News Enchanted Parks Terminates Meal Plans, Effective Immediately
- Thread starter DH_The_ThemeParkFaniac
- Start date
This is super shitty. These are products people have already bought for use across Six Flags' parks for the 2026 season. They were purchased with all of these Enchanted properties included. A refund is a great option for people with passes based out of these Enchanted properties, but for everyone else who bought chain-wide dining for the season, all of our benefits have now been downgraded with no compensation.
The continued validity of all pass benefits and addon products for the rest of this year should have obviously been a condition of any sale. Insanely anti-consumer that it evidently wasn't.
It's also sorta a red flag re: Enchanted, right? Didn't they expressly state before that meal plans would work for this season as planned? Why the backtrack?
The continued validity of all pass benefits and addon products for the rest of this year should have obviously been a condition of any sale. Insanely anti-consumer that it evidently wasn't.
It's also sorta a red flag re: Enchanted, right? Didn't they expressly state before that meal plans would work for this season as planned? Why the backtrack?
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Ikr? I've been holding on to the dining pass since I've got the pass in 2019, and now they're trying to take it from us? Unbelievable! It's like they backstabbed us all.
At least they're giving us the choice for a gift card or an full on refund
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They had stated that they were trying to get SF meal plans to work with their POS but did say refunds would be available if they couldn’t do so. Shitty nonetheless, but at least they were up front about it.
I hope enchanted parks reverse this but like kings dominion and winterfest, I doubt it
Here’s the part that baffles me: the dining plans are not being honored… but drink plans are? Are those systems not the same on the back end? So if it’s an issue of their POS systems not working out in that regard, shouldn’t the drink plans also have the same issue?
If I had to guess, since my job is in a similar space, it's likely something to do with backend systems connections.
For example, each program requires some kind of data architecture to rapidly process the transaction and keep track of their use per guest. They need to seamlessly sync with ERP tools for finance and the PoS terminals for redemption. They also need to accept entries and/or modifications from the website/mobile app plus an agent portal for the call center (and/or some kind of method for agentic AI to make such changes on behalf of a guest, given that's a whole push regardless of whether it's ethical or morally correct).
For various reasons such as timing of plan launches, contract pricing, internal product ownership, internal resource allocations, etc, it's possible the drinks program uses a different backend architecture than the meals plan - including possible different vendors managing the data solutions.
This could lead to one or more of the required connections not being compatible with the given data architecture. If the PoS can't communicate with the plan system, there's no way to determine if the guest has a plan and track their usage. If the plan system can't connect with the ERP, then finance may not have an easy method to track profits/losses for the programs and get a good overall picture of culinary operations.
In terms of cost and timing, would it be worth it to Enchanted Parks to rip out their existing technical solutions right as the summer season kicks off just to replace them with a different tech stack that plays well with an acquired dining plan that will likely be changed or removed the following season anyways?
It sucks as a guest, but at the same point if I were the exec in charge I'd probably have to make a similar decision.
Unpopular, but I don't blame them. Creating all this IT work outlined above to allow passes for one season is not financially a smart choice. I get it's not cool but to have expected this to not happen I think is a bit naive.
And at least they offered a full refund with additional compensation if you chose to take the gift card.
They are not giving a 20% bonus out of the bottom of their hearts. No one in their right minds would take a gift card without a bonus. The bonus is just an attempt not to loose the revenue.
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I would buy that except they are somehow not having this issue with any other add ons that are going through those same POS.
I think the fact that they’re offering a full refund on the dining plan absolves them of any blame — and I disagree that Enchanted Parks is being anti-consumer by going the refund route.
If Enchanted Parks isn’t going to honor the dining plan, then refunding the dining plans should make it a wash. With a refund, it’s as if the guest never paid for the dining plan in the first place.
For Six Flags pass members who don’t have an Enchanted Parks park as their home park, I get that this diminishes the value of their dining plan, since it can no longer be used at as many locations as expected when the plan was purchased. But, I would argue that this is Six Flags’s problem, not Enchanted’s. Six Flags offered the dining plan advertising a certain number of participating parks, and then sold some of those parks — I would say they’re the ones responsible diminishing the value of their plan.
I’d be curious to see if Six Flags offers any refund or credit for people whose dining plans were impacted by the sales. I haven’t seen any indication that they have, but I haven’t seen any evidence that they haven’t, either. If Six Flags refunds people who request it, I think they’re absolved of blame too. The customer can then decide if they want to repurchase the plan — if they think it’s worth it even with fewer parks participating.
In any case though, I don’t think it’s fair to blame Enchanted for realizing that dining plans don’t make financial sense for them, forced into an unprofitable business model by their parks’ former owner. It would be different if they tried to pull some shenanigans and turn the dining into a handful of meal vouchers with no other compensation, but they didn’t — they’re willing to give back every penny that their pass members paid.
If Enchanted Parks isn’t going to honor the dining plan, then refunding the dining plans should make it a wash. With a refund, it’s as if the guest never paid for the dining plan in the first place.
For Six Flags pass members who don’t have an Enchanted Parks park as their home park, I get that this diminishes the value of their dining plan, since it can no longer be used at as many locations as expected when the plan was purchased. But, I would argue that this is Six Flags’s problem, not Enchanted’s. Six Flags offered the dining plan advertising a certain number of participating parks, and then sold some of those parks — I would say they’re the ones responsible diminishing the value of their plan.
I’d be curious to see if Six Flags offers any refund or credit for people whose dining plans were impacted by the sales. I haven’t seen any indication that they have, but I haven’t seen any evidence that they haven’t, either. If Six Flags refunds people who request it, I think they’re absolved of blame too. The customer can then decide if they want to repurchase the plan — if they think it’s worth it even with fewer parks participating.
In any case though, I don’t think it’s fair to blame Enchanted for realizing that dining plans don’t make financial sense for them, forced into an unprofitable business model by their parks’ former owner. It would be different if they tried to pull some shenanigans and turn the dining into a handful of meal vouchers with no other compensation, but they didn’t — they’re willing to give back every penny that their pass members paid.
I broadly agree with this, but I would say that both parties had a responsibility to do right by their customers during the sale negotiations. Whether we're talking about the shared customer base Six Flags was slated to retain for the remainder of this season or the new customers Enchanted was buying. It seems clear that a fair deal for all of the affected customers was not struck during those negotiations.
I agree that Enchanted is doing right by their direct, new customers and, frankly, that is probably all that should be expected of them at this point. Their ability to take the benefit away from Six Flags' customers is a huge, obvious, clearly foreseeable issue though. Evidently, this issue was not adequately addressed during the negotiations by either party though. In my opinion, Six Flags had a duty to ensure full pass benefits were retained at the Enchanted properties for the remainder of 2026 and Enchanted had a duty to ensure they would receive adequate financial compensation from Six Flags to fund said benefits for the remainder of 2026. Looks like both parties dropped the ball during the negotiations here to me and now, due to the apparent lack of countervailing requirements, Enchanted has acted in their own, natural best financial interest and has eliminated the benefit.
I agree that, if Six Flags is willing to refund dining plans chainwide when requested due to this issue, that would be an adequate fix. I strongly, strongly doubt that is occuring now though and, frankly, I imagine a lot of the people potentially effected will not even realize there's an issue until they arrive at an Enchanted property where their pass still works for admission but the other benefits they paid for no longer do.
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Remember, the PoS is only one component.
Even if the underlying architecture played nice with it, if there's limitations with the ERP or other systems that would be too expensive to fix for what it's worth, then that's probably a good reason why things happened the way they did.
, I think it’s a wise business decision in the long run to eliminate the meal plans but they should have honored them this year and should have negotiated enough compensation in the sale to cover them this year.
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I say everything with no skin in the game, but...
How in the hell would a company honor a pre-paid meal plan at the point of sale if they cannot see the full chain of how it may effect their bottom line?
Yes, up until a few weeks ago the parks were SF branded, but that doesn't mean Enchanted is able to continue using the SF tech stack once they get the keys.
How in the hell would a company honor a pre-paid meal plan at the point of sale if they cannot see the full chain of how it may effect their bottom line?
Yes, up until a few weeks ago the parks were SF branded, but that doesn't mean Enchanted is able to continue using the SF tech stack once they get the keys.
It sucks that they even got rid of the dining plan when they were talking about keeping the passes the way they were before the end of 2026.
I hope they either reconsider or bring it back next year
I hope they either reconsider or bring it back next year
St. Louis and Worlds of Fun opening day is tomorrow, hopefully someone can get a picture of a POS to see what software is being run. It still won't answer what is on the back end.
Minor disagreement here. If you paid for a product or service up to eight months ago, and through no fault of your own the product or service was not delivered, you should be owed interest on your money.
I feel bad for all the people that bought dining plans through one of the Enchanted properties expecting to use them all season and now are unable to do so, especially if their plans included visits to several Six Flags properties this year. However, I feel the alternatives being offered are completely fair given the situation, and I don't fault Enchanted for opting not to utilize a dining plan at their parks. I'm actually really glad to see the chain seems to be at least a little less interested in bundling everything into their season pass programs, as that is one of the biggest contributors to the decline of quality across the regional theme park chains, and hopefully that points to the chain taking much more pride in their operations than Six Flags did under their tenure.
What about Six Flags passholders? Given that they can still fully use the plan at their home park (as well as multiple other properties depending on their pass type) I don't really feel they're owed anything because there are now a few parks that aren't covered, but I think a good faith solution might be to give them a a $20 Enchanted Parks gift card that will at least comp them for one meal should they visit an Enchanted property this year.
What about Six Flags passholders? Given that they can still fully use the plan at their home park (as well as multiple other properties depending on their pass type) I don't really feel they're owed anything because there are now a few parks that aren't covered, but I think a good faith solution might be to give them a a $20 Enchanted Parks gift card that will at least comp them for one meal should they visit an Enchanted property this year.
