Cedar Fair Platinum Pass 2011 pricing

If I could put time in a bucket...

[/end obscure Jim Croce reference]

Rick_UK said:
Am I correct in thinking that Flashpass is a virtual queue solution? And not a "pay x number of $" and go to the front of the line system?

It is both. For $x you get a virtual queue. For $xx you get front of the line (or at least get placed at the entrance to the station) and for $xxx you get front of the line + an automatic re-ride every time.

I used a gold flash pass at Great Adventure a few weeks ago. While it was nice to wait less than 5 minutes for every ride, I did feel a little slimy about it. I'm not sure how significant the impact was to guests in the "standby line" on rides that merged flash pass users at the station entrance. However, the rides that bring flash passes up the exit had a significant impact, as it easily doubled the load times. By the time they should have been dispatching the train, they had only just finished loading the flash pass guests and just began to load the standby guests.

I'd probably use the flash pass system again if it was at a park I only had limited time to visit and wanted to ride everything (and could afford the extra cash- admission plus flash pass cost me $110 that day) but it's not something I'd use or want to see at my home park.

So, I know the thread has drifted some, but let's go way back and compare current pricing to Cedar Point's pass pricing from 2001.

2001 Pricing:
Regular Season Pass (Cedar Fair parks, no separate gate waterparks): $110
Combo Pass (Parks + waterparks): $175

2011 Pricing:
Regular Season Pass (CP Only): $99
Platinum Pass (All CF Parks + Waterparks): $150

So, 10 years later I can go to all the Cedar Fair parks for $25 less than I could in 2001. There are more parks now, too, after the Paramount aquisition.

Now let's adjust for inflation. The numbers I have available are 2009 dollars.

2001 Pricing in 2009 Dollars:
CP Season Pass: $133.56
Combo Pass: $212.47

Even adjusting for inflation you're getting more for less.

Cool, thanks for that. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, the 2001 $39 single-day admission ticket would be $48.01 in 2010. The season pass would be $135.41, and combo pass $215.43.

And of course adding a parking pass (only valid at CP) tacks on $50, or $61.55 today, and if you wanted it attached to your card rather than your vehicle, that's also $15, or $18.47 today.

So yeah. Way better deal we're getting now. 2007 was cool because Geauga Lake still had an amusement park with it, but the parking was only valid at the park where the Maxx Pass was purchased. The Platinum Pass simplified everything and IMHO is a good deal. I just wish the various parks had CP-style early entry, although I can understand reasons why this might be a local consideration (e.g. CP opens early for resort guests anyway, while other parks don't have the 'resort' traffic).

It is virtual queue in the sense that it hold your place in line while you can go do anything else. Of course "anything else" includes getting in the same line or a different line, allowing you to get 2 rides for 1 wait time. (And thus taking away about 10 seconds from each person in line).

Rick_UK said:
Am I correct in thinking that Flashpass is a virtual queue solution? And not a "pay x number of $" and go to the front of the line system?

Depends.

The 'regular' one works most like a VQ. Wait as long as everyone else. Just don't wait in line.

The 'gold' version cuts your wait time. (I believe it's 75%).

The "platinum' level cuts your wait time and gives you double rides.

I keep hearing that Flashpass takes only a few seconds longer for each person in the standby line. In my one and only experience with using Flashpass in I believe 2006, I was part of an entire train that got to load onto Batman and Robin. The line was all the way down the exit ramp, and those in front of me filled an entire train as well. If that was allowed to continue all day, how is that adding only a few seconds to each rider in the standby line's wait time?

That kind of mismanagement of the Flashpass system went on all day.

Jeff, some people will never understand that if a SF park lets in 20,000 guests, but 2,000 (more or less) of those guests are allowed to ride two or three rides at a time, than they aren't just holding their place in one line, but holding it for all the lines that they are in, both virtually and actual. They are taking up overall ride capacity of more than 2,000 extra people (maybe even 6,000), which in turn makes lines longer throughout the park.

Maybe you should be arguing that it artifically boosts the attendance.

And that, in turn, creates longer lines because the more crowded a park is, the longer the lines tend to be.

Because that's pretty much a better way of saying what you're arguing.

---

Since the argument is that when the park fills more it's a bad thing, then I'd be able to suggest that anything the park does to increase attendance must also be bad. Like discounts, promotions, concerts, special events, extended hours, bring-a-friend days, coupons, internet deals, low prices, being open on holidays and so on - all of those things create longer lines because it puts more asses through the gate.

If SF is running some kind of special event - say for Halloween, they don't just sell me a $30 (give or take) ticket and let me take up one spot in the park, but they sell two more to a couple of my friends and neighbors who aren't regular amusement park goers. The three of us pay $90 (give or take) and we take up three spots in the park that day.

If a SF ticket is $30 (give or take) and I pay $60 (give or take) because I got a Flashpass, I can take up two spots in the park. If I pay $90 (give or take) for a better Flashpass, I can take up three spots.

Seems to work out pretty cleanly. I wonder if that's by accident?

I suspect it's by design.

Especially when it come to the Six Flags that I knew, a few years ago, more people was a very bad thing. There was already too many people, and the rides were being run very inefficiently. Add Flashpass to that, and it was not pretty.

I'm still jaded, and maybe someday, when my money tree starts sprouting dollars, I'll go back to a SF park to give them another shot. Right now, I see it as too much of a risk. I've already wasted too much money on Six Flags in my lifetime. Fool me once...

But yeah, I pretty much agree with your post.

I'm probably going to stop Flashpassbashing in this topic. I want to stop, anyways.

LostKause said:
I keep hearing that Flashpass takes only a few seconds longer for each person in the standby line. In my one and only experience with using Flashpass in I believe 2006, I was part of an entire train that got to load onto Batman and Robin. The line was all the way down the exit ramp, and those in front of me filled an entire train as well. If that was allowed to continue all day, how is that adding only a few seconds to each rider in the standby line's wait time?

It's not a few seconds total. It's a few seconds per flash passer.

Say a train holds 30 people and dispatches every two minutes. That means on average, for each person in front of you in line, you have to wait 4 seconds. If there are 30 people, you have to wait 2 minutes. If there are 60 people, you have to wait 4 minutes. etc.

So if ONE flashpasser cuts in line, he adds 4 seconds to everyone behind him. If you wait an hour and 100 flashpassers cut during that time, you add 400 seconds or 6 minutes and 40 seconds to your hour wait.

The real problem occurs when flashpasses not only cut in line, but when the implementation of flashpass affects the dispatch rate. If the implementation of flashpass adds 30 seconds to each dispatch because of a separate load cycle, then all of a sudden you not only have to fight the ~7 minutes per hour you lost to actual people, you also lose 15(!) minutes to the stupid extra load cycle.

ApolloAndy said:
The real problem occurs when flashpasses not only cut in line, but when the implementation of flashpass affects the dispatch rate. If the implementation of flashpass adds 30 seconds to each dispatch because of a separate load cycle, then all of a sudden you not only have to fight the ~7 minutes per hour you lost to actual people, you also lose 15(!) minutes to the stupid extra load cycle.

I love you man...the reality of FP struck me immediately - it was clearly a game-changer and not going away. But I remember my first experiences being negative because of the way that FP was done (poorly) rather than because of the fact that it was/is.

As I've gotten older and the time/money relationship has tilted in favor of spending more money to save more time, I've found it very useful myself on a few occasions. I'd just be WAY happier if they all had closer-to-ideal implementations (USF's RotM comes to mind, as well as most anything Disney).

There is no "special" load cycle for just flash pass users on most rides. Most of the flash passers merge in with the regular line just before the station.

The only ride I ever had an issue with the flash pass holding up the line, was on bizzaro at sfne. I have been to all but 3 six flags parks, and that was the only time I had an issue.

Actually, I ran into the "special Flash Pass loading" at Great Adventure on the late GASM-II. Flash Pass users lined up on the exit ramp, completely blocking it from use by exiting riders. They got one train, we got the other. But loading for both trains was delayed, because it took twice as long for everybody to get through the obstructed exit. The Flash Pass train took significantly longer to load than the non-Flash Pass train because all the riders had to come through a single gate instead of through fourteen shotgun gates. All in all, it was a logistical screw-up of epic proportions. My non-Flash Pass wait was significantly longer than it would have been with no Flash Pass and single-train ops.

On other rides where there was a reserved row, it worked much better...and of course the best way to do it (other than not to do it at all) was to merge in at the entrance ramp.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Now that we're past the Oct. 31st discount deadline, Platinum Passes are $165 for both new and renewals, so I saved $20 by renewing early.

However, if you buy a 4-pack, you get the same discounted price as before ($150). Meanwhile, a regular CP season pass is $106, but you save $6 apiece if you buy a 2-pack.

And I'm infinitely glad that I can now renew online and don't have to get a new photo, nor do I have the mess of converting a Kings Island PP into a Cedar Point PP like I did last year. I wonder though, if by chance I go to KI before CP opens, will my pass work at the gate, or will I have to do some guest services malarkey?

^ My guess is that you will be good to go. I think they simply extend your pass expiration date a year.

I agree that Flashpass mismanagement does occur occasionally, and this coming from a supporter of the system.

My experience was at SFOG on a Saturday in October. I was waiting fr B-TR. The line was moving painfully slow. The reason, I would find out after a miserably long wait, was that on occasion, 1 entire train and then part of the other would go to Flashpass riders while several rows of only the one train were relegated to regular standby riders. I don't mind the designated Flashpass row, but when you're giving more seats to them than to your standby riders, it becomes a bit unethical. I know they paid for the privilege, but to me, it made it seem like paying to get into the park was merely a cover charge and that if I wanted to do anything once in the park, I had to pay for that as well. It was like the fees for the first checked bag a lot of airlines are charging these days. I'd rather pay the higher fare and feel like I'm getting the full experience than have it a la carte.

Again, I'm all for Flashpass, but there are times where it doesn't work out as nicely as we'd like to think. Frankly, I'd rather they just jack up the ticket/season pass price than force me to pay to get in and then pay to ride as well. Heck, I'd settle for having unlimited free Fright Fest visits require an upgrade to my pass if it kept crowds manageable, even if that does come across as a double standard given my anti-a la carte mantra. Although, one could argue it's merely be pricing for a peak season.