Cedar Fair units up on speculation of better offer

Actually, splitting up the Cedar Fair passes has allowed Cedar Fair to avoid the very problem that I have been complaining about for years with Disney, that of treating all parks as if they offer equal value. By not offering automatic cross-park admission with all season passes, Cedar Fair can recognize that their parks are not all created equal! It makes no sense to charge the same for season passes to all of Cedar Fair's parks, any more than it makes sense to charge the same for daily admission tickets for all of Cedar Fair's parks. So they can standardize the Platinum Pass, which has the same real value for everybody, but they can vary the pass prices for parks, consistent with the real value of season passes for all those varied markets.

It means that for parks like Great America, Valleyfair!, Michigan's Adventure and Carowinds they can be a little more aggressive in pricing season passes in an effort to drive local attendance. Meanwhile, they can push the price a little higher at a park like Kings Island that already has an enormous local pass program. They can tweak the programs a bit and build that repeat business in developing markets. I think it actually does make sense.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Trust me, if the market would bear it, or we could go back in time, Cedar Point never would have season passes. They would hump you on the causeway, the parking toll, and every turnstyle click.

Cedar Fair, in general probably wishes they had a 'product' like Busch Gardens and Sea World with very little coupons, soda cans, and vouchers on packs of hot dogs, unlike the Six Flags parks. Disney coupons at the travel plazas? Not in my lifetime yet.

If this wasn't such a soft economy, and Geauga Lake practically closed, and Conneaut and Waldameer not making any noise, oh yeah, no Sea World (thanks Augie), Cedar Point would not be discounting much, since they have the best park in the Midwest.

Probably true. But like it or not, Cedar Fair still has to depend on a certain amount of local and repeat business. They have season passes because those passes do have a positive effect on their bottom line.

Of course a certain amount of discounting that we see is just because a lot of customers are idiots who are more than willing to pay $42 - $10 discount, but will refuse to pay $32. Go figure.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

No different at Disney. They offer tremendous value to locals/Floridians when it comes to their passes, hotel specials, etc.