Mum calls for change to theme park price policy (From Warrington Guardian)

Westbrook mum's Alton Towers plea proves popular on Facebook

1:00pm Friday 7th September 2012 in News

A WESTBROOK mum says she is standing up for the ‘Great British family’ and calling on Alton Towers to change its pricing policies.

Carolyn Wright, of Grant Close, says it is wrong for the Staffordshire attraction’s water park to charge adult prices for children aged over 12 on the park’s Facebook page.

But she was stunned when almost 100,000 people agreed with her as the comment received more than 8,000 responses and more than 99,000 ‘likes’ from other fans of the park.

The post has since been deleted by the theme park giant but Carolyn, aged 39, says the debate has continued and gone viral with many people still sharing the story on the social networking site.

She said: “This is a campaign to stick up for families who want to go out and enjoy time with their children and give them some memories while helping the economy along the way.

“Me and my husband had booked time off during the summer holidays to go with my 12-year-old son and 13-year-old niece but we couldn’t believe it when we were told they would be classed as adults and we couldn’t have a family ticket.

“It’s ridiculous for me to pay full adult prices for them. But it’s not the cost I’m arguing about, it’s the policy.

“I’m sick of the tourist industry pushing families away and sticking an age limit on everything.”

The full time-working mum to Lewis, aged 12, and Jenson, aged three, sent her complaint to the theme park’s feedback page but when she did not get a reply, she posted it on Facebook.

She believes there should be a standard family ticket for children up to the age of 16 or discounts for families.

Carolyn added: “During a recession people are thinking that it’s too expensive to do things as a family.

“Alton Towers is a treat and not something you do every day but corporate companies are taking advantage and they don’t seem to be seeing the bigger picture.”

ALTON Towers has fought back over claims its pricing policy needs to be changed and say the theme park offers ‘excellent value for money’.

A spokesman added: “There is no other resort or attraction in the UK with facilities to match ours and we offer very keenly priced packages online.

“Over the years we have investigated numerous options for ticket pricing but splitting the ticket types into two (aged four to 11 and 12 plus) is simply the most practical.

“We charge over 12s as ‘adults’ simply because at this age on average they exceed the 1.4m height required to experience the biggest rides and therefore all the resort has to offer.

“We do accept that there are other methods of charging that are implemented in some other attractions, for example charging by ride or by wristband, but we believe that this would work out as a much more expensive option.

“In addition, advance booking would be more difficult and we wouldn’t be able to run the special offers that we currently do through major retailers.

“Overall, we believe that our pricing structure best reflects the availability of our attractions to all ages.”