Freeway

First, I gota love the name of this virtual queuing system. It says, "Hey Six Flags, out guest get it for FREE."

While I did not personally use it today (there was no need with the longest wait being 35 minutes), It looked like it worked good and did not slow down the progress of the regular line that much.

The thing to keep it a success to only allow that small amount of people to use it, who want to. Otherwise is slows down the regular line too much. Aslo there would be no point to use it on rides like Magnum.

My opinion is it's a bit goofy with the handstamps, but this will prevent folks from abusing it. Overall, if it doesn't get screwed up royaly (Ticket To Ride) it'll work great.

We used it on Millennium Force this afternoon, and it was awesome. We were just afraid of hostile guests getting on us at the "merge point." Apparently CP put some planning into this and decided to station a host or hostess there to help out.

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- "Michael Darling"

"Those weren't trims, that was a buzz cut!" - a Mean Streak rider

Tell me exactly how this works? Hand Stamps?

Here's how it works. Much like the late Ticket to Ride, hand stamps are given out, starting at a specific time in the day (today 11am). They are given for hour time blocks (1-2pm, 2-3pm, etc). When you get a stamp, you go to whichever ride it's for (MF or WT) in that hour time block, and show the stamp to the ride op at the entrance. You will then be directed through the special access gate to a "merge point" in the line (the ramp up to the station for both cases). At this point, another employee will stamp your hand with a different stamp, voiding your previous stamp to get in. Then you will have about a 15 minute wait for the coaster.

There are two things I like about this. First, unlike TTR, you do have the option to wait in the normal line. And even better, there are a very small amount of stamps given out so that the normal line is not held up very much by the FreeWayers. The other thing I like is that it is a big response to Six Flags, since it is basically the same system as they have but FREE! I think this will work out, unlike TTR. It satisfies both the regulars and the general public.

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Break the scream barrier in 2002!
Wicked twists: 3
VertiGo: (2001-2002) R.I.P.

Can you only get one once during the day for both rides, or one for each ride, and how do they limit the amount they give out?

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Snoopy Rocks! On Ice starts June 22--Do you think they'll let me drive the Zamboni machine?

I want to drive the Zamboni!

Where are they given out? At the rides or at the park entrance? How do you know when they will be given out?

They are actually given out at little carts that they can move and park right by the entrance of WT and MF. They have a sign at the top that says "FreeWay". Under that they have another sign that says either when they will start giving out hand stamps or which time block they are currently giving stamps for. For example, in the morning it said "Hand stamps will be given out at 11:00am" and later on it would say something like "Stamps are currently being given out for 2pm-3pm".

I'm not sure if there is a limit on how many you can get in one day, and they way they limit the amount of stamps given out is by moving on to the next time block once a certain number of stamps are given.

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Break the scream barrier in 2002!
Wicked twists: 3
VertiGo: (2001-2002) R.I.P.

They say only one stamp per coaster, per day and you can only have one stamp at any given time. But the stamps come off your hand VERY easily, so I can see cheating going on there.

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- The Darling one
"Danger: Hgih Voltage" -The DT Queue
"Those weren't trims, that was a buzzcut" - A Mean Streak rider

I used it. Got on in 20 minutes at my time. It's not a bad idea, provided they get the pre-stamped to queue ratio at a good spot. Right now they're doing about 10% of the ride's capacity. That isn't too terrible. We'll see how it goes when they up that ratio.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Already I see a problem with it though, much similar to TTR. They must remember they have STARLIGHT admission.

If a person comes in at 5 and they are sold out of stamps (they were OD well before 4pm it seemed), yeah they get to ride I don't think they are going to feel to good about people using a system to get in front of them in line wich they don't have acces too. This will especially be the case if they bump up the number of handstamp and the regular line gets longer as a result.

Easy Solution, same with TTR. Stop it at 4 or 5 when the other people come in.

Joe, wouldn't you have the same problem using any other system, if they run out of times for you to go, then you have to wait in the regular line. If you feel spited by this complain, but just because you chose to come in later doesn't mean that it is unfair. When I was at Disneyworld they ran out of fast passes for rides by 1:00 pm, does that stop people from waiting in line?

I hope they use a better stamper in the future because by the time my ride time came up my stamp was almost completely gone. Luckily, it was no problem.

It shouldn't have much effect on the Starlight admission people because the queue remains open to anybody; it's just that in case of high demand, Freeway may not be available to someone coming in on a starlight admission. But that is not necessarily a bad thing...someone waiting in the queue may have only a 45 minute wait, while the Freeway user may have a wait of several hours...hours which the starlight customer can't spare. TTR was an absolute disaster for the starlight customers because it completely denied them a ride on the coaster because ALL rides sold out by noon, not just virtual queue rides.

As I mentioned elsewhere, if they can keep the queue-to-Freeway ratio just right, this may not be a bad system.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I agree, as long as that ratio is kept at a good level it should have little impact on the regular line no matter what time of day. Around 6-7PM it seemed last year when the starlight people reached MF the line got a bit longer. If the ratio is high and 400+ people are entering from freeway around that time the starlight people could be in for a very long wait.

I heard this was coming down the pipe...Now was this used where you could not get stamps for the 2 rides in the same hour..I thought they were going to have different color stamps for different time frames...

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http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp.html
Fear the Mullet!

They stamped over your stamp once you used your time. So if you also went to your car, you got three stamps for the day. Anyone else feel a little violated by these practices?

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Interesting about the whole "stamping" business. Last year @ SFA, when they gave out FastLane tickets they gave you paper tickets with your reservation times AND they gave you a hand stamp, presumeably so that you could not get more tickets. I would *think* that mix would be a little better than stamping at two locations but perhaps they thought it would be better than the litter bags of tickets at the end of the day and the cost of printing. I dunno, but I'd most assuredely use the system. Especially since you can still choose your seat (well *sort of* choose your seat when it comes to Millie).

I think CP deserves a cookie for getting in line with the times.

lata,

jeremy

--once again (as always) everyone wants to be the mouse

We used it and it worked ok, but the park wasnt that busy so it's still too early to tell how good it will be.

The MF stamps were all given out for the day by about 4:30 accoerding to the Stamper girl at WT. The park closed early and the ratio of stamps given out may have been different.

We were stamped and not long thereafter the stamps started "bleeding" and smearing to the point where it was not very legible. And if you washed your hands you had a red splotch on your wrist.

We got into line at 7 as our stamp was for 7-8 pm. We walked right to the merge point and several people were puzzled by our ability to "cut" in front of them. Others had no idea of the "Freeway" stamp and were very interested. It appears people who arrive late dont know about it becuase the Stampers are gone by the time they get into the park.

They looked at our stamps to let us in the queue, luckily mine was still legible, but my two friends' were not. Since we were together he said, "close enough" and let us through. We got on in less than 5 minutes which was nice, but I know that it will be different in the busy season.

The potential for abuse is there and Im sure CP will have to come up with a better, more reliable and legible stamp.

If you wash your hands a lot after the stamp, you'll lose it.

"Freeway" and other programs like it are good to those who come early enough to use it. However it does create a lot of animosity from other patrons that don't or can't use it.

At DisneyWorld you have to get there pretty early to get a "Fastpass" for Test Track or you have to wait. They don't last long there.

As long as the ratio of "Freewayers" to line waiters is low then I imagine it would be ok.

Waiting in line is part of the park system and I don't mind it if the ride is worth it. It's a cool way to meet others and talk about the rides.

The park likes "Freeway" type programs because it frees you from waiting in line and allows you to do more shopping, eating at their stands/restaurants, etc. Less time in line means more opportunities to make money.

I'm mixed on my feelings about it. If you are one of the fortunate to get a stamp, then it is nice, but if you aren't, well, we all know how that feels.

We used it on MF and WT and it worked good. I agree about the ink fading. I was told at WT that "around 100 people" for each hour will be stamped.

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Life-Long CP fan.