The 2014 Six Flags Great America park map has revealed that the waterpark Hurricane Harbor will be an "additional fee" for day guests without season passes. No word yet on if that "additional fee" will be a few dollar upgrade or a full secondary ticket like Cedar Point's Soak City.

https://www.sixflags.com/sites/default/files/sfgam_fullmap.pdf

Oddly, Great America's Hurricane Harbour does not have its own entrance or parking lot... the only way in is via a pathway near the back of the park. It'll be interesting to see the logistics of this. New ticket upgrade stations? Maybe the impending construction of a new second entrance directly into the park?

Still, this will be interesting from many perspectives, one of which being the chance to see how locals react to this change, and how crowd levels change (which would be nice. Like our Soak City, Hurricane Harbor is as much a draw as the dry park and is usually prohibitively crowded)!

https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/attractions/water-park-rides

Extra fee will be $5.00.

Could you see Kings Island doing something similar?

I think that depends on how well or not well The Beach does over the next few seasons. If the Beach becomes a huge hit again and it pulling numbers away from KI, then no way do I see Kings Island charging. If the Beach does fail, then why not.

Plus its all about perceived value. When you bought an entrance ticket to the parks you were getting the water park for free. What a great deal, 2 parks for the price of 1! Now that people are no longer in sticker shock (35$ + for a ticket, etc) you can charge more for extras. The park goer may go "Well why do I have to pay so much, I dont use the water park." Well now they can decide if they want to pay for it or not.

Imagine the perceived value "Get all of these water rides and extra perks for just $5 more than your normal ticket price"

Not to mention that the mere idea of spending $5 per person would undoubtedly turn some folks off, freeing up a very overcrowded water park.

True, but it may not turn that many people around. How much is a day at Great Wolf? Harvest Home Park's pool is what 3-6 bucks per person?