High Ticket Prices

[Slick]

So i've got passes to all the parks, despite this, I was curious to see what general 1-day admission goes for these days, and I gotta say, "$89.99" for say Movie World is pretty ridiculous when you consider Disneyland California (the staple for premium theme parks) is $103.45, Hong Kong Disneyland (the nearest premium neighbour) is $65.60, hell, even in an economy similar to ours, Universal Studios Japan (a park which is nearly three times Movie World's size) is $70.50. (All prices being Aussie Dollar converted.)

Over at Dreamworld, it isn't as bad pricing wise, but we're really talking a few dollars between the two.

Despite the obvious want by parks to drive "world/vip passes", the Aussie Dollar being what is, Abbott, a remote, local market etc. etc. (take your pick at intelligent reasons why this is the way it is) it still makes me feel a little dirty knowing that the reality is if you want to do what everyone else around the world does, and that is to come in just for a day, or even if you want your out of town rellies/mates to come spend a day with you in your natural habitat (it's why you're a Parkz Member, right?) it's a damn ripoff by comparison to the rest of the world.

But maybe i'm just being incredulous. What does everyone else think?

[Brad2912]

Completely agree. The $70-$75 I think was a reasonable price, but $90 is purely to drive locals and even interstate tourists into VIP holders. There was a lady on Facebook trying to sell 2 adult and 2 kids one day passes she had pre-purchased and no longer needed due to travel changes, face value on passes was well over $320. She wasn't impressed when I told her you could pretty much get the entire family annual passes for an extra $20

[Reanimated35]

I don't think so. Factor in the cost of shipping new rides out. Factor in that outside of school holiday season, the parks are pretty dead. Add rain to that in winter and you're lucky to bump into another person in the whole park. My point is, we pay more for these things to keep the park running. Do we want to get the prices dropped to the point they have to close rides during the day to lower running costs just to keep investors happy? Plus, let's not forget about the Australia Tax.

[alex_1]

I was happy to see that Village Roadshow clearly seemed to be doing well this year to not only invest in a $20 million coaster, but also an entirely new waterpark. I can see how they're compensating for that cost now. Hmm.

[aaronm]

I don't think so. Factor in the cost of shipping new rides out. Factor in that outside of school holiday season, the parks are pretty dead. Add rain to that in winter and you're lucky to bump into another person in the whole park. My point is, we pay more for these things to keep the park running. Do we want to get the prices dropped to the point they have to close rides during the day to lower running costs just to keep investors happy? Plus, let's not forget about the Australia Tax.

The parks could save a lot of money by closing on Tuesday/Wednesdays in the off season and open longer hours on Friday/Saturday nights. Village could even bump their crowds around a little more strategically by closing Movie World on Tuesday, Sea World on Wednesday, Wet n Wild on Thursday etc. Basically would give them a day each week for minor maintenance and a regular day off for the full timers.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Alex, i'm fairly certain budgets and funding are generally held separately for each of the parks - ie: the costs and operating budgets for WnWS would not rely on an increase to ticket prices at MW to compensate - the park would need to stand on it's own, and pay back its own debt or else it is unprofitable and needs to be closed.

Among all the reasons you cite Slick, I cannot believe you would forego the biggest one of them all - Labour costs. Our minimum wage is one of the highest in the world.

I don't have stats or figures to prove my point, but a comparison to USA parks is just not fair - they have lower wages, poorer conditions, less health and safety legislation to comply with than Australia does - which is the biggest reason (in my opinion) on why it costs more to visit a park in Australia.

That said if you can buy a VIP pass for an extra $10, it may be the plan to get people to sign up for a pass (I'm pretty sure on one of Gazza's USA trips he pointed out the annual pass was better value than a day ticket at a universal park). I've stated previously that a day-trip ticket doesn't get the park the MARKETING BASE or repeat business than a pass does. Tourists might only plan to spend one day at a park, but when they can spend an extra $10 for an extra two parks, as many times as they want while they're local - the perceived value is better, and naturally they'll go that way - which then gives VRTP another name in the marketing database for surveys, or demographics purposes. Hell - if they're from Hawaii or Las Vegas or anywhere they're thinking of building a park in the future - they've already got a customer base they can target advertising at!

Exchange rates also play a big part in the comparison - and they change daily.

[aaronm]

^Wages would be a huge factor. I remember looking at a job application form for Waldameer last year, their starting rate was something like $6.50/hour. Granted this is probably OK if you're just a kid earning some extra pocket money, but it's not a living wage by any means, and probably close to a third of what an adult staff member would earn at an Aussie park.

[nitromefans]

^Wages would be a huge factor. I remember looking at a job application form for Waldameer last year, their starting rate was something like $6.50/hour. Granted this is probably OK if you're just a kid earning some extra pocket money, but it's not a living wage by any means, and probably close to a third of what an adult staff member would earn at an Aussie park.

A standard movie world ride op gets just over $10 per hour in their pocket.

[aaronm]

^Teenagers, right? I thought the minimum wage for adults was closer to $16.

[Gazza]

A standard movie world ride op gets just over $10 per hour in their pocket.

Lol?

^Teenagers, right? I thought the minimum wage for adults was closer to $16.

Under 18s can't be ride ops though.

[rappa]

I'd take figures like pay rates posted here with a grain of salt

[Slick]

Haha ten bucks an hour. Good one.

[aussienetman]

I was going to bite at the ten bucks an hour as well... And had written a nice reply with some facts to back it up... but then couldn't be bothered. I knew others here would do the Job baha

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'd take figures like pay rates posted here with a grain of salt

I think we're going to need more than a grain for that one...

[Spotty]

Not sure if I can actually post the exact wage that I was on when I worked for Village Roadshow due to non disclosure agreements that I signed whilst working there. But I can tell you right now it was more than $10 and everyone in that department gets the same wage unless your a supervisor. Considering the majority of the staff are not casual in operations and accrue sick leave / annual leave the pay rate wasn't too crash hot but it wasn't bad either. It's between $15 and $20 a hour for a PPT and casual is around $22 a hour.

[Gazza]

A standard movie world ride op gets just over $10 per hour in their pocket.

Nope, only the apprentices responsible for laying gas lines get paid that.

[goliath]

From the perspective of a dollar for dollar comparison to other theme parks around the world, Australian parks have severely inflated prices. When you take into account the quality of Australian parks then their relative cost becomes even more absurd.

Taking a look at it from a different perspective though I don’t think Australian parks are that bad. For example, for a cast member at WDW it’d take a bit over 13 hours of work to afford a one day entrance pass to Magic Kingdom at the gate (obviously they get free entry, but indulge me). I’m not sure what a standard Dreamworld employee earns but I’d imagine that it’s around $20 an hour, which means it would only take them 5 hours to be able to afford an equivalent one day pass at the gate. Even if they were earning the national minimum wage ($16.37) it’d still only take them a little over six hours to afford that ticket, which is less than half as long as it'd take the WDW employee.

In other words, if you’re a low income theme park fan in Australia you’re over twice as better off as one in the US. Or, our high wages (over)compensate for our high theme park prices.

[aaronm]

^Good point. And the numbers are even more in favour of the local parks when you consider the cost of an annual pass relative to wages, rather than a one-day ticket. Florida minimum wage is currently $7.80 an hour, WDW annual pass is $550. So over 70 hours' wage, whereas a MW/WnW/SW VIP Pass would only be about six hours' wage for a worker on the Australian minimum wage.

[Bussy]

I have actual experience of the wage difference between Australia and North America. In the early 2000's I finished my University studies and decided to travel the world. I left Wonderland where I was being paid between $15-$20 per hour depending on shift loadings etc (I don't remember the exact figure). I travelled to Toronto Canada where I secured a job a Canada's Wonderland also as a ride operator. My starting wage as a level 1 operator was just under $7 per hour. Once my supervisor found out I had ride experience I was quickly moved up to the highest ripe operator level (short of becoming a supervisor) and moved up to a whopping $8.25 or there abouts per hour. At the time the currency was nearly dollar for dollar. How's that for a grain of salt? "The Bus is now leaving for Dollar Downed, NSW"