SDCFans - The Unofficial Fan Site For Silver Dollar City

Silver Dollar City & Celebration City Discussion => General Silver Dollar City Talk => Topic started by: Preachin_Bill on June 12, 2019, 09:38:18 PM

Title: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Preachin_Bill on June 12, 2019, 09:38:18 PM
Hello again all,
Next week I'm visiting, and I'm going to take advantage of the teacher's single day pass deal that SDC has going on.  I will get a free ticket for myself and a half off one for my wife, and my three girls are all under the age of 3.  I usually just buy season passes, but will be upgrading our single day tickets to season passes before we leave instead.  I've never done this before.

Where exactly do you go to upgrade?  Is it somewhere located in the hospitality house/Ozark marketplace in the exit?  I'm sure that the tickets are purchased at the entrance to the right....but I'm not sure of where the upgrade should take place.

Thanks for the tips, and thanks to SDC for recognizing teachers.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: mg on June 12, 2019, 10:42:25 PM
Upgrades are done at the rentals window. It’s on the left side once you are through the turnstiles. Just before the bakery.

I would be surprised if you can upgrade the free and discounted tickets.... but it does look like you can according to the website. Good luck!
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: sirwillow on June 13, 2019, 05:32:04 PM
Upgrades are done at the rentals window. It’s on the left side once you are through the turnstiles. Just before the bakery.

I would be surprised if you can upgrade the free and discounted tickets.... but it does look like you can according to the website. Good luck!

Yep, that's the right location to upgrade the ticket if you are in the park.

And SDC has almost always offered an upgrade for free and discounted tickets to season passes.  I've known a lot  of people that have bumped a free ticket from an employee or promotion to a season pass for $45 or so, give or take a few depending on the ticket.  it's a cheap way to get a pass.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Okiebenz on June 13, 2019, 05:35:41 PM
I can't believe they would let you upgrade a free ticket to a season pass.  It sort of puts the screws to the rest of us who paid over double that amount for our passes.  But, I guess it they do then so be it.  I know Frontier City will only upgrade discounted tickets that were paid over a certain amount.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: History Buff on June 13, 2019, 08:17:18 PM
From the page explaining the rules:  https://www.silverdollarcity.com/theme-park/Tickets/TP-Special-Offers/Teacher-Recognition (https://www.silverdollarcity.com/theme-park/Tickets/TP-Special-Offers/Teacher-Recognition)

Quote
Upgrade your ticket to a 2019 Silver Dollar City Season Pass during your visit for just $50+tax (all ages), or a Silver Dollar City/White Water 2-Park Pass for just $95+tax (ages 12-64), $75+tax (ages 4-11) or $83+tax (ages 65+)! Upgrades must be completed in person prior to leaving the park.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: sirwillow on June 14, 2019, 11:18:06 AM
I can't believe they would let you upgrade a free ticket to a season pass.  It sort of puts the screws to the rest of us who paid over double that amount for our passes.  But, I guess it they do then so be it.  I know Frontier City will only upgrade discounted tickets that were paid over a certain amount.

They treat it like most other one day tickets.  You can upgrade any one day ticket to a season pass.  In the case of a free ticket, it just gives a discount to that.  It doesn't hurt those of us who pay because we usually get a number of extras with our passes- including the bring a friend tickets (which, btw, they can also upgrade to season passes)- that those who upgrade a one day ticket don't get.

I could get free tickets to the park pretty easy with as many employees as I know, and upgrade those to passes for my whole family.  But I pay for my passes in December because it's usually not much more expensive, and all the extras that come with it more than make up the difference.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: mg on June 14, 2019, 11:39:23 AM
including the bring a friend tickets (which, btw, they can also upgrade to season passes)...

I had no idea that these could be upgraded. We are needing to get our son a season pass because he is now 4. Thanks for the info on this!
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Okiebenz on June 14, 2019, 04:34:27 PM
I did not know you could upgrade the free bring a friend passes, good info.  I was just going thru ours and threw a bunch away.  We have not used any of our free passes so far this year.  I think the next ones are good in July
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: mg on June 14, 2019, 04:50:31 PM
I did not know you could upgrade the free bring a friend passes, good info.  I was just going thru ours and threw a bunch away.  We have not used any of our free passes so far this year.  I think the next ones are good in July

We have a set that is valid through July 13th. We bought ours in October and they are 2 park passes.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Okiebenz on June 16, 2019, 01:43:45 PM
This got me to thinking, we usually buy 2 adult and 1 child season passes.  This year the kid has only gone a couple of times so far this year.  If the free passes can be upgraded it seems to me I could just buy 2 season passes, and upgrade one of the free passes to a season pass when we use one of them. 
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: sirwillow on June 16, 2019, 08:03:08 PM
I did not know you could upgrade the free bring a friend passes, good info.  I was just going thru ours and threw a bunch away.  We have not used any of our free passes so far this year.  I think the next ones are good in July

So I'm going to hedge my statements just a bit here.  I'm fairly sure that the bring a friend free tickets can be upgraded, but I'm not positive.  There is a chance that they might not be.

I know that they will upgrade the free tickets they give employees at a discount.  And other tickets that the park gives out free, such as for promotions, the teacher day, and things like that, they will also upgrade at that discounted rate, along with all tickets that they've actually sold- including discounted or group tickets.

However, there isn't any statement in the annual pass holder information on the tickets or the flyers stating that the tickets can be upgraded to a season pass.  So there is a chance that those tickets are not eligible for the upgrade.  I've never upgraded one of those, but I have upgraded or been with people that have upgraded all of the others.  It seems like it would be strange to make the "bring a friend" tickets the one exception to that, but it is possible.

TLDR- be sure to double check and confirm with the park that the "bring a friend" tickets can be upgraded to season passes before you make plans to actually do it.  :-)
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: mg on June 17, 2019, 10:23:07 AM
I asked SDC about BAF pass upgrades to season passes.

Free BAF Passes CAN NOT be upgraded to season passes.
Paid BAF Passes CAN be upgraded to season passes.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: sanddunerider on June 17, 2019, 12:40:22 PM
I am pretty sure the "rule" in the past was......

Upgrade on any "paid" ticket...

Which is why I am surprised that the free passes for teachers this month is upgradable..??...?/
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: mg on June 17, 2019, 01:08:36 PM
I am pretty sure the "rule" in the past was......

Upgrade on any "paid" ticket...

Which is why I am surprised that the free passes for teachers this month is upgradable..??...?/

I also asked about the free and discounted teacher tickets in June. They confirmed that BOTH of them CAN be upgraded to season passes.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Okiebenz on June 18, 2019, 05:56:58 PM
It sure does seem strange to be able to upgrade any free pass to a season pass.  So if you used a $25 BAF ticket, those can be upgraded to a season pass. So that would put it at $75 which is somewhat of a discount.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: sirwillow on June 21, 2019, 07:28:25 PM
I asked SDC about BAF pass upgrades to season passes.

Free BAF Passes CAN NOT be upgraded to season passes.
Paid BAF Passes CAN be upgraded to season passes.

Thanks for contacting the park and getting the official word on that.  I've been out of town at youth camp the last week and had little to no access to a phone or internet so I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it.


I am pretty sure the "rule" in the past was......

Upgrade on any "paid" ticket...

Which is why I am surprised that the free passes for teachers this month is upgradable..??...?/

As I mentioned, that's not a hard and fast rule.  The free admission tickets that employees get that they can give out can be upgraded to annual passes, and that's been true since before I worked at the park, so that has been in place a long time.  I know that other free tickets that the park has given out as promotional tickets have also been upgradeable to passes.  For example some tickets that were given free to our schools to use as fund raisers or incentives were upgradeable (I know several families who have used those for that purpose), and others given to people to attend a promotional event.  Additionally, I get a few free tickets each year for my volunteer work at our local school that I can use or give to friends, and they are also upgradeable.

So the BAF free tickets not being able to be upgraded to passes are the rare exception to the rule.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Okiebenz on June 22, 2019, 08:43:10 PM
It really seems strange that they seem to allow all these other free tickets to be upgraded but not the BAF passes
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: mg on June 23, 2019, 09:06:48 AM
It really seems strange that they seem to allow all these other free tickets to be upgraded but not the BAF passes

My guess is that there would be too big of a loss of revenue if they allowed BAF passes to be upgraded. For our family of 3 passes, we could just buy a single kids season pass and then use two of the BAF passes on our first visit to upgrade to 2 adult season passes at significant savings. This would be easy to plan for since we know that we will have the BAF passes. The other free tickets that can be upgraded aren’t a for sure thing for most people so upgrading with them can’t be planned for that well. Also, I’m guessing that most people that upgrade the free passes wouldn’t have bought a season pass otherwise so SDC is gaining revenue from them.

Don’t really anything to base this on other than speculation.
Title: Re: Season pass upgrade
Post by: Okiebenz on June 23, 2019, 03:48:32 PM
It really seems strange that they seem to allow all these other free tickets to be upgraded but not the BAF passes

My guess is that there would be too big of a loss of revenue if they allowed BAF passes to be upgraded. For our family of 3 passes, we could just buy a single kids season pass and then use two of the BAF passes on our first visit to upgrade to 2 adult season passes at significant savings. This would be easy to plan for since we know that we will have the BAF passes. The other free tickets that can be upgraded aren’t a for sure thing for most people so upgrading with them can’t be planned for that well. Also, I’m guessing that most people that upgrade the free passes wouldn’t have bought a season pass otherwise so SDC is gaining revenue from them.

Don’t really anything to base this on other than speculation.

That would be my guess also.