2013 Cedar Fair Season pass question

Does anyone know what the price is of a 2013 season pass for Cedar fair is this year? I am thinking of breaking my rule, and buying one for the first time. I plan on going to Ohio for a week, to go camping, and Cedar Point is just a short drive from where I will be. I figure I will save money if I can go to the park each day that I am there. I will be meeting others who have said they would like to go riding with me as well.What's the best pass to get, that doesn't cost a butt load of money? I wish they still had the Cedar Point and MA combo. Those will probably be the only parks I can afford to visit. makes me wish Cedar fair owned Great America, than it would be a great investment.Please be nice!!

They are selling 2013 passes already so the price should be on their website. That said you really only get two choices and the platinum is the only one that will get you into both Cedar Point and Michigan's Adventure. The platinum will also get you into Cedar Point an hour early and "free" parking at both parks. My wife and I bought passes last year and it took a lot of effort to get our moneys worth out of them with visits to Kings Dominion, Cedar Point, Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland.

The CF platinum pass is $180 this year.

The pass pays for itself in two to three visits.

Depends on how you price out your visits. Multi-day tickets bought online brings the cost per visit down pretty sharply.

I hear the Internet and the Google are great for looking up stuff.

The platinum pass also comes with a free frogurt!

Jeff, yes, Google and the Internet are great for looking stuff up, but I WILL say that Dorney's website is not exactly user friendly, especially the mobile edition. In fact, you can't even BUY tickets and passes on the mobile edition. Therefore, it's not always the easiest proposition to buy passes online. I actually don't even deal with the hassle of online purchasing because they make it so difficult. Instead, I drive to DP closer to the start of the season and do it in person. This is not an option for most, I understand, but I can see where TR could be having problems if he uses mostly mobile Internet or just wants to find out pricing without jumping through a million Internet hoops.

Cedar Fair is great in so many ways, and I trust them as a "chain" of parks, but man do they need some work on ease of season pass purchasing and use.

But to Timber-Rider: your only option really sounds like the Platinum pass, but if you go to Cedar Point a bunch of days in one trip and you visit MA at least once, you've more than gotten your money's worth. I always buy a Plat pass, even only having been to Cedar Point twice and Kings Dominion once (and all those trips were before I305 went up). It is great to have it if you DO go on a trip to another park other than your home one, and if you live close enough to a park that you will visit it frequently, a little extra money spent still will save you in the end. I went to Dorney at least six times last season, and admission is over 40 dollars. With the free parking perk of a pass, I saved at least 100 dollars in the long run.

Hey Bunky, I didn't think you could buy a pass at Dorney before the park opened for the season. Your post makes it sound like you can. Yes? I may consider getting a CF Plat when I'm at KD in April, but that may be contingent on whether I'll go to BeastBuzz and CP in August.

Holy cow. I found the season pass information on the Dorney website in about seven seconds.

Vater, I haven't tried it in a year or two, so things may have changed. I know the mobile site does not allow you to buy season passes.

Mike, they used to sell the passes at Dorney before the season started. However, I went late this year, so I don't know if they still do that. Probably not. My info in most of this is probably a little outdated. Like Vater said, apparently the info online is much more easily accessible than it used to be, which I didn't know.

Well I found the season pass info on the Dorney site in six seconds. I win!

eightdotthree said:
My wife and I bought passes last year and it took a lot of effort to get our moneys worth out of them with visits to Kings Dominion, Cedar Point, Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland.

Maverick00 said:
The pass pays for itself in two to three visits.

eightdotthree said:
Depends on how you price out your visits. Multi-day tickets bought online brings the cost per visit down pretty sharply.



Yeah, I'm wrestling with this idea right now. Looking to get back on the season pass horse after a couple of years away from the parks, but still not planning on doing hardcore traveling. It's a close call. I think what ends up tipping the scale is the included parking.

Dorney usually starts selling next year's passes in late September or early October and it is cheaper to buy it that time of year, it was $99.99 if you bought the pass before October 31st. It's also nice that they have offered instant renewal the last few years. All I had to do is enter my season pass number, pay and I keep using the same pass I have been using since 2010 and not have to deal with processing (which always seemed really slow to me compared to Great Adventure).

Jeff said:

I hear the Internet and the Google are great for looking up stuff.

Do you mean cats that look like Hitler or answers to Cedar Fair season pass questions?

For future reference, anyone determining whether a Platinum Pass is worth it should do so in October. A 2013 Platinum Pass was $164 in October, and the discount was even more substantial in previous years.

While free parking is the major value adder, the food discounts and bonus ride time have become increasingly significant for me.

Using Fast Lane pricing as a reference, and figuring how much I'd actually use it in a day, each Platinum bonus hour provides $5-10 of time-saving value. Now consider the price of a single day admission ticket and that you're adding an available hour in a day. This makes each bonus hour worth $10-15 in my case.

Also, I'm not sure how great the Platinum Pass food deals were at other Cedar Fair parks last year, but at Cedar Point, they were pretty crazy. In a group of 4 last year, I saved over $50 in a single day.

I'm the sort who will buy a pass even if it is a few dollars more expensive than what I have "planned", because plans never quite work out the way I've planned them. Some years, this ends up costing me, but usually it just means I have the freedom to change things up if I need to.

Lord Gonchar said:
Yeah, I'm wrestling with this idea right now. Looking to get back on the season pass horse after a couple of years away from the parks, but still not planning on doing hardcore traveling. It's a close call. I think what ends up tipping the scale is the included parking.

Free parking is great and depending on the park, the early entry is a nice perk as well. They both work in tandem if you are staying nearby and want to hit the park early the day you leave.

Jeph said:

A 2013 Platinum Pass was $164 in October...

Yeah, but I didn't want a 2013 pass in October. I want it now. So that helps me none at all.

And a $16 discount is the equivalent of one day of parking. Not a game changer.

While free parking is the major value adder, the food discounts and bonus ride time have become increasingly significant for me.

That makes sense.

Using Fast Lane pricing as a reference, and figuring how much I'd actually use it in a day, each Platinum bonus hour provides $5-10 of time-saving value.

Meh. Not even sure I'm the type to crawl out of bed for a couple of extra rides.

Also, I'm not sure how great the Platinum Pass food deals were at other Cedar Fair parks last year, but at Cedar Point, they were pretty crazy.

This is where we might benefit the most. I'm not afraid to spend whatever the cost for the convenience of just eating what's nearby in the park. If we can cut a chunk off of that, it's a win.

Then again, I just looked at the 2012 food deals at CP (don't see 2013's anywhere) and I'm not exactly thrilled. Our definitions of crazy differ. Kings Island's are even more underwhelming.

Don't get me wrong. Season passes are still ridiculous values in the big picture. I've just not hardcore enough of a visitor anymore to make it a slam dunk. I lean more towards Brian's line of thinking. You're paying for the conveniece of flexibility. I might go more, I might go less. We'll certainly be getting them, it's just that if I'm conservative with the math, it's an awfully close call.

Fun said:

The platinum pass also comes with a free frogurt!

Never had a "frogurt" - but I already know I prefer it to Dippin' Dots...