Season pass holder’s guide to Fun Perks

[BoddaH1994]

We shall see…

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2022/july/season-passholders-guide-to-kings-islands-pass-perks

[disco2000]

It has worked flawlessly the past few years 

Does it only work for Gold passes? 

If it works for platinum, does Pass Perks accumulate and be rewarded at each park visited or only the "home" park where the pass was purchased?  For example, if you purchased the platinum at Cedar Point does that mean you are only eligible for the pass perks at Cedar Point or can you visit KI 20 times and potentially be rewarded at KI as well?

And let's not forget FunPerks from many years ago...

[Ffej]

Yeah, I have a KI Platinum Pass. I've visited the park and other Cedar Fair parks enough and bought so much stuff that my reward should just be tossing the park keys to me at this point. But, I've never received any kind of reward. The last Pass Perks email I got was to buy a Sam's Club Membership for $45, which is the normal price. 

[BoddaH1994]

8 hours ago, Ffej said:

Yeah, I have a KI Platinum Pass. I've visited the park and other Cedar Fair parks enough and bought so much stuff that my reward should just be tossing the park keys to me at this point. But, I've never received any kind of reward. The last Pass Perks email I got was to buy a Sam's Club Membership for $45, which is the normal price. 

I got free Rondos from LaRosa’s in a random email in February a few years ago. #Winning

In all seriousness. The program is halfway there. Places like LaRosa’s and Sam’s Club pay dearly to have access to KI’s massive mailing list. 
 

Unfortunately, it lacks any semblance of association such as, “I visited the park and got this reward.” When they had the experimental Fun Perks several years ago, the messaging was clear that visiting the park and spending money resulted in higher perks. This isn’t there yet. Right now it’s seemingly random emails that may hit your spam box during the off-season. 
 

Give it time. It has the potential to be a good program. 

[Coasterteam]

4 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Give it time. It has the potential to be a good program. 

unfortunately this can be said for a lot of stuff too, in or outside of Kings Island lol

[MDMC01]

8 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I got free Rondos from LaRosa’s in a random email in February a few years ago. #Winning

In all seriousness. The program is halfway there. Places like LaRosa’s and Sam’s Club pay dearly to have access to KI’s massive mailing list. 
 

Unfortunately, it lacks any semblance of association such as, “I visited the park and got this reward.” When they had the experimental Fun Perks several years ago, the messaging was clear that visiting the park and spending money resulted in higher perks. This isn’t there yet. Right now it’s seemingly random emails that may hit your spam box during the off-season. 
 

Give it time. It has the potential to be a good program. 

Yeah, I found the old version more consistent with the frequency of rewards... IIRC, I got things like free cotton candy and free rides on Days of... er, Thunder Alley. Maybe it will get better.

Speaking of Gold Pass things, do we know who won the contest for the VIP lounge at the beginning of the season? I still don't know who won that one.

EDIT: Ok, so I just realized I forgot to opt-in to the e-mails (although I do get a few now and then); let's see what happens...

[BoddaH1994]

 

I've gotten four text messages from the park's text communication system. Please see below:

 

Look at text number three. It sends me a link implying that I can check to see if I have Pass Perks available. The link takes you to the Pass Perks splash page informing me that if I have any, they'd email me. Then why did I get the text? Am I missing something? 

 

 

[disco2000]

Forget about the pass perks LOL, what about this one that says the the concerts are included with your admission....

 

[BoddaH1994]

13 hours ago, disco2000 said:

Forget about the pass perks LOL, what about this one that says the the concerts are included with your admission....

 

Dear lord. I didn’t see that. 
 

To confirm, I looked at the original text message and the link does take you to the concert series list that is NOT included with park admission. 
 

By the way, I believe that these texts are NOT sent from someone in the park. 

[disco2000]

But admission to an upcoming concert could be a Pass Perk....

[BoddaH1994]

3 hours ago, disco2000 said:

But admission to an upcoming concert could be a Pass Perk....

Oh, snap! 
 

That would actually be cool, but would also probably be the end of the concert series.

[MDMC01]

That would be great! I enjoyed Berlin and am looking forward to seeing Skillet next Saturday.

[Dio daGoat]

I have a problem with first line: "Every year, the benefits and value of being a Kings Island Gold Season Pass keeps on getting better."

Didn't there used to be coupons for free Bring-A-Friend (not $30-40 tickets), free food, and many other perks automatically? I feel like my value was better "in the old days" than it is now.

[BoddaH1994]

Gee, I’m glad I bothered to click the link, figure out how to get to the pass portal (the link takes you to general Pass Park info), and reset my password (it kept prompting me to change my email address instead for some reason)… only to find out I don’t have any Pass Perks. 

This has good intentions but needs work.

[BB1]

So I just checked my email and come to find out I do have a pass perk reward....BOGO popcorn which I never buy when I'm at the park .

 

I LOVE the concept of getting discounts for going to the park more often, even though every time I go my price per visit goes down exponentially due to food and drink purchases. I see that they are working on it however this kind of pass perk just doesn't work for me. If I got a 10% off coupon for merch every some odd visits I would 100% use it, same for some form of coupon for a food item or beverage. Or maybe give us one free VIP area access once you hit x amount of visits (which speaking of I have yet to see that area being used). I truly hope the park sees this and is aware that we do want to spend our money at the park (my wallet hurts every two weeks from buying posters), but BOGO's just aren't my forte. 

[BoddaH1994]

2 hours ago, BB1 said:

So I just checked my email and come to find out I do have a pass perk reward....BOGO popcorn which I never buy when I'm at the park .

 

I LOVE the concept of getting discounts for going to the park more often, even though every time I go my price per visit goes down exponentially due to food and drink purchases. I see that they are working on it however this kind of pass perk just doesn't work for me. If I got a 10% off coupon for merch every some odd visits I would 100% use it, same for some form of coupon for a food item or beverage. Or maybe give us one free VIP area access once you hit x amount of visits (which speaking of I have yet to see that area being used). I truly hope the park sees this and is aware that we do want to spend our money at the park (my wallet hurts every two weeks from buying posters), but BOGO's just aren't my forte. 

2 sides to loyalist programs;

1. High perceived value, low cost rewards (your coupon idea is spot on)

2. Being able to leverage it to drive certain behaviors: attendance, spending, etc,  How do random emails do that? 

[disco2000]

Meanwhile, I got a rock 

 

 

[jsus]

18 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

Meanwhile, I got a rock 

Not just any rock!  A rock from under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower!

[chuck norris]

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[BB1]

14 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

2 sides to loyalist programs;

1. High perceived value, low cost rewards (your coupon idea is spot on)

2. Being able to leverage it to drive certain behaviors: attendance, spending, etc,  How do random emails do that? 

Under the current system? For park goers like myself not much. I check my personal "fun" email once every week-two weeks tops. I'm sure there are families of 4 who will use the above promotion for a day out on the park but the perks "system" doesn't really feel like a system, rather an automated distribution of bogo deals. Unless if there is some point system that requires x amount of visits by all passholders I don't see the vitality in the program until they can actually give better deals.

Show me benchmarks, give me "points" for doing activities at the park, show me what I can get for coming to the park x many days per season. Heck, make it a rotating program to which you have a main season (APR-SEPT), Haunt season (SEPT-OCT), and a Winterfest season (NOV-DEC). I would not be bothered to be told okay you get a 10% off after your 50th day visit at the park, 25% off after your 100th, etc. Tours, food experiences, discounts, access to special park events that have an upcharge (for my current and former KI employees think ride nights, get a region in the park to ride till a certain time of night). I just don't want to see a system like this go to waste. 

[chuck norris]

Under the current system? For park goers like myself not much. I check my personal "fun" email once every week-two weeks tops. I'm sure there are families of 4 who will use the above promotion for a day out on the park but the perks "system" doesn't really feel like a system, rather an automated distribution of bogo deals. Unless if there is some point system that requires x amount of visits by all passholders I don't see the vitality in the program until they can actually give better deals.
Show me benchmarks, give me "points" for doing activities at the park, show me what I can get for coming to the park x many days per season. Heck, make it a rotating program to which you have a main season (APR-SEPT), Haunt season (SEPT-OCT), and a Winterfest season (NOV-DEC). I would not be bothered to be told okay you get a 10% off after your 50th day visit at the park, 25% off after your 100th, etc. Tours, food experiences, discounts, access to special park events that have an upcharge (for my current and former KI employees think ride nights, get a region in the park to ride till a certain time of night). I just don't want to see a system like this go to waste. 

Totally agree.
Seems like it needs to be directly tied to visits or check ins or even in park spending, with a clear point system.

Otherwise it’s just a random thing that I’ll rarely use.


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[BoddaH1994]

An interesting Pass Perk. Not relevant to me, but definitely out of left field. I blacked out the promo code because I’m not sure if this went out to everyone or just Prestige or whatever and didn’t want to be the one who jacks up the program. 
 

[Coasterteam]

Haven't gotten that perk for my gold pass.

Looks like you're really getting your moneys worth... 

[BoddaH1994]

22 minutes ago, Coasterteam said:

Haven't gotten that perk for my gold pass.

Looks like you're really getting your moneys worth... 

I mean, between access to presale to Bluey’s  Big Play, bottled drinks in the VIP lounge, and access to perks at other parks I can categorically say that I am killin’ it. 

[Winterfestguy]

Been a Platinum pass holder for 10 years and never once received any pass perks (despite CF even hiring someone several years back to exclusively to handle their pass perk program).   Have tried multiple times over the years (both at the park and over the phone) to figure out why, and just get we don’t know or we will get back to you (and nobody ever follows up).   Maybe a good time for a complete overhaul/update of the program if intended to be a real season pass benefit.

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

Snoopy and Bluey just see each other and the awkwardness will be a bit funny.

[Coasterteam]

6 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I mean, between access to presale to Bluey’s  Big Play, bottled drinks in the VIP lounge, and access to perks at other parks I can categorically say that I am killin’ it. 

let's hope they don't remove/reduce those perks in the middle of the season then!

[mikejenkins1]

On 2/8/2023 at 12:49 PM, Coasterteam said:

Haven't gotten that perk for my gold pass.

Looks like you're really getting your moneys worth... 

My daughter and I were there 63 times in 2022 and ZERO pass perks...   

[disco2000]

Charlie Brown did better than the pass perks most have got (well not got LOL):

[DJSkyFoxx]

Having like a point system would be great. Something tangible where you can actually see what you are earning towards certain things. For example if you say, "earn 500 points and get a free ice cream or sweet treat" say earn "5000 points and earn a free t-shirt worth x amount of dollars". Something like that. Having either a separate Cedar Fair rewards app or having something built into each park's app with the point system visible would be wonderful.

 

Wishful thinking. *shrugs*