Fast Lane

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely hate the idea of fast lane.
A minority gets the majority which in this case is the number of seats available on a ride in a given day. Having said that, when I am at the park tomorrow I will be abusing the system to the fullest extent possible. Don't be surprised when you see someone doing laps on Millennium Force.

I am a out of state guest who will be traveling to Sandusky Ohio to visit Cedar Point. I will only be in town for two days and have already purchased Fast Lane upgrades in addition to the Premium Season Ticket Pass.

As so many of us Out of town guests who only have a few days of precious vacation a year, Fast Lane will afford my family and I the ability to enjoy many of the attractions and eateries without us being stuck in 2 hour lines and only riding a couple attractions (as we have done on earlier trips a few years back)

Every-single Amusement and Theme Park now has a "Fast Lane" type of system.
Frankly I do understand some of the apprehension and in a "Perfect" world, all attractions would run at full capacity with maximum trains and efficient loading and unloading and make use of Single Rider lines to ensure no seat ever goes empty.

Unfortunately we are not in a perfect world and Cedar Fair had to join the rest of the pack with a "Premium, line bypass" just as so many other parks have. Of course this increases revenue to the park, allows out of town guests who wish to maximize there time, the ability to do so, and if done correctly can be a great system.

I am sure after the park assesses the current state of Fast Lane there will no doubt be changes made. Wether is means investing in a Disneyland "FastPass" ticket distribution system or a Six Flags (FlashPass) type system with a pager unit I am sure something will be changed. This change will have to happen since it appears that many people will not follow common courtesy and will continue to re-ride over and over again, which is bad taste IMHO. Why not come back in a hour? Why flaunt and take advantage of something "Just because you can"? Is it against the rules? No, Not yet, but is it bad taste to do that? Yes, IMHO.

We will certainly not be doing that, I expect to ride a attraction and come back later in the day and ride it for a second time. But if the que is full, I will not be flaunting and re-riding.

Until Cedar Park management figures out the best way to handle the Fast Lane, I would suggest Cedar Faire, issue punch cards along with the wrist bands which would contain a list of the top attractions along with a Box for each hour of the day. The boxes would need to be punched for access to the Fast Lane Que. Once your hour is punched, you will not have access to same ride until the hour has passed.

This would be fair IMHO.

Like it or not, premium upgrades are here to stay. We see it at Concerts, Sporting Events, all other Theme Parks and Amusement parks, as well a museums and any other place on earth where the operators want to increase revenue by offering a up-charge experience. For people who suggest they will boycott the parks, where will you go? There is no-place left that does not offer this type of "Front of the Line" pass.

Did you stop flying on Air-planes because they offer Economy Plus seating?
Or early boarding for a Fee?

Did you stop attending ball games because they offer VIP seating or VIP parking?

Everyone has equal access to bust there butts, work hard, make money and pay for upgraded perks. The Flash Pass system at Six Flags cost over 100 dollars for the Gold version! Considering most of Cedar Points visitors are regulars with a $65 dollar season pass available on monthly payment plans, I cannot understand how anyone can be upset about the fact they need to raise more money from guests and help the out of towner s with limited vacation schedules who do not have the luxury of coming to the park each week all summer, on low attendance days and such.

My brother asked if the new pass will allow priority ordering at the Happy Fryer. I thought that was an excellent idea, lets cut the lines all together!

Since I wrote a freaken book for a post, I figured I should highlight my important point :)

Until Cedar Park management figures out the best way to handle the Fast Lane, I would suggest Cedar Faire, issue punch cards along with the wrist bands which would contain a list of the top attractions along with a Box for each hour of the day. The boxes would need to be punched for access to the Fast Lane Que. Once your hour is punched, you will not have access to same ride until the hour has passed.

Seems like a fair way to handle things for now.

Seems like that would add subtantially to the administrative burden of the system. But at this point, we don't even know if its even necessary. If there are not significant numbers of FP holders who re-ride over and over, why make all FP holders jump through those hoops? We have the limited experience of what happened on opening weekend which brought with it mechanical and staff inexperience issues that impacted wait times. Shouldn't we (and really CP management) wait to see how the system plays out over the season before making significant changes?

JD83 said:
Since I wrote a freaken book for a post, I figured I should highlight my important point :)

Until Cedar Park management figures out the best way to handle the Fast Lane, I would suggest Cedar Faire, issue punch cards along with the wrist bands which would contain a list of the top attractions along with a Box for each hour of the day. The boxes would need to be punched for access to the Fast Lane Que. Once your hour is punched, you will not have access to same ride until the hour has passed.

Seems like a fair way to handle things for now.

While not a bad idea...i still don't want my access to those rides limited. I am not in favor of marathoning the rides...i understand that other people want to ride as badly as I do...but I paid a premium price for those perks and I don't want to be told how or when to use them. I pay for premuim seats at Busch Stadium so I can avoid standing in line at the concession stand and missing the point to being at the game...which is the game itself. I don't want to miss out on the "point" of being at the park, which is riding the best rides and having the most fun possible. Fastlane is a way to accomplish that.

Saturday I went to Pagoda gift shop. They said they were sold out at that location and to try the stand near Thunder Canyon since they would be the best bet to find them.

Just to clarify a few things, they DO allow people from the regular line into both loading stations on Dragster when there is a minimal fast lane line. I imagine they didn't bother with it on Saturday since it was so busy.

What I don't understand is why people are complaining about it, because since fast lane users get priority they would get in front of you regardless of being channeled into one of the loading platforms or being distributed into both. Your wait time is going to be the same no matter what method they use.

tst2620 said:

JD83 said:
Since I wrote a freaken book for a post, I figured I should highlight my important point :)

Until Cedar Park management figures out the best way to handle the Fast Lane, I would suggest Cedar Faire, issue punch cards along with the wrist bands which would contain a list of the top attractions along with a Box for each hour of the day. The boxes would need to be punched for access to the Fast Lane Que. Once your hour is punched, you will not have access to same ride until the hour has passed.

Seems like a fair way to handle things for now.

While not a bad idea...i still don't want my access to those rides limited. I am not in favor of marathoning the rides...i understand that other people want to ride as badly as I do...but I paid a premium price for those perks and I don't want to be told how or when to use them. I pay for premuim seats at Busch Stadium so I can avoid standing in line at the concession stand and missing the point to being at the game...which is the game itself. I don't want to miss out on the "point" of being at the park, which is riding the best rides and having the most fun possible. Fastlane is a way to accomplish that.

Understood, although $50 for front of line access even if they limited it to Every major ride, (re-rides only)once per hour per ride. So In one hour I can go on TTD, Then go to Drop Tower and Millenium Force, Go back to TTD and Ride again just one hour later. Even if they did this FastLane would still the best deal in town. I bet money on it that next season the up-charge will be MUCH MUCH higher (Not that I want that to happen:) :)

Coaster Krazy said:
Just to clarify a few things, they DO allow people from the regular line into both loading stations on Dragster when there is a minimal fast lane line. I imagine they didn't bother with it on Saturday since it was so busy.

What I don't understand is why people are complaining about it, because since fast lane users get priority they would get in front of you regardless of being channeled into one of the loading platforms or being distributed into both. Your wait time is going to be the same no matter what method they use.

You are not taking into account the fact the Fastlane users are going to be multiple repeat riders on limited capacity major rides, especially with a system that Cedar Point can't electronically control the Fastlane user and their ride selection. Magic Mountain, for example, can control the Flash Pass guest experience electronically and they still place restrictions on X2 which is capacity-limited. Come summer with busy weekends or this Fall with Halloweekends it is going to be an absolute nightmare on attractions like MForce/TTD/Maverick if they don't address the issue now.

The biggest problem I have with this is that they also raised general admission prices. So, basically, if you have the same crowd as last year, you WILL get to ride less, and possibly a lot less although you are paying more. They are really going to need to put a limit on the number of times rides may be ridden or they are going to lose many families they claim they are trying to make repeat.
Thrills may connect, but not being able to ride and complaining about it, doesn't.
Remember when Leona Helmsley claimed that paying taxes was for the little people? Well, she would LOVE fast lane since I'm sure she would say the same thing about lines.

I'll be making my one trip a year next week. Although I'm pretty sure we won't need it, due to the lighter crowds, we will be buying Fast Lane passes. I'd rather waste $50 than risk losing out on riding everything at least once.

Plus, I can't imagine too many of the kids on school trips buying them.
If Fast Lane lets us get through the line more quickly so we don't have to constantly listen to overly dramatic tales of why Timmy broke up with Suzy and why Mr. Harrison's math test was like so totally unfair, I'm all for it.

JD83 said:

I am sure after the park assesses the current state of Fast Lane there will no doubt be changes made. Wether is means investing in a Disneyland "FastPass" ticket distribution system or a Six Flags (FlashPass) type system with a pager unit I am sure something will be changed. This change will have to happen since it appears that many people will not follow common courtesy and will continue to re-ride over and over again, which is bad taste IMHO. Why not come back in a hour? Why flaunt and take advantage of something "Just because you can"? Is it against the rules? No, Not yet, but is it bad taste to do that? Yes, IMHO.

We will certainly not be doing that, I expect to ride a attraction and come back later in the day and ride it for a second time. But if the que is full, I will not be flaunting and re-riding.

Because I paid for that perk. Why wouldn't I reride? I'd much rather spend my day riding then walking to them for a single ride at a time. I mean, it is $50. I'm sure it will upset people waiting for an hour while myself and my girl get a few rides in the same amount of time. But I won't be flaunting it, just enjoying this new perk that I will definitely pay for. Just unsure what common courtesy has to do with it. I'm going to get MY money's worth out of the things I buy. If I'm unpopular with the non FL users, then I suggest they think about getting a FL pass themselves.

Plus its only $30 each if I could get three more people to meet, get tickets, and go our separate ways. Hint, hint.

I see it like this. You go to any other premier amusement park (Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens etc.) and it costs $80-$100 a ticket. Sure their version of Fast Lane is free to everyone but really perks like that are already in the cost of the ticket. Even if you don't use it, you pay for it. Cedar Point is giving us the option to buy it.

I've thought for years that for what we are asking from Cedar Point (More and bigger rides, renovated public areas, better eateries) $50 a ticket is cheap. Fast Lane is just a way for Cedar Point to make some much needed money while still keeping the park accessible to everyone. Would you prefer the alternative? $80 a ticket. I know my wife, who doesn't ride roller coasters, wouldn't.

tambo said:

Walt said:
No, you'd have to pay $20.

That's funny because i was told by a parking lot attendant at the premium lot that the PPH only had to pay $8.00 to park there.

I wanted to make the correction to my earlier post. What tambo said in his post is correct. Platinum passholders can pay $8 per visit to upgrade to preferred parking.

+1

Preferred parking, really not a big deal. You should see where i park when i go to the store, trust me, it isn't close to the door!

You are already going to be walking a lot during the day, whats a couple of extra hundred feet gonna hurt?

Comparing the CP parking lot to that of a big box store is quite disingenuous. You could probably fit 2 or 3 Meijer stores, parking lots included, within CP's main lot.

And if ever there were a time where saving a few steps made sense, it would be when you're already hurting from walking several miles.

In the absence of the SC lot, I'd fork over $20 for preferred parking, even as a pass holder. At $8 for pass holders, it's a no-brainer.

^When you say absence of the Soak City lot, do you mean to say that you can't park there this year? I've always parked on the lot right next to Gemini. Hoping I still can.