Regular Admission Tickets

I went to my local Meijer today to pick up two discounted tickets to the park and found something a little interesting. CP no longer uses paper tickets, rather a plastic card, similar to how you would buy a phone card or iTunes Card.

The store has a rack by the entrance and you pick the one you need (Regular One Day, Junior/Senior One Day, and Geauga Lake). They are then scanned and activated by the cashier.

I'm wondering if this has something to do with some changes made to the admission gates with the season passes being different.

Another thing I thought about is, what if the card didn't activate correctly. I'm making sure I bring the receipt with me on my trip in case something went wrong.

I saw the same thing today at the Royal Oak Meijer. I like the change. Nice to see Geauga Lake there also.
*** Edited 5/10/2007 2:52:18 AM UTC by ~BRIAN~***

This reminds me of the cards you get for Disney world, very good change.

Wow. Cool change. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as far as Cedar Fair and technology goes.

Gomez said:
I'm wondering if this has something to do with some changes made to the admission gates with the season passes being different.

I think that's a pretty safe bet. From getting my Season Pass Sunday, I can tell you everything regarding the ticket and season pass system appears to have been replaced. New computers and printers in the Season Pass Center, computers at toll booths, new scanners at the gates, etc...

It's good to see Cedar Fair is picking up on some of the things that Paramount parks have done already.

God, I hope they don't let guests keep these cards after they enter the gate. The fraud would be a nightmare in a matter of weeks. Even if they don't let the guest keep them, there's a huge potential fraud issue if they're just placing them on racks at the front of the store like how Gomez described. I won't go into details, but knowing the flaws the old system had, this one sounds like it has the potential to be 2000 times worse.

I do welcome an upgraded admissions system though. It was way overdue.

I am sure just like with any other gift card you buy at a grocery store it has to be activated. Giant Eagles sells all kinds of cards for places like Best Buy, Home Depot etc. If the card is not activated by the cashier, it is only worth the plastic it is printed on.

That's not what I'm worried about. The park won't be the one getting cheated.

So if the park isn't the one that could potentially be cheated then the only other person would be the guest.

How exactly would a guest be getting cheated if they bring the activated pass to the ticket booth and have it scanned for admission to the park? I'm sure after it's scanned that it's then deactivated since you'd only need a hand stamp after that.

Your thought doesn't make a lot of sense, it's a pretty foolproof plan.

Meijer in Cincy had the racks of cards when we bought our "tickets" for Kings Island last July. You just selected which kind of admission you needed and paid for them at the customer service counter.

Well it isn't actually a foolproof plan. What stops somebody from stealing a bunch of the cards from the store, then selling them to other individuals who have been told they have been activated. Unless there is a way to check before they get to the park, they may not find out until they get there that they haven't been activated. Then they are out the money they gave that individual, there are gullible people out there.

It says clearly on the card that it has no use until it is activated by the cashier.

What SnM is saying though is with the paper tickets, you could sell them if you couldn't make it to the park. With the plastic cards, if you purchase one of these, you really have no way of knowing if it IS activated or not.

I'm wondering if they will have a number to call and check on it's status like you can with Best Buy gift cards and the like.

SnM311 makes a good point. There are always people who think they can get a deal and try to buy tickets or coupons on ebay. They have no idea if the ticket are actually activated or not till it's too late. The paper tickets were one time use and then trown away. There is a major potential for fraud with this.
On a different note does anybody know yet if passes from other parks are going to be scanned at the gates or if you have to check in at guest services?

That's exactly the point I'm trying to make. In the past there has been issues with people selling tickets that, for one reason or another, weren't valid. Sometimes it has been on Ebay, sometimes right in front of the park gates. Even though it should throw up red flags, your average guest never stops to think that there might be a reason they got such a good deal on their tickets until they get to the gate and find out they're no good. I'm almost certain the park will keep the plastic tickets after they've been scanned at the gate, which should help cut down on people trying to resell their used tickets. However, there doesn't seem to be much in place to prevent someone from swiping a large stack of tickets at Meijer or elsewhere and pawning them off.

I do like the idea about having a number on the back you can call to check on the status, although I doubt it will happen.

What about the resort ID cards? Are those finally plastic as well or still just paper?

Can you get season pass vouchers at Giant Eagle? I have to buy three and I would like to buy them there if I can and use the gas savings for the trip.

Disney has been using this type system (or one similar to it) for about 10 years. When I went to Busch Gardens, they had a similar system (although they were paper not plastic). Paramounts Kings Island has also had this system for at least 2 or 3 years. It is not something new.

One reason Disney went to this system was to get rid of the secondary market for partially used tickets. Before they went to the "credit card" system, people would be at the mall offering to buy and sell partially used tickets. 1 would expect that guest would get their tickets back. All of the information for a 2 day ride and slide pass would be encoded on 1 card that would be processed twice at CP and twice at Soak City.

Heres a thought:

USB Card Readers are fairly accessible off of eBay, Say someone bought one ticket, and then read the card at home while its activated, they could potentially duplicate the card and change one or two digits.

Sure the park probably records every data strip that is encoded and makes sure there are no duplicates, but so do software manufactures, and people manage to get around CD Serial codes.