Fast Lane

Let's summarize the past 16 pages of this discussion...

Cedar Point is no longer an escape from reality for a short period of time. It has become a lesson for all that profits are king, life really sucks if you don't have lots of money, and if you don't like it - you can certainly go elsewhere.

Disguise these facts with lots of "family value" attractions, upcharges & discounts, and the importance that it "all depends on the day anyway", boils down to the fact that you now have to do your homework if you want to get the best value available when (or if - at all) you visit.

Frankly, I am getting tired of the entire upcharge/fastlane idea, and I think it should be scrapped. With the removal of the paddle wheel boats, Wildcat, and then sanctioning of linejumping (i.e. fastlane) these introductions actually reduce the value of a general admission as it is.

That wasn't a summary. That was you bitching. :)

SteveH said:
and then sanctioning of linejumping (i.e. fastlane)

The park isnt' sanctioning line jumping.

There are 2 different queues now. One for those who purchased a base ticket, and one for those who upgraded that ticket. Linejumping is not allowed in either queue.

I can speak from personal FL experience on May 18th, the front station on TTD was being used for both FL users and the regular line. That actually means more seats are available for non users than FL users. Our wait averaged about 15 on TTD. And the normal line seemed to move along at a normal pace. All in all, I think they're doing a good job with it and with the slight price increase, they're making it even better.

Pass holders should not get a discount since this kind of service is not aimed towards them. It is for the people that don't get to go to the park several times a year.

Universal has two forms of fast passes. One allows you to ride the listed rides only once. The second allows you to ride them an unlimited amount of times. The second obviously coating more. Depending on the season, the prices go up and down.

Edit: Disney World has free fast passes but are limited. You can only have one pass at a time. (Possible to have more but there are rules) Would you people complain if the tickets were out by 10 but you got to the park at 10:05 and couldn't get one? Some of their fast passes do go that fast. I feel like some here would still complain about that.
/end edit

Raising the price to $100 is absurd. They wouldn't make nearly the same profit off of it. Really $50 per is a fair price. I can even see them taking out the discount for multiple passes and it would still be a fair price.

Unfortunately this is a part of how things work and all of the complaining in the world isn't going to change it. People can save this for their families if they plan ahead and are smart about it. If they still don't think its worth it then that's fine. They can just spend the money on something else. Prioritize what you need and what you can do without for awhile. Try giving up smoking/drinking or whatever other bad habit you have.

SteveH said:
Cedar Point is no longer an escape from reality for a short period of time.

Unless they start making me wear a suit and tie and I have people bugging me all day long and I am sitting at a desk for 8+ hrs a day, its still an escape from reality for a short period of time.

djDaemon said:
Are you not familiar with PR?

Ha. That exact sentence was queued in my brain for posting. Then I continue reading and saw you beat me to it. :)

CireEdorel said:
Raising the price to $100 is absurd.

Unless $100 offers the maximum profit.

If they have 100 FL available each day at $50, but have 300 people coming to ask for it, it is underpriced. They need to raise the price until the number of people asking for it meets the number they make available. That could be $70, $100, or $150. And trust me, they are collecting the numbers on this.

CireEdorel said:
...Prioritize what you need and what you can do without for awhile. Try giving up smoking/drinking or whatever other bad habit you have.

Unfortunately, in the current challenging economic climate, the only bad habit I have left is going to amusement parks...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

JuggaLotus said:

CireEdorel said:
Raising the price to $100 is absurd.

Unless $100 offers the maximum profit.

If they have 100 FL available each day at $50, but have 300 people coming to ask for it, it is underpriced. They need to raise the price until the number of people asking for it meets the number they make available. That could be $70, $100, or $150. And trust me, they are collecting the numbers on this.

According to people on this forum, they aren't limiting it or haven't met their max for the day. By your logic, they need to lower the price for Max profit. Until they release numbers (won't happen) we will never know.

So, the reports of places selling FL passes selling out isn't enough of an indication that they are limiting the numbers?

I would imagine any limit they have in place now is somewhat high, so that they can get a better grasp as to what the "sweet spot" is in terms of price, and what percentage of FL tickets has what impact on lines, etc.. The "hard" limit would probably come later, once the optimum mix is discovered.

But yeah, there have definitely been reports that the park has sold out of FL passes. Though some of those reports indicated those sold out locations would restock.

Which could be misinformed employees.

Or, they could be just pulling some wristbands from a well stocked location to refill an empty one. Doesn't necessarily indicate that they've added more to a day's allotment.

Cedar Point is no longer an escape from reality for a short period of time. It has become a lesson for all that profits are king, life really sucks if you don't have lots of money, and if you don't like it - you can certainly go elsewhere.

I'll just ignore the part about profits, as I'm not sure how many kids you take to Cedar Point contemplate the market share of a company as you pull into the lot, much less when you drive up the causeway, and instead focus on this idea of going "elsewhere".

Where are you going to go? The fact is, Cedar Fair is eons behind the rest of the industry in successfully implementing a Fast-Lane type system.

Are you really going to let a marginal increase in your wait as you sloth through the "line of serfs" whilst the nobles ride the rides at their leisure ruin your day?

That was my thought, too - in addition to figuring out the FL limit, they're probably trying to determine how many passes should be distributed to each location. Seems that a higher-tech solution would save a lot of work.

High tech at Cedar Point? Is that even possible?

Well, it is now. Just look at them there robot lockers.

Too bad FL didn't work for those lockers. I waited longer to use that kiosk than I did for MF. :)

We road TTD this past Sunday and what would have been a 30 minute wait was actually 50 minutes. 144 people walked up to the FL gate while we were waiting. That's 8 extra trains that I had to wait for since without the FL those 144 people would have been behind me in the line.

We went this past Tuesday and the line on TTD was exactly the same length but only 6 people walked up to the FL gate while we waited in line. We were on in 30 minutes.

The ride was having no problems or down time during either wait as far as I could tell. 20 more minutes on Sunday and the park was not very crowded. This will be ridiculous when things get real busy. They need to limit the number of rides on the top 3 if not all IMO.

Opening weekend 10-15 people per ride cycle breezed by us on Windseeker. There were several ride cycles and it took us 40 minutes to get on in what I thought was going to be a 20 minute wait. We didn't ride anything else that day. We got fed up with the long lines and went to the beach instead.

We have platinum passes and go up about 30x per year and have dinner there each time. We also spend about 6 nights total at the resort. If things are not changed we will probably visit less often than usual and may even cancel our vacation at the CP resort in July and October. I will not spend nearly $800 at the resort just to wait 2-3 hours watching FL people skip on by on my favorite rides.

Smitty Werbenjaegermanjensen said:
I will not spend nearly $800...

800/55 = 14.5

While I'm normally a proponent of "speaking with your wallet", your presence won't be missed, financially speaking. The park need only sell 15 FL passes to make up for your not visiting anymore.

Why not stay off-property and/or avoid eating in the park, then take that savings and purchase a few FL passes for yourself? That seems like a much more reasonable solution.