Kings Island Fast Lane

I'd agree with that. There are two extremes,l you can power ride and pick up the gauntlet that has been thrown down and try to see just how
much wristband abuse you can cause - or just go through the park like a normal family, without all that stress and waiting in line stuff.

If they are going to sell 1,000 of these per day, even I hope they don't attract a decent percentage of power riding maniacs as it would defeat my goal of using the program to be a power riding maniac. Let's face it, 500 people power riding anything through the fast lane won't be good for anybody. But if any given day you have say 10-25 people who opt to power ride spread out amongst a few rides it won't matter.

1,000 per day means 100 at any ride at ant given time. Depending on their merge procedure could still make for some waits. At which point we can argue the fee is too low.

So for all of us involved, let's hope most are using this for the stress free visit model.

Just for clarity, I don't believe that 1000 number is based on anything concrete. (it was used in Dave W's hypothetical example)

Ah. I thought they said it was limited to that.

Regardless, I still think that the amour of power riders on any given day is going to be next to none.

Count me out as a power rider. I'd take a couple of rides, but nothing too serious, and they'd probably be spread out over the day.

(This paragraph will not help me any. No point is trying to be made against pay-to-cut. It's just an observation.) If it is limited to 1000 people per day, there is still not going to be 100 people per line. At least half of those people are going to be on the midways, in shops, eating something, in another lie, using the restroom, or whatever.

Whatever that number, if I have to wait even have to wait 5% longer, it's too long.

I want it to be much more expensive, even so that I wouldn't pay for it. I'd rather have less people cut in front of me than me cutting in front of everyone else.

Anyways...

Tek said:

Again, people were upset because they had paid the same amount of money to get the same product, and someone was trying to steal a product they didn't pay for. That's like me paying for a single cheeseburger but sneaking and grabbing a double cheeseburger instead. Once it was offered for sale, nobody started an uprising, because that's the norm in this society.

Nope, it's like the burger joint only has enough burger meat to make ten Quarter-Pound Cheeseburgers for the one hour he is open per day. He advertises them to be on sale for $4 each. He sells the 10 cheeseburgers up front to the ten visitors, then one guy points to the sign that reads,

"Get an extra patty on your burger for only $4 more! Limited availability"

He pays the extra $4, and the man making the patties takes a tenth from each quarter-pounder to make an extra patty. When people begin to complain that their burgers are just a little smaller than the advertised quarter-pound of meat, the man making the burgers says, "No, you thought that you paid for a quarter-pound burger, but our pricing in now tiered. That extra meat is now a perk".

This isn't a personal attack, Travis, but I find it telling that you rip pay to cut a new one and call it immoral, then turn around and say that if it benefits you, you're willing to do it.

I'm not feeling it as a personal attack, my friend. It sounds like my dislike for cutting line for a price frustrates you...

It's not that I am willing to buy it because it benefits me. I feel I need to buy it because the alternative sucks so bad. It's either don't buy it and let people cut in front of you, or buy it and cut in front of them. The biggest problem I have is that parks put people like me in that position. I don't want to cause anyone any more frustration with the lines than they have to have.

You know, when I won that VIP at Kings Island last year, I didn't feel too bad, because it was just me and my cousin cutting in front of everyone (with permission from the park, and an awesome tour guide following us around). I wasn't against cutting because of the selfish reason that I was the one who got to cut. I didn't feel (too) bad because people standing in line didn't have any more than me and my cousin cutting in front of them. If there had been a mess like at Six Flags, I would have been totally against it.

Information time. (This info also isn't me trying to make a statement or prove a point. I just found it interesting.) Someone mentioned that VIP at KI may not be getting a lot of buyers. The awesome employee who gave us our front-of-the-line tour of the park last year said that he thought that we were the only VIP group there that day. He did mention that not many people use the VIP perk, only a few, if any, per day.

Travis, the analogy doesnt work. Advertising a guarantee (quarterpond of beef [before cooking weight]) and not giving that IS morally wrong. But you're not guaranteed to be able to ride one ride at a park. You're simply paying admission to a park that gives you access to rides. They aren't tanking anything away, because they didn't guarantee when you would ride or howuch you could ride. Unless you pay more money.

Why would anyone want to pay full price to go to a park if they didn't have any rides open?

A better analogy is this:

We have 100 1/4 lb burgers - first come, first served - $4
So, 100 people line up, but some people choose to double their meat for $2 more, or buy a second burger. Not all 100 people are going to get their one burger, but the burger stand upheld their end of the bargain. They promised the sale of those 100 1/4 lb patties to the first people to get them.

There was never a "one per customer" clause in there.

LostKause said:
Why would anyone want to pay full price to go to a park if they didn't have any rides open?

The same reason people pay full price even if they can't ride due to disability, pregnancy or health issues. There are plenty of other things to do and see besides rides.

Then, there are some people who don't like rides, but still enjoy those other things as well. You aren't paying the full price to ride the rides, so much as to spend a day at the park. What you do with the time you're there is none of their concern.

CoasterDaddy said:
So why is Cedar Point not doing this as well?

I am sure people would do it there for the money.

They have a really great lineup of rides they could include.

They did do a few years ago, but stopped due to the complaints. The people who go to CP know about coasters, how to ride and waiting in line. I guess they didn't like it.

DaveStroem said:
would guess that a ride warrior with out a FL could only get 10

*ride warrior* :) That's kinda cute, I kinda like it :)

Actually, both things they tried were ridiculously clunky and difficult to use. The first one required extra staff hanging around outside Millennium Force handing out tickets with times on them (similar to Disney's fastpass) which, in theory, is great - however, it didn't seem to be implemented very well at all in that they needed extra staffing to hand out the tickets, and it didn't seem like they had enough etc..

Then, they went to the hand stamp system, which allowed you 2 "fast passes" per day in the form of a hand stamp that allowed you to come back between time X and Y to ride, they'd then put giant black "VOID" stamps over your hand, and that crap would get everywhere.

Again, this required staffing, and it seemed clunky and like there weren't enough.

Another flaw in the system is, if you showed up past your stamp time, you were done - whereas with Disney, you can ride at any timer after your FastPass time. This allows for more flexibility, and you don't have everyone rushing the FP entrance at the exact same time trying to avoid missing their ride.

Really, it's simple. I like the bracelet idea, but it's certainly in its infant stages, and will experience some growing pains, I'm sure.

Hard to emulate Disney's system, when you're not Disney.

I never said anyone would pay full price to go to a park with no rides open. I said you are not guaranteed to ride nag ride in the park. Big difference.

Times have changed, it's as simple as that. Count me in as someone who is done with the days of waiting more than 45 minutes for any ride. Now when I plan any trip to a "larger" park, I figure Flashpass into my budget just as I would any other sort of price, gas or airfare increase. I don't see it as cutting at all. I simply used my resources to wait in a shorter line, the same way someone with a season pass gets to pass up people waiting to buy tickets at the kiosk.

I'd like to see some of you season pass holders wait behind all the people who arrived at the park before you did to buy their "one-day" tickets. ;)

You'll wait 45 minutes? I pretty much lose interest at the 1/2 hour mark.

It doesn't really matter how many of these the park is willing to sell on a given day, it only matters what percentage of guests that flow through the merge point are from this Fast Lane. Do we think it's safe to assume there will always be some sort of line on the Fast Lane side? As in, at least 10 people waiting to enter the merge point? That seems likely considering the fee is only $50 and the amount of people that currently buy into Lo-Q. So then, for every "32-person train", how many of them are from the Fast Lane? 4? 8? 16? Very simple math at that point: if they allow 16 Fast Lane guests and 16 standby guests one each train, the regular line doubles. If they only allow 4, the standby line is still 14% longer.

But then look at it another way. Let's say there are 40 Fast Lane guests in front of you (also in the Fast Lane) waiting to merge. If they only allow 4 guests per train, that's 10 trains you're going to have to wait. Then what if the merge point is still 4 or 5 trains from actually getting to ride? That could be 20-25 minutes in the Fast Lane which may not be worth the $50 fee any more.

So it'll be interesting to see how they balance it.

Which is exactly why we need some first hand accounts of how this whole program works.

1. Where is the Fast Lane entrance
2. How is the merge handled (at what point in the queue, and what is the ratio of standby to fastlane, or is it a pure "everybody coming in FL gets to ride before the standby line moves an inch.")
   
3. Rerides permitted if FastLane queue is empty?
4. about how many people seem to be in the FL club. This is hard to tell, as they won't give out numbers, informal observation can only get a feel based on "how common are those armbands"
   
5. How long is the FL line at some rides

I'm not saying somebody has to take one for the team, buy a wristband and report back how it goes (though that would be nice), but from people keeping their eyes and ears peeled around the FL equipped attractions between noon-7.

Coasterville Dave said:
Which is exactly why we need some first hand accounts of how this whole program works.

I'm not sure anyone posting in this thread is neutral enough to be trusted with such info. ;)

Heh, FL...I keep thinking Florida. Oh, right Fast Lane. ;)

The more I think about this system, the more I realize that I will definitely buy one every time I go to the park if possible. I think perspective changes a little if you are a stuck in an hour long 90 degree line and realize that there IS a way to avoid it.

If I went to a burger joint that normally served third pound burgers and ordered and paid for a burger, only to find out they had changed to 1/4 pound burgers, I'm not sure I'd say the burger joint was blameless.

In that sense, I do see a "moral" issue (for lack of a better word) in the transition period. If you buy a ticket expecting to have every guest on the same playing field and show up to find that the lines are basically impassable between noon and 7 because of tiered service, I'd say there's something not quite right there on KI's part.

After the first time, then it's squarely on the customer.