The season pass situation for this year is pretty confusing. In years past, they had the regular pass, the Gold pass, and in the middle of the year a Wow card. All got free admission of course, plus ERT and some other benefits. The Gold got free parking and 10-20% discounts on food and merchandise. Other Paramount parks seemed to have a seperate parking pass, and might've also offered a Gold pass with some perks.
This year Carowinds only seems to have the regular pass, with no Gold pass or parking pass offered. While this doesn't hurt those of us that got the free parking addon if we renewed last year, I have to think they'll at least have a parking pass option for people buying a pass this year if they don't have some form of Gold pass. Or it could be that the "Platinum" pass as they're now calling it includes free parking, but it doesn't say. You can't really tell from the websites either - as PKI lists a parking option but PKD doesn't, although I'm pretty sure they have offered a parking pass in the past.
PKD has Gold passes with some perks like a special parking area and early ride access, but it seems they have no regular season pass option. I recall that they were going to allow people who bought the "regular" pass at the end of last year to get this for $5 or $10 more. I wonder if the different colors of passes are to keep the Carowinds passholders from getting benefits at PKD, and vice-versa. In visiting PKI and PKD, and hearing from friends that have, there's often quite a bit of confusion about benefits from one park to the next. I've had to pay parking with my Carowinds Gold pass one day at PKI, and not pay the next. I was let in for Ricochet ERT at PKD with my Carowinds pass but a friend wasn't the previous week.
I'm hoping we get a season pass mailer this year so we know what the park will be doing for ERT - they were somewhat vague about this in their ads last year - and what other season-pass benefits will be. I hope we get some discounts or have an option for a Gold card with discounts - that made eating at the park almost reasonable. A full meal at Outer Hank's was still $7.50, but not that much more than heading out to Wendy's and more convenient - paying the full $10 makes heading out seem like a better move. Of course you can't hear Vortex and Hurler from Wendy's so it doesn't have quite the same ambience
