Last year when Cedar Fair introduced the Prestige season pass, our family had to make a decision whether we should stick with our Platinum passes or make the leap up to Prestige. So we sat down and evaluated all the options, weighing the benefits and costs to see if it was worth it for our family. Feel free to read the Evaluating Platinum vs Prestige+ Season Passes article. Ultimately, we decided the new season passes were not in our favor and renewed our Platinum passes for the 2023 season.
Fast forward to renewing for the 2024 season, and Cedar Fair has thrown another wrench into the mix. They have now announced that Platinum season passes will be discontinued. However, while the Platinum pass did go away at the majority of Cedar Fair parks, it is still available at Schlitterbahn and includes access to all of the parks.
Further, the pricing from park to park is all over the place and anything but cohesive across the company.
With the major benefit of Platinum passes being free parking and admission to the other Cedar Fair parks, Cedar Fair will now require an add-on to the passes sold at other parks.
Cedar Fair has indicated two tiers of season pass will now be eligible for the All Park Passport, giving guests the ability to visit other parks in the chain.
Gold Passes will have the option of purchasing a $100 All Park Passport add-on.
Prestige Passes, which are only available at select parks, will have the same All Park Passport add-on option for $125.
This puts us in an interesting predicament of downgrading our pass to Gold with the add-on or upgrading to Prestige with the add-on, or possibly renewing our Platinum passes via Schlitterbahn. So lets go through all the pros and cons of each pass.
Evaluating Gold vs Prestige 2024 Benefits
For starters, the major comparison are going to come from our home park pass benefits at Cedar Point. We will also evaluate later in this discussion how this impacts our family renewing through the Canada’s Wonderland season pass program to save money.
As discussed in our annual round-up of Cedar Fair pass prices and benefits, the following is the breakdown on 2024 Cedar Point pass costs, not including all of the dining and drink add-ons (updated as of 8/10/23).
Gold Pass- $99
Gold All-Park Passport- $100
Prestige Pass- $325
Prestige All-Park Passport- $125
Looking at both the Gold and Prestige passes, both get us free parking, admission to Cedar Point, Cedar Point Shores and HalloWeekends. Both passes also get access to free Pre-K passes, bring-a-friend discounted tickets and the Pass Perks reward program.
So now lets look at the differences.
Food & Merchandise Discount
The Gold pass gets 10% where as the Prestige pass gets a 15% discount.
While our family does purchase our fair share of merchandise and food outside the dining plans throughout the year, especially when visiting other Cedar Fair parks, an extra 5% is not a big selling point to us to warrant the extra cost.
Preferred Parking
This is an interesting predicament. As we discussed in our evaluation last year, we seldom have any issues parking near a gate.
Prestige passholders get access to a Preferred Parking lot closer to the gate.
Where this gets interesting is they are getting rid of Platinum passes, pushing guests into Gold or Prestige. While the Preferred Parking area has always been limited to capacity, what happens if the majority of your former Platinum passholders make the jump to Prestige. This means you could potentially have to greatly increase the area allotted for Preferred Parking. Does every Cedar Fair park offering Prestige (Carowinds, Kings Island, Cedar Point and now Canada’s Wonderland, Kings Dominion and Knott’s for 2024) have the parking capacity to make that adjustment?
Not sure how much credence we put into this benefit.
Preferred Entrance
One interesting aspect of entering the park is seeing how much the preferred entrance lines actually get used. Prestige passes get their own dedicated gates for the first two hours of each day.
For those that have Prestige, this typically means near immediate entry to the park. Some see that as a great benefit to getting in and maximizing early entry.
For us, we are not typically visiting on a busy Saturday, and thus even if there is a line, it never takes more than a couple minutes to find a quick lane. Therefore, again this benefit is little benefit to us.
VIP Lounges Areas
Honestly, we have been shocked Cedar Fair keeps doubling down on the whole lounge benefit. Cedar Point’s lounges are still tents, while shockingly the one at Kings Island is a permanent structure.
I imagine most guests who are season passholders do not spend a full day at the parks unless you are visiting another park.
They used to at least make the VIP areas partly interesting when they offered free soft drinks. Now it has been stripped down to the bare minimum of flavored waters, a couple cookies and chips.
The whole concept is really weird to us because you are paying someone to staff the area when getting enough workers is already a problem, and for a benefit very few people utilize. Then on top of it you have gone and invested big money into permanent structures at some of the parks. For a company that is looking to cut costs at every opportunity, this whole concept is just odd because it has not been a money maker nor driver to get people to invest in more costly season passes.
Enhanced Pass Perks
Here we are again and the whole Pass Perks program is a big joke. We know several people with Cedar Point Prestige passes and never get a single email, let alone Pass Perks (nor are there any benefits showing in their account). The whole “enhanced” idea and rollout of the plan was ill-conceived and provides no added benefit nor incentive to keep visiting.
Even our Platinum passes, which technically our home park is Canada’s Wonderland since that is where we renew, never get us any sort of Pass Perks.
Early Entry
This is one of the major benefits we actually use on the occasion we visit the parks at rope drop. The majority of our visits are in the evening for dinner. Regardless, it is nice to roll in and let the kids go around getting their early entry rides while us parents enjoy some breakfast sandwiches.
For 2024, there will again be changes to Early Entry, specifically at Cedar Point. The only way to get early entry starting next year is with a Gold All-Park or Prestige/Prestige All-Park passes. Regular Gold passes will still not get early entry for 2024.
Platinum passes are ONLY available for purchase via Schlitterbahn. While we have yet to see any confirmation that Platinum passholders will for sure get access to early entry, we can hopefully make a logical assumption.
Cedar Fair is forcing guests to have All-Park access or Prestige/Prestige All-Park for early entry. Therefore, it would be presumed that since Platinum passes still get access to all of the Cedar Fair properties, they would also get early entry privledges.
The bigger issue with early entry benefits is if you are going to require Gold All Park Passport, Prestige/Prestige All-Park, and possibly Platinum to get access, at least offer this benefit at the Prestige parks.
For 2024, Prestige will be offered at Canada’s Wonderland, Carowinds, Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, and Knotts. Yet as of time of this article, Kings Dominion and Knott’s do not offer early entry. This should be incentivized at your “premium” parks.
Single Use Fast Lane
Prestige members once again get access to a single use Fast Lane on every park visit. We could see this being a great benefit for those that would use it.
The interesting thing is there are whole Facebook groups dedicated to people hiding them for people to find around the parks. This either means they are not using the major benefit of Prestige, or they already have access to the Season Fast Lane program. We would be interested in seeing how the elimination of Platinum and All Park Passport impacts those getting Prestige passes.
If a guests buys the All Season Fast Lane, and can get a Gold + All Park Passport for cheaper than Prestige, then there really is little incentive to upgrade, depending on ones views of the other benefits.
Bring-a-Friend
Prestige again gets access to 2 free bring-a-friend tickets annually.
Just like last year, this benefits others and not necessarily the passholder. This benefit does little to sway us to Prestige.
Evaluating Gold vs Prestige 2024 Prices
As discussed above, on the surface of benefits, the Prestige does very little to entice us to want to upgrade. So really it is gonna come down to cost analysis, so lets dive in.
For our family, it is imperative that we get access to all the Cedar Fair properties. That is the major benefit we utilize. Therefore, it is no question for us that it comes down to Gold Passes + All Park Passport vs Prestige Passes + All Park Passport vs Platinum.
Gold Passes + All Park Passport
What we are going to show here is the cost of the Gold Passes + All Park Passport across all parks to see if there is a cost savings. We are going to use our 2024 pass breakdown (effective 8/10/23) to compare costs.
California’s Great America- $89 + $100 = $189
Canada’s Wonderland- $95 (Renewal) + $100 = $195
Carowinds- $99 + $95 = $194
Cedar Point- $99 + $100 = $199
Dorney Park- $99 + $100 = $199
Kings Dominion- $99 (Renewal) + $100 = $199
Kings Island- $105 (Renewal) + $95 = $200
Knott’s- $115 (Renewal) + $95 = $210
Michigan’s Adventure- $95 + $100 = $195
Schlitterbahn- Not applicable
Valleyfair- $85 + $100 = $185
Worlds of Fun- $99 + $100 = $199
Remember how one constant of the Platinum pass was it was ALWAYS the same price across all the parks? With the elimination of Platinum, and pushing guests into Gold or Prestige, you can clearly see there is a pricing game going on based on the various markets. Granted the price differences are minimal, but when you start to multiply a $5-$20 price difference per person, it quickly adds up.
For the average passholder who only visits their home park, most would just renew at their base. However, for those of us keen eyed, analysis driven, it can pay to shop around a renewal since you can do it at any park. Technically if you were buying a new pass with All Park Passport, you could also first redeem it any of the parks front gates. It should work and typically does, but your mileage may vary.
So by this example, it would be best for us to renew via Valleyfair for the cheapest pass rate. Since we already have passes, nothing would change and we would simply visit the parks like we normally do. The only thing that would change is your home park designation and thus Pass Perks, which we have yet to see a guest say this was a deciding factor.
Prestige + All Park Passport
This evaluation really only applies to the 6 parks offering Prestige in 2024.
California’s Great America- Not applicable
Canada’s Wonderland- $299 + $125 = $424
Carowinds- $225 (Renewal) + $125 = $350
Cedar Point- $325 + $125 = $450
Dorney Park- Not applicable
Kings Dominion- $225 + $150 = $375
Kings Island- $299 (Renewal) + $125 = $424
Knott’s- $350 + $125 = $475
Michigan’s Adventure- Not applicable
Schlitterbahn- Not applicable
Valleyfair- Not applicable
Worlds of Fun- Not applicable
So as one could see, the price varies from $350 to $475. However, other than the select target market of each park, what benefit is there to purchase/renew your pass through any of the parks with higher price points? If someone says Pass Perks was their deciding factor that warranted paying the higher price for the same exact pass you could buy via Carowinds, they would be crazy.
I just do not see the logic for elimination of the Platinum pass and fluctuating price points for the same benefits.
Let alone, the price different between Gold + All Park and Prestige + All Park is roughly double. None of the benefits warrant that kind of price difference, at least not for this family.
Platinum Pass
Here is the odd caveat of the 2024 pass pricing structure. Platinum is still available via Schlitterbahn and still offers all park access.
The platinum pass is $215.
Compared to the Gold + All Park, this is slightly more in cost than any of the price points.
We have yet to see any Platinum benefit that sets it apart and warrants renewing via Schlitterbahn. So sadly it is time for us to say goodbye to our long held Platinum passes.
TIP
The key little detail to remember if you are already a passholder, regardless of which type, you still qualify for the renewal rate, even if it is a different pass type. Do not make that costly mistake!
Our 2024 Pass Decision
Where is starts to get even more complicated for our specific family of five is building the package and finding the lowest cost option. With five passes + dining + drink packages, and each park offering varying price points, the bottom dollar can change quickly.
For our example after evaluating the numbers above, it makes sense to renew via Valleyfair as a Gold passholder. However, the key for our family is the hidden benefit of purchasing via Canada’s Wonderland.
If you buy your pass on the Canada’s Wonderland website, you are buying in Canadian dollars and not US dollars. Therefore, you will be subject to the exchange ratio. This results in about a 20-25% discount. However, the key is make sure to use a zero cost international fee credit card.
Using this trick, we typically save hundreds of dollars off our total cost.
The one constant for 2024 passes is with All Park dining and drink plans. This makes the evaluation easier because it simply adds $149 dining and $34.99 drink to any of the park passes. I am not factoring into this we will likely upgrade to drink plus plans for our kids to enjoy ICEE.
So lets look at the package numbers using Gold pricing.
California’s Great America- $89 + $100 = $189 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $372.99
Canada’s Wonderland- $95 (Renewal) + $100 = $195 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $378.99
Carowinds- $99 + $95 = $194 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $377.99
Cedar Point- $99 + $100 = $199 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $382.99
Dorney Park- $99 + $100 = $199 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $382.99
Kings Dominion- $99 (Renewal) + $100 = $199 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $382.99
Kings Island- $105 (Renewal) + $95 = $200 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $383.99
Knott’s- $115 (Renewal) + $95 = $210 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $393.99
Michigan’s Adventure- $95 + $100 = $195 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $378.99
Schlitterbahn- $215 Platinum + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $398.99
Valleyfair- $85 + $100 = $185 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $368.99
Worlds of Fun- $99 + $100 = $199 + $149 dining + $34.99 drink = $382.99
So Valleyfair appears to be the clear winner as far as best place to renew our passes and move from Platinum to Gold + All Park Passport.
The cost breakdown for our family of five is as follows:
Gold + All Park Passport (via Valleyfair)
$925 = $185 x 5 Passes
$745 = $149 x 5 Dining Plans
$174.95 = $34.99 x 5 Drink Plans
——————————-
$1,844.95 Total
However, before hitting submit, we of course have to evaluate against Canada’s Wonderland.
Gold + All Park Passport (via Canada’s Wonderland)
$975 = $195 x 5 Passes
$745 = $149 x 5 Dining Plans
$174.95 = $34.99 x 5 Drink Plans
——————————-
$1,894.95 Total
The key thing to note here is our 2023 Platinum passes + dining + drink plans cost $2,119.95 total when purchased August 2022. You can see the price has dropped dramatically for 2024 when purchasing August 2023.
So while the total cost via Canada’s Wonderland is $50 more than renewing via Valleyfair, you also have to remember the 20-25% exchange rate savings. Therefore, the cost of our 2024 plans would really be $1421.21 to $1515.96 dependent on the fluctuating exchange rate.
That is a huge saving and the reason why we will once again be renewing our passes at Canada’s Wonderland for 2024.
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Canada Wonderland also has terminology for their Dining (all park) and Drink plans that indicate they are valid for 2024 AND the remainder of 2023, while both Cedar Point a d King’s Island ticketing portals indicate 2024 only for those add-ons.
Michigan Adventure matches CW terminology in this regard. I haven’t checked the rest.
I don’t currently have a dining plan but was looking to add it for next year. I was just going to renew with CP until I noticed this discrepancy but now I may go the CW route for the currency conversion and hope the dining plan works for the rest of this year.
Don’t expect it to work outside of the parks it says it will. Last year renewing actually inactivated our current dining plans, so we always had to go to guest services for a work around.
Honestly with Cedar Point I just park in the Magnum Lot by the water park and skip the preferred lot altogether
In your price comparisons you have to consider taxes. Some parks have head taxes or additional other taxes added by thge locality and others don’t. For example Cedar point is $199 for renewal + passport & KI is $200 for the same. However Cedar Point has a 8% head tax on that $199 & KI has no head tax on the $200. So at CP you have an extra approximate $16 in tax, over 4 or 5 people in a family that’s adds up to money that could have been used to buy several drink plans
Another money saver is using a chase freedom card. this quarter through September is 5% cash back on live entertainment which includes Cedar Point (so all Cedar Fair)
Great tip.
If you buy through Canada, do I need to activate in Canada or can I go to my usual home park (cedar point)? Thanks!
Depends what you are buying. If you are doing a renewal, you can do it at any park because your season pass number stays the same. If you are buying a new pass with All Season Passport, you “should” be able to get it at any park. If you are buying a CW only pass, than you’ll need to redeem it at CW.
I currently have a cedar point gold pass. Would I be able to renew with Canada but first use it at cedar point? Thanks for the response!
If it’s a renewal, it won’t matter where you use it first. We renewed via CW and used our current passes this week at CP with no issues.
Have you happened to try your 2024 dining plans from CW at cedar point? Interested to know if they work or not like they would up there
We did; however, we already have 2023 dining plans. So really no way of knowing if it’s using the 2023 or 2024 plan at CP. We can say that our upgrade to the Drink Plan Plus program is working this year at CP, as we’ve been able to get ICEE with no issues.
What if I had a Platinum (Knott’s) pass in 2022, but didn’t renew? I live in Seattle and no parks are close. Since I still have a pass number, do you think I could renew at a park other than KBF? Would I have to visit the park to pick it up or would it be added to my existing pass?
Hi Justin. I need a little more help. Cedar point will let me renew with my current pass number. When I go to Canada’s wonderland and try it says they are unable to verify me. Do I just need to start new?
Hmm, you’re the second person to bring this to our attention. Not 100% sure. We never had that issue a couple years ago when we switched and renewed from CP to CW. Might be worth giving them a call or just purchasing as new if the price difference isn’t that much.