FLP up again to $249 on Saturdays

Someone said the “giving away the gate argument is a bunch of Platinum Passholes crying about whaaaa whaaa whaaa…” or something like that.

No, it’s not. I’ve said that about Six Flags (and Darien Lake during their Six Flags hiatus) for over a decade now. Packing your park to capacity with guess who are only there because it’s dirt cheap doesn’t mean they will then spend the big bucks inside the park. It doesn’t work. Never has, never will.

And I agree with Jeff… $99 for unlimited Cedar Point (perks be damned) is waaay too cheap. It devalues the entire experience. Hell I’ll even go as far as $200 for Platinum visiting every CF park throughout the season is probably too cheap.

As for the SeaWorld $99 Fun Card argument, I wind up buying that any time we go to Orlando. We make a few visits for a few hours each time while we are in town, then it never gets used again. Because like you said, it’s a tourist attraction. Their main customer base doesn’t live within 2 hours of the park. Of course if I did live in Orlando I would still buy the Fun Card and enjoy the park on the regular. But SEAS even has preventative measures against stuff like that. You can buy a Sesame Place Platinum pass that is also good at Sea World and Busch Gardens, with all the perks included, for like $175 in the fall. And you don’t even have to process it at Sesame Place… But you can’t buy it if you live in FL, CA, TX, or VA; states that have Busch Gardens or Sea World. Then you’re on the hook for their more expensive passes.

The numbers are kind of staggering...

If they sold, say, 2,000 FLP on a Saturday, they just made a shade under $500,000.00 without having to provide anything but a wristband out of pocket...

Scott Cameron said:

Jeff said it best a couple of posts above: "Forget the perks or conditions entirely. A hundred bucks to go to Cedar Point as much as you want in a summer grossly undervalues the product."

I think we're all just going to have to agree to disagree with CED23.

For the 1000th time it was $99 for 1yr on a special 150th anniversary special & was the grand announcement of the 1st time CP ever had a Gold Pass. They wanted to drive huge interest for the anniversary & the 1st time ever offering it. They subsequently increased it the next off season & this actual season agian. They succeeded in their objective & have commented on the success of the sales. People need to get over it. Many people will not spend $200 for a Platinum if they are just going to go to CP & the chain is offering them a product. Excluding these people is leaving money on table. Yes, I know the response they had a regular pass. It was a horrible product offering that few really bought . At its price point & not having parking you were actually paying more than a Platinum, so they were forced to by Platinum or nothing. CP filled the void with Gold & came in line with other parks in the chain. clearly you guys don't like it, CP is happy. Even when they lose some people on renewals this year with higher prices, they still have expanded their pass base some.

As I said, we'll have to agree to disagree. Because you're missing the point the he, myself, and others in this thread are trying to make about this entirely.

You're missing the point, though explained many times in detail. I know your point. you think CP should make people pay $200 for a Platinum, even if they that only want to go to CP. Alternatively, you think CP should offer some other pass that costs the same or more than a Platinum, just for CP. Your notion is bad business & the Gold Pass is good business for CP. It puts CP in line w/ the offerings of the rest of the chain & the price has been corrected from the intro special price. Your notion is actually leaving money on the table b/c a bunch of people will not by passes that are $200 just for CP. Parks want guaranteed money as much as possible. They don't want to be less dependent on trying to entice single day ticket buyers, whom may or may not show up dependent on weather or things going on in their lives.

I never stated either of these things: "..you think CP should make people pay $200 for a Platinum, even if they that only want to go to CP. Alternatively, you think CP should offer some other pass that costs the same or more than a Platinum, just for CP." So I don't know where that's coming from.

At any rate, I'm going to follow my own previous suggestion and agree to disagree about their pricing. You're not going to change my mind and I'm not going to change yours. And that's OK. Take care.

CED23 said:

Your notion is actually leaving money on the table b/c a bunch of people will not by passes that are $200 just for CP. Parks want guaranteed money as much as possible.

By that logic, didn't they leave money on the table when they sold the gold passes for $100? Even at that price point there were certainly a bunch of people who didn't buy passes. Imagine how many more people would have bought them if they were only $50. That would have been a big pile of guaranteed money.

Anyone have any input on the park charging $4 for a bottle of water?

Isn’t it too cheap , too much money left on the table??

CED23 said:

You're missing the point, though explained many times in detail.

Wait, I thought we just couldn't read. Now we also don't understand?

If you feel like you're the only one in the room that is unheard, maybe it's not the listeners.

It's both & it can be summed up by the guy that claimed SF lost money in the quarter & than tried to pretend they didn't. That's the brain trust of the thread. Along, with silly slippery slope logic of 2 posts above b/c they can't get their simple minds around the fact the initial Gold Pass price was a special 150th intro & the prices went up $20,30,35, 50 since & will not be $99 again. CP is keeping Gold Passes & they aren't going to be priced at $175 or $200, which is their delusion of what they should currently be at.

All the people that think CP & CF are "giving away the gate" can do their part & put their money where their mouth is. They can not renew their Platinum pass at $192(2022), instead they can buy single day tickets for every visit next year to every CF park they attend. They can buy them at the gate, not even the discount online price & contribute to maximum per caps & revenue.

Haha I say stuff like that about people that beg for higher taxes too so it's kind of a funny idea.

You keep thinking this is some sort of Platinum vs. Gold battle and it's not. I'd argue the Platinum passes are too cheap also. I'd buy it at $250 or $299 given what parks like CP, KI, CW, Knott's offer. To me, those parks are in a higher tier. The Gold pass offering at those parks should cost more than the Gold pass at Michigan's Adventure, Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, or Dorney. You're sitting here arguing that CP should have a $100 gold pass because the rest of the chain does. Some of the parks in the chain really aren't very good in comparison. Heck, Cedar Point is such a unicorn, they could separate its passes completely and charge $200 for CP only and not allow passes from the rest of the chain to be used there at all and they'd probably do just fine. I don't know if that would be the greatest idea, but it's not any worse than $100 season long passes that include, parking, waterpark, and perks.

For the1000th time & you still can't get it. The $99 was a special 150th anniversary price to introduce the Gold Pass, the price never was that again. No where did I ever say it should be $100 or be priced like the small parks, nonsense you created. The price already has never been $99, Can you comprehend that? It was $119 for 6 wks last year, went to $129, $135, & $150.

Do, you not get the concept that when introducing something a company wants to entice people with a deal, hence $99. Get them to try it & get them hooked & raise the price. They know they lose some bargain hunters on the increases. That's what CP did, that's what Disney is doing with their streaming service. I can give you 50 more examples of companies doing it.

You people are obsessed with $99 1 time offer & it's clear the cohort doesn't like Gold Passes period at CP. The cover of not just admitting that is the $99 harping. I'll say it again, the cohort need to get over it, it's smart business for CP to finally offer a good product for just CP. The regular pass was pure garbage, that sold very poorly.

And at $150 they are still too cheap.

I’m still waiting for the all-inclusive resort plans…

Too many people, I fear, simply don't know what the gold passes *are*.

Every Gold Pass benefit is there to serve one purpose: to convince people to buy their passes in the pre-season. Because after a certain date, usually announced to be the week the park opens, but then extended to Memorial Day Weekend, all you can get is the standard pass or the Platinum pass. Let's forget about the Platinum pass for the moment.

The standard pass grants you admission to the park through the summer season. Period. After Labor Day, it expires. You have to pay to park. And it probably doesn't include the waterpark, but I'm not sure about that one.

Once the next season's passes go on sale (conveniently, just before the standard passes expire) you can get a Gold Pass that covers the rest of this season and all of next season, plus parking, waterpark, and some perks that cost next to nothing to provide...and you get it at a discount over the standard pass. All passes are Gold passes until the Gold Pass sale runs out. The price keeps going up, until finally you can't get the Gold pass anymore, and your (!Gold) pass is at its highest price of the season.

The only real benefit of the Platinum pass is that it gets you admission to *all* of the FUN parks. Other than that, it's just a Gold Pass.

Ever consider why places like Cedar Point charge for parking? Why not just roll it into the admission price or the pass price? Why make it a second gate? It's not because it's a sneaky way to raise revenue, as it could be embedded into the ticket price in a revenue-positive way, just as Holiday World did with their drinks (look it up; when Holiday World went to "free" drinks they actually increased their drink per-cap by $0.05).

These days the reason for charging for parking is that it gives them a benefit they can use to sell season passes. They charge for it so that they can give it away. Because it wouldn't be much of a pass benefit if everybody got to park for "free" now, would it?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave, I think we all sort of assumed that's what the Gold pass would be since that's what it was at Kings Island for quite a long time. But that's not how it is. Also, they extended the $99 price at least once, maybe twice. You can still buy the Gold Pass with the same perks (albeit at a higher price) today. https://www.cedarpoint.com/season-passes

Most hilarious is the "but it's for the anniversary!" thing. So what? Cedar Point is less valuable because it has an anniversary? And I totally agree that the pass prices should be different at the other parks, and the all-parks level should certainly be many hundreds of dollars. I mean, regular price for Fun Spot passes are $100, and even though it's good at all three parks (they own the one in Atlanta now), all three parks combined are still not as big as Cedar Point, and certainly not in the same class as those ****ty little places.

Wonderland started 2022 pass sales today. All season FLP is “sold out” and no option for all park FLP.

^^^ That's fairly usual that all season FLP isn't available at Wonderland when next years passes go on sale...