This exactly. The GP on social media is losing their mind over the pricing.  Tons of "Six Flags just costed my family out of attending the park". No they didn't. The price is the same/lower than it has been in recent years. These parks existed with many more years of operation without pass add-ons. What did people do prior to 2014 (when season long meal plans were introduced or 2017 for season long FL).  You either bought overpriced park food, ate before/after you visited, packed food and went out to the car, and stayed in regular lines. That is all still available to the guest at the price of admission last year. The park is not implementing a "two meal minimum" LOL (a play on requirements of some comedy clubs).  You can still get in for the price you used to. And while not perfect, the meal plan offerings still provide a meal cheaper than you can get a meal at an outside restaurant. Unless the majority of passholders actually vote with their wallet and not buy a pass and refuse to visit next year, this will likely result in an increase in revenue as people skip the meal plans and then buy the occasional meal or snack that they were not buying when on the cheaper meal plans. As someone else mentioned above, this could be the long term correction the parks actually need if they can sustain the potential short term hit and not knee-jerk reaction lower the prices. But if they do as history shows and for 2028 drop all the prices tremendously, they will never recover.

Who remembers when the Kings Island sleuths were convinced they had cracked the code on the park’s website and uncovered what the big announcement on this day in 2013 would be? It was so much fun watching it all unfold from my end.  

Does anyone know if you must first visit your home park if renewing a pass? For example I have a SFDK pass (since I'm in Seattle now) and was wondering, if I renew, do I have to visit SFDK first or can I go to fiesta Texas in March next year? 

That’s fair, thanks for your insight! 

The way I look at it is since I've hadd Platinum/All-Park/Prestige I've been to Cedar Point (I go every year and always stay at Breaksers, eat at Bay Harbor and Tomos, etc. so I'm spending money to SIX)  Carowinds, Knotts and Six Flags Over Texas. Each time I visited the other parks besides CP I've spent money on magnets, shirts, etc.  I believe others would do the same, because KI (and to a point CP) are my home parks I don't tend to spend at them.  I would think that people who go to other parks also get some kind of keepsake that otherwise they wouldn't get.  "I didn't spend anything to get into this park so might as well get something to remember the trip by." kind of thinking.