For those not from NSW, Sunday is "Family Funday" on public transport - probably the only decent initiative in NSW Public Transport for the past 20 years. For $2.50 per adult and child over 4, you get tickets which cover buses, trains, ferries and light rail for the entire NSW network. Being a miser, and a parent it's a doubly good deal for me and my family tries to use it as often as possible.
So the plan was that we'd head off into the city on the train, catch a ferry to Luna Park, take the kids for a couple of rides, have a picnic in the park with some pre-made sandwiches and head home on the train afterwards for a fun, yet inexpensive day out.
All went to plan until we got to Luna Park. Unbeknownst to us, the term 'budget' is obviously not recognised by the management of this establishment. To be fair, the pricing for unlimited rides is not too bad, but unfortunately they don't seem to have considered people in our situation who just wanted to go in, have a ride or two, and then leave.
Prices are as follows (from http://www.lunaparksydney.com/ride-passes-and-bookings)
UNLIMITED RIDES PASSES
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Buy your Unlimited Rides Pass online to save money! Valid for use on any one day the Park is open to the public in Term 2 2012, from 1 May - 28 June 2012.
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Buy At Park
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Buy
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Off Peak
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Peak
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Online
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Unlimited Rides - Yellow (Over 130cm only)
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$39.95
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$34.95
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Unlimited Rides - Green (106-129cm only)
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$29.95
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$24.95
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Unlimited Rides - Red (85-105cm only)
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$19.95
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$14.95
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Add to this the fact that, with a 2 year old in the 'Red' category and a 4 year old in the 'Green', most rides require an accompanying adult who then must pay $29.95 to accompany a 'Green' child and/or $19.95 for a 'Red' and you are looking at minimum $100 for a family of 4 (slightly cheaper if bought online).
Standalone ride tickets are $10 a pop!
This means
- $20 to go on the dodgems!
- $10 to go the carousel (luckily the guy taking tickets at his one felt sorry for us and only took 1 ticket for the child)!
I swear, I almost turned around and left before paying anything, and if it wasn't for the fact we had spent the last couple of days over-hyping the whole thing to our two kids then we would have done just that.
I wonder how much business the Park has lost over the years due to this pricing policy?
To rub salt into the wound, we waited in line for at least 20 minutes to get these tickets. I also chatted to some people who had waited an hour in the ticket queue including a couple of poor souls who had pre-purchased their tickets online but still had to wait in the normal queue just to pick them up.
Poor form Luna Park. Makes me want to spell it's name backwards. (Think about it).
