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Six Flags / Cedar Fair Merger Announced

InvertsAreMyJam said:
So, is this going to worsen the quality of Cedar Fair parks or increase the quality of Six Flags parks? Because from what I’ve heard, Six Flags parks aren’t exactly the greatest…
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For the time being I've seen reports of Six Flags parks significantly reducing operations this season so far to make big number look good right before the merger so let's hope it's more Cedar Fair oriented than SF.

Steely Dan said:
From my (limited) anecdotal experiences, I think there is likely some truth to that.

But that's not evidence or anything, just a general and subjective impression.

And at the risk of driving the car right over the edge of off-topic cliff, here's my favorite personal story of a Brit not comprehending the physical size of the US and its features.
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Yeah depends heavily where in Europe they're from but especially for Brits, the Dutch etc the concept of a "long" drive (or walk for that matter) seems to be very different. But driving for hours between major settlements or driving for hours and still being on the same lake would be pretty normal for Germans, Finns or Swedes. Sweden has a lake wider than the entire UK is at a couple points (Vänern) and whenever I go to my family's cabin (Finland) I drive for like 4-5 hours (depending on route) along the same lake and once I get to my cabin you can hardly see the opposite shore and I drove a moving van for my friend 7h away like it was nothing.
 
giphy.webp
 
I remember when I went to King’s Island they had cups with all the Cedar Fair parks on them. What I want to know, is what’s going to happen to those cups?!
 
InvertsAreMyJam said:
I remember when I went to King’s Island they had cups with all the Cedar Fair parks on them. What I want to know, is what’s going to happen to those cups?!
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They sell them for twice the price as "memorabilia". :p

Nitefly said:
I await the inevitable 2025 rebranding…

Six Flags Cedar Point

😬
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Each park in the combined company’s portfolio will retain their legacy branding with no changes to park names currently being planned or contemplated.
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To game it out for a few more clicks, it makes zero sense to do any dramatic rebranding/renaming - the "Six Flags" brand brings zero benefit to Cedar Fair parks, and vice versa. Let's also not forget it is Cedar Fair management who are taking over all senior post at Six Flags, so don't be surprised if there's more of a Cedar Fairesque flair of management going forward... as first demonstrated by a horribly corporate logo unveil. ;)
 
Nitefly said:
I await the inevitable 2025 rebranding…

Six Flags Cedar Point

😬
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I think this is tongue in cheek but Cedar Fair parks aren't going to add the Six Flags "courtesy title" to existing parks name.

The main question I have is what parks, if any, are going to be sold. I know the company wants to further delever its balance sheet and I could see some less profitable parks (or land) being put up for sale. It would be unfortunate for NorCal enthusiast but with the value of the land that Discovery Kingdom sits on, it would be my top pick for the chain to divest from in a similar manner to California's Great America where it's sold to a developer. There just aren't enough amusement park operator buyers whereas there is a gaggle of real estate developers with deep pocketed investors. The land isn't going to get $310 million like CGA did but an enticing offer would certainly be attractive to the chain.
 
Boodangy said:
For the time being I've seen reports of Six Flags parks significantly reducing operations this season so far to make big number look good right before the merger so let's hope it's more Cedar Fair oriented than SF.
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Six Flags has reduced some operations but by the start of Q2 of this year, the transaction had been fully underwritten so there would be no need for Six Flags to improve its bottomline for purposes of the merger. As long as its Q1 & early Q2 earnings weren't a disaster case scenario, the transaction was going through.

I think that was more just Six Flags being Six Flags.

Sorry for the double post
 
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Announcements coming out on various "Cedar Fair" parks' sites regarding the all-chain passes for next year;

eg; Cedar Point's ; https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/2024/the-all-park-passport-will-soon-take-you-further

your 2025 Cedar Point Gold or Prestige Pass with the All Park Passport add-on will be valid for parking & entry at all legacy Six Flags parks starting January 6th, 2025, including:
  • Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, CA)
  • Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, NJ)
  • Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, IL)
  • Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington, TX)
  • Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio, TX)
  • Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell, GA)
And More!
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What's even more interesting is that specific legacy chain add-on's aren't being honored at the other legacy chain (ie... the 2025 meal plan at Six Flags won't be honored at legacy Cedar Fair parks and vice versa).

That makes it interesting for people who have passes to both chains and would like to harmonize to one pass. How will that work if I have meal plans at both parks? Do I still need to maintain two separate passes? Hopefully we'll get more information soon. I also don't want to give up my legacy Diamond Elite membership at Six Flags. 😭
 
So I'm one of those people that bought the SF Diamond Membership pass a couple years ago...it's a monthly charge, but it's gotten me into a bunch of Six Flags Parks with Free Parking for years so I've really felt like it's been worth it.

I wonder if that's something that will be discontinued once 2025 rolls around? Or maybe it'll continue and I'll still only have access to Six Flags parks?

There's a lot of ins and outs going on with this merger stuff regarding the existing passes, the new passes, the "All Park Passport" especially regarding prices. Seems to be different prices depending on which park is your home park. I've seen links for Schlitterbahn and now Cedar Point, but what about a Six Flags pass adding all the parks?

I don't know if they make it confusing on purpose, but man, I'm having a hell of a time trying to wrap my head around it all.
 
GAdv just announced their new passes will include all the parks in the future as well. Right now its still too early to know if dining plans/front of line will carry over across the board.

Its confusing but I'm hoping this will all be cleared after they start announcing new rides and pushing fall season pass sales.

From what I've heard, legacy passes will expire this coming January but who knows? I like paying less for my SFOG pass and I love the benefits I get with it, but it would be nicer to only have to pay for one pass across the board and use it wherever I want vs carrying 2 passes and paying separate.

If anything, I wouldn't mind paying a little more for my pass, getting all the parks and keeping all my SF benefits too. CF's benefits are always so skimpy compared to other parks.
 
How is differing prices based on home park going to work? I assume it'll be closest to your registered address, or nobody would choose the most expensive home park.
Unless you get extra perks at your nominated home park, like free dippin' dots or something?

How will it work for overseas visitors? Will it default to the most expensive?
 
Dar said:
How is differing prices based on home park going to work? I assume it'll be closest to your registered address, or nobody would choose the most expensive home park.
Unless you get extra perks at your nominated home park, like free dippin' dots or something?

How will it work for overseas visitors? Will it default to the most expensive?
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huh... As an overseas CF season pass holder this concerns me because, as you say, if they are actually (well... hypothetically) going to directly apply the price of the most expensive pass will punch hard on how to plan trips to the states...

I'm afraid we can only wait and see how those decisions play out.
 
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Dar said:
How is differing prices based on home park going to work? I assume it'll be closest to your registered address, or nobody would choose the most expensive home park.
Unless you get extra perks at your nominated home park, like free dippin' dots or something?

How will it work for overseas visitors? Will it default to the most expensive?
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Haven't these passes always differed in pricing depending on the park? I looked at Carowinds and the Gold Pass + All-Park add-on is $188. CGA and Cedar Point are both $184 (the Gold Pass is cheaper at CGA but the all-park add-on is cheaper at CP). The 2024 Knott's variant is $285(!), but the 2025 pass isn't available yet.

I don't see anything on the respective sites saying overseas visitors would default to the more expensive park. I typed in my Swedish address at all these websites and I still got different pricing at check-out depending on the park.
 
Dar said:
How is differing prices based on home park going to work? I assume it'll be closest to your registered address, or nobody would choose the most expensive home park.
Unless you get extra perks at your nominated home park, like free dippin' dots or something?

How will it work for overseas visitors? Will it default to the most expensive?
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I didn't mean to be confusing about the "home park" thing. I think I can explain:

And this is just what I know from experience about having a Six Flags pass: I believe whatever park you purchase the pass from becomes essentially your "Home" park. When you purchase a pass you have to pick a park, and in order to activate it, you have to show up at that specific park you bought it for first. Then you are activated and good to go for the rest of the parks. I doesn't really matter where you actually live.

For example, when I first bought my membership, the timing and everything I happened to be at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. So I bought the pass through the SFDK site, activated it there, and even though I haven't been in years, it has since remained my "home park" receiving announcements, etc., from them. Even though I'm much more likely to go to SFMM.

So I suppose if you *really wanted to* you could find the park with the cheapest pass, and get a membership through that park, but then you'd actually have to show up at that park to activate it (and is that really worth it?). And I think the differing in prices has to do with the popularity/size/offerings of that park. So like SFMM or SFGADV would essentially be more expensive than say, Six Flags Frontier City. Because it's your "home park" Six Flags is probably figuring that is the park you'll be frequenting most often, hence the higher price.

Dan Nguyen said:
If anything, I wouldn't mind paying a little more for my pass, getting all the parks and keeping all my SF benefits too. CF's benefits are always so skimpy compared to other parks.
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Totally agree. Say what you want about Six Flags (of course the park quality between the chains is generally night and day), but for the price, they have always been significantly better in the Pass Perks than CF.
 
In the past (like 15+ years ago, before we started to buy all these things online) - you could but an "out-of-market" pass (which was the usual all-parks season pass) at the ticket-booths at Six Flags parks, which was at a pretty good discount over the price for a local (you had to prove you were not local, my UK driving licence usually did that!). I seem to remember that it cost (for the all-parks season pass) about the same as one single day admission to the park. I managed to get that a couple of years running :) before they stopped doing them :(

TLDR ; season pass pricing is often complex and confusing
 
For those interested, Six Flags are now advertising a season pass for 2025 that includes all Cedar Fair parks.

From what I can tell, the base price is $479. This apparently also gives access to the Six Flags parks in 2024.

Edit - oh whoops, I got that price wrong. Including tax it’s in the region of $205 for the Gold Pass. The aforementioned higher price was for whatever ‘pricey pass’ they have.
 
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