Fast Passes

Vince982 said:
It is bad that they got rid of FreeWay, I just hope they permanently get rid of the FreeWay merge point lanes so people don't walk down them only to be turned away by the ride op that has to sit there (which is obviously a wasted position).

I think the question will be whether or not they still have an employee at the merge point.... *** Edited 1/6/2006 5:00:03 AM UTC by DBCP***

After working in Admissions this past year, I cringe at the thought of any system that involves print at home bar codes and things to scan them with.
As for Freeway, I think it was the best system they could have come up with, mostly because they were FREE. Even when you had a large group of freeway people enter the line ahead of you, odds are it's not going to extend your wait more than a single train, if even that much. If it was really that much of a problem with the 11 AM stamps being "too early" for most guests to have a chance at them, then just eliminate WT, Magnum, and Mantis from the linup and give out Raptor, MF, and TTD all starting at 2 PM.

Walt said:
I've also found their wait times to be very accurate.

Their system for doing that is pretty cool. At the entrance, the CM scans a tag (almost like the key badge I have at work) which starts a timer in the system. They then hand that off to a guest and ask them to hand it to whichever CM is at the loading point. This CM then scans it at their station and it updates the wait-time indicator. I'm sure its not a cheap system but it does allow them to provide accurrate (within 5 minutes) wait times to the guests.

And we never had any problems with getting FP's while we were there a couple months ago. And its rather nice that they are distributed throughout the day, rather than just at one time which was nice to not have to run to an attraction at a specific time to make sure we got an FP.

That's one of the reasons why I never cared for FreeWay. But I understand they're not in a position to do a Disney-style system.

To figure out the wait time for a ride, I just think 30 minutes per section of waiting. This system has worked for me on most rides at Cedar Point and most parks. Most of the time the sign is accurate except at the end of the day when employees pad the time by an hour or two to scare away would be riders.

I think CP should take care of that little problem.

Freeway was a good system, but was flawed because of the way CP ran it. IMO the reason it was removed was due to budget cuts. One night, my Manager came up to me and told me to have two people push our freeway kiosk to Iron Dragon and that we wern't using that anymore. Along with the ride agains. Those were a pain in the butt. They were given out like candy to anyone who sat in a coaster, or a ride for 10 seconds longer then they had to. It was getting out of control on how many of those they would give out a day. If they do bring back Freeway or another system like it, I hope they don't get greedy and charge people for it. The fact that it was free was nice, and when people didn't get stamps they didn't care as much because they were free, not paid for. Some people can only have enough money for one trip to CP a summer. 40 dollars a person to get in is a lot. plus your food and souveniers.

If CP wants less wait times, then they should keep their crews together for the WHOLE season, and not break them apart. That is my opinion on why the best steel coaster had horribly long wait times this summer. but that is a whole nother can of worms.

What the heck are you talking about? Lines for Magnum were tolerable most of the season. ;)

CP has an unusual amount of high capacity rides and rollercoasters. They move the guests through the line queue's fast and if it is a new or signiture attraction they have a live DJ or someone to enhance the experience. I think some of the funnest memories included moving through the queue quickly at night with the DJ on Millennium Force having everyone dancing or singing along... good stupid fun! Is CP really in need of the Freeway system? Disney and Universal for example have a select number of key attractions making it a good idea. But really virtual queue's are kind of a distraction to the freedom of taking a day off and going to a park I think.

I will miss freeway. I was hoping it would return. :(

At least for just MF and TTD...Having it for WT seemed like a waste, and Raptors line never stops...Mantis' line seems to crawl. I dont know. I really liked the system they had and used it every time we went to the park.

I am sorry to ask a dumb question - but what is the "Qbot" system? Also, how much does it cost?

every single time i go to Cedar Point the wait times are wrong it'll say 3/4 hour and it'll be 30 minutes or less or an hour or more nbut it's almost always less than posted except for Dragster and Millenium Force which are behind due to there load procedures. I will miss freeway as I used it periodically for Dragster and Raptor andit made the day way more fun.... and I spent alot more money eating and buying souveners (SP?) instead of waiting in line

Bill Horvath said:
I spent alot more money eating and buying souveners (SP?) instead of waiting in line

There it is, a very BIG and motivating reason why FreeWay should have remained, it gave people more time in the shops and food places. I'll be interested to see how wait times are affected as well as how in-park spending numbers are. Obviously there will be an increase due to the lower admission costs and some food price cuts, but I would love to know how much money they aren't getting by having the FreeWay people in line instead of bying and eating.

You could always try to find the silver lining. With FreeWay gone, the employee who was previously at the FreeWay/crowd position will now just be at "crowd", i.e. not tied to the FreeWay merge point and hopefully better able to monitor the line for smokers, line-jumping, heat-related problems, etc....assuming, of course, that the position isn't just cut.

Freeway must have caused more cost and problems than it was worth. Or it would still be there.

MrScott

I understand that CP wants to save money and all, but isn't keeping the guest happy and coming back more important?

There's more to life then just saving a buck...

Trust me, FreeWay was more trouble than it was worth. For every guest it made happy, it pissed off 3.

On a positive note, they are doing new things that they haven't done before. Lower admission, lower food costs, online contests, the blog, etc. I am confident that CP will keep us happy, they wouldn't take things away if it wasn't necessary.

BPMCH02 said:
I am sorry to ask a dumb question - but what is the "Qbot" system? Also, how much does it cost?

Qbot is a system used by Six Flags, sorta like Freeway. The difference is that: (1)You pay for it. I cant quite remember how much exactly, but I think it's somewhere around $25+ per person. (2)It gets you straight into the station. (3)It's a "pager", not a stamp.

But like what HoosierTTD said for Freeway, "For every guest it made happy, it pissed off 3". But in the case of Qbot, it pissed off the whole queue!!:)

*** Edited 1/26/2006 4:03:38 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

Lol, "For every guest it made happy, it pissed off 3", I guess that makes sense, I did have to wait an hour just to get a freeway... better then waiting three hours though...

I'm not taking back my statment though, there is more to life then saving a buck... unless your in my finacial condition.

Bill Horvath said:
every single time i go to Cedar Point the wait times are wrong it'll say 3/4 hour and it'll be 30 minutes or less or an hour or more nbut it's almost always less than posted except for Dragster and Millenium Force which are behind due to there load procedures. I will miss freeway as I used it periodically for Dragster and Raptor andit made the day way more fun.... and I spent alot more money eating and buying souveners (SP?) instead of waiting in line

So you are upset that your wait time is less than what was posted. what if we posted 30 min and it was 45 min then you would be upset because the wait was longer. I would rather have it the way it is. and it can be very hard to guess how long the wait is for Dragster one rollback and you can add time to your wait.