Fast Passes

I think that front of the line access will not negatively affect daily operations or any particular groups of people (average middle class for example). If a family of four is paying under $300 for a trip to Cedar Point that they are probably taking once a year, that seems pretty reasonable to me considering the quality of entertainment received. If they then choose to purchase the passes, then that's their decision. Some people simply won't put forth that much money because they do not see the value in doing so. If they find it to be such a negative impact on their trip that people are "cutting" in front of them all day, they can simply visit during a less-busy time of year when it will not be as popular.

Even in the middle of the busy summer time, I really only see a line pass being useful on a Saturday. Typically any other day of the week, I am able to ride everything I care to within a whole day. The only advantage would be for people who are impatient and can't wait 30-45 min. I also think it helps that CP has such a wide variety of attractions and coasters - the longer lines have really spread out across several major coasters in the past ten years or so.

As long as it doesn't become what the system at Six Flags is like, I'm all for the additional revenue and added experience it would bring in. They definitely do need to set a limit if it is true that sales were unlimited during Kings Island's busy Haunt Saturdays... I think there's a point where that becomes too Six Flags-like and hurts guest experiences on both sides of the system. Either way, if it's been successful like the dinosaurs at KI, I would guess such a system could also make its way to Cedar Point North.

djDaemon said:
That's really not very expensive when you consider you're getting an entire day's worth of entertainment.

Let's assume your hypothetical family spends 12 hours at the park. That works out to $5.56/person/hour.

Let's take a look at a trip to the movie theater...
tickets each = $10
food each = $8
gas = $1
TOTAL = $73

A longer movie will run about 2 hours, bringing the cost to $9.13/person/hour. That's nearly double the hourly cost to go to CP.

Or how about a baseball game?
tickets each = $35
parking = $15
food each = $15
gas = $2
TOTAL = $217

A baseball game lasts, what, 4 hours? Let's go ahead and call it 5 just to be generous. That works out to $10.85/person/hour. Again, nearly double what it costs to go to CP.

Keywords being "expensive for the average middle working class family". Maybe not for you, but for some families, it is expensive. Expand your horizons buddy! ;)

Why would the park have any problems besides having to pay more people. It's the guests who will experience longer wait times everyday because people won't limit themselves to buying it on just the busy days.

I don't really have a problem with the fast pass. I visit Cp around 10 times a year and King's Island around 13 times a year. I do everything I need to do in two to three visits and the rest of the time is just for something to do and relax.

I do see a problem for the people who visit once a year. In line for Diamondback on Saturday, a group of four was behind us that said they only visit once every couple years. A line that used to only take an hour and a half on DB ended up taking around 3 because giant groups of fast pass users would come and ride mutiple times. Big deal for me? No, I've already ridden it about 100 times this year. Problem for the group behind me that travled six hours and visits once a year? Yes. It wasn't just their group that had a problem either. I heard multiple F You's shouted at fast pass people who walked right on past the line.

Can everybody buy a fast pass? Well technically yes, but does everybody have the extra $60 dollars to throw down to use it? In this economy, no.

I'm undecided.

Just so you guys are aware. While I was at Kings Island during the summer on one of my off days, they were charging $50 per for the Fast Lane. I was told they were only selling a amount based on a percentage of how many people were in the park.

Not to mention I was there on a day where it was decently busy and never really noticed the fact that these people were getting in front of me in line. They did a great job with their merge points.

And thats my essential problem with fastpass. Its not the busy days that worry me, its the not so busy days that will now have longer lines generated because of people re-riding over and over and over. More importantly its the hostile environment that I dont want to be a part of when outburts such as the one above inevitably occur. IMO opinion there are far better ways to give the customer a better park experience and make more money.

Diamondback with a 1.5 hour wait? Were they running 1 train? I've been in that line when it started way beyond the end of the queues, and even that only took 45 minutes.

That being said, I do think the biggest issue comes down to how such a system is implemented. If it's implemented correctly, there should be little impact to the guests in the regular queue.

Yeah, I think it should go without saying that if a FOL system is implemented so poorly as to triple the wait time for non-FOL guests, it's a problem. I would never advocate for such a system.

Of course, many other parks implement such systems without a significant impact on the guest experience. So it can be done without many of the "problems" that people seem to be concerned about.

From experience I know of the Disney system, the sea world system, GA Flash Passand the universal system at IoA. The Disney system can work but it does break down at times when workers forgive people who have missed their return time (sometimes by 3-4 hours) which negates the crwod managaement aspect that it was designed to control. Plus for the most popular rides the line for just getting the ticket can be an hour or so in the morning but they do limit the amount given out. The Sea World/Busch Gardens Tampa system was probably the worst where they had specific rows devoted to FOL guests. It sounds like a good idea but the problem there is the load those lines separate from the other rows which increases dramtaically (and ridiculously IMO) thus affecting the wait times. At universal I saw firsthand a group of people re-riding the Hagrid roller coaster which made the line seem like it was going on forever, despite have a pretty low ride cycle time for a one train operation. Other rides also seemed to have longer lines to the point where I simply did not wait in them. At GA/MM I had much the same experience where I simply did not wait in the long lines that seemed unusually long but I cant be certain because I dont know the attendance trends for those parks very well.

My two qualifications for a FOL system would be either make it so expensive that it really doesnt affect the lines greatly much like the VIP at CP or have a limit of one ride on each ride. Any system thats allows for people to have unlimited access past the line will not be supported by me.

I agree with you about the Busch Gardens system. I mistakenly got into line for the fast pass row. All of the other rows were moving along nicely except for mine. Everyone in line for that row was a bit irritated.

Ralph Wiggum said:
Diamondback with a 1.5 hour wait? Were they running 1 train? I've been in that line when it started way beyond the end of the queues, and even that only took 45 minutes.

Nope three trains. The line was all the way back to the buffett place close to the train station.

TheHSBR said:
The Disney system can work but it does break down at times when workers forgive people who have missed their return time (sometimes by 3-4 hours) which negates the crwod managaement aspect that it was designed to control.

You are not allowed to come before your fast pass time slot but you are allowed to come after. Our family always takes advantage of this so we don't have to rush to get to the ride in the specific time but you are indeed allowed to come after your time.

TwistedWicker77 said:

If you have the money for all of the extra activities and so called FOL access, good for you, why not take advantage FastPass on a busy day. But don't look down on the middle class family who doesn't have enough money for all of it, and are trying to make the best of their day. That is all!

Should I have to drive a crappy car because some poor family can't afford to drive as nice of a vehicle as mine? No.

If a park wants to offer a better experience for more money I'm all for it. If I want to pay for front of the line access in a program offered by the park, nobody has a right to be upset over it.

Sorry you can't afford to get everything someone else has. That's called life.

^ A day late and a dollar short, buddy. We're all over that comment. But if you've actually been keeping up, you can see all of the pros and cons with a Fast Pass system that have already been stated. Once again, use as many analogies as you want, it still doesn't compare to what we're talking about. Finally, it's a Fast Pass system. It's not the end of the world to continue to harp on. We're all here stating our opinions about it, right?

Wow, did I open a can of worms. Fast pass works for me. I can afford it and it was worth every penny to me. I have no option to go to the park 20 to thirty times a year, though I would love to. I can only hit cp and ki once a year. Im not saying this, but, it could be said its not fair for people that happen to live close to a park to be offered a season pass that does not cost very much and they are offered unlimited access to said park every day of the year. Because of my situation, I am not allowed that advantage. How some people view fast lane, they should also view season pass. Should season pass be eliminated also because it gives a certain person more value at the park?

Thanks for the info Maverick, I didnt realize that about the Disney system. My worst experiences with that system have come towards the end of the day which now makes sense because people are probably wanting to use up the pass before they leave. I can tell you the worst line Ive ever stood in in my whole life was Disney's "Soarin" that went on forever and the queue itself was wide and move slower than the turtle on the comcast commercials.

HSBR, I was just checking out screamscape and they actually posted something today about the return time for fast passes at Disney world. It looks like theyre planning to enforce it better

i hope not haha!