Fast Lane

[LongliveKingsCobra]

How much money do you think they pay each month for all of their expenses? Insurance, Electric, Employees, Water/Sewage, Trash collection, Taxes...the list goes on and on. I do NOT think KI could build (as of right now) 100 coasters....thats...an interesting thought...

[teenageninja]

It's spelled Maserati.

[The Interpreter]

0, KI does not sell flash passes.

If I wad to guess on a number of KI Speed Lane passes it would most likely change as the system is still new and adjustments are usually made after management has had time to review it.

Actually, what Kings Island sells are called Fast Lane, not Speed Lane.

Terp, trying to be helpful.

[Avatar]

Whoops thanks Interpreter for the help.

[RaptorGuy]

It's spelled Maserati.

Well, I can't afford to even get close enough to one to see how it's spelled, so I wouldn't know. I don't intend to buy a Fast Lane and make it that much easier for Matt to own one. And everyone who believes it's more revenue to get us better rides, I don't think so. If KI gets a 500ft B&M launch coaster with 10 inversions and 15 mega airtime hills, then come talk to me!

[Diamondback FOF]

Are you crazy? B&M won't do that....it'd be Intamin! In reality KI needs a heck of a lot more than anything they've ever had to get that...

[Avatar]

RaptorGuy I think we all know how you feel about the Fast Lane but to make it personal is going a bit to far...Really!

If anyone works hard and decides to spend part of their hard earned paycheck money on a Fast Lane pass that is their prerogative to do so, they have done nothing wrong.

If you decide after you worked hard to spend part of your work paycheck on a Fast Lane pass or not , well that is your prerogative too.

If Kings Island wants to charge for a Fast Lane pass system that is their prerogative

If you do not like it do not go into the park, plain and simple.

[The Interpreter]

Mr. Ouimet continues his Cedar Fair tour, now at KD. While there, HE brings up the KI Fast Lane test, and has positive things to say about it:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2011/jul/27/tdbiz01-president-of-kings-dominions-parent-compan-ar-1198751/

[PREMiERdrum]

"As we get into the business of what features make sense and what value opportunities make sense, we will continue to figure out what the consumer wants," Ouimet said. "What the visitor wants is what they will get."

If I ever see this man on the midway, he just may get a hug. THIS is the attitude CF needs at the top.

[CedarPointer]

What if the visitor wants free food? Free parking and admission? Front of the line for every ride with no extra charge?

Food for thought...

[The Interpreter]

Why not? We are often told about how Fast Pass at Disney, free parking, Pepsi, sun tan oil, tubes, etc., at Holiday World are not free, though they appear to be....

[PREMiERdrum]

What if the visitor wants free food? Free parking and admission? Front of the line for every ride with no extra charge?

Food for thought...

Why not? We are often told about how Fast Pass at Disney, free parking, Pepsi, sun tan oil, tubes, etc., at Holiday World are not free, though they appear to be....

Precisely... It's all in how the experience is "packaged" to the guest. The park knows how much $$ they need to average from each guest, it's how that amount is divided up and presented that is easily manipulated. Imagine an "all inclusive" ticket for online purchase, that with one price includes your parking, gate admission, lunch and dinner, drinks throughout the day, and a souvenir t-shirt or some such tchotchke.

[KIfan73]

Couldn't everything that has been said about Fast Lane, good and bad, be also said about admission into Kings Island?

[Tanna]

"As we get into the business of what features make sense and what value opportunities make sense, we will continue to figure out what the consumer wants," Ouimet said. "What the visitor wants is what they will get."

If I ever see this man on the midway, he just may get a hug. THIS is the attitude CF needs at the top.

I guess he could've qualified it by saying, "What the reasonable visitor wants, is what they will reasonably get."

After reading about this Ouimet, it seems to me he knows how to turn a place around, and I'd like to see what he has up his sleeve. Perhaps his idea of a fast ride is a roller coaster, maybe he doesn't need a Maserati. Not all men that wear ties smother themselves in needless luxuries.

Reading the KI PR (Do we call him Kipper?) Facebook page, those that purchased the pass liked the convenience, and those that did not, didn't notice the change. I'm confused by people saying that the FL is only two people deep- what about a family? I don't think that estimation sounds correct.

Sounds like a decent deal all the way around. I can't afford it, but I think I'd be a linestander anyway, even if I could.

[PREMiERdrum]

Not all men that wear ties smother themselves in needless luxuries.

Precisely. This is me...

And I drive a Ford Focus. LOL

[KIfan1980]

Today I visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg - waits were not too bad, but I decided to buy their 1-time Quick Queue. $20, and you get a single jump to the front ride on 8 rides (Griffon, Alpie, Apollo's Chariot, Europe in the Air, Darkastle, Pompeii, Flume, Rapids Ride) plus one bonus (any of the 8). They also offered a $40 unlimited version, but I decided to get 3 singles so the boys and I could ride some together and I could use their Griffon/Alpie turns for re-rides.

I share thus because I think it is a good example of how this could be seen as value by the purchaser and silly by some guests. Average was a 10-15 minute wait, but the passes saved us well over an hour of lines. It also allowed me to duck away from the family and ride a 54" ride and meet back up within 5 minutes. Finally, it gave me the opportunity to have multiple re-rides at the end of the day as they were not too strict about crossing off rides (which made me glad I didn't spend the extra $20 for unlimited).

Bottom line, good for the one time visitor and the park and likely minimal additional wait for regular guests - they blocked off one row on Alpie/AC, but let regular riders in if no QQ folks were waiting (about 5% capacity loss would be my estimate from BGW today).

[Snowman]

0, KI does not sell flash passes.

If I wad to guess on a number of KI Speed Lane passes it would most likely change as the system is still new and adjustments are usually made after management has had time to review it.

Okay... I'll take another stab at this....Will someone who knows, please be kind enough to provide the correct answer to this question:

What is the limit of "Flash Passes, Speed Lane, Fast Lane" passes Kings Island will sell in a day?

[standbyme]

What is the limit of "Flash Passes, Speed Lane, Fast Lane" passes Kings Island will sell in a day?

The park will not give out this information...all they will say is that it is not a lot. (You just have to guess what their idea of not a lot is!)

[The Interpreter]

And do not forget, this is a test. Today's amount may not be tormorrow's.

[homestar92]

After going to the park since Fast Lane was implemented, I must say, I feel this system is unfair to non-buyers. Not because everyone else gets to jump the line, but because of the way they do it. Maybe I had an amateur ride-op, but my group was told that we couldn't wait for the front seats of Diamondback because "They're reserved for Fast Lane guests." This infuriates me. We have never had an issue in the past with asking to wait a cycle for the front seat, and to think that only those who pay extra can have a particular seat is just maddening... I'm not mad that I had to sit in the back, I'm mad because of WHY I had to sit in the back.

[standbyme]

homestar92,

A very well written post.

On the flipside of the coin you just have to keep saying to yourself that all of the money the park makes with this system will come back to us with new better rides...and all of them will have back seats!

[bkroz]

I agree that it's wrong to offer them the front. Busch Gardens' Quick Queue pass specifically mentions that you are not guaranteed preferred seating or front row seating. Again I'd stress that I like the "up the exit / reserved car for fast pass users" system much much better than the "merge into one line near the station system", but I've never seen the reserved car being the first car, and I don't think it should be.

[CedarPointer]

I think the ride op may have meant that the Fast Lane guests had requested the front seat.

[homestar92]

I think the ride op may have meant that the Fast Lane guests had requested the front seat.

I would normally think that, but if that had been the case, I would think he would have allowed us to ride the next train when that set of guests had boarded.

[CedarPointer]

If they're assigning rows they don't have to let you have the row you request.

[homestar92]

If they're assigning rows they don't have to let you have the row you request.

I know that, but if Fast Lane guests can request seats and I can't, then that's really salting a wound... And the way he said it, I can only see two possibilities: either the front is reserved for Fast Lane (which is bad in my opinion) or the Fast Lane guests can make requests that the normal guests can't (which is worse in my opinion).

[Squirlz]

After going to the park since Fast Lane was implemented, I must say, I feel this system is unfair to non-buyers. Not because everyone else gets to jump the line, but because of the way they do it. Maybe I had an amateur ride-op, but my group was told that we couldn't wait for the front seats of Diamondback because "They're reserved for Fast Lane guests." This infuriates me. We have never had an issue in the past with asking to wait a cycle for the front seat, and to think that only those who pay extra can have a particular seat is just maddening... I'm not mad that I had to sit in the back, I'm mad because of WHY I had to sit in the back.

I was there Monday with a Fast Lane pass and rode Diamondback 4 times. We'd get to the gate and they would just let us in to chose whatever row we wanted. There was no reserving of the front row. We just joined the others that were already in the queue.

Or bands were numbered 370 and 371. I doubt that they had sold 370 bands that morning. I'm wondering if they are numbered in descending order so the cashier knows how many are left for the day without having to do math?

[RaptorGuy]

If they're assigning rows they don't have to let you have the row you request.

I know that, but if Fast Lane guests can request seats and I can't, then that's really salting a wound... And the way he said it, I can only see two possibilities: either the front is reserved for Fast Lane (which is bad in my opinion) or the Fast Lane guests can make requests that the normal guests can't (which is worse in my opinion).

If I am ever denied requesting the front row because of a Fast Lane person, I will be in Guest Relations before you can say Fast Lane! I will leave the line right then and there, no matter

how long I waited and my next stop would be GR! This is a little off topic, but in a way not too, the assigning seats on DB is just ridiculous anyway. That's the best coaster at Kings

Island, and probably a lot of people's favorite, and people have their favorite seat. They should be allowed to sit where they want. The ride ops who are controlling the thing and

watching the Fast Lane, they should just let people sit where they want, and when some fast laner comes up, they will just be a Fast Lane monitor and maybe escort someone in,

or just let them go in the station and join the rest of the crowd. They don't need to go all way to their seat without waiting some anyway! Just pass them through the que line

and into the station. That's good enough, especially for a system that makes people mad already.

Another idea I think that would be very helpful is, I think KI should do a survey on their Facebook page, and maybe on their website, and ask people what their opinion

of the Fast Lane is. See if a lot of people feel it's unfair and would not like to have to wait longer in line, so those who have the money to pay extra can pass them up

in line. And maybe, just by not buying one at all, if enough people don't buy them, that will be their survey of what people think! But, they should get verbal opinions,

maybe sometimes when they have those GR people at the front gate asking questions, would be a good way to do it.

One other comment I want to make is, some people have mentioned that its more for those who only come once a year or whatever. I've been to other parks that

I only go to once a year, like Indiana Beach, and there's some I went to once, and that's the only time I EVER went, and I don't complain and think I should be able

to get a fast pass. I am willing to wait in line at Indiana Beach like everyone else on my one time visit, this weekend! I went to Six Flags over Georgia, and it was a one

time for the year visit, and I had not been there in 5 years, and I was ok with not having a fast pass. I still waited in all the lines, and I got to ride everything I wanted

to ride. So, so far, no one has come up with anything I feel is a valid reason for this thing!

[The Interpreter]

I believe you were at SFOG on a May Sunday.

I can assure you your experience would have been far, far different on a July/August Saturday.

[XGatorHead 8904]

I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post, but I've been away from KIC more than usual lately, and I'm just now catching up on a lot.

I've done it at Universal where it cost 40-50 bucks but I think its worth it there, cause thats a large park with over 1,000's of visitors....There alot of people do it, but I never noticed the difference in line speed while waiting in line with out the fast pass, but even with that pass you wait in a tiny line to be let on the ride....

I noticed a difference on a few rides at IoA last week. I'll explain further below.

Selling this as an add-on to season passes would have been awesome.

You may consider it awesome, but if they did that there would be no way that I can think of to limit the number of Fast Lane passes per day, since SP holders with a FL add on could come any day they want, causing major line backups.

Be careful what you wish for...remember some of the articles had Mr. Ouimet saying gate prices would be increasing.

KI's gate pricing is comparable to other regional parks. I'm not sure how they could make any substantial increases, unless they intend to try to regain some pricing integrity. $19 admission for a world record attempt anyone?

Pricing is a difficult issue and both an art and a science. It's all about costs, revenue, perception, etc. There are even those who think, for example, as we have seen here, that $3.60 is three times $1.50. The costs here are not s major driver. The perceptions of other guests are a major factor at a park with as high a percentage of season pass holders as Kings Island. That was probably a major reason for testing this at KI.

Very true. KI SP holders tend to be a fickle bunch.

So after a little reflection, here are my thoughts:

- I'm not a fan of this type of line cutting system being introduced at KI as I believe it will at times increase my wait time for rides (if it is 3-5 minutes per ride, that could become an extra 30-45 minutes in line on a given day)

- I understand KI implementing it, however, as they are competing in an environment where this type of system exists and think $50 is a fair cost for this type of perk

I have used Q-bots and Fastpasses at other parks, but likely won't at my home park. As said, as a guest, I'm not a fan, but this is a selfish (and maybe hypocritical) response that may be more rooted in a dislike of a change and fear of impact that I don't understand yet, but would probably do something similar if I was in charge.

I do hope that they test this, and adjust if necessary to make it good for the park and not impactful to regular guests.

I kind of agree with you. I like WDW FastPasses and DW's Q-bots, but I'm not really a fan of this type of system either.

I've read this whole topic, given it some thought, now here's my two cents on this whole thing...

I was just down in Orlando last week. On Saturday the 16th I had dinner with a couple of former KI Admissions co-workers of mine, one of which is now an engineer for Disney who's job it is to work on ways to optimize the FastPass system at WDW. We started talking about Mr. Ouimet, and how his reputation at Disney was a positive one. I brought up the article that said he wanted to implement a FastPass type system at KI, and I told my friends that for the most part KI does not really need one. The lines are typically nowhere near the length of the lines at WDW or Universal. Two days later I get the text from KIC that this was happening and just laughed.

I absolutely love FastPass and Q-Bots. I view those systems as pretty fair since you're given a time to come back, basically putting you in a virtual queue. I used FP 3 times this past visit on 7/17 at MK for Peter Pan, Space Mountain & Splash Mountain. I've used DW's Q-Bots the past two trips there in November of last year and the year before. Like kifan1980 a few posts ago, it greatly helped me get on Mystery Mine and Thunderhead with little wait while Mrs. Gator & GatorGirl did other things, and I could quickly rejoin them. It was also great to have guaranteed seats for shows without having to wait in the long lines that tend to develop for them during their Christmas event.

When I went to Universal & IoA on Monday & Tuesday of last week, it was the first time I had been to a park that utilized this "jump to the front of the line" system rather than a virtual queueing system. Yes, I was annoyed at seeing other people jump ahead of me, but on a majority of attractions I didn't really notice that much of a difference in wait time. There were a few attractions however where it was quite noticeable. Disaster was the first of these. The Express Plus people (and there were A LOT of them our two days at the Universal parks) got to go right into the attraction. The wait time sign outside said 25 minutes, but with all the Express Plus people that showed up it was 45 minutes.

The other two rides were low capacity rides at IoA: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and Storm Force Accelatron. For 1F2FRFBF about 4-5 fish worth of people showed up each cycle, making the wait time MUCH longer for us regular folks. Storm Force was just as bad if not worse. It was staffed by only one ride op who would open the Express Plus Line until it emptied, then open the regular line. About 3/4 of the pods would be filled with Express Plus people. To make matters worse, he wouldn't stand there and count the appropriate number of people for the remaining pods... he opened up the regular lane and went off to do something else (close the exit gate perhaps, I didn't watch to see where he went). We entered the ride area twice to find not enough pods for us, and eventually got on the third time we entered the ride area. With all the Express Plus people that showed up for Storm Force, I estimate that we waited an additional four to five ride cycles because of Express Pass people.

With the large number of people I saw using Express Plus, it seemed that Universal doesn't limit the number they sell per day. Either that or their limit is a very high number. They had kiosks set up inside the entrance to each park where you could buy them. There was no way that we could afford it. For my family of 3 for two days, it would have been an additional $319.44 with tax ($39.99 each for our day at USF, $59.99 each for our day at IoA)... on top of the $366.39 I had already paid for two days admission. No thank you! Luckily even without them, we were still able to ride everything that we wanted to ride (well, almost in the case of IoA, but we had an event occur that kind of put a wrench in our whole day, I'll go into that when I do the PTR... or if you're friends with me on FB just look at my post from the other day and you'll get an idea).

Now in regards to KI, I'm not too happy that it's there, but I also realize that I most likely won't notice that much of a difference in my wait times. I think $50 is a fair price, enough to deter a lot of people from purchasing it. Most of the rides that they chose are pretty good, higher capacity rides unlike our experience with the two rides at IoA. My main point of contention is that I just don't think the average wait times for rides at KI make it a necessity. But the flip side of that is that it may be a good way to raise some extra revenue. And we all know that's good for the park.