Season Pass Deals

These are some deals that are currently out there that I took advantage of or will be:

Cedar Fair Platinum pass with FunPix (good remainder of this year and all of next at all Cedar Fair Parks with FunPix) plus the unlimited drinks and Platinum food pass was $413.50. There are some perks for new buyers and those getting renewals.

Apex Parks pass which includes Indiana Beach and Fantasy Island and other of their parks plus the paid parking was a whopping $42 and is good the rest of this year and all of 2018.

Hersheypark Season pass PLUS is good this year and next and includes Premium parking was about $245. (My favorite park, btw.)

6 Flags Gold Season Pass, NOT the membership, purchased through Great America which is good for the remainder of the year including parking, admission, 2 meals, 1 snack and soft drinks was $170, yep, $170 including meals and drinks, all year at all 6 Flags parks and is good for the remainder of 2018 and all of 2019, including food and drinks. Only restriction is that I must go to Great America before they close for the season if I want the free parking added. Similar deal at Great Adventure but it includes their water park. Extra charge water parks are not included at parks other than the one you purchase this pass from.

I will be purchasing the Kentucky Kingdom pass for $60.

The strangest deal I found was the platinum pass for the Busch/SeaWorld parks. Busch Gardens Parks want about $350 for that pass..BUT, if you purchase the Platinum Pass from Sesame Place, it still includes unlimited admission and parking to all of the parks in the chain, but is only $165 through 10/8/18 BUT, you don't even have to activate the pass at Sesame Place. Considering the price difference, I figured activation would need to be done at that park. This is also good at all parks in the chain this year and next year.

Doing an 18 day, 21 park tour next year, starting on July 3rd. On that trip, alone, 16 parks will be covered by these passes. This will make buying gas, hotels, food and drinks that aren't include in these passes much easier. Plus, I will be using all of these passes during other smaller trips throughout the rest of this year and next..

Here are my current passes:

Cedar Fair's Platinum pass through the end of 2019 with the $20 extra for unlimited soft drinks.

SF Diamond Elite Membership, plus meal plan.

BGT/SWO Pass, wish I would have known about the Sesame loophole if that's real and not just an employee screwing up on your end, I paid $200 for mine and that's just for those two parks.

Fun Spot America - Its something like $60. Makes sense if you go to both parks, and you get $12 Sky Coaster rides.

Kentucky Kingdom - Was in town for a wedding (by "in town" I mean an hour away) and its good for 2019 with free parking.

That's probably it for the foreseeable future. I'll see if anything else comes up.

^Fortunately, Sesame Place is the first park we will be hitting so it doesn't really matter, but, I did receive a response when I asked about needing to activate there and the employee said it can be activated at any of their parks. The $200 savings isn't what got me...It's the fact that my season pass will have Oscar the Grouch on it...lol.

The Sesame Place Platinum pass is definitely good for parking and admission at all of Busch/Sea World parks.

Indiana beach will sell you a pass at the gate for $45. It's gets you in this year(what's left of it) as well.

^My friend had to purchase his at the gate since he's from the UK and the website wouldn't accept his card.
He paid the same price as I did online since I was assessed an online service fee.
For those of you who haven't been to Indiana Beach, I highly recommend going.

The Indiana Beach folks also own Fantasy Island too, right? Do their passes work at both parks? Not that I’m going to Indiana Beach any time soon... But Fantasy Island is in my neck of the woods.

It works at all Apex Parks including Indiana Beach, Fantasy Island, their water parks and family entertainment locations. I plan to hit Fantasy Island on my big trip next year since we are stopping at Waldameer and Niagara Falls during the 4th of July weekend before we hit the major parks over the following 14 days.

The Apex pass is on sale at Fantasy Island now for $37.99 + service fees and are good for the rest of the year and all of 2019 and are good at all of their parks.

It’s that time of year...

My Universal pass runs out in a week, switching over to Disneyland for next year. Got my Cedar Point Platinum renewed two weeks ago, and enjoyed my free Fast Lane+. I’ll be renewing my Dollywood pass when that goes on sale. I don’t need to renew my Busch platinum I’m locked into $16.18 a month.

^When did you purchase that Platinum Membership? They are $29 and $30/month now at the Busch parks.

I just saw today that Universal Orlando is offering insanely great deals on 18 and 15-month passes for Florida residents right now. The super -duper pass with premium parking, after-4 express passes, a HHN ticket, no blackout will cost my family of 3 (one child) about $500. That's nuts. The gold Disney passes for 12 months and four weeks of blackout cost us $1,500 last renewal.

Sea World California, in 2015. Flex pay gets locked into the rate you bought it.

^^Jeff, considering their regular admission, that's super cheap. For out-of-staters, the cheapest is $305. I would have loved to hit Universal next summer while hitting Sea World and Busch Gardens, but there's no way I am paying $115 for a 1 day ticket there.

^I hope I can renew the Sesame Place Platinum pass for $165, at the end of next year, assuming I plan on hitting the Busch/Sea World parks in 2020, too.

Six Flags has morphed the Labor Day "Flash Sale" into the October "Fright Sale". Pricing is slightly different, but the "add-ons" like Dining Pass and Flash Lane, are now for 15 months, (3 months free), instead of just 12 and expiring before the 3 additional "free months" they were offering on the passes/memberships. I didn't do the math to see if the pricing is the same as Flash Sale (once you include the three additional months), etc. However, the pricing is pretty strong, especially if you are looking for Deluxe Dining and the Flash Pass add-on. Again, might not be the best pricing of the year (Flash Sale is always the best, as SF needs the info for Q3 financial reporting), but worth taking a look if you missed Flash Sale.

As usual, the website is often contradictory between pages and within the fine print, so read carefully. With the various iterations of Membership levels, etc, finding the sweet spot for your specific situation takes some major "discrete mathematics" skills.

Wow. Had I known that I could get entry, parking and 2 meals good at all Six Flags parks I probably would have gone that route. I paid $130 for a season pass with parking good at all Six Flags parks and a dining pass which includes lunch and a snack, good only at SFGAdv. Still not a bad deal but it could have been better.

Bobbie1951 said:

Wow. Had I known that I could get entry, parking and 2 meals good at all Six Flags parks I probably would have gone that route. I paid $130 for a season pass with parking good at all Six Flags parks and a dining pass which includes lunch and a snack, good only at SFGAdv. Still not a bad deal but it could have been better.

They run this special during Labor Day week and Thanksgiving. It usually includes some free admission tix. I also get drinks and a snack...and that's every visit at ALL 6 Flags, so, if you haven't renewed yet, wait until Thanksgiving.

re: Six Flags sale, the other key factor is the ability to purchase season/year Flash Pass at a significant discount. A regular pass/membership still comes out to a big chunk of change (+/- $200 for 12 months Diamond Elite and Deluxe Dining at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which now has year round ops). But that's for admission, and essentially free food/drink at any SF park, and specifically for home park: free super preferred parking (which at SFMM is a real bonus), tons of usable discounts, including essentially 50% off food/souv at almost any location should you need to actually spend any additional money.

I added the Platinum Flash Pass (which essentially means every ride is a walk on realistically no matter when you go). The flash pass component was $400, but critical for me in my usage of the park (again 12 months, year round ops, with unlimited daily FOL on most everything (once per day only for X2, Full Throttle, Crazanity and Twisted Colossus).

You also get two skip the line passes, which aren't critical if you have the Flash Pass, so those become a throw away benefit in the Diamond/Diamond elite level upgrade, but they are good for 3 of the 1x Day exclusions on Flash Pass, and honestly, I can't ride x2 twice a day anyway.

Perhaps the best part of the "includes additional savings' is the "buy tickets for friends at half price, etc". They were offering midweek tickets this week for $9.99 to Diamond elite members, and guaranteed 50% off gate at anytime (unless there's a better offer). Add to that the one-level upgrade if you buy Flash Pass, so you can bring friends for cheap and get them the same level of God-like Front of the Line access for slightly more than a regular pop ticket. Throw in the 50% food/bev discounts and you can price it out to almost a regular day cost for friends and treat them to an amazing day that they would most likely never buy on their own.

As someone mentioned above, apparently they run a similar sale at Thanksgiving. Not sure if it requires "purchase of 4" passes at a time (as I've seen before), etc, so read carefully. Seriously, you need significant spreadsheet skills to identify which level membership represents the best value for your individual circumstance

^It goes back and forth at all park between needing to buy 1 or 4 passes...I believe the Diamond Elite benefits are good at all parks, including the super parking. It would have cost me about $125 more for that, so, I just opted for the Gold season "Pass." The season pass usually requires redeeming it by a certain date in order for it to include free parking at all parks...the memberships do not.

I really don't like how much the extra cost is if you only get 1 pass. I didn't buy a pass during the Flash Sale when it was the same price for 1 pass because you only had until September 30th to process the pass (I like how Cedar Fair and Hershey let you renew online with no processing required). A small upcharge I understand but it's almost an extra $50 to buy a gold pass for Great Adventure if you just buy 1 pass ($118 vs $70).

I found a cached version of the SF Thanksgiving sale (for La Ronde) last year, and it appears the pricing was for "buy 2" (not buy 4). Not sure what the other parks' sales were like, and I didn't try to convert the goofy La Ronde pricing/offerings back to the US parks' equivalents.

I am convinced that I probably over paid for my specific membership versus the actual benefit for me, considering my normal park usage style. However, now that I have the Diamond Elite, I am certainly getting my value out of it. My lazy ass is enjoying that up close super preferred parking (since the SF MM parking lot is an uphill climb. I've donated my two skip the lines several times, and made someone else's day. And while SFMM park food isn't the greatest, a very reliable Johnny Rockets burger combo is an acceptable meal, and at $4.70 a MONTH, it's freaking steal for lunch, dinner and a big honking cinnamon roll to take home, every single visit.

As Jeff says, they have just completely destroyed their gate integrity, but then again they did coax nearly $600 out of my wallet, for a park that I rarely visited once a year.

PS

I must have dodged a bullet as I didn't see the "process by 9/30 requirement" when I purchased mine.

For 6 Flags, any of the times I've gotten the super deal, whether it be around Labor Day or Thanksgiving, it's been through Great America and I got the deal for 1 pass...as soon as THOSE promotions ended, you could only get the sale on 4 or more passes.

As far as the DIamond Elite plans go, I'm pretty sure that if the other park offers it, you can take advantage of the benefit, including the super duper awesome parking.