There are lots of things that we wonder why they are the way they are with Cedar Fair parks, but there is one thing that has always bugged us and made zero sense. Why does the cost of a season pass go up throughout the year when less benefits are obtained?
A Cedar Fair season pass is valid from January 1 through December 31 each year.
Our family always buys the next years pass in August with a payment plan so the cost can be spread out and by the time Cedar Point open in May, the pass is paid off. August is also always the cheapest time to purchase a season pass, as they continue to go up in cost.
So if I buy a season pass in July, I not only paid more for the pass due to price hikes, but I also missed out on potentially six months of visits for a park like Knott’s Berry Farm that is open year round. Even with a park like Cedar Point that is only open May-October, it made little sense for anyone to buy a pass late in the season unless they planned on marathon visiting the park to get the cost per visit down.
The economics never made sense on why the parks would continue to hike up the cost for less days of operation, yet there are loads of families that wait to buy season passes.
Well there was discussion around the internet back in August 2018 that Knott’s Berry Farm was going to be changing from a season pass program to an annual pass system. Now passes will be valid for one year from date of purchase. Well it never came to fruition and 2019 season passes came and went like they always have done.
As we approach the release of 2020 Cedar Fair passes, it is still unclear which direction the company will go with season pass versus annual pass.
However, this week, some guests have started to receive a notification that the auto-renewals will not happen for the 2020 season.
One reason is the parks might have gotten a lot of negative reaction from guests that had signed up for auto-renewal, and then were not happy that they actually followed through for the new season.
The other potential here is that we could possibly be on the fringe of a restructuring of season pass vs annual pass.
First, we love the idea of this change. It makes sense that someone buying a season pass in November should get the same one year benefits as someone buying in May.
Second, we will be interested to see what this does for the cost of the annual pass program. Will we see one constant price August to August?
What is unclear is if this business model would make sense for any of the other Cedar Fair parks that are not open year round?
What are your thoughts on this potential change?
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I see this being a Knott’s only thing since they are open year round.
But if you purchase a platinum pass it is good at all cedar fair parks so knott’s would be an option during the winter months.
I wonder if they are going to add a Gold Pass to the Cedar Point line-up, and that’s why they aren’t doing auto-renewal. Some of the other Cedar Fair parks, like Kings Island still have their auto-renewal webpage up, while the Cedar Point auto-renewal web page says “The Season Pass Auto-Renewal program has been deactivated for the 2020 season. Continue to watch cedarpoint.com for exciting news and updates regarding our 2020 Season Pass program and get ready to unlock a new adventure at Cedar Point!”