Greatest Rip-off Since Celtic Tiger Days!!

byronbay2

I was brought back to 2006/7 when I saw the prices being charged for the children's rides at the Winter Market on the Grand Parade. €3 for 1 trip down the roundy slide - are you fu*king kidding me???? No offers of any kind (not even 20 tokens for a mere €50 etc.) were available and I had foolishly told the 2 smallies, in advance, that they could go on every ride - slide, chairoplanes, train & carousel!! With hot chocolate and marshmallows at €3.50 (seems almost reasonable in comparison) and those delicious liquid chocolate/marshmallow/strawberry pots at €4.50, I managed to drop over 50 yos in less than half an hour.
Yeah, it was fun and the children enjoyed themselves but I drove home with the distinct impression that I had been violated anally. I also heard lots of other parents complaining about the rip-off but, of course, (like me) once you're there you can't really tell the children that the rides are too expensive.
I will definitely be doing a recce of this Fair next year before bringing the junior Bays and will stick strictly to the Winter Wonderland in The People's Park unless the prices have been reduced.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

MrFrisp

byronbay2 wrote: »

I was brought back to 2006/7 when I saw the prices being charged for the children's rides at the Winter Market on the Grand Parade. €3 for 1 trip down the roundy slide - are you fu*king kidding me???? No offers of any kind (not even 20 tokens for a mere €50 etc.) were available and I had foolishly told the 2 smallies, in advance, that they could go on every ride - slide, chairoplanes, train & carousel!! With hot chocolate and marshmallows at €3.50 (seems almost reasonable in comparison) and those delicious liquid chocolate/marshmallow/strawberry pots at €4.50, I managed to drop over 50 yos in less than half an hour.
Yeah, it was fun and the children enjoyed themselves but I drove home with the distinct impression that I had been violated anally. I also heard lots of other parents complaining about the rip-off but, of course, (like me) once you're there you can't really tell the children that the rides are too expensive.
I will definitely be doing a recce of this Fair next year before bringing the junior Bays and will stick strictly to the Winter Wonderland in The People's Park unless the prices have been reduced.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Thanks for the heads up Man..

Was going to bring the kids down there next weekend...Looks like it'll just be a "pass-through" now......Keep the money for something else.

€3.00 for 1 trip down a slide is a disgusting price to charge.
.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Was goin too go in there with 2 smallies...Think ill give it a skip now!

Outkast_IRE

3 euros to experience gravity

genius

MrFrisp

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

3 euros to experience gravity

genius

Yeah,,normally takes about 6 or 7 pints,,and a lot more money..;)
.

kub

We have 4 kids, they each got 2 goes on that slide, so at 3 Euro a pop that was € 24, we did let the girl at the ticket booth know about our disgust.
Our own kids may be young but they know about politics, we just said it was all Fianna Fails fault and there were no complaints.

leahyl

Completely agree with you - I don't have kids but someone in work was telling me about that - absolutely CRAZY price, recession or not! I thought the Christmas market in general was lovely but when I heard that twas too much for me!! You'd be better off just bringing the kids to see a good Santa or just go into the Christmas 'grotto' (or whatever it's called) in Bishop Lucey Park

Harry Angstrom

It's not even much of a slide. Better off bringing them to Chuckies for the proper slides.

mikeym

Thats the peace park is it??

Heard Red Fm were promoting it yesterday.

the beer revolu

The problem here could well lay with what the city council are charging for the pitches rather than just greedy marketeers.

mr bungle.

leahyl wrote: »

Completely agree with you - I don't have kids but someone in work was telling me about that - absolutely CRAZY price, recession or not! I thought the Christmas market in general was lovely but when I heard that twas too much for me!! You'd be better off just bringing the kids to see a good Santa or just go into the Christmas 'grotto' (or whatever it's called) in Bishop Lucey Park

haven't been there this year but isn't the grand parade market and bishop Lucey park all the one thing?

evilivor

the beer revolu wrote: »

The problem here could well lay with what the city council are charging for the pitches rather than just greedy marketeers.

Maybe if they got a local firm to organise it they might be more sensitive to price issues rather than some big corporate events company who apparently aren't.

http://www.vscevents.ie/about

Would have thought there were plenty of Cork event companies well capable of running it.

Dob74

byronbay2 wrote: »

I was brought back to 2006/7 when I saw the prices being charged for the children's rides at the Winter Market on the Grand Parade. €3 for 1 trip down the roundy slide - are you fu*king kidding me???? No offers of any kind (not even 20 tokens for a mere €50 etc.) were available and I had foolishly told the 2 smallies, in advance, that they could go on every ride - slide, chairoplanes, train & carousel!! With hot chocolate and marshmallows at €3.50 (seems almost reasonable in comparison) and those delicious liquid chocolate/marshmallow/strawberry pots at €4.50, I managed to drop over 50 yos in less than half an hour.
Yeah, it was fun and the children enjoyed themselves but I drove home with the distinct impression that I had been violated anally. I also heard lots of other parents complaining about the rip-off but, of course, (like me) once you're there you can't really tell the children that the rides are too expensive.
I will definitely be doing a recce of this Fair next year before bringing the junior Bays and will stick strictly to the Winter Wonderland in The People's Park unless the prices have been reduced.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Just took my daughter. 3euro for a two minute spin on the merry go round.
Rip off, at least the park is free.

kingtut

It is great that people can warn each other about this thing. I don't have kids but I realise that once you are there with them it's impossible to tell them that they can't go on the ride....

... however, it is really important that your / our disgust at the rip off price is expressed to the person working there. If nobody complains in person then the prices will never drop :mad:

parsi

the beer revolu wrote: »

The problem here could well lay with what the city council are charging for the pitches rather than just greedy marketeers.

Last year the traders paid €72,085 in fees and the City Council paid €161,421 towards the costs.

Whole thing cost €253,506 !

http://www.corkcity.ie/services/corporateandexternalaffairs/agendaandminutesofordinarymeetingsofcorkcitycouncil/minutesofordinarymeetingsofcorkcitycouncil/Min.s%20Council%20Meeting%20270212..pdf

opus

The decorations in Bishop Lucey Park look well but is the rest of it the same collection of food stalls that they throw up there every few months? Is there anything with a christmas angle?

dardhal

byronbay2 wrote: »

.. I had foolishly told the 2 smallies, in advance, that they could go on every ride - slide, chairoplanes, train & carousel!! With hot chocolate and marshmallows at €3.50 (seems almost reasonable in comparison) and those delicious liquid chocolate/marshmallow/strawberry pots at €4.50, I managed to drop over 50 yos in less than half an hour.

Too bad you wasted a chance to teach your little children about the value of money, how hard their parents have to work every f-word day to pay for something that adds no value at all, and whose price is beyond justification.

Those kind of businesses (like the typical "family movies" that appear like mushrooms on cinemas during Christmas) are a very well known way of squeezing parents' money out of their pockets by "blackmailing" them using their children as an excuse.

The way you acted, when 20 years from now your children are the ones to make the wise decisions about saving, spending and planning for the future, they will be as horribly wrong as you were today. This country will continue to be infested with outrageous prices and businesses that rip people off hard, just because you, as a parent, simply didn't say NO.

byronbay2

opus wrote: »

The decorations in Bishop Lucey Park look well but is the rest of it the same collection of food stalls that they throw up there every few months? Is there anything with a christmas angle?

Well there is a marquee with lots of Christmas decorations (and trees) for sale and you can buy Christmas jumpers at one of the stalls but it is basically the usual suspects: O'Flynns hot dogs, the crepe man, wok 'n' roll, the sweet shop and the Belgian liquid chocolate man, among others. The grub, in my opinion,is quite good, albeit over-priced. It is the rides that are the real rip-off. Anyone reading this who hasn't been there yet, please don't pay €3 for these rides - I wish I hadn't!

cork_south

dardhal wrote: »

Too bad you wasted a chance to teach your little children about the value of money, how hard their parents have to work every f-word day to pay for something that adds no value at all, and whose price is beyond justification.

Those kind of businesses (like the typical "family movies" that appear like mushrooms on cinemas during Christmas) are a very well known way of squeezing parents' money out of their pockets by "blackmailing" them using their children as an excuse.

The way you acted, when 20 years from now your children are the ones to make the wise decisions about saving, spending and planning for the future, they will be as horribly wrong as you were today. This country will continue to be infested with outrageous prices and businesses that rip people off hard, just because you, as a parent, simply didn't say NO.

Merry Christmas.

the beer revolu

dardhal wrote: »

Too bad you wasted a chance to teach your little children about the value of money, how hard their parents have to work every f-word day to pay for something that adds no value at all, and whose price is beyond justification.

Those kind of businesses (like the typical "family movies" that appear like mushrooms on cinemas during Christmas) are a very well known way of squeezing parents' money out of their pockets by "blackmailing" them using their children as an excuse.

The way you acted, when 20 years from now your children are the ones to make the wise decisions about saving, spending and planning for the future, they will be as horribly wrong as you were today. This country will continue to be infested with outrageous prices and businesses that rip people off hard, just because you, as a parent, simply didn't say NO.

I'm going to guess you've no kids?

leahyl

mr bungle. wrote: »

haven't been there this year but isn't the grand parade market and bishop Lucey park all the one thing?

Well the park is free - that was the point I was making. There is a sleigh there which the kids can climb into and have their picture taken and is generally a more magical experience in my opinion and you don't have to pay 3e admission for every child...

mr bungle.

leahyl wrote: »

Well the park is free - that was the point I was making. There is a sleigh there which the kids can climb into and have their picture taken and is generally a more magical experience in my opinion and you don't have to pay 3e admission for every child...

oh right.i might take the young fella there next week.im not living local anymore so im out of the loop a bit.cheers for the info!