Theme parks

[asilasil]

Hiya all...just needed to vent about flaming theme parks.
I took my son and his mate to Thorpe Park yesterday and am boiling mad about the experience. Firstly I had not taken the 2 for 1 voucher (my fault) that I had on the side in the kitchen so it cost me £105.00 for the three of us to get in. We queued for an hour to get in to the park which then took us to half 12.Whilst in the que they had a sign saying that the park was closing at half 6!!!! Too late to head back home so we went in anyway. The boys wanted to eat straight away- another £15. First ride we stood in a que for 2 hours!!! Basically we only managed to get on 4 rides before we ran out of time. All that money and only got on 4 rides!! Each que was app 2 hours long!! Anyway, we left at half 6 only to sit in the car for another hour trying to get out of the car park....grrrrr
I must admit as we left the park I did snap at one of the shop assistants who with the widestest grin I have ever seen asked if we had enjoyed our visit. I told her in clipped tones that yes...I had loved spending almost £150 (entry,diesel,boys food) on a day out at a theme park to only get onto 4 rides!!! The smile faltered for a second and then she said 'well this is the busiest day of the year and the park is capable of holding the capacity let in'!!
It may well be able to 'hold' the capacity of people let in but clearly it cannot facilitate for all of those people otherwise the queues would not be intolerably long. Whats the answer??? I think they should allow less people into these parks. Simple. Surley they make enough money as it is. Bloody sod's!!
On the plus side...I didnt have to worry about not fitting on the rides.....hahahaha

Okay...rant over!

 

[Foxtrot]

Hmmmm what to do with £150 that's enjoyable????? How long do you want the list?

Biggest scam on the planet, theme parks. As it's so well documented about the time wasting and rip off prices, I'm honestly amazed they are still allowed to trade.

Well, you've done it the once. I'm sure you'll be drawing up your own list of better things to spend £150 on next time.

 

[jcjazzy]

Lisa , I would write to the manager to complain about your experience.You never know you might get some vouchers or something....

 

[Tange]

Lisa , I would write to the manager to complain about your experience.You never know you might get some vouchers or something....

I agree, if you don't complain they will never know. Its an extortionate amount of money.

 

[loula]

Sounds like an awful experience! I used to work at Legoland when I was a student in the holidays and they used to let in something like 15,000 visitors per day - most of whom had to stand in lines most of the day. My friend worked in the 'guest servics' office and whenever someone complained they would send them some free tickets. One woman even got a free family ticket for crying at them because it had rained during her visit! It is definitely worth writing to the manager - a little hint is to do it in writing and send it recorded delivery so someone has to sign for it. You should certainly get something in the way of compensation - theme parks are hugely competitive and wouldn't want to be seen in a bad light.
Hope this helps
Loula x x

 

[asilasil]

Aww thanks guys. I feel justified in my moan now. I should have known better but hey.....you live and learn. I am getting my pen and paper out this afternoon and am gonna write to them. Mind you if they send me vouchers I might scream....lol
xx

 

[Foxtrot]

You could always sell them on E-bay

 

[asilasil]

You could always sell them on E-bay

Ha ha ha ha....oh my God...you so know that I am gonna do that now.

 

[bigboy77]

Funny this should come up - I'm going Alton Towers on Tuesday, sorry to hear about your nightmare day. I've deliberately picked a school week to avoid the troubles you've recently experienced. When the baby is old enough I will go on a school day to avoid the queues. I haven't been to a theme park for years in England but in Florida they have a priority time system where you get a ticket for a specified time for a particualr ride and use a fastrack queue with said ticket - works really well and you can plan your day, going on all the major rides without queueing too much, they should definitely adopt it over here.

Bit nervous about going on the rides - I rang Alton Towers and did some searching on the internet and judging by the chest measurement restrictions its gonna be touch and go. Oh well, its booked now, there's only one way to found out.

 

[loislane]

Hiya
I went to Legoland yesterday, and it was busy!!
My son got fed up of queuing!!
I got some money off the tickets so that made it not seem too bad!
Managed to get on a few rides, I only ventured onto a couple of rides but chuffed that I did!
While everyone was having their picnic I had a shake and I lasted on that till we got back to the car!!
The longest we queued was about 20 mins, but didnt go on the really busy rides!

xxx

 

[rainbow]

how annoying, but as some of the others have said defo write and complain, i wrote to flamingo land and said that i was cross that some signs said it was a red time table day and some said green, also that we stood in a queue for bout and hour and then the ride broke down,a dn they sent me four buy one get one free tickets, worth it even if you do bung them on ebay! x

 

[Minerva]

I completely sympathise... these parks are a great idea but are such a waste of money. Last october my OH, sister and I went to Thorpe Park only to find that 3 or 4 of the major attraction rides were SHUT due to technical faults - which had NOT been announced on their website that morning.
In the end we only got on about 2 rides, and were severely pissed off.

Waste of money, waste of time, waste of everything, unless you go on a rainy day when half the people don't turn up because of it... But then you have to go on a ride and try to enjoy it while being cold and wet to the bone! ...

BLEH.

That having said - they do NOT refund tickets. It says so on your ticket : NONREFUNDABLE. At best you may be able to get away with receiving a free pass (which is what we got but this took two hours of arguing with them).

I wish the Fast-track tickets were a little less expensive or less limited! Fast-tracks are definitely worth it (though cost can cost from £15-£50)!....... if you want to skip the 2 hr queues anyway ...

 

[daisydoll]

my kids are desperate to go to alton towers tomorrow - i have just read them your post .... so we are thinking again about it!

not sure where to go instead tho

daisy x

 

[bekimo]

My friend is a manager at Alton Towers. She says that the park is experiencing bigger crowds than usual. It seems that people are going to Alton Towers for a weekend (or a few days) as opposed to taking a holiday in Europe this year. (Evil Excessively Expensive Euro!!!) That's the recession for you!
Because she gets a few free tickets each year, we are going to Alton Towers on Saturday. I was quite looking forward to it because it would be my first time in a while at a theme park where I didn't have to worry about being too big for the rides! Unfortunately, I fell down the stairs last week and I'm not aloud to go on rides as I risk doing my back more damage than I already did!! Grr!
Leaves me as allocated bag holder again! Yey :sigh:

Anyhoo, it's a shame you had such a rough time. Next time tell the children to choose a less busy time!!!

B x

 

[slendablenda]

Ugh

My idea of a nightmare - and you had the privilege of paying all that money too !!
How come the Americans can do these places so well and we are rubbish at it?

 

[bekimo]

The Americans know how to do everything on a bigger and most of the time better scale. Alton Towers vs. Disney World!?? Need I say more!? In fairness, they have more room than we do!!!!!

B x