Joyland Books

Hi

All

Me again i have just read that there will be a gate system on the entrance like the old days of benbon brothers in nicks report it says you will have to buy tokens in order to gain entry. It also says the charge for tokens will start from £10 i was wondering is this per person or family?

anyway what do you all think of this idea.

john

jmace9 wrote:Hi

All

Me again i have just read that there will be a gate system on the entrance like the old days of benbon brothers in nicks report it says you will have to buy tokens in order to gain entry. It also says the charge for tokens will start from £10 i was wondering is this per person or family?

anyway what do you all think of this idea.

john

Tokens for rides is a good idea but charging entrance particularly with the limited facilities available is likely to discourage people going in. Far beter to have Free entrance and make tokens available for purchase inside. That way you will get a lot more casual visitors going. Charge them for entrance and they just will not bother especially at £10.

Bob wrote:

jmace9 wrote:Hi

All

Me again i have just read that there will be a gate system on the entrance like the old days of benbon brothers in nicks report it says you will have to buy tokens in order to gain entry. It also says the charge for tokens will start from £10 i was wondering is this per person or family?

anyway what do you all think of this idea.

john

Tokens for rides is a good idea but charging entrance particularly with the limited facilities available is likely to discourage people going in. Far beter to have Free entrance and make tokens available for purchase inside. That way you will get a lot more casual visitors going. Charge them for entrance and they just will not bother especially at £10.

agree i am no fan of pay gates
me ,wife and 2 kids spend enough

You need to be able to come and go when you like, Not stopping with a gate also what about Wristbands for sale?.

Alan

I think there should be no charge going into Dreamland. That will exclude loads of people. It was always nice to just walk around Dreamland and spend whatever money you had on what you wanted. I think that you should 'pay as you go' 50p per ride, whatever ride, that means a family of 4 could have 40 go's for £20, (10 rides each).

This effectively places a 10 pound entrance fee on the park.
I don't think this is gonna work too well as there are just not enough rides to justify a gate.

My girlfriend will not go on any fairground rides. So I will have to pay 2 x 10 pound to get her in the park aswell as me. This makes my entrance fee 20 quid! This puts Dreamland on a footing with places such as Alton Towers and Thorpe Park for me.

Fortunately my son is only 8 months old and will probably get in for free. If I had 2 older children then it would cost me 40 quid! (and I don't think that there are many childrens rides this year).

I will be making a visit to Dreamland this year but I don't think that this system is very family friendly.

Although I agree that £10 to get in is over the top for what is in there I completely understand why they are doing it. I'm hoping that it will be £10 per group not per person. I would rather pay a little bit to get in than have my day wreaked by groups of "chavs" who are only in there to cause trouble and have no intension of paying to go on any attractions.

I can understand why it is being done, as Dreamland has suffered in the past from local youths and drunks using it as a "hangout", which deters families.

For me, I suppose it depends how exactly the system is to work- something I don't think we know yet. I don't mind having to buy tokens before being allowed in, provided I can re-use unspent tokens at a later date without having to buy more.

The worst-case scenario is that it will cost £30 for the three of us to get in every time, and that's not something I could do very often.

Let's hope full details are made known soon.


Vince Charlie Sam

I do not really agree with a gate charge in this season's form as I envisage it. I know there are the unruly elements to contend with but surely with the correct park security these issues could be addressed. I realise that would cost money, but surely these costs can be built into the overall ride charging system. I sympathise with families that are not all total ride addicts; those people would obviously not get very good park entry value.

Southend's Adventure Island doesn't have a gate entry fee policy and appears to run very well, without too much trouble, at least on my visits anyway. In Bemboms' era the gate entry fee could be justified somewhat, however any such system can preclude any non-riders. A wristband system may be the better way to go so visual checks could be carried out on people inside the park, if necessary.

Martin

As Martin has already said if a park is run correctly like at Southend then these concerns would be covered. CCTV and regular security patrols seem to work at Adventure Island and im sure the same could happen at Dreamland in Margate. The main problems with the "Chavs" at Dreamland were poor staff encouraging their mates to hang around and a poor management doing nothing about it because they dont know how to run a park or want to for that matter.

Dave

i think paying in advance is a very bad idea.if say you have a family of 4 or 5,thats £50 gone straight away.no family will do that.espcially if you dont have the time to use all your tokens etc.i live very close to southend and there is cctv but not any security officers around.this idea of charging before you get in is a very bad idea and one which i think will go down like a lead balloon.lets hope they see this and change it.also what happens to people that dont go on rides.say like a mother with 2 children.do they also have to pay £10 each.if so that is ridiculous

Well I agree that £10 each seems alot for big family's but something definitly needed to be done because chavs would get in and it would stop me from wanting to go. I think the wristband thing is a good idea and I know its worked before in the past

Just wanted to respond to uvegotmale, on a recent visit to see Phillip Miller I met some of his staff and at the time which was low season he did have security staff in the park, they may not seem that obvious to some customers but they are there,

Dave

ricardobugsy wrote:This effectively places a 10 pound entrance fee on the park.
I don't think this is gonna work too well as there are just not enough rides to justify a gate.

My girlfriend will not go on any fairground rides. So I will have to pay 2 x 10 pound to get her in the park aswell as me. This makes my entrance fee 20 quid! This puts Dreamland on a footing with places such as Alton Towers and Thorpe Park for me.

Fortunately my son is only 8 months old and will probably get in for free. If I had 2 older children then it would cost me 40 quid! (and I don't think that there are many childrens rides this year).

I will be making a visit to Dreamland this year but I don't think that this system is very family friendly.

Charging a £10 entrance fee will kill Dreamland before it starts. People will just not pay that sort of entrance fee for what is currently a rundown facility with few rides. There are other parks that offer Free Entrance but make tokens available for purchase inside a far better idea. I hope they drop this silly idea as it could seriously jeopardize the success of Dreamland. People are prepared to pay entrance fees for major theme parks but they will not do so fo the run down Dreamland.

They need to get the people in there in the first place not turn them away at the gate , people will take one look. £10 no thanks and go. If you get people in there they will spend money . If they do not go in they spend nothing. A fairground also needs crowds to give it some atmosphere.

Siilly idea that I hope they drop before its too late.

Sorry to put too much of a downer on this before I find out the full facts but I do not know of any other park which operates this system.
Generally it is either tokens OR pay on the gate with UNLIMITED RIDES.

Q. How many rides can you get for a tenner?
A. Five or six probably.

Q. Will there be a wristband option for unlimited rides?
A. Looks very doubtful based on this pricing system.

The system just doesn't seem to satisfy either criteria! The poll shows that the majority of people on this forum are against this idea and this is coming from the most die hard of Dreamland fans. If you can't appeal to the die hard fans then how can you appeal to the casual customers?

When I look at somewhere like Loundon Castle offering unlimited rides for a generous 10.95 entrance fee (containing The Looping Star, Mary Rose, Enterprise and Heatwave - all ex-Dreamland rides) there is just no comparison.

I will probably now wait for someone to test the water before making my first trip to Dreamland this season. I await to see a list showing how many tokens each ride is pitched at or whether there is a family ticket type option.

I desperately want to see a successful Dreamland but I just cannot see this system working or being in anyones best interests - ride owners included. I am confused as to the reason behind it, cos it makes no sense from both a punters viewpoint and in a business sense. It just sounds like financial suicide to me...sorry