Fast Lane

That's not going to happen. It doesn't make any sense to do that.

The Platinum Pass basically already has an hour of Fast Lane built in every day at CP & KI...

Used FL Wednesday and LOVED it! I have to admit I marathoned Millenium as it is my favorite coaster... but before you hate me, I'm a single rider and EVERY time I paired up with another single rider already waiting in the queue, so I didn't impact the wait time of regular riders at all. The FL line was never very long, but the ride ops only let 4 to 8 FL'ers in per cycle (that is the direction they were given). So, if they let in 4 per cycle, that really only impacts the general line by one car in a 9 car train. That means the general line wait time is increased by 11% or about 7 extra minutes in a 1 hour line. Obviously, if they let 8 in, then it impacts a 1 hour line by about 15 minutes. So... at least on Millenium, it does NOT come anywhere close to doubling the wait time for the general line - and I for one, will always purchase one when I visit the park once or twice per year - makes my 6 hour drive so much more worth it! BTW, I got stuck TWICE on the Millenium lift hill in one day - perhaps that is karma for using FL???

I purchased fast lane on Saturday. Rode more rides than I hoped for. Even being a busy day we rode MF, drag, and raptor 5 times each, and had multiple rides on everything else we wanted to ride. I counted 40 rides total, with an hour lunch and hour dinner.

I asked the lady handling the merge in the MF station how they were merging and she told me 12 fast lane people per cycle. Then later a different lady told me the same thing. At Dragster and Maverick it looked about the same, so it looked/sounded like they're using a 33%/67%, FL/Normie split on the big three. I did not see MF, TTD, or Maverick's fast lane queues empty, TTD's did get close but MF and Maverick's actually had 10-20 min waits to get to the merge points.

For me, I'll get it every time. I did feel guilty just blowing by the lines, and people did mutter "oh come on" and stuff on the rides like Raptor and Blue Streak. On those, the employees sort of just stick their arms out to hold the normies back with that inevitable 'these people are more important than you' feeling to it.

Every ride has a sign that clearly says that line jumping is cause for removal from the park. Unless, of course, you are willing to pay CP to line jump, then they are all for it. Unreal.

angirl013 said:
Alright, I went on Friday and it was totally packed, I'm so glad I decided to cough up the cheddar for a Fast Lane.

Interesting, I was there Friday as well and thought the place was dead. When I entered a totally empty Windseeker line around 8:30 that evening, we entered behind two guys who came up the Fast Lane entrance. My friend poked fun at them about the time they saved with their passes, and they said they hadn't waited longer than 10 minutes for anything that day. Which was really funny, because we hadn't waited longer than 10 minutes for anything either just because we knew how to avoid the herds.

A friend of mine went on Saturday and bought Fast Lane. He used to live near the park, now he's 8 hours away and only visits 1-2 times a year. He knew he'd still be waiting a bit for the major rides, but that didn't bother him. However, he said other Fast Lane users weren't so understanding. The general consensus among the people he talked to or overheard in line was that they'd "never waste their money" on it again.

It sounds like the biggest issues seem to occur on Saturdays, which shouldn't be much of a surprise. The fact they already raised prices once shows that they're on the right track, but I think it's going to have to go quite a bit higher before they strike the proper balance. I personally still believe the best low-tech version of this system is one that gives one "line jump" pass for each ride and assigns time frames for the major rides to keep everyone spread out.

kevin812 said:
Every ride has a sign that clearly says that line jumping is cause for removal from the park. Unless, of course, you are willing to pay CP to line jump, then they are all for it. Unreal.

No, line jumping in either line is cause for removal from the park.

My wife and I purchased the FL wristbands for this past Sunday (Memorial Day weekend) and I don't think I'll go to the park without it ever again. This was a perfect solution for us being from the Cincinnati area and having family events on Saturday and Monday we only had a little bit of a window to be at the park on Sunday. Basically we had from 9 (stayed Saturday night at Breakers) to 6, so this option was perfect for us to insure we could ride everything and not waste our time getting up there. Honestly it was the best day I've ever had at the park. Hit every ride once, the MF and Maverick twice (had to wait 15min both times for MF and 15 and 30min for Maverick) and rode Dragster 3 times. Never once did we get off a ride and then get back in line, it was a minimum of 3 hours before going back to one. They seemed to have a pretty good system in place allowing I would say 25-30% of FL per train cycle. Only problem we had oddly enough wasn't even on a coaster but on the Giant Ferris Wheel where a family didnt understand why we were put on before them. Other than that it was an amazing day. We could actually enjoy the park, sit down, take out time to eat lunch, and be able to get out of the park at a reasonable time to make the 4 hour drive back home. If you only have one weekend day to spend at the park I can't recommend FL enough!

kevin812 said:
Every ride has a sign that clearly says that line jumping is cause for removal from the park. Unless, of course, you are willing to pay CP to line jump, then they are all for it. Unreal.

No one is paying CP to line jump. Fast Lane has it's own line, line jumping is not allowed from either line.

Sealedseven said:
When Fast Lane DOES fill up a whole train in the queue, then the standard riders don't move into the first platform. Thus, the doubled time in queue still applies when FL is marathon'ing TTD.

No, the wait is not doubled.

The ONLY way in which the wait at TTD would be doubled is if every single train throughout the entire day in the front station were only filled with FL riders. Because that isn't happening, the wait for TTD is not doubled.

djDaemon said:

Sealedseven said:
When Fast Lane DOES fill up a whole train in the queue, then the standard riders don't move into the first platform. Thus, the doubled time in queue still applies when FL is marathon'ing TTD.

No, the wait is not doubled.

The ONLY way in which the wait at TTD would be doubled is if every single train throughout the entire day in the front station were only filled with FL riders. Because that isn't happening, the wait for TTD is not doubled.

You do know that was for when the front station WAS for FL riders only..... Now that it's not anymore, then its obviously not doubled. Read a little more on before Quoting ;)

My brother and I went to the park on Thursday, May 31. I'm a PPH and he's a CPPH, and we go over 30 times a year. We debated about spending the $50/person for FL, but once we realized that Dragster was down (it ended up coming up and staying up the rest of the day), along with the high winds that could potentially shut down Windseeker, Wicked Twister and Raptor (they didn't end up going down for wind, but WT was down for awhile for mechanical reasons), we decided that we were going to bite and try out FL.

We ended up riding:
Millennium Force 5 times (3 times in a row, then 2 times in a row)
Maverick 5 times (3 times in a row, then 2 times in a row)
Power Tower Space Shot 1 time (FL wasn't needed, but we goofed around and used the FL line just to see how it worked)
Mean Streak 2 times (again FL wasn't needed, but we were curious as to where the FL queue would take us)
Raptor 3 times (used FL once in the early part of the day, but wasn't needed after 6pm)
Windseeker 1 time (didn't use FL)
MaxAir 1 time (used FL)
Gemini 1 time (used FL, the queue takes you up the "old" queue to the front of the trains)
Dragster 2 times (different times during the day, and FL was a merging with the regular line before the ramp to the station. The worker was "corralling" everyone, FL included, and waiting until the station wasn't too overcrowded, which was an awesome move on his part).
Blue Streak (didn't use FL)

Mantis - 1 time (w/FL - the merge was right before you cross the lagoon, so you still have at least a 15 minute wait if the station is full)
Disaster Transport - 1 time, no FL available, but had to ride since it's not going to be there next year
Magnum 1 time (used FL, it merges you at the old FreeWay point, and wasn't really necessary, but again we wanted to see where it would take us)

While it's not something I will use EVERY time I come to the park, it is definitely something I will use if I'm going with people who haven't been before or in a long time. I was somewhat disappointed that there was no price break for a party larger than 4 people, but that's just because we often come with 5 people.

I didn't hear too much grumbling from the people in the regular lines, just people asking where they should get their wristband from.

On a completely unrelated note, Iron Dragon is back to 3 train operation. The ride hosts were complaining about it though, because "we only have 30 seconds to dispatch a ride now". Well, as a rider, I love that I'm not waiting longer to ride.

If they can't dispatch an Iron Dragon train in less than 35 seconds, they are doing it wrong. That ride has successfully operated with that interval for more than 20 years; just because they didn't do it last year doesn't mean it can't be done.

(For another example of this kind of "doing it wrong", see Gemini. Though, in fairness, they're a lot better at it this year than in recent years past.)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave, I see one possible hole in your contention. We know that Americans (and even a few Canadians) have been getting fatter and fatter. With the increasing body proportions and extra heft, getting in and out of those tubs becomes more difficult and requires additional time on a year-by-year basis.

I've come up with an equation to explain this phenomenon.

t =m+(b-25)*d

where t = time required to get in and out of ride compartments, m= minimum time required to enter and exit ride, b = BMI, or body mass index (25 being the upper range of normal), and d being the difficulty factor in accomplishing entrance and exit into the compartment for the particular ride.

So a normal proportioned individual will be encumbered by the difficulty factor of the ride compartment much less than some lardass who guzzles non-light beer by the 40-oz every night.

Yeah, Iron Dragon has no seat belts and all items are carried on. 30 second dispatches should be no problem.

I don't understand why they stack Gemini so much. I think they have a longer interval than Magnum and they only have one seatbelt to check per row. That is one ride that should never stack considering that it ran without stacking with three trains AND seatbelts.

^Now imagine if they didn't check the harnesses!

Iron Dragon is harder to dispatch on time than you think. Ensign has it right as far as how hard it is for bigger people to get in and out. Not to mention there are large portions of people who simply don't listen to instructions and don't know what they are doing when the train pulls up. I'd say about a quarter of the time someone tries to cross through the train and put their belongings on the exit ramp when it should go with them.

You would think it's easy, but surprisingly it can get difficult just as easily.

I just read this article. Cedar Fair could learn from this. Especially the part at the bottom of the first page. #3. People get really, really mad when they wait in line and someone is served before them.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/operations/2012/06/queueing_...line_.html

Another line:

But in most situations, we demand social fairness. No one is more important than anyone else, and everyone should be served in the order he or she arrived.

There are different classes of tickets and there are different classes of lines. All customers are eligible to purchase any class of tickets. It is not a question of fairness.

Just as Airlines, Trains and Boats have separate classes, separate entrances and separate loading times, so do Golf courses, music clubs, bars, sporting events, theme parks, amusement parks, concerts and other entertainment events.

Cedar Point and every other theme park needs to increase revenues since now most of the parks practically give away the entrance fee by charging ridiculously low admission rates for a yearly pass. If Cedar point was to do away with the discounted rates and annual pass program, perhaps then they would not need a fast lane type system.

But since that will not happen, and since many out of town visitors are more then willing to spend a extra $50 per day to enjoy there time limited once a year vacation, then these fast lane type systems will only continue to appear and to no doubt rise in price year after year.

I do think the park should restrict immediate re-rides though (there should be a 30 minute cool down period), In my opinion it is in bad taste to "Flaunt" the loop hole especially during super busy days. But it is not officially against the rules, so it will no doubt be exploited until the perk or loophole (depending how you look at it) is undoubtedly removed.