SFGAm green lights the season meal pass.

For $9.99 more they're giving you the option of a souvenir mug with free refills the first day and 99c refills thereafter.

^ I'll pass on that. I don't have any interest in having to carry a sport bottle around all day and risk it getting stolen while I'm on a ride.

I live and die by the souvenir cup. I know a lot of enthusiasts hate it, but I'll swear by it being the single best thing for keep the cost of a visit for a family down.

I've always felt it was another point of disconnect between the type of folks who would post of a forum like this and what we affectionately refer to as the GP. (how was that for diplomatic? :) )

Raven-Phile said:
Not many vegetarian options there. :)

Now that's just cruel.

Vegetarians don't cook up very well, anyway. Too stringy.

What you guys aren't taking into consideration is that the park already makes a huge profit on the food it sells, and it will basically bring more people into the park, who might spend the money they used to spend on meals, on other things. And, you can bet, that there will most likely be items that are excluded from the pass, like souvinir mugs. And, they might even offer a smaller drink cup for the pass meals, if the drinks are included with the meal pass at all. I would look into what they are offering with the pass, before I would consider buying it.

Michigan's Advenutre started offering an all you can drink wristband for $9.95 for the day, which is a good deal if you drink over 4 pops in an afternoon. But, you can only use the cup they provide you with, which has no lid, and they will not fill a souvinir cup with pop, even though it's supposidly all you can drink. Which to me is stupid. If you paid for the mug and the wristband, you should be able to use it. The lady selling the pass said, no we use a different cup for the wristband so there is no confusion. In other words, we instruct our employees to only fill the cups we want filled, and don't care what the guest wants. So, I skipped that, and didn't get any pop at all. I had some in a cooler in my car anyways. Because it's too expensive to begin with. But, I would have been happy to do the wristband if the mug came with it.

I don't think that the parks are assuming that a lot of non season pass holders will get the meal band. So, I don't see them losing money on it at all, as a majority of non season pass holders will continue to come into the park and pay as they go, which is probably 70 percent or more of their business to begin with. It's just more fluff to get the season pass holders dollar, and get more people through the gates. You can bet they will raise prices on other things to make up for any money they might lose on a meal pass, which would be very little. Also banking on pass buyers not using the pass all year as well. As most won't.

In trying to twist your bitching to make the parks look bad, you are twisting your details and making your story unbelievable.

There's no need to make up lies to make the place look bad. You've already lost all credibility with your B.S.

Lord Gonchar said:

True, but frozen chicken strips and french fries bought in large quantity and tossed into a deep fryer isn't exactly breaking the bank.

It'd take quite a few of those to break the $60 cost barrier.

This. The only way Six Flags loses money here is the loss of the opportunity cost to charge people per meal who spent more than $60 on food at the park last year. And now many people is that? 5?

Everyone who spent less than $60 on food last year and buys this new pass, which will include me if it is made available at SFoT, will have to eat a TON of food to make it a loss for Six Flags.

For me, it would have to be around $45 worth of french fries and chicken strips because in my 10 or so visits to the park last year, I only once bought food and it was probably $15 worth or so. How many chicken strips do I have to eat to cost Six Flags $45? I'm guessing it'll take a lot more than 10 visits. Seems like a huge win-win.

The real problem is how you prevent 1 pass from feeding a family of 4 (though I am eternally confused by the number of 4 person families walking around with 4 "free refill" bottles).

Timber-Rider: You really should have clicked on the link and read it before you posted.

Not worried about it Chitown.

I happen to have spent 8 years working in the food industry. I know pretty much how much the parks pay for cups, and supplies, because I ordered them, as well as dealt with the pop vendors. The parks can order a box of 100 cardboard cups for around $12.00 and they probably pay around $25 to $30 for a case of souvinir mugs, which usually have around 50 to 100 units in them, depending on which case they order. That, and the profit on fountain pop is huge, considering that one box of soda mixture is less than $30.00 and can make hundreds of sodas before it runs out. And, at over $5.00 a fill, that is a huge profit. You just have to sell 6 sodas and the case is paid for.

I worked in a food court that had 5 different types of food, and I ordered all the supplies, from the burger patties for the burgers, and fries. To the battered chicken and egg rolls for the chinese cafe, and 20 pound containers of ice cream for the ice cream parlor. We had meals starting at $3.99 cents which includes pop, and we made huge profits. The Pizza Pan was the most profitable, as pizza costs very little to make, and has less waste than the other food offerings.

Our meals were making a profit at $3.99. Now you take basically the same food, at a price tag of $15.00 and $20.00 per meal, and you are talking huge amounts on profit over cost. So, this is why I say that this whole meal pass is not going to hurt the park at all. If anything it is only going to make more people interested in eating in the park. It's more about PR, than profit on food. Like I said in my first post, they are already making huge profits on food. A meal pass won't hurt them one bit.

As for twisting things around and bitching, everything that I mentioned about Michigan's Adventure, and their all day drink wristband is true, and that is from my 2010 visit to the park. I wrote a post about my visit back then if you want to check. I don't see in any way that I am trying to make the parks look bad, I am merely stating facts on what I have learned on my visits. There is no lying going on. If you don't believe what I say about the parks prices and policies ask anyone else who has been there.

So, people who have been to Michigan's Adventure recently? What prices did you notice in the park? Did you find their food prices reasonable. Like $9.95 for a smoothy? Or $7.50 for an average cup of dippin dots? Maybe the $12.95 for a cheeseburger and fries? Over $15.00 if you get a large drink? What did you notice?

I was once at Six Flags Great America, and we paid $9.95 for a cheeseburger meal, and when we got our burgers there was no meat on them. Had to call a manager, and the guys working the stand. It was "Wascals" and they said they ran out of meat! The manager of course was furious! And, gave us and two other couples who got air burgers a coupons for replacement meals at the Yukon Cafe, and gave us our money back. So it's not all bad.

I'm very close to calling shenanigans on T-R. No one is really like this, right?

Get out yer brooms, everyone!

Timber-Rider said:
Not worried about it Chitown.

Start worrying about it. You're very quickly becoming noise that no one is interested in hearing. Everything is a bitch fest from you, supported by some alternate reality that you describe at great length.

Take a break.

ApolloAndy said:
The real problem is how you prevent 1 pass from feeding a family of 4 (though I am eternally confused by the number of 4 person families walking around with 4 "free refill" bottles).

Wait. It's not unlimited. You get one lunch and one dinner entree per day. The fine print at the bottom of the page:

"Present your Season Pass ID at the Dining Pass Sales Center in Carousel Plaza on each visit and receive one lunch voucher and one dinner voucher. Designated lunch and dinner timeframes vary by day. Vouchers are non-transferable and Season Pass ID must also be presented when ordering meal."

One pass gets you one lunch and one dinner entree per day.

I for one would love this at a park I frequent more often. Unfortunately, we don't visit any SF parks often enough to make this worth while. When we were at Universal, SeaWorld & Busch Gardens we purchased their meal deals. While we probably would not have spent the same amount as what the meals deals cost we also wouldn't have eaten more then one meal in the park and we also wouldn't have purchased drinks.

With the meal deal we ate and drank when we felt like it and had a much better experience the entire day. I could really go for a piece of red velvet cheesecake from the smokehouse at BWT right now.

I go to Great America so much during the season. I've gone more and more over the years; in many ways the park has been better with operations since the early 2000s.

So these food passes don't include drinks? They want you to carry those sipper bottles around all day; last year the sipper bottle storage bins started showing up. Either way, I quit drinking pop 3 weeks ago, so I won't have to worry about that.

I go to park at night usually. Like to go up around 7 during the summer, sometimes even 8, and stay till close. Will I get to have a burger or slice of pizza during that time? Coming to the park that late in the day, will I 'qualify'? Will I want to wait in historically long food lines? Can I upgrade for a food *flash pass* so I don't have to wait in food lines? Will the food places even be open at that time?

I guess we will find out. Or maybe I'll just stick to Culver's, Taco Hell and the Sbarro at the tollway Oasis...

Oh, you gave up soda 3 weeks ago? Congrats. My wife and I went vegetarian about the same time. Clothes fit better already, and I feel so great all the time. I love it.

^I tried to go vegetarian 2 times and I got really sick each time :( *I'm doing it all wrong* I was told.

The pop thing got downright annoying. At least 15 cans a day. And carrying that damn sipper cup around Great America and constantly having to wait in line to fill it up. Then pee. Then drink. Then pee...

Yeah, I got sick the first time I tried it, years ago. Apparently eating nothing but fake processed meat is terrible for you. :). This time, we are following recipes and cooking all our meals fresh. So far, so good.

We are making a batch of frozen plain yogurt right now so we can add berries and honey to it as. Snack/ dessert.

I think this program is pretty well thought out as a business on paper (especially in blocking abuse), and I'll be curious how it works out for the park, both in profitability and guest satisfaction.

Here are some things to think about:

1. The meal vouchers apparently are only valid for a lunch and dinner time frame. So, I'm guessing that the lunch voucher might only be valid from say 12-2PM and the dinner voucher from 5-7PM or something. In other words, don't expect to have 1 dining pass, bring a friend / family member, and skid into the park 30 minutes before close for 2 free meals each day. There's also a chance that even though people have the meal vouchers in hand, they expire while waiting in line or general forgetfulness during the stress-free day.

2. The voucher meals are likely going to be small, barely enough food for 1 person. When people buy passes like this, it's not uncommon for them to think of the food voucher meals as "free." So, suddenly during the period before, between, and after the meal time frames, an ice cream cone, slush, pretzel, elephant ear, snack etc. might sound good. These items will need to be paid for, and because the pass holder might feel like they didn't spend any money, they could be more prone to splurge. This would be a complete victory for Six.

3. Drinks are not included. Have you ever seen those coupons such as "Free small item and a small fry with purchase of a large drink" at fast food places? While these meal vouchers don't require a drink purchase, there is a strong chance that guests will naturally buy a drink with their order.

However, for guests that visit the park frequently and have read the fine print, this can be an excellent value. Only the intelligent, frugal guest will win. Your average guest is going to spend more money and create more profit for the park without ever realizing it.

I did the vegetarian thing for several years in graduate school. I could afford to not have a roommate, or I could afford to eat meat. I chose to live alone.

That was the period when I genuinely learned to cook. It has served me well since then.