2027 Dining Plans

What did you go by to determine the length of the lines were equal? If it was the sign, I don't put a ton of stock in it. If you know the length of each line in feet or meters or number of people in it, that would be a lot more meaningful.

Even 50-50 is too much in my opinion. Universal's skip the line offering doesn't seem to suck up nearly 50% of a ride's capacity from what I've seen. 50-50 should be the absolute max they do and if they are doing that, the Fastlane people should be getting on SIGNIFICANTLY quicker than the standby because there should be far fewer people in the Fastlane line. Otherwise, the product is completely oversold and not providing value to the people who bought it. The stiff price increase is exactly what was needed and I think it will work out well. I'd expect the price of the daily offering to increase somewhat as well, but maybe to a lesser degree. I think $350-400 on a Saturday in July, August or Halloweekends might be about what I'd do.

Line movement is easier to judge at TT2 because the Fast Lane and standby lines are side by side.
While the line at Fast Lane is significantly shorter, I notice that both lines move at roughly the same pace.

Tommytheduck:

I think they will just sell more daily Fastlane bands and the net result will be the exact same as it currently is.

Not necessarily. It is possible for the park to control how many day-of FL wristbands they sell. It is a lot harder to control how many season FL buyers show up on any given day. If they are serious about getting a handle on FL demand, they have a little bit better of a lever to do it.

Wonder how many of the FL+ passes they sold. Expect its fewer than what might otherwise be indicated on an enthusiast site. Would also expect if they are looking to regulate FL use/lines, daily sales would be better than seasons FL+ sales for accomplishing that. Will be interesting to see what they do with daily FL+ prices next season (if anything). Price increase for season FL+ may just have been a $$ grab the park viewed as available. Knew they would lose some people but others will pay the higher price. Just like any price increase. Lose some people but typically decision was made profits increase overall with the price increase.

They sold all the season FL+ passes they were willing to sell---and that happened fairly quickly. There was clearly some headroom on price, even if they are not thinning the herd.

Brian Noble:

It is a lot harder to control how many season FL buyers show up on any given day. If they are serious about getting a handle on FL demand, they have a little bit better of a lever to do it.

And that was magnified by the fact that it wasn't only CP's own Season FL buyers showing up to use Fastlane on any given day. It was a bunch of people with cheap Six Flags passes and Fastlane showing up to use them in what must've been numbers significant enough to trigger a change. Coupled with the fact that the Prestige Pass which give one skip per visit (which everyone is going to use on one of three rides at CP) were dirt cheap last year.

I'd love to know if they put any serious math effort into optimizing the system in terms of number sold, price, ride capacity, factoring in downtime, etc. Does it change depending on the expected crowd for the day, etc? It kind of feels like someone in a corporate suite set it all up in a simplified way and didn't have a good idea of how it would turn out on the ground. Even the way they handle the merge point at each ride seems to be different each trip through the queue. Typically I've seen about 50-50 at the big three at CP, but I've also seen a girl at Maverick literally keeping the entire Fastlane line (which they didn't bother to close off during a 15 minute puke cleanup) completely empty while the standby barely moved at all so it really is a crapshoot.

MDOmnis:

I'd love to know if they put any serious math effort into optimizing the system

When I worked there decades ago, it was emphasized by management that the turnstile numbers were extremely important. I'd assume Fastlane numbers aren't any different.

I worked there too and remember the same. But given how operations seem to have slipped over the years, I'm not sure it's as important to them as it once was. Heck, within the past week or two, they've posted pictures of people holding signs that they were the 500,000th rider several coasters. That number is not impressive at all for this point in the season. Back in the day, the big rides (Magnum, Raptor, Gemini, the Train, Skyride) all did 2 million or more for the season, Millennium Force did 1.5+ million, etc.

I will say Steel Vengeance crew has done an excellent job from what I've seen this year. One crew truely looking "old school" in terms of efficiency at least when I've been there and in some videos I've seen online.

When I worked there the report meant serious business and they paid close attention. I don’t know what they do now, but CP has always been and I believe remains a place where patrons pass through an actual turnstile to board each and every ride.
I remember the Operations office was below the Ballroom, on the same corner as the Arcade Women’s. They had a board where they’d post the dailies, and you could see what each attraction did for turnstile clicks the previous day. CP&LERR always topped the list, natch. And ride crews would hold friendly competitions and challenges to beat previous records or vie for spots on the list.

I have noticed the separators at KI clicking a hand counter for each fastlane guest they sat; this is something relatively new, I believe for this year. In the past the only place I've seen them using counters was at the wave pool entrances. I'd say there's definitely some FL auditing going on, not sure about regular guests, they may be getting counted as well.

I'll also use this opportunity to give a shoutout to Orion ops, who were managing 3 train, no-stop dispatches the other day. B&M's "halfway-out" patent was pulling some weight as well but that crew was smoking.

B&M's "halfway-out" patent? Sounds interesting. Please explain.

I assumed it was akin to Intamin’s rolling blocks, but five minutes spent searching did not turn up anything specific.

Yea - I assume he meant a train can begin moving into the station before the previous one has cleared it completely. I've heard this referred to as "multi-move." I don't think it's something B&M or Consign has patented (at least not anymore) as several other ride manufacturers also do it. Call it "multi-move," "rolling blocks," or "halfway out," etc the end result is a few seconds less idle time in the station and more time for the guests and crew to load the next train before the interval point arrives. Older B&M's at CP like Raptor and Rougarou don't appear to have it, but Gatekeeper does.

I've heard that for Steel Vengeance, it could have been toggled on by Irvine Ondrey Engineering (the controls company), but it was a corporate decision (perhaps after the opening weekend incident) to not turn it on. Seems like a stupd decision. That crew has been doing a hell of a job this year, but having a few more seconds could never hurt.

Sorry for delay, but yes, I was referring to operation where the incoming train starts to enter the station as the exiting train reaches the halfway-out point. I've only seen this on recent B&M coasters and had heard it was something B&M had patented back in the day, but perhaps it was the controls company? It definitely helps keep things (literally) moving when ops are on fire like these Orion folks were.

I don't see how you could patent that. It's basically just splitting the station in to two blocks.