What if we made the case that Cedar Fair is not charging enough to get in the gate?

What is your overall opinion of visiting somewhere like Cedar Point? Do you feel like a visit is on the lower end or higher end of the spectrum when it comes to the overall experience? Is the place clean and maintained? Do they have a great collection of rides? At the end of the day do you say “that was a great time?” We could certainly make the case that a large majority of guests to a place like Cedar Point consider it a top tier amusement park. So would it not make sense for a premium amusement park experience to charge a higher price?

There is a lot of noise out there currently against the case of Cedar Point raising their gate ticket price to $85 and parking to $25 for the 2022 season. Of course keep in mind that price is only if guests do no research and just walk up to the gate. If you buy a ticket online, they are currently as low as $45. Then there is the whole discussion on the value of a season pass.

Sure the costs can be jarring, especially in an economy with inflation and gas prices going higher and higher and as families begin to feel the pinch. There is always going to be a portion of the population that is cost conscience and sensitive to any price changes. However, for the past several years we have wondered if Cedar Point is charging too little?

Demand for amusement parks is through the roof, especially after the pent up demand following the Covid crisis. Sure there still may be some sweet spots in the calendar to try and avoid lesser crowd days and get some more rides in. However, we would venture to say attendance is up for the most part.

Over the years, our family tries to visit other amusement and theme parks to see how they operate and do things. Sometimes they have some great ideas implemented that we would love to see brought back to Cedar Fair parks, and sure, other times there are things that could be improved. At the forefront of our mind is always cost, and we are always interested to see how other parks capture the dollar from guests.

After visiting all kinds of amusement parks across North America, our overall opinion is Cedar Fair is doing a bang up job across the board with their parks. So much so, that we feel a visit to a Cedar Fair parks offers a pretty premium experience at a reasonable price point. Sure we have some pretty bold feelings for how things could be improved at Cedar Fair parks, but overall all their hard work comes through in the end. When we think of any random day at a Cedar Fair park, our overall opinion is the company offers a premium experience over most other operators.

As we look at visiting other parks, it is always interesting to see how much it costs relative to visiting a Cedar Fair park. So we decided to do some comparisons for discussion purposes.

At the time of print of this article, the following is the current breakdown for an online ticket to visit a Cedar Fair park for a 2022 single day ticket, parking not included. Prices subject to change and vary per day selected.

California’s Great America- $45
Canada’s Wonderland- $39.99
Carowinds- $45
Cedar Point- $45
Dorney Park- $39.99
Kings Dominion- $39.99
Kings Island- $45
Knotts- $69
Michigan’s Adventure- $39.99
Schlitterbahn- $39.99
Valleyfair- $32.99
Worlds of Fun- $34.99

Now lets take a look at some other area amusement parks and their current ticket prices. Keep in mind this list is not meant to include every amusement park out there, nor every pricing option. However, when looking at available entertainment options, we noticed some interesting comparisons.

Dollywood- $84 (We are always sticker shocked on what it costs to visit this park for a single day.)
Busch Gardens Williamsburg- $79.99 (Again, ouch)
Hershey Park- $54.99
Waldameer- $37.25 (Rides only)
Knoebels- $48.00
Kennywood- $34.99
Dutch Wonderland- $39.99
Kentucky Kingdom- $49.99
Holiday World- $59.99
Idlewild- $46.99
Six Flags America- $29.99
Six Flags Great Adventure- $39.99
Six Flags Over Georgia- $34.99
Six Flags St. Louis- $34.99
Six Flags Great America- $34.99
Six Flags Darien Lake- $34.99
Six Flags Magic Mountain- $65.00
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom- $39.99

Now lets discuss.

While we would love to make some comparisons to our family’s recent trip to Universal Orlando, Florida parks are sort of in their own stratosphere. Year round operation provides some benefits. While the front end ticket prices are substantially higher, the incidental costs appeared to be lower than a lot of the seasonal parks. However, keep in mind seasonal parks have roughly only six months to make money. Therefore, it kind of makes sense for higher then industry prices.

Seeing as Cedar Point is our home park, we make a lot of comparisons to there when visiting other parks. So lets just compare the average day to Cedar Point versus any of the above parks. We find it hard to justify paying more than the cost of a day ticket to Cedar Point to some of these smaller parks. Why would we pay $54.99 to visit a Hershey Park when it is cheaper to visit Cedar Point? Now keep in mind, Hershey Park is a fantastic amusement park with a ton of really great rides. However, most would argue Cedar Point is near the top of the pyramid of amusement parks. So if our family did not have season passes and had to select any park on the pyramid, it would seem to make sense Cedar Point is a better value. Of course things like distance from the park, hotel accommodations, etc. all facture into the bigger economic picture.

Something that has always been fascinating to us is Cedar Fair’s approach to pricing. Rather than charging a higher price to get people through the gate, they prefer to try and get additional dollars from guests on the higher costs of incidentals. Food and beverage (F&B) at any Cedar Fair parks is among the highest we have seen across the whole industry. It is always interesting that Cedar Fair would not want to capture the extra dollars up front on the ticket price, where the money is guaranteed, than charge lower prices on the F&B where guests might feel inclined to then spend more.

So does it make sense that a park like Cedar Point should be charging more for a daily ticket? The parks, especially on the weekend, are pretty packed. Lets paint two pictures.

1) Parks maintain their reasonable gate price. Crowds remain relatively high. Therefore, you sell more of the premium Fast Lane product. However, you also have to stress the system with larger demand on the food & beverage locations.

2) Charge a premium for the gate. Cedar Point has always portrayed itself as the best in the industry, so charge accordingly. The higher price of entry means possibly the crowds are reduced by a small percentage. Higher gate means you captured the dollars before they got on property. Premium add-ons like Fast Lane still sell, though maybe see a slight decrease if the lines are not as bad. F&B locations see a more reasonable demand.

With the higher costs of labor, and now raw materials, it would seem to make sense to want to decrease the demand on the F&B system.

The whole Wild Frontier Nights premium adults-only event is a pretty interesting example of Cedar Point attempting to go about the high end customer. However, the lack of sales has been pretty telling for how well it went over, especially in the current economy.

Should the price increase on a premium park experience?

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