How Much does it cost to run a ride??

[Delboy]

Does anybody know how much it costs to run an individual ride?
Is it so many $$$ a go/run???
I always thought that is why they dont run some rides in Low Season because of the cost of it?

 

[Metro West]

In my experienced opinion...I have to say...I have no idea what it costs.

 

[damo]

In my experienced opinion...I have to say...I have no idea what it costs.

Yup, my experienced opinion has told me the same thing.

 

[the Dark Marauder]

Even if you tired to estimate, you'd probably be guessing too low...

 

[Jonny_Duck]

Does anybody know how much it costs to run an individual ride?
Is it so many $$$ a go/run???
I always thought that is why they dont run some rides in Low Season because of the cost of it?

Good question. I have often thought of this myself. I think its more of the fact that they would have to pay TMs to run it for a day and the overall maintainance of the ride if something goes wrong along with the fact that they don't find it needed.

I would think the electrical bill is pretty high at these places.

Always wondered about profit in these places considering the cost of eating and souviniours and price of tickets. Then again cost idk 200 mill to make a ride plus the interest they have to pay back the bank.

(I think a lot about random things I know nothing about)

 

[Coach81]

A bus driver once told me and my family that it took about 2 million dollars per day to operate the Magic Kingdom.

No idea about a specific answer to your question.

 

[h20jag]

Several years ago a D.Dragons TM was telling me (while waiting for a train add-on) that it cost $2,000 each time to do this. Mainly in electric costs I think.
Sorry it's not a complete answer OP.

 

[Marquibiri]

Several years ago a D.Dragons TM was telling me (while waiting for a train add-on) that it cost $2,000 each time to do this. Mainly in electric costs I think.
Sorry it's not a complete answer OP.

Now only if I could make 2 grand a day.... lol!

 

[Krustycarnie]

For Universal:

I have heard and see around other boards, never confirmed that the electric for all three parks (CW,IOA,USF) is around a million a month and natural gas is a little less.

The jaws explosive gas dock is about $700 a time

 

[Timmy Boy]

Remember guys, these rides are basically being worked on 24 hours a day. Every single ride has a 3rd shift maintenance team that start work on the ride from about 10 pm in the evening until 7 am the next morning. The coasters can't run between a certain amount of time due to a noise agreement they have with the surrounding neighborhoods, but basically every single ride can be run just as if guests were there, and they do run.

So this means paying the Tech Service Technicians 3rd shift premium, and they check all the trains, all the vehicles, even do track inspections. This is also interesting, every night, both towers at Doctor Doom get climbed. There's a ladder inside each tower, and they harness up, and climb all the way up to check the pulleys and valves at the top. I've talked to one of them and he says that takes about 2 hours to do them both. Then the cables get inspected, the harnesses and seats get inspected, the oil level gets checked, the audio and visual effects get checked, the compressor rooms gets checked, and they run the ride and sign off on it. Then the day operations team comes in and they have to be paid, then there's the cost for running Doom.

Oh yea, that's one ride. This happens to every ride, every night.

 

[wdw&sonny]

OK, here's a crude attempt to answer that question, probably somewhat flawed...so don't flame me too much...but I think it's in the ballpark. Yes, the numbers will vary greatly depending on the ride...

I did some quick checking on the internet, so some of these numbers are factual and some are estimates.

MK gets about 17 million/year in attendance (~50,000/day). Typical ticket price is $50 for a daily income of $2.5 million. That $$ goes to the "free" rides and attractions (restaurants, concession, merchandise is self-sustaining). Estimating an even distribution of the $2.5 million among about 25 rides and/or attractions, that's $100,000/ride/day. Divide that by a typical 10 hour day and you get $10,000/ride/hour. A ride like BTMR might put ~1500 riders through/hour for a per person cost of $6.67/ride x 30 riders per train = $200/train. But, that's income. The cost to run it, of course, must be considerably less.

Just for fun, here's another approach I took. using an inflation calculator, I plugged in the 1959 cost of an "E" ticket ride of 50 cents. By today's dollars that would be $3.52.

 

[phamton]

MK gets about 17 million/year in attendance (~50,000/day). Typical ticket price is $50 for a daily income of $2.5 million. That $$ goes to the "free" rides and attractions (restaurants, concession, merchandise is self-sustaining). Estimating an even distribution of the $2.5 million among about 25 rides and/or attractions, that's $100,000/ride/day. Divide that by a typical 10 hour day and you get $10,000/ride/hour. A ride like BTMR might put ~1500 riders through/hour for a per person cost of $6.67/ride x 30 riders per train = $200/train. But, that's income. The cost to run it, of course, must be considerably less.

We gotta find you a hobby.

Actually I want to welcome you to the board. I haven't seen you post here before and you sound like our kind of guy!

 

[wdw&sonny]

Thank Phamton. I'm a research scientist by profession...so analyzing the question is only natural.

I love these boards. Usually, just lurking. It's how my mind goes to Disney/USF when my body is in Cleveland.

But I have been wondering...what's with all the red heads?

 

[phamton]

We call the Universal/IoA boards the "red-haired step child" of the DisBoards. It seems that most people who post on the Dis are rabid Disney fans and many of them look down their noses at Universal Studios as a cheap imitation. We get many people who come on this forum just to bash Universal. We are just a small little segment of the DisBoard and, sometimes, yes, we did feel like a redheaded stepchild. So one night a lot of us were mysteriously tagged with the "proud redhead" tag by the tag fairy.

 

[jheigl]

We call the Universal/IoA boards the "red-haired step child" of the DisBoards. It seems that most people who post on the Dis are rabid Disney fans and many of them look down their noses at Universal Studios as a cheap imitation. We get many people who come on this forum just to bash Universal. We are just a small little segment of the DisBoard and, sometimes, yes, we did feel like a redheaded stepchild. So one night a lot of us were mysteriously tagged with the "proud redhead" tag by the tag fairy.

This is a little off topic, but I don't see why Disney lovers (I am a HUGE Disney lover/ fanatic/ obsessive fan) have to flame Universal. I, myself, love going to Universal. I do not like it better than WDW, but every year I go to Orlando I HAVE to go to Universal. Don't know why we all just can't get along!!!

Back to topic, you have to figure that companies such as WDW and USO get breaks on the utilities. I know that corporations around my area get breaks on the cost of utilities and such, as well as tax breaks and such. So, while I'm sure the utility bill is outrageous, I'm sure there are breaks and incentives to adjust that for them, especially WDW...if I'm not mistaken, WDW is the largest employer in FL. Universal is pretty big too.

 

[SNylund]

I kind of work in the electric industry in a round about way. Typically, large electricity customers like the parks would either have their own contract (special arrangement) with the power company, or even their own power generation. Not sure if they do, but that is typical. Large industrial customers, which I would assume that is what they would be classified as, get special deals because they use so much power. $1 million a month is probably about right. I would think they use as much power as a small town, which I've seen those power bills and they are right around the $1 million a month mark. Just guessing the parks would be a little less, probably around $500 -$800 thousand a month, but just a guess.

 

[wdw&sonny]

Thanks for the explanation, Phamton. Then I too declare myself a "proud redhead", but I do love WDW, too. I hope that's OK. I'm in Cleveland, so escaping to either worlds is a luxury.

 

[phamton]

It's perfectly fine to love WDW also. We are an equal oportunity fan club here. It's just that some of the people on the board think that they are committing treason if they ever even attempt to book a trip to Universal Studios. These are the ones that we proud redheads have an issue with.

 

[macraven]

Thank Phamton. I'm a research scientist by profession...so analyzing the question is only natural.

I love these boards. Usually, just lurking. It's how my mind goes to Disney/USF when my body is in Cleveland.

But I have been wondering...what's with all the red heads?

we are the minority in the forums......
we pop up everywhere......

just to add on to phamton's explanation of the red headed step children of the dis....

on the thread "Something About Nothing", the tag fairy came three different nights and dipped our head in red paint.

it was a hoot!

on one of those nights, we did have some first time visitors/posters to the thread and they received the same tag. you will find about 3 posters that have the proud redhead tag and i'm sure they still don't have any idea what that tag means.......

if you ever were into jerry steinfield, you would understand the title of the thread.

that thread is for everyone. posters that have UO questions, orlando area questions, etc come and ask questions there.
other than that, we just chat and tell jokes and share what is on our mind.

please feel free to drop in and chat with us. (you and all readers)
we make everyone welcome there!!

i started on the dis in 99. i changed my screen name in 03 and have talked to many homies.

i wanted to have a thread where we could chat instead of asking questions in existing threads. some of us were thought to be hijackers of exisiting threads when we got off track of the topic.

if a thread was about where to eat in the parks, many would answer and then a homie would say, "when are you going to UO, will it be at the same time my vacation would be?" and then the subject would change.

in the Something About Nothing thread, we change the subject so much, i forget what we are talking about sometimes.......

at this point, we have gone below the surface chat and talk about ourselves on occasion, such as ........whose dog was it that ate the tomatoes.....

btw, if you come post with us, you are then one of our homies...

This is a little off topic, but I don't see why Disney lovers (I am a HUGE Disney lover/ fanatic/ obsessive fan) have to flame Universal. I, myself, love going to Universal. I do not like it better than WDW, but every year I go to Orlando I HAVE to go to Universal. Don't know why we all just can't get along!!!

i'll put you down for comment #3 when topics go south on the UO forums...

homies on the uo forums are really laid back people.

many of us do both parks for different reasons.

i can't imagine going to orlando for 2 weeks and not doing both parks.

the majority of the homies just want to play nice and not rock the boat.

it is when false information arises that we do get involved to correct it.
we don't want newbies to have incorrect info.
after we do that, threads tend to go south.

It's perfectly fine to love WDW also. We are an equal oportunity fan club here. It's just that some of the people on the board think that they are commenting treason if they ever even attempt to book a trip to Universal Studios. These are the ones that we proud redheads have an issue with.

do i hear an amen?

 

[jheigl]

LOL Not to sound like a noob, but I've been sitting here trying to figure out what comment #3 is LOL!!!