We purchased online tickets in advance. They advertise the GOLD membership as an amazing deal right now, but unless you plan to come back for the Haunt or Winter event times, then it's NOT worth the extra cash! They advertise all the many great reasons to choose a GOLD but when you get into the park you find out that "it does NOT apply here" will be a phrase you hear a lot when trying to use your "15% off discount". ALSO be careful with the "DINE ALL DAY" vouchers because if you buy one it will not include your drinks and it can ONLY be used at certain places in the park. Plus, the food is rationed and limited, so you need to wait 90 minutes longer to get the rest of a full meal for an adult male or teenage. Also, you will have to pay for ALL drinks at double the regular costs anyway (just like we figured).

Without the "Dine all day" vouchers that we purchased on Day one, we figured on day 2 we would just purchase our meals as needed on our own. We'll, let's just say if you are on ANY budget at all you will want to PACK A COOLER and go back to your car to eat it. NO coolers are allowed in the park. So we opted for a REFILLABLE water bottles. On Day one we were also NOT given all the "dine all day" vouchers that we bought online and we were told "you will just use your QR code on your phone" and get your meals for the "Fun Day Bundle" ticket ( which includes the dine all day). So we had to go all the way to the "Guest services" at the entrance of the park, to get the bracelet that was suppose to be given to us in the first place. We had purchased 2 other "Dine all day" deals for our kids so apparently this confused them, even though we asked. We had to show them all our screenshots of our online purchases because it was not clear to them with just the app. So SCREENSHOT all your confirmed purchases! After visiting the entire park on day 2 and NOT getting ANY perks with the "GOLD" Membership we asked to have our memberships exchanged for just a regular season pass (to save us $20 on each ticket) since there was NO benefits provided to us beyond the season pass level anyway....and they refused to do any exchanges. We were told " you can only UPGRADE" "we do not down grade at all" (code for no exchanges or refunds, we will sell you on a better ticket with more perks and too bad for you if you don't actually have an oppourtunity to benefit from it). I was VERY disappointed that the 15% off advertizing that did NOT apply to MOST of the places to eat! (you have to search the site for that). LONG STORY SHORT, GOLD PASS IS a false advertisement for the most part! (ONLY useful IF YOU ARE attending for Halloween and winter special events, which we will NOT be.) Frankly it's not worth the money to go back. Ex) Subway cost for a single 12" sub and two 6" subs with drinks was OVER $71....I should have just handed them back to the cashier and gone to the Keg! I get it's an amusement park and cost might be double of normal ones, but TRIPLE?!?? It's INSANE! SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO ELSEWHERE! Lastly, Fast pass applies to only about HALF the rides in the park or less. You will need a FAST LANE PLUS if you want to get on ANY of the biggest costers. This we were aware of. But they don't tell you there will still be coasters that DO NOT accept ANY fast pass at all! Without any fast pass at all you would be waiting for for hours to get on big coasters which we figured since this was not our first trip to an amusement park. Our daughter who is 7 years old, was too scared to ride even the mediocre roller coasters so we did go and return her fast past right away and they did allow a refund for her. But "ONLY be cause she is so little" they said they would make an exception. This was the ONE and ONLY good business that trip. So plan carefully and be advised by reading ALL of the fine print, which we tried to do, but ALSO READ THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS and click on the "compare all benefits" small clickable words at the bottom of the webpages. Also long lines at the water park waiting for just a tube/carpet BEFORE a line at a slide.