Let's talk about Fast Lane

noggin said:
But the seats were filled. How the people filling those seats got into the seats doesn't matter, really. Some people choose stand by, some people choose FOL access.

If a ride can accommodate 1,000 riders per hour and there is a single line with 1,000 individual riders, each person will receive one ride within the one hour time frame. If you take 100 of those riders and put them in a separate line, the outcome will change. Assuming that each line admits riders at the same pace, if the 100 riders from the shorter line ride over and over it would take 1,800 total rides before every one of the original 1,000 had at least one.

Obviously that would be an extreme case and does not reflect reality since not every FL rider comes back around again and again. But many do and that can and does have an impact on the main line.

There should be a one hour waiting period between re-rides. They will still get more total rides in a day than someone without FL.

bootymix96 said:

Of course, I think a free system would be the most fair for all guests (much like Disney's FastPass), but I remember the logistical nightmare that happened when Cedar Point tried to create a free system to bypass waiting in line (does anyone else here remember FreeWay?), and as such, I see that a paid system is what allows the park and the rides to run with the most harmony possible.

Ha, FreeWay! I remember that.

How quickly do Fast Lanes sell out, anyway? Do they have dynamic pricing at all? I work in a box office and these are things I think about.

jsmith7300 said:
If a ride can accommodate 1,000 riders per hour and there is a single line with 1,000 individual riders, each person will receive one ride within the one hour time frame. If you take 100 of those riders and put them in a separate line, the outcome will change.

But the outcome doesn't change: the same number of people will have ridden the ride in either case. That some of those people chose to purchase expedited access to the ride doesn't matter.

Bobb-z said:

Never appreciated the invention of the Fast Lane at any park. The Fast Lane pass does not teach patience and it only makes the regular line a little longer (depending on when you get in line for a certain ride, though - I knock out Valravn, Millennium, Maverick, and Dragster first every morning I go). I would never buy a Fast Lane because, if I'm going to ride a ride like everyone else wants to, I'll wait in line for my turn, whether it be 5 minutes (like on Gemini) or 45 minutes (Raptor).

What makes a big difference in being able to knock out the busiest rides first is having a Platinum Pass. With the early hour between 9 and 10, it's easy to ride these coasters before the big line develops. Any other time on these rides in the same day is a bonus, but I'll wait my turn.

What about the people who don't buy a Platinum Pass. I am sure they don't appreciate the fact you get to enter the park an hour early while they have to wait in line just to enter at 10. So if you want to be like everyone else, you should enter at 10.

Hell I have a platinum pass and I still appreciate Fast Lane. When I spend $4XX+ on a hotel for the whole weekend, $60 in gas, $2XX on the pass for the season, then $1XX in food/funsies for the weekend, the last thing I want to do is stand in lines and barely do anything on a mini vacation.

I rarely ever get FL passes since I visit the park at least 10 times a year, it really has no value for me. If I don't ride a particular coaster on a certain visit, there's always next time. Not everyone is as lucky as most of us on here and go lots of times throughout the season. I can see going to a park I don't go to very often and getting it. I'd want to maximize my visit to that park. Even then, I usually schedule 2 days at parks I go to that are out of town.

noggin said:
But the outcome doesn't change: the same number of people will have ridden the ride in either case. That some of those people chose to purchase expedited access to the ride doesn't matter.

But in the context of this discussion (does FL impact non-FL riders' wait times), it does matter.

Peasant lives matter?

I'm (hopefully) heading to Kings Dominion & Carowinds this summer and possibly Kings Island or Dorney this fall. I will have 1 day at each, and will probably buy FastLane for each of them. But at CP I have a hard time springing for it because I'm there several days each summer.

True, the total number of rides would be the same and that helps prove my point. A train will hold the same number of people regardless of whether they have Fast Lane or not and whether it's their first ride or fifth. FL gives participants the ability to obtain a greater number of rides throughout the day thereby increasing their frequency of use. Since we've concluded that capacity remains unchanged by FL those extra rides have to come from somewhere. The result is increased wait times for the general admission ticket holders.

^If they don't like it, buy fast lane, it's available to everyone, it's not like they only offer to a certain demographic. It has an equal availability to every person who enters the park.

Fastlane does affect the regular line. I don't buy it because I would rather spend that money on season passes and visit more often. If I was traveling all the way from Kansas City though I would have a completely different view than I do living only an hour away. Yiu are the exact type of guest they make sense for.

thedevariouseffect said:

It has an equal availability to every person who enters the park.

While I generally agree, it's a much different equation for a family of 4 than it is for one person. If I could take my family for a weekend and only spend "$1XX in food/funsies" it would be a damn miracle. With the relatively small amount you're spending, it's completely trivial to drop another $80-ish on FL. For a family budgeting 3 or 4 times what you are for "food/funsies", dropping another $300-ish is decidedly less trivial.

jsmith7300 said:
FL gives participants the ability to obtain a greater number of rides throughout the day thereby increasing their frequency of use.

Which is the amount of access they paid for; and the people in the stand by line are receiving the level of access they paid for.

And the people in the stand by line who used a season pass to enter the park or who bought tickets online, perhaps at a discount, got expedited access to that coaster ahead of the people waiting on line to buy tickets at the gate.

djDaemon said:

While I generally agree, it's a much different equation for a family of 4 than it is for one person. If I could take my family for a weekend and only spend "$1XX in food/funsies" it would be a damn miracle. With the relatively small amount you're spending, it's completely trivial to drop another $80-ish on FL. For a family budgeting 3 or 4 times what you are for "food/funsies", dropping another $300-ish is decidedly less trivial.

Oh well of course economical situations could be considered factors as to who purchases Fast Lane, no doubting that, but that's an outside factor. If that were the case, we should all be angry because someone purchased a VIP package and gets on everything. Within the park grounds though, every person is equally capable of purchasing Fast Lane. The opportunity presents itself equally, so if someone puts more value in getting all the rides in vs. eating meals in the park or just packing, that's their prerogative.

Shane Denmark said:

I'm (hopefully) heading to Kings Dominion & Carowinds this summer and possibly Kings Island or Dorney this fall. I will have 1 day at each, and will probably buy FastLane for each of them.

Unless you are going to Dorney on a weekend or holiday, Fast Lane will have no benefit what so ever. (Unless it is a hundred degrees out and you want to ride a water ride or use Fast Lane Plus in the water park.)

In general I don't have an issue with Fast Lane but I think CP should evaluate how many fast lane riders are on each train with some rides.

It seemed that many times last season 1/3 of the riders on Valravn and that seems high to me.

I'm not sure of the exact mix on other rides but because of how the line is split at the stairs it's very easy to see the effect on that ride.

I only used FL twice last summer. I paid once and got a free FL when I renewed by pass for 2017.

I'll admit to re-riding valravn a few times in a row and it seemed a bit unfair as I had to wait zero minutes in line.

Even with a FL-plus I'd be fine waiting a few minutes when the regular line well over an hour long.

We visited Kings Island last summer and I re-rode Diamond back a few times but the regular line was only about 30 minutes long so it seemed reasonable for FL riders to have no wait.

Why this guilt trip for using something you paid for? Ride and re-ride my friend, and keep re-riding as much as you like.

jscll said:

Shane Denmark said:

I'm (hopefully) heading to Kings Dominion & Carowinds this summer and possibly Kings Island or Dorney this fall. I will have 1 day at each, and will probably buy FastLane for each of them.

Unless you are going to Dorney on a weekend or holiday, Fast Lane will have no benefit what so ever. (Unless it is a hundred degrees out and you want to ride a water ride or use Fast Lane Plus in the water park.)

It would be Columbus Day weekend... After the debacle last October (yeah, I knew it was gonna be busy but the operations were awful) we are thinking about trying KI or DP this fall.