Meal Plan and Dining options

[KICP16]

So we are only a day away from passholder preview how have they not released the meal plan items and menu for all locations 

I find that kind of ridiculous. With very little too no new food items announced for this year the dining experience is starting too worry me if it’s gonna take a hit this year. Thoughts ? 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I feel like this is kind of standard for the park at this point. If nothing has changed in terms of the meal plan meals then I wouldn't be surprised if they just keep the 2025 list up. I also wouldn't be surprised if we see some quality issues in printed/digital materials. Canada's Wonderland just released their 2026 map that still had the color palette for Daredeviller in squares next to the ride. I've also noticed that CW and Carowinds have started to use Futura as the font for ride names on their maps, while Great Adventure and Kings Dominion are using the Seoge UI Variable font (I'm pretty sure that's what it is from my research).

[DonHelbig]

The good news is no matter where you are in the park, you don’t have to walk far to get chicken tenders.

[kingsislandfan1972]

58 minutes ago, DonHelbig said:

The good news is no matter where you are in the park, you don’t have to walk far to get chicken tenders.

That is true! I can say the same for Cedar Point.

[shark6495]

Stopped in today for a quick bite and ride and it is absurd that the app didn’t have a menu for any place. I had to download the dining guide. It would be nice to just have that in the app

[disco2000]

17 minutes ago, shark6495 said:

Stopped in today for a quick bite and ride and it is absurd that the app didn’t have a menu for any place. I had to download the dining guide. It would be nice to just have that in the app

I don't recall it ever being in the app other than maybe a generic description.

[shark6495]

1 hour ago, disco2000 said:

I don't recall it ever being in the app other than maybe a generic description.

Right. Still absurd though. 

[disco2000]

Oh absolutely.  Even a generic list would be an improvement.  Online ordering would be mind blown lol

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

The legacy version of the Six Flags mobile app had menus built into it, but I don't think any of them were nicely formatted or included prices. I suspect that the park(s) expects you to visit the Dining Plan Menu(s) through their website(s) so they don't have to go update more than one document if anything changes. It doesn't look like the Mobile Ordering feature works yet either, so it may be a while before we see a "finished" version of this app.

[DonHelbig]

Enchanted Parks has eliminated the former Six Flags dining plan and lowered the price of most food entrées by 20 to 30 percent, bringing many items back into the mid-teens after some had climbed as high as $20 to $23 under the previous pricing structure.

Enchanted Parks CEO James Harhi said the decision came after reviewing more than a year’s worth of guest feedback before the acquisition closed. Food cost and food quality, he said, were among the most common complaints.

Harhi concluded that menu prices had been pushed too high in part to offset heavy dining plan usage, leaving single-day guests and less-frequent season passholders to absorb much of the cost.

“The math just doesn’t work long term,” Harhi said of the dining plan model at a park of this size. “While there were people who really loved it, holistically it was not the right thing for the company.”

 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

This is definitely a hole that the new Six Flags (and Cedar Fair) have dug themselves into by not limiting the Dining Plan usage from the start. That said, I don't think Six Flags should limit or outright eliminate the dining plan. Legacy Six Flags attempted to do that around 2022 as part of their Season Pass structure shakeup and it didn't go well for them at all. We saw a similar backlash when the Diamond Elite VIP members' meal plans were standardized to the Cedar Fair model after years of being some form of the Premium All Day Dining Plan. If they're looking for a solution, I think the only "easy" way to lower food prices would be to raise prices elsewhere. Enchanted Parks saw the price per meal issues with their acquisition and it seems to be working because this kind of change could be expected with a new company managing the parks.

The other option would be to reduce the amount of Meal Plan vs non-Meal Plan options throughout the parks over the course of a few years. That would make the plans less valuable or desirable and provide an incentive for guests to either purchase food or bring their own and eat in the car.

 

Another question I've been thinking about is this: Would you rather have the Drink Plans stay as they currently exist (16 ounce cup every 15 min) or trade that to a new plan with less frequency (20+ ounce cup every 30 minutes)? That would remove the need for the drink plan cups and theoretically save the parks some money if guests redeem less drinks.

[DJSkyFoxx]

I'd rather keep the current drink plan. Especially on hot days. 

As for the meal plan, I really would rather they keep it since that helps make for a smooth and easy trip without having to budget that cost into my day. They could raise the price if they needed to and it would still be an incredible value for anyone who chose to purchase it. 

Things are priced far too low, period. If they raised the prices some that would help offset costs on their end and also enhance the quality. Then if the math mathed, they could lower the price some for those who don't have the meal plan to where it falls into some reasonable range. 

 

[Orion-XL200]

I will continue to say that the merchandise is priced too high....I'd venture to say, they'd sell even more if the prices were brought down. Do I buy a $48 shirt (spitballing atm) or do I buy a snack at Sweetspot for much less? 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

There were a ton of $50+ hoodies in every store I looked in last weekend. I really want to get one of the nice button down shirts that they keep adding, but there's no way I'm going to pay more than $60 for a shirt like that. I'd love to know what the markup is on those compared to the production cost. They seem like a nice quality, but I simply can't justify that high cost.

 

6 hours ago, DJSkyFoxx said:

I'd rather keep the current drink plan. Especially on hot days. 

As for the meal plan, I really would rather they keep it since that helps make for a smooth and easy trip without having to budget that cost into my day. They could raise the price if they needed to and it would still be an incredible value for anyone who chose to purchase it. 

Things are priced far too low, period. If they raised the prices some that would help offset costs on their end and also enhance the quality. Then if the math mathed, they could lower the price some for those who don't have the meal plan to where it falls into some reasonable range. 

My thought process on upping the drink plan cup size is that it would lower some costs while lowering the amount of possible redemptions per day. I'm fine with the current model though. I'd be open to seeing a higher cost for the all-season drink bottle if they switched that one over to a "mug" like Dollywood has. Theirs at least look like they're higher quality. Something that keeps drinks colder for longer and is generally sturdier would be good if Six Flags wants to increase the quality for that.

I hope they do keep the meal plan around as-is. What they could do is bring the 1-meal dining plan to more parks, but that might result in even more people purchasing them overall. Upping the price (maybe to $200/per all season meal plan) would definitely generate more money for Six Flags and could help them move toward slightly higher quality food items.

IMO there's not a ton they can do about the Sysco food products since the commercial food supplier game seems to have less players every few months. Maybe they could get higher quality Sysco food, but from what I've heard that's about it unless they want to change suppliers entirely.