Fast Lane

What you guys are forgetting is that the park was very crowded on opening day, waits would have been very long regardless of Fast Pass. If Fast Pass wasn't available, the Fast Pass users just wouldn't disappear, they would be in line for the same rides. Instead of having a Fast Pass and regular line, the one line would just end up being longer with all the people that are that were in the Fast Pass line going into the one line.

I go to CP at least 40 times a yr. With this FL I might go once a month.

Yes, the park was crowded, but it's going to be the same exact crowds throughout the months of June, July, and August.

No, the waits would NOT have been that long if it wasn't for Fast Lane. Dragster has a 2 train loading operation. Only 1 train was being loaded for Regular Admission guests, while the other was being loaded strictly for Fast Lane users. Therefore, the waits wouldn't have been as long as they were.

But as always, I will give the park the benefit of the doubt since it was opening day and they have all season long to better the system.

Okay come on people think......As Pete said the same Fast Lane users would have been in the Same line as you causing the same or even longer of a wait.......think loooooogically. No disrespect.....just saying. People need to quit complaining and just up the money for a Fast Pass. You like coasters that much.......dont buy that dress, ciggarettes or whatever it is you spend money on little petty things for. If I am going to Cedar Point I will not go until I can afford a fast pass. Use your credit card and make small payments for the fast pass or whatever. Im a college student making 1000 a month and I am making it happen. Lets be adults and quit hating on the people that realllllly value there time at the roller coaster capitol. Just saying

Ok, but that fast lane user that is getting multiple rides in an hour, slowing the line down, because they can get on and off as they wish, most likely would not get back in line if they had to wait an hour or so in the regular line for a second ride.

Fast laners marathoning the big 3 will slow the lines down considerably. Since they are paying 30-50 bucks, why would they want to waste their time riding anything but the big 3 over and over until they are sick of it. Those are really the only rides that the people want the fast lane wrist bands for anyways, the others are just a bonus. Anyone on this board will will ride "X" coaster over and over again with fast lane, why not....there is nothing stopping you.

Just gonna sit back and see if there is any tweaking done to the system. It's gonna get worse as the season rolls along, the temperatures go up, and the lines stop moving, causing people to bake in the sun, wondering why they haven't moved in awhile.

Pete and Adrian, your understanding of queue waits is simply not true. Take Dragster for example, it's capacity is in the neighborhood of 1,000 people per hour on a good day without breakdowns or Fastlane in use. Now, Cedar Point has effectively reduced that capacity by 50% loading one train for standby and reserving one train for Fastlane. So, if in the past it was taking a guest on average 1 hour to ride Dragster WITHOUT breakdowns/Fastlane in use, that guest is now effectively waiting 2 hours. At the same time, you have Fastlane users having full access to the coaster all day, any time, as much as they want.

In theory, if Cedar Fair is limiting Fastlane sales to 10%-20% of park attendance each day, you now have 80%-90% of park guests who are about to experience the difficulty of gaining access to the most popular attractions in the park. Let's face it, everyone wants to ride Dragster, MForce, Maverick, Raptor, etc. Do you really want to piss off 80%-90% of your guests who are now basically forced into Fastlane if they want to have "reasonable" access to the most popular attractions in the park? That isn't a call I would make, which is why I think it is imperitive that until an electronic form of queue management can be implemented, there needs to be limitations put on the most popular attractions because it is a free-for-all at the moment.

Reading this thread just makes me like Fast Lane even better. Can't wait to go for a few days this summer and pay for it. I love the idea of being able to pay for a better experience. Nothing is stopping any of you from buying a FL pass yourself and 'cut over and over' in line.

I couldn't be happier with the improvements I've heard about this year. Can't wait to get up there!

If you were estimating, how long were fast lane users waiting for mf and ttd yesterday?

bholcomb said:
Reading this thread just makes me like Fast Lane even better. Can't wait to go for a few days this summer and pay for it. I love the idea of being able to pay for a better experience. Nothing is stopping any of you from buying a FL pass yourself and 'cut over and over' in line.

It really is a must, purchasing fast lane that is. I'm going to try to get it every time now after seeing just how miserably slow the lines for TTD and MF are without fast lane.

and for those complaining, I agree, but be sure to go to Cedar Point's contact us page and leave a comment or suggestion. That'll be just as fast as complaining on here, but far more effective.

I have my fast lane pass for when we go this summer. Being from Virginia and only having the one day to go, it is a great investment. I also promise that I will be marathoning TTD, Maverick, and MF. I can't wait.

Okay I'm adult enough to understand........I forget that I am a grown man who wouldn't dare stay only at those 3 rides. I would not jump back in line over and over again out of courtesy for other people. I forget about the a**holes of the world sometimes. The rest of what I said about purchasing them still stands though.............

I look at it this way: until you go to the park and experience the long wait times, then you really shouldn't have an opinion on how effective you think Fast Lane is.

I, for one, need to save my $50 because I have necessities to pay for outside of leisure time. It's making the park a lot of money no doubt, but what happened with them limiting the number of Fast Lane passes they were going to give out a day?

p.s. I'm not trying to come off rude or ignorant, I just hope they make the system more efficient for the guests who can't afford $50 for a Fast Lane pass

Aren't all of you guys missing the obvious culprit for the long lines? It is the loss of Paddlewheel Excursions and Wildcat. The people who would have been in those lines had to go somewhere.

Natas said:
Aren't all of you guys missing the obvious culprit for the long lines? It is the loss of Paddlewheel Excursions and Wildcat. The people who would have been in those lines had to go somewhere.

But well, those rides weren't particularly popular, which was part of the reason why they got taken out. I don't think that it would make that much of a difference to the line length.

Back on topic, I'm not actually too concerned about whether I hate or like FL, but I'm tipping on the dislike side. I would say that Fast Lane is a little TOO advantageous for the ones who have the buy it. I'm guessing that most of the people who visit Cedar Point aren't the people who live close by and get a seasonal pass, but people who live maybe in nearby states. So the fact that only some of these people get to ride their favorite coasters over and over again, while others have to wait longer, I would say, is a bit unfair, considering that a LOT of people are in the same shoes, having to drive a considerable distance to go to Cedar Point.

There are all sorts of reason why somebody wouldn't buy a Fast Lane. Maybe they're a kid, and their parents don't think it's worth paying twice as much, and think that they should just wait. Or maybe they have to go and pay for their living expenses in college instead. Or they could just not be financially stable. But I think that everybody should more or less get a similar wait time. I also understand that there ARE people with heavy time restraints. Then they might want to consider going on, maybe a weekday, instead of the jam-packed Saturday...

On a side note, for people who went on opening day, how much longer are the lines?

Okay...feel free to tell me if I am coming from left field on this. Let me start with saying I am a fan of fast lane for the simple reason I can only come once a year and am willing to pay more so that I can ride everything I want to and enjoy my 1 vacation a year. I have expierenced the fast lane concept at Universal Studios and have expierenced the hostility that people without it have towards the people who were able to afford it. The way I see it is that the trip is planned months in advance and the extra expense should be included in your trip planning (I have already bought my passes for a July trip and do intend to ride many many times). I can understand where this wouldn't apply with people who had purchased season passes. These people, however, can visit the park anytime they want and ride most of the rides whenever they feel ( how busy can the park be at 5pm on a thursday night after work?). My theory is that the company wants to make as much money as possible from every guest walking into the park. The people who are there for a once in a year trip will pay for the fastlane passes to ensure that they have the best trip possible, I believe the same will be said for the local people that go a few times a season. I think the company looks at season pass holders as a negative (stay with me for a second). You pay for the season pass one time, which is the equivalent of 3 or so daily admissions to the park. After you pay that you no longer have to spend another dime at the park to enjoy the rides, I don't think the company likes that. So they put in a system that will reward the non-season ticket holders with faster access to the rides. If the season holders want the same access then they are going to have to pay the 50.00 for the service just like everyone else. The 50.00 is actually more than the cost of the one day admission so they are actually getting paid twice when normally they would lose money on season pass holders. It all comes down to how much an enjoyable experience is worth to you.

Yeah I understand but I also was in sales for a long time and I know that anyone who can travel to Cedar point, pay to get in, and even be at the park could if they wanted too, spend the extra $50 dollars. I also believe a que type system would work better but hey it is what it is. I know no one is being rude on here......it's actually fun to discuss this. Especially since my broke a** has already reserved my fast lane. If we all know this problem then don't go to Cedar until it's fixed or just buy the fast lane. When gas prices go up rarely does anyone stop driving. Sucks but gotta go with the times.

Minji said:

But well, those rides weren't particularly popular, which was part of the reason why they got taken out. I don't think that it would make that much of a difference to the line length.

Minji, I thought about pointing out that I was only joking when I wrote the post but figured that I didn't need to. Anyway, for the record I was just kidding about the Wildcat and Paddlewheel Excursions thing.

I hope that they work out a way to make the fast lane not take too much away from the regular guest because I highly doubt that I would be willing to pay for fast lane and I think that many others would agree with me. If it does make a big difference it will definitely make me think twice about any Cedar Point (or other Cedar Fair) visits in the future.

Yeah, I guess it won't really change anything even if people don't like it. :P I personally don't care as much about getting it or not getting it. As long as it doesn't add TOO much waiting time, I'm fine. The FL people don't get any extra priority once the lines merge do they....?

Minji said:
There are all sorts of reason why somebody wouldn't buy a Fast Lane. Maybe they're a kid, and their parents don't think it's worth paying twice as much, and think that they should just wait. Or maybe they have to go and pay for their living expenses in college instead. Or they could just not be financially stable. But I think that everybody should more or less get a similar wait time. I also understand that there ARE people with heavy time restraints. Then they might want to consider going on, maybe a weekday, instead of the jam-packed Saturday...

Life isn't fair. Boo hoo someone doesn't get the same experience in life or at an amusement park. Do you think everyone should be able to drive a Lamborghini because more or less everyone should get a similar vehicle?

IMO If you can't afford an extra $50 on top of admission, parking, food and traveling to the park you shouldn't probably be going or have set different priorities in life than others.

All riders should be equal. Some riders, though, are more equal than others.