Season Passes Not Valid for Haunt?

I purchased my season pass today, and when I went to read over the instructions (as I do every year, just to make sure nothing has changed) I noticed that it said "Platinum Season Passes are not valid for admission and/or parking during Haunt". Has this been implemented at Cedar Point?

This is the instructions field.

Honestly, your best bet on getting a definite answer is to contact the park, either when you go to get the pass processed, or call them within the coming months.

^^ what he said. Only the park will have the definitive answer. We can only guess.

Could be a policy change on the passes, could be a copy and paste issue for who builds their website. Could be a method to control Haunt crowds.

One thing is for sure, if my Platinum Pass is not valid during the Haunt, then I won't visit the Haunt. I like it, but not enough to ever buy an additional admission on top of the money I pay for my pass.

I'm pretty sure you can use it at Cedar Point. I think they would've announced that when passes went on sale back around Labor Day if that had been the case.

This has been discussed in numerous other threads. Yes, the pass is valid during HalloWeekends. The season pass page says both types of passes qualify for unlimited fall visits, the email you'll receive says unlimited HalloWeekends visits. My only guess as to why you see that message is because they are showing the same generic message to all parks. Your pass is not valid for admission to Halloween Haunt at Canada's Wonderland, for example. These are separately gated events.

It's worth noting that at Knott's, passes are not valid during Haunt...but they ARE valid on Haunt days. My last visit to Knott's, the park was open from 10am-6pm or something like that, then Haunt was 7pm-midnight or similar. If they're going to make Haunt a separate gate, and they divide it up that way...I can potentially live with that. I wouldn't *like* it, but at least I could still get some late season rides in...

(I have no use for Haunt, but I like the fact that I can ride Magnum in late October...)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I agree, and I definitely could see Cedar Point doing something like this down the line. This is how Carowinds does it as well.

I typically am there only on Sunday afternoons for coaster rides, and wouldn't be bothered one way or another if I didn't get Friday and Saturday evenings. I know that is the minority opinion, but if it keeps the place from getting silly crowded on Saturdays, it's fine by me.

If they did that, the platinum pass would lose alot of value to me. I think the parks that do a separate gate were probably that way before they were bought by Cedar Fair, so they just left it like that.

I think all the parks that have a separate hunt admission are next to major cities, where a few hours in the park in the evening would be practical. With CP being at least an hour away from a major city, there would be resistance to attending only a three or four hour event, many guests come to CP for the entire day because of the distance. Not to mention that hotel guests would probably complain about having split access to the park and two separate admissions. I don't think doing the Hunt as a separate gate would be very practical at CP.

I hope they don't split HalloWeekends into 2 separate gates events. Last year may have been the first step towards that with naming the daytime family activities "Great Pumpkin Festival" and the more adult night activities "Haunt". I've seen good arguments both pro and con.

If I were asked to split the events and make it work, here is what I would do:
-CP passes are good during the day, Haunt is a separate ticket but at a discount price for passholders
-Platinum passes are good at ALL CF parks ALL the time, including Haunt.
-Resorts will have several package options including either no admission (Platinum passholders), Great Pumpkin Festival, Haunt, or both.
-It wouldn't work this year as passes were already sold with HalloWeekends advertised as being included. Future passes would have to be made VERY CLEAR as to what you are purchasing.

Again, I hope they don't split these events as I really enjoy them both (even though we can only make it to CP on Columbus Day weekend in the fall)...

And the prices of Platinum Passes will skyrocket!

I am actually curious. So let's pretend for a second that they split it into two separate events (which I am hoping will not be the case). Would they end up clearing the entire park out and let people back in, or go as soon as the Haunt started check people's tickets/wristbands/whatever they use?

It could be done either way, depending on the lead time for the Haunt event. Actually Kings Island had a very nice compromise the first year that they did Haunt. It was a separately gated event with wristbands, but only for the haunted houses. Your daytime admission got you into the park, and if you didn't have a wristband you could still ride the rides and use the shops and restaurants....but you needed the wristband to get into the haunted houses.

Of course the following year they eliminated the upcharge.

At Knott's I believe they emptied and refilled the park for Haunt. I also noticed as I was leaving that people lining up for Haunt (or were those employees reporting to work?) were going through a security checkpoint that did not exist for the daytime (lack-of) crowd.

How is this for an idea: your Platinum Pass is good for haunt admission at all of the parks *except* the one you bought the pass from?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:

How is this for an idea: your Platinum Pass is good for haunt admission at all of the parks *except* the one you bought the pass from?

I like the idea, though I expect more than a few CP locals would be willing to make the trip to KI to purchase/process their passes.

^ now why would we do that when we can just go to Wildwater?

Yes, you cannot use the Platinum Pass to get into the Haunt event at Knott's. You can use it to purchase discounted tickets for the event. They are now selling Haunt season passes separately, these not being available until about a month before the start of Knott's Scary Farm. https://www.knotts.com/ticket-category/Season-Passes

Yes you can use your platinum pass/regular pass for Halloween events (cedar point Halloween I'm assuming)...says so on the website on the chart with the "checkmarks" on season pass page info. :)