2027 Dining Plans

Well that throws a wrinkle in next year's plans. My son wants to do a coaster road trip for his high school graduation. We had plans to visit Cedar Point, Kennywood, Hershey, SFGAdv, Kings Dominion, BGW, Carowinds, and Kings Island. Our plan was to add on the all season dining to take care of our lunches and dinners at the Six Flags parks.

I completely understand the need to raise prices, but it's really disappointing that the 20 and 30 meal plans are only valid at home parks, instead of everywhere your pass is valid. We would definitely be buying one of those but $399 for unlimited is a non-starter. We just don't visit enough to make the numbers work.

Ironically we are considering paying the all-in prices, including meals and skip the line, at BGW and Hershey because we already have to pay for admission. But we won't add on the all-day dining at any of the Six Flags parks. We'll just eat in the car. Coincidentally that means we'll be spending less time in the parks and subsequently LESS on concessions and souvenirs.

Granted we are only one family, but what difference does it make if I use the 20/30 meals at SFGAm or any of the other parks? I think we spent more money in four days at KI and CP this summer than we have in a decade at SFGAm.

As a local, I visit the park (CP) about 50 times a season, and some of those visits are just to walk and eat. It’s not that the food is that good—because it isn’t—it’s just that my dining plan is already paid for and I feel compelled to use it. It’s really idiotic when you think about it; I force myself to stand in a long line for subpar food, then sit outside in the elements to eat it. Every season when I renew my pass, I have a mental debate on whether or not to include the dining plan. At $150, it’s just too cheap to pass up, but at $399, I think I can finally break the cycle.

Mulfinator:

I completely understand the need to raise prices, but it's really disappointing that the 20 and 30 meal plans are only valid at home parks, instead of everywhere your pass is valid. We would definitely be buying one of those but $399 for unlimited is a non-starter. We just don't visit enough to make the numbers work.

Everyone here: Six Flags is giving away the gate! They should fix that!

Also everyone here: Not that way!

I have a spread sheet I've been tracking my costs this season. It's getting scary as I have done 3 visits to Dorney and 28 visits to Great Adventure. I'm at under $27 a visit and over $4500 saved from the gate prices. I don't always stay long but I'm also not one of those who goes just to eat.

So if I do my math for next year I might be looking at probably somewhere around $1800 for my pass next year to keep all the options from this year. That would drop the current savings to around $3700 so still not a bad thing until I go to Cedar Point and have to buy fast lane there and even that can be rationalized if I go to parks a lot again next year.

Great Adventure can keep me going with Project Purple (Bakunawa is the name I'm thinking), the same entertainment as this year or more and the food upgrades continuing.

The thought of anyone eating enough theme park food to be affected by this is.... vaguely horrifying.

bigboy:

Everyone here: Six Flags is giving away the gate! They should fix that!

Also everyone here: Not that way!

I mean, sure. Just pointing out that Six Flags would be getting significantly less money from us. Money that would be going to other theme park operators instead. I know we are just one data point and Six Flags could probably give two figs.

I guess one thing this illustrates is that Six Flags values their meals around $6. Which begs the question, how much do these meals actually cost them? And by extension, for what percent of guests is Six Flags losing the food game?

Here's the thing it's not really the thoosie who travels that costs the chain on meal plans as much as the local who lives probably within 30 minutes of a park and goes often during the week for lunch and/or dinner. These are the people who probably will look at the new plans and say why should I pay $400 for a plan that is good at all parks and then looks at the limited number of meals and says it's not in their best interest to do either of those also.

I know KI and KD will be good case studies as to how this goes. Great Adventure I'm not too sure about even though it does have it's every day patrons.

dragonoffrost:

Here's the thing it's not really the thoosie who travels that costs the chain on meal plans as much as the local who lives probably within 30 minutes of a park and goes often during the week for lunch and/or dinner.

And these are the folks the parks should not be worrying about or catering to.

Dining Plans, Riding Plans...

Social media is going to be fun

Where did you see this? I saw a similar screenshot pop up in a couple places and I'm skeptical; I cannot find this actual page on a website or in the app.

All you had to do was go here:

https://cf-cp.store.cffuncw...2027addons

I could even add it to my "cart". Now when you click on that it only lists the dining plan-changes for 2027. You can purchase those now if you like.

That was the only thing I could find before. I guess they put up the FL info then took it down for some reason by the time I found my way there.

Well FL+ goes for $209 a day, so break even is 10 visits at $2000. That seems like an appropriate ratio to me, should cause people to pause before paying that and really decide if it’s worth it.