The Costs Are Rising

[L Verge]

Just a personal thought, but the average person tends to think that admission to Ford's Theatre is free. That's not exactly true unless you want to wait in line for timed tickets.

As most of you know, the Surratt Society has sponsored bus tours over the escape route of Booth since the spring of 1977. Until the last few years, the staff at the theater has been wonderful to work with and open the doors for us at 8:15 am so that we could have a quiet theater to ourselves for our history lesson. And, there was no charge.

The regular staff is still great to deal with, but the higher-ups now demand that we pay $120 every six months for a special permit to allow us to come in ahead of opening (last year it was $50/six months). They also require that we pay $2/person in order to purchase tickets ahead of time for a group.

Bus costs keep going up because of the ridiculous state of gasoline pricing in this area, and it is about time that the Mudd Society raise their admission prices yet again. We now pay them $7/person ($350 per bus) every time we go there because they refuse to give us a group discount - which is standard practice in the tourism industry.

And then the public will complain when we go up in price for the tour... Okay, my economic gripe for the day has ended.