Now as we all know, that pass' biggest benefit to our theme park mania is being that golden ticket that gets us in as many times as we choose to Six Flags, Disney or Universal. However, a lot of parks are now sweetening the deal by adding some fun perks along with the pass. Here are some of the best ones out there.
CEDAR FAIR PARKS
* Buy a Platinum Pass and get free admission for the rest of the year to any of the Cedar Fair family of parks. Take a trip to the flagship park Cedar Point in Ohio and then jet cross country to America's First Theme park, Knott's Berry Farm.
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD
* Buy any annual pass and get a friend in for free with you in your birthday month. This is a great perk, especially if you have a friend who maybe has never been or is from out of town. A great to celebrate another year.
*Universal also offers tickets to member exlcusive events like movie premieres and early looks at new attractions.
SIX FLAGS
*The Six Flags parks also offers free friend tickets included with a funbook you receive when you sign on the dotted line for their season pass.
*Free admission to all 13 Six Flags parks, so you can get yourself dizzy from sea to shining sea on their army of steel monster coasters.
UNIVERSAL ORLANDO
*Their top pass includes a bunch of free cool stuff like FREE WATER, a MUST in that stifling Florida heat.
* A free ticket to Halloween Horror Nights. Great if you like to have your socks scared off, now in its 21st year.
*Free Valet parking (the worst part of the day in my opinion is the long walk back to the car. Why not have them bring the car to YOU?
DOLLYWOOD
* Dolly Parton's little bit of fun in the Smokey Mountains makes with discounts for lots of area attractions like 50 percent of Silver Dollar City and Smoky Mountain park.
WALT DISNEY WORLD
*While Disney is NOT known for giving anything away, and you do pay for it (over 600 bucks) their top annual pass includes unlimited access to the Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course,both water parks, Disneyquest and ESPN Wide World of Sports.
* They also offer occasional, exclusive special events for new attractions and shows.
Those are some of the best annual passholder perks I've found out there. I Would love to hear some of your favorites in the comments section. It is summer, enjoy those theme parks and give that annual or season pass a work out!
Use it, and use it often!
Same applies to elections:
Vote, and vote often!
Granted, I do not have a CF pass in any form this year, so the game may have changed.
Now if you get the platinum pass, you get free "preferred parking" at BGW. That pass also gets you entrance and free parking to the rest of the Seaworld parks. If you go down to the Central Florida area, you also can get the benefit of a reride if you're a platinum holder. You just wait in line, let them know you're platinum and you want to reride. Once your first ride is done, you get out then let one train go and you hop back in once more.
What I loved about the pass was their Funatics program (Which is optional when you buy the pass for Magic Mountain, and its totally free!), which is only really worthwhile if you're a frequent visitor of the parks. The way I recall it working, for every visit to any Six Flags park, the Funatics program would reward season pass holders with various goodies. As the visits increased in frequncy, the rewards only got better...some of the rewards included free parking, free drinks, skip the line passes, and extra free tickets for friends....(BTW, these were all seperate awards offered from the Coupon Booklet given with the pass).
I thought the Funatics program worked pretty well the last two years from SG GAdv. It really wasn't optional..you were automatically in with a Pass and an e-mail address. I didn't use most of the rewards, but they were decent. They've scrapped it this year.
BTW - the free water with the Universal Pass is greatly exaggerated. You do not get free water all year, you get eight coupons for one free bottle. If you only want one bottle every 6 weeks I guess you're covered. And the water is Zephyrhills, which is a cheap local brand that my dad refers to as "bottled swamp water" or "alligator piss."
This offer is only good during June, July and August.
Of course Cinnabons are not exactly coaster friendly. Too many will have you taking a walk of shame on your next Intamin ride. :)
If, however, you purchase the Cedar Fair Platinum Pass (access to all Cedar Fair Parks), then you DO get free parking.
I had one for two years. One year, I did Cedar Point (a few hours away) and Michigan's Adventure (literally right down the road). That was 5 days total in the parks with parking. The next year, it was Michigan's Adventure and Kings Dominion. . . 4 days in the parks and parking. Totally worth it, because in this case, parking and tickets totalled more than the cost of the pass!
Now, I ended up flying to Virginia this year to see a friend, and went to Kings Dominion, and I ended up only going for a day, and got a great deal on a single day pass and parking wasn't bad. Regardless, if you're doing more than 4 days total at the parks (and when I lived in Michigan, it was easy for me to do), then the pass is always a good option. If you're doing 4 days, it may or may not be worth it. You just need to add it up and see!
I know I saved money with the Busch Gardens pass I bought last year with only two visits.
Ardent Parks
Dreamworld
WhiteWater world
Annual Pass - unlimited entry to both parks til August 2011 $99
Platinum Pass - unlimited entry to both parks til July 2013 and access to exclusive preview events $169.99
Both passes include early entry and discounts on merchandise, food and beverage.
Village roadshow theme parks
Warner Brothers Movie World
Sea World
Wet N Wild
VIP pass - $109.99
VIP gold pass - $139.99
Both passes offer unlimited entry to all 3 parks, some discounts and early entry will be provided on certain dates.
The gold pass includes entry to Movieworlds "Fright Nights" and "White Christmas"
Both groups have put pricing up on their passes this year, after two years of extremely cheap passes. They are still fighting it out with each other though.
While Dreamworld offered early entry nearly all last year, this is something that Movieworld is just starting to get into. With new compact roller coasters going into both parks in September it really will be a fight for customers which can only be a good thing for our big Aussie parks.
Oh, and our parks have never charged for parking.
