Cedar Fair and Six Flags merger to complete July 1, mostly Cedar Fair executives to lead new company

Yea, I have a really tough time believing Zimmerman/Fisher are not leaving a lot of money on the table by charging $99 for 15 months of access - with no blockout dates - including two insanely popular Halloween seasons - to Cedar Point, Cedar Point Shores and parking - oh and if you add $115, you can get 2 meals every day until November 2025. For $214, you get fed 2 pretty good meals daily and admission to one of the largest amusement parks in the U.S. and a water park until November 2025....

....When people are paying $180 for admission alone for 10 hours to Magic Kingdom or $75 to go to a Cleveland Guardians game or $900 to go for a 3.5 hour Taylor Swift concert.

As MillenniumRider says, price can set perception. And we've all seen, Zimmerman and Fisher have taken a hatchet with constant park-level cost cutting to the guest experience - especially at the largest Cedar Fair parks like Cedar Point, Knott's, King Island, etc. Coupled with how Cedar Fair has decided to quite literally give away the gate has resulted in numerous and well publicized security and safety issues primarily with younger teens.

Jeff:

Does management think Cedar Point is worth less?

I think it might be more accurate to say "Management thinks this is more profitable." And, if there are a bunch of un/under-used passes being sold at $99 that would not be sold at $120, they might at least have an argument.

Again, to be clear: I agree with you. I think there is a lot more than $100 in value in a pass. But I have also personally bought passes that were never used, so I might be both sides of the coin.

Edited to add: They definitely market it this way: "For only $X, you can convert today's ticket to a pass and come back all year!" I bet a lot of those upgrades are aspirational, as mentioned upthread. Interestingly, this might be the point of the Summer Pass; to have a product that lives at a price point that is an easy upsell.

Jeff:

Holiday World charges $165 for their no-Saturday pass, $200 for no blackout, $235 for greater food and merch discounts. It's one park in the middle of nowhere.

People gotta Voyage.

There is certainly nuance in the numbers. One of those details that is not talked about frequently is unique visitors vs attendance.

The answers to many of the questions above of "Why do they do this?" can be explained by fewer unique people visiting these parks than when platinum passes were $287 in today's dollars.

You'd think that if lowering the prices over all these years would have resulted in attendance growth! But that has not been the case- CP/Six had to add Holiday Programs and buy more waterparks to grow attendance. That implies that there is a nationwide shift in demand. Certainly the US population isn't shrinking, so what is going on? A bifurcated economy is observed; A greater number of wealthy households go to Disney, go abroad, and buy Fastlane because they have that disposable income, and a greater number of households are value driven and respond to these marketing messages of a "great deal!". The group that has shrunk in size is middle-class families who visit once on their family vacation.

As the middle class demo shrinks, companies have to drive attendance through pass programs and VIP experiences to tap into the other two demos.

Jeff:

...park in the middle of nowhere

I have always wondered if that is why they can charge more. There is nothing else in the area to spend money on?

BrettV:

"I remember when Cedar Point was affordable and now it's just greed" even though it's cheaper than ever to go.

I see the same thing about Kennywood. It's $29.99 to get into Kennywood right now if you buy online. $119.99 for a season pass that gets you into the park all summer, Fright Nights, and Holiday Lights. On top of that you get preferred parking and a souvenir cup with refills all year.

Fun:

You'd think that if lowering the prices over all these years would have resulted in attendance growth! But that has not been the case- CP/Six had to add Holiday Programs and buy more waterparks to grow attendance.

This is a really good observation. Again, adjusting for inflation, it's cheaper to get in now than it used to be. Sure, you have to consider in-park spending as a component of your per capita, but those prices I suspect have been more constant. The famous '94 year for Cedar Point, when Raptor opened and set attendance records, was before Halloweekends became a thing.

Also, I wonder why those weekends continue to be included at all. Universal and Disney, despite vastly different approaches, figured out a long time ago that it's better to separately gate those events. And I would imagine that a scare zone is way better with less people each paying more.

Admittedly, I'm biased toward exclusivity and feeling like something is more premium. Not for status, mind you, I just like feeling well taken care of in a more luxurious environment than my normal life where I have to take care of others. I've done the WDW VIP thing, twice. I've sailed in concierge. I've stayed at boutique hotels in downtowns. If I only get two or three chances a year to live large, I'll go for it. I want regional parks to feel that way too.

Well, they can, just not for everyone. Buy a prestige pass (it's right there in the name!) and get early entry, shaded spaces with comfy seats and snacks, and one skip the line pass. Early entry is one of the more interesting ones, as that used to be at a much lower price point than it is now. That helps justify the hotel nightly rates, and presumably trims the EE crowd a little bit.

And if you really want to do it right, get a season-long fastlane add-on.

Waiting for an all park Fastlane would pay a lot for that one.

If I'm to believe PointBuzz, the FL's aren't very "fast" these days.

Jeff:

Universal and Disney, despite vastly different approaches, figured out a long time ago that it's better to separately gate those events.

Also, Canada's Wonderland... Which ran a really great Halloween event all things considered. Much more 'premium' than other parks in the chain.

Or at least, used to be that way. No clue if they ended that in the past few years or not?

Knotts is the only park that approaches Universal quality. It might be not as polished or full of IPs but what it loses there it gains from the cast being allowed to improv and all the sliders (scare actors wearing knee pads with a metal plate who will run at you and drop to there knees making sparks fly right in front of you) they employ in their scare zones. It’s separate admission and well worth it.

I felt that Knott's was even better than my times to HHN. Knott's is really that good.

This is my biggest Halloween Theme Park Year yet, lm doing a Halloweekend at Cedar Point, a week of HHN at USO, a MNSSHP, a night of HHN at USH, a Haunt at Knotts, and an OBB at DCA (with 5 nights at DLR.)

I went to HHN Orlando, HHN Hollywood, and Knott’s Scary Farm in the same season.

Orlando is by far the best IMO. There’s no comparison. Knott’s is great at different things than Universal but their mazes left a lot to be desired when compared to Orlando. The early entry “Boofet” buffet was really good and you get Ghostrider with little to no wait. I got 3 rides that evening when the wait during the day was 2 hours and still managed to hit all the early entry mazes before the park opened. It was well worth the money.

I plan on going to LMNOP at WTF and also hope to see KLF.

OBB is Oogie Boogie Bash, every other acronym is over 20 years old and heavily used on the internet.

You down with OBB?

Had to Google MNSSHP, no clue what it was and couldn’t figure it out to save me.

Moonship. I think it’s Six Flags’ version of the Starcruiser.

You get a Days Inn room with blackout curtains and a TV that shows Lost In Space on a loop. And a glass of Tang.