Merchandise/F&B price changes

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
AstroDan

Just for the record, Photo Passes have now risen to £25.00 on the theme park, a discount still applies for Annual Pass holders though to I presume £20.00.

Drinks prices have also increased in the resort hotels on some drinks (such as a pint of Becks is now £3.20 up from £3.00).

In better news, Flambo's remains at £15.95, down from £18.95 a year ago.
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Spike
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Oooooo ouch, thats a big rise the photo pass that is. :shock: Beer is no real surprise. I want Alton to be back in charge of photo pricing. :(
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AstroDan

Picsolve are very expensive, and I don't think the photo's are good value. However they are at least vastly superior to photo's at many other parks.

At Phantasialand and Europa Park the photos are around €6 (£4.80) but they're really poor quality compared to Alton's.

Still, £25.00 for 5 photo's is a LOT :(
Kaycee

£25 is extortionate considering the actual costs of printing out a single photo! :shock:

Was only a matter of time with alcohol really, hasn't risen to my knowledge in the last few years.
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kingcriplet
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[quote=""AstroDan.""]Picsolve are very expensive, and I don't think the photo's are good value. However they are at least vastly superior to photo's at many other parks.

At Phantasialand and Europa Park the photos are around €6 (£4.80) but they're really poor quality compared to Alton's.

Still, £25.00 for 5 photo's is a LOT :([/quote]

Can't tell any difference between the quality of the photos from Nemesis and Blackmamba - both say picsolve on them too.

I agree though, £25 is shockingly expensive.
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Rob L
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Well £25 means £5 per photo which is very expensive for what is supposed to be a money saving deal. I can't remember exactly but I swear it wasn't that long ago you paid £5 for a single photo. :shock:
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Corkscrewed

I don't really think thats on tbh. £25 for a photopass is shocking. I think I'll skip itt from now on thank you :D
LiamSAFC

Another example of the pinch being felt all across the country.

Now, is it just me, or are businesses all across the UK being pressured in to the hike by our Media? Fair enough, the economic resources aren't great at the moment, but to charge as much as they do this season, I think Alton are trying to make a quick quid out of this reason. There has been so many price hikes, and yes perhaps you are getting better quality, but high prices are being felt not only in the Resort, but all over the UK.

£3.20 for a beer is extortionate, Flambo's ain't too bad and the photo passes, it just seems to me that the resort management keep thinking that Families are just made of money, quite frankly, this isn't the case. It's just too bland for Alton to keep blaming it on fluxuating prices with the threshold of our economy (not that they were, but with the on-coming Media surrounding the price of 'a loaf of bread' being the highest in recent decades) it just seems that Alton have an easy excuse to put a excess charge on things within the resort.
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Ryan Kingdaka
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I agree with Liam. The prices for most things at Alton Towers could be lower. Alton wouldn't make as much as they could, but it's not just them feeling the credit crunch, everyone is!

The price of petrol just to get to alton towers, and then home again is extortionate, then theres entrance fee's, food and drink, parking and any other expenses. For a family of say 3-4 to have a good day out it's costing them £130.00 - £160.00!

We all know Alton Towers are in it for the money, as at the end of the day, they are a business doing what a business is supposed to do, but they could be a little more lenient with the pricing.

Fuel prices have gone up, but Arriva (usually a bus service I use on a daily basis) haven't risen their prices, so how can Alton and Picsolve make such price hikes!?
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AstroDan

[quote=""kingcriplet""][quote=""AstroDan.""]Picsolve are very expensive, and I don't think the photo's are good value. However they are at least vastly superior to photo's at many other parks.

At Phantasialand and Europa Park the photos are around 6 (£4.80) but they're really poor quality compared to Alton's.

Still, £25.00 for 5 photo's is a LOT :([/quote]

Can't tell any difference between the quality of the photos from Nemesis and Blackmamba - both say picsolve on them too.

I agree though, £25 is shockingly expensive.[/quote]

Oddly, Black Mamba are good quality but the rest aren't Picsolve. Colorado pics are really bad!

Alcohol prices, whilst expensive, are manageable with discount thankfully!
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jordi20012002
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£3.20 for a pint is a joke, especially when the beer at AT hotel is crap
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Chris-TT

Most pubs and bars I visit I expect to pay about £3.20 a pint these days, I really don’t think that’s all that expensive especially with annual pass discount which makes it £2.56 a pint.
Photo passes do seem quite extortionate, I think a 25% price increase mid season is a joke.
The photo passes are a bit like the Phantasialand money card, which offers you a discount for turning you cash into there money. At the time when you buy it you see big savings, but you don’t end up using it half as much as you think.
Would the average family really buy 5 photographs during the day if they hadn’t pre purchased them? I doubt it very much. I think buying individual photos is the way to go.
Big Dave

add more kids rides, make more restrictions against the older visitors and now charge them more for beer n photos. Before long you will ave no adults at all n just kids runnin around
Crofty

[quote=""The BBC""]The Credit crunch is coming! Ye are all doomed!! [/quote]

£3.20 isn't really that bad considering what you'll pay elsewhere for a pint nowadays. Luton Airport was £3.70! The price was bound to rise anyway after the budget wasn't it? As Chris says with the Annual Pass it's much better value.
The photopass price is shocking. I was tempted to get one for £15 after the annual pass discount of £5 but now I wouldn't even think about it. How can they justify the increase? It's costs pennys to print those things out and surely the equipment has paid for itself thousands of times over by now.
It's too easy now to blame the "global credit crunch" for anything.

:D :D
Kaycee

£3.20 is a lot of money for a pint of lager, but it's not extortionate and it's pretty average in relation to the rest of the country. Annual pass discount actually makes it cheaper than the lager I was serving from behind the bar of a village pub two years ago!

Though I'll be giving the photopass a miss from now on - their only saving grace is that they're valid all year so it's not a case of needing to buy five photos in one day, but like Crofty says, the price of printing a single photo is pennies.
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Photos are £6 each now, or 2 for £10. Shocking really, though personally i save on ticket price, so I've got more money to spend on park, but still....bit pricey. Good photos though, I will admit.
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Spike
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[quote=""jordi20012002""]£3.20 for a pint is a joke, especially when the beer at AT hotel is crap[/quote]

I beg to differ, Hoegarden isn't a cheap beer and if you were to buy a small bottle from Tesco it would cost £1.25 so for a pint of the stuff with the usual leisure industry mark up is good value, especially when your pass brings it down to £2.56 a pint which is very competitive.
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kingcriplet
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[quote=""Chris-TT""]Most pubs and bars I visit I expect to pay about £3.20 a pint these days, I really don’t think that’s all that expensive especially with annual pass discount which makes it £2.56 a pint.
Photo passes do seem quite extortionate, I think a 25% price increase mid season is a joke.
The photo passes are a bit like the Phantasialand money card, which offers you a discount for turning you cash into there money. At the time when you buy it you see big savings, but you don’t end up using it half as much as you think.
Would the average family really buy 5 photographs during the day if they hadn’t pre purchased them? I doubt it very much. I think buying individual photos is the way to go.[/quote]

Where the bloody hell do you drink?!? :D Think of us poor Northerners visiting down south! :P
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Jon
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I was about to post that the photopasses are actually pointless now considering that a photo is £5 anyway, only remembering that they are now six flaming pounds! It's ridiculous, it has to be said. Buying a "double" is still better value.
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Wes
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The price has gone back down on photos apparently and there will be special offers next week on some items.
Last edited by Wes on Tue Jun 10, 2008 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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