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Possible charge for car parking at Thorpe

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Not surprised by this in the slightest. Not bothered either: within reason...

The way I see it, parks all over Europe and America all park for charging and an additional charge for priority parking. Us in the UK have just been very lucky to have gotten free parking for all this time.

My main proviso of being quite non-plussed by this is if they sort the car park out. I mean get rid of the god awful gravel that often swallows the wheels of the car making it difficult to get away. (Rob Beal had an issue where he struggled to get off and then went right over one of the divider logs and Marc has had several occasions where the car doesn't like moving off). It needs complete surfacing throughout and improved surveillance across the full parking.

I will not be joining any protest purely on the basis that I can't see a problem. We pay for parking absolutely everywhere else, so why not here? If it encourages more people to use public transport links then so be it.
 
Mark said:
I will not be joining any protest purely on the basis that I can't see a problem. We pay for parking absolutely everywhere else, so why not here?
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See, I just don't get that attitude. We're paying to get into the park. We're paying for things inside the park. Now they expect us to pay extra just so that we can park a car outside?

Don't give me this "oh, everywhere else does it". Other than Alton, I've yet to find another conventional theme park in the UK that charges for parking. It's just a way for Merlin to extort more money from visitors knowing full well that people who visit have little choice but to pay. As for it being common place abroad, well that's no excuse. I think it's equally disgusting for parks to charge for parking wherever they may be.
 
^ The simple answer to that is don't drive there then!

Get a bus, or a taxi from the train station, or if you're feeling extravagant land your helicopter on the dome.

Lets analyse this...

Potential maximum parking charge £5

Train ticket (from waterloo), about £8 return
Taxi from station, at least £6 per car (works out less if you share)
Bus from nearby terminus, £1.50 each way
Chavtacular bus, £2 single or £3 return
Helicopter Fuel, £50 per litre ( :p )

So, add it up, by public transport you're looking at a minimum spend of £11, and when you look at it like that, even a charge of £5 looks pretty reasonable...
 
So if you're travelling from the other end of the country, as is the case whenever I visit, pay the extra £80 or so per night to stay at hotels on the transport network, pay a small fortune to travel down from the north-east, deal with tubes, deal with trains etc... yeah, that's a great option compared with driving and travelodges. So sod public transport. If you're travelling long distances, it's only a realistic option if you have no other options.

So, you pay for parking. That's an extra £5 added to the cost of your day, for what? If they jacked ticket prices up by £5 instead, people would be screaming blue murder. But when they charge you for sticking a car on a field full of gravel and charge you instead? No, that's just fine with the world.

It's not the end of the world, but I tend to call things as I see them, and this move is motivated entirely by greed, pure and simple. Merlin know their visitors have little choice but to bear the cost, so they're jacking their prices up to the maximum the market will bear.
 
But its the same with Alton though, we drive 4 hours and then pay to park so what is the difference?

I pay £1000 to go for a holiday to the USA to then spend over $100 to park in the parks, again no difference.

We paid to park in Germany and Denmark.

As I said though if I am paying to park on gravel then I will have a problem.
 
How much parking is in the local area? I have a feeling quite a number of people will try to dodge the fee by parking offsite. I doubt locals will be best pleased to find a bunch of tourists parking all over their town.
 
^there aren't really any local parking options, certainly not ones that don't involve a 10+ minute walk...
 
Thing is, I wouldn't mind if the car parks were secure, but they're not.
There are no security cameras overlooking the car park, and nobody roaming once cars are parked. From my experience at Chessington, we had at least 2 cases of car break-ins a day. At least Alton has some sort of security where each car park is near a hotel and the monorail runs over it, plus it's security offices at either end.

Now, if Thorpe Park were to update their security, I'd understand, but don't charge us and do nothing.
 
Yes thats what I mean Erol.

If they tarmac it over, number the lanes, put in cameras and lights. For me thats a huge improvement.

As I said though I would like the exit changed, it normally takes us ages to get out when the park is full. All the parking lanes lead to one narrow road so you end up trying to avoid cars people and buses.
 
^I'm fairly sure there are some CCTV towers in the CP, I think I remember seeing them with lights, so it would make sense that there are cameras too... but I can't confirm that.

Plus, it's Thorpe, they can't keep chavs at bay, they'd lose 95% of their guests! :p
 
Oh my god.

It'll probably be free for pass holders which the majority of you are anyway, and even if you're not you're more than likely going to be going with someone who is from here.

Get over it, three pages for paid parking is ****ing ridiculous.
 
Lol...

This is just like the paying for Fright Nights :lol:

I also note the usual pop at Merlin when it was Tussauds who first brought in the charge at Alton, I'm not defending Merlin here, just stating a point that people seem to point the finger at Merlin more than the old lot...

In regards to this, if it's free for AP, then not fussed...
 
Pierre said:
Get over it, three pages for paid parking is ****ing ridiculous.
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I agree.

The theme park industry must be ****ing dull at the moment if a topic about potential parking charges reaches three pages. Come on, CoasterForce, there are more interesting things to discuss...surely...?

Locked!
 
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