage public transport use?

 

[gavin]

^Why would parks give a crap about that?

 

[nealbie]

Ben's right to be honest. It's always us, the enthusiast, complaining about these stupid trivial things. Made all the more pointless by 9/10 of us owning an Annual Pass. :roll:

 

[T0M]

Without the masses there would be no £15m budget for a new roller coaster. I don't see the point in alienating these people further.

 

[Martyn B]

I think its a bit much charging for the car park, when the entrance fee is near on £40.

 

[s15c]

I'm not so much a hardcore coaster fanatic that travels around everywhere. I have a 16 year old friend and a 15 year old friend and we go on two road trips a year. I'm not yet 14, so right now I could care less about car parking charges. I make a decent amount of money mowing lawns, and I'd rather put it into an amusement park trip and tickets than anything else. Sure, take the extra ten bucks for parking. Just don't waste it on trying out a new type of sod for under the station or a coaster where nobody can look.

 

[andrus]

Well it makes sense that those who drive pay for them selves via a parking fee. But then, as someone already mentioned, the park should also take charge for toilett use etc. And noone surely wants that?

I don't bother really, I would go to the park anyway. But from the parks point of view I think they would attract more people (especially child families) if they provided "free" parking (with a higher entrance fee to fund it).