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It’s funny to note that the all you can ride banquet at Brighton Pier encouraged trouble makers, while at Funderworld it puts them off – but the key difference here is that you have to pay to enter Funderworld, not ride, which means as soon as the transaction is done, you’re a paying guest and can easily be ejected.

By contrast, those re-riding the Dodgems ad nausium in Brighton can argue that, strictly speaking, they’re just taking advantage of unlimited rides, despite being obstructive and anti-social.

While to a fashion pay per ride is still crème de la moment for amusement parks, for a long time now theme parks have favoured ticketed entry and nothing else.

Ever since the days of John Broome Alton Towers has charged guests for entry with the promise of unlimited rides once you’re inside.

The origins of this system are thought to date back to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and is the pricing structure of choice for almost every modern theme park.

Alton Towers is an interesting example, though, in that until John Broome began installing rides like the Corkscrew, many people visited the park for the gardens and towers themselves.

In the days when Alton Towers tries to move away from being just a theme park and sells itself as a well-rounded resort complete with hotels, water parks and luxury spas, it’s ironic that the gardens and towers are all but off bounds to those willing to pay £29.50 – and frankly, that kind of visitor normally has more on their agenda than enjoying the works of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

Many of Tussauds’ UK attractions are hovering around the iconic £30 mark (Alton Towers is £29.50, Thorpe Park £28.50 and Chessington £27.00). £30 is iconic because common psychology dictates that £30 sounds far more expensive than £29.50 despite the 50p difference being a drop in the ocean.

Just like shops favour £9.99 over £10, the £30 barrier is one Tussauds will be keen on avoiding if at all possible. What this could mean is that to offset inflation the park will come up with more creative ways to make money without having to adjust admission – ideas such as Fastrack mean that they’re marketed as the obvious companion to the main admission ticket, but an optional cost that could improve your day.

There are the arguments that this creates a tier system, a upper and middle class of visitor, as it were, but that’s an argument best avoided – but concepts such as Fastrack do little to address the much mooted complaint that theme parks are an expensive day out – assuming you pay admission, and car parking, and Fastrack, and have lunch, well, you’re looking at well over £40 per person.

While there was the black and white of amusement parks generally opting for pay-per-ride and theme parks throwing everything in for the entry fee, between black and white now there are many different shades of grey – mostly these work to the benefit of the guest giving them greater control of what they spend and what they spend it on

But ultimate control is still in the hands of parks who will use pricing structures and other methods to coerce guests into adopting the pay-style choice of the park.