2013 Fast Lane and Fast Lane Plus

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but there were a couple ride-specific changes from last year's FL.

Maverick - You now enter not near the main line like last year, but rather directly into the structure and up the stairs converging right at the station. The entrance is right across from the backside of the Antique Cars. This doesn't affect things all that much but makes it easier for the operator as last year he had to keep moving back and forth. Now he handles everything from one point at the top of the stairs.

Millennium Force - Instead of entering near Panda Express and heading directly to the station, you now enter right next to the main line and intersect the queue just before you head up the long ramp to the station. This is an unfortunate change because what was once a potentially 0 minute wait (again, directly into the station), is now 20-30 minutes at the very least.

As with any FL ride, the point of convergence is key. TDD is still not ideal (I thought FL+ would improve it this year, but it did not), but now MF adds in a guaranteed wait also :(.

FYI, Gatekeeper enters near the main line and converges right where you choose which side to go on. On Saturday we never waited more than 20 minutes and once it was 5. Each time we circumvented multiple hours of wait time.

Scottyf said:
Millennium Force - Instead of entering near Panda Express and heading directly to the station, you now enter right next to the main line and intersect the queue just before you head up the long ramp to the station. This is an unfortunate change because what was once a potentially 0 minute wait (again, directly into the station), is now 20-30 minutes at the very least.

Great so now you have to wait with riders that are mad at you for merging with them at that point. I would be happier if they left it the old way and then simply let a few less FL riders on each train.

This is possible, but I have never really encountered any animosity. There are sometimes a few wtf looks when people see people "cutting in line" in front of them, but there's always a CP employee at the merge points acting as a traffic cop, so it's not like you are trying to merge, but rather you are officially being directed to merge - it's a big distinction. Once you're officially part of the herd, any frustration they had (and any euphoria you had) quickly diminish.

Anyway, like someone earlier mentioned, most people are curious as to it being worth it, to which I always reply "worth every penny." I have never had anyone actually exhibit anger to me about FL, but I know there is resentment brewing in at least a few folks.

One other note, if you have a family, the hidden value of FL is on the smaller rides. Dodgem, Scrambler, Antique Cars, Monster, etc. would normally be a 30 minute wait at least. With FL, it's 5 if that. So 12 of those rides would be 6 hours in line normally. With FL, it's less than 1.

Worth. Every. Penny.

I always thought the VIP tour was the best option for the park. With the VIP tour I didn't even see the need for the FL. Sure VIP is more but for people willing to buy FL plus, paying double for the VIP wouldn't seem to be that much of a big deal plus you got a staff member with you to hopefully eliminate some of the grief from other guest and eliminate all wait entirely. VIP tours have never been hyped at least the way FL is. I'm not sure if VIP wasn't utilized enough or it was utilized too much. I think it basically comes down to a customer service issue (again). I'm sure management figures it makes more profit by using FL and pissing off a large number of regular guest. The right price point on VIP would accomplish the same thing without angering so many other guest. Either lower the price of VIP so more people could use it, or raise it to make more profit off of each tour. Some extra staff may be required if you made VIP more affordable; but, FL also requires more staff and some moderate expense if they have to keep reworking the FL entrances for different rides.

Scottyf said:
Anyway, like someone earlier mentioned, most people are curious as to it being worth it, to which I always reply "worth every penny." I have never had anyone actually exhibit anger to me about FL, but I know there is resentment brewing in at least a few folks.

I have never used FL at Cedar Point. Last year (particularly early in the year), I saw several people without FL passes talking with FL users asking them what it was about. Later in the day, I saw some of those people using FL.

I did use FL at Kings Island last year. It was definitely worth the price. There were some people who made comments (not necessarily to me specifically but more generally to people using FL). We just kept walking. I expect that those issues will decrease over time as it becomes more the norm.

For anyone anyone visiting a park for the first time who likely will not get back any time soon, FL or its equivalent makes a lot of sense. I will be using it at SFMM next month. Its also great if you already have a pass and thus the cost of FL is about what you would pay for an admission ticket (that was us at KI last summer).

It is great to see that CP continues to make improvements to their Fastlane program. Does the single rider line on Maverick still exist due to the new Fastlane queue arrangement?

Single rider lane is gone, not that it was ever very useful to begin with.

Scottyf said:

Millennium Force - Instead of entering near Panda Express and heading directly to the station, you now enter right next to the main line and intersect the queue just before you head up the long ramp to the station. This is an unfortunate change because what was once a potentially 0 minute wait (again, directly into the station), is now 20-30 minutes at the very least.

Even with only two trains in operation, I've never waited more than 15 minutes from the bottom of the ramp. With three trains it's closer to 10 minutes.

Going this saturday may 18th, any people going that day interested in meeting up at the park with
me & my girl in order get lower price for FLPP?

Glad to hear that they are utilizing the old freeway line on MF. They should've done the same thing at Raptor. No need to make new entrances for those that were already in place.

Its funny to hear the FL users already complaining of having to wait a little bit. It was never meant to be a skip the entire line type of system. On the days when it is NEEDED, they will be skipping at least an hour+ line to wait maybe 15 minutes.

Yeah, I agree that the MF implementation seems like a wise move to lessen the impact on standard queue folks.

How would that lessen the impact on the regular line? The Fast Lane riders will still merge ahead of you, the merge location is just different making a longer wait for Fast Lane.

I could see the slightly longer wait dissuading FL users from re-riding several times in a row. I don't know what percentage of them actually do that though.

What Ralph said. If the wait for FL users is 15-30 minutes, rather than 0-15, people won't be able to re-ride as frequently. I do agree the impact was never significant to begin with, but if nothing else, this does help lessen the perception that FL is evil or whatever.

Not sure, but I'm in that percent. I'm really disappointed that I won't be able to marathon like crazy this year.

I'm totally sold on the value of FL/FLP during the summer but what about weekdays in May? I'm going on a Tuesday when school is still in session. How large are the crowds then?

Ralph Wiggum said:
I could see the slightly longer wait dissuading FL users from re-riding several times in a row. I don't know what percentage of them actually do that though.

In addition it also keeps those same people out of other Fast Lane lines for a slightly longer period of time which should (in theory) help out with the wait times for the other popular rides.

The bigger concern I have is the proportion of FL to regular queue they're allowing. It seems like they were allowing in a rather high percentage of Fast Lane people into queues on Saturday, particularly at Gatekeeper.

I was in the Gatekeeper line at 9 am Saturday and moving briskly through the queue for about 45 minutes and then the pace at which we were moving through noticeably slowed around 9:45 when the first Fast Lane folks were let through. When we finally got to the merge point I noticed that they were allowing at least a 30-40% Fast Lane to regular queue mix which is way too high. Keep it at a 25% FL/75% regular queue mix. Any higher than that and you're asking for snails pace standby queues.

I still believe that Fast Lane Plus is too cheap as it currently stands. It still amazes me that at this time last year a Fast Lane bracelet ran as low as $30 per person. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see a price increase coming by the time we get to the summer season. I'm sure Cedar Point would prefer to stay away from the $100 per bracelet price point for psychological reasons but I still absolutely believe they're leaving a ton of money on the table with where it's priced currently.

Cedar Point's website won't let me see the price of fastlane and fastlane plus for Memorial Day, on my Android devices. Can someone let me know what the pricing is for monday. Thanks in advance.

Here's your Memorial Day Monday pricing...

Fastlane = 1 @ $75.00
Fastlane Plus = 1 @ $90.00

Thank you RiHard, now I gotta decide if crowds will warrant me to purchase it.

Accesso sucks again!