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How do you define "value for money"?

Ian

Ian

From CoasterForce
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In respect to theme parks, how do you define "value for money"?

The easy answer would be to say "lots of rides and paying very little".

I tend to use the "£1 a ride" theory. I consider getting value for money if I have the same number of rides as £'s it cost to get in (£20 entrance, 20 rides).

Obviously that changes if the park is busy or I use a free tickets/annual pass. In which case, I judge value for money at a theme park by how satisfied I am when I leave. That can be affected by the people I'm with, the quality of the staff/food/general atmosphere and so on.

Thoughts?
 
I look at this a little differently. For me, value for money is always defined by:

a) can I afford it
b) did it adequately provide me with a "good time".

I always work on my cinema system. I love the cinema, and love seeing films on the big screen.

It's about £8 now to see a film which will last about 2 hours. Even if the film is bad (I do tend to be picky though so it's rare), I still enjoy the experience.

So at that base rate, I always say that for me, a good time is worth £4 an hour ( ;) ). That's for something I enjoy doing. It's not often a mind blowing experience, and it's rarely a dull experience for me, just "time well spent".

I also enjoy time at Theme Parks. By the above system, if I spend 5 hours at a park for £20, then it's value for money.

It's also time at parks I'm happy with, rides and entertainment don't come massively into it. As long as I've finished the day having had a good time, then that park will stick as "value for money".

It's different if it's me on my own, or going with the family though. It costs four times as much to take family_furie, but the chances of having a good day are improved as you get a lot more out of a park with the family.

Good example is Drayton Manor. It's superb for the family_furie and we always have an excellent time. When I meet with friends and do the "enthusiast" thing, I find it hard to enjoy the place too much and end up doing a Thorpe, just sitting around a bit bored.

Different company helps obviously, and it's essential to be with the right people to make the day go well. I'll always look though and check the price, per hours spent there and roughly work out if it will be value for money on my scale.

This makes Annual Pass days at parks superb value... Even if you have to pay for parking...

As an extra... It's rarely the cost of the park that is the major outlay for me. You can always get cheap tickets and the like to bring down costs, take picnics, etc. For me, the biggest cost tends to be travel and "out of park" food. If we stop at a hotel too, it adds on a fair amount.

Example here would be Paultons Park. I think it's about £60 for the family_Furie to get in. To do as a day trip:
1. we'd stop for breakfast on the way down (early start so none at home) - £15 (all in)
2. Petrol 340 miles @ 18p/mile - £61.20
3. Dinner on the way home - £20 all in.

So while Paultons for me is well worth the value of entry, the external costs more than double that and make it a much harder sell :(
 
How much gain can I get for what is payed at the gate, pretty much.

Going on about £2 per person - per ride cost to the park (a rough guess), then add fuel and the park entrance. £39 for Thorpe, though I'll round that to 40. Fuel is about £10 worth for that journey of 47 miles. So £50. So I will want 25 rides MIN every visit to make the journey worthwhile.

Though MAP Premium next year I will have, I will still take it that I 'should' be able to meet that MIN mark of rides without pressure.
 
Basically, as Furie said, it's all about whether I felt like I had a good time at the park or not. To be honest, I don't think I've ever felt like I've wasted money going to a theme park, because I generally do have a good time. Some have been overpriced, kind of like Holiday World and stuff, but then you have the free pop, free sunscreen, water park access, etc, so it does turn out to be a good value if you're gonna use all the perks. Disney too has outrageous entrance prices, but you're pretty much always guaranteed a good time there.

Basically, if you come out talking about how much fun you had that day, and how good the park was, rather than moaning and concentrating about how much you paid to get in, then it was worth the money.

Alton for example, cost me an upwards of $300 to do in October. I had the annual pass, but there were the two train tickets I bought ($150), the hotel I booked ($130), food, the bus to and from the park, fast tracks, etc. But, with that being said, I don't regret it at all. Sure, it was epically overpriced, but it's a park I have always wanted to do and I came out feeling happy that I went.
 
Are you able to stay entertained the whole day?

Good! you got the value for your money.
 
I haven't really defined an explanation of when a park visit is worth the money. It depends on the park and my goals, I.e. when I was with CF at Liseberg I just wanted to get a few good rides in (seeing as I had been there before) but mostly have a great time and I did, so it was worth the money. The next day for Gröna Lund which was a new park to me, I had a great time too, but to be honest, it didn't really feel worth paying ~34.5£ for the rides in the end. Sure I got 6 new creds and a few other rides, but if you compare the value as a park to Liseberg, I really don't think it's on the same level (also seeing as both cost as much to enter+get a wristband, or maybe 10kr, 0.9£ less either way.

Linnanmäki costs 29£ for a wristband, which is so overpriced imo, even if the queus would be max. 5mins, personally I don't think it's worth visiting again (if it wasn't for the skyloop wouldn't go there next year at all).

Usually though when visiting new parks, I mostly care about get the credits, usually do the flume (unless it's one of those travelling flumes like at Brighton Pier (if they still have it there), rapids and then some good flatrides and if I get those done, I'm generallly pleased with the day.
 
Ian said:
I tend to use the "£1 a ride" theory. I consider getting value for money if I have the same number of rides as £'s it cost to get in (£20 entrance, 20 rides)
Click to expand...

I couldn't use that because I could get 22 rides at Camelot, but no way is that place worth £22.

I think Hyde's got it right, if I'm entertained all day, then I've got my moneys worth.
 
If it's a lot of money for a lot of rides like Magic Kingdom, that's not too bad. If it's just a few bucks for a few rides like Fun Spot / Old Town, that's not too bad either.
 
In a nutshell, if you haven't thought about how much it cost since you entered the park, you know you have had good value.
 
I define it in several ways, I'll explain and then give examples of what I mean;

If I enjoyed the day as a whole. (Always Port Aventura, great day/week out)
If I enjoyed the selection of rides. (Alton Towers)
If they staff were friendly/helpful or not.(BPB & Camelot examples of not)
If the park was clean and tidy. (Again, Camelot not being tidy and/or clean)
If it actually feels like a theme park and not just a place with rides thrown in. (Southport, now and then)
Whether or not I'd return. (Chessington, yes, Camelot, although only 20 minutes away, NO.)
 
I think it depends on several things. Many of them intangible.

I can see the logic in the £1 per ride thing - but I'm not sure I could work with that in terms of making each ride equal. If you take a park like Toverland, each time I go I think I ride four or five different rides but I've never left thinking I hadn't got great value for money.
 
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