Trip Report

[T-bone]

Don't forget the teacher excuse. "Ahh Damn it, we forgot the work sheets".

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'd like to say that at least these school groups are a good thing for the park but I was speaking to one of the ride ops and she said the students get ride passes at a massively discounted rate. So I don't think the park benefits much at all.

ever hear of a "standby rate" at a hotel? bottom line is it is better charging cost price for your services than nothing. hypothetical figures here- say it costs luna park $1000 a day to run a ride. this includes electricity, maintenance, staffing etc. now lets say a typical weekday gets an average of 200 people on the ride. now i dont know how much each ride costs or anything like that, so say its $2 a ride. now thats $800. by operating this ride for the whole day, the park loses $200. so if they bring in a school group - say year 7 from a high school, and the whole year comes - at my high school it was about 150 - 200 kids. so if luna charges the high school kids at $1.50, and teachers free, its a great deal for the school, and luna, because 200 kids paying $1.50 for a ride each is $300. so by dropping 50 cents off their price, the park makes a profit of $100... once again before people start spouting off figures... i said they were HYPOTHETICAL

[GoGoBoy]

I agree with the idea of your post Alex and can definitely see the point you are making. However, the ride op I was speaking to told me that most of the students are only charged just over $10 for an unlimited rides pass which entitles them to spend as long as they want in the park. Compare this to a standard URP at Luna Park for kids of this age which I believe is around the $40 mark. The female ride op I spoke to was a bit annoyed by this and I can see her point. They can surely charge the schools a bit more. The kids are getting this crazy bargain and yet they are going on the rides (yep, you heard steve$ say it) over 10 times each!! That is more than any normal guest would who is paying almost 4 times as much

[steve$]

What does OC stand for, and im not talking about the show.

OC stands for oppurtunity class. So we get to go to Wonderland,Luna Park,Questacon,Skiing etc

[Bussy]

Why would a ride op be annoyed with having guests in the park? They still get paid regardless of what the guests spend. It's just the same as when anyone went to Wonderland, if you went mid week in non peak time you got a very sweet deal, walk on every ride, pretty much stay on for as many rides as you like. Don't forget that kids are very powerful consumers. If they go to a place and they like it they will want to go back again but when they do they will take family and friends and all will be full paying customers. Think of these 'educational' excursions as forms of advertising because in essence that is what they are for Luna Park and all parks that do the same. "The Bus is now leaving for Dealwarraldi, NSW"

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I agree with the idea of your post Alex and can definitely see the point you are making. However, the ride op I was speaking to told me that most of the students are only charged just over $10 for an unlimited rides pass which entitles them to spend as long as they want in the park. Compare this to a standard URP at Luna Park for kids of this age which I believe is around the $40 mark. The female ride op I spoke to was a bit annoyed by this and I can see her point. They can surely charge the schools a bit more. The kids are getting this crazy bargain and yet they are going on the rides (yep, you heard steve$ say it) over 10 times each!! That is more than any normal guest would who is paying almost 4 times as much

ok so the students pay 25% of full price. so its one full paying customer for every 4 kids. this is still better than nothing, and bear in mind that the students generally get to school roll call etc, then jump on a bus and head off to the park. easily 10am or later by the time they get there, and they're only there until around 2pm... so we're talking 4 hours. cut 20 minutes off for the periodical roll calls, organising, and of course making sure everyone is back on the bus before it actually leaves. so they pay $10 for under 4 hours of unlimited rides. add on top of that - merchandise, photos (this is in general, not just luna), food, drinks, skill games.... most school kids will have more than $10 to spend at the park just on this sort of stuff. food, drinks and merchandise are VERY profitable. 600mL bottle of coke? costs about 90 cents. charged? $3 or more... CHU-CHING french fries and a burger - AND a post-mix coke... now the post mix costs about 2 cents a cup. fries? lets say about 10 cents for a cardboard cup's worth, and a burger? well.... not much. so all in all lets say 40 cents total. sell price? well lets take my recent trip to QLD - meals on average about $7 or so. believe me the park is making its money, and its better to offer 75% off ride ticket price, which on face value is a bargain, but its better to despatch a coaster train with a full passenger load than with 4 german backpackers and an out-of-work bum. operation cost is the same, but more bums-on-seats means more money in the pocket. merchandise? ok. lets pick - a t-shirt with the latest ride printed on it with cool graphics. printing on mass production? $2, shirt? $1 - total - $3, sell price? $29.95. trust me - teenagers are the prime market for most theme parks. giving a group of 200 teenagers a 75% discount, and then milking the piggy bank for every cent they own for extras that cost barely nothing - makes the park profitable, rather than unprofitable on a slow day. the ride op complains about the discount? - bus i agree with you - they get paid no matter what, and it will bring them back with their friends and families at full price... but what that particular ride op doesnt realise - is that the park has made this decision to make money. without money, they can't operate, or pay their staff... and that ride op is out of a job because another park is closed and considered unprofitable. you tell me that ride op is right...? i dont think so.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

and i just realised i love making hypothetical situations on price and capacities etc. i make long long long posts rattling off figures... i need to stop that. oh well.

[GoGoBoy]

Nah don't stop Alex, it's fine. You guys have both made some really good points. The ride op I spoke to was a lovely girl and from what I could tell she was only peeved because she felt like the park was being ripped off in a sense. I could see where she was coming from at the time but I can also see the bigger picture now

[steve$]

The ride operators were really nice to us when we were in the park, and they were enthusiastic about their job(except for the Indian guy doing ranger) but it made it a lot easier in one sense but they were stopping people from running any where near the rides. We got in trouble from the guy loading Wild Mouse because we kept running

[steve$]

Has anyone had any bad experiences at Luna Park with anything? Rides,Operators,Food,Queues etc.

[Nebuchanezzar]

Yeah, the Ferris Wheel queue. It's very badly thought of.

[steve$]

I will start a new theread for that now