This past Friday, Nov. 10, Lake Compounce, an amusement park located in Bristol, Connecticut announced the end of its free soda service. Up until recently, guests could help themselves to free soda throughout the park when they purchased a regular admission ticket. (Martin Lewison/Creative Commons)
This past Friday, Lake Compounce, an amusement park located in Bristol, Connecticut announced the end of its free soda service. Up until recently, guests could help themselves to free soda throughout the park when they purchased a regular admission ticket. Now the privilege will only be offered to Diamond and Platinum season pass holders.
The Diamond and Platinum season passes go for quite a hefty price of $124.99 and $84.99 per person, respectively. This policy change has modified an almost two decades-long service provided by the park and will come into effect next season. The park will, however, still offer free water throughout the park for all guests.
When I was younger, the annual trip to Lake Compounce with my summer camp was always a highlight of my summer. Some of my fondest memories from my childhood are of me walking through the amusement park on a hot summer day before cooling off with a free soda.
Flash forward to last Friday, when Lake Compounce made their announcement about ending free soda throughout the park. The news felt pretty out of the blue, so it’s not a surprise that some people are upset.
One of the best things about Lake Compounce, especially for kids, was the free soda. Just recently I was in another park and was looking for some ginger ale to settle my stomach after a particularly nauseating roller coaster; all I could find was either outrageously priced or way more soda than I would ever need. I remember thinking back to Lake Compounce and wishing that this amusement park could share a similar policy, but sadly that was not the case.
Despite the recent removal of free soda from Lake Compounce, the park’s decision to end the service is understandable. First, unlimited free soda for everyone all day probably gets a bit expensive and messy. There has also been a big pushback by parents against serving sugary beverages like soda to their children due to health concerns. According to NBC Connecticut, Sara Frias, director of marketing for the park, explained why they discontinued the service.
“In order to provide our guests with a superior beverage experience and to decrease on waste, we have decided to make changes to the free soda program,” Frias said.
While the park is fairly well known for its Haunted Graveyard, one of the main attractions for Lake Compounce is its awesome water park. That’s why it seems odd that, for a park whose main attraction is waterslides, they will be discontinuing one of their other summertime classics. Those who frequent the park and haven’t heard the news will definitely be surprised when they come back for the 2018 summer season; but, hey, at least we have free water.
Lauren Brown is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at lauren.brown@uconn.edu.
