Wait a sec...I'm confused. What stops a person from getting a ticket, walking back to the end of the Fast Pass line and getting another ticket?
Yes they tried it out today 6/24/00 and here is how it worked. My daughter and I rode the 2nd train out today about 10:15. We decided to get a ticket to ride later. The line extended so far past the queue that we didn't bother even looking to see if it went back to tenderfoot pass. The reason we didn't bother is because we were told that we would have to WAIT IN THAT LINE to get a ticket. Why didn't the ride op. read the post above that stated that all you had to do was show up at the entrance and get a ticket?
We decided to ride some other rides and come back later. When we came back at 2:00PM people were in a huge line extending past the queue with their ride tickets. We asked the ride op where to go to get a ticket. He said all of the tickets were gone and come back around 8:00PM if we wanted to ride.
Now I take that to mean that if we were back at 8:00 we would have the pleasure of waiting in ANOTHER HUGE LINE. I'm not opposed to waiting in huge lines. The first 2 weeks were hell as the bugs were being worked out getting 3 trains running. I have waited from 9:00 to 12:45 just for the queue to open and as long as 3:36 min to get 1 ride.
Who might I ask thought up this grand plan? This obviously had little or no planning involved. I went to park operations and strongly but as politely as possible voiced my displeasure with this system. The lady told me that noone was riding any other rides and that something had to be done about it. She also gave me one of their forms to fill out and said I could call Don Miears on Monday if I wanted to.
What a wasted trip today. Only 1 ride on the Force and blown off like a yo-yo.
CP I have used every opportunity to praise your park but today I only have comments of the most insulting kind for you. Why would anyone be told at 2:00 in the afternoon to come back at 8:00 to ride, all of the tickets are given out?
In protest my daughter and I left at 2:15. We arrived at 8:00 and were planning to stay until closing. CP your customers deserve better than this. If we wanted to be treated like this then we would go to "another" park.
Don Miears you have done a great job in the past, why the slipup now? The MF queue had problems with smoking, vandalism, and other misc. rude conduct. You took appropriate action and the situation has inproved greatly. Early season wait times were unpredictable, but are now reasonable with 3 trains running. Please vigorously solicit opinions to the new "ticket to ride" program and find out if the public enjoys this kind of treatment. I don't and feel that my day was ruined!
Steve Martin
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MF and that's my Final Answer ;)
MF count:16
*** This post was edited by Scooter on 6/24/2000. ***
This really, really sucks! It sounds like all they've accomplished during most of the day is to convert a line for the ride to a line to obtain a ticket for the ride. Really, really brilliant. If you want to do a fast pass, okay, I guess - but keep the option open for people to wait in line if they like. I hope you're listening, CP, because if my husband & I are prevented from getting in line for MF when we want to over the next couple days (on a vacation we've been looking forward to for months), you are going to hear from us. And I am NOT pleasant to deal with when I'm angry! And I will tell everyone I know who's planning to come out later this summer just how inefficiently things are being run - and they may make other plans. Just remember one of the big rules of customer service - a satisfied customer tells 2-3 other people of their experience - a dissatisfied customer tells 10-12!!!
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CheapRock
Mount up & let's ride!
Thank you CheapRock and Scooter for going DIRECTLY at CP. This is such crap. It's not like NO ONE is riding the other rides - it's not like they are consistently sending empty trains on any of the other coasters. And people ARE willing to wait for a long time to ride the best coaster ever. Besides, it wasn't bad to start with! Now, what was that saying about what to do if something isn't broken...
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Times I have "Gone Full Force" on MF: 2 - Next CP trip/MF thrill 6/30 - SUPPORT THE ANTI-FAST PASS MOVEMENT!
Wow... not riding any other rides? Which park did the woman in park op work at? Last week on a Friday, not a busy one, mind you, I actually waited for Disaster Transport and Mean Streak, not to mention all of the other big rides.
Again, my waits have been averaging 90 minutes on fairly crowded days. That equates to about 1,950 people in line. What are the other 30,000+ people doing?
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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
Millennium Force laps: 34
I was in the park Saturday...
Put simply, the ticket system is stark raving nuts. For me, it meant that I ended up with a *longer* total wait in line than I have ever had before for Millennium Force (in excess of two hours when you combine the waits in both lines). It has completely fouled traffic on the Frontier Trail and the midway in front of Millennium Force. It has caused tremendous confusion, and it has aggravated people beyond belief. Basically, the only thing they have accomplished is to go from telling us where we can sit (which, by the way, they are still doing), to telling us when we can wait in line for the new ride. The system is garbage, and our best hope is that it collapses under its own weight and goes away very quickly.
Perhaps a more detailed examination another time, but I'm tired and I want to go to bed. Just remember: "I told you so" in this very thread.......
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
*** This post was edited by RideMan on 6/26/2000. ***
On my last 3 trips to CP there was a very small amount of people NOT RIDING OTHER RIDES. Each time Mantis, Raptor, Power Tower, and even Magnum had long waits. As for the other rides I was suprised... Gemini was normal, buy DT had a 45 minute wait, and I waited a half hour for Mine Ride. All the time the line for Millennium Force was about 1 1/2 hours. I really do not understand this system, and hope it ends before my next visit in July... One question... Is this system on weekends, or is it everyday?
Ohh my head is spinning after reading this thread. I WILL be in the park on Monday and I hope they are doing it just so I can see all of the mass confusion. That would suck if I was told that I couldn't ride the ride until after 8pm. What if I'm with a church group,a charter bus or from out of town and I didn't get a ticket and I have to leave early. Thats not fair to me. I'd like to comment more but I need to see it first hand.
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daniel j. haverlock
'99 Magnum Count: 801
spiritofthepoint.com
CABEWNCP sums it up great. As in CoasterBuzz, the park says "nobody is riding other rides." But yet, lines for Mantis are the longest they have been since Opening, Raptor still breaks an hour and a half sometimes, and Power Tower is usually at least a half hour.
Like I said before, CP should not have the Fast Pass system. It just is'nt the kind of thing CP should have. The lines for MF have'nt been all that bad, as stated by some other people in this post. One thing people I've talked to ,who have been to other parks who use this type of system, said they liked the way CP did it because it gave you so much freedom. If you wanted to wait, then by all meens wait, otherwise you can go to another ride. So far the system has realy only brought chaos to most. Think about the ride op's who have to put up with all of this extra stress now. People are riding all of the other rides, MS is becoming ever more popular again, Gemini is more popular than it has been in the past few years, they have both the front and back entrances open and there is still about a 5 minute wait. We have had about at 10 minute wait for Corkscrew, which used to be a walk-on. Even the waits for BS have gone to the 15-20 minute wait levels on a Tuesday. The fast pass system also would increase those waits by telling people to go somewhere else why they wait for the ride. Thats my 2 cents on this whole ordeal.
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"The shade, is a tool, A device, a saviour"
My own summer (shove it)-Deftones
MF Rides-11
Dave, Sorry to hear that your Saruday was ruined too, but glad you were there to back up my post.
Don Miears I hope you are reading this page. It sounds like there are mass quantities of dissatisfied customers out there.
Please return the MF to a first come first served ride queue again. Please let people wait for the ride if they want to. Shouldn't we be given the choice of how we spend our time in your park? Can you really expect to build the best coaster on the whole planet and not expect the excitement level and people wanting to ride to be huge? The 3 train operation is working great now.
Come on Don, have mercy on the loyal fans of CP, and also think about the church groups and charter buss people that may not be able to stay until closing. And what about the single parents and divorced dads out there that might also be on a strict time schedule?
Don, in your hand is the power to please or the power to offend. You're a man of good character and we know you'll do the right thing.
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You can fool others, but nothing you do is hidden from God.
JESUS rules :) :)
Ok..let's just do this..if EVERYONE HERE, and then some, goes to the CP website and sends in a comment to them about how SUCKY this thing is, then MAYBE we will have some effect. Servo and I did just that and We told them in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that we will NOT be returning to CP AT ALL this year until this mess is either cleared up or ELIMINATED ENTIRELY...the best way to voice your displeasure is with your feet, folks..I mean, look at Steel Phantom. No one rides it, it is going away. No one goes to CP, they lose longtime, loyal customers and maybe FastPass goes away...venting here is one thing, and it is good to do so. But making a well-worded, DIRECT complaint that tells them how you feel and what the results of their actions will be is another, and better solution.
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I am Servo's ride partner
Don't worry, they read this stuff. This might be the longest thread in the history of the site (sorry Duane and Dan). Records aside, I think it shows just how bad of an idea this system is. There are some basic things to consider here:
1. The system doesn't reduce wait times.
2. Their implementation causes confusion.
3. It limits when you can ride (very annoying for after work visitors like me).
4. It certainly doesn't increase ridership on other rides.
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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
Millennium Force laps: 34
I didn't read all of the posts, but even if you are allowed to ride MF more than once, people couild go there and scalp fast pass tickets, and corrupt the system. CP i love ya, but think about the system b4 you impliment it.
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KORY LONDON
ANIME FAN/CP EXTRORDINARE
LAPS:0 :-( (Friend forgot me)
*** This post was edited by heero681 on 6/25/2000. ***
Well from what has been posted so far, it would take a miracle for this system to stay for another day. Anyone just get back from CP today? If so, do they still have this crap in circulation?
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Times I have "Gone Full Force" on MF: 2
-SUPPORT THE ANTI-FAST PASS MOVEMENT!-
Believe me, I support prompt removal of the fast pass system. They really call it the "ticket to ride" I believe. Even with a season pass I don't want to return this year. Saturday was nothing but a mess. In the 1st 2 weeks of the season there was 1 day where CP would not let ANY LINES form at the MF queue. This was aslo a ROYAL DISASTER. Mass confusion everywhere.
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You can fool others, but nothing you do is hidden from God.
JESUS rules :) :)
Well I just talked with a Cedar Point rep, and she seemed to think that the fast pass system was a one or two day trial process, and said that they were not yet sure whether it will be used for he rest of the season. She did say, though that it didn't go too well, and PROABABLY won't be used.
I really hope she was right...
*** This post was edited by RPerz on 6/25/2000. ***
Leave it to management to bork things up.
The queue line is fine without fastpass. It amazes me that people are so lazy nowadays. Stand in line and wait your turn! This is the way it is supposed to work.
I am headed for my sixth trip this year in July and I hope I don't see this crap. I bought a season pass exclusively for MF and if I'm limited in the number of times I can ride it, I will never buy one again. Did anyone at the Point think that the reason the queue is an hour and half is because the majority of people are power riders/repeat riders? The "noone is riding anything else" diatribe is a hock of crap also. There are people who've gone to the park with me who refuse to even look at MF because they are afraid of it. They are riding the other rides.
...should we picket?
(Steaming NUT)
I was there on Friday, and you guys are right, it is a joke. What is the purpose of having a queue area if they are going to use this system? Plus it prevents the ride from maximizing it's total capacity potential. When I entered the park I didn't even bother getting a ticket. There's one thing that I absolutly hate when I'm at CP and that's being committed time-wise to doing something. If I'm going to ride MF, I want to be able to get into line when I want. I was at CP on AAA day when the lines were 4+ hours long with 2 trains and did not ride. I was there on May 22nd, and the ride was shut down the whole day, and did not ride. I was there on Friday, and did not go along w/ the fast pass thing, and did not ride. Folks, I've been to CP three times so far this year, and yet I still have not been on this ride because CP can't get it's act together. To make things even worst, from what some of you have been posting, the MF crew is probably the worst in the park. I have made up my mind not to ride it at all this year, but wait till next year in hopes that things will be different.
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"Magnum + Prozac= Millennium Force
Whoa, whoa, whoa...
Don't make that decision yet. The crew isn't THAT bad. I've ridden 6 times and never personally had any problems with any of the ride-ops.
Don't worry, CP won't use this system if it is causing this much confusion and turmoil...
It will all work out in the end...(I hope?)
Closed topic.