CityPASS Thoughts and Opinions

[Johnny Au]

This is a thread to discuss City Pass. It is true that Toronto has a City Pass, but so do other cities, so we should not limit discussion to Toronto.

Please vote in the poll above. Please note that you can change your vote afterwards, in case you find a package in another city that is better than you thought. Please don't put local bias in the way of voting though, as another city's may be better than Toronto's, unless you honestly feel that Toronto's is better (but be sure to take a look at the other cities' offerings as well).

"Best" is subjective. It could include "best value," "best choices of attractions that have minimal overlap," "best overall experience," etc. Please state your rationale as well.

The Toronto City Pass has CN Tower, Casa Loma, Ripley's Aquarium, the ROM, and either the Ontario Science Centre or the Toronto Zoo for C$72 for an adult.

I believe that to make the Toronto City Pass better, either Casa Loma or Ripley's Aquarium should be able to be substituted with the Art Gallery of Ontario if the tourist wishes to do so.

New York City has the following:

• Empire State Building
• American Museum of Natural History
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Either the Top of the Rock Observation Deck at the Rockefeller Center or the Guggenheim Museum
• Either Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island or Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
• Either 9/11 Memorial & Museum or the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum

The New York City Pass is C$155.65 for an adult.

I believe that to make the New York City Pass better, it should be changed to a choice of Empire State Building or Top of the Rock Observation Deck; a choice of Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, or the Bronx Zoo, and 9/11 Memorial & Museum be fixed.

We can discuss potential City Pass packages for cities that don't currently have such packages such as Las Vegas (including Grand Canyon); Washington, DC (including Baltimore); or Montreal (including Ottawa). Please limit to cities in North America north of the Rio Grande though, as City Pass didn't expand outside of Canada or the United States yet.

By the way, I voted Toronto, not because of local bias, but because it has great value and a varied choice of attractions as well (as long as one picks the Science Centre over the Zoo, as Ripley's already covers the "wild animals" part, though the Zoo would be better than the Science Centre only if the Zoo's maglev proposal were completed in my opinion).

 

[Johnny Au]

Read here about CityPASS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityPASS

The Southern California one has the worst value, as they are at a 20–24% discount for its theme parks as opposed to 40–50% for all other attractions (note that given that New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is covered by its version of CityPASS, it is pay-as-much-as-you-can when purchased individually (minimum US$1; suggested price of US$25), which can make it actually more expensive (though to be fair, the New York CityPASS is discounted for all other attractions covered by 40–50% and has expedited line-ups unlike purchasing individual tickets)).

The Hockey Hall of Fame would be a good additional fixed attraction to add to the Toronto CityPASS as well, given that it is the only one of the four major professional North American team sports to have its hall of fame be located in a major city (the other three (baseball (Cooperstown, NY), basketball (Springfield, MA), and American football (Canton, OH) are in small towns)).

 

[Johnny Au]

@wild goose chase: I am curious to know what you think of Chicago's CityPASS.