Fast Lane

sorry if its been asked before, but how many fast lane passes does the park sell on any given day?

I've talked to people who worked Kings Island last year on Diamondback, according to them the park sells as many Fast Line tickets as possible. I'm guessing this will happen at Cedar Point too.

^The park already stated that they have a limit of how many they will sell for each day. I doubt anyone outside of those who sell them have info on how many that is but it is probably based on attendance from the previous season for each day.

Well, I've been a long-time reader for many years and very rarely post on here, but I was at the park today observing the new changes and can help relay some of my thoughts on the addition of Fast Lane. To be honest, I don't truly know what to make of it. It's obviously early to cast an ultimate judgement, as grooming and tweaking will be a great necessity and only one day of experiencing or observing FL isn't enough information to make an adequate decision.

The park is heavily promoting it. All around, there are signs and promotions, hanging up in line and some popping up from the ground. Buildings selling the FL are also speckled with "Buy FL Here" signs. The park is working hard to advertise this option.

Each ride has a somewhat different set-up that I could tell from FL. Some will lead right to the station, Magnum merges using the old Freeway line, Skyhawk boards on the opposite side by the exits I believe, etc.

The fact of the matter is this: Fast Lane will be a great investment for people who need to get on a lot of rides, who might be staying at the park for a very limited time, or ones who are making an out-of-state trip or a once-a-year trip and are really concerned about riding everything they wish. If they can afford it and want it, they should get it. They’d hopefully have a great day.

But in a very real reality, Fast Lane will create longer wait times for normal ticket holders and pass holders. Period. Mentally prepare for it.

Very rarely do I attend an Opening Day, so I cannot comment on how heavy the crowd was this year compared to previous years. Yes, the park was crowded. Nothing terribly unbearable, though. Yes, rides like Millennium Force and TTD experienced downtime and a few hiccups expected. This surely contributed to the waits. Yes, some crews were still learning the ropes and getting used to their roles on the ride. And finally, yes, it seems as if though FL – not necessarily how many people went through today, but more so the execution of how it will go down on busy days – will have a great effect on the wait times for normal ticket holders.

Most of us who come to these boards have visited the parks many times and have come to know how long a “typical wait” would be for a specific ride (yes, I know there are many confounding variables, but you still can estimate). I walked into the line for Power Tower which led from the station and had maybe 1.5 of those small rows filled (forgive my improper terminology). Typically, this would be maybe a 10-15 wait. Instead, we waited for about 35 as Fast Laners sauntered down the middle line to immediately board.

I’m not for it; I’m not against it. Obviously, the park sees value in it and hopefully they will adapt and approve it. It’s hard to see some rides with usual walk-ons add on minutes and it will definitely be frustrating for some people.

I doubt the Dragster / Maverick setups are temporary. Firehawk at Kings Island has much worse throughput than those rides, and they've been filling an entire train with Fast Lane for 8+ months from what I've seen.

If it's true that Maverick had a 25 minute Fast Lane wait on opening day, I doubt you're going to see them trying to make that wait any longer...

It's definitely too early to call how Fast Lane is working at Cedar Point though. There are so many unique variables that make opening day different. Maybe many people wanted to try out Fast Lane on the first day, maybe the employees are not efficient enough yet, and maybe there was plenty of ride down time.

Anyone here that went opening day of the season to Cedar Point should very well know the risk. Historically, it's not a good day to go for ride marathons, but perfect if you just want to walk around and take in the park atmosphere.

t canyon 87 said:
sorry if its been asked before, but how many fast lane passes does the park sell on any given day?

I've heard 10% of Guests in park, hence....25,000 = 250 fastlanes.

I've heard 20%, with the claimed source being Don Helbig of KI. So, 25,000 = 5,000 fast lanes maximum.

I had the pleasure of being at KI many times last year. The last of which was for Haunt, I can't remember what weekend but it was mid October if memory serves. All the other times I was there, the Fastlane impact on wait times was minimal, but then again, I don't think Fastlane started at KI until later in the summer.

On this fateful October evening (a Saturday) I have never seen an amusement park this crowded. This includes the notorious Columbus day weekend Saturday at CP. It was so busy, they ran out of parking... the entire lot was full, including all the employee spots (converted to customer parking) and all the grassy areas out to the road. Someone who worked there said they had their second highest attendance number in history, and I believe it.

The wait times were astronomical. We waited nearly 4 hours for Beast. Fast lane peeps were very frustrated as well, waiting over an hour for the same ride.

The "Fright Lane" had an even more pronounced impact on wait times. KI has a haunted attraction that utilizes the train. There are two trains, so they come every 10-15 minutes or so. What was happening is that the Fright Lane que was filling quickly enough that it filled an entire train each time it arrived, leaving almost no room at all for regular visitors.

What would have normally been a 2 hour line suddenly became in infinite line. This became so obvious that KI sent employees around to explain the situation to everybody, that, "Hey, it's not likely you're going to be able to experience this attraction tonight, even though we don't close for almost 4 hours".

Rides like Diamondback have tremendous capacity and therefore aren't too badly affected by FL. It is irritating, however, that they got rid of the single rider line for DB to implement FL. I used to use that quite a bit. Though, you had to do the employees job for him who stands at the top of the stairs, cause they never made the effort to pair single riders with odd-numbered groups from the regular que.

Horrible, absolutely horrible. Always knew almost exactly how long lines would be by where the end of line was at, now... add 1 hour... basically. This FL is NOT a good thing. Think cp's bein' greedy? they're getting tons of extra money for not really havin to do much except piss off their normal customers. The people buyin FL are not at fault, if they wanna spend that money, we can't blame them, it's cp's fault. and yes, the WHOLE first train/left side of ramp is for FL. Which means, what would normally be a 15 minute line for normal people AT A CERTAIN SPOT, became a non-moving, disgustingly 5 times as long line. Same wit the other rides. NEVER before seen lines this long for the rides! FL is evil, and i think cp's going to lose a lot o loyal customers this way, all while getting richer, so they won't care. passholders aren't going to buy FL every time they go, mostly just the 'go once a year' type o people will. Plus, I know rides break down a lot in first few weeks o season, but yesterday was baaaaaad. They had all this time to prepare for this day, why should soooooooo many rides have been broke down sooooooo many times all day long? It was beyond ridiculous. Out of the billion days I've gone to cp, yesterday was I'm sorry to say thee worst, the ONLY bad day i've ever had there. I don't mind standing in an hour long line, i don't mind standing in an 1 1/2 hour long line, but 3 hours, ummm, nope. Not to mention that also ruins the usually short line rides to make them be long now. I'm going to cry, I don't think I can worship cp anymore.

Yeah your right. MF and TTD need to be limited or else people with no fast lane with wait forever.

anybody know if platinum pass holders that have 'fast lane' for that day can also use them for/during the 'platinum pass holder' ride nights to be able to 'line jump' ahead of the platinum pass holders that don't have 'fast lane'.

to take a CP logo from the past and add the new to it

Cedar Point:Real Thrills-Real Line Jumpers

This Fast Lane things sounds horrible yet awesome for people who have money. I will be at the park Mon and Tues and this is my first time and I never know when I will go back so this is defiantly worth the investment for me.

They should do it like how Six Flags does it. The visitor gets this device and picks which ride they want to go on and it gives them a wait time. There are 2 different options. THe cheaper one you pick the ride you want to go on and it cuts the wait time a bit and you can ride something in between. The more expensive one cuts the rate time so you basically wait 5-10 minutes for the ride. So by the time you enter it into the device and walk to the ride you can get on.

I want to by the Fast Line over the internet for Tues but I don't have a printer to print out the receipt. Will I get a confirmation number I can give to the park or something like that that proves I bought it?

I decided to create an account and reply, after watching for years while working at the park, and felt inclined to make one, humble argument.

Cedar Point is a business. A lot of times, us "enthusiasts" loose sight of it. They appeal to our sense of excitement and imagination, through our wallets. End of story. Secondly, as troubling as it is (I won't let politics get in to this article) Mr. Ouimet was right on two levels:

1) He has a responsibility to the shareholders. This Fast Lane did well (for the company at least) last year at Kings Island. I don't think it's evil, makes me reconsider going on certain days, but not "evil." It is a way to allow customers willing to pay more some extra perks. I mean, for crying out loud, it was either long line or "VIP" status for hundreds of dollars a person. It's just a good business decision, because as one person said "They don't have to change much to make extra money." That's called making a profit (again you can comment on the frustrating narrative of this country in regards to corporations, but I wont.) As a shareholder, I am happy to see Mr. Ouimet taking steps to improve the value of my stock.

2) It WAS requested by the guests. I worked there, and know first hand, that a small portion of the crowd was looking for this service. I definitely had people ask me, fairly often "Hey do you guys have one of those 'Speed Passes'?" Or "When did you get rid of the faster line passes?" This customer is the person who drives many miles and only comes once every few years. They want to ride as much as possible during the stay, and the extra money was something they were willing to pay.

I don't know, I agree that there needs to probably be some changes, but I don't think it makes CP greedy, and I don't think it makes me think any less of the company. It's a good business decision, end of story. Remember, if CP can increase their profit margin, they can increase capital spending...*COUGH MORE RIDES COUGH*

some may take my post(3 back) as reffering to CP as greedy,it wasn't intended that way. Fastlane is that good point between regular admission,passholders,& VIP. If I was travelling to a distant park for a once visit,I would probably purchase something similar. No profits,no new rides like MF,TTD,Mav. They can't change the advertising for fastlane this year,but I can see modifications/limitation for future years. Maybe something on the order of a limit of 3 times each for the 3 majors.

Dragster's Fast Lane is AWFUL! The ramp on the left side that leads to the front train in the station was being used strictly for Fast Lane guests only. As a regular admission guest, you no longer have the option to take the left ramp to the station until you get half way up the right ramp, but like what was said before, yesterday it was being strictly used for Fast Lane guests only. Everybody else had to go to the back train, making my wait time about 2.5 hours, and the line only filled up 2 sets of queue blocks. Usually Dragster's line is constantly moving, but not yesterday. They weren't flooding the station like they usually do too.

I really hope they fix the system, because it made wait time WAY longer than what it had to be. I was talking to a lot of people about it and they were really mad. They were saying how they never waited for Millennium Force and Dragster that long ever and I have to agree!

Raptor's Fast Lane was running great! If there was a group of 2 for Fast Lane, they would let 4 regular paid admission guests on. It seemed very efficient, but that was the only location that had the system going good!

MaverickLaunch said:
I had the pleasure of being at KI many times last year. The last of which was for Haunt, I can't remember what weekend but it was mid October if memory serves. All the other times I was there, the Fastlane impact on wait times was minimal, but then again, I don't think Fastlane started at KI until later in the summer.

On this fateful October evening (a Saturday) I have never seen an amusement park this crowded. This includes the notorious Columbus day weekend Saturday at CP. It was so busy, they ran out of parking... the entire lot was full, including all the employee spots (converted to customer parking) and all the grassy areas out to the road. Someone who worked there said they had their second highest attendance number in history, and I believe it.

The wait times were astronomical. We waited nearly 4 hours for Beast. Fast lane peeps were very frustrated as well, waiting over an hour for the same ride.

The "Fright Lane" had an even more pronounced impact on wait times. KI has a haunted attraction that utilizes the train. There are two trains, so they come every 10-15 minutes or so. What was happening is that the Fright Lane que was filling quickly enough that it filled an entire train each time it arrived, leaving almost no room at all for regular visitors.

What would have normally been a 2 hour line suddenly became in infinite line. This became so obvious that KI sent employees around to explain the situation to everybody, that, "Hey, it's not likely you're going to be able to experience this attraction tonight, even though we don't close for almost 4 hours".

Rides like Diamondback have tremendous capacity and therefore aren't too badly affected by FL. It is irritating, however, that they got rid of the single rider line for DB to implement FL. I used to use that quite a bit. Though, you had to do the employees job for him who stands at the top of the stairs, cause they never made the effort to pair single riders with odd-numbered groups from the regular que.

This night you talk about I remember talking to my friend who was working Diamondback. He said (how true it is I don't know) they sold as many FL passes as possible that day.

RacefortheSky1234 said:
Each ride has a somewhat different set-up that I could tell from FL. Some will lead right to the station, Magnum merges using the old Freeway line, Skyhawk boards on the opposite side by the exits I believe, etc.

This is exactly the type of information I was looking for based on opening day reports. Does anyone know where someone has detailed out, ride-by-ride, where each of the "merge" points are?

Ive kept my mouth shut on this for months but I can no longer. So it seems that all the estimates by the pundits of this site of FL having minimal impact on lines is just plain wrong. I've said it before and I'll say it again, CP was fine without this system. If they are hard up for cash raise ticket prices by $3 each and keep the system the way it was. You may not make as much as you would with FL but gains with customer service will far outweigh that.

Phantom 1898 said:

t canyon 87 said:
sorry if its been asked before, but how many fast lane passes does the park sell on any given day?

I've heard 10% of Guests in park, hence....25,000 = 250 fastlanes.

10% of 25,000 is 2500

I am calling it right now, as I stated in an earlier post I believe Maverick, Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster will become LIMITED Fastlane experiences. These 3 coasters simply have too much demand and too limited capacity to let Fastlane guests have unlimited access to them without it affecting the "normal" park guest experience. I personally think the solution could be one of two options:

(a) Fastlane guests will receive a wristband and 3 additional coupons to be used at M/TTD/MF, you can use them in any combination on these rides (example: all 3 for MF, 1 for each coaster, or some other combo)

OR

(b) Fastlane wrist bands will have markings for M/TTD/MF, once you get in line it is checked off and you had your front-of-the-line cut for the day.

This is the trouble with not using an electronic form of queue line management like Lo-Q for example. Electronically the park has the ability to monitor and adjust any attraction based on the guest response to it. If all the guests using Lo-Q sign up for the same attraction, it can spread their return time throughout the day (theorectically) to maintain a proper balance of the queue. As it is right now with Fastlane, thousands of Fastlane guests can all simply decide to use their Fastlane at, say, Millennium Force all day long, effectively doubling, if not tripling, the usual wait times we are use to in the standby line. Personally, I was fine with waiting 45-60 minutes for MForce, if I visit the park now and I am waiting 90+ minutes then Cedar Fair just lost my family and I as consumers, there are too many other really good parks out there still to choose from.