Memberships

It appears that (at least some of the) Cedar Fair parks are adopting the Membership model from Six Flags. KI, KD, Dorney, and Carowinds, among others, are advertising monthly Membership plans.

The only parks not doing this (at this time) are Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland, and Knotts.

Thoughts?

I've never even understood what that's supposed to mean. How is it different than having a pass on a payment plan, with various options?

One difference: You have to explicitly renew a season pass, but have to explictly cancel a membership. My guess is that the membership is "stickier," and so probably marginally more profitable for the park.

The membership plans have also replaced the old season pass payment plans.

Another example of "I thought the new chain was supposed to be a continuation of Cedar Fair, but with the Six Flags name" rather than the continuation of Legacy Six Flags stuff.

Memberships are very popular. See them for an increasing number of services. Can get them for car washes. And benefit to the company is they renew towards the horizon until you cancel it. Common for people to live paying "monthly payments."

I think from the parks standpoint, the "memberships" may help them to even out cash flow. I'm not an accountant, but if you buy a pass, there's a lot of money that comes in at that time and then nothing for the next year until you renew (not quite true, as pass holders do spend on food and drink and souvenirs at the parks, but you get the picture). With a membership, you have a much more constant income stream.

For the purposes of e.g. quarterly results, pass revenue is recognized over the course of the year, not all at once. I don't remember the details, but this has been discussed several times in the past few years.

Cash flow and revenue recognition aren't the same thing. With seasons pass products where people pay for all of it up front, parks receive the cash all at once. They can use that cash however they want at that point. But they recognize the revenue over time. Six Flags indicates in its Revenue Recognition footnote in its financial statements that it recognizes revenue from multi-use products based on the expected number of uses. They do not specify the expected uses for any given products. But say they expect season passes to be used 5x in a season. They would recognize 20% of the amount paid for the pass as revenue for each visit. After 5 visits, the park recognizes no further (gate) revenue with further visits. And if the season ends and a given passholder hasn't visited the park 5x, the park recognizes the remaining revenue in the last quarter of that year.

Footnote indicates they recognize revenue with respect to memberships the same way (based on the expected number of uses) for the first 12 months. Thereafter, they recognize income on a straight line basis (each month, they recognize one month's revenue (doesn't matter if the subscriber visits 30x, 5x, 1x or not at all).

If they go to a membership model for everything, revenue recognition will be the same for the first year. Thereafter, revenue recognition would be even over the year (though single day tickets/food/etc. would still skew revenue towards the peak operating season).

From the 2025 SF footnote:

Most revenues are recognized on a daily basis based on actual guest spend at the properties.
Revenues from multi-use products, including season-long products for admission, dining, beverage and other products
and the first 12-month non-cancelable period for membership products, are recognized over the estimated number of
uses expected for each type of product. The estimated number of uses is reviewed and may be updated periodically
during the operating season prior to the ticket or product expiration. The number of uses is estimated based on historical
usage adjusted for current period trends. Membership products beginning with the 13th month following purchase are
recognized straight-line. For any bundled products that include multiple performance obligations, revenue is allocated
using the retail price of each distinct performance obligation and any inherent discounts are allocated based on the gross
margin and expected redemption of each performance obligation.

Memberships are typically a little more over the cost of 12 payments than just a yearly season pass

I don't really get it other than if they are planning to no longer offer payment plans on the season passes. If they do that, then this offering can be for the "monthly payment" folks and the passes can be for the "pay up front and save" folks. Hopefully they offer some sort of incentive (either a lesser price over the year or some perks) to purchase the season pass over the membership. The offerings seem identical in terms of admission and benefits.

I'll be interested to hear if they actually enforce the "must scan at home park first" because there is a significant difference in pricing on Prestige across various parks. $188 for the first year at Carowinds, Dorney, KD and some of the other legacy SIX parks. $308 for Kings Island. I assume CP's Prestige might be similar in price. Might make a trip to Gurnee or Carowinds in the spring worth it to save $120*4. That kind of almost seems unfair to Cedar Point as we almost certainly will visit there more often than either of the others. It seems they need to tie some sort of perk to your home park to curtail this sort of thing.

OK, but WTF is "membership" for parks that are open half the year? That seems exceptionally stupid. It's not Hand & Stone where you can get a massage every month.

I don't really disagree. To me it's just an unneeded addition that doesn't really move the needle. I've been paying my pass on their free payment plan for years. If they started charging interest or a fee to do it, then I'd just pay up front.

They have already completely made a confusing $#@&-show out of the current pass/perks program, and now they want to add this layer?

I remember being completely confused years ago when I heard about SF folks paying for a subscription (which is what it is, not a "membership"). My C-Buzz membership is good for a year, even if I no longer have a physical card to prove it. :)

I have a Netflix subscription because I can use it whenever I want. It seems completely stupid to brand this to any park not open year-round.

Corporations long ago figured out that a lot of folks don't pay attention to all the subscriptions they have signed up for, and don't even recognize a small deduction per month, which is what this move is probably all about.

Something not mentioned here* is that they are not offering the payment plan for the season pass next year, and there is an initiation fee when you begin your membership, which is probably an incentive to not end your membership on your last visit of the season and begin a new membership at the beginning of the next season.

That forces you to pay a membership while the park is closed for the season.

Which irks me, and is one of the reasons I might not get membership next year.

I have no problem paying for a season pass up front, and I do make payments for my season pass during the winter months, but this just seems more like a ripoff for some reason. It ends up being pretty much the same thing, but a membership rather than a payment plan seems more like a ripoff.

What happened to the Cedar Fair Safety, Cleanliness, Service, Courtesy, and Integrity cornerstones? I thought Six Flags would be better with Cedar Fair's influence, but it has gone the other direction. This membership crap is the final nail in the coffin for me. When this year's season pass is done, I'm definitely not getting a membership. I'll pay the online daily ticket prices from now on.

*Maybe it was mentioned here and I missed it.

I'm not certain how I stand on this. I renew my pass in the fall on the payment plan, so I pay during the winter when I don't use the pass, then pay nothing during the summer when I actually use it. The cost is really not that different, the "membership" price for the Gold pass comes out to $160 at KI (with the initiation fee), which is the same price as paying up front. This just seems like a further Six Flags en****ification of the Cedar Fair parks.

My problem is that Cedar Point seems to be descending into the Six Flags babysitter model. As Travis mentioned in another thread, the clientele is definitely degrading. There are plenty of examples that I am sure we have all seen.

Other than

1) Confusion (legit) and
2) Potentially different overall price

I don't see the big deal here. If you're paying $120 for the year, do you really care if it's $10 a month x 12 months or $20 a month x 6 months? Maybe you do, MMMV, but I don't understand the difference.

If they're sneaking in a price increase, that's something to be annoyed about, although most of us here seem to think as a business decision they ought to raise prices.

I do think they ought to simplify options, and they seem to be multiplying them to the point where it's like choosing a phone plan.

(I generally pay upfront, because they sucker me in with a low price in the fall.)

ETA: Having to deal with a large number of memberships would have complicated the sale of parks to Enchanted Parks a bit. Easier to roll this out now that that's done.

I've had a day to cool down a little since my last comment here. What's triggering me is the idea of membership. If I am making payments on a season pass while the park is closed, it makes sense, but it does not make sense to pay a monthly membership fee for a park that is not open for that month.

It probably comes out to the same amount. Whatever.

I might get a season pass up front for the 2027 season, if only to not have to pay for parking. I hate paying for parking. LOL

A CF/SF pass does keep me from going to as many parks outside the chain- parks that I have been longing for lately. It's a weird psychological trick. Why visit Holiday World or Kennywood when Kings Island and Cedar Point are already paid for? I want to break out of that thinking.

Yes, paying for parking sucks. SF passes are on such deep discount in August that I just load up then. We got Prestige for 180 each despite thinking the perks were mostly fluff... well I gotta say I'm definitely taking advantage of the free snacks and close up parking more than I expected. The free fastlanes for friends (or random ride-mates) are also nice.

I don't really care about the memberships as long as they keep the early sales.

The membership works for me if I can include my add-ons.
I prefer annual payments over monthly, but I suppose it doesn't matter.

I was in Virginia Beach last week for work and ran up to Busch Gardens over the weekend.
I found their ticketing/pass/membership options to be even more confusing than Six Flags.