So how can theme parks turn the corner? As fans, we want to see financially healthy theme parks. Discounts are great, but world-class new attractions, well-maintained parks and experienced employees are great, too. And we get those only when parks are making money over the long term. A profitable industry also encourages competition and the construction of new parks and park expansions.
Starting today, I'll be sharing some of the ideas I've had about what parks can do to increase in-park guest spending, based on what I've seen on my cross-country roadtrip this summer. None of my ideas will involve soaking customers, simply to wring more cash from us. (Ultimately, I write for the customers and am on their side.) My ideas are designed to suggest ways that parks can provide extra value to us, value that some (if not many) of us would be willing to pay a little extra to get.
Let's start with the beginning of the day.
Suggestion #1: Theme parks ought to offer more and better breakfast programs
A recent Theme Park Insider vote of the week found that just eight percent of theme park fans eat breakfast in the park. The plurality, 40 percent, ate at their hotels - many of which, presumably, offer free breakfast with the night's stay. But 21 percent of readers reported eating at an off-site restaurant. That's money that the parks could be, and should be, getting.
But to do that, parks have to provide more value than the outside restaurants do.
Here are two ways to do that:
1. Let breakfast eaters get in the park early. I love the program that Legoland California has offered. For an extra charge, visitors get an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at the park's underrated Sports Cafe, as well as early access to all the rides in the park's Imagination Zone, including the Technic Coaster. Think of it as Disney's Early Magic Hours, but only for people who buy breakfast in the park.
Given that our number one piece of advice at Theme Park Insider is to get to the park early, how many more people would choose instead to eat at the park is that guaranteed them first crack at some of the parks' most popular attractions? Plenty, I'd bet.
2. Give breakfast eaters a unique interactive experience. Plenty of parks offer character breakfasts. While those provide great options for families with kids, parks shouldn't limit themselves to that segment of the market.
Park managers should ask, with whom else might visitors want to have breakfast? The SeaWorld parks offer a popular Breakfast with Shamu program, where visitors eat a buffet while listening to and talking with the parks' killer whale trainers, who lead a show with the whales. Visitors sit next to a tank beside the main show tank, where they can get much closer to the whales than they can during the regular park performances. That's huge value (pun very much intended) for Shamu lovers.
You don't need killer whales to do that program. Parks with high-quality live entertainment could do a breakfast with the performers, offering both performances in a more intimate setting and a Q&A with the artists.
Oh wait, here's a third:
3. Do both. My biggest problem with character breakfasts and the like is that they leave me in a restaurant while other parks visitors are bagging rides with the shortest lines of the day. I love when parks offer an earlier option, where I can finish the breakfast before the park opens and... they let me ahead of the crowd at the rope drop to make my way back to the top rides. (FWIW, parks could double their money by offering a second run of the breakfast at park opening time for later arrivals.)
Granted, these programs tend to be more expensive than a regular breakfast, even if the extra expense is justified by the value delivered. But parks could do better in attracting dollars from visitors who don't want to spend anything extra, beyond the typical cost of a restaurant breakfast.
Here's how:
4. Offer more variety and higher quality at the front of the park. Visitors should be able to choose from a traditional full breakfast (eggs, waffles or pancakes, meat, etc.) or lighter fare, such as yogurt, fruit, cereal and pastries. Park managers should scope out what hotels at their visitors' price points are offering and replicate that. I'd love to see a theme park with omelette and waffle stations, in addition to heat lamp and refrigerator case selections. (Bonus points for egg white and soy options, too.)
And whatever choices a park offers, put them at the front of the park, in front of the rope drop, so that early arrivals can finish their breakfast before entering the park.
I've saved my biggest suggestion for last, though. If parks do nothing else to better serve potential breakfast customers, they should do this:
5. Get a decent coffee vendor. On our entire roadtrip, my coffee aficionado wife reported getting exactly one decent coffee drink in a theme park.
At the Starbucks on International Street in Kings Island.
For all the great food we had otherwise at the two Busch parks we visited, the coffee was consistently lame. Either spend the bucks to install a fancy machine and lure some good baristas to run it, or contract out to a firm like Starbucks, Peets or Coffee Bean. Spring for high quality beans, tea, milk (including soy) and syrups, too. Instant coffee and flavored artificial creamers don't cut it anymore.
So... what do you have to say about theme park breakfast options? What would you like to see?
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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, often underappreciated by many. Many of my group, for example, skip it entirely or opt for something mediocre, like a bowl of cheap cereal.
Very few Disney, Universal, or Busch theme park restaurants offer a good breakfast. The resorts often have good options, but that usually requires extra travel.
Offer the early entry, or, at the very least, a breakfast that concludes just before opening.
My only problem is I don't know how many people this kind of system would appeal to, especially at the bigger theme parks around the world. Whilst everyone on here carefully plans their trip and aims to be at the park early some more casual guests (which is the large majority of guests) seem to enjoy sleeping-in or taking their time getting to the parks in the morning. I simply don't see this appealing to those people.
I'd like to see some sort of front-of-the-line system introduced for breakfast customers. For example if you have breakfast at Magic Kingdom then you get a Fastpass valid for a number of attractions throughout the day. This way guests don't have to worry about getting up to get in the park before opening and they still get queue skipping advantages by paying for a breakfast at the park.
However, the hotel breakfasts are not always free. I would venture to bet many are at eaten at Disney or Universal resorts as well (so they get the money).
I will say, EPCOT seems to have the best of them all within the Land with a counter and character table service.
The issue I see is that to eat breakfast and get into the park early, you need to get up extra early. MK does have early breakfasts so maybe somebody is gettin the hint!
I also like combining #3 and #4, providing excellent breakfast choices prior to the rope drop at the front of the park.
At Silver Dollar City (Branson, MO), Eva & Delilah's Bakery is just inside the park entrance, in the main courtyard area. It is open one hour before the official park opening time and offers some delicious breakfast items in an open, air conditioned environment. I ALWAYS make it a point to stop and try some of their fresh breakfast offerings before I tour the park. It is an excellent way to begin the immersive experience offered by SDC.
Also, breakfast is not the only meal that should be improved at most theme parks across the nation. I have yet to visit a Cedar Fair or Six Flags park that had even one destination eating establishment that was better than the local fast food stop a few miles from the park. Improving restaurant quality across the board at those two chains specifically would be a HUGE bonus for visitors.
On a recent trip to DL we got to the park early to get in the never-ending line for the finding nemo subs and I ran off to track us down a hend-held breakfast option. I came back with bananas and coffee, I would have rather seen a breakfast burrito or something a little more stick-to-your-ribs.
This brings me to another point, they know people are trapped in that line for hours, why is the banana cart over by the Matterhorn? why isn't it rolling back and forth along the line, eminating the delicious scent of fresh baked cinamon buns to people who have nothing better to do for an hour than talk to their spouses?
There's your money maker, and a crowd pleaser, sell to the poor schmoes waiting in line. My wife would break me if there was a pin store in the queue area of Indiana Jones.
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