Changes to Fast Lane and Fast Lane Plus

I was just checking out the Cedar Point website, and see that Gatekeeper is now only available with Fast Lane Plus.

Just last week it was available with the regular Fast Lane - wonder why they made the change? The pricing is still the same.

Darn it, I think that is ridiculous!!

I think it is a good move... In fact, I think MF, Dragster, GK and Maverick should all be on FL+ and the rest for standard FL.

In my opinion fast lane is a big waste of money. Almost 100 dollars just to skip to the front of the line? CP lines have never been horrendous enough for me to spend that much to jump the line.

I never use the Fast Lane because I know the right days to go when crowds aren't much of an issue. On days I go, my longest waits are about 30 minutes tops.

CPboy77 said:
In my opinion fast lane is a big waste of money. Almost 100 dollars just to skip to the front of the line? CP lines have never been horrendous enough for me to spend that much to jump the line.

For YOU.

Think about it... Not everyone has this park nearby and may visit once every 10 years or even less frequently. They may have only one day to do everything, and the fastlane helps with this... Allowing them to ride plenty, along with re-rides of their favorite.

I personally will never purchase one, but I live an hour away... I go often enough.

However, we are planning on buying the fastlane platinum or whatever if we go to six flags in chicago... Never been, so it will allow us to ride everything multiple times in one day (especially Goliath). It is worth the $100 upcharge for that.

Always a tough topic--I hear both sides and recognize it divides enthusiasts.

On one hand, it can shortchange the non-purchasers by making lines longer. How much longer, on which rides, and on which days is the eternal debate.

On the other hand, it is a nice revenue enhancer for the park in terms of a de facto increased entry fee for people who might come anyway on a given day. But, it also probably gets more people to come from 4 or 5 hours away for a trip that they might not otherwise make at all if not for the opportunity to really get through the park in a day or day and a 1/2 and get some repeats on favorite lifts.

On the third hand, I've found it nice to use when there with the whole fam-damily. Carting a stroller with infant, a spouse, a pre-teen, a couple of the grandparents and then me through the park can be challenging. Sure, we could make a full 12 hour day out of it, but last year on one of the days we were there it was nice to have the Fast Lane to be able to zip around getting the rides in quickly for whichever subset of our group wanted to experience whatever ride, and still easily coordinate food breaks, restroom breaks, medicine injections, taking a mandatory 2:30 pm phone call from work, nap breaks, etc. A single 1-hour wait for 1 ride can really impact everyone's day when that infant melts down because you've broken up his routine, you get reprimanded at work and/or grandpa has a seizure. On that day, we were in the park for 2.5 hours in the morning and another 2-3 in the afternoon, got our business done and left. What used to take 10-12 hours was compressed, we paid more but didn't ride any more rides than we would have without FL. Spent the rest of the day relaxing out of the park and it was probably a win-win for everybody--including general admission payers/PP holders who didn't have FL in that maybe the park uses the extra revenue to hold prices down, invest in new fun, upgrade the landscaping, etc.

I don't begrudge anyone who thinks I'm an elitist nor anyone who thinks I'm a fool for paying extra. It worked well for me and probably got my wife to agree to come back this year again with the whole crew (my best chance to get there!)

In keeping with the spirit of the thread though, does anyone know of any changes to FL entry points this year? 2 years ago the MF entrance brought you right into the station, but last year they moved it to merge as you approached the ramp to the brake run. I'm wondering if they adjusted any of the entry points this year on it or on any other rides.

Cheers!

Personally, I think Fastlane is worth it. I went on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday in earlier may and bought Fastlane everyday. Really the only reason why was because Mean Streak is my favorite ride, and if I want to ride it over and over again it is such a long walk through the main line, but the Fastlane line is right near the exit.

^you have three hands? :P

We used Fast Lane Plus at Kings Island and it is set up a lot better than Cedar Point. Almost every line, if not all, goes right to the station. Bypassed 45+ minute waits with a walk on marathon on The Beast, Diamondback, and Banshee. So worth it when you don't visit a park that often! The parking lot was FULL of buses that day! This was our first visit ever!

We are going the first week in August...what would be the best day be to go? Thank you very much!!!

I think any day that week will be busy.I've never purchased a Fast Lane of any type, but would love to if the extra funds were available! But I have seen some Fast Lane lines as long as the normal wait. I'd like to see a Fast Lane option(add on) to our Platinum pass purchase, just like the meal plans. Just a thought!

Fast Lane lines will never be as long as the normal wait, unless there is no line to speak of. It's possible that a Fast Lane line could indeed be 30 minutes, which may sound like a lot for such a perk, but that means the regular queue is probably 120 minutes. Worth it? That's up to you.

August is busy.

I also wish there was an add on to the platinum pass for Fast Lane, we purchased the dining plan at Kings Island with the passes and it was the best decision we ever made. We have not been to Cedar Point this year yet, we are going to be there July 27 and 28, on our honeymoon and I'm pretty worried that the lines are going to be bad. But we cannot afford the prices of the Fast Lane passes so we will have to plan our day well to get in everything we want, at least we have two full days there.

Invertalon said:
I personally will never purchase one, but I live an hour away... I go often enough.

However, we are planning on buying the fastlane platinum or whatever if we go to six flags in chicago... Never been, so it will allow us to ride everything multiple times in one day (especially Goliath).

You should double check on that. There's a trip report over at Coasterbuzz from someone who bought Flash Pass Platinum only to learn that they were only allowed one FPP ride for Goliath.

I'm not sure how they could do a Fast Lane add-on to the Platinum Pass. Do you mean provide it as a discount to PP users?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Platinum Pass holders are not the most frequent purchasers of Fast Lane to begin with. From my perspective, Fast Lane is absolutely ideal for someone who only gets to go one maybe two times a year. After all, if it's packed on the one day you could go, why wouldn't you fork over the extra money to have a great day riding rides at your leisure?

^Yes, I meant offering it as a discount(or add on) to pass holders. Maybe even if just once or twice a year at a discount, if we wanted too 'try it out'. Nothing wrong with saving $ anytime you can. What is the daily cap of Fast Lane Plus to be sold?

I highly doubt they'll ever let us know where the cap is.

I would guess that there is no hard cap..most likely it would be capped based on some percentage of the day's attendance.

I would also expect that making FastLane a benefit of a season pass in any way, shape, or form would tend to defeat the purpose of the FastLane program. At best you might get that 10% discount! but I would expect it to be excluded.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I have a Platinum Pass, and when I go for 3 days, I buy Fast lane every day.