A Slate article describes the relatively new offering from Universal and Busch theme parks of a “VIP”- type ticket. For some extra scratch - the article mentions prices from $50 to $3000 over and above the regular cost of admission - you get the privilege of cutting in front of all the lines for rides, and in some cases even a park employee escort, whose job it is to follow you around and help you get where you’re going… as well as, apparently, acting as a buffer between your privileged body and the hordes of sweaty persons who are stuck in the plebian line and who, apparently, may get a little irked at being pre-empted.
I’m of two minds about this. Obviously, the park management is free to implement whatever practices they feel make good business sense. I don’t see this as a case of anyone’s rights being trampled on; you’ll hear no cries of class oppression coming from me.
But I do wonder if this makes good business sense. While the park is undoubtedly enriched by the extra funds paid by the VIP customer, do they risk alienating large numbers of their more pedestrian customers, and losing more than they gain. Obviously they don’t think they will, but as New Coke proved, businesses are not always savvy when it comes to predicting the public.
I am curious to hear debate on this – is there something more besides business at stake here? Am I too quick to dismiss the egalitarian heritage of theme park lines; is it somehow wrong, on a deeper level, to permit people with money to buy their way to the front?
I think that if this policy were publicized, people wouldn’t have a big problem with it. Let’s say you’re in a long line for a roller coaster, and some buffoon with a park escort gets to go in front of you in the line. You’d be pissed, right? But if you knew that this program was in place, you could just say, “Oh, well. He paid more money.” It’s different, in other words, than someone just pushing in front because they’re more important than you - they did have to come up with the coin. Which means, presumably, that you could do so too, provided you had the coin (in other words, you wouldn’t be denied the butting-in-line deal just because you’re a nobody).
So personally, I don’t think parks would get a lot of negative reaction to this, at least not in the long run. They would at first, because many people at the park would be ignorant of the program. But eventually, they’d catch on.
As for the park’s bottom line, I think they’d make out pretty well. Folks who can afford to pay the extra $ will do so just to avoid the horrendous lines. And like I said, those folks who can’t afford to won’t - in my opinion - walk away from the park all together.
Just for the sake of conversation, here’s an interesting thought. What if it becomes so popular that you end up with a second, also large, line of “premium” customers? What happens then? Are these people still getting their money’s worth? Would the “non-premium” people ever stand a chance of actually riding or would the premum line constantly be occupied and thus have priority? Would they then create a third “super-premium” class ticket that goes to the front of both lines? How about a system where everyone get’s to bid on their line position? A “line position auction”. Obviously this is a ridiculous scenario; presumably market forces would correct the situation. But I love playing with ideas like this.
It would be interesting to find out what would happen if there was a VIP line. Would folks get ranked on how much they paid? I can just see it now…
Mister Rich Guy: Hey, I paid 100 bucks for my VIP ticket!"
Mister Super Rich Guy: “Move, peasant! I paid 1000!”
Mister Super-Duper Rich Guy: “I paid a cool MILLION. I am the KING OF THE UNIVERSE, HAR HAR HAR HAR!”
I think the coolest thing about most amusement parks is that it doesn’t matter how poor or rich you are, everyone has to sweat through a long-ass line. I’m not saying that the theme parks doing the VIP-thing are wrong. They’re just trying to make a profit. But what a way to take the fun out of it.
Even if I knew they had paid more money than me, I would still get pissed knowing that not even my place in line is guaranteed to me (after shelling out 40 bucks for admission). And it would piss me off if a rich kid got to skip ahead of my kid (after they’d had been waiting all day practically). You go to amusement parks to escape the classicism of society. It’s bad enough that most theme parks are so expensive that you have to sell a kidney just so a family of 4 can go.
I worked at Six Flags for a couple of summers during high school. There was this all-you-can-eat restaurant that you could go to if you made reservations ahead of time. It was ridicuously overpriced (especially since the food was no better than what you could get at a school cafeteria), but sure enough, folks with the money patronized the place. I had no problem with this type of dealie since it wasn’t like regular people were being displaced or inconvienced.
But the VIP-tickets? All the VIPers need is a big-ass sign saying, “I’m a very important person, now move your big ass out of the way! BWAHAHAHAHA!”
They may have figured out a way to get the people to the front of the line without it being too obvious. For example, last time I went to Disneyland, we got a Fast Pass, or whatever they call it, and got to go to the front of the line. But I don’t remember having the feeling that other people were getting to go in front of me when I was in the regular lines. It’s not really the same thing, because anyone is allowed to get a Fast Pass, and you don’t have to pay more. But my point is that they did it in a subtle way by having a discreet seperate line for the pass holders - it wasn’t like: “Get out of my way, I have priority”.
I think the FastPass idea, which is free, is a much less controversial approach to this. With FastPass, at least as implemented by Disney, you may only hold one FastPass for one attraction at a time, and it specifices the time period – with an hour or half-hour – for which it’s good. This actually allows you to plan the ride with a minimum of line time, and, since the experience is open to all equally, doesn’t raise the sorts of questions I was hoping to explore when I posted this.
There’s always been first-class passenger accomodations, and the benefits have varied from nicer food, to more spacious accomodations, to having a better chance of survival – Titanic, anyone?
I’m curious if this relatively open display of money/privilege is something that will backfire, and if it should. I thought about IMHO for this, but realized I wanted to spark a discussion about the rightness or wrongness, not simply to start a poll about how a reader might personally feel.
Heck, I’m under the impression that the coolest thing about the parks is the rides, attractions, and so on. At no point have I ever thought it was cool that we all had to wait in line.
Your place in line is still guaranteed. So would be the place of the dude who paid three times what you paid. It’d be one thing if you both paid $40 and the other guy got to cut in front. That would be bad; obviously he did nothing to warrant such treatment, certainly no more than you did.
I go to have fun. Classicism of society never even enters my mind when I’m zooming along in the roller coaster thingy. Besides, this isn’t a pure issue of have versus have not. If you have enough money to even get into the park, you’re not poor. Therefore it’s more a matter of deciding to save up the cash to get the VIP treatment or going with what cash you have on hand.
Heh. Well, as long as it was done discreetly (but people were dimly aware of the policy), then I wouldn’t think it’d be all that obtrusive and snobby.
I like this system better than Disney’s FastPass, since you get to go to the rides you want when you want to (vs. FastPass, where you essentially “reserve” a spot for Disney’s set time).
And if I were in the park on a regular admission, I wouldn’t have a beef with it, since the line-cutters had to pay extra for the privilege, while I’m spending my money on more goodies for the family.
Depends on the line – the pre-boarding queue at Disneyland’s Star Tours and Indiana Jones rides are definitely worth queueing up for. Sometimes I complain because the Indy lines moves too fast before I have decoded all the Mara hieroglyphics.
(Should this thread be in Cafe Society instead of GD?)
As ex amusement park management (and current part time crew) I believe I can speak to this.
I believe that at least here in the US we are pretty accustomed to being able to “buy our way to the front of the line” in many ways, overnight shipping services, will call ticket windows, higher priced seats up front at concerts and sporting events, etc, etc. This is just an extension of that concept.
One thing that amusement parks know all to well is attraction capacity and turnover time. Its pretty simple math to provide a limited number of VIP passes and run a worst case scenario as to what % of ride capacity would be preempted by VIP passes. Most likely they would issue a limited number of passes (say 1% of total capacity) and feel pretty safe that VIP pass holders blaze through the lines and that regular customers are not noticeably inconvenienced.
As to bottom line, yes it will help immensely. Since places like Disneyland are pay one price for all attractions any way to sell a ticket for more money is a good thing. At a place like disneyland thay would easily be a couple thousand per day and with and an extra $50-60K per day (assuming VIP pass as double basic price x 1000 passes) can make a big difference in the bottom line even to someplace that big.
There is a loss of welfare (the way Economists use this term it means “benefit to someone”) by paying for something by queueing in line for something instead of paying a money price.
When you really want something so much that you are willing to give up something else (you transfer some of your “generalized coupons to get things” i.e.money to someone) , the person to whom you tranfer those things benefits from your want. When you just stand in line, your time is wasted and no one benefits from it.
This is easily dealt with; you hike the price so that less people can afford it, but you don’t make any less money because they are individually paying more.
You mentioned first-class passenger accomodations, and it seems to me that this is pretty much an extension of that concept. As much I as might personally be annoyed by the idea of someone cutting in front of me in line, I think the parks have made a sound business decision.
Like first class airline accomodations, I predict that the VIP park pass will also produce envy – the non-VIP guests will be irked (apparently with the exception of dantheman, who seems to have the patience of a saint) to the point of eye-rolling and making snide comments, but not the point of not visiting the park. At the same time, the VIP pass will now become something to aspire to. In addition to the Super Rich People who buy the VIP pass as a matter of course, the parks will also sell VIP passes to everyday schmoes like myself for special occasions (honeymoon, anniversaries, etc). It might also be used as a promotional tool – contest winners receive the VIP pass – around which to focus advertising campaigns. It could be used as an upgrade bargaining chip, since it’s not actually costing the park any real money.
I think the least amuseing part of amusement parks is sweating it out in a long ass line. I’ve never ever heard anyone say that standing in line was the coolest part of 6 Flags or Disneyland.
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Why would you be pissed since being in line is so cool? I can see where you’re coming from though. I would get annoyed if I’d been waiting in line for a long time only to be made to wait longer while someone else skipped away.
I think a better system is the fast pass one they have at Disney World. Basically you get a little ticket for a specific ride that is good between say 9:40 AM. to 10:20 AM. So instead of sweating it out in line you can walk around, see the sights, and hopefully (from their point of view) do a bit of shopping.
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Uh, I go to have a good time. Classism doesn’t even enter my thoughts.
Marc
Another idea: What if the park gave every regular-admission ticket holder a number N of “cut to the head” tokens? You could stand in line with everyone else, or give a token to a staffer and get taken directly to the front.
No class difference, no excessive cutting, just folks exercising their different priorities and preferences.
No, you’re right. It’s not the coolest thing. I was exaggerating. But I do take comfort in the fact that everyone has to wait in the same long-ass line.
I like places where there are no special priviledges and everyone gets treated like a VIP. Maybe that means I’m pinko (or browno) commie scum and I should open up my own amusement park.
As a former ride operator at Knott’s Berry Farm, perhaps I can add some relevant information. At least as regards Knott’s. I also know some ride ops at Disneyland.
The VIP thing is not very new to most amusement parks. Celebrities have been paying extra to skip lines for a long, long time (I met Nicholas Cage once, nice guy, very polite…unlike that prick from Korn). Same with guests of the very high, muckety muck CEOs. Chances are you will never notice someone skipping in front of you, because it’s not like they shove you aside as they trot to the front. They go up the exit. Out of sight.
The only difference here is that the benefits once only offered to a select few are now being offered to the general public. If you can afford it. And that’s fine. You want to pay more to cut to the front? Pay more. My guess is the extra amount will be a bit more than the minimum of $50 mentioned in the OP, though.
Lastly, the FastPass dealies at Disneyland and Six Flags is a great, great idea. Everyone can do it. You just walk up to the FastPass dispenser and it tells you when to come back. You arrive at about that time and you get into a shorter line. Meanwhile you can go eat or go on some other ride with a shorter line. I don’t see what Guin objects to in this system.
Lastly, if anyone wants some fun/scary stories about Knott’s, let me know…I’m full of them.
If only because it’s annoying to be waiting in line, and some idiot comes and gets to skip right through.
Yeah, they paid more, yes, so technically, that’s how it works. But it still sucks.
I don’t know, I guess I’m just too much of a bleeding heart liberal. I don’t like how everything has to be ME ME ME ME ME ME ME!!!
Rides have lines.
If you’re talking about a fast pass where they give you a specific time-that’s one thing. I think THAT sounds like a neat idea. I’ve never heard of that-it sounds better.
But the idea that someone gets say, a token to put on their wrist or something, and all they have to do at every ride is show it, and hop up to the front-that just kind of sucks, for the rest of us.
It doesn’t still suck. They paid more, they get more privileges. That’s how life works. If the person who gets to move to the front didn’t pay more, he’d be an ass, a real low-class jerk. But he paid more and therefore would be entitled to quicker service.
Besides, you’re still assuming that this paid-more guy is mocking those in the regular line, flaunting his overflowing wallet. It’s possible that if they had a VIP service like this, then they’d have a separate line/entrance anyway.
I don’t like long lines at all. If I see a long one at an amusement park, I’m more likely to skip the attraction, at least for the time being. If I had the option to pay more in order to skip the line, I’d take it, provided I had the cash.
Here’s another way to look at it. Many toll roads and bridges have an automated system that debits a preexisting account. (Around here, it’s M-Pass or EZ-Pass.) The cars that have that service zoom up to a speedy line at the toll booth; they only have to slow down to 5 mph or so. Those people paid a little extra upfront for the privilege of not waiting in line. Heck, I’m one of those people. I don’t resent me!
Eh, but that’s different. No one is being displaced in this scenario. No one has to give up their right of way since you have booths reserved just for you. If there were roller coasters reserved just for VIP folks, then your analogy would fit better.
