Fast Lane

Once again, I am going to encourage all to take a look at how Magic Mountain handles the Flash Pass for X2 and encourage Cedar Point to implement a similar, "one time only," access to MForce, Dragster and Maverick. Otherwise, come summer and fall none of us are going to get on those three in less than 2 hours with Fast Lane guests having unlimited access.

^There's an even simpler way that Six Flags system keeps it fair. The prices. As it stands, CF Fast Lane is a "platinum" line-skipping experience (minus double-rides), but for the much lower price of $30-50. Also, I'm pretty sure the SF platinum level is pretty heavily limited. I've never actually been inconvenienced by a platinum double ride. I know they happen, but they really aren't overwhelming. If CP were charging $100 for Fast Lane, they'd be selling far fewer, but the profit would probably be just as good. With fewer people on Fast Lane, there's less of an impact on the rest of the line. I think in the future we might see a tiered Fast Lane system, and you can bet that FL as it exists today will increase in price, at least at CP. I think Fast Lane is priced right for most of the other CF parks, but CP has got to be priced higher.

Honestly, if the prices are kept this low, Fast Lane itself will get worse as the park attendance increases. Obviously, if 100% of guests had FL, we'd be back to square one. There comes a point when having so many guests on line-skipping passes creates lines at the Fast Lane entrances, and that sucks for everyone, FL or not. Q-bot largely avoids this problem, which Lo-Q calls "bunching". The Q-bot system, even on platinum, has no guarantee of a short virtual wait. The gold level tries to give you a wait of 25% of the normal time, but if there are too many reservations for a given ride, the wait time increases, or even becomes "FULL". This is why you'll very rarely see more than 10 people come in through a Flash Pass entrance at once. The system does everything it can to block bunches of people coming through at once, which with an unfettered system like FL, will happen at the big coasters. The X2 upcharge is there because it has one of the longest lines and lowest capacities.

I really wish CF had gone with a smart system like Q-bots instead of an unfettered, cheap wristband system. But the simple fix is to jack up the price.

No one would buy Fast Lane if you could only ride MF, TTD and Maverick once, that would have no value for the price they charge for the pass. The value in Fast Lane exists because you can enjoy the rides as much as you want with minimum waiting.

There is no reason to raise the price of Fast Lane, they are supposed to limit sales each day to keep the experience good for everyone. I believe that they do in fact do this, as someone here reported that some retail locations were sold out of the wrist bands when they tried to buy Fast Lane.

BayernKurve said:
Once again, I am going to encourage all to take a look at how Magic Mountain handles the Flash Pass for X2 and encourage Cedar Point to implement a similar, "one time only," access to MForce, Dragster and Maverick. Otherwise, come summer and fall none of us are going to get on those three in less than 2 hours with Fast Lane guests having unlimited access.

Magic Mountain "flash pass" is over $100 dollars and does not include
The signature attraction "X2". You need to prepurchase x rides in advance with a specific time for $10 per x ride reservation. The fee is in addition to park admission price plus the 100 dollar flash pass price.
for the already super high premium price this setup at Magic Mountain is horrible IMHO.

Although I do think Cedar Fair should increase current low coat fast lane prices and limit rerides of signature attractions To once per hour especially during peak times.

I think for the relatively low price CP charges, they'd be justified in limiting Fast Lane access. Or make it two tiered like Six Flags does. The $50 pass gets you on the major rides once or twice each in a day, the $100 pass gives you unlimited access. That way everybody wins.

Hey kids, don't get me wrong. The $50 each we ponied up for FL on this past Sat. was well worth it. The 50 min. wait we had for MF was an anomily I think. Like I said, the park brass was all over it. At the time we used it for MF, they were really cautious of the amount of FL users they let in as opposed to the guests that didn't pay for it. They are still tweaking it, obviously. Otherwise, the FL saved the day. The park was horribly crowded. The front lot was full save for the overspill lot on the west side. Raptor was in full Q and a 2+ hour wait and we got on in 5 min or less. The FL got us on maXair, WSeeker, Magnum, Gemini, Skyhawk, Mean Streak, PTower, etc. as walk-on's basically. We waited 20 min for Mav mid-day when normies were waiting 2 hours. Didn't try TTD mid-day, so not sure what that was like. It seems that they are being very concious not to let this system ruin the day for the guest's that do not pay the premium to have it. It really is only necessary on the busiest days. The 50 min wait for MF when the FL Q was full was a bit annoying, but they are tweaking the ratio so early on.

Have a Plat pass for early entry, but FL does not apply until regular park open at 10. Best trick is to hit Mav or MF for early enty, then hang up by TTD entrance til 10, then with FL you can easily get 1st train of the day or have 1-2 cycle wait for front row, then head to MF or Mav for very short FL wait. As the day goes on and the more FL passes sell the wait for MF, TTD, and Mav will only get longer: 30-1hr. Everything else, including Raptor and Magnum will be a walk on all day, no matter how busy the park gets. Ride on people!

Just want to say I went yesterday and loved the Fast Lane Pass, I think it is worth it on a busy day, considering Disney tickets are close to 100 dollars I think, and CP is only 42 if you buy at Meijer, adding the 30 per ticket to group to make it 72 is not bad at all. I loved it, but I could see if I did not have it. I may not like it as much :)

I am curious as to what others have observed as the users of the fast pass. I was there yesterday and did not notice many families. Seemed to be couples for the most part.

I also noticed that there were "packs" of users. Maybe it was just coincedence but I counted 18 people all walk through the MF entrance within 15 seconds. Also noticed 12 people all hit Skyhawk at the same time.

I noticed that too on the corkscrew. There were a group of about 10 people come in at the same time, and then 12 maybe 15 min. later. I think that everybody who got FL was more or less satisfied with their purchase, from what I read here.

I found this interesting on the Kings Dominion site:

"...Due to ride capacity restrictions, you can ride Volcano: The Blast Coaster twice a day with your Fast Lane pass."

So if they can do this with Volcano, then they could also do it with Dragster and/or Maverick.

^They must have changed that again. For a while, Volcano could only be ridden once during the day.

I went to the park this past weekend and I got a flashpass on sat because my gf didn't want to ride the big rides so I didn't want to have to make her wait 2+ hrs for me to ride anything.....my experience with it was great. I didn't abuse it. I basically was able to get on everything once and ttd twice. If I stayed at the park the whole day I could have got many more rides, the 50 minute wait for mf is true,around 6 o'clock I waited a half hr and the FL queue was 3/4 full, but i didnt notice anyone waiting in the line complaining.I didn't really wait for anything else maverick was 10 min. Also I noticed they were indeed letting non Fl people in the first train at ttd when I was in line both times. I will be getting a FL if I go on a Saturday again this year.

I went today and granted it was not a pack day but I didn't even notice Fast Pass affecting the line.

Because the park is not busy! Go this weekend or a few weeks from now when the park is slammed on a daily basis and let us know if you notice fast lane holding up the lines!

The system in place right now is a joke! Everyone wants to ride the big 3, Unlimited rides is BS! Go back to just having the VIP experience! If you want to skip lines, pay the high dollar, not this 30-50 dollar BS!

Right, because there's not a logical price point between $50 and $375.

I do agree that the price of VIP to be on the high side, but on the other hand, Fast Lane is way too cheap. It's already obvious what the people want Fast Lane for, TTD MF and Maverick. Adjustments are needed!

I don't see them limiting the number they sell, they can say whatever they want. Thats just as bad as them to say that they would start turning cars away on Halloweekends because the park is at capacity. Not gonna happen!

There have already been reports of certain locations running out of FL wristbands. So they are apparently limiting sales.

But as has been said, an artificial limit is not the right approach. Instead, raise the price significantly. I'd have to think somewhere in the $70-$80 neighborhood (with group discounts bringing it down as low as $60) would accomplish that. That way, the family that plans ahead for their one trip each year can still afford them, while those who are currently buying them on a whim would think twice.

^I'd agree with that. Also, make it so that one person has to pay for everyone so that it is indeed a 'group' rate instead of this whole "Everyone meet up at X time at Y place so that we can get the group rate" stuff.

I don't mind the faux group thing. I mean, does that occur often enough for it to have any impact?

I know I'm going off of assumptions, but I've seen a fair amount of threads on here already trying to do that. Not to mention I bet there are people in the park who do it too. Heck I would. You're right though, price needs to increase more than anything.