Six Flags adds membership option at former Cedar Fair parks
Six Flags is expanding its membership program to five former Cedar Fair theme parks.
Starting Monday, memberships are expanding to Carowinds, Dorney Park, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, and Knott's Berry Farm. The change also applies to those locations' associated water parks.
Memberships at Six Flags theme parks are a rolling 12-month payment plan for park access and perks. They different from season passes that are valid for one calendar year and require upfront payments.
With this expansion, memberships are available at all U.S. Six Flags parks except Cedar Point and California's Great America. The California park is expected to close within the next few years, so maintaining a season pass program there rather than rolling memberships will allow it a cleaner path to closure.
And Cedar Point is... well, Cedar Point.
Earlier this year, Six Flags introduced a new perk for Gold-level members and passholders that would allow them to use their pass or membership to visit all of Six Flags' parks in their designated region. You can find those details here: Six Flags adds more park access to Gold season passes.
Prestige-level memberships and season passes allow access to all Six Flags parks nationwide.
Replies (3)
It's always great when I'm a passholder, and I have no clue what any of this means. I'm actually thinking of not renewing at the end of the year because the regional stuff is irritating.
@DangerGoat - I think what SF is trying to do with their regional setup is to still provide value to guests who want to buy the cheapest passes while keeping those low price points, but also giving clear benefits to guests willing to spend more for increased access and perks. They're trying to thread the needle here between SF guests who used to be able to visit every park in the chain for the same price as their local park and CF guests who still had low prices for the season pass for their local park, but had to spend significantly more to visit every park in the chain. This is a decent compromise here that should help to maintain their season passholder base while increasing revenue from guests who default to the top tier pass.
I still think the Membership concept is a sham, and shows that SF can't be disciplined, and needs guests to smooth out cash flow for them, but the confusion created by "Memberships" and "Season/Annual Passes" probably creates more problems than it solves.
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We all know why SF is doing this - to guarantee steady cashflow throughout the year and align with the subscription model of doing business that so many consumers are used to. It also means guests are still paying for memberships when parks are closed during the winter months (i.e. parks can still generate revenue even when they're not operating and not a single person is walking through a turnstile).
In other SF news, the Fast Lane season pass that had been "sold out" for the past month or so at most parks (most notably Cedar Point) has gone back on sale, but is now priced significantly higher than it was at the start of the year (or last fall when 2026 passes went on sale). Depending on how many times you go and what parks you plan to visit (and crowd levels on those days), the upgrade might still be worth this increased price. However, in most cases, this more expensive season Fastlane is probably not worth it (unless you're planning to visit a park like Cedar Point multiple Saturdays over the summer).