Every August our family sits down this time of year when the next season passes go on sale to determine if buying them at a separate park makes the most financial sense for our us.
The past several seasons we have been buying our passes through Canada’s Wonderland because the cost savings for five of us made more sense than buying them at our home park of Cedar Point.
The 2024 season passes and 2023 season passes through a caveat into the mix when they introduced the Prestige passes. With last years elimination of the Platinum pass, we found it more beneficial to downgrade to the Gold pass with All-Park Passport. That change alone saved our family $225 when you factor in all our dining and drink plans into the total. That price savings was also before any currency conversion from USD to CAD.
This years decision is fortunately simple for us and an apples-to-apples comparison since we can keep our Gold and All-Park Passport add-on.
In this years post, we are not going to dive into again the reasoning why we do not think the Prestige pass is not a good fit for our family. We already covered that in last years season pass evaluation. The simple answer is none of the benefits are enticing enough to us to warrant the huge price difference, let alone multiplying that by five of us.
Evaluating Where to Buy a 2025 Season Pass
Keep in mind the one thing not being factored into our season pass decision is how the legacy Six Flags parks are going to handle season passes for the legacy Six Flags parks. At the time of this article, none of the 2025 Six Flags passes have gone on sale. Factoring in the probable need to visit a Six Flags park to get the actual pass activated, etc. before we could use it at a Cedar Fair park, it just makes sense to continue dealing with what we already know of the passes at Cedar Fair parks.
So lets take a look at all the Cedar Fair gold passes and the All-Park Passport add-on. Remember you can see an easy comparison of all the parks on one page on our story 2025 Six Flags (Cedar Fair) Season Pass Details.
Gold Pass Renewals + All-Park Passport
California’s Great America- $89 + $95 = $184
Canada’s Wonderland- $99 + $85 = $184
Carowinds- $99 + $89 = $188
Cedar Point- $99 + $85 = $184
Dorney Park- $99 + $89 = $188
Kings Dominion- $89 + $89 = $178
Kings Island- $110 + $75 = $185
Knott’s- $120 + $65 = $185
Michigan’s Adventure- $95 + $85 = $180
Schlitterbahn (Texas 2 Splash pass)- $110 + $75 = $185
Valleyfair- $89 + $95 = $184
Worlds of Fun- $89 + $89 = $178
Now lets add in the cost of five all-season dining plans, two drink plans, and three drink plus plans for the kids. Note, in previous years, we opted to drop the all-season Funpix package as we tried it for a couple seasons but did not find any person value in the plan.
Gold Pass Renewals + All-Park Passport + All-Park Dining + Drink Plans
California’s Great America- $89 + $95 = ($184 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1,922.95
Canada’s Wonderland- $99 + $85 = ($184 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1,922.95
Carowinds- $99 + $89 = ($188 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1942.95
Cedar Point- $99 + $85 = ($184 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1,922.95
Dorney Park- $99 + $89 = ($188 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($34.99 * 2) + ($49.99 * 3) = $1,934.95
Kings Dominion- $89 + $89 = ($178 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1,892.95
Kings Island- $110 + $75 = ($185 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1,891.96
Knott’s- $120 + $65 = ($185 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($35.99 * 2) + ($51.99 * 3) = $1,891.96
Michigan’s Adventure- $95 + $85 = ($180 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($34.99 * 2) + ($49.99 * 3) = $1,894.95
Schlitterbahn (Texas 2 Splash pass)- $110 + $75 = ($185 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($34.99 * 2) + ($49.99 * 3) = $1,919.95
Valleyfair- $89 + $95 = ($184 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($34.99 * 2) + ($49.99 * 3) = $1,914.95
Worlds of Fun- $89 + $89 = ($178 * 5) + ($155 * 5) + ($34.99 * 2) + ($49.99 * 3) = $1,884.95
All things being “equal,” this shows us that for 2025 season passes, the cheapest option would be to renew via Worlds of Fun. However, there are two important factors weighing into our decision.
Renewal benefits vary for park, with them all coming with a free bring-a-friend ticket. However, while some parks are giving one single use Fast Lane, others like Canada’s Wonderland, Carowinds, and Kings Island give guests five free Fast Lane passes. That all of a sudden makes the price increase of $38 (Canada’s Wonderland), $58 (Carowinds), or $7.01 (Kings Island) pretty intriguing.
What is also interesting in the above numbers is that the price thru Cedar Point is the same as Canada’s Wonderland. Could that be a play to try and pull some of those passholders over to the Lake Erie shores? Read on.
The largest pricing factor again comes with the currency conversion from buying through Canada’s Wonderland in CAD and using a no-fee credit card to convert it to USD. While the rate varies per day, it typically provides a 20-25% savings.
This drops our family’s price of $1,922.95 down to roughly $1442.21. At a savings of near $500, this is the clear winner that again trumps any other benefit offered. Pair that with 5 free single use Fast Lane passes, purchasing via Canada’s Wonderland becomes the no-brain answer.
Note, all prices above do not include applicable tax, which varies per location.
We would also like to point out something interesting from 2023, 2024 and now 2025 season passes. This is actual cost of goods without tax or any currency conversions.
2023 Platinum passes with dining + drink plans = $2,119.95
2024 Gold passes with dining + drink plans = $1949.94
2025 Gold passes with dining + drink plans = $1,922.95
This means our family is paying $197 cheaper for the same passes in 2025 than we did in 2023. That’s incredibly intriguing.
What passes will you be buying in 2025?
