Fast Lane

Jeff said:

They're totally hidden. You might not find them unless someone tells you where to look! There aren't any signs!

[Slow clap]

I have a question myself regarding Fast Lane. I'm a pretty die-hard Cedar Pointer (at least I thought I was till I stumbled on this site a few years ago) and I haven't made up my mind about Fast Lane, so I'm choosing to not join the discussion at this point. I will be there Saturday and I'm purchasing FL, so maybe then I'll chime in ;). Ok, my question:

Cedar Point's own website is advertising 20 rides are available for Fast Lane. However, on that same page, they only list 16. Now, I have read discussions on here of other rides utilizing the system, like Troika and I believe on one of the first few pages of this thread, someone was talking about Skyhawk utilizing it too. Does anyone know if there is really 20 attractions? If so, anyone know why they don't advertise the other 4?

I apologize if this has been asked/answered already but I didn't see any talk about it.

I was just at the park this afternoon and the signs on the midway advertising Fast Lane has the full list of rides available. The other 4 rides not mentioned on CP's website are Skyhawk, Troika, Wave Swinger, and Snake River Falls.

Wave Swinger...

lol.

looks like its 19 rides right now then :)

At the park today, looking to group on FL if any else wants to do it on the cheap.

I would expect that the list of rides will probably change over the course of this season as they are figuring things out. At Kings Island last season, they added more flat rides (Viking Fury, Dodgem), as the season went on. They will likely be "testing out" which rides work well for FL and which do not.

I'm at the park now and FL is great. Definitely worth the money. I can see how a lot of people will get angry, though. We've gotten some pretty dirty looks today but have rode a lot of rides and its only 12:30. It's already spoiled me. :)

Oh and Jeff, are you in the park today? We've never met but I saw a guy that looked just like your avatar on MF.

I am trying to have an opinion of Fast Lane, at the moment its a low importance opinion.

I went Wednesday, and kinda chuckled at all the Fast Lane people, who were walking up to get on the ride, right behind me walking up without the Fast Lane.

Now, MF, was working for the fast lane riders, the wait was 20 minutes for me, and we saw people get on 2 to 3 times in that 20 minutes. But they paid for it so I am fine with that.

No one came up the fast lane while I waited 15 minutes for Dragster, but I guess their wait could of been less than 5 minutes.

So I guess if they want to pay for it, I am fine with them skipping the line, But line jumping for free, I don't like that.

I will have a better opinion on days that I have to wait an hour, but you know, I think as long as they pay for it, I am fine with it.

vwhoward said:
I'm at the park now and FL is great. Definitely worth the money. I can see how a lot of people will get angry, though. We've gotten some pretty dirty looks today but have rode a lot of rides and its only 12:30. It's already spoiled me. :)

How long are the FL waits compared to the regular line waits? Thanks.

Random question: Are the FL wristbands dated? Because there is always someone out to cheat the system, what safeguard is there to prevent someone spending 2 or more days at the park from using the same FL pass everyday?

Yes, the wrist bands are dated.

I visited on 5/17 as a regular guest, and I experienced no Fast Lane issues. It was the same old Cedar Point week days in May that I know and love.

Here was the only difference I noticed though. Maybe it was because the employees were still new, or they were accounting for a possible swarm of Fast Lane, but the wait times on Millenium Force and TTD were grossly overestimated.

At the end of the night, it said 45 minutes on the Millenium Force board, and I confirmed it with the ride entrance host. The line was only filling the ramp. I kept looking at it with my friends and claiming, "That is like 15 minutes max." Luckily, that's what it was.

Exact same issue with TTD. The ride entrance host announced, "Attention: there is only a 30 minute wait for Top Thrill Dragster everyone." The line was just filling the final ramp, and I said, "This is 15 minutes also." It would have been, but the ride went down. Still, I thought maybe it was the new park policy to double the estimated wait time for the chance of a Fast Lane swarm?

Ffej said:
At the end of the night, it said 45 minutes on the Millenium Force board, and I confirmed it with the ride entrance host. The line was only filling the ramp.

Back in the day Ride Hosts would make the wait time longer then it really was to help sway people from riding so the crew would not have to work very late. Another tactic used at MF was to close off all the queue towards the ramp and only have open the queue back by the entrance. That way if a guest were to walk up to the entrance, they would see people lined up all the way to the entrance and decide not to get in line. Maybe crews are still doing that?

Here's a question: when taking advantage of the reduced rate for groups, do the Fast Lane passes have to be purchased in one transaction (i.e. one credit card swipe, or all cash at once), or does the system allow for individual payments at the group rate so long as everyone is represented to be in a group together?

Just curious re: how easy it would be to drive that number to $30 by utilizing strangers...

Moneyneversleeps said:

How long are the FL waits compared to the regular line waits? Thanks.

The wait times yesterday were about an hour and a half for the big ones and FL was pretty much a walk on for all of them. Maybe a few trains at the most. TTD does utilize the front train for FL but mingles the regut line in at a good mix. Same for Mav. MF takes you under the station, which is pretty sweet as an enthusiast, and takes groups about half and half from both lines. Magnum, Raptor, and Blue streak take you to the station as the merge point and then from there you're mixed in right away. They did stop their lines to let us in on those rides. Windseeker, Power Tower, and Skyhawk take you right to the front of the line no matter what, as far as my experience goes. TTD is the one that I think they'll be a fight on. The FL just cruises right by everyone else in line and its the only one where the two are right next to each other and truly have a chance to interact. All in all, it was a great experience for us and now that its spoiled me, I'm sure I'll use it regularly. The best part of it was being able to enjoy the park without the waits. We could really do whatever we wanted then when we wanted to ride, we did and it was on to the next one without a rush. As far as rerides, I realized maybe I can't do that like I used to and I didn't see it happen too often. I think this is a great thing for families because it'll keep riders and non riders together instead of breaking them off into groups. It will definitely give them time to experience more of what the park has to offer. If they come up to a ride and see a two hour wait, they can just ride it quickly and move on instead of the non riders going their separate ways. I like it and it seems to have already been tweaked to a degree compared to the experiences others have shared about last weekend. Today and tmrw might be a different story with the ACE spring convention. It seems enthusiasts may be more apt to reride but I have to imagine 98% of FL users will use it to enjoy more of the park rather than marathon a few rides. Had another great experience at the park and as always, can't wait to come back.

With FL today, right at park opening, got TTD front row, one-cycle wait for 3rd train of the day. Walked on Mav when reg Q was an hour wait. Walked on Raptor when it was at a 2 hour wait with all Qs full and out on the midway, but waited 50 min for MF at 1pm, when normal Q was posted at 2 hours but the two on the same train as us that did not have FP said they waited 1.5 hours. Lots of security and park brass were at the MF FL entrance early on. Think they are being cautious not to let too many FL users hold up the normal line. If they keep the current ratio of FL to normies at MF, when the FL Q is full, it will be a one hour wait for FL users to get a ride, about half the wait of the normal line..

Break Trims said:
Here's a question: when taking advantage of the reduced rate for groups, do the Fast Lane passes have to be purchased in one transaction (i.e. one credit card swipe, or all cash at once), or does the system allow for individual payments at the group rate so long as everyone is represented to be in a group together?

Not sure how it is at CP yet (I'd assume it is the same), but at KI, you can break the payments up among several cards at the reduced $30 rate. So yeah, strangers are your friends. ;)

Yes strangers are your friends. At CP, they will take individual payments but obviously you all need to be present.

I'd be pretty frustrated if I paid for Fast Lane and had to wait an hour to get on.

Is this due to the number of FL'ers in that line?

Yeah, I'm confused by Magnut's experience as well. If there really was a 50 minute Fast Lane wait for MF in May, how would it be in July or Halloweekends?

As I said, there were no FL waits that I saw at all on Thursday. Maybe everyone buys FL on Saturday though, I don't know?

It's just confusing, as the FL line goes right up to the station for MF, does it not? Or are they using the old Freeway line? Even then that was only 15 minutes tops.

Something sounds weird about that.