No free ticket offer for PLATINUM passes?

I am trying to bring it back on topic.

Has anyone been in contact with the park to see why they don't offer the free ticket with the platinum pass?

Doesn't sound like anyone has. Perhaps you should give them a call?

Thanks for the advise Sheldon, I can always count on you!!

JuggaLotus said:

Ffej said:
OR....they could offer an alternate choice bonus for renewals like a CP VIP jacket! ;)

I have one of those. I don't think I even wore it the day I got it. It was crap.

I have 4. You missed the joke.

djDaemon said:

Ffej said:
I thought of this as well, but it's not hard to out-smart the free ticket resellers with a different approach.

But this only works under the assumption that CP feels such a promotion is worth all the hassle. It seems they don't.

Perhaps having this attitude is one of the reasons why they're in their current financial situation? Companies with a very strong drive are the ones that will be most successful.

If a promotion fails at increasing your sales, you don't say, "Meh, why bother?" You try to fix it, or you come up with something entirely new & innovative.

Ffej said:
Companies with a very strong drive are the ones that will be most successful.

I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but I'm pretty sure it's far too broad a statement to be accurate. Sort of like saying "companies that sell lots of stuff have high revenue". :)

But I think I get what you're suggesting - companies that promote heavily succeed. If that is in fact what you're suggesting, I agree, but only to a point. Sure, marketing is critical to success in many industries, but I'm not convinced that all marketing plans lead to success. It seems that CP has evaluated the numbers (as they often do), and determined the free ticket promotion was not securing the desired results, whatever those may be.

If a promotion fails at increasing your sales, you don't say, "Meh, why bother?" You try to fix it, or you come up with something entirely new & innovative.

Completely agreed. That's exactly what I think they're doing - a "better" promotion, which is either no promotion (perhaps because they determined the free ticket promotion cost them money, or simply that the ROI wasn't adequate) or perhaps the discounted pass rate promotion achieves the desired results all on its own, and no further promotion is needed.

It seems like it use to be. 1) Give away free ticket 2) Guest uses it and spends the money they would have paid for a ticket on food and stuff. 3) Cedar Point ends up recieving the more money

But now its more this. 1) Get free ticket 2) Enter park get free water and leave park to get some Wendy's 3) Cedar Point is in the negative

That is a very good point pointperson. I just don't understand why they would offer it to regular season pass buyers and not platinum passes that cost more. I know you get more for the platinum, but it also causes people to go to other parks they may not have been before. I am sure the in park spending is more if a family has not been to a park before. For instance, I would spend more money at Dorney because I had never been there before. I would buy more souvaneers and try the food at there, rather than Cedar point.

My thought is that Cedar Point makes more money off of Season pass holders, where they more than likely break about even or just above with Platinum. A regular pass holder must pay for parking everytime. I have noticed a larger interest in the platinum over regular over the years.

I can agree with your logic. i didn't even think about parking.

djDaemon said:

Ffej said:
Companies with a very strong drive are the ones that will be most successful.

But I think I get what you're suggesting - companies that promote heavily succeed. If that is in fact what you're suggesting, I agree, but only to a point. Sure, marketing is critical to success in many industries, but I'm not convinced that all marketing plans lead to success. It seems that CP has evaluated the numbers (as they often do), and determined the free ticket promotion was not securing the desired results, whatever those may be.

By my statement, marketing was a part of what I'm suggesting, but it encompasses much more. Drive meaning you want to be the best, you try your hardest to convince everyone that you're the best, you fix any image problems or common complaints with your business until they're history, and then you add more reasons for people to fall in love.

I can't think of a better example of a business with a strong drive than the recent Ford Motor Company (under leadership of Allan Mullaly).

In the 1990's, and even into the early 2000's, Ford let themselves slip. They built some mediocre products with cheap interiors, below average to average reliability, and forgettable styling. They cared about their big profits from SUV's and trucks and put their car business on the back burner. Before they knew it, Ford had a less than desirable reputation. They were associated with "Fix Or Repair Daily," owning one meant you gave up on life, rollover deathtraps, etc. They had huge image problems to fix, a long way to catch up in their products, and they were undriven, pushing out updates to models well past the point of being stale. They were a business that just seemed indifferent, marching on with medium effort, changing little (reminding me of the Cedar Fair / Point of today).

Around 2005, with the introduction of the new Mustang, Ford was starting to get it. But after Allan Mullaly took over (whether coincidence or not) in 2006, Ford finally had that strong drive to be the best, fix their image problems, and move forward as a brand people could be proud to own. Now in 2010, their safety technology has become industry-leading, their fleet of vehicles is recognized as among the most stylish, their reliability and quality is topping the best, their resale values are increasing dramatically, their in-car technology and features are passing luxury brands, the interiors are becoming top notch, and the reviews rolling in for the most recent products have been stellar. As a result of this strong drive, the brand perception has done a complete 360:

https://www.alg.com/pdf/pqs_2010_spring.pdf

So, what I'm saying is that Cedar Point is marching on with indifference to some very damaging complaints, and from my perception, their business is not driven like the Ford of today.

I tell people I'm going to Cedar Point, and I'll commonly get a response of, "Oh my god that place is such a rip off. We stopped going with all those ridiculously long lines and rip off food."

Though these complaints should have been addressed long ago, why are they still marching on with indifference to them? They're clearly hurting the business at this point. This ties in with what pointperson was saying...it's at a point now where people are leaving the park to spend money. Why don't they focus on getting products people rave about, adjust pricing to an overall satisfied rate, push clever and expanded marketing, and work on being an amusement park that can be proud of everything they do? Do you think Dick Kinzel would be proud to invite a new guest to the park, and shadow him/her the whole day, as they buy mediocre food at ridiculous prices, etc?

Sure there's much to love about Cedar Point even in its present state, but why not try to make it the best in all areas that they can? As Ford has seen, a strong drive (attacking everything they can to make it the best and show people it's the best) has completely turned Ford around. What was once a company near bankruptcy is now thriving.

the ffej man said:
I can agree with your logic. i didn't even think about parking.

Hmmm...

djDaemon said:
Maybe they make more money on regular pass customers - for example, parking isn't included with the regular pass, which may be part of the reason.

;)

Ffej said:
As Ford has seen, a strong drive (attacking everything they can to make it the best and show people it's the best) has completely turned Ford around. What was once a company near bankruptcy is now thriving.

I certainly agree that some of Ford's success has to do with their restructuring, and furthermore agree that CF would be wise to follow some of Ford's examples when it comes to product quality and customer care.

However, Ford's emergence from near-bankruptcy is not unlike the emergence of GM & Chrysler from the same fate. Yes, GM & Chrysler had to hold their hands out for government loans to get back on track. Ford, on the other hand, was quite lucky in that they secured financing not long before the credit markets evaporated. Had Ford waited even a couple months, they would have been right next to GM & Chrysler, begging for a loan. Had that happened, I think Ford's perception in the marketplace would be more in line with that of the other 2/3 of the Big Three - that they were "bailed out" by the government.

But yes, CF could certainly benefit from listening more closely to their customers when it comes to value and so on. I'm simply not convinced that including a free ticket with a Platinum Pass falls under that umbrella.

djDaemon said:

GLFan6290 said:
I seemed to move on with my life and get back on topic after I said what I needed to say...

Yeah, you stayed on-topic right up until your very next post in this thread (i.e. this one). In other words, you've never been on-topic in this thread - 3 posts, all of which focus on pointing out how evil, old and disruptive I am.

Your hypocrisy isn't even entertaining anymore.

Right! After you and your buddies harped on what I said for 15 posts and looked past the fact that after I said what I had to say, I jumped right back on topic. So keep provoking me and of course I'm going to speak what's on my mind because this is a thread and opinions are welcome from my understanding. Disagree? Well that's you and I'm sorry. Maybe you shouldn't be "evil and disruptive". You can be old, but there is a time in one's life when you have to realize that you gotta grow up and not criticize every comment someone posts. Me and crazy horse must be the only ones who realize that I guess.

SO BACK ON TOPIC (I put it in CAPS so everyone can see I'm getting back on topic): IN MY OPINION, I don't see how there can be any complaints with the current condition Cedar Point is in right now! I'm not trying to sound mean, but can someone explain to me what your complaints about the park is!? I mean, it's hard to fix EVERY problem with the park when Cedar Fair owns other parks besides Cedar Point. Now I know everyone is tired of hearing about the economy but in case nobody has realized, the economy still sucks. Therefore you can't make a change when you're on a budget just to suit every guests needs. There are always going to be complaints.

Sometimes the layout of the midway can be a disaster, but I'm still gonna go to the park and support it in hopes that it will be an even bigger success as time goes on.

I know there are a couple of people here with a Kings Island Platinum Pass, any of you renewed online for 2011? I'm thinking about renewing to get it out of the way but am wondering how easy it is. I guess anyone who has done it with a CP PP could answer as well.

GLFan6290 said:
I mean, it's hard to fix EVERY problem with the park when Cedar Fair owns other parks besides Cedar Point. Now I know everyone is tired of hearing about the economy but in case nobody has realized, the economy still sucks. Therefore you can't make a change when you're on a budget just to suit every guests needs.

I don't see anyone here complaining that CF isn't fixing "EVERY problem" at its flagship park. The conversation in this thread is about the disappearing "free ticket with a platinum pass" promotion.

From what I've heard about the renewal process, it's quite easy. You simply pay, and your current pass is activated for next year. Of course, the jury is still out regarding whether they've corrected the issues with cross-park renewals, as far as I know.

Thanks. I'll be bringing my receipt and credit card statement anyways (I'm a little paranoid), so if I have any delays next year hopefully they'll be taken care of relatively quickly at the gate. This year I had no issues getting my pass at KI and getting in at CP on opening day (knock on wood). No red X or anything.

As far as the Platinum Pass discussion, I know a lot of us are in agreement that the PP is a great value for those who go a lot. I have to imagine the Platinum pass customers are simply not the big money customers. Our per cap is so low compared to people spending $46+$100 (food, parking, souvenirs, etc), it doesn't surprise me at all we don't get a bonus ticket. The first thing I (and many other platinum passholders) would do is sell it, zeroing out any little left over profit the park is making off of me.

Agreed 100% on the Platinum Pass customers not being big spenders. There have been a few occasions where our per cap has been $0.00 over the course of a couple days at the park. At least with a regular pass, they'd have gotten $10/visit out of us.

I renewed my KI Platinum pass online last week. It was easy, other than the fact I had to get to it from the CP website because I couldn't find a platinum option anywhere on the KI site. KI only seemed to have Gold and regular passes unless you linked from the CP site.

I just hope it works in the spring.

djDaemon said:
Agreed 100% on the Platinum Pass customers not being big spenders. There have been a few occasions where our per cap has been $0.00 over the course of a couple days at the park. At least with a regular pass, they'd have gotten $10/visit out of us.

That's a problem I was talking about.

Six flags gives it's pass holders a coupon book for several things inside the park. Everything from half off a funnel cakes and free up sized drinks, to gift shop coupons. I think cedarpoint needs to do the same. It would spur pass holders to spend more.

What do they have to lose?

Profit?