Fast Lane at Cedar Point
Cedar Point: New this year! "Fast Lane" -- a way to speed through the lines at Cedar Point.
New this year -- I just read on Facebook that Cedar Point is offering "Fast Lane" in order for guests to speed through the lines of 16 rides at an additional cost. Check out their website below for all of the details:
http://www.cedarpoint.com/what-s-new/fast-lane
What do you think?
Nothing like letting people pay to cut the line.
Great idea. The long, long lines(even longer than Disney in the summer)were the reason we quit visiting Cedar Point. My time is my most important commodity. I'm always willing to spend more instead of wasting valuable vacation time standing in a hot, humid, miserable never ending line. We'll now consider visiting again.
From Tim Odom
Posted April 5, 2012 at 12:38 PM
I hate the idea of an upcharge Fast Pass. Going to a park is expensive enough. But when you add $50 ontop of that, it just gets silly. There is no chance I would ever pay that price for this.
I doubt we'll take advantage of it, but it will be interesting to see how it works and how it impacts ride times, riders, etc. Some of the rides with it make sense, but others...Cadillac Cars? Giant Wheel? Dodgem? It's only on the busiest days that there is a need on those rides.
I'm surprised they didn't include Disaster Transport- I'd almost pay that much to avoid the awful, inoperative queue line, and there is always a long wait to ride it.
Just got an email from Knott's Berry Farm announcing Fast Lane, too. So perhaps all the Cedar Fair parks are introducing it? Fast Lane costs $50 at Knott's ($40 if you buy three wristbands or more), and gets you unlimited skips on participating rides, according to the email.
From James Rao
Posted April 6, 2012 at 4:17 AM
Worlds of Fun is offering it as an "unlimited cut in line pass" too. On Saturdays is says the price is as low as $35, all other days as low as $30.
Interestingly enough, the site says it is available for 10 of the park's most popular rides (the list of these rides is not yet released). Since I can only think of three good ones (Prowler, Mamba, and Patriot), the value of this pass seems minimal. Furthermore, I can see the passes getting used on just those three rides over and over and over, making the standby lines a complete nightmare.
Being local, I would probably never use this pass, but for a one time visitor, on a hot, crowded Friday night, why wait 45 mins in line with a bunch of sweaty teenagers to ride Prowler when you can skip all the gross PDA's and go straight to the front of the line?
The promotion info said that there would be a limited number of passes sold each day. I'm curious what that number is. Magic Kingdom says that there is a limited number of tickets to Very Merry Christmas, but when we were there I think the number was somewhere around the population of Utah.
From steve lee
Posted April 6, 2012 at 10:57 PM
Come on, pay attention (page 56).This information was available back in January. Ya'll are just figuring it out now?
(yeah, I just found it too)
From N B
Posted April 7, 2012 at 3:24 AM
"Nothing like letting people pay to cut the line"
I think you need to be made aware of why I like this feature so much, because it makes perfect sense. It is not because I am impatient, I have to maximize my ride time because a vacation is not really a vacation for me.
I own a business that deals in custom software, so when I am in Orlando, I am still working. What I do is so specialized and cannot be pre-packaged for instant automatic download, everything is custom compiled and sent out on the fly.
I also have to provide tech support, so when I am in the parks, calls to go voice mail and are returned in the order they came in later in the day. This is why I need a hotel room within 5 minutes of walk time from anywhere on the resort. Sometimes I have to leave, go to my laptop and run a business. There is no "On vacation - I will be back in a week" autorespond when an order or email comes through.
So, you can view this perk any way you like, but I am happy to use it for these reasons. When it is complimentary with an on-site stay, it makes it all that much better.
Almost every major theme park has this option and no one forces you to pay for it. For the life of me, I can't understand why you are so negative all the time.
As one gets older, time becomes more of an important aspect when dealing with anything. While a teenager or early 20's person often has little problem standing in a 1 or 2 hour line, once your work becomes such a large portion of your life, you do not want to waste valuable vacation time standing in long lines. Additionally, people on vacation are in a different situation than a local season passport holder. These special ride plans, while expensive, can do a lot to increase the enjoyability of a vacationer that is spending a large amount of money helping the economy of the tourist attraction area. Areas like Orlando would not exist in their present manner without tourist dollars. While season pass holders are probably usually against such plans, since they can go to the park often, the parks realize that the per day total spending of a tourist is many multiple times that of a local pass holder. Therefore, its good business sense that they offer an enticement to a person on vacation that may want to make his vacation more relaxing and less hectic. And it's a free choice situation. If you don't want to pay for it, don't get it. Different tier plans are a reality of the tourist business. Deluxe Hotel resorts as opposed to Motel 6. First class air vs. regular.Fine dining vs. counter service dining.You're continually making a choice concerning how much to spend. Why shouldn't ticket plans also have an alternative price level?
I was curious to find out what others thought about this new ride-time feature, so I threw it out there. I, for one, am all in favor of this. I realize it's an up charge, but when I'm on vacation, my rationale is to treat myself. I save my money for that one time a year to splurge, and if it means paying more money to get on more rides during the course of a day, then I'm going to do it.
I have vacationed at Universal Orlando for the past several years for this very reason. For on-site property guests, nobody does it better than Universal with their Express Pass perk!
Maybe I'm a sucker, but I'll be upgrading my ticket the next time I head to The Point.
Melissa: You are soooo right.
From N B
Posted April 7, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Well said, Melissa.
You know, that really isn't a bad deal if you go with a group of people. The price goes down which is better then paying a single sum for every person, which is what most other parks do.
Frankly, it's worth it during high summer.
Interesting idea. Keep me informed.
This is the most talk about Cedar Point I've seen in here for months...ok, I know it's been closed for the season since November, but still...maybe we can take over this site and change TPI to stand for "The Point Insider"? Just kidding, Robert, just kidding. Don't call your lawyer...Robert, hang up the phone...really, just kidding......
James: That has a good ring to it. A mutiny is in the wind. Arrrr... Robert Niles may have to do his Capt. Bligh act. LOL
I think it's good enough that Cedar Point lets hotel guests in an hour early. This way you are guaranteed to get on TTD and MF (barring bad weather.) These usually have the longest wait times and knocking them out early allows you to ride all the other things with short lines during the day. And Cedar Point is so reasonably priced compared to Disney. I got 2 nights in The Breakers for 4 people with one day tickets for a grand total of $350. That would be your popcorn budget alone for a Disney trip.
From James Rao
Posted April 24, 2012 at 5:29 PM
I went to Worlds of Fun this past weekend and took some time to check out the Fast Lane set up. I am not sure this "service" provides much benefit at a park like WoF except on busy Fridays and Saturdays. Essentially they have it set up so that the "Fast Lane" just bypasses the overflow queue and let's suckers... I mean, buyers... skip straight to the load house and queue up with the rest of the sweaty masses. I am sure at a busier iron ride park like Cedar Point skipping the overflow line to merge with the folks in the load house provides some benefit, but at WoF most lines don't often extend that far, so there is little benefit in paying for this pass.
One thing that concerned me during my visit on Sunday is that none of the coasters were running more than one train. So rides that should have been walk-on or one cycle at worst had artificially inflated wait times. If the strategy at these smaller Cedar Fair stationary carnivals is to decrease throughput on low attendance days just to increase Fast Lane sales, customer service is going to take a major hit. I heard a lot of grumbling in the mid afternoon line for Patriot and did not see even one Fast Lane buyer speed past. And when I questioned the ride ops on why they were only running one train and not filling the four across seating with single riders, they just extolled the virtues of Fast Lane as if it was a better solution than doing their job correctly.
Hey, I understand Cedar Fair has to get creative when it comes to fabricating revenue, but how much money are they going to make when people like me get p*ssed and don't come back?
Furthermore, with rides like the Octopus (why is this kitten crap clunker still in operation?!?) included as part of the pass, the "value" of Fast Lane is vastly diminished.
My advice: just go to the park on a non-weekend day, hit the big three coasters first thing in the morning and you will be fine. No reason to spend any extra money for a park of this "caliber".
Besides, the best ride, Prowler, rarely has a huge wait (people are scared of wooden coasters at WoF because the Timber Wolf is such a pile of junk), so just queue up over and over and then go home. Or, better yet, just go to Silver Dollar City instead. It is a MUCH better park!
I can see this doing well at the busier parks. Cutting in line at Cedar Point and Kings Island would save a ton of time because the lines can get so long. I too agree with the notion that time is money. In the past i've scheduled visits during slower days to avoid the lines. I wouldn't have to do that anymore with this pass.
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