Cedar Point now requiring special limited passes to ride Top Thrills

I think you're missing the point. They were able to ride Magnum, SV, Maverick, and Skyhawk while waiting less than a half hour total. In my opinion, that's as much as anyone could hope for from a full day at the park, to say nothing of the fact they did this in 2 hours.

I think that you are missing the point of my comparison.

I am comparing the new normal where it takes 20 minutes for 44 people (40 people in line plus Kevin's family of 4) to ride Steel Vengeance to the previous normal where that was a 2 train wait which should have been 5-6 minutes.

But your comparison isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. It's based on the assumption that rides can safely be run with full-capacity trains, which simply isn't true.

Oh dear god. Yes. I understand that. I am simply comparing what life was like last year to this year. See where I used the words "new normal" and "previous normal"? Simple as that.

During a normal season in July that would be impossible to do. The fact they pulled that off during a pandemic season with lower capacity is impressive.

Between this thread and a thread on Facebook, I still don't understand exactly how the access pass distribution is being handled. At first, I thought it was first come, first served with x number per hour time slot and just keep handing them out until they're gone for the day (thinking maybe they'd be gone by 1PM or something). Then I read some info saying they're handing x out per hour for just one time slot, but then stopping until say the top of the next hour at which time they pass out some more for the next hour time slot and keep repeating through the day. But then someone else says they walk up to MF at 3:45 and get a pass for 5. Then another person says he just hopped in line for SV without a pass because the queue wasn't full?

I'm a regular and I am not sure how it's supposed to work. It seems other regulars do not understand either. I'm wondering if it isn't even consistent from ride to ride or employee to employee. I'm not complaining directly as I've not even been to the park to experience it for myself, but I know that the big complaint with past systems (Ticket to Ride and Freeway) was that if you arrived later in the day, you'd be out of luck because all of the passes were gone. Now I'd think the complaint would be you wait in line for 30 minutes, miss the cut off and have to wait until the next time they start handing passes out again. All to come back and wait some more because they don't seem to have the numbers of passes appropriately matched with the throughput of the ride. Or maybe it's the extra people they keep letting in when the queue isn't totally full that jack everything up?

Total confusion. :)

So we just rode SV and literally walked on 2 times in a row with FL+. No access pass and they didn't mention any limit, not to mention they aren't having you scan the bracelets, so there is no way they can track it.

Hey Richard Lee, stop Bogarting Steel Vengeance.

Curious as to how the non-FP lines are today. The parking lot looks to be the least crowded so far of this young season.

When I was there on Saturday (with FL+) I was told that any ride for any ride using the access pass, there was a 2 ride FL limit. If we wanted to ride any more of those, we'd need an access pass and could use the regular queue. However, as Mr. Bogart said they weren't actually making us scan the FL upon entry so I guess they're using the honor system. We only rode each once anyway.

The regular lines don't look too bad. Ill try to get some times and post back here.

Ok...long time listener...first time caller but MDOmis Question has been my question as well. I am going this Saturday with at 10am reservation and trying to figure out when I should devote time to getting passes vs riding rides! : ) :) Do we know when they Start issuing passes, are they doing it every hour at the top of the hour? I am taking my 9 year old son for his first rides on SV and Maverick this weekend so hoping to achieve both! Thanks in advance!

First thing- I have NO idea how Fastlane works with the Access passes. In all honesty, this is the first time I've been back to CP in about 10 years.

As far as Access pass handouts, I honestly don't know if they are that organized yet. I was frankly surprised at the additional handout time (at 4) for Millennium Force- I'd banked on hitting Maverick and Steel Vengance and wrote Millennium off completely.

If curious if they started by handing out all the passes at once, but realized how fast they were going, so decided to start staggering the handouts mid-day? This is speculation on my part.

And people saying they were able to get on any of the three without any kind of pass (Fastlane or Access pass) if the line was short kind of surprised me. Everyone I saw without a pass on Sunday got turned away. But maybe that got switched up due to line capacity. Again, pure speculation on my part.

My advice? Pick the one ride you REALLY want to hit, get there as early as possible, and then (if passes run out), ask the person at the kiosk what the current policy is.

Steel Vengeance and Maverick shouldn't bee too tall of an ask, though- the Access pass lines for both were literally 15 feet apart. Good luck!

All of these pass explanations have me like:

I can't answer all the questions, but I can say that a little before 6 yesterday they stopped handing out access passes for Maverick.

The lines seemed to be pretty accurate as far as the ride window goes. (Very short lines at the end of the hour )

To get the shortest wait times, to me it seems like the play would be to go get your access passes early (SV first) then wait till later in the assigned hour to get in line since most probably get there at the start time and wait an hour, get there at 45 after and wait 15 minutes since more people aren't able to get in line.

After two days of watching, observing, and finally participating in this year's Access Card system, here is a rundown of how the system is set up. We spoke with a supervisor today who gave us the rundown, and we also learned that in those first opening days (July 9 - 12th) there was a lot of tinkering, with some rides doing things differently. Now, all three "big rides" are on the same page, and Dragster will likely join the bunch when it opens, which is happening soon.

So here's a little story about how we did this in about an hour:

The Basics:

1) There are two times during the day at which Access Cards will be distributed: 11:00 am, and then 3:30 pm. The first will offer hour time slots from noon to 4:00 pm, and the latter will offer hour time slots between 4 and 7:00 pm. There is no 7:00 - 8:00 card. 2) Everyone in your party must be present to get an access card. 3) During the day, only people with access cards will be allowed in line. 4) At the end of the day, starting around 7:00, you can freely join the line assuming it's not beyond whatever capacity they have set for the queue. Millennium is currently set at 350 people.

The not-so-basics:

1) Steel Vengeance is far and away the most popular, with people lining up as soon as possible in the AM, and about an hour before (2:30) for the later slots. 2) The PM is less busy than the AM for cards, but that only seems to hold true for Maverick and Millennium. 3) If you are after later slots, you can ask for what hour you want, as long as you can show you have a pass for another ride at the time they are passing out. For example, you can request 5-6 for Maverick if they are passing out 4-5, and you already have a card for Steel Vengeance at that time. 4) As others have noted, arriving at your ride at the end of your time block is wise, as the line for your hour has thinned out as much as possible. They are absolutely not letting anyone in early. 5) If you can arrive at the park at 10:00, there is no need to have an access pass for a ride if it's a must (there are no time blocks before noon anyway). For example, if you go right to Steel Vengeance, just get in the ride line. You'll get on. 6) If you do #5, you could theoretically turn right around after exiting and grab an access pass for a later time for the same ride.

So what did we do today?

We slept in and took our time (we're on vacation, damn it), arriving around 12:30ish; that's when we got the info and decided to try it out. Because we care.

Our plan was this: Start at Steel Vengeance (obviously, because it's the longest line), slip over to Maverick, and then Millennium.

Around 2:45, we headed to check out the card line for S.V. By this time, it was near the Last Chance Saloon. No problem; we got some drinks, got the girls ice cream, and sat in the shade for a 45 minute "break". We also met some great fellow guests and listened to the live music across the way (the band was also specifically entertaining the line, and it actually became fun). That said, the line quickly, quickly grew, at one point going beyond Gemini...so keep that in mind as a "when to get there" idea. Once the line moved, we had our cards for 4-5 in about 5 minutes (it moves quick). Then we slipped over to Maverick and within minutes had a 5-6, and then we walked over to Millennium and kindly asked for a 6-7. So, in just over an hour we worked the 3:30 card system to get all three.

So was it worth it?

This part is up to you, but I would argue yes, especially considering it's July. Everyone reading this knows that without FastLane, there is no way you are getting on any these rides in under an hour this time of year, at least on a "normal" day. With those time slots, and practicing the "wait till the end of hour" rule, we got on Steel Vengeance in 45 minutes, Maverick in about 40, and Millennium in about 30.

Add in the card waiting time, and that's a total of about 2 hours and 55 minutes of waiting, but as I mentioned above, we turned the "card wait" into a break with food and drinks, so to be honest that time went by rather quickly (thanks to the fun guests we were stuck with and the band across the way).

This is now officially my second longest post ever, but remember...I did it for you.

Now back to our regular scheduled program as I soak in another sunset at Lighthouse Point. :)

Now everyone print this post so you can slam it on the table at the Be Made Whole Again Dept. when they change things up next week. “But Kevin said, a supervisor said!!!” :)

I appreciate Kevin looking into/asking how it really works (at least currently) and taking the time to post. It sounds like the key piece of new info is there's two times they pass them out 11 and 3:30. I still think they can come up with something better than this with eventually, but knowing those times is helpful.

Pretty much all of what Kevin laid out has been confirmed in the new blog post.

Me hearing the official word about how the boarding passes work.