Fastpass at cedar Point???

I saw a trip report where they mentioned that cedar Point has a better/more fair type of fastpass system for MF and Wicked twister. Is this true??, and how does it work. And what does it cost??

The system is called FreeWay (it's free) and this is how it works...

Outside of the entrance to MF and WT there is a stand with a FreeWay sign. There is a one-hour time slot posted that tells when you can come back and ride (ie: 4:00-5:00). You ask the employee working the booth for a stamp and you get branded with the name of the ride and the time you can ride. When you come back during that time period you flash your hand and enter a separate line. Once you get up near the entrance another employee will stamp over your original stamp with "Cedar Point" and that voids you from riding again. You then enter the main queue and wait the last 10-15 minutes with everyone else.

The park is allowing stamps for approximately 10% of the rides capacity for each hour right now. You also can only get one stamp at a time, although they wash off easily. You can see a picture of the booth here:

http://www.cedarpoint.org/openingday/9.jpg

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James Draeger
http://draegs.livejournal.com
"Legend is a wooden Jesus"

Ugh....this doesn't sound good at all. Sounds an awful lot like Universal Studios 'Express' system. Wait 'till people start yelling at each other on crowded, hot days.

Then again, this is only for two rides in the park, as opposed to every ride @ CP. It might not be as bad. Hope I'm not there to find out...

-'Playa

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Coming 6/6/02--the CoastaPlaya 100!
Check Meeting Calendar for details...

Cedar Point's system is a gimmick. At the moment it's limited to 10% or less of the ride's hourly capacity, though they will probably tweak the ratios depending on how popular the system is. The way I see it, the main purpose of the system is to give them the ability to say they have a line management system just as Six Flags does, but at Cedar Point you don't have to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Cedar Point's REAL queue management system just keeps chugging away, pumping people through the coasters at unheard of rates. I hear Wicked Twister was doing close to 800 PPH on opening day, which is better than Wildcat.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Translation: On a busy Saturday, they'll be taking reservations for 3:30 - 4:00 at 1:00 and by 3:00 they'll be out of reservations for the day.

The problem: Customer perception. Expectations are raised to new heights, then they aren't met. Without queue management, people would have fully expected to wait two hours. Now they won't want to wait at all.

-'Playa

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The CoastaPlaya 100 begins 6/6/02...

WT was getting close to 1000 not 800 on opening day. 960 PPH by my calculations. The free way system was great if you ask me got me on MF in 15 mins.

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The Beast and Night, They go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly

These fast pass ideas aren't nearly as bad as I see them made out to be all the time. If you don't have the freeway for that ride, you may have to wait a total of maybe one or two trains extra to ride whatever you're in line for. It's not like there's a flood of people running up using this. I like how Cedarpoint is running the thing for free as well. I didn't think that the SF version was unfair by charging a measly $10 (after a day of all sorts of expenses, what's another $10 anyway), but free is always better. I can see that it's still in an experimental form right now, but I'm interested in seeing what comes of this.

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"You can't kill what's stronger than death" - Zakk Wylde

It IS a customer perception thing.

Without Freeway, you wait 45 minutes.
With Freeway you wait three hours.

The difference is that with Freeway you spend ten minutes actually waiting in line at the ride. But you've spent more time waiting for that ride than the person riding in the next seat who stood in the queue for a half hour before you arrived.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Sounds exactly like fastpass to me, just don't go on a water ride in the interim. When you go to disney and see a wait time, that includes fastpass people. Does anyone know what percent of a rides capacity per hour Disney gives fastpass to? When we got to DCA, Soarin' was passed-out for the day at like 2:30, but Screamin' was still giving out fastpasses for I think 7 PM.

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Depends, but certains rides have a very high percentage, its based on the PPH of the ride and number of trains, cars, boats running. For example, Big Thunder a Disneyland Paris gives out 50% of its capacity in Fast Pass, which means for every 5 minutes time slot, its gave 102 tickets. If they gave out 102 tickets, the computer jumps to the next time slot (5 minutes later). Peter Pan and BTM always ran out of FP by 1-2 pm, since they are so popular and Peter Pan has "poor" capacity (still 900... but, its not enough for a major attraction). On the other hand, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril never ran out of tickets... since the people don't tend to reride it!

Space Mountain, at 5 trains running gives out 132 tickets by 5 minutes time slot. Its 80% of capacity here. The thing is... even on busy days, we never gave out 132 tickets per 5 minutes! Management calculated that with 5 FP distributors, its was impossible to do so, so I heard they recently added a sixth machine, giving the maximum number possible.

P.S.: I agree that FP is not fair for certain rides, but for Space Mountain, both waits usually evened out (you came back 40 minutes later with FP).

*** This post was edited by Absimilliard on 5/10/2002. ***

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MagnumForce said:
WT was getting close to 1000 not 800 on opening day. 960 PPH by my calculations. The free way system was great if you ask me got me on MF in 15 mins.

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Well by an ATL's "calculations" (read: actually looking at the turnstyle numbers) Wicked Twister didn't see more than 800pph on opening day.

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Hey, Shaggy, it's "Sea *$#@&$ WORLD!" LMAO.