please empty your brain below
No doubt when twenty five quid for the privelidge of standing in an office block proves unpopular the viewing decks will be quietly closed and turned into an exclusive Tower 42 style champagne bar or a penthouse apartment.
I hope it does become popular and stay open, I still miss the old Post Office Tower and the Shell Center Tower, both of which you could many years ago, buy a ticket and go to the viewing gallery, I did it when they were open. Even Canary Wharf had a tower open for a short time.
It seems that in London we just have the London Eye for high level views, or an expensive restaurant on the 40th floor of Heron Tower. As for cost of admission in comparison Paris has the Tour Eiffel at 14 Euros and also Tour Montparnasse at 13 Euros, nice opening on their web site http://www.tourmontparnasse56.com
New York has the Empire State Building at $25 Dollars. So I hope to visit the Shard soon on a nice clear sunny day, guess I ought to start saving up now!
But I bet there's "very low visibility" more often than that. In which case I'd expect the the "No refunds" policy in the ticketing terms and conditions to kick in.
£30 for Madame f#%^*ing Tussauds!!!
I'm sure it used to be about a fiver, am I getting old or are they getting greedy?
dg writes: Kew is £10 temporarily this autumn. You need to book your tickets online by November 30th and then visit within 30 days. Which sounds like a good deal.
Exactly what I did!
I didn't realise entry prices to these places were so high. I thought £13.50 for the LT museum was a rip off, but at least I didn't have to pay.
How many people actually book online to get a discount? Do they have to go on a specific date / time? Online booking seems to be another con. How many people buy online and then don't use their ticket for whatever reason. Do people (especially visitors) plan their days out that much in advance?
Whilst I realise that some places cost a lot to run and they have to get their money from somewhere, they run the risk of pricing themselves out of business.
How many places are a family of four visitors going to be able to afford? Take three popular locations for two adults and two children:
Madame Tussauds costs £108 (family group)
London Zoo £72.70 and they expect you to give a 10% "dontation" on top of that (I assume gate prices are the same as the online prices)
Tower of London £55 (family group)
Just before the change to decimal money, Kew Gardens used to be somewhere between 3d and 6d (I can't remember exactly) which admittedly was more of a nominal charge. Now it is £16 including a "£1.50 voluntary" donation. At least children are free, though.
What is it with "voluntary donations?" it seems to me that it's just another excuse for trying to justify high prices. In the past, if you wanted to donate anywhere, you would do it on site via the supplied collecting tins.
It's a bit like restaurant bills already including a 15% tip!
Again looking at the prices on some of the sites:
Seaworld lists a Family Ticket, yet the cost of the ticket is exactly the same as buying individual tickets (why list it?)
London Dungeon's adult prices are:
On the door £24, online (timed entrance slot) £16, omine (no timed slot for that day) £28.52. Online are "priority entrance"
Most places seem to want to charge (a lot) extra just so you don't queue (although you may still have to queue to some extent anyway). This seems to be yet another way of getting extra money from people.
Oh come on. 1971? That was 4 years before I was even born. Saying 'the world is a little bit different' is kind of an understatement.
I'm sure you wouldn't want to be being paid the same amount as you were in 1971.
The Monument is nice, I really liked it but don't go saying it's anything like the same view as you'd get in many other places, the view isn't that amazing, and not that high up either, just look at the office buildings next to it.
It's comparing very different things.
You say that places like Madam Tussauds are pricing themselves out of the market? Try looking outside in the mornings, or go inside on any day. They are packed. Tourists are lapping them up even at those prices.
As with many other places you do save money by booking in advance. If you don't look into where you are going you will be punished. Look at Alton Towers. £46 on the door or half that if you book a week in advance.
I was using Kew Gardens as an example of the way prices have changed. In 1971, my wages were about £20 a week. At 6d admission, that was 1/800th of my wages. On the same basis, £16 today would equal me earning £12,800 a week! Based purely on a pro rata figure, 6p would be the equivalent of around 73p for somebody earning £580/week today. Kew isn’t perhaps a good example because as I mentioned, 6p was really a nominal fee and probably didn’t bear much relation to the actual upkeep costs.
I expect prices to rise with inflation, give or take, but it’s no good pricing people out. I’m sure that there are lots of rich people and rich visitors who can afford the tourist prices, but I’m sure that there are also a lot more who can’t who would go if the prices were cheaper, or tourists would visit more places.
I know that tickets can often be bought cheaper online, but that means having to plan what you’re doing in advance, even down to a specific time slot in some cases. That is OK when you can keep to a rigid schedule, nobody geys sick on the day and the weather is guaranteed to be good, but not so much use if the weather is poor – especially for outside activities or where you’re only visiting for the view – such as the O2, London Eye etc.
As somebody mentioned, you can get better deals where, if you pay a bit extra, you can get a ticket that will give you admission as many times as you want in a year. This is fine if you live in London and are likely to visit the attraction more than once or regularly and something I would probably use if it was of interest to me. However, upping the price and then trying to justify it by saying “the ticket’s valid for entry for a year” with no option of a cheaper one-off ticket, like the LT museum has done, is of no benefit for people who only want to go once. This would probably include virtually all of the tourists who come to London for a holiday.
“Two for one” and other discount tickets are fine if you already have the qualifying product (e.g. cheap day return ticket or whatever) or coupons, but again that is usually down to advance planning. If you’re just wandering around, either on your own or with others and decide “let’s go in there”
An interesting reading on the voluntary donations link. However I will not give my personal details when buying tickets at the door (you have no option online) as too many firms / charities either then bombard you with phone calls / junk mail or sell these details on (I’ve got caught too many times in the past). My understanding from a friend who bought a ticket at the LT Museum is that they are pressurising people into filling the forms in when they buy their ticket “so you can get free entry for a year” rather than just being issued with a ticket as happened in the past. No doubt other places are the same.
I like the Monument – visited it a few times in the past. I’m certain the first time I went that it didn’t have the anti-suicide netting (oe whatever) there. It could do with a lift though!
Can't remember the prices now though!!
TridentScan | Privacy Policy