Maverick Restraints

I wasn't saying the Fast Lane was really the problem. It was the number of broken seats. The line would've gone a little faster if all those seats weren't broken.

The Fast Lane crowd should just go right up to the station Shawn, you don't purchase Fast Lane to wait a long time. I don't get your point why that would upset you? Seems like everything was done correctly

Has anyone else noticed, at the end of their ride the seatbelt had loosened? I noticed this during my trip. It seemed the nylon was worn/stripped and slipped back through the buckle. I reported the issue to the ride ops. I wonder if this could be the reason for the broken seats?

I don't get what's up with Maverick in 2015. I found the ride to be generally reliable in previous seasons. This year it has been closed or down for parts of almost every visit. It's going up and down while in line. And as others have reported, there have been an oddly high number of closed seats on certain visits. With people trying to ride on the same train in groups, the closed seats are causing all sorts of headaches.

The only thing I know that has changed are the restraints. I also have noticed the seat belt straps loosening up, often right after being tightened. Oddly I never noticed that issue with the I-305 restraints, so I wonder if there was another design change. I love the new soft restraints, but I hope they're not causing the downtime.

Thabto said:

And it was nice meeting you yesterday, Matthew.

Matthew said

Nice meeting you too! :) It's nice to finally meet some people here in the real world!

I don't even meet anyone when I wear my point buzz shirt, let alone randomly. I'll be at the park Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Someone say hi.

Chris

^^ Maverick does go down alot this year. Alot more than past seasons. This year on 2 separate days, it went down while I was in line. Although I like the new restraints, I'm beginning to question if it was worth installing them. It looks like they came at the expense of uptime and capacity. I hope they can get the kinks worked out. We're getting into the busy season now.

^ Chris, were you that guy in the green PointBuzz shirt that I said hi to when you were boarding MF on Coastermania day?

Mystical Matthew said:

... don't get to go every week either, but couldn't afford FL+.

Tough sell for me. If they have the resources to buy tickets into the park, pay for parking, rent accommodations (even if it's a tent at the KOA), buy gas for the car for the trip, buy food...

...then they can afford FastLane.

How do they afford Fast Lane if all of their money has been spent?

noggin said:

Mystical Matthew said:

... don't get to go every week either, but couldn't afford FL+.

Tough sell for me. If they have the resources to buy tickets into the park, pay for parking, rent accommodations (even if it's a tent at the KOA), buy gas for the car for the trip, buy food...

...then they can afford FastLane.

Here is some quick math to show you that the old "if you can afford to go then you can afford FL" argument doesn't hold up.

I am using some rough numbers here to give you an idea of the percent increase the trip would cost if you added FL+. I am using FL+ as Maverick is the ride in question. I am using an example of just one person, but when adding more people the percentage increase would be greater as costs like parking and gas won't increase, and lodging would see a small increase.

Admission-$50

Parking-$15

Food-$20

Place to Stay-$80

Gas-$50

Total- $215

FL+-$95

Percent increase when adding FL+ to the trip-44%

There are a lot of things out there that when they cost 44% more are no longer affordable.

Thabto said:

^ Chris, were you that guy in the green PointBuzz shirt that I said hi to when you were boarding MF on Coastermania day?

Sorry no. Female, 60ish, 5'2", short blonde hair. My pointbuzz shirt is purple. Might wear it a little this trip, but mostly will be wearing July 4th appropriate tees.

I will say hi to anyone wearing a Pointbuzz shirt! :)

Everybody has a budget and if they don't adhere to that they are living beyond their means. Having the funds to finance a Cedar Point trip doesn't mean one should go into debt to splurge for Fastlane on top of it.

Dead Sexeh said:
Here is some quick math to show you that the old "if you can afford to go then you can afford FL" argument doesn't hold up.

I am using some rough numbers here to give you an idea of the percent increase the trip would cost if you added FL+. I am using FL+ as Maverick is the ride in question. I am using an example of just one person, but when adding more people the percentage increase would be greater as costs like parking and gas won't increase, and lodging would see a small increase.

Admission-$50

Parking-$15

Food-$20

Place to Stay-$80

Gas-$50

Total- $215

FL+-$95

Percent increase when adding FL+ to the trip-44%

There are a lot of things out there that when they cost 44% more are no longer affordable.

Right, and that's only for one person. Consider a family of four where gas, hotel & parking are constant and you get $425. With FL+ adding $280, that's a 66% increase.

As for letting all of the FL in the station and then some of the regular line, I don't understand why that's happening. I was trained --> let in equal number of regular line, as much as FL. But that was a few seasons ago. Clearly a lot has changed since then.

I didn't notice the entire FL going in. I just noticed that it got backed up a little and I think that was due to the reduced capacity from all the broken seats.

There's yet another capacity issue because of the broken seats, beyond the fact that those seats simply can't be used. When people are positioning themselves to ride with friends/family, and a broken seat comes up, people suddenly go "oh crap" and scramble trying to let folks through. Sometimes this fails, and then its too late, and the train goes out with a couple of perfectly good seats with nobody in them.

There's a Priceline.com joke there somewhere...

Where do you find a motel in the Sandusky area for $80 on a Friday or Saturday? And $20 for food, do you only eat once? Let us know your secret.

Try here and here.

Our secret to eating cheap during the day is to get a supreme sub ($6) at Walmart, bag of chips ($1), and split it among all of us for lunch in the car. We might get a slice of pizza later on. Maybe check out that new burrito place at the Chuck Wagon. I remember when I got nachos supreme with meat at Kings Island last year it was huge and I couldn't eat more than half. I think it was like 6 bucks with pass discount. I recommend getting the chips on the side, I will next time.

Nothing against that Maples Motel, as it appears to get great reviews with a rich history. I'm assuming they're trying to preserve nostalgic signs, but if I was driving by and saw "Heated" and "Color TV" as features, I'd probably put my foot on the accelerator. ;)

If you have the disposable income to even consider a multi-day trip to an amusement park, you have the disposable income to consider FastLane.