I was walking through the park yesterday and relized I had NO money at all. I forgot it at home and all, and the idea hit me.

What if the park put a reloadable credit card type system on your pass? They have a little thing in the front entrance where you can reload your pass with money like a gift card/pre-pay credit card, and you can use it in the park. And they have an online account on the website where you can look up your card(membership type thing) on the website and see the amount of money left on your card. I think this is a great idea because you don't have to bring extra money. It's easier to pay for things in the park, and all you would need is you and your pass! Any thoughts?

400th post.

I was walking through the park yesterday and relized I had NO money at all. I forgot it at home and all, and the idea hit me.

What if the park put a reloadable credit card type system on your pass? They have a little thing in the front entrance where you can reload your pass with money like a gift card/pre-pay credit card, and you can use it in the park. And they have an online account on the website where you can look up your card(membership type thing) on the website and see the amount of money left on your card. I think this is a great idea because you don't have to bring extra money. It's easier to pay for things in the park, and all you would need is you and your pass! Any thoughts?

400th post.

That wouldn't be a bad idea at all, but I think it's more a question of how much it would cost them to implement such a system.

I actually really like that idea. Only bad thing is if you lose it youd be responsible for the money lost on it as well...

Maybe something like Scooby Bucks but with plastic?

Yes, turn the season pass into a stored value card. Knowing Cedar Fair, they'd try to say you could only use your stored value on a Platinum Pass at your home park, though. They could even load passholder discounts into the programming on the card. A very good idea, indeed. Plus, it is a known fact that people spend more when they aren't spending cash, and this avoids the merchant fees on credit cards and transaction fees on debit cards, if you could only use cash to buy the stored value. A very good idea indeed. Many parks have looked into this option for use particularly in the waterpark, where people do not have their cash/cards with them much of the time.

It seems like more hassle than it's worth. Besides, most people are carrying a credit card anyway.

Disney does something like that where you can charge onto your room's key card. I don't know exactly how this works because we didn't use it, but I know they have it.

Yes when staying at one of Disney Resorts your room card is/can be your room card, theme park tickets, fast pass, meal redemption card for your meals and snacks for those on the dinning plan and it also allows you to charge food, retail or specialty events to your room. Many days while we are at Disney we do not carry anything but our room card and camera. If we lose a room card which has happened twice all we need to do is go to any guest relations of any park or to any resort and within a minute or two they printed us a new one, right after they made sure we were not charged for someones dishonest unauthorized use.

I would love to have a Kings Island charging pass especially while we spend good portions of some days in Boomerang Bay.

And through the use of such stored value cards, Disney, not unlike Kroger, keeps track of who their best customers are, where they go, what they spend, and entices them to come back with very special deals not offered to Joe and Josie Public. A good deal for all involved if you ask me.

See also:

...The wristbands use the same technology as electronic tollbooths, security key cards and the newest U.S. passports. But at Precision Dynamics, this sophisticated electronic know-how has found its niche at theme parks, where the high-tech wristbands act as high-security admission passes, cashless debit cards, hotel room keys and a form of identification to reunite lost children with parents.

In the last year alone, Precision Dynamics' wristbands came on line at Great Wolf Resorts' newest water park in Concord, N.C.; at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Galveston, Texas; and at Water World, one of the nation's largest water parks, near Denver, Colo. In total, more than 50 theme parks across the country strap the wristbands on visitors....

Because cashless spending is more convenient, industry reports suggest that visitors who use the wristbands spend as much as 25% more at resorts and parks....

(emphasis added)

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wris...0,3597459.story