Fast Lane

Why not just have one set price? Scrap this group discount crap. That might help keep it at bay. $75 a piece might be the magic number, who knows...

You guys are just trying to discourage people from buying Fast Lane by making the price so high it is unappealing. That is not the way to do things, the park is correct in limiting the amount of wrist bands sold and keeping the price low to create demand and make people see the value in buying Fast Lane.

I actually think Fast Lane is one of the best things to come to Cedar Point in a long time.

Pete if it were $75 I would not be buying. But, since it's not I might consider trying to hook up with a friend or two and find some random people to get them for $30 which is an incredible deal. Way too good of a value in my opinion. You're right Pete. It needs to be a value but right now it's just too good.

Pete said:
...the park is correct in limiting the amount of wrist bands sold and keeping the price low to create demand and make people see the value in buying Fast Lane.

If, as has been happening, people buying FL are forced to wait in 40 minute lines, what value is there? People who experience a 40 minute wait after having paid to avoid exactly that likely won't buy again. That's not a very good business model.

If they raise the price to $75, they only need to sell 2/3 as many passes to see the same revenue, while the the amount of people using FL is decreased by 33%. That 40 minute wait now becomes 25, which is far more appealing as a value proposition, I'd think.

The park is leaving money on the table right now.

I agree entirely. They're pricing it way too low at the moment. If you sell fewer at a higher price and score the same revenue, everyone wins. The park gets its "revenue enhancement," Fast Lane buyers get a high value proposition and short waits, non-buyers see negligible impact on their wait time.

Provided the stories about 40 min. Fast Lane waits are true and not an exaggeration. Most reports I've heard from people using Fast Lane have been extremely positive and they have reported very short waits.

I was at the Point Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I now feel qualified to share some thoughts on Fast Lane.

Fast Lane appears to be a big hit, and should prove quite profitable, at least in the short term. Saturday I witnessed people lined up at 2pm to buy Fast Lane from the store in Frontier Town. Imagine that, they come to the park, wait in a few long lines, and then shell out the $fitty. A few minutes later, I saw some people being turned away from the Fast Lane vendor in the store by the Camp Snoopy entrance. The clerk said they were out of wristbands, but there were more on the way. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I don't really know if sales were being limited or not...

Implementation can only get better. I'm sure Cedar Point brass are monitoring Fast Lane closely, and are aware of all the ideas volleyed about in this discussion, from the thoughtful to the purely kooky.

Those who have suggested greater wait times for the 'Big 3' nailed it. We got all our rides on MF during the 3 ERT mornings. Didn't bother waiting in line any other time, it was just too long. The one chance I thought I had to ride Maverick, Sunday evening, it was down, though to be fair, rides generally were quite reliable during our visit. The closest I got to riding TTD was letting out a sigh at the sight of the mostly full queue while waiting to be dropped from the top of the Power Tower Monday afternoon. Fast Lane is causing longer waits for those who don't use it. How much longer, I have no idea...

We all have our own set of circumstances that bring us to Cedar Point. For my part, Fast Lane is disappointing. I stay at Hotel Breakers every time I visit Cedar Point, and unlike many, I find the experience worth every penny. Though pennies are hardly significant when thinking of the money bags I've dropped at Breakers over the years. There have been many comments made about financial discrimination, affordability, and what not. I think affordability is not really the issue as much as weighing the value of Fast Pass. It's not something I would pay for. Call me a dork, but when I visit Cedar Point, I don't see myself on a one-man crusade to have fun(two-man, actually, since my son is always with me). If there are fifteen thousand people in the park, I want all of them to have a good time, and I would take little pleasure in waiting 10 minutes to ride Millennium Force, walking past the family from Traverse City, waiting 2 hours. But that's me, and I know I'm not a 'typical' park guest so...

For somebody who chooses to visit Cedar Point just one or two days out of the year, Fast Lane is a great investment. For somebody like me who plans to visit 5 times this year, for a total of 18 days, and 13 nights in Breakers(a typical season for me, by the way), not. So yeah, it's a little frustrating to take thousands of dollars out of my pocket and put it into Cedar Point's, and watch people walk past me in line. What does this mean to me? I certainly am not boycotting Cedar Point or any such craziness. I'm going ahead with plans for my next visit in late June, 4 days, 3 nights. We'll see how that goes, and plan from there... However, as my friends and co-workers consider me the Cedar Point advisor, my advice to them this year will be simple yet unfortunate. Either put down the paper for Fast Lane, or don't go...

I would expect that they will tweak the system during the season based on how well it sells (or oversells in terms of wait times for FL). Some days it may be under priced. But other days it will be over priced.

Did they make many changes at Kings Island last year during the season?

Pete said:
You guys are just trying to discourage people from buying Fast Lane by making the price so high it is unappealing. That is not the way to do things, the park is correct in limiting the amount of wrist bands sold and keeping the price low to create demand and make people see the value in buying Fast Lane.

I actually think Fast Lane is one of the best things to come to Cedar Point in a long time.

I'm assuming you are one of the ones who agree with the whole Fast Lane idea with the mindset that "if you can't afford it and are gonna complain about it, then don't come to the park" like a quarter of the others think on this thread. If you think $50 is cheap for a FL pass, then what is $25 extra to you?

Fast Lane was fantastic! Especially for a Saturday. I was there on this past Saturday and Sunday. I will only make it once this year and it was nice to fit in multiple rides of everything for my friend and I. Its been years since I was able to come back so this really maximized our time. We had only bought it originally for Saturday but decided to get one for Sunday also. We also originally were going to go Monday to the park since we stayed at Breakers but we were able to ride everything enough that we relaxed by the pool before our ride home to NY. I think the MF line might have been long for the FL later in the day on Saturday but we skipped it when it looked this long. I don't think I was in line more then 20 minutes ever unless I waited for the front line or the ride was down (Dragster). Perhaps as the season goes on the FL lines may be longer.

I think the fast lane pass is a great idea for people like me who only get to come one weekend a year. I come Labor day weekend to visit family and go Saturday and Sunday. I have already purchased the passes for both days and can't wait. I understand the frustration to people that live there and get season passes but at the same time they can usually go when it is not busy and ride all they want. I do the same with Busch Gardens where I Live. If it's busy, I will just spend a little bit of time there and come back another day. No big deal.

TwistedWicker77 said:
I'm assuming you are one of the ones who agree with the whole Fast Lane idea with the mindset that "if you can't afford it and are gonna complain about it, then don't come to the park" like a quarter of the others think on this thread. If you think $50 is cheap for a FL pass, then what is $25 extra to you?

You're right, I do agree with the Fast Lane idea, and I visit often but will buy Fast Lane only once or twice. I think some people who are complaining about it just don't like the idea of someone paying for something and getting an advantage that they don't have. It's not that their day at CP has been negatively affected in a substantial way, they just don't like seeing people walk right by them and get on the ride. Sour grapes.

GoBucks89 said:
I would expect that they will tweak the system during the season based on how well it sells (or oversells in terms of wait times for FL). Some days it may be under priced. But other days it will be over priced.

Did they make many changes at Kings Island last year during the season?

Here's a quick timeline of the bit at KI:

Mid-July - Fast Lane is introduced and is $50 per person (no additional per person discounts). Can only be used from 12-7 daily on 10 rides. Passes were originally scheduled to run through Labor Day only.

August 6 - Fast Lane usage expanded to all day. Price structure changes from $50 per person to weekday (as low as $25 pp) and weekend(as low as $35 pp) models. No additional rides added at this time but several more were added to the list over the course of the rest of the season.

Mid-September - Fright Lane introduced. Priced as low as $20 pp (I believe that a single pass was between $30 and $40, don't remember exactly). One-time use per Haunt attraction.

Current - Fast Lane is expanded to 24 total rides. Pricing structure is the same at all parks (starting at $50 pp but working down to $30 pp).

Pete said:

TwistedWicker77 said:
I'm assuming you are one of the ones who agree with the whole Fast Lane idea with the mindset that "if you can't afford it and are gonna complain about it, then don't come to the park" like a quarter of the others think on this thread. If you think $50 is cheap for a FL pass, then what is $25 extra to you?

You're right, I do agree with the Fast Lane idea, and I visit often but will buy Fast Lane only once or twice. I think some people who are complaining about it just don't like the idea of someone paying for something and getting an advantage that they don't have. It's not that their day at CP has been negatively affected in a substantial way, they just don't like seeing people walk right by them and get on the ride. Sour grapes.

That is completely understandable and I don't want you to think I am starting a fight on here, but I would be a sour grape too if I was a low-middle class family of 4 who only goes to the park once a year and they have to stand in lines twice as long now. It is not yet an effective system as discussed by many people in this thread. Yeah it is bringing in money for the park which is great, but for example, using only the FL queue to fill up the front train of Dragster while the others have to fill in the back train is just ridiculous! The point of Dragster having 2 trains in the loading station is to keep capacity high and the line moving efficiently. Capacity may still be the same, but the line is absurd now.

TwistedWicker77 said:
...they have to stand in lines twice as long now.

Lines have not doubled as a result of FL. Let's try and keep the discussion reasonable. There is plenty we can critique about FL without being overly dramatic.

I agree wholeheartedly that the implementation at TTD is strangely bad, but that ride does represent the worst case scenario for paid FOL access.

djDaemon said:

TwistedWicker77 said:
...they have to stand in lines twice as long now.

Lines have not doubled as a result of FL. Let's try and keep the discussion reasonable. There is plenty we can critique about FL without being overly dramatic.

I agree wholeheartedly that the implementation at TTD is strangely bad, but that ride does represent the worst case scenario for paid FOL access.

I'm not sure how you can make that claim? Reducing "stand-by" ride capacity by 50% means it will take twice as many trains to move through the same amount of people.

For TTD, perhaps. But that is one line, and as I said, it's the worst case scenario. So yeah, on a Saturday with nice weather, TTD's standard queue wait might double. But the other 19 FL rides' waits do not double for standard riders. The impact is not as dramatic as TwistedWicker77 is implying.

Just thought I'd chime in and let everyone know that I believe the prices of FASTLANE just went up. CP's website says $55/person now and goes as low as $40/person for groups of 4 or more. No additional discounts for groups bigger than 4. Guess CP caught on to groups forming within the park.

I think it was yesterday when I checked the website to look at the prices, because a couple of my friends and I are planning to go in a few weeks were thinking about getting Fast Lane. They must have just changed it, since it wasn't like that a few days ago.

And don't forget that people have reported that they are mixing the regular and Fast Lane lines now in front train queue house.