Last week we took a hard look at the 2014 Six Flags Annual Pass Ticket Discounts that were released. Guests who purchased their Six Flags season passes early earned a whole bunch of additional benefits, such as being upgraded to a Gold pass, which gets the guest free parking and admission to all the other Six Flags parks. In addition, they earned admission for the remainder of 2013, as well as the annual Fright Fest admission. Purchasing Six Flags tickets early is an awesome way for a family to save a bundle of money, if you plan on going several times to account for the price.
Our family can not benefit from the Six Flags passes because we do not live near any of the parks. However, we are fortunate to live very close to the Roller Coaster capital of the world, Cedar Point. So I have been studying up on Cedar Fair season passes to find the best offers.
2014 Cedar Fair season passes went on sale last week on the heels of the Six Flags release. So I was anxious to compare notes.
What I do not like about the Cedar Point season passes is that unlike the Six Flags passes, one does not get admission for the remainder of 2013. Instead, you receive a single daily pass for the 2013 season.
Cedar Point states their season pass prices are the lowest of the year if purchased prior to October 27, 2013. However, they give no indication of exactly how much someone is saving on purchasing a season pass early.
I also noticed while the regular season pass cost varies by park, there is no advantage to buying the Platinum pass at a different park, as the price is the same across the board (at least for adults; Jr/Sr Platinum prices do vary).
Cedar Point
2014 Season Pass- $112.50 (Adult); $99 (Jr/Sr)
2014 Platinum Season Pass- $180.00 (Adult); $99 (Jr/Sr)
For comparison, the 2014 daily passes are $44.99 and $29.99 for an Adult and Jr/Sr respectively.
Parking is an additional $15 per visit.
So a family of four (2 adults/2 Jrs) would spend $423 for a regular season pass package. The downside is a season pass does not include parking. One needs to upgrade to a Platinum season pass for the parking privilege.
A single daily visit by comparison would cost $149.96 plus the daily parking. Comparing to the regular season pass rate, a family of four would need to visit three times to break even.
Is the Platinum Season Pass worth it?
A Platinum Season Pass from Cedar Point get you admission to all the other Cedar Fair amusement parks (and free parking), admission to Soak City, parking for the entire season, early ride times before the general public, a 10% discount on select purchases, and a bring-a-friend privilege on select days.
In my opinion, the biggest decisions that go into buying the Platinum pass is whether a family will visit the other Cedar Fair parks and/or the savings by the free parking.
This season, we were vary fortunate to have visited Cedar Point twice and Kings Island once. However, the tickets were acquired for “free” via My Coke Rewards.
Our family has actually been debating about getting Cedar Point season passes. However, personally, I am still not 100% convinced we would get any value out of passes. Cedar Point is open daily May through Labor Day and only on weekends in September and October. So roughly speaking, there are 4 months of opportunities to visit the park.
In general, those are also the busiest times for our family to travel. So trying to plan ahead even one day a month to visit the park is very difficult. While the economics makes sense if you plan on visiting the park at least 4 times, the reality of the situation for our family is that typically we are not in town enough during the open season to capitalize on the value of Cedar Point season passes.
As our kids get older, maybe season passes to Cedar Point will become more of a viable option. However, at this point in our lives, we are better off trying to get discounted tickets via other means and visit the park when available.
Do you visit Cedar Fair amusement parks enough to get value out of the season pass?
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Source: Cedar Fair
