Ouch not cheap, but then again central London and cheap don't go. I think we will miss the rides if they are that expensive as 4 people going, £24 to get on 1 ride.. I think not.

bensaund wrote:

Ouch not cheap, but then again central London and cheap don't go. I think we will miss the rides if they are that expensive as 4 people going, £24 to get on 1 ride.. I think not.

Couple of German beers and that £24 will pass without you even realising... see what they are doing here?

so let me get my calculator out:

Train tickets £35.40
2 big rides £48
2 small rides £32
Lunch £40?
spend at some stalls £20

Comes to a big.....  £175....

Without an MAP, that can pay for a family of 4 plus petrol to Visit Alton Towers without even using a BOGOF voucher, if I used a BOGOF, then we could throw in all day dining too!

For me this is now the difference between spending money and being tight and not spending anything out of disgust at the cost. Do they not do a ride package, for example all the rides for a set cost? I would happily pay £20 PP if we could do all the rides and ride them a few times. They don't have prices for rides on the site yet.

But looking at the cost of some of the other attractions: http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/tickets/

Ice Skating (Hyde park £34 plus £35 train = £69) or (my local ice rink 1 mile away £19.95 + £2 petrol = £21.95) .....

This is great if its as couple who are happy to flash the cash, but for a family of 4... I'd rather put that money towards MAP passes for both my nieces then we can enjoy unlimited days out at 30+ attractions for a whole year. Does this make me sound tight or sensible with my money?

What are people's views or am I the only one who thinks the cost is an issue? Because I know for a fact once your in the place you get pressured and forced to spend every penny you have.

Some things you have to remember:-

1. This is London and not a theme park in Staffordshire.
2. These rides are unique (well some) and come from Germany and Holland at a high price.
3. 60% of each ride price is paid to the organiser as you can imagine renting Hyde Park wont be cheap.
4. Wristbands etc wouldn't work here due to the sheer amount of people who visit the queues are bad enough.
5. The sheer cost of everything involved, roadways, toilets, security, power etc etc has to be covered as this is a mobile event and not a theme park where everything is set in place already

You mentioned about being forced to spend, I think this is un-true I have visited WW many times last year and on a couple of occasions only had a walk around, soaked up the ambiance and had a quick beer. You can easily spend a long evening there.

In other news Steve has updated his Facebook page with some more arrivals including the Wild Mouse XXL https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 308&type=1

Carousel Bar, that's all I'm going for!

Winter Wonderland prices are about right for the experience offered. If they did ever offer wristbands they would have to be in excess of around £70 per person to make a profit. That's not going into the nightmare it would cause with the already large queues.

Remember this is a highly themed environment with rides of a caliber not often seen in the UK and set up in the middle of London. The prices are going to reflect this.

I respect your opinions and if your happy to pay, but when I have to pay for 4 people it is very expensive. If your only paying for yourself, then £50 is good value for money. For most people they will only be paying for them self.

For me it is too expensive, call me tight but I want my money to go further, hence I have an MAP. Add on top I have 8 birthdays and Christmas to deal with at the same time, this is expense for me which I can do with out. Its a nice idea. Even my work is offering half price tickets through the social club, but as I am only a member, I still have to pay for 3 others and I go half price.

For £80 I can get my nieces two annual Sealife passes, which gives 1 years entry to the Sealife centres, which will be great on days out at the beach and as a bonus 1 free entry to either Thorpe, Chessie, Lego or Alton, now that is value for money.

I know London is more expensive, hence I don't live in London, for me what you get and what you pay doesn't add up. It is a shame as it looks great, but I'm not prepared to pay £175-£200 and when you have two children asking to do ice skating or go on rides at one of these places, if you say no, there is no point in going, hence I calculated 2 big rides and 2 small rides and some other spend.

As for the rides coming from Germany, yes the ride owners need to make money, but if the ride was not at Hyde Park, would it be in use elsewhere at such a busy location, I don't think so. I would like to do the calculation on how much it costs to rent/buy the ride and transport it compared to the amount of money they are making, I'm sure they have paid their mortgage off in only a few years.

Enough from me, the event looks great, it would be good if Alton or Thorpe did something like that. Just imagine Alton freezing the lake for ice skating and opening the park with a Christmas theme, I could see that really working there.

Why does this have to be constantly compared to a bloody MAP - this is a completely different event. If we are going along them lines lets compare:-

A free entry village fete VS Pit seats at the Monaco Grand Prix shall we?

You mentioned about costs...and lets pick a mediocre ride "Power Tower 2" - traveled from Germany on 6 lorry's plus another one for the living accommodation plus the support van so in all 7.5 loads.

So ignoring the van at lets say £200 in fuel (added later)

That's 7 lorry s driving 714 miles each way x2 = 1428 miles x 7 = 9996 miles at £1 a mile (average on a load) = £9996.00 driving costs then we can allow £400 each load on the ferry so thats £2800..

So far we have £11800.00 then we have to add staff on normally 5 people lets set it at £6 a hour which is reasonable I think.. so 36 days at 12hrs a day that's 432 hrs x 5 = £12, 690 in wages

Total so far.. £24,990  added onto that hotels, fuel to run the ride and insurance and profit so a conservative estimate is £8000 in hotels, £20,000 in fuel and £2000 in insurance total £54,000 ish..

Then add on staff food, owner food and living expenses and profit we should be up to £70,000 by now AND THIS IS JUST ONE RIDE. So with other odds and sods probably brings it to £80,000

So a £6 ride which £4 of that is taken by the organisers doesn't seem so bad does it???

Oh and ive been on Power Tower 2 at Basel in Switzerland and was £5 a go.

Mark, the costs may be real to the event organiser, but as a paying customer I want a much for my money as I can get and I can't see value for money when having to pay for a family of 4.

As I said above, if just paying for myself, £50 would be acceptable. Add the costs of Christmas and all the birthdays I have on, its not value for money for me. I am sure others may be in this situation.

So what do I do, go to the event but don't go on the rides and don't go ice skating, it kind of makes going pointless.

You didn't get my point did you?

The cost of providing these rides is vast - so the cost has to be passed onto the end user.

From previous visits the whole place is packed and riding full on all rides.

Whilst I do have sympathy with you with a large family and added costs without being funny if you cant afford it you could always go to another attraction.

Stevie has also updated facebook with some new photos https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 308&type=1 looks like Mellors Zip Line has arrived along with the rest of Power Tower 2

Oh I got your point indeed and if it was just the two of us it would be affordable.

Yes the rides are expensive, but we have a travelling fair which comes to town, they probably get less than 1% of the visitors that go to Hyde Park, but they only charge £2-3 a ride and on a Wednesday all rides are £1! They might have bigger rides in Hyde to my local fair, but they have a good 100,000+ people using them and they are charging twice the price with 7 day operation and longer hours.

Yes I can afford it, but it doesn't seem like value for money for families, it is only worth it if you pay for yourself.

Anyway I'm sure they won't miss my cash, I'm off to Chessington for a free Zoo day, Might even streatch myself to a Sealife Centre  in a few weeks

Who is the zip line manufactured by? And does anyone know how tall it is?

I will be attending this year.

I will only be riding Air, so they'll only get £6 out of me. If the rides were more fairly priced (£4 each?) then I would go on four or five rides, and they'd get £20 out of my pocket. On off peak days, when the rides aren't being filled to capacity, it's far more logical to implement the lower pricing.

SwEDEN wrote:

Who is the zip line manufactured by? And does anyone know how tall it is?

Its made by the owners James Mellors I think not sure on how tall though

I think that the prices are fair peak prices but its a shame that there aren't off peak prices too.

Unfortunately winter wonderland doesn't have 'off peak' times. It is perpetually busy and packed out. They do have 'child prices' on some of the rides though as far as i'm aware.

Do we know what flat's appart from 'Showtime' and 'Booster' will be in the Alpine Adventure this year?

I know the Avalanche waltzer is there again as is the Deep Impact Miami but there could be others there

Dodgems (Penguine Party) as well.

That would appear to be it.

Sorry to keep asking so many questions but is there an official WW store where you can by WW merchandise? And also could you tell me if it was the same Snow Jet machine that appeared at both the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 WW or were they different machines? (Snow Jet 1 and Snow Jet 2). Also would you be able to tell me which one would be appearing this year?