Season pass price hurts spending

A co-worker forward an article to me from the Toledo Blade. The article is from September 7, but I thought it was interesting and might make for some good discussion.

Let it ride, park says of season pass price

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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com

Question: Would you pay to enter everytime if they built two new rides every year? OR.....If you saw the profits from ticket sales go directly to this park and not for rides in other cedar fair parks?

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Mantis 2002
Broken Down Blue Ride 2001

Although I agree that selling more season passes probably does hurt per capita spending, I'll use my personal situation to show how it might work to their advantage in some situations.

First of all, I live in New York near Albany and I go to school in Rochester so my trips to CP are anywhere from 4.5-8 hours. Over the past several years I've made it my business to get to CP every summer. However, up until this summer when I had a season pass for the first time, I was in the park a maximum of two days on my once per year trip. In 1998 through 2000, I made only one trip to the park buying a two day pass each time. In 2001, I worked at the park, but made a trip back for Halloweekends and paid for admission. During all of these trips, admission pretty much wiped me out and I spent next to nothing while in the park. I even left the park to eat at restaurants in Sandusky that were cheaper.

This season, I bought my pass last fall for the price of $79, which might I add seems to be perfect. It is reasonable enough that families get get them for their kids, idividuals to jump on, and just high enough to discourage people looking for cheap babysitting. This season, I have made 5 trips to Sandusky for a total of 8 days and an evening in the park. I have two more trips and most likely 4 more days planned before the season ends. My biggest mistake was not getting a parking pass too! :) Although I know I paid the price for my admissions up front, there is something about having a little bit of cash on you (rather than spending it all on admission) that makes it easier to spend money in the park. Some things I've done this year that I'm sure I would not have without the pass include: staying in Breakers for two nights with two friends ($165 for my share), eating in Fridays ($15), eating in Midway Market ($13), playing mini-golf ($6), eating Happy Friar fries on numerous occasions ($13), eating one of those big overpriced pretzles ($2.50), and of course parked my car a total of 7 times so far ($56) - yea, should have gotten a parking pass! :) This is just spending on CP property, not counting dinners and hotels elsewhere in Sandusky. So while in past seasons I might have spent $59 for admission and maybe $15 max in the park totaling $74, this season, I have spent $85 on a season pass and $270.50 on other things totaling $355.50. Now I realize that if you divide the first number by two and the second dumber by 8, this will yield my personal per cap statistic. This comes out to $37 per day for previous years and $44.44 this year. Admittedly if you take out the Breakers stay, it drops this year's number to $23.81.

Basically what I'm saying is that at least in my case, I have dumped a whole lot more money at the Point this year with my season pass than I ever have in the past. I will concede that without the Breakers stay, my per day in the park spending number is lower, they still have gotten $281.50 from me that they most likely would not have gotten if I didn't have the pass. Without the Breakers stay, they ave still received an extra $116.50 from my wallet.

Their per capita numbers may be flat, but they sure have generated extra revenue from me by selling me a season pass! :)

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Do I spend less per visit with a pass? Yeah, of course I do, considering some trips I might spend two or three hours in the park. Do I spend more per year with a pass? You bet. I think it's time to look at different metrics when measuring success.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

...and if you could put PREPAIDED Credits (money) on your season pass you would spend MORE....Time to invest in the technology.

I totally agree. In my hurry to get to the park, I hate to have to stop at ATM (and I won't use the in-park ATM's because of the fees). If I could plop a hundred bucks on my pass and use it at Happy Friar, life would be grand.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

Mmm....$100 in douching

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James Draeger
-Captain Sarcasm

Dude.... That ain't right James...

(Yes i know the grammar was bad. It's supposed to be that way.)

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I own you!

Inside joke... it's how my fries smell when I'm done at the condiment stand.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

lol Jeff! Ease up on the viniger and all will be well :)

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

If Cedar Point didn't have season passes, I would only go there once or twice a year. I've been there 8 time this year so far, and spent a decent amount int the park. I'm planning on going the last weekend to close up one heck of a season for me.

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House of Tomorrow: Only technology makes live worth living

My season passes mean I have more money during the season to spend in the park because I'm only paying for gas with each trip.

I also visit more often because even if I've only got $20 in cash on me at the time, I can still make a spontaneous trip to CP, and spend that $20 inside the park. (gotta love those cheese fries and corndogs, not to mention the mandatory frozen custard!).

We even eat more inside the park now. The only thing we cut back on is buying water or soda pop from the machines. Even my 16 year old son refuses to pay $2.50 for a bottle of water or soda.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

We go to the park more with our season passes. We go for a few hours every week or two. We regularly eat there and spend money in the park. I certainly wouldn't go that much if I had to pay everytime. It's better for the park just to get you in there, and allow you to buy food, drinks, souvenirs, clothing, play games, instead of just counting on the gate's take.

If I had to pay everytime I would not spend the amount of money that I do now. I wouldn't even be in the park more than a few times a season.

Ride capacity is already there. More people in the park will not cost it more to run the rides. It just means longer lines.

The areas where more capacity could cost more is in park maintenance, cleaning, and the like.

I've had a pass every year since '91. I go several times a year, more than before I had the pass. I have a lot of friends who also have passes. Since we don't have to pay to get in each time, we spend our money on the resorts, and staying one or two nights per trip several times a summer. The pass is a great deal! Not to mention, being able to go to all Cedar Fair parks with it.

I've been there about 20 times this year with my season pass. I live about an hour away. I still can't afford to spend much there... but with season pass prices low ...it's a great way to get away from "town" for a while and spend the day at the "park!" Income tax is GREAT when it comes time to plan vacations......CP passes make WONDERFUL gifts (and add a night at a nearby hotel...you have a grand birthday party!!!)

With a season pass, I'm there more often and therefore spend more in the park than if I didn't have a season pass.

MrScott

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

Same here, deanne. I probably would only make one trip to MiA each season, rather than multiples if I didn't have the season pass. So they are getting my money in two parks regularly. Not to mention I'm more likely to visit one of the other Cedar Fair properties with a season pass.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

I now live in Wisconsin next year I am organizing a group from here who will go visit 3 of Cedar Fair's parks.... Valley Fair in Minn., Worlds of Fun in MO (WHICH HAS THE LOWEST CF SEASON PASS) and Cedar Point.... we will get to vist all those parks for our $59 World's of Fun season pass plus travel and such!

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Raptor DJ Marcus D
Visit me on the web at www.MARCUSD.com
marcusd@marcusd.com

I live in West MI and used my season pass to MIA a lot this summer at CP. I must have spent with lodging, meals, etc well over $1000 there. The fact that I didn't pay admission everytime made it more worthwhile to take several trips there. I was more liberal with my spending. Plus I was there 12 times, where normally 1 time is all I go. It was kind of an obligation to get my money's worth out of the pass and then some.

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Blue people fly sideways when it rains....

Marcus D. Weemes said:
I now live in Wisconsin next year I am organizing a group from here who will go visit 3 of Cedar Fair's parks.... Valley Fair in Minn., Worlds of Fun in MO (WHICH HAS THE LOWEST CF SEASON PASS) and Cedar Point.... we will get to vist all those parks for our $59 World's of Fun season pass plus travel and such!
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Raptor DJ Marcus D
Visit me on the web at www.MARCUSD.com
marcusd@marcusd.com

I suguest you buy the 2003 CP passports from Kansas City for only $49.95 plus tax and S/H if you want it mailed to you. You also have to get it processed here in Kansas City. They start processing them in March and will open on the first weekend of April so buy a cheap CP Season Pass and enjoy my home park.

PS: CP and WOF season pass are the same thing. Also the SP price goes up (to an undisclosed amount could be around $65) after OCT 31st.

I will be picking up my 2003 Season Pass before the end of this month and I will be planing on using it at CP again in 2003.

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Chris Knight
Why does CP only have one Bird of Prey and a whole bunch of Sea Gulls?