E-I! E-I! O! Michigan's Adventure to add new attraction to commemorate their 60th Anniversary!!

I was surprised to not see anyone talking about the new 'Season Pass Fast Pass' option at Michigan's Adventure. Perhaps this is a test of the system at a smaller park and we will see this roll out at the larger parks next year?

https://www.miadventure.com/ticket-category/Fast-Lane

Pays for itself in less than 2 visits!
The fastest way to fun all season is here. Add Fast Lane to your Season Pass and speed past the regular wait lines on your favorite rides and attractions every time you visit the park in 2017. Hurry, a very limited number are available all season so get yours today!

95
plus applicable taxes and fees

Sounds like they're just experimenting with ways to make the most profitable park more profitable.

It was already tested last year at Dorney and Valleyfair and is available at all parks in the chain except Knott's, Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point and Kings Island. Cedar Fair was charging $99 for half a season last year during the test, I'm kind of surprised it wasn't double the price considering Six Flags is charging $300 or $400 for unlimited Gold Flash Pass and Fast Lane Plus is comparable to Platinum Flash Pass without the double rides.

I thought I heard Jason McClure (sp?) say this wouldn't come to the 4 largest parks, which YoshiFan listed above. I also thought I read that these Season FastLane deals were limited to 500 per park?

Here are the all-season Fast Line prices for each park that offers it:
CA Great America: $89 (regular)
Carowinds: $125 (plus)
Dorney: $99 (plus)
Kings Dominion: $115 (plus)
MI Adventure: $95 (regular)
Valleyfair: $89 (regular)
Worlds of Fun: $99 (plus)

We all know that Six Flags likes to give away the gate, but I’m surprised to see Cedar Fair underpricing their product this much. Six Flags parks generally charge $300 to $400 for their all-season Gold Flash Pass. In most cases a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass with all-season Fast Lane is actually cheaper than the comparable Six Flags Gold Season Pass with all-season Gold Flash Pass.

lol, I've never had a wait time over two hours there. most have been one or less.

Jeff said:
Sounds like they're just experimenting with ways to make the most profitable park more profitable.

Those evil bastrads.

Other parks deserve to profit too!

I'm nursing my butt hurt over how Cedar Point doesn't get a new coaster every year when Cedar Fair is always building coasters at other CF parks. It's not fair! :-)

Mr. Six said:

Here are the all-season Fast Line prices for each park that offers it:
CA Great America: $89 (regular)
Carowinds: $125 (plus)
Dorney: $99 (plus)
Kings Dominion: $115 (plus)
MI Adventure: $95 (regular)
Valleyfair: $89 (regular)
Worlds of Fun: $99 (plus)

We all know that Six Flags likes to give away the gate, but I’m surprised to see Cedar Fair underpricing their product this much.

I don't think they're underpricing their product. Most of those parks rarely, if ever, even have lines that would justify the purchase of Fast Lane. I hate to say it, but I think that anyone who would buy this product for those parks is a sucker or simply can't go to the parks on any other days besides the most crowded days of the year.

I would say, more importantly, that if you have a season pass, you have basically no use for Fast Lane. It's been a super long time since I cared to ride anything at my home park enough to spend money on it. Most of my visits are about 2 hrs long and involve at least 1.5 hrs of just walking around and riding kids' rides. But maybe I'm not the target demographic? Are there a lot of people who buy season passes and then go 3 times?

I'm sure there are people that buy season passes and only go two or three times, but what are the odds that on top of that, those visits are only on extremely crowded days? I'm sure it happens for a few people, but I would be surprised if it was anything more than an infinitesimal number of guests. It just seems like you have to be really bad at planning or very limited as far as your schedule goes.

I work in a theatre box office for a show that's been running 19 years here in Chicago.

There are more people bad at planning than you may realize. If I had a dime for every person I've worked with who couldn't understand why they couldn't get front row center seats 20 minutes before the show, I'd be posting this from a beach in Rio while Channing Tatum gave me a foot massage as I sipped a martini with bleu cheese stuffed olives (and not from a basement in Chocago).

The number of people who optimistically buy season passes and then only go a few times on very busy days is, I suspect, larger than you may think.

Possibly, but I'd bet it's more the suckers to whom I referred earlier who buy Fastlane on days when the longest wait is 15-20 minutes. I suppose this might be a good buy if you're someone who can't bear to wait more than four or five trains.

Or if you hate poor people.

I really don't see the value in this. If you got a season pass to a park, chances are you go to that park at least several times a season. If you don't get on a particular ride in one visit, there's always next time. Fast Lane is really aimed at visitors who only come once a year or once in a lifetime.

slithernoggin said:

I work in a theatre box office for a show that's been running 19 years here in Chicago.

If I had a dime for every person I've worked with who couldn't understand why they couldn't get front row center seats 20 minutes before the show, I'd be posting this from a beach in Rio while Channing Tatum gave me a foot massage as I sipped a martini with bleu cheese stuffed olives (and not from a basement in Chocago).

If I had a dime for every time that slither told us he works at a theater box office and wants Channing Tatum to do stuff to his body I would be rich.

Don't hate me for having fantasies... :-)

Thabto: you'd be surprised how many people are happily willing to squander money.

Set up a GoFundMe for Slither and I'll gladly contribute one dime to it. :)

As for staying on topic:

At those prices, I don't think season long FL is a bad deal at *some* of those parks. Some of them I've seen get pretty crowded. (CW, KD, CGA) Others, I've never seen crowds in my sporadic visits. (MiA, DP, WoF, VF. - of course YMMV)

Being that Cedar Point is our home park, it's something I *might* consider if it was offered. Of the 6 months CP is open, we only attend the park during 4 of those, as July and August are simply too busy. Even on the "slower" days, I sometimes feel Fastlane would be a good thing to have. Thing is, the highest one day level of Fastlane at CP costs more than the season FL's listed above. But I think even the most adamant supporter of FL would agree that season FL at CP would be a disaster for wait times of those without it.

I think another area where the parks that offer season FL passes stand to profit from it is when those holders bring friends. They might convince their friends to buy FL's for the day as well.