Or did your tastes and preferences shift? Did you love one park when you were younger, only to switch your loyalty to other parks as you grew older... or as parks changed?
I'm sure that there are as many answers to these questions as there are people reading this post. We all have our own stories, as theme park fans. But collectively, our loyalty to various parks over the course of our lives shapes the industry.
Kids love going to Legoland when they are in elementary school. Once you get tall (and brave) enough to go on thrill rides, you might fall in love with Six Flags or Cedar Fair's coaster-driven parks. Once upon a time, turning 21 meant a new love for visiting SeaWorld and Busch Gardens (and their old free beer giveaways). The theme park industry offers well-targeted experiences for pretty much every stage in life.
But the parks that lead this industry are the ones that can capture fans as toddlers and keep them as fans throughout the entire lives. In my Orange County Register column this week, I write about Disney's success in positioning itself as a lifestyle brand, and how that has helped its theme park attendance to remain strong after years and years of aggressive price increases.
When a theme park ties itself to a beloved brand, it's no longer a commoditized experience that you can easily substitute with a day at any other park. Only Disney offers its princesses, Star Wars, and Radiator Springs. Only Universal offers the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Only Legoland offers Ninjago. It's easy to think of theme parks as being in competition with each other, but more and more, they really aren't. The top parks are trying to create unique experiences that you cannot find anywhere else.
That way, you won't price a day at Disneyland versus a day at Knott's Berry Farm. Disney wants you to see Disney as a unique experience and for you to price it relative to how badly you (and your kids) want to spend the day there. And with a line-up of characters and franchises you've likely fallen in love with — thanks to movies, TV shows, and even previous visits to the parks — you're likely to be willing to spend quite a bit for that visit.
Yes, spending more than $100 for a day in the parks seems nuts to a lot of people. But here's the industry's secret: Disney and Universal are okay with you thinking that's too much to pay. Why? Because Disney and Universal would be happy to show you their multi-day and annual passes that can reduce the cost of a day in their parks to less than the one-day price of going to your local Six Flags.
Because Disney has won so many people's loyalty as a lifestyle brand, it knows that those people will take the time to look into all of its pricing options — to find one that they can use to justify a trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. That's the power — and the reward — of creating a lifestyle brand.
Of course, for many of us reading this website, our favorite lifestyle brand isn't "Disney." It's "theme parks." We transition from Disney and Legoland as little kids, to Six Flags as teens, to Universal as young adults, and back to Disney and Legoland as parents. And somewhere along the way, we just start looking at everything the industry has to offer. We discover places such as Efteling and Ocean Park. We plan summer roadtrips to places such as Santa Claus, Indiana and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Because we are not loyal to any single brand, we can price more efficiently, choosing the parks that offer the best value at any given moment. Unfortunately for our bank accounts, though, our loyalty to all the industry's brands often means that we ultimately end up spending way more on theme park visits than we care admit to ourselves, much less anyone else. (How many different companies' annual passes do you own right now?)
So what's your story? Where does your loyalty lie in this business?
Read Robert's column:
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The Magic Kingdom is for all Kids (I'm just a bigger kid at 67 years old now). EPCOT is for older Kids (Yep, that's me).
Hollywood Studios is for someone else. I like it, but my loyalty to HS just went out the window after my latest visit with all the construction. What a waste of a day.
Before I went to Animal Kingdom, I thought it would be another Zoo. I was wrong. I like it!
I like some changes, but I just think there are too many changes going on now. The changes I'd like to see aren't being done. But I will be back soon.
I will say the best parks by far though are the Disney Parks and I don't see how there can be any debate about that. The attractions such as Flight of Passage and Tower of Terror, nighttime shows like Happily Ever After and World of Color, sheer amount of quality attractions that appeal to all groups are far superior at the Disney Parks than any other company. And they are generally clean and well ran (although the crowds can often make them difficult to enjoy...but their parks are always crowded for a reason).
I have the exact opposite opinion of the poster above me. I like Disney Parks more now with FP+ and the Universal Parks, while still enjoy visiting, I don't like anything new they've added over the past 10 years. Simpsons makes me dizzy, HRRR is just a bad ride, FJ makes me dizzy, Transformers makes me dizzy, Gringotts makes me dizzy, Kong is OK (I like the figure at the end but not much else about the ride), and I haven't ridden Fallon. Keep in mind I ride coasters all the time and can ride Mission Space no problem. I don't know what it is about Universal but most all the rides they've added over the past ten years have been way too fast paced (moving from screen to screen to screen) and disorienting to the point where they are not enjoyable.
On the other hand rides like Radiator Springs and Flight of Passage are absolutely fantastic: major e-tickets that are multi-generational but still got some thrill aspect. I think Disney in general have always been the masters at that but the new rides push the envelope and its going to be tough to top them. I also think the re-do's they've done such as Star Tours, Guardians, and Test Track have been wonderful improvements, and the smaller attractions like Frozen and Seven Dwarfs are very nice as well. And while i'm not a fan of queue management systems in general I think FP+ is by far the best of any that are out there. Being able to know when our FP's are takes stress off the day in the park and it's not a stereotypical "come shell out even more money to have a good time" like all the other companies have.
I also like how the Disney parks have a lot of other things to do that aren't rides and don't get lines: the world showcase shows, Hall of Presidents, Tiki Room...things like that.
I love the two major Herschend parks but absolutely hate the one in Georgia so my opinions are mixed on that. I also think Dollywood over the past decade or so has lost a bit of its charm and become more like a normal "rides park." There seem to be less friendly empty nesters working/visiting and more of a teenager/young adult crowd because of all the big coasters they have been adding. I still think its a good park though but i'd like to see some more emphasis going into the next few years on hospitality, entertainment, and food. I would say SDC/DW are probably my second favorite parks behind Disney's.
Six Flags has always been very inconsistent, sometimes they are fine other days they are flat out bad. The seasonal budgets for operations and maintenance seem to change dramatically from year to year and the staff is entirely seasonal and gets good groups and bad groups. Sadly the excessive amount of advertising in the parks is the norm now (it wasn't like this back when I frequented SF parks 15 or so years ago).
Oddly enough MM and GADV are two of my least favorite SF parks, for some reason the smaller ones seem to draw more of a family crowd while MM and GADV are more ghetto. Also while I have no problem with adding flats some of the "major rides" they've been adding the past few years are laughable (tilt a whirl and super loop advertised as big new rides).
I will say they have improved since the Premier Parks days though when the parks were all dirty, poorly ran, and had a rough crowd. The parks now are cleaner and nicer though still the most inconsistent of the major chains.
Never been a big CF fan although I do like CP and KI. Been to all of their parks and while I appreciate them for what they are, the majority of them are just boring to me (this includes the majority of the Paramount Parks they acquired). I know it's strange I like KI but not a big fan of KD for some reason...the themes of the park just seem like such an identity crises with the rides that are in them. If I remember correctly Intimidator 305 is in the Africa section?? lol. Also the park atmosphere just kind of lacked whereas KI seems more like a fully fleshed out park.
The other parks (Knotts, CGA, CW, WOF, VF, Carowinds, Dorney, MIA) are the definition of "meh." Like CP, CW is a huge park with a lot of rides, but most all of the coasters suck (with the obvious exception of two) and I don't do intense flat rides so I wasn't a huge fan of the park.
Couldn't agree more ... so much so that I'll put EXTREMELY in all caps
Disney World is nice but way too busy with many child meltdowns... Plus we stay offsite at a resort and never use magic hours.
But TPI will always be #1 place for info!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJOrfDa4WAw
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