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muppetfan1999
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However, that does not mean that all customers should not be valued equally. It is the merchant's responsibility to make sure all guests, not just the guests that pay more, have a positive customer service experience.

Whether I agree with FL or not, why is it a merchant's responsibility to make sure all guests have the same experience? If I have the option of paying more, I deserve more (i.e. the previously mentioned first class seating). I have not seen where KI has guaranteed the same guest experience for everyone paying for park entry.

I have not seen many comments in the TR for opening weekend concerning FL. Anyone have any thoughts?

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^ I did not read it that way, but that could just be me. Forum translations..... :rolleyes:

If that is the case, it brings up other questions; i.e.-should the guest that chooses not to partake in Xtreme Skyflyer have a less positive customer service experience than one who does?

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^I think you're misunderstanding his point. I believe what he means is that no matter which tiered experience a guest chooses, if any, they should leave with having a positive customer service experience. For instance... a regular guest in line not having their wait times hindered by an over selling of Fast Lane passes.

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However, that does not mean that all customers should not be valued equally. It is the merchant's responsibility to make sure all guests, not just the guests that pay more, have a positive customer service experience.

Whether I agree with FL or not, why is it a merchant's responsibility to make sure all guests have the same experience? If I have the option of paying more, I deserve more (i.e. the previously mentioned first class seating). I have not seen where KI has guaranteed the same guest experience for everyone paying for park entry.

I have not seen many comments in the TR for opening weekend concerning FL. Anyone have any thoughts?

Other than forcing KI to make changes to line que layouts (Racer, Vortex), I don't think that Saturday gave any clues as to how this will work long term, because I probably didn't see more than 10-15 total using FL from 5:45 until close.

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Thank you Gordon Bombay-that is exactly what I intended to say in my post. I clearly state in my post that it is the responsiblity of the merchant to make sure that every patron have a positive experience. ( Not the same experience. ) Whatever you pay for a good or service, isn't the experience supposed to be positive?

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As for Fast Lane on opening day: I was at the park from opening until 6:00, and I saw literally nobody using FL. At some points I was actively looking for people with FL wristbands or people going into a FL entrance, and still didn't see anybody. I remember the day I bought FL myself last August there was usually multiple FLers on every cycle of each ride, so to see nobody is surprising to say the least.

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As for Fast Lane on opening day: I was at the park from opening until 6:00, and I saw literally nobody using FL. At some points I was actively looking for people with FL wristbands or people going into a FL entrance, and still didn't see anybody. I remember the day I bought FL myself last August there was usually multiple FLers on every cycle of each ride, so to see nobody is surprising to say the least.

I was at opening day with my 2 daughters and we bought FL wristbands. There were very few people who had them, which was great for us. We never had a single person in front of us in line for any of the rides. Now that we have used the FL, it will be hard to not buy them every time we go. It made a huge difference for us. We were able to ride so many more rides than we would have without them.

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^ Is comparing one of the most sought out family vacation destinations worldwide (argueably) and a seasonal amusement park even close to being on the same level?

About as logical as thinking that the more money a business makes the more money is put back into said business...the shareholders don't see it that way.

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^^ I believe a patent was filed for their exact system (engineering technical design etc.) preventing others from using the same intellectual property.

But I don't see how another park can be prevented from offering free fast pass/ lane.

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^ Is comparing one of the most sought out family vacation destinations worldwide (argueably) and a seasonal amusement park even close to being on the same level?

About as logical as thinking that the more money a business makes the more money is put back into said business...the shareholders don't see it that way.

CF obviously reinvests in their parks or we would never see any additions or improvements to any park. If money is limited, you would not see anything new.

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^ Is comparing one of the most sought out family vacation destinations worldwide (argueably) and a seasonal amusement park even close to being on the same level?

Ok, how about we compare it to Six Flags system which is good on a technical and execution level. No wristbands or hastily made queue lines there.

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^ Did you ever use the pass at SFWoA?

In 2001, they used a half sheet of paper to write down which rides FL was used on and there was no seperate line. SF has since learned what works better for their parks. CF's is still in it's infancy stage. If the program proves to be worthwhile, it would be foolish to believe positive changes would not be made.

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Then what's the problem with discussing what positive changes could be made by comparing it to an established system at a similar chain that works?

I didn't realize there was a problem with discussing what positive changes could be made by comparing it to an established system at a similar chain that works.

Where did you get that from? :huh:

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A major focus of yesterday's conference call. Mr. Ouimet stressed last year's experience at Kings Island. He made clear that it is imperative that the experience be a great one for the Fast Lane buyer while not materially affecting guests who choose not to buy it. Tweaks were hinted. He also referred to the rest of the industry as being a benchmark or guide.

The second major emphasis was sponsorship and advertising in the parks. Look for a lot more of it.

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A major focus of yesterday's conference call. Mr. Ouimet stressed last year's experience at Kings Island. He made clear that it is imperative that the experience be a great one for the Fast Lane buyer while not materially affecting guests who choose not to buy it. Tweaks were hinted. He also referred to the rest of the industry as being a benchmark or guide.

The second major emphasis was sponsorship and advertising in the parks. Look for a lot more of it.

May just be me, but I am all for sponsorship. More revenue to the park gives them a lot more ability to tweak things for a better experience, be that new rides, better maintenance, more theming...ok, well, that last one may just be me dreaming. ;)

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On opening day it was well-enforced - you had to show your FP wristbands in order to get into the line after you'd walked through the queue. I even saw two people walking back out of the FP queue at DB, saying something about the single rider line (apparently they can't read).

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Here is my complaint about Fast Lane. Yes it is a good if you want to visit the park and experience the park without major lines. But here is where it goes wrong for the people who stand in the regular line. This was my encounter with Fast Lane during my wait for the Diamondback on Sunday May 6th:

We entered the Diamondback line at around 3:15pm the line was in both top and bottom queues with the top portion being just over half full. Me just being off of the convo with Don Helbig http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25503-convo-with-don-Helbig-5612-fast-lane-question/ I wanted to see how many people jumped in front of me and my GF while we waited in the regular line. So the counting began and when we ended up in the station in a total of 1 hour and 6 minutes. My final count was 309 people that passed us with Fast Lane. Now lets do some math here:

A FULL Diamondback train holds 32 people. so 309/32= 9.66. This means 9 and 2/3rd trains for the DB were filled with just purely Fast Lane users before my turn to ride. That is 3 full cycles of the ride. I did not get an official cycle time for all three trains to make it around BUT based off of this POV

the station to station time is right around 3:40 secound. Add around 1:20 (Generously added; I think it takes longer to load a train) We get a total of 5 minutes each cycle.

So while waiting in the regular line our wait was extended by right around 17 minutes (+2 minutes for the final 2/3 train). That doesnt seem like much until you put it all together. The total wait time was 66 minutes. take away the 17 minutes that means the wait time without Fast Lane would have been 49 minutes. The total wait time for a person in the regular lane with Fast Lane implemented increased a whooping 35%!!! The worst part about this was there was a group of four that rode the ride 6 times while we waited. Another group of 2 rode the ride 3 times while we waited. So ultimately my wait time for the Diamondback was increased by 35% just purely because of the fact that I chose not to buy a Fast Lane Pass

Now mind you this was not on a busy day in the park. I can only imgaine what would happen if the original wait was somewhere around 1 1/2 or 2 hours... This is the problem with Fast Lane. It does increase the wait time for the regular people while allowing people with Fast Lane to ride multiple times with a minimal if not any wait at all.

The bad thing about it all is the 20% rule that Don told me about is not a very effective way to monitor. That is because the 20% of the park attendance that will be allowed to purchase Fast Lane Passes WILL ride rides. While NOT EVERYONE who is in the attending crowd (which they base the 20% of Fast Lane sales off of) will ride rides. That means longer lines for the general public who ride rides without a Fast Lane Pass. Its a sticky situation to be honest.

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