Taken for a ride: 5 clever ways theme parks bleed you for extra

Updated

Some people think it's already pretty outrageous that a one-day ticket to a single Disney park will hit you for nearly $80. But when you're budgeting for your big summer vacation, you can't assume that's the end of your daily expenses when you're at a theme park.

Like the airlines, the amusement parks have learned that the way to pad the bottom line is to hit customers with a shower of microcharges. Prepare yourself to be taken for a ride:

Lockers
Until recently, these were optional. If you didn't use the ones by the front gate, you could usually leave your stuff in a bundle on the loading platform of whatever ride you're on and pick it up 180 seconds later when your vehicle came back into the station.

But in the past few years, seizing another income opportunity (and avoiding potential theft/bonked-head lawsuits), more parks now require riders to put their loose items in a locker. If you try entering a line at Six Flags with a bag -- or that stuffed animal you won -- you'll be directed to a bank of money-munching lockers nearby, where you'll pay $1 every time you ride something, with a two-hour limit for each.

Advertisement