Membership dining pass

[jcrowwi]

I started the purchase of a regular membership last August. We were thinking about getting the deluxe dining pass as the price of the May sale seems worth it. My question is why is it $89.99 for a season dining pass and the membership is $10.99 per month? For 12 months that membership would cost $131.88 almost $42 more because you are buying the membership, that just doesn't seem right. If you look at the regular prices it is even more outrageous. I take it that because I'm already a member as my annual pass I would need to purchase the dining membership and not just the season dining? Is it the same with parking, is there a membership price and a season pass price? Maybe I just need to upgrade one of the 3 passes I have to gold. Maybe this whole membership thing isn't worth it and I should just purchase the regular season passes once I get past the end of this season. Our first trip of the year is this weekend.

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Well, Great America is only open for 5 months, so it's actually cheaper.

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[Viper 88]

I have been saying that all along that paying for 7 months of non use is ridiculous, but people on here are completely oblivious to that fact. Plain and simple when you crunch the numbers you are actually paying more for the first year on a membership than just getting a season pass, because you have to figure in the service charge and you also have to take into account your credit card's finance charge; which if you have a balance on it will just compound and keep growing unless you pay the whole thing. And just an fyi you would have to upgrade all memberships on your card to gold to get the free parking you cant just do one.

[RollerCoasterFavRide]

I looked into getting the membership over the season pass last year since we were going late in the year (August) and didn't think that the price was worth the season pass for less than 1/2 of the season. However, I waited and purchased the deal over labor day (came out to $65/season pass for the rest of 2014 +2015 and $75 for the dining plan).

I think that for most people coming up with the money needed to purchase outright is a little daunting and they would much rather pay for it on a monthly basis. However, if you pay for it monthly they will charge you more because people will pay it. I think of it as how rent a center and the like does business. They will charge you a small amount weekly/monthly, but when all is said and done you've paid 4x the amount of retail.

[jcrowwi]

Thanks for all of the feedback, you guys are awesome. Since we didn't go until August last year I was thinking I was getting a good bang for the buck with the membership. Buy it in August and we went twice back to back days and were able to bring a friend for $10 and bring a friend free and also bought a flash pass for one of the days using the coupon. Then we would be able to continue paying the rest of the 12 months for the pass and use it this year for essentially the same amount of one years worth of a season pass but got a full 12 -13 months out of it. I'll likely just cancel the membership after August and then buy a season pass for next year if there are deals. That seems to make the most sense moving forward. Can I buy a season parking pass this year even though I have a membership? We'll probably only go 4 times this year, but it would save a little. It sounds like my dining options are limited and too expensive. We'll just continue to eat in the parking lot this year. Thanks again!

[DeathbyDinn]

I have been saying that all along that paying for 7 months of non use is ridiculous, but people on here are completely oblivious to that fact.

1 - Memberships can be used at all parks, so it doesn't have to be 7 months of non-use.
2 - The point of memberships is to spread out the payments. Some people want a pass, but can't afford or don't want to pay for it all at once. Paying for it a little bit at a time is much more manageable or preferable for some people.

There's nothing ridiculous about them.

[Viper 88]

If you aren't planning on or can't get to another park then you are paying for nothing and that's ridiculous to me.

[jcrowwi]

I went through all of the different choices last year and paying 12 months for the membership was about the same as the cost of the season pass back when we looked in August 2014. My 12 months are not up yet so I get to use the pass this year too, so essentially I have 2 years for the price of one. Now I understand getting deals after Labor Day has extra perks and the season pass might be better. I had no problem with paying a little extra for the membership vs the pass, I just don't understand the big price difference with this dining pass. If I could pay $90 for it I would do it, but paying $131.88 total over the next 12 months ($395.64 for 3 of us) is just pricing it out of my comfort zone.

[RollerCoasterFavRide]

Personally, I would just suck it up and pay for food in park or plan on taking a break midday to go to Burger King, Subway, McDonalds, etc. I assume come Labor day weekend they will have another special. At that time you could convert to a season pass and buy the season dining. Also, we have a 2 adults and 1 child and have found that 2 of the meals is enough to feed the 3 of us. If you have 3 adults or even teenagers that may changed the equation, but they do offer quite a bit of food.

[jcrowwi]

I was able to pay the lump sum at the pass activation center. So it was approximately $90 for each of the dining passes and $80 for parking (paid 25 at the gate and another 55 at the activation center). Had a great weekend, especially Saturday with the rain and the cold temps there was very few people there.