cedar point fast pass?

Speaking of ad space, I've never seen more ads for Disney than I have right here on PointBuzz.

Have you done a google search for disney lately?

Absolutely not. I have no desire to do such a thing.

It really is surprising that you're seeing ads for a theme park on an enthusiast site for an amusement park. Before you know it, you'll probably see trailers for movies while at the movie theater!

Never said it was surprising, I just find it amusing. And thank you for your witty sarcasm, it was greatly appreciated and definitely warranted.

I'm here all week! :)

I know...you never leave!

Apparently he's not the only one. :)

My ears are strangely warm.

I can recall a time back in the mid-90's when it wasn't uncommon for Raptor to have up to a 3-hour wait...I think on the whole Cedar Point has performed miracles in keeping even the most popular rides to an hour to an hour and a half at best (Maverick being an exception at times). I think a fast pass system wouldn't be cost effective because it takes extra staffing and the stand-by lines would go up by 1/2 the time at least.

While that may be true about wait times, it's important to remember that since that time, CP has added Mantis, Power Tower, MF, WT, TTD, Maxair, Skyhawk and Maverick, all while removing only a few attractions. These additions raised overall park capacity substantially, and attendance has not risen by a proportionate amount. Thus, the same amount of people are spread out over more rides.

As far as operations go, it could be argued that they are worse today than they were in the mid-90's, if only due to the new rules and such that have been put into place since that time.

Well I will say rides like ours...Loosing a train was the best move that ride ever made. 3 train op on corkscrew asks for disaster. We can actually be more efficient and work better using only two trains. If the computer wasn't changed a few years back 3 train is a little bit more acceptable but it's still truly difficult for that ride. So if anything it's for the better.

In the rain not ONE single roller coaster runs full capacity in the rain or any weather. This is a safety issue on several levels, especially on arrows...Even if there was a three hour wait in the rain for the ride, they will not ever run full capacity until the weather is cleared and supervision gives it the ok...

As for rides going down when there is high attendance...It's just because you notice it then. I've had the ride go down before opening, right at close, I've been called to take the ride down for routine maintenance, ect...It's truly random to be honest...When it happens it just happens

Did Ouimet say something about Virtual Queueing? Is that kinda like a fast pass?

At Disney Hollywood Studios this May, their Fast Pass was easy. You simply go to your ride/attraction, get a ticket for a certain time span, then come back later in the day.

Universal Studios has a program where you buy a separate ticket that allows you to enter a separate queue, thought I forgot what their program is called. Not many people seemed to use it, then again the $80 a pop just to get in the door probably deterred people away from spending the extra money!

I faintly remember CP's system. Good thing was, that my good friend for many years was able to get onto many rides simple by walking up the exit ramp because he had a handicap. I have yet to wait in the queue for TTD. Guilty? No way! He said I was the only person he knew that rides every ride! :)

There's nothing wrong with accompanying a person onto a ride when he/she has a legit handicap. It's the idiots that attempt to abuse the system that make one furious.

With our daughter(s), we've been using Parent Swap for the past few years now, so one of us gets to hop right on.

I have not waited more than 15-30 minutes to ride anything in the park for at least a decade now (a mix of being selective when we choose to visit the park and simply moving on if a line looks long), so I really do not know how viable any type of virtual queue would be at CP, aside from perhaps MF, Maverick, and TTD only, and only on select days of the year at that.

Like was mentioned above, the crowds can get so spread out, unless for some god-forsaken reason you went to the park on a Halloweekends Saturday looking to ride, you can navigate the park fairly well.

By what Ouimet said in his recent interview during his trip to KI, however, he is certainly considering it. Based on how well Disney's works, I think you would see something like that.

I think the main thing with the FastPass or Virtual Queue debate is that Cedar Point doesn't get nearly the attendance and Disney did it out of pure necessity. I mean their Stand-By lines are still astronomical even with the FP system. Not really so for CP...but like you all said, it would have to be for select days only but the main difference is that Disney I think provides that mainly because you see a lot of rides that the whole family can go on and waiting in line with small children is not so fun.

TheDevarious said:
In the rain not ONE single roller coaster runs full capacity in the rain or any weather. This is a safety issue on several levels, especially on arrows...Even if there was a three hour wait in the rain for the ride, they will not ever run full capacity until the weather is cleared and supervision gives it the ok...

I was at the park on Memorial Day weekend and I thought I saw Magnum Running 2 trains immediately after a HUGE thunder storm. Does CP finally allow more than 1 train to operate immediately after a rain shower? Even though you work on Corkscrew, I was just wondering if you know anything?

Consider this...

Yes, Cedar Point has amazing capacity and really doesn't get terribly long lines on most of the rides. Those of us who go there frequently know that if the line is long, you should go ride something else. I've told the story of how there was apparently a newspaper reporter in the park the same day that I was there. In many hours, he managed to ride Raptor, Mantis and Millennium Force; in those same hours I rode everything in the park except those three rides. He complained that CP did not offer virtual queueing; I rode everything else and rode Raptor and Millennium Force later in the day when the lines were shorter.

But why not put a virtual queue on Raptor, and configure it to allow almost no VQ riders before Noon, with an increasing number of VQ slots in the afternoon and early evening, when Raptor's line normally evaporates? Use the VQ to "encourage" people to ride during those times when the ride is historically less busy, with the result of leveling out the load on the queue. The result would be longer waits in the early evening, but potentially much shorter lines in the late morning.

You know Disney does this...has anyone *ever* managed to get a FastPass for Splash Mountain that is valid before sundown? 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I was recently reading an article stating that Disney may be removing the current FastPass system in favor of a new XPass system. XPass would allow a guest to book their ride times, show seats, dining, etc. months in advance of their trip. I can't think many better ways to ruin a vacation than by following a scheduled itinerary.

I'm not holding out much hope that Cedar Fair would create a FastPass type system if Disney is looking to move away from their current system (as much as I would like FastPass at Cedar Point).

Here is the link to the article: http://miceage.micechat.com/allutz/al071211a.htm

This statement was the most disheartening:

The attractions that currently offer Fastpass to any park visitor, and plenty
of attractions that don’t have Fastpass currently, would be converted over to
XPass so that the only way to access a priority boarding slot at the ride would
be to book your vacation with Disney and give your vacation plans over to the
XPass system in advance.

TheDevarious said:

In the rain not ONE single roller coaster runs full capacity in the rain or any weather. This is a safety issue on several levels, especially on arrows...

Sad that employees now are completely brainwashed to believe this. Did you know, Devarious, that pre-2007 Magnum crash (that didn't have anything to do with the rain) nearly every coaster ran at maximum capacity even in heavy rain?

I'm wondering if Ouimet is going to have anything to say about coasters not running (or only running one train) in the rain. Surely he must know it's pure BS...