Fast Lane Price Raise?

[TheCrypt]

The most annoying thing I've found to happen from Fast Pass, beyond the added wait time on already busy rides, is the Red Racer being ran entirely for Fast Pass and no one else. We were there for a short time over the weekend, and I had read on here that the Red Racer was running great this year, much better than the Blue. When I went to go ride it, I was told I could not because I did not have a Fast Pass. The Blue Racer line was out the gate up to the convenience store, while the Red train was sending maybe half full trains out each time.

So now, Fast Pass entitles you to a ride that the rest of the park cannot access, apparently! I felt that was very ridiculous, and voiced my disagreement as such at Guest Relations. An entire coaster now, just for Fast Pass? No thanks.

s=

When both sides of The Racer are operating, both sides are open to the public 99.5% of the time. The former Red Racer line is now no longer in use, but you can still ride either side. I doubt the park would close a side of Racer only for the use of Fast Lane* customers.

Well, you are wrong. On Saturday, they were running te Red Racer for only Fast Lane customers. I was told I could not ride it because I did not have a Fast Lane bracelet. I don't know what to tell you. Were you there on Saturday? Because I was, and they were running the Red Racer for only Fast Lane customers.

Let me get this straight: On a typically busy day of the week, the park only opened one side of a ride to the public to decrease capacity. Yeah. THAT makes sense.

This guy spells troll.

[benred23]

Cedar Fair is being greedy by raising the prices when they could just keep the price at a solid 50 for every park and just sell less. Duh, its a business, but they are giving me the "greedy" impression by raising the price.

Actually, they're not greedy by raising the prices on WhinePass, They're Greedy for even having it in the First place. Can't Stand it, never will. Your Allowing people to pay Extra money to get in front of people. It'd be like me going to the front of the line on every ride, giving the person in line 10 bucks, giving them the finger and taking their spot. One of the Stupidest Ideas Cedar Fair has ever come up with. Ok, Thats my Rant.. Moving on.

[MarketingExpress]

If they were the only ones charging for it in the entire industry I would agree with you. But this is something that has been in place industry wide for many years, although KI's has a different model than those that have been doing it for a while. Let's see where this stands in a few years, will there be limitations added but still have the same price? I could see a limitation such as a limited number of rides per attraction eventually added.

[Snowman]

For the record, anyone who wants to give me the finger and $10 to get in front of me in line...I'll be the one at the top of DB's stairs this Saturday and Sunday with a wad of cash and a big smile on my face.

[Diamondback96]

/me thinks that Fast Lane has become the new SoB here.

...Nah, SoB discussion will never die.

[rex]

The most annoying thing I've found to happen from Fast Pass, beyond the added wait time on already busy rides, is the Red Racer being ran entirely for Fast Pass and no one else. We were there for a short time over the weekend, and I had read on here that the Red Racer was running great this year, much better than the Blue. When I went to go ride it, I was told I could not because I did not have a Fast Pass. The Blue Racer line was out the gate up to the convenience store, while the Red train was sending maybe half full trains out each time.

So now, Fast Pass entitles you to a ride that the rest of the park cannot access, apparently! I felt that was very ridiculous, and voiced my disagreement as such at Guest Relations. An entire coaster now, just for Fast Pass? No thanks.

s=

When both sides of The Racer are operating, both sides are open to the public 99.5% of the time. The former Red Racer line is now no longer in use, but you can still ride either side. I doubt the park would close a side of Racer only for the use of Fast Lane* customers.

Well, you are wrong. On Saturday, they were running te Red Racer for only Fast Lane customers. I was told I could not ride it because I did not have a Fast Lane bracelet. I don't know what to tell you. Were you there on Saturday? Because I was, and they were running the Red Racer for only Fast Lane customers.

Let me get this straight: On a typically busy day of the week, the park only opened one side of a ride to the public to decrease capacity. Yeah. THAT makes sense.

This guy spells troll.

Are you serious? I am telling you specifically what I experience on Saturday. I am a Gold Pass member. I've been to the park 8 times this year already. Why would I troll and make up some fantastical story about the place I love? Good grief. It happened, I don't care if anyone else on this board speaks up or not. I experienced this, and you can feel free to go ask the Guest Relations about the complaint I filed about this.

It happened to me at approximately 1:00 pm on Saturday, the 14th, shortly after the rains had stopped. Myself and my fiance' went to The Racer and saw the Red Racer running. We attempted to get onto it, and were told specifically by the attendant running the ride that it was for Fast Lane only, and that we could not ride as we did not have a bracelet. We were then told we had to now go to the back of the line, which was enornously long by this point. As I stated, it was running halfway down the basketball game and nearly to the convenience store.

I really do not care if some random goof on this board believes me or not. I am just stating my own grievance with the system, which kept me from riding an entire coaster, the same grievance I filed with Guest Relations.

I'm done here, however. Being called a troll for this is just ludicrous.

[gad198]

For the record, anyone who wants to give me the finger and $10 to get in front of me in line...I'll be the one at the top of DB's stairs this Saturday and Sunday with a wad of cash and a big smile on my face.

The only real difference between that scenario and reality is that Cedar Fair is keeping the cash, not you.

In fairness to Cedar Fair, I do believe they've done a good job of continuing to provide value despite the small price increases. They continue to invest in big new attractions in a tough economic environment. Fast Lane is one area where, for the average patron, they've actually taken value away from the average parkgoer without providing anything additional in return.

I would argue that for the price, particularly at the larger Cedar Fair parks, Fast Lane passes are probably the best value in the universe of "pay to shorten the wait" space right now. There is no tie-in with the regular lines (i.e., waits are proportional to the standby line queue wait time) ala Q-Bots at Six Flags or Dollywood. There's no 'one skip per attraction' rules ala Hersheypark, Kennywood and the lower-priced Busch options. There are more rides offered with Fast Lane at the larger parks than are offered on Busch's higher-priced options. I personally plan on using Fast Lane at Canada's Wonderland to marathon the two big B&Ms there, so I'm certainly not above using it personally nor do I have any issues with the system existing.

The only point I was trying to make is that standby waits for the more popular coasters in the chain with heavy Fast Lane usage have likely increased since the implementation of Fast Lane. I believe that statement is true. What we don't know is what those newly created Fast Lane funds will be used for. It's unlikely that Cedar Fair is going to use 100% of those funds to fund new capital expenditures in the future, particularly with the debt load they're carrying. That story will likely take a few years to play out and only time and our eyes will tell.

[KIfan1980]

It happened to me at approximately 1:00 pm on Saturday, the 14th, shortly after the rains had stopped. Myself and my fiance' went to The Racer and saw the Red Racer running. We attempted to get onto it, and were told specifically by the attendant running the ride that it was for Fast Lane only, and that we could not ride as we did not have a bracelet. We were then told we had to now go to the back of the line, which was enornously long by this point.

Thanks for sharing the details of your story - I find it possible that they are continuing to experiment with Fast Lane and how to make it work best (as they did with the SRL on Diamondback on '09 and '10)

One thing that strikes me as odd is that you were told to go to the back of the line. Hadn't you just come through the line - why didn't the attendant just direct you to the blue side versus red? My experience this year is that there has been one line for GP and the new line for Fast Lane, but these meet at the entrance to the station where either line could go to either side. Is it possible you accidentally entered the Fast Lane line?

[rex]

It happened to me at approximately 1:00 pm on Saturday, the 14th, shortly after the rains had stopped. Myself and my fiance' went to The Racer and saw the Red Racer running. We attempted to get onto it, and were told specifically by the attendant running the ride that it was for Fast Lane only, and that we could not ride as we did not have a bracelet. We were then told we had to now go to the back of the line, which was enornously long by this point.

Thanks for sharing the details of your story - I find it possible that they are continuing to experiment with Fast Lane and how to make it work best (as they did with the SRL on Diamondback on '09 and '10)

One thing that strikes me as odd is that you were told to go to the back of the line. Hadn't you just come through the line - why didn't the attendant just direct you to the blue side versus red? My experience this year is that there has been one line for GP and the new line for Fast Lane, but these meet at the entrance to the station where either line could go to either side. Is it possible you accidentally entered the Fast Lane line?

I don't remember. I wanted to ride the Red Racer and was told I couldn't because it was only for Fast Lane. That's all.

[TheCrypt]

The most annoying thing I've found to happen from Fast Pass, beyond the added wait time on already busy rides, is the Red Racer being ran entirely for Fast Pass and no one else. We were there for a short time over the weekend, and I had read on here that the Red Racer was running great this year, much better than the Blue. When I went to go ride it, I was told I could not because I did not have a Fast Pass. The Blue Racer line was out the gate up to the convenience store, while the Red train was sending maybe half full trains out each time.

So now, Fast Pass entitles you to a ride that the rest of the park cannot access, apparently! I felt that was very ridiculous, and voiced my disagreement as such at Guest Relations. An entire coaster now, just for Fast Pass? No thanks.

s=

When both sides of The Racer are operating, both sides are open to the public 99.5% of the time. The former Red Racer line is now no longer in use, but you can still ride either side. I doubt the park would close a side of Racer only for the use of Fast Lane* customers.

Well, you are wrong. On Saturday, they were running te Red Racer for only Fast Lane customers. I was told I could not ride it because I did not have a Fast Lane bracelet. I don't know what to tell you. Were you there on Saturday? Because I was, and they were running the Red Racer for only Fast Lane customers.

Let me get this straight: On a typically busy day of the week, the park only opened one side of a ride to the public to decrease capacity. Yeah. THAT makes sense.

This guy spells troll.

Are you serious? I am telling you specifically what I experience on Saturday. I am a Gold Pass member. I've been to the park 8 times this year already. Why would I troll and make up some fantastical story about the place I love? Good grief. It happened, I don't care if anyone else on this board speaks up or not. I experienced this, and you can feel free to go ask the Guest Relations about the complaint I filed about this.

It happened to me at approximately 1:00 pm on Saturday, the 14th, shortly after the rains had stopped. Myself and my fiance' went to The Racer and saw the Red Racer running. We attempted to get onto it, and were told specifically by the attendant running the ride that it was for Fast Lane only, and that we could not ride as we did not have a bracelet. We were then told we had to now go to the back of the line, which was enornously long by this point. As I stated, it was running halfway down the basketball game and nearly to the convenience store.

I really do not care if some random goof on this board believes me or not. I am just stating my own grievance with the system, which kept me from riding an entire coaster, the same grievance I filed with Guest Relations.

I'm done here, however. Being called a troll for this is just ludicrous.

Well, I guess troll was a tad harsh. Sorry, but if you wanted to ride The Racer, you could get pretty close by riding Diamondback!

[Browntggrr]

It is possible given it was just raining, and in the middle of a busy Saturday, they used the RR to deplete the FL line.

[kris33]

For someone like me who lives 4 hours away from Kings Island and only gets 1-2 visits per year, Fast Lane passes are worth it. We are not rich by any means, but in order for us to really get the most out of our day there, we invested in them. It was so great to be able to ride all we wanted and squeeze as much into one day as possible without standing in line for the majority of our day. Now, if we lived closer and could visit more often, we probably wouldn't fool with the passes. Not to mention we drive 4 hours there, stay in the park all day and then drive 4 hours back home. If I'm going to make that long trip, I want it to be worth it

[jcgoble3]

^ And for all the enthusiasts who complain about Fast Lane, they forget that it is people like you who only come once or twice a year, not enthusiasts with season passes, to whom Fast Lane is primarily aimed. I'm glad you got good use out of it.

[Jr for Birdy]

Fastlane riders choose whatever Racer they want to ride.Rex was told he couldnt ride the Red racer because he was standing in the fastlane line without a fastlane pass,thats why he was told to go to the end of the line.