Buzzin Grumpy

I first encountered this some years ago while on a family holiday in Florida, noting both Disney & Universal Theme Parks were going to cost me a lot more once my eldest son had reached 12 years old.

But now both my sons are 12 and over I have noticed just how expensive a family day out can be, as it seems to be the norm at places such as theme parks and festivals that a child between the ages of 12 and 16 requires an adult ticket; even in some cases where children, and they are still children, of that age bracket, are not allowed to enter without a paying adult!

I understand theme parks must cost a lot of money in upkeep, health & safety checks, wages etc, and I am happy to pay a reasonable fee for the services I use.  But adult price entry for a child stinks of being ripped off.

Last week we visited Thorpe Park and decided to buy annual Merlin Entertainment passes.  After visiting their website we thought £400 for 4 annual passes was a reasonable charge for the entertainment we will have over the next 12 months.  But as we went to pay we were asked for £600!  Apparently, because one of my sons is now 14 we were unable to qualify for a standard ‘family’ deal; and the smallest of small print right at the bottom of the scrolling web page told us so.

If this wasn’t enough to make us feel we were getting ripped off, this year Thorpe Park caused absolute and unnecessary chaos by charging £2 parking per car on exit.  Even though annual pass holders were exempt from paying, we still sat in a queue to get out of the car park for over 30 minutes.

Visiting Thorpe Park isn’t cheap but it is a great day out and worth it in my opinion.  But it’s about time companies like Merlin Entertainment considered how their ways of getting as much money out of their customers as possible, is pissing some people off.