Canada’s Wonderland has begun selling its season passes for $68.99 ($1 more than last year). They start selling them when the EX opens. For those of you with children, season’s passes add up to expensive entertainment–unless you subsidize your ticket with discipline. This is what I mean…
Again, Wonderland is offering the season pass at the lowest price of the year (it goes up as opening day and beyond approaches for next season)–but if you purchase it before this year ends, you will get one of two presents from Wonderland (along with other Cedar Fair parks, including Cedar Point but at different prices, but the same deal apparently):
(A) A single day admission ticket (if you don’t currently have a season’s pass for 2016), worth between $42.99 (if you purchased it 3 days in advance online) or less if you went to Costco when they had them $10 off ($30 instead of $40) or got some other deal of the number of deals out there, to $48.99 buying them online from Wonderland (less than 3 days in advance, PLUS $5.99 service charge online), to up to $62 at the front gate. Unfortunately, that ticket they give you as a gift is not transferable, so you must use it still within the 2015 season. If you’re purchasing a season’s pass for 2016 for a child turning 3 (at age 3 they need to have their own pass), the single day admission ticket is sadly useless. I’ve spoken to management about it, but as with any big company, it’s like trying to move a mountain. If you buy one for the first time this year, hopefully, you’ll save a LOT of money next year if they offer the same deal that I detail below…
(B) BUT THIS is the SWEEET deal: with each renewed Season’s Pass, Wonderland will give you a Fast Lane PLUS pass, which gets “you” access to a by-pass line for 19 of the more popular rides PLUS Leviathan and Behemoth (the biggest roller coasters). It must be used this season and it’s worth $75.71 (including taxes). Yes, Wonderland charges $75.71 (more online) to make a one day experience more enjoyable ON TOP of the single day admission ticket.
It is also TOTALLY TRANSFERABLE, though the central info number of Wonderland will tell you otherwise. So go and sell it! Resist the urge to use it! It’s easy to resist for your little ones, who cannot even enjoy the bigger rides that the Fast Lane PLUS is directed at, but YOU will need to show more discipline! Want to go when the lines are shorter? Go Sunday at 9am (early opening for Season’s Pass holders) or on a weekday, especially Tuesday to Thursday at 10am sharp, or on a weekend in September or October, when they also have a Halloween Peanuts show for the kids and seasonal decorations all over the park—AND SHORTER LINES!
Want to save money on camp and have a caregiver at home with the kids? Get a Wonderland season’s pass, and just go for a couple of hours in the morning, before the lines get nasty (though for the little ones, the lines are only REALLY nasty on the weekends, Fridays, and holidays). They’re somewhat tolerable in the afternoons. We just go in the mornings and early afternoons, then pack it up.
For the last two years, I got into the Wonderland line and joined several others who were selling other tickets that they couldn’t use to Wonderland. Me and my girls were the only ones selling the Fast Lane PLUS receipt (to exchange for the wristband) and within 10 minutes, I’d sold all 3 for $50 each two years back, and $60 each last year in the Wonderland ticket line! This year, they're being sold in two locations-both at the front gate (probably your best bet, but watch out for security--see below), or at the "Locker Room" store, which is where everyone picks up the Fast Lane Plus pass wristband.
This year (and last), according to the 2016 version of the receipt that gets you the Fast Lane PLUS, you need to present the receipt to the “Locker Room” store (located at the beginning of International Street, on the right when you enter) “along with the Season Pass” to exchange it for the wristband, so you’ll have to take everyone with the receipt with you, as the “person must be present to get wristband” and to top it off, the free pass ticket bar code must match the season pass holder’s ID.
Not true, practically speaking. I spoke to employees at the front gate and at the "Locker Room" --they don’t even ask for your season’s pass (which they did not to those I sold mine to), to confirm that you aren’t transferring it. So this time, I found people who were happy to pay less, considering I offered to wait around to be sure they got their wristband, and THEN they paid me. You will have to have initiative to do this of course. You could try to sell it on a website like Kijiji (I see 2 selling for $50 today), but at Wonderland, it will obviously sell much faster. I picked people near the end of the line so as to not be so obvious as to what I was doing. I felt a bit guilty but really there’s nothing explicit on the receipt that Wonderland gives you to exchange for the Fast Pass PLUS that states that it’s not transferable; in fact, when I bought the season’s pass, the person at checkout said that I could do whatever I wanted with it, and that it WAS transferable. Security at Wonderland has a job to do and they've been directed to stop people from reselling anything on Wonderland property, so if you're not comfortable selling it at Wonderland, Kijiji may be the better route.
Selling them at $60 each, which is still a savings of $19.10 per Fast Lane PLUS if someone in line bought it without a deal online. That’s like 5 Season’s Passes for the price of ONE! If people in line purchased a Fast Lane PLUS along with a ticket online, then they aren’t going to buy your passes. Also, those paying $145 for EVERYTHING for the day (admission, Fast Lane Plus, food, drinks, and parking) won't be interested. Those that haven’t AND carry cash, let them know that it will cost them $79.71 for the PLUS version including tax at Wonderland. Online, it's more due to the service fee. At $60 each, they’re saving $15.71 each. You can then direct them to the left side of the counter at the Locker Room, as the pass they’re buying from you is considered prepaid, so they just have to take it and slap the Fast Pass Plus wristband on the purchaser. An employee may take them to a kiosk near the store to exchange the receipt for the wristband. Some may already have a day pass purchased online or a season’s pass and they want an extra Fast Lane PLUS or one of many admission combinations, but either way, $68.99-$60 is $8.99 + tax on a $68.99 season’s pass, or about $18 per season’s pass! Sell them for $70, about $8 per seasons pass! Enough detail?????
Let me know how successful you are!
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