Do the FastLane passes REALLY Sell out?

Hey all,

My apologies if this has been answered elsewhere... but I looked through several FastLane threads and never saw an answer to this...

But I am wondering if there really IS a limit to how many FastLane passes are sold each day... I know that CP says that there is a limit, but have you ever been to the park when they have sold out?

Again, I apologize if this is redundant.

I think I've seen it a couple of times when I was actually looking. We've never tried to buy them, though.

Yes, I've seen them sell out a couple times.

I think they sell too many fastlane passes, given the size of the lines on busier days.

I seriously think they should cut the amount they sell by half and just increase the cost for them. Even if they are $150-175 each, if they get people who go once a year or once in ten years a chance to ride with little to no waiting, it is worth it.

But to pay nearly $100 to wait in 45 minute lines now is bogus... I thought they would limit them much more then they do. I never seen them sold out, even with people were parked on the causeway it was so busy. If they are not sold out that day, it leads me to believe they just keep selling them.

45 minutes?!

I know that this may be wishful thinking, but I hope that I don't have to wait 45 minutes for anything with the Fastlane pass when I go at the end of September!

I can understand if a ride goes down or something, but if it is because of sheer volume, then they really need to fix that.

45min lines have been reported quite commonly, especially on Maverick... If you go on Saturday in September, expect to see just as long lines... That is PEAK season during Halloweekends.

I know people defend the system like crazy saying "at least your not waiting two hours"... But come on... When you pay $80 for front of the line access, the line should be 5-10mins at MOST.

They are CLEARLY overselling the system. I mean, the system is to make them money and it is doing just that. But there is a point where it is a bit unfair to the guests who do purchase it. Like I said, if anything, reduce the amount you sell by 40% (let's say instead of 5,000 passes @ $70 they sell only 3,000 passes @ $115... Same revenue, happier guests that have shorter waits.

I know the "sticker shock" would occur at $115, but honestly... If people pay for it, why not. People spend nearly $100 for a day ticket at Disney and close to that at other Florida parks without question. So if you end up paying $150 for a day at Cedar Point with very limited lines, it is worth it. But to spend $80 per person and still wait in hours of lines at the end of the day? I know a few rides would be very short (probably Raptor, Gatekeeper, etc...) but it should be for all the rides... Dragster, Maverick included.

I was happy to hear they would limit the sales of the fastpass system, but yet to see it ever say "Sold Out!" even on the most busy Saturdays in July/August (we went often). Something is fishy there to me.

I can't complain about FastLane because I've never tried it. My family avoids the extremely busy days anyway, and we don't mind waiting an hour for MF, Maverick, or TTD.

However, does anyone remember the old hand-stamp process (early 2000's)? You would get your hand stamped with a certain hour of the day when you could come back and ride. It seemed to work well for Millennium Force. Any idea why they killed that process? And was FastLane viewed as its replacement?

Invertalon said:

They are CLEARLY overselling the system.

I think your entire post was spot on but wanted to address this one specific point.

Don Helbig at Kings Island was quoted as saying that Fast Lane sales are capped at 20% of the days forecasted attendance. I would imagine that a similar ratio exists at other Cedar Fair parks. The average attendance at a big Cedar Fair park (Wonderland, KI, Cedar Point) is between 20-25K daily, so if that holds then each park could potentially sell 4,000-5,000 Fast Lane wristbands daily.

That number seems really high. The reality though is that it's not an issue except in one case. I've been to every big Cedar Fair park that has offered Fast Lane this year, and long Fast Lane wait times have really only been problematic at Cedar Point, specifically on the big 3 Intamin coasters.

I think it's pretty clear at this stage that they're leaving money on the table if the Fast Lane lines at the big 3 are still long. The easy solution would be to raise the price, but I'm not sure that raising the price across the Fast Lane board would work because not everyone who gets Fast Lane wants to marathon the big 3. Why not just restrict access to those 3 coasters?

My proposal would be to have a 3-time ride option on the big 3. You can ride up to 3 times total on the big 3 coasters, your choice as to how you allocate the rides. One ride on each of the three rides or take all three on one ride. The attendant at the Fast Lane merge point would simply scan the wristband (with a scanning device) indicating that the Fast Lane user took one of the rides. I'd recommend the scanner because if the ride goes down (which, let's face it, is bound to happen on those rides periodically) AND the rider chooses to leave the line the attendant can simply scan the band and re-credit the ride back to the wristband.

Cedar Point's Fast Lane price is still too low for what it offers. The interesting thing that I've seen with Fast Lane is that the demographic purchasing Fast Lane has skewed towards younger riders (for the sake of this discussion those under the age of 30). It's been genius in that those people who weren't generally spending a lot in the parks before (particularly those under age 18) are now shelling out a lot of money for Fast Lane. Cedar Point seems to be reluctant to raise the price much more so that they can still keep that demographic priced in, but the situation with long Fast Lane lines at the big 3 coasters needs to be addressed. It's the primary reason why I didn't buy a Fast Lane band during my last few visits at the park.

Or make it free like Disney's Fast Pass issuing specific times to ride (ok a girl can dream right)???

Invertalon said:
But there is a point where it is a bit unfair to the guests who do purchase it.

This made me laugh! :)

I can see both sides of that argument.

I can see where It IS unfair to pay extra money for a perk that is unobtainable due to over-saturation ... but I can also see that it is 'buyer beware', and there is nothing that states that EVERY ride will be less than 'x' amount of time.

With my fastlane pass, if I notice that the line for Maverick is too long, I will gladly go over to one of the other many rides that utilize FastLane and just head back to Maverick at a later time.

The problem with this would be if all rides had extremely long wait times with FastLane, and I don't think that is happening yet (correct me if I am wrong).

There is still value in a FL pass with a 45 minute Maverick FL line because it allows you to avoid the regular line which is about twice as long. Is that enough value (along with the shorter lines for all of the other FL rides) to justify the FL price? That determination will vary by person. Could CP make more money by increasing the FL price (and presumably having fewer people buy them)? Depends on the demand curve. We don't know the answer to that. CP management doesn't know for sure. But they have a lot more info than we do.

I expect that FL will continue to be adjusted moving forward. Pricing is one thing that can be adjusted. And pricing adjustments would include limiting the number of times you can skip the regular line on certain FL rides.

Invertalon said:
If you go on Saturday in September, expect to see just as long lines... That is PEAK season during Halloweekends.

Not in my experience. Rather: nice weather + October Saturday = insane crowds. I don't recall September Saturdays getting quite as crazy.

When you pay $80 for front of the line access, the line should be 5-10mins at MOST.

You're not paying for "front of the line access". You're paying to wait in a shorter line. Very big difference.

...yet to see it ever say "Sold Out!" even on the most busy Saturdays in July/August (we went often). Something is fishy there to me.

And yet others have seen FL sold out, so it seems your suspicion is baseless.

I have seen it sold out at certain locations, but still available at others.

I guess the value you get out of it is all tied to your expectations.

If I get FL and assume that I am going to walk on every ride, I will be very disappointed.

If I get FL with the knowledge that it will greatly reduce my wait times, then I will be okay.

Didn't FastLane sell out opening day this year? Or was that a case of it selling out in one location but not in others? I seem to remember a picture of the FastLane sandwich board with "SOLD OUT" written on it. Perhaps I'm dreaming...

xfireboyx said:
With my fastlane pass, if I notice that the line for Maverick is too long, I will gladly go over to one of the other many rides that utilize FastLane and just head back to Maverick at a later time.

That works well for people who visit the park often. For the "regulars" who see a long wait, they will skip the ride knowing that when they come back, it won't be so long. For people who only make one visit a year, they don't really have that option. For those who visit once a year, and Maverick is their favorite ride, they will wait in the line no matter how long it is.

If I was going to spend $360 I wouldn't spend it on fastlane passes. I'd book a room at the resort and take a one night, two day trip, instead of doing all that driving in one day. If at all possible I'd do it during the week. A family or group could spend less on a room and tickets for the next day than they would on fastlane wristbands.

I guess it's because I visit often enough that I can laugh about someone paying $80 for fastlane. Going to be at CamperVillage this weekend. I know it's going to be busy. From 1 to 7 probably won't ride anything bigger than the witch's wheel if it is that busy. But will laugh my ass off when I walk by someone waiting in line to buy the fastlane pass. Sure that I will get enough rides in to suit me during my trip, although longer and cheaper. Laugh even more when I see them waiting to buy it on Monday when there isn't a very large crowd.

I don't think the resorts on the point get enough advertising or the general public hasn't researched their trip enough. I am glad my trips don't end the day they started! I don't really know anyone who's schedule and life are so demanding that they can't take 2 days off to relax at the point. I don't know the demagraphics of who buys it though.

The fast lane passes do sell out AND Cedar point has already raised the prices like 3x this summer to dissuade people from buying them

They sold out Saturday the 17th. It was packed that day. An hour for Maverick in the fast lane. Luckily, it was five minutes for me since I won Tony's tweet up.