Ok, this is a tough one I think. On the one hand, I'd take the view that you've paid to get in, the park specifies its opening hours and excluding weather/break downs, all the rides and attractions should be available within the opening times. However, in larger parks it may make sense to stagger openings. Allowing one part of a park to fill up before opening another makes sense, certainly from a financial point of view.
If, and only if, the specified times were blatantly specified everywhere (by this I mean: staff at the entrance pointing it out to you as you go in; on the website; on the map; when you buy tickets online etc.) I wouldn't really mind. But parks don't often [enough] think that much of the inconvenience to their customers, and this is the problem.
I remember the time I visited Flamingo Land and we were in the queue for Splash Battle a few minutes before closing (which I thought would be the queue closing time!) and another employee shouted to the ride operator something along the lines of "it's 5, you closing?". The operator turned around "we're closed now". There must have been about 5 or 6 of us in the queue, and were given no apology whatsoever. Would it have really pained him that much to run the ride for a few more minutes?
The point I'm trying to get at is that theme parks are providing a customer experience at the end of the day, despite being a business. Punters will accept compromise, given that they have been thought of in the process.
If, and only if, the specified times were blatantly specified everywhere (by this I mean: staff at the entrance pointing it out to you as you go in; on the website; on the map; when you buy tickets online etc.) I wouldn't really mind. But parks don't often [enough] think that much of the inconvenience to their customers, and this is the problem.
I remember the time I visited Flamingo Land and we were in the queue for Splash Battle a few minutes before closing (which I thought would be the queue closing time!) and another employee shouted to the ride operator something along the lines of "it's 5, you closing?". The operator turned around "we're closed now". There must have been about 5 or 6 of us in the queue, and were given no apology whatsoever. Would it have really pained him that much to run the ride for a few more minutes?
The point I'm trying to get at is that theme parks are providing a customer experience at the end of the day, despite being a business. Punters will accept compromise, given that they have been thought of in the process.