Ticketing Questions

I will be visiting driving in the week to visit the park on Friday and Saturday. We will be staying at Lighhouse Point, and out goal is have all of our ticketing in order so we can bust the gate for morning ERT.

Here's the basic deal:
A) My Father and Step-Mother are Carrowinds locals and have Cedar Faire MAXX Passes from there. My father says that at Carrowinds they no longer put photos on the pass, but that when he goes to the park they scan his pass and his picture comes up on screen to confirm his ID. He believes Cedar Point is not on the same system and was lead to believe he would need to visit guest services in order to use his MAXX Pass there. So my question is what does he have to do/where does he need to go exactly?

B) I'm active duty military, and I believe from last visist ('03) that there is a discounted ticket. My questions here are 1) Is this ticket availble to my dependants (wife, with dependant ID)? and 2) What's the best way for me get one (or 2)? What I mean by this is, can I buy military tickets at the resort entrance, or do I need to go them at the main gate?

These may sound like silly questions, but we don't want to spend our morning ERT running around getting squared away.

Thanks for you help, and all of the great info your site/community provides!

Cable,

First of all, thank you for serving. I appreciate all that you in the military do for us in the civilian world!

To answer your Military discount question, it looks like they have a $31 ticket, which can also be used by your immediate family. More details can be found here:

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/admission/prices/index.cfm

and here:

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/news/faq.cfm#faq_175

Thanks again for serving, and have a great time at the park!

-Sam

I don't know anything about the Maxx Passes or the price of a military ticket. But, I do know you can get cheaper tickets while checking in to Lighthouse Point which may or may not be cheaper than military. Also, keep in mind, you get early entry to the park on check in and check out days. So, plan to get there in plenty of time to check in, get your tickets and then get to the entry gate and have your Carowinds people checked in.

By the way, you'll love Lighthouse Point. A bunch of my friends stayed there last summer and loved it. Besides the antiquated check-in process and lack of wi-fi, we had a great time. It was fun going back in time to see dot-matrix printers again though. :)

To answer your first question a pass purchased at any other park has to go through guest services. It's located to the right of the turnstilles next to hotel reservations. They get you through pretty quickly.

So my basic read is this:

A) I can get discounted tickets for my wife and myself from the ticketing booth.

B) The two members of my party with Cedar Faire MAXX passes from Carowinds will have to enter the park via "Guest Services."

C) A & B can be accomplished at the gate near Magnum/Soak City/Breakers, which is more convinient both for getting to from Lighthouse Point, and for getting to Early-In ERT rides in the morning.

Is any part of this incorrect?

Nope. Sounds like you got it right to me.

cplover - I think the expectation is that that will change at some point. Especially since Cedar Fair has gone to a chain wide pass system rather than in the past where it was just that the parks "honored" season passes from other Cedar Fair parks.

Cable - keep in mind the resort entrance gate gets VERY busy in the morning since everyone staying at the resorts can get in early. So, getting to the gate at 8:45 will usually yield several hundred people in front of you. So, if you're really trying to get a jump on things, you might want to get there as early as possible. I have no idea what time the ticket windows open, but I would get there a little bit before they do. I know my friends and I were caught off-guard when we showed up to the entrance at like 8:45 and it was PACKED with people.

The passes from other parks can enter at the resorts gate, but it will take longer to get in there than at the front gate. Odds are things will be a little easier for you if you go to the front.