Fast Lane

You'd be foolish NOT to marathon Millenium after paying all the extra cash.

As a Platinum passholder, I never minded Fast Lane until my recent experience on my Kings Island vacation. I timed my entry onto The Beast to ensure that I would be able to ride at dusk before the fireworks started, but Fast Lane ticketholders were going through the line and riding multiple times on end, screwing me into waiting an extra hour to ride The Beast at night. I didn't even get to see the fireworks, because I was stuck in the covered portion of the line before getting on the ride. Is paying double for a ticket to ride nearly eight times as much as normal really fair to those who paid half that amount, which is still a fairly high price? It's already $200 to get a family of four in the park. Has Cedar Fair completely forgotten these people?

Also with Fast Lane users, some of them take their riding advantage totally for granted and disrespect those of us who actually waited the full amount of time. I got on the Diamondback for my last time this year to have two Fast Lane-abusing college boys sitting directly behind me on the coaster. They were loud mouthed and yelled an annoying, offensive chant throughout the entire ride. It was impossible to enjoy the ride with their incessant chanting, and I had wasted 45 minutes waiting in line for that.

Fast Lane needs to be stopped, or at least reformed so people can't get on the same ride numerous times in a row. I feel like it has potential to really damage the reputation of Cedar Fair and its parks. Does anyone else feel this way?

The "big" rides need to be limited to one ride. End of all problems.

^I agree. I don't understand why the VIP tours can not marathon the rides like the Fast Lane riders do. They are the ones paying much more for the service, so I think it is very silly not to limit the Fastlane riders to one ride on a big ride a day (even one ride an hour)!

But if the big rides were limited to only one ride each, I think there would be a drastic decrease in FL sales. Yes, it would still be better than not having it but I would not spend all that extra money for only one short wait on the big rides. That extra money was spent in order to ensure multiple rides on the major coasters. I personally think FL would be a waste of money if this happened. I don't see Cedar Fair wanting to make this change since I think the company likes all of the extra profits coming from the FL sales. I like FL the way it is and hope it doesn't change. I didn't notice any problems with it when I used it, whether from other FL users or even guests in the regular lines. I think it's a great addition to the parks and I'm looking forward to using it again.

I agree that it's unfair to those who go through general admission as their ticket value has been lowered. I also think that MF, Maverick, and TTD should be limited to maybe once every hour or two. That way, it won't keep up the line, but people can still ride it several times in a day, just not in a row. But more than the actually line going more slowly, it's just irritating to watch people breeze by you for 1/4 of the wait, in my opinion. If Cedar Point doesn't change FL though, I wouldn't really mind. I'm not getting it more than once a year, because it costs an extra $50, but it's worth it. I didn't mind all that much when I didn't have it either.

From my experience at CP, with and without FL, it doesn't slow down the wait time very much. I mean, you'll obviously wait longer, but it's not a huge difference of an hour or two. Now, at the beginning of the season, it was different, as FL lines were given higher priority, but now, I believe, it's more balanced out, so it won't make the line drag out.

Captain said:

Also with Fast Lane users, some of them take their riding advantage totally for granted and disrespect those of us who actually waited the full amount of time. I got on the Diamondback for my last time this year to have two Fast Lane-abusing college boys sitting directly behind me on the coaster. They were loud mouthed and yelled an annoying, offensive chant throughout the entire ride. It was impossible to enjoy the ride with their incessant chanting, and I had wasted 45 minutes waiting in line for that.

100% false logic. Having Fast Lane or not has zero bearing on annoying people being on the ride at the same time as you.

Ride On_17 said:
But if the big rides were limited to only one ride each, I think there would be a drastic decrease in FL sales. Yes, it would still be better than not having it but I would not spend all that extra money for only one short wait on the big rides. That extra money was spent in order to ensure multiple rides on the major coasters. I personally think FL would be a waste of money if this happened. I don't see Cedar Fair wanting to make this change since I think the company likes all of the extra profits coming from the FL sales. I like FL the way it is and hope it doesn't change. I didn't notice any problems with it when I used it, whether from other FL users or even guests in the regular lines. I think it's a great addition to the parks and I'm looking forward to using it again.

How would you notice any problems with FL in the regular line when you are using FL? The only way to notice if there is a problem would be to wait in the regular line. I don't know if the is any problem with it since i haven't been there since it has been added. I just think it is kinda silly to say that it caused no issue in the regular line when you were not in it.

Captain said:
...Fast Lane users... disrespect those of us who actually waited the full amount of time. I got on the Diamondback for my last time this year to have two Fast Lane-abusing college boys sitting directly behind me on the coaster. They were loud mouthed and yelled an annoying, offensive chant throughout the entire ride.

I'm not sure I follow. Were they chanting about how non-FL guests are losers or something?

Regardless, annoying kids existed before FL. If the parks ended paid FOL access tomorrow, there would still be annoying kids in the park.

Kevinj said:
The "big" rides need to be limited to one ride. End of all problems.

That's not a remotely logical solution. That's your sour grapes talking.

It's staggering to me that a bunch of season pass holders don't see the irony in complaining that others can purchase a riding advantage. It goes back to what I said about the initial reaction from enthusiasts - that FL removes much of the advantage pass-holding enthusiasts had, and allows people to purchase an equivalent of that advantage.

Seriously... What's so hard about saving an extra $50?

Well of course. But these guys were using Fast Lane, they had gotten on the ride multiple times beforehand, and I believe it was their being used to such a short wait that gave them this arrogance. They were chanting "Yeeeeaaah, we want some p***y" for the whole ride, as if they had forgotten that most people had waited patiently to ride it (and that there were young kids on the ride at the same time, but that's besides the point).

Cedar Point/Kings Island is not Disneyland. They have rides that beg to be ridden multiple times, unlike Disney where its attractions are usually fine as one-off experiences. CP generates the vast majority of its profits from general ticket sales. If enough people become upset with Fast Lane, CP could start losing some business.

So annoying teenagers chanting marginally inappropriate things didn't exist before FP?

^Exactly.

The douchebaggery exhibited by those kids is not in any way unique to FL users, and has nothing to do with FL. At all.

Captain said:
CP generates the vast majority of its profits from general ticket sales. If enough people become upset with Fast Lane, CP could start losing some business.

First of all, where are you getting the financial information regarding where CP makes most of its profit?

Secondly, there's little doubt that the park is monitoring FL very carefully, as demonstrated by the inching-up of the price based on popularity. They're also aware that there's a balance to be found. So far, aside from some people complaining on the Internet, there's been little to indicate a significant problem.

FL isn't going away so it is pointless to complain about it. I think its a great idea. I also don't mind the marathoners. Heck that is what I plan to do when we go later this year on TTD.

Captain said:
Cedar Point/Kings Island is not Disneyland. They have rides that beg to be ridden multiple times, unlike Disney where its attractions are usually fine as one-off experiences.

While everyone else has disagreed with your other points I'm going to disagree with this one. There are a lot of rides at Disney that I could ride all day over and over again. Some I would even choose to do so over some of the rides at Cedar Point.

Also, I have to agree that FL is not the problem when it comes to inappropriate things being yelled. It probably has more to do with their general character than anything else.

Yeah, I didn't exactly love it at first, but Cedar Point is going to make it's money regardless. I don't think too many people will stop going to CP just because of FL, and if they're making extra money off FL, there's no reason to take it out in their point of view. So, might as well just suck it up and try to enjoy it.

Dead Sexeh said:

How would you notice any problems with FL in the regular line when you are using FL? The only way to notice if there is a problem would be to wait in the regular line. I don't know if the is any problem with it since i haven't been there since it has been added. I just think it is kinda silly to say that it caused no issue in the regular line when you were not in it.

I just meant that when going throught the FL lines, the people waiting in the regular lines didn't seem upset/angry/disapproved at me. Also at least when I went I noticed there was a very minimal wait increase for the regular line. No regular line guests seemed to have a problem with a select few other people using FL, but maybe that was due to how many (or should I say few) FL users were in the park when I was there. Sure, I don't exactly how it was since I wasn't in the regular line but based on what I saw and heard, it didn't seem to be an issue at all.

When I tried out the fast lane at kings island and Canada wonderlands there was not a ton of fast lane users. maybe 8 at the most for beast at night time. Canada wonderland there was more but it was on the rides that moved you fast being a season pass holder we went into CW the night before we had the fast lane. The wait times didn't increase over an hour because of fast lane we moved at a steady pace only waiting 35 minutes for Leviathan and it was a mostly full line. So maybe on low capacity rides it got bad but still you expect to wait in lines regardless. Also if you pay for you it you can ride what you want. Would you want them limiting you to 4 visits with your season pass. Sorry you cant enter today you visited 4 times this month wait another month.

Doh! I just went to buy my Fast Lane tickets for July 5th online and they have raised the prices for July 3rd through 8th by $10! Basically, they are treating all of those days like Saturdays and charging the higher price!

Really sucks -- since I could have bought them this morning for the normal price. :(

- John...

Cha-Ching!

Makes sense though because they're offering free admission for armed forces for a couple of those days. And this week through the 8 is UAW days. Those tickets can be bought for use that week at the union halls if you're a member for $26 each. They'll make it all back on FL.