FastLane

What does everybody think of FastLane?

Personally, I think it is stupid.

Example #1 (the "pay" versions)
Either:
A. Wait 2 hours in line
B. Pay 10$ and get on the ride instantly and/or shorter line.

Do you think that is fair? I don't.....

Example #2 (the "pay" versions)
I am about to get on S:ue at SFWoA... all of a sudden a Fast Lane person is waiting at the exit and I am instructed to get out of my seat until the next ride.... only thing is, there are more FastLane people, and our ride gets bumped back again, and again.... I waited in line, it was MY turn, I should get to ride....

Example #3 –
People who use the FastLane are not going to be unhappy, they have no right to do so.. The matter of fact is they are cutting everyone else (with the exception of LoQ)... regardless of which FastLane system is being used. There is always going to be come kind of "separation barrier" between people, almost like a class system... which isn't "right" in a theme park, in my opinion.

Example #4 - (pay version)
I am rich. For 100$, I can ride S:ros 50 times without waiting while everyone else has to wait (unless of course they "pay" to break the rules too). Oh well.

Example #5 –
Quote from SF brochure:
Line jumping, cutting in line, and saving places is strictly prohibited. Guests who violate this policy are subject to ejection from the park without refund. Please respect fellow guests and wait in line.

By using FastLane [Even LoQ virtual queuing] we are essentially "breaking the rules". Not only that, but apparently Six Flags wants you to wait in line for “respect”… heh, yea right… If you “bribe” them you are allowed to cut in line.

Example #6 -
If a FastLane (reserved seat/train) method is used, and there is no one to fill these seats, they go EMPTY. This is extremely annoying to see.....

Example #7 - (Reservation/Free version
Ok, Thunder Storms are near. A ride is shut down for an hour, and there are tons of people who were supposed to ride during the thunder storms... Instead, they block off even MORE rows to "normal guests" to accommodate for the ones with FastLane. We end up suffering in the process.

Example #8 - Whats next?
If people are willing to pay 10$ to cut in line, what will stop the park from making a 50$ all day ride pass? What will stop them from having you to pay to "break" other rules?

Some of the above you may agree with, some you may not, but the point is pretty clear, it can use a lot of work... either that or just make it back to normal. I do know that Cedar Point was actually smart, from what I have read they had a system for Millennium Force but ended up removing the system due to complaints and problems. Smart move. Why can't we all just be treated fairly with equality? I know a ton of people who refuse to go to parks now because of this (stupid) system.

To read some “horror stories” regarding the FastLane, you might want to check out: http://fafl.cjb.net/

To sum it up, I hate it. End of Story

Alan Jacyszyn
alan@coasterbuzz.com

*** This post was edited by sfdl dude on 9/18/2001. ***

Disney's 'Fastpass' though is excellent- there is no 'classing' of guests as it's freely available to everyone and is such a help in touring the parks- if it is used correctly. For example obtain a pass for Big Thunder Mountain, que normally for Splash Mountain, your pass is then ready for Big Thunder. So in effect you get to do two attractions whereas before you would have only experienced one before. This technique works perfectly for my family and I and simply put it is FANTASTIC :-)

Free is good, they work. Anyone can get them.

Pay is bad. It is not worth it for most people. They get cut in front of by the rich people.

if it's free it works well
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Montu, God Of Coasters

Raging Bull, Don't Fight It, Ride It

I think that the only reason that Disney's system seems to work well, is because the operators are really efficient. If they were any slower, you would really notice the extra wait. The system is similar to a credit card...jump ahead now, make up the difference later.

But since the waits are not too bad in the first place, it works at Disney.

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Yeeee Haaawwww!

I tell ya...the Disney version is the greatest thing to ever happen!  I loved that thing!  I rode TOT and RnRc about 30 times each thanks to it.  you just need to know the secrets about it...as in you don't HAVE to wait 2 hours until you can get another one.  Say you are over by Space Mountain, and your window for Splash Mountain just opened...you can get a fast pass for Space Mountain right away.

SFGAdv's Fast Lane is free, but it really sux.  See, at Disney, you are let into the line at a point where there is only about a 5 minute wait until you ride.  You are able to choose your row.  Whereas at SF parks, you have an assigned row.  Very stupid indeed.

I didn't DARE pay the extra $10 at SFWoA when I went....I waited the hour for X-Flight and I did it twice during the day.  Every other ride was 0-10 minute wait!  x-Flight was the only ride that actually had a wait all day.

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Bomb Squad Technician

If you see me running, try and keep up!

I like it when I buy it and hate it when I don't.  I hate having to pay $10 just to ride the coasters quicker, but if I don't pay the $10 I regret it as I watch everyone cut in front of me.  It is really hard to make up my mind at what I want to do.  I think they should just make everything go back to normal.
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DON'T FIGHT IT, RIDE IT, RAGING BULL!
My Top 5 Coasters:
1. Raging Bull 2.Millenium Force
3. V2 (SFGAm)
4. Viper (SFGAm)
5. Cornball Express /Raptor

I love disney's fastpass system and I think it does treat every guest fairly unlike the Six Flags version.

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Check out my all new coaster site!!
http://wcp.77th.com

FastLane SUCKS!!!
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"Lookout" it's NITROGIRL!!!

The existing queue management systems are all inherently fraudulent in their very concept and execution, with one exception. The exception is the now-abandoned Ticket To ride system that Cedar Point tried to use last year on Millennium Force.

These systems work by first of all reducing the total ride capacity for those people waiting in line, and second by taking a chunk of the group of people who would normally be standing in the queue, and moving them elsewhere. Walk-up demand for the ride is not reduced, but capacity to handle the walk-up demand is reduced by the number of people allowed in on the queue management system. And with Disney's much-vaunted system, at least, the system participants are still waiting in line; they are just waiting in line somewhere else.

I singled out Cedar Point's system because that is the one system that required that anyone who wished to ride the coaster had to participate in the system. It didn't promise shorter waits; in fact, for many people it made for longer waits for the coaster, and for others it resulted in no ride at all because it concentrated demand for ride tickets early in the day. Without the system, you can walk up to the ride, wait in line for 90 minutes, and take a ride. With the ticket system you had to visit the ride very early in the day, wait in line for 20 minutes to collect a ticket, wait seven hours for your ticket window, then stand in line for 45 minutes to ride. You tell me which way resulted in a shorter wait! :)

One thing these systems can do, if the designers are smart, is to exploit the natural traffic patterns in the park to divert people to the rides at times when they would normally have little or no wait. Say the park has a ride which is hyper-popular in the morning, but is a walk-on in mid-afternoon. Well, then, the queue management tickets ought to be set up to encourage people to ride during that afternoon lull. Thing is, to the best of my knowledge, none of the systems out there actually does that, because it would require actually monitoring queue length to identify the low-demand times of the day, and writing that bias into the management system.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Fast Lane is something that seriously either needs to be taken out or reworked to operate like Disney's FastPass system. True, neither system is entirely perfect, but I've tried both and Disney at least got most of it right.
I agree with RideMan in that the designers of these systems could exploit the natural traffic patterns in a park.
Just my two cents.

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My current top 5:
1)Goliath 2)Vertical Velocity(SFMW) 3)Medusa(SFMW) 4)Stealth (PGA) 5)Riddler's Revenge

It seems a little funny to me that people can somehow manage to praise a system that inherently reduces a ride's overall capacity.  That is the end result of ALL systems, reducing total rides given.  To keep rides NEAR theoretical maximum, patrons must queue and load (and unload) in the most efficient manner.  Having these systems "confounds" the loading procedure (and unloading when Fastpass-type guests when they enter through the ride exits).  Creating "classes" of guests seems antithetical to the idea of having all guests interacting in a positive manner.  Even non-pay systems distort the expected wait times for those guests who physically wait in line.  The reason Disney minimizes negative consequences is by staffing rides properly, something some parks have trouble doing even without virtual queueing.  I talked with park reps at SFoG during Viper's last day, they expect virtual queueing to continue in some form.  They agreed that it definitely still needs work (and their system works considerably better than most)!
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Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

I thought it would be fun to find an older thread to post this in, instead of starting a new thread called "What a difference no FastLane makes".

And no, I'm not complaining about FastLane, just an observation we made at Cedar Point yesterday (Thursday, July 16th).

I'm not sure why, but there seemed to be very few FL + sales. Crowds weren't necessarily light (the weather was perfectly fine all day). For example, the Maverick queue was completely full on the inside and just into that one lane around it. Typically this is a line we would avoid, as you're looking at about a solid hour, and we would simply move onto to something else.

However, the youngest mini-me (now 13, gulp) wanted to ride it, so we all said OK we will just wait it out. 23 minutes later we are on Maverick, and the line never stopped moving. During that time I counted exactly 19 FastLane plus holders go into the queue. (if you don't know, there is usually a constant full staircase-full or more at Maverick on a moderately busy day).

Valravn's queue was 2 rows deep into the larger switchback. Again something we would usually avoid. 7 FastLane + users (from what I could see). On in 18 minutes.

Top Thrill 2 was all the way back to the entrance (although it is a straight shot with no switchbacks). On in 30.

Rinse and repeat with Steel Vengeance.

This was the last day of a 5-day trip, and the amusement park gods were smiling down on us.

It was a reminder of how quick these lines actually move without a massive amount of FL+ users everywhere. (they were seemingly all in the Siren's Curse line which consistently had a 30 minute FL wait and a 60 minute regular wait).

And no, this isn't an anti-FastLane post. Just a flukey day that we got lucky to be a part of at the park.

But it does make one wonder; back in the 90's with only a few "major" jaw-dropping intense rides (for the time...Raptor, Magnum, Mantis, etc.) we happily waited a couple hours to ride them. But 1) attendance hasn't changed, and 2) the number of those "marquee" attractions has grown exponentially.

We just got to experience what the park would be like without it. For a day.

Nobody likes waiting in line. I miss the old days when they didn't offer Fastlane, because I don't want to cut the line, and I don't want anyone to cut in front of me. It hurts my soul.

And parting with a hundred bucks or more hurts my bank account.

I have a prediction that they are going to start charging a lot more for Fast Lane once the new cheaper season pass prices go into effect all over the chain. I'm for it if it means less people will use it. But I'm also against it because it might make it less affordable to me.

So aggravating.

Pay to cut in line passes. Love them!

This isn't directed at anyone, I'm just thinking out loud.

Taken as a whole, the argument for higher ticket/season pass prices, but the elimination of skip-the-line seems... I don't know, classist? Like, we want parks to charge enough to keep out poor people, but we also don't want rich people to skip ahead of us in line? Some seem to argue that in-park fights, chaperone policies, and long lines are a result of low ticket/season pass prices letting riff raff into the parks. Whether or not this is true, I don't know, but the underlying premise seems to be that low prices allow undesirable guests into the park. But an all season FastLane Plus is ~$1,000, or ~$2.75 a day over a year. If someone can't afford a few bucks a day to skip the lines they despise, are they really any more high class than the hoards filling the queues?

I am always amazed how fast the lines move when FL (CP speaking) is closed (early entry / after close).

Personally, I wish it would go away at CP but I highly doubt that it is going to happen.

Any idea how much revenue it generates?

Some of my best visits to Walt Disney World in terms of getting a lot of riding in was the period during the pandemic when ride vehicle capacity was restored, social distancing was eliminated in queues, but they had not yet resumed Fastpass+ / Genie + / Lightning Lane. I vividly remember getting through Kilimanjaro Safaris extended queue in less than a half hour that would have been 90+ minutes during my time as a Cast Member at the attraction with old school Fastpass. I also remember a full Space Mountain walkway and queue taking around 30 minutes during that time that, again, would be 90+ under queue skipping conditions.

Mforcebob:

I am always amazed how fast the lines move when FL (CP speaking) is closed (early entry / after close).

This is why I posted the post. It was as if someone waved a magic wand and no one purchased FL. The Maverick line was especially eye-opening, as we usually avoid it like the plague. I never would have guessed it is only a 25 minute wait with a full queue-house. Only Siren's Curse was partially filled with Fast Lane.

I'm confident it generates enough revenue that it's not going anywhere. Genie/bottle.

It was great day.