[Glitch99]

4)If you as a passholder don't visit during the fall/winter events CF still already has your money and if you have dining/drink pass you made their margins even better on your passes.

Exactly! Now apply that to #s 1-3... Additional people are a benefit on "normal" days. On days where they're already about as busy as they can be, additional people who are getting everything for free does not benefit the park. It only benefits the people who are getting everything for free.

[coasterbruh]

Not including SCarowinds in a gold pass will not, in my opinion, devalue the pass anymore than not having Dinos alive included in it. While I know the bottom line numbers are profit and visitors, i can almost promise if they offered one free night or a season haunt pass or even a discount on the event for gold pass holders they will still get the good numbers and make more money.

[Grobble]

4)If you as a passholder don't visit during the fall/winter events CF still already has your money and if you have dining/drink pass you made their margins even better on your passes.

Exactly! Now apply that to #s 1-3... Additional people are a benefit on "normal" days. On days where they're already about as busy as they can be, additional people who are getting everything for free does not benefit the park. It only benefits the people who are getting everything for free.

Already explained in the last post, not free and there is a benefit to the parks. This is literally business 101, you don't get it. Based on your logic, they should not sell season passes, dining or drink plans..FYI, every chain in the country is pushing these all season products as much as possible and more and more each year. They weren't pushing them 10 years ago and not as much 5yr ago, etc...Everyone is also pushing events Halloween and Christmas. You don't realize your entire logic of "free & no value, is completely false and is contrary to what chains are doing. Listen the their conf calls, since you don't believe me..FYI, they are all reporting record revenue year over year for some time.

[Grobble]

Not including SCarowinds in a gold pass will not, in my opinion, devalue the pass anymore than not having Dinos alive included in it. While I know the bottom line numbers are profit and visitors, i can almost promise if they offered one free night or a season haunt pass or even a discount on the event for gold pass holders they will still get the good numbers and make more money.

Again already explained, business 101, take guaranteed money over trying to entice an add on which there are many reasons that can come up for people not to buy a late year add on.

[coasterbruh]

. . . OK. Again, my opinion.

[Glitch99]

Not including SCarowinds in a gold pass will not, in my opinion, devalue the pass anymore than not having Dinos alive included in it. While I know the bottom line numbers are profit and visitors, i can almost promise if they offered one free night or a season haunt pass or even a discount on the event for gold pass holders they will still get the good numbers and make more money.

Again already explained, business 101, take guaranteed money over trying to entice an add on which there are many reasons that can come up for people not to buy a late year add on.

Business 102 teaches you to go with the guaranteed money AND the add-on whenever possible. While Business 103 teaches you that once you've gotten that guaranteed money upfront from person #1, person #1 becomes a liability - when there's a constant line, you want it to primarily be made up of people paying cash.

As said repeatedly, I dont know how much (if any) season pass sales would fall without Scarowinds included - and that is what matters, not some vague business class "rule". But I would be really surprised if more than a handful of people buy season passes just because of the unlimited Scarowinds visits.

[Grobble]

Not including SCarowinds in a gold pass will not, in my opinion, devalue the pass anymore than not having Dinos alive included in it. While I know the bottom line numbers are profit and visitors, i can almost promise if they offered one free night or a season haunt pass or even a discount on the event for gold pass holders they will still get the good numbers and make more money.

Again already explained, business 101, take guaranteed money over trying to entice an add on which there are many reasons that can come up for people not to buy a late year add on.

Business 102 teaches you to go with the guaranteed money AND the add-on whenever possible. While Business 103 teaches you that once you've gotten that guaranteed money upfront from person #1, person #1 becomes a liability - when there's a constant line, you want it to primarily be made up of people paying cash.

As said repeatedly, I dont know how much (if any) season pass sales would fall without Scarowinds included - and that is what matters, not some vague business class "rule". But I would be really surprised if more than a handful of people buy season passes just because of the unlimited Scarowinds visits.

You really don't get it & as a person with a MBA I don't have the patience to explain it to a person that knows essentially nothing, but has an ill informed opinion. I'll put it this way and not waste more time. Every major chain in the US disagrees with the basis of your premise b/c it's incorrect, the companies setting record YoY in revenue/EBIDTA are pushing all season products. All season people are more valuable, the parks have said so in their earnings conf calls. For chains with, membership, those people are even more valuable than pass holders on a per patron basis. The more people go, the more they spend, the will spend $300 to $400 on a combo of all season products and then often buy merchandise and maybe fast lane, especially when it's discounted at say Cedar Point.

[BrianH1970]

Halloween events across all chains are so profitable b/c they bring in many non pass holders

That's pretty much the whole point. Restricting season passholders for such events only makes it a more pleasant experience for those with one-day tickets, and makes it a more attractive option for those who think about buying a ticket but decide not to because of the crowds.

As has already been mentioned, a season passholder who gets in the gate for free, parks for free, uses their meal plan to eat for free, and souvenir cup to drink for free, adds no value for the park that day, and only complicates the experience of "paying" customers. Unless no/restricted access to Scarowinds would cause a significant number of people to not buy season passes at all, it's an obvious move to consider.

Plus, personally as a season passholder, restricting Scarowinds to one visit per pass per season would potentially add value for me. Cull all the passholders out of the crowds, and I might be prompted to actually use my one visit.

That logic couldn't be more flawed. You're not really guaranteeing anything by having one visit. You're gambling that enough passholders would be using their one visit for a limited time event at different times in order to make your trip a more comfortable one. Good luck finding value if you go on the one night where it's extremely crowded and you don't have that do-over. All you need are 2-3 weekends where it rains and you're bunching up the passholders with the day trippers. You're back at square one.

Thin that herd and not only do you devalue the gold pass and every other add on but any money they'd make off of fast passes on those nights would be gone as well. Your definition of value is definitely at odds with the value of their already successful business model. You reward those who pay the most money upfront with the best bang for their buck. There's already the silver pass for people who just want the park during the spring and summer and find no value in the fall and winter events.

[Glitch99]

Again already explained, business 101, take guaranteed money over trying to entice an add on which there are many reasons that can come up for people not to buy a late year add on.

Business 102 teaches you to go with the guaranteed money AND the add-on whenever possible. While Business 103 teaches you that once you've gotten that guaranteed money upfront from person #1, person #1 becomes a liability - when there's a constant line, you want it to primarily be made up of people paying cash.

As said repeatedly, I dont know how much (if any) season pass sales would fall without Scarowinds included - and that is what matters, not some vague business class "rule". But I would be really surprised if more than a handful of people buy season passes just because of the unlimited Scarowinds visits.

You really don't get it & as a person with a MBA I don't have the patience to explain it to a person that knows essentially nothing, but has an ill informed opinion. I'll put it this way and not waste more time. Every major chain in the US disagrees with the basis of your premise b/c it's incorrect, the companies setting record YoY in revenue/EBIDTA are pushing all season products. All season people are more valuable, the parks have said so in their earnings conf calls. For chains with, membership, those people are even more valuable than pass holders on a per patron basis. The more people go, the more they spend, the will spend $300 to $400 on a combo of all season products and then often buy merchandise and maybe fast lane, especially when it's discounted at say Cedar Point.

You are so completely missing the point, and just regurgitating whatever generalities you've been taught with no regard to the context to which it's being applied.

Season passes are valuable sales for the season, no one disagrees with that. They are not valuable sales for any one specific day. Most days it doesnt matter, the more people in the park the better no matter how they've gotten in. But on any one day where it is busy to the point that it's keeping people away (ie, Scarowinds), you obviously want it to be keeping away the all-season packages (who's money you already have whether they're at the park that day or not) instead of the daily cash sales. If you cannot grasp this rather elementary (for a MBA) concept, you shouldnt be throwing any stones.

[dirkdiggler1992]

It’s been a fun season, I’m a little buzzed right now but it’s been good I’m gonna keep my expectations in check for next season Just basic infrastructure work means a lot for a park like Carowinds still on its way dinos finally gone Blue Ridge chicken kinda went downhill but it may get better just need ketchup here’s a pic of fury i took last wel , also i love goldrusher, fifth best coaster at the park

E421F58F-1EB6-4B1A-91BF-055286F1D71A.jpeg (402.28KiB)Viewed 3323 times

Oh well here’s another got lucky with timin

0A1F0348-AA03-4001-8675-8E72252D5A95.jpeg (463.32KiB)Viewed 3320 times

Still enjoy going seeing familiar people , scarowinds ain’t added new haunt house in a while but guess these scare somes are the way of the future , if u follow me elsewhere ur prob tired of seeing same stuff but i know some oldies on here ain’t on insta or what not

[BrianH1970]

But on any one day where it is busy to the point that it's keeping people away

...then you have a highly successful business model that doesn't need changing.

[Edwardo]

“You really don't get it & as a person with a MBA I don't have the patience to explain it to a person that knows essentially nothing, but has an ill informed opinion. ”

Thanks for blessing us with you’re presence then, LOL.

As someone who doesn’t care about your MBA it’s my informed opinion that you can eff right off with the attitude.

I do think it’s funny that now you have turned against Glitch, LOL.

GURL BYE.

[coasterbruh]

The hallmark of the increasing failure of society. Ignorant opinion and shown to be by facts, business understanding, economics and the response is a silly meme.

Now, I come on here to have discussions and talk with like minded fans about the park and SHARE OUR OPINIONS but if you wanna start hurling insults and have a holier than thou attitude, I am DEF your guy. What FACTS have you presented? The fact that you have an MBA???


Have you ran a park? I can take a gander and say NO. All 99.9% of us can do, in here, is speculate and formulate our opinions on how we FEEL things can and cannot work. What I DO know is SCarowinds wasn't always included with a pass and the park did well. What I DO know is almost all major park chains have made cuts to their season pass programs and either eliminated perks or raised the prices and their patrons have responded, overally, in a positive manner. So I guess since dino's wont be included in the gold pass and the price doesn't drop people are gonna be up in arms because of the ""value" of their pass?!?!?

[yawetag]

Here's my thought on the season passes:

I spent about $1,000 for four Gold passes, two drink passes, and four dining passes. We've been 25 times this year, getting at least one meal and several drinks each time. I'd suppose we've "made" our money on the meals and drinks.

If it weren't for the Gold pass, we would probably have gone one time this year, finding a deal to get us in for fairly cheap. Using the current $40/person that includes parking, that's $160. We'd probably buy a one-day drink plan ($13) and a one-day dining plan ($30). That's just over $200 for us to enjoy Carowinds for one day. And that would be the only day we'd go.

Carowinds has made an extra $800 on us to visit another 24 times. We'll probably visit another half-dozen times this year. Aside from the drinks we get (about a dime each time) and the food (probably $3-4), there's no real cost to me walking into the park. I might ride 15 rides while there, but I'm just another person in line - I'm probably not forcing an extra cycle of the ride and our food was already prepared.

[uscbandfan]

The $30 drink plan is essentially a must if you have a season pass.

Not so. I've had passes for years and we do just fine with free water. Better for you too.