Just wait until the Cedar Fair/Six Flags merger completes and they change their name to Frontier Parks.
Attraction Skyride
- Thread starter CoastersRUS
- Start date
I want to make sure that everyone is tracking that the $5 charge is per person. So, the park can make $15-20 per gondola one way.
It is also worth noting that the language is a bit ambiguous about who can ride for free: "Each guest that has a valid Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Pass, Preschool Card or Fun Card will be able to ride the SkyRide for free." I don't know what that means for Platinum Members.
I also think the decision to limit sakes to the two stations is kinda weird, especially for a park that sells almost everything else on-line. Won't that increase the staff required to run the ride? And why can't you purchase more than one ticket at a time?
It is also worth noting that the language is a bit ambiguous about who can ride for free: "Each guest that has a valid Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Pass, Preschool Card or Fun Card will be able to ride the SkyRide for free." I don't know what that means for Platinum Members.
I also think the decision to limit sakes to the two stations is kinda weird, especially for a park that sells almost everything else on-line. Won't that increase the staff required to run the ride? And why can't you purchase more than one ticket at a time?
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So, you would be OK with a $5 charge for every new ride, as well?
The gate price of a park should include the costs of staffing and maintenance. BGT charges more than $100 for a single-day ticket. If they can't afford to keep their rides running and pay their staff, they need to take a look at how they are managing their business, since other parks aren't adding similar junk fees.
The gate price of a park should include the costs of staffing and maintenance. BGT charges more than $100 for a single-day ticket. If they can't afford to keep their rides running and pay their staff, they need to take a look at how they are managing their business, since other parks aren't adding similar junk fees.
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The park let it fall to that level of disrepair to begin with. I have no sympathy for them.
I honestly would rather them tear this ride down than operate it as an upcharge.
For what you pay for parking, the parking lot trams better be free. One thing I may have missed on the forum is how much the parking fees have increased over time and additional upcharges for what used to be preferred. Not to mention they oversell the spaces so if you leave and come back you may have to park in the general lots.“There is no charge to ride the Serengeti Express Train, one of the best ways to take in the breathtaking beauty of Busch Garden’s Serengeti Plain. There is also no charge for the parking lot trams.” Well, thank goodness.No charge for the tram from the parking lot.
I don't think this is the message I would wan to send the park. At this point, the Skyride is one of the few remaining ways to see the Serengeti. The views of the animals are fantastic. Moreover, it is a park that needs transport options. In other words, losing the Skyride would be terrible, and I worry that there are people at SEAS or PRKS (or whatever) who are looking for a reason to shut it down.
And I'm saying it is at best a poor rationalization and more likely just flim flam and spin. It just doesn't make sense for a huge, long-running theme park chain.
It's not the new rides people should be worried about as those sell admission. It's the older attractions that are at risk of this new micro-transactions bullshit.
The equivalent here would be something like the Loch Ness Monster renovation or Top Thrill Dragster overhaul. In those situations (and in the case of the BGT Skyride) the parks see the value of the attractions in question—they see that removing them would be a great harm to guest/pass holder experience/satisfaction and anticipate a negative financial reaction. Hence, the parks opt to reinvest in the aging attractions rather than shuttering them.
That said, in the case of BGT, the park doesn't actually want to spend the money required to maintain the attraction despite knowing its worth. If you believe the "but the cost!" propaganda, this precedent would literally justify making Top Thrill 2 or Loch Ness Monster upcharge attractions next year.
Because of that, the "but the maintenance costs so much!" argument MUST be thrown straight out the window. Otherwise, 20 years from now, a trip to a park could involve swiping your credit card time after time to experience attractions that are no longer marketable enough to sell park tickets by themselves. That's a dark, dark future if you ask me.
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At least parts are fairly easy to acquire still so this issue should not be this serve and long to resolve ever again. If they have their ways to make parts to keep scorpion running than this should be the same.
I disagree with this. This is a very shitty decision by SEAS/PRKS, but the silver lining is that the Skyride is still here and it received the TLC it needed to come back to life.
Remember, a few months ago we were fretting that the Skyride would be gone for good — and that if it were removed, it could never come back. Removal is permanent.
Charging $5 for a ride that used to be free is supremely scummy, but it’s reversible. Better management can someday take over and once again make the Skyride included with admission.
So today, it sucks. But at least the Skyride can live on for the chance of better days ahead.
^This is the camp I'm in. I HATE that they've done it this way, effectively creating their own precedent to expand upcharges... but at the end of the day, I would rather the Skyride exist than not.
Gonna be a real interesting to see if/how long the public go along with this little game, and if they don't, how long BGT goes before removing the upcharge or Skyride altogether.
Gonna be a real interesting to see if/how long the public go along with this little game, and if they don't, how long BGT goes before removing the upcharge or Skyride altogether.
I don't see them charging for BGW Skyride, but i do see this happening for something like Rhine River Cruise. Only thing that might prevent that is lack of huge demand.
It cost BGW nearly 10 million, I hear, to get Loch Ness Monster in working order again. They're not charging admission for that. I understand that is a special project but it was decided to make it a capital project because of the cost of the extensive routine maintenance needed this season. Which, in my mind, is the same thing that happened to BGT Skyride. It needed a LOT of attention but that's still no excuse to upcharge for it.
I don't believe I saw this mentioned yet. But SeaWorld San Diego's skyride carried a $6 fee per person, when I was there last, back in August. (So the scumminess introduced here for BGT is nothing new for SEAS and their skyrides.)
Similar to what's been posted for the BGT skyride, for all SWSD passholders - even Platinum passholders, which is what I used at the time - the ride was free.
The day I was there though, I was shocked by just how many dozens of single-day ticket holders, in line with my family and me, were paying that (ludicrous) $6 fee; but if you go for just one day all season, I guess the temptation is there to experience all the attractions.
However checking the SWSD site just now, I do not fortunately see the fee listed on the Bayside Skyride page. But do see one brief mention of an up-charge on their FAQ page:
But for the sake of the BGT skyride - If SWSD carried the up-charge at one point, and then removed (perhaps when entering the off-season), then perhaps it'll too be removed for BGT (at some point).
Similar to what's been posted for the BGT skyride, for all SWSD passholders - even Platinum passholders, which is what I used at the time - the ride was free.
The day I was there though, I was shocked by just how many dozens of single-day ticket holders, in line with my family and me, were paying that (ludicrous) $6 fee; but if you go for just one day all season, I guess the temptation is there to experience all the attractions.
However checking the SWSD site just now, I do not fortunately see the fee listed on the Bayside Skyride page. But do see one brief mention of an up-charge on their FAQ page:
But for the sake of the BGT skyride - If SWSD carried the up-charge at one point, and then removed (perhaps when entering the off-season), then perhaps it'll too be removed for BGT (at some point).
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That’s exactly how we got up charge, cut the line passes at theme parks now. One of them got away with it
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Yeah, with the way they’re promoting the extra-charge safari ride, they’ve effectively turned Rhino Rally into an upcharge too.
Hell, with the way the way BGT was operating their rides when I visited last month, they’ve basically made every major attraction an upcharge. They’ve throttled the standby queue so much in favor of Quick Queue that the standby line is glacial. At Cheetah Hunt, they were loading only the last 6 rows from the standby line; everything else was Quick Queue. At Serengeti Flyer, a short line (which I know would’ve taken maybe 15-20 minutes at Finnegan’s Flyer) took 50 minutes. Same story at Montu, which was only operating one train — meaning only about 8 guests from the standby line got to get on the ride per dispatch, which was about every 5 minutes.
The lines were so miserably slow that it was obvious BGT was purposely throttling the standby queue to encourage Quick Queue sales. They’ve made it pretty much impossible to enjoy the park without it. I bet they’re relying on guests feeling the pressure of sunk cost — they already spent so much money to get into the park, so might as well pay for Quick Queue to salvage the experience. (Suffice to say, I won’t be back.)
All this to say, I don’t think the Skyride is really the first instance of BGT upcharging attractions in their already overpriced park. This is just the most blatant example yet.