2 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Do they hope that you will get confused and just put everything on your pass to get it purchased? That is what is seems like anyway.

They’re making it difficult for people to circumvent their actual home park to save money. Or at least so it seems.

10 hours ago, Tr0y said:

They’re making it difficult for people to circumvent their actual home park to save money. Or at least so it seems.

Which again bears to question WHY? Why charge different prices for anything other than one park silver? Now that they are touting this whole “visit all parks” idea, then charge way less for other parks, they are just asking for people to do this.

36 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

Which again bears to question WHY? Why charge different prices for anything other than one park silver? Now that they are touting this whole “visit all parks” idea, then charge way less for other parks, they are just asking for people to do this.

It all comes down to not only the number of people living around a park but the cost of living. Cedarpoint, and other six properties up north all are close to a coast whereas KI is land locked. That alone means there are twice as many people living within a 50 mile radius of the park (not that many people live on the water). Another factor is how densely populated the area is around the park and the cost of living. Next time you go to CP notice how much farmland there is and the house values when you approach the park. Deffinitely a difference between CP and KI.

So going by supply and demand KI should by all means have a higher price for gold passes (we're still for capitalism right?). At one time I thought they would do something similar to what they are doing with the dining plan this year. For gold you'd get in to KI all year but you'd only get 10-20 visits to the other parks in the region (or maybe even all parks and drop the region thing alltogether) combined with prestige having unlimited to all parks. This would keep people from buying a cheaper pass in Canada and going to KI all year. This would mean you could charge $150 for a KI season pass and $100 for the other markets where there are less people in a 50 mile radius with a lower cost of living.

Last year my wife and I took advantage of the 99 renewal and the 100 upgrade to prestige and found it well worth it. This year prestige is only $24 more than last year considering the $279 price point for renewal. (200 for the prestige plus 35 for the included drink plan and a 20 credit = 255). I have always said that I would pay $200 for a season pass because I go so often (over 50 times a year) so $279 was an easy buy.

The dining plan is a different story. My wife will be getting the 20 meals (I go way more often than she does) but I'l going to wait to buy mine. 399 for the unlimited seems just a bit high I would bite (no pun intended) at 299 and I feel that depending on how sales go they may drop that price. But you'll have alot of people who buy just one and split it. They would get a piece of pizza and a breadstick every 2 hours. Another thing that crossed my mind was how many people in the past have gottent a meal and sold it to someone for say $10. The old way you'd make $10 a day but now that could be over $50 a day easily paying for the unlimited in less than 10 visits. Looking at it that way maybe I do see the reason for the 399 price after all. I would never do that as I see it as taking advantage of the system. (Others may say that once you have it what you do with it is your business) One thing is for sure people generally like to save and/or make a buck and given the opportunity they will.

Just my 2 cents.

6 minutes ago, robintodd said:

It all comes down to not only the number of people living around a park but the cost of living. Cedarpoint, and other six properties up north all are close to a coast whereas KI is land locked. That alone means there are twice as many people living within a 50 mile radius of the park (not that many people live on the water). Another factor is how densely populated the area is around the park and the cost of living. Next time you go to CP notice how much farmland there is and the house values when you approach the park. Deffinitely a difference between CP and KI.

So going by supply and demand KI should by all means have a higher price for gold passes (we're still for capitalism right?). At one time I thought they would do something similar to what they are doing with the dining plan this year. For gold you'd get in to KI all year but you'd only get 10-20 visits to the other parks in the region (or maybe even all parks and drop the region thing alltogether) combined with prestige having unlimited to all parks. This would keep people from buying a cheaper pass in Canada and going to KI all year. This would mean you could charge $150 for a KI season pass and $100 for the other markets where there are less people in a 50 mile radius with a lower cost of living.

Last year my wife and I took advantage of the 99 renewal and the 100 upgrade to prestige and found it well worth it. This year prestige is only $24 more than last year considering the $279 price point for renewal. (200 for the prestige plus 35 for the included drink plan and a 20 credit = 255). I have always said that I would pay $200 for a season pass because I go so often (over 50 times a year) so $279 was an easy buy.

The dining plan is a different story. My wife will be getting the 20 meals (I go way more often than she does) but I'l going to wait to buy mine. 399 for the unlimited seems just a bit high I would bite (no pun intended) at 299 and I feel that depending on how sales go they may drop that price. But you'll have alot of people who buy just one and split it. They would get a piece of pizza and a breadstick every 2 hours. Another thing that crossed my mind was how many people in the past have gottent a meal and sold it to someone for say $10. The old way you'd make $10 a day but now that could be over $50 a day easily paying for the unlimited in less than 10 visits. Looking at it that way maybe I do see the reason for the 399 price after all. I would never do that as I see it as taking advantage of the system. (Others may say that once you have it what you do with it is your business) One thing is for sure people generally like to save and/or make a buck and given the opportunity they will.

Just my 2 cents.

They created more problems than they were trying to solve with the 2027 dining plan.

@DispatchMaster For clarity, this is opinion, not fact.

4 hours ago, robintodd said:

It all comes down to not only the number of people living around a park but the cost of living. Cedarpoint, and other six properties up north all are close to a coast whereas KI is land locked. That alone means there are twice as many people living within a 50 mile radius of the park (not that many people live on the water). Another factor is how densely populated the area is around the park and the cost of living. Next time you go to CP notice how much farmland there is and the house values when you approach the park. Deffinitely a difference between CP and KI.

So going by supply and demand KI should by all means have a higher price for gold passes (we're still for capitalism right?). At one time I thought they would do something similar to what they are doing with the dining plan this year. For gold you'd get in to KI all year but you'd only get 10-20 visits to the other parks in the region (or maybe even all parks and drop the region thing alltogether) combined with prestige having unlimited to all parks. This would keep people from buying a cheaper pass in Canada and going to KI all year. This would mean you could charge $150 for a KI season pass and $100 for the other markets where there are less people in a 50 mile radius with a lower cost of living.

Last year my wife and I took advantage of the 99 renewal and the 100 upgrade to prestige and found it well worth it. This year prestige is only $24 more than last year considering the $279 price point for renewal. (200 for the prestige plus 35 for the included drink plan and a 20 credit = 255). I have always said that I would pay $200 for a season pass because I go so often (over 50 times a year) so $279 was an easy buy.

The dining plan is a different story. My wife will be getting the 20 meals (I go way more often than she does) but I'l going to wait to buy mine. 399 for the unlimited seems just a bit high I would bite (no pun intended) at 299 and I feel that depending on how sales go they may drop that price. But you'll have alot of people who buy just one and split it. They would get a piece of pizza and a breadstick every 2 hours. Another thing that crossed my mind was how many people in the past have gottent a meal and sold it to someone for say $10. The old way you'd make $10 a day but now that could be over $50 a day easily paying for the unlimited in less than 10 visits. Looking at it that way maybe I do see the reason for the 399 price after all. I would never do that as I see it as taking advantage of the system. (Others may say that once you have it what you do with it is your business) One thing is for sure people generally like to save and/or make a buck and given the opportunity they will.

Just my 2 cents.

By that logic though, Atlanta, which is landlocked and has way more density than Cincinnati and access to more markets driving as well as flights into the busiest airport in the country, has some of the lowest pass prices. I totally get what you are saying, but as long as they keep pushing the "One big happy company" idea, but then charging less for certain parks, you will have people price shopping. When a decent park has Prestige for 189 vs 279 for a "better"? park, and I can still get into all the parks, why wouldn't I go that route? I'm just saying all of their verbiage makes no sense. If I upgrade to Prestige in 2026 for a 2027 pass can I use it now without going to GEORGIA and their answer is, "yes sort of probably maybe but you still might want to come toGeorgia first just to make sure because we aren't quite sure"

1 hour ago, brenthodge said:

By that logic though, Atlanta, which is landlocked and has way more density than Cincinnati and access to more markets driving as well as flights into the busiest airport in the country, has some of the lowest pass prices. I totally get what you are saying, but as long as they keep pushing the "One big happy company" idea, but then charging less for certain parks, you will have people price shopping. When a decent park has Prestige for 189 vs 279 for a "better"? park, and I can still get into all the parks, why wouldn't I go that route? I'm just saying all of their verbiage makes no sense. If I upgrade to Prestige in 2026 for a 2027 pass can I use it now without going to GEORGIA and their answer is, "yes sort of probably maybe but you still might want to come toGeorgia first just to make sure because we aren't quite sure"

I can understand the frustration. With Disney, why do Florida residents get multiple season pass options when an out of state resident only gets 1? With that only 1 option being their most expensive pass.

I thought the language was quite clear with having to activate your pass with the park you purchased from.

Either way, can’t wait to hear your trip report for SFOG!

6 hours ago, brenthodge said:

By that logic though, Atlanta, which is landlocked and has way more density than Cincinnati and access to more markets driving as well as flights into the busiest airport in the country, has some of the lowest pass prices. I totally get what you are saying, but as long as they keep pushing the "One big happy company" idea, but then charging less for certain parks, you will have people price shopping. When a decent park has Prestige for 189 vs 279 for a "better"? park, and I can still get into all the parks, why wouldn't I go that route? I'm just saying all of their verbiage makes no sense. If I upgrade to Prestige in 2026 for a 2027 pass can I use it now without going to GEORGIA and their answer is, "yes sort of probably maybe but you still might want to come toGeorgia first just to make sure because we aren't quite sure"

So I looked it up and my guess is it goes back to supply and demand. KI has almost double the attendance even though 1/2 as many people live within a 50 mile radius. Their passes are cheaper because not as many people buy them.

(from chatgpt)

Kings Island Six Flags Over Georgia
Approx. 50-mile population ~2.8–3.0M ~6.2M
Annual attendance ~3.47M ~2.7M
Attendance / local population ~1.2× ~0.44×

2024 attendance

• Kings Island (Mason, Ohio): ~3.47 million visitors

• Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell, Georgia): ~2.7 million visitors — this figure is an estimate; Six Flags does not publicly report attendance for individual parks.

So Kings Island drew roughly 750,000 more visitors, or about 28% more, than Six Flags Over Georgia.

For additional context, the TEA/AECOM report estimated Kings Island at 3.49 million in 2023, while Six Flags Over Georgia was not among the top-20 North American parks that year.

We swapped from season passes to memberships in 2027 to avoid the credit-based payment plan (good for the chain because it gets that off their hands, bad for consumers) and I just wanted to share some of our experience.

Prior to purchasing the memberships, I contacted the park to ask what I should do about purchasing an All-Season Haunted Attractions Pass. Guest Services responded saying that I would be able to add the HAP to my 2026 pass and that it would be fine even if I switched to a membership. When we began our new memberships during Labor Day weekend I noticed that it gave us new pass numbers. Seeing this, I again contacted the park to make sure that I would be able to use my HAP without any big issues. This time I was told that both my 2026 pass and my new membership are currently active, and that I would need to scan into the park using my 2026 Gold Pass on nights when I go through the mazes. I purchased my 2027 dining plan separately (ouchie!) as well.

We'll see where I land when I get to the park for Haunt, but I'm going to trust those Guest Services emails for now. The bigger question will probably be whether I can use my new 2027 Dining Plan Unlimited now in 2026 when I scan in using my new membership. Both passes and both dining plans say that they're ready to use and are active in my Six Flags app.

On 9/13/2026 at 10:11 PM, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

We'll see where I land when I get to the park for Haunt, but I'm going to trust those Guest Services emails for now. The bigger question will probably be whether I can use my new 2027 Dining Plan Unlimited now in 2026 when I scan in using my new membership. Both passes and both dining plans say that they're ready to use and are active in my Six Flags app.

Let us know how it goes!

Apologies for the Facebook screenshot clutter, but kudos to Kings Island and Six Flags for finally snagging the kingsisland.com URL. It redirects to the sixflags.com/kingsisland website, but the thought is there. The visitkingsisland.com URL also still works/redirects in case you're wondering. I remember typing that into the address bar when I was a kid and it coming up as either a tourism website for somewhere in Australia or a domain for sale.

(It entirely could've been registered before the merger, but I would've thought they'd used it on ads and such if that was the case.)

4 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

Apologies for the Facebook screenshot clutter, but kudos to Kings Island and Six Flags for finally snagging the kingsisland.com URL. It redirects to the sixflags.com/kingsisland website, but the thought is there. The visitkingsisland.com URL also still works/redirects in case you're wondering. I remember typing that into the address bar when I was a kid and it coming up as either a tourism website for somewhere in Australia or a domain for sale.

(It entirely could've been registered before the merger, but I would've thought they'd used it on ads and such if that was the case.)

I remember that too!

Every once in a great while, my fingers still want to type 'pki' to get to the Paramount's Kings Island page.

PKI??? You really are old!

(Said in jest, referencing Maestro chiding NoLegs Larry for having Myspace)