Opening Day Live

Top Thrill 182 said:
Interesting... Sound like the miscommunication at the front gate prior to opening may have been the source of some guests' frustrations.

And kca32, what's this about FL being moved on MF and Maverick? Moved to where?

They moved the FL on Maverick to the other side closer to where you exit. The new line merges at the bottom of the stairs in the barn and has the left staircase exclusively, while the right staircase is exclusively general line (they are divided the whole way) they merge right into the station at the turnstile and the attendant was just sort of saying 'merge youself'.

Millenium is now using the old Freeway line I believe. The entrance to FL is now right next to the main entrance instead of over by the smoking area and going right into the station. It merges at the bottom of the ramp and then you wait on the ramp with everyone else.

Overall, in a FL users point of view, the Maverick change was much needed because the setup did not work well last year at all IMO. The Millennium change was a huge downgrade to FL users IMO but is now much more fair (the way it should be). Buying FL 3 times last year, I noticed how unfair the line was for the public. I rarely waited more then 10 min in the old FL line because it went right into the station. Two employees I talked to about it said it was too hard to "guard" both lines of people coming into the station when they only have one person working the line.

So overall, a neutral change.

Kevinj said:

Truly a disgusting amount of individuals at the park today. It's like even if a new ride gets put in in any given year, more people come to account for this new ride so lines at all of the other previously existing rides stay the exact same. Absurd.

I'm confused. This sounds like wonderful news for the park.

It is wonderful news for the park but not for the individual coaster fiend.

I hate that they moved Millennium's FL line. Last year you could get so many rides in really fast. But I will agree it was really hard for the station crew to guard both lines as they were always scrambling back and forth.

Rcoaster10 said:
I hate that they moved Millennium's FL line. Last year you could get so many rides in really fast. But I will agree it was really hard for the station crew to guard both lines as they were always scrambling back and forth.

Completely agree. Now it's a guranteed 15-20 min (the ramp) + whatever the FL wait is.

Hmmm, bad change on MF. Makes it harder to justify a Fast Lane purchase on a slower day.

Regarding these changes to Fast Lane for MF, is there a CP employee at the bottom of the ramp where the regular queue merges with the FL queue in order to officially indicate that you are able to enter at that time? I'm not sure I like the concept of 'merging yourself' that was referred to in a previous post about Maverick's Fast Lane as it seems like you would have to explain why you're blatantly cutting in front of people in the regular queue.

I have to believe some CP employee is still regulating the number of FL users that can enter the ride queue, at least on Maverick anyway using the separate stair case approach (similar to the process that was used when Maverick had a single rider line).

arw84 said:
Regarding these changes to Fast Lane for MF, is there a CP employee at the bottom of the ramp where the regular queue merges with the FL queue in order to officially indicate that you are able to enter at that time? I'm not sure I like the concept of 'merging yourself' that was referred to in a previous post about Maverick's Fast Lane as it seems like you would have to explain why you're blatantly cutting in front of people in the regular queue.

I have to believe some CP employee is still regulating the number of FL users that can enter the ride queue, at least on Maverick anyway using the separate stair case approach (similar to the process that was used when Maverick had a single rider line).

Yes, there is an employee at the bottom of the ramp merging the two lines at whatever ratio that is. Maverick is a different story (at least yesterday when I was there). There was an employee checking wristbands at the bottom of the FL side of the stairs to the station (Because there is no one outside the entrance to the line) but then at the top of the stairs the turnstile employee was just letting the two lines merge into the station freely.

Definitely agree with post above re: justifying purchase on a slower day. Millennium went from being probably the best FL to the worst IMO. GK I consider to be fair, same with Raptor and Magnum. It would appear now that the FL wait on GK will be shorter then MF and TTD most of the time. From the merge point on GK up to the station seemed to be 10-15 minutes max whereas the ramp of MF is 15-20 minutes + the FL line time. TTD is ~20 min (on a good day) from bottom of ramp + FL time.

Maybe that's the way they want it but it just seems odd.

As I mentioned earlier, I think the advantage to having a FL+ would drastically improve if TTD limited the crowd in the station like all the other majors are doing. By allowing that station to be jam packed, it is severely diminishing the value of FL+.

I just have to post this somwehere;

We got our first look at the park today...here for most of the week...and I find the new entrance just truly remarkable. Pictures do not do Gatekeeper's impact on the entrance justice, and it wasn't even running today.

Clean, modern, simplified, and just beautiful.

:)

Very happy Cedar Pointer as we tuck our kids in ready for opening week.

In regards to the relocated Fast Lane merge point at Maverick:

kca32 said:
...but then at the top of the stairs the turnstile employee was just letting the two lines merge into the station freely.

I saw this problem on Saturday afternoon, and hopefully it will be fixed. There was an employee at the top of the stairs controlling access to the station, but each time they "flooded" the station, it was an every man for himself battle between the two merging lines. I witnessed several people in the FL line being pretty aggressive with forcing themselves ahead of the regular line. The employee at the top of the stairs needs to be managing the merging of the two lines.

I'm not a particularly big fan of the change made for MF as a previous user of FL but I can understand one major reason why: marathoning guests. The fact that, even on slow days, you are being forced to wait 15-20 minutes on the ramp plus time spent in the station between rides may discourage the type of behavior that many people noticed last year. I personally observed FL users that would walk down the exit ramp and then jump the rails into the FL queue that previously started by the smoking area and went under the front half of the station.

In the off season the park did a lot of work on Cedar Downs, i was wondering if it looks different now and did anyone get any pics of it?

The floor looked new and the horses looked great as always. Other than that I didn't notice much, but I wasn't sure what to specifically look for, so there may be more to discover!