I'm not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere and couldn't seem to find the right search terms to arrive at anything, but when purchasing a 2012 regular season pass online, one reads the following:

Ages 3-61; 48" tall and taller

Unlimited admission to Kings Island during public operating days for the 2012 season.

Please note: THIS PASS IS ONLY VALID THROUGH LABOR DAY, 2012. THIS PASS IS NOT VALID FOR THE HALLOWEEN EVENTS IN THE FALL.

VALID AT Kings Island ONLY

It looks like Halloween Haunt and Howl-O-Fest at Kings Island will be a separately ticketed event in 2012, and that only Gold Passes and Platinum Passes will provide entry for free. Buy a regular season pass and it is worthless come September 4, 2012.

Don't get me wrong - I think it's a smart move in crowd control at least. Haunt is so crowded, and just eliminating those with regular passes should thin the crowds out noticeably. I also take it that Soak City is included with the regular pass. If it weren't, we might have a riot on our hands, with regular season pass-holders losing two previously-included attractions... What I think will be interesting is how this news travels. I imagine many families get one gold pass, and regular passes for the rest of the family just to ensure free parking. If that's the case, then father will be allowed to Howl-O-Fest, but mother and children will not... Hmm.

The first year that they made Haunt "free" it was also for Gold passes only. Like 99.999999% of season pass holders are Gold pass peeps. It's not going to make a difference in the crowds.

If it's really that inconsequential, why would they bother to change it though? I understand and agree that Gold Passes are the most prevalent by far, but this is a purposeful change, so it has to be for a reason.

If you have a regular pass, it will literally be inactive by the first week of September. Even Howl-O-Fest is Gold Pass only...To me, that's a radical departure from previous years. Even if it doesn't make much of a difference in crowd levels, it's a new precedent and a very different operation than we've seen before. If it's company wide, it will make a difference at places like Cedar Point, where it's Platinum or Regular only. Again, I don't think it's a cryptic message or anything. Just interesting.

I think they're just trying to add more value to purchasing the pass early so you're more likely to visit during the early season.

The first year that they made Haunt "free" it was also for Gold passes only. Like 99.999999% of season pass holders are Gold pass peeps. It's not going to make a difference in the crowds.

I was about to say, what person do you know has a simple Season Pass instead of a Gold one? With as many marketing sales the park has surrounding the Gold Pass, let alone people outright OWNING one, it might be better to just get rid of the regular pass and go back to the two-pass option seen in the Paramount days. Of course, then you'd run into the issue of having the 99.999999% of season pass holders pay for Haunt while the 0.000001% with their Platinum Pass get in for free (wow, that just sounds really weird)...

LOL... I meant 99.9999% of season passholders were gold pass holders as opposed to a regular season pass. I wasn't saying that only a fraction of a percent were Platinum... jerk.

All i will say is that you get what you pay for. If you don't pay for the extra perks, then you don't get them at all. If that makes sense.

I suspect that it's because of the people who buy one gold pass for the family, and get regular passes for everyone else.

Regular passes for 2011 also did not include Haunt. That's why I had to buy two gold passes (wife and I) when only 1 person really needed the free parking.