Cedar Fair Parks will start charging for Haunted Houses

Its not clear to me what that means and its in the context of a conversation about the issue itself. Doubt many non-enthusiasts buying passes (assuming they even read what you said on the site -- they likely just see "Buy 2026 Passes Good at 40+ Parks") will understand it.

TheMillenniumRider:

Ah, you can just climb under then.

Yes. That's exactly what people usually did.

Why is no one talking about the most annoying new thing that is presented by Snickers?

The timing and the PR perception is a valid discussion, and points can be made both ways.

But look at other attractions that similarly charge for premium experiences. It may not be a direct comparison, but I have a membership for the Cleveland Zoo. My membership gets me in the gate. But if I want to ride the carousel, zip line, or go in the 4-D theatre, it is an extra cost. Asian lanterns and Winter lights are a separate, but discounted, ticket. I also have a membership to the Henry Ford. I can get in the museum, village, factory tour and movie. The train, carousel, and Model T rides are a separate cost. If I want to go to the Halloween or Christmas experience it is a separate, but discounted, ticket.

This is just more of the same. And I am surprised it took this long.

Big brain move here, they could start charging for the rides too, you pay for the gate, then each ride need a certain number of tickets. Or you can make it easy and sell wristbands for all day rides. Do it like the state and county fairs.

Now you know you are taking it that far just to be argumentative no park is going to gate charge and then charge for everything behind the gates.

I guess you wanted the Skycoasters/Slingshots/GoKarts to be included in gate also. There are reasons to make an attraction upcharged.

And for most parks Halloween Mazes fit since they have limited capacity to give a good experience. I stopped going through them when they became an endless conga line and I might not get a jump scare aimed near me because the time to reset the scare actor took too long from each previous scare. If the pay to experience returns the ability to pace the guests so that each guest gets a few scares through the experience it should be a win overall.

You missed the sarcasm, I suppose, along with the bathroom post. If they get really desperate they could start charging for the free water and for breathing the air.

I honestly have no problem with up charge houses, but has been echoed, give the people who bought the passes the ability to know beforehand.

One thing that is going to really get insane is those who renewed their passes through Canada's Wonderland can't add Haunt for CP, KI or any other legacy park as there is no all parks option. The Haunt season pass is only home park. So if your pass home park isn't one you frequent you are going to have to do daily Haunt passes.

Unless of course the system is broken and it allows you to buy a Haunt season for a park that isn't the home park for that pass but it would still be locked to one park by the wording. I've seen crazy things happen that are unplanned if the systems aren't QA'ed properly.

dragonoffrost:

Now you know you are taking it that far just to be argumentative no park is going to gate charge and then charge for everything behind the gates.

Again. If you didn't do this in RCT, you didn't know how to play.

Until they prevented you from charging a gate price in the second release, and you had to use a trainer to enable the gate pricing again, but at that point you might as well just give yourself extra cash or whatever, and while I'm there let me dump a few busloads of guests into the park.

I was today years old when I found out I didn't know how to play RCT.

dragonoffrost:

Now you know you are taking it that far just to be argumentative no park is going to gate charge and then charge for everything behind the gates.

Disney did it successfully for years.

OhioStater:

I was today years old when I found out I didn't know how to play RCT.

Gimme your lunch money.

...and quit enjoying things the incorrect way.

I absolutely think parks could and (at least in some cases) should charge for the gate and an additional amount for rides and attractions. We're headed in that direction already, with single ride "front"-of-line passes and other pricing models that get discussed here ad infinitum.

Obviously, the gate would need to be lower - maybe $10? And in my vision that would include a certain number of freebies - those flat rides that are only mildly popular; train rides with enormous capacities; the adored/despised live entertainment; looking at flower beds, trees, other forms of charm; breathing; restrooms (the scuzzy ones with no toilet paper - you gotta pay for TP); RRR. And then everything else would have variable pricing, from a couple bucks for Skull Mountain to $10 for El Toro. Or whatever.

They should do this tomorrow at La Ronde. If Elitch's had been properly designed, it would have been another example. Disney should retvrn to this model rather than a complicated system of apps that require planning your trip like it's the invasion of Normandy. And if it works, try it other places.

(One of the things I don't understand is why, when you have a Carowinds and a Kings Dominion, you don't try different pricing strategies and see what happens. I also don't understand why they don't make me their head of marketing.)

Lord Gonchar:

...and quit enjoying things the incorrect way.

I always thought this was the official motto for Coasterbuzz

TheMillenniumRider:

Don't worry, the Gold pass will include haunted house access for all of the parks within a week or two.

Called It!!

Now Cedar Fair hates poor people too?

Sort of, it’s more of a slider, Disney is way far down that slider, and Cedar Whatever is just starting their journey.

Camden Park used to charge at the gate, and then per ride. I always thought a lot of smaller "picnic" parks did that. My earliest memory was 50¢ to enter, and 10¢ per ticket, with rides costing a certain amount of tickets. Or you could buy a "handstamp" to ride all day for $7.50. That was in the early '80's.

...With this merger, I was hoping to see the company to be run more like Cedar Fair, and not Six Flags.

Diamond and Diamond Elite are the old legacy memberships, and I believe the Haunted Passes have always been a perk. That doesn’t sound like anything new.