SFGAm FastLane Details

I'm doing this as a new post so everyone gets the facts. I was worried that if I attached it to an old post, people would miss it. So here goes...

My wife and I just got back from SFGAm and here’s the deal on their new FastLane process. I’ll give you the details but some of them you may already know. First, they only sell 2000 FastLane tickets a day, which you purchase by the theatre in Hometown Square. Each ticket is $10 for 4 rides. The rides include: Dino Island II 3D, Giant Drop, Iron Wolf, Logger’s Run, Raging Bull, Roaring Rapids, Vertical Velocity (V2), and Whizzer. No other rides are included nor do they plan on adding other rides this year. Each ride has a separate FastLane entrance (in some cases they use part of the exit line) but at some point the FastLane meets up with the regular queue. There’s a park employee waiting where the lines join and they punch your ticket and allow you to then merge with the regular line. Here’s where any problem may arise. For example, on V2 the employee held the regular queue and allowed about 12 people from the FastLane in then allows a similar number of people from the regular queue in. However, for Raging Bull, the employee just had the people from the FastLane merge with the regular queue as each person came through the FastLane. A few people from the regular queue gave us dirty looks as we merged in. The employee made no attempt to hold the regular queue to allow us to merger in smoothly. We feel this could cause problems if the employee doesn’t hold the line and assert some “authority” to keep things calm.

As for saving time, it definitely does that. For our rides on Raging Bull we waited only about 15 minutes for the front seat when the regular line was easily 45 minutes just to get to the station. Our last ride on V2 was by far the best when we only waited about 7-8 minutes while the regular queue was about 1 - 1 ½ hours. We only used our FastLane passes on Bull and V2 so I can’t speak for saving time on other rides but if they’re anything like the coasters, you’ll save a lot.

Overall we feel this is well worth the money and while we did get a couple of dirty looks, people were more curious as to what the FastLane was and how it worked and didn’t seem bothered. In fact, while getting into the V2 FastLane a couple asked us what it was and they left the regular line and bolted to Hometown Square to get passes for themselves. They did this after having already waited 30 minutes in the regular line.

One word of caution to all this, the FastLane is an “at your own risk” deal. Meaning, if you get in line, get your ticket punched but then the ride breaks down – too bad – you lose. A ride op told us that the advantage of the FastLane was just to get you further up in the queue but doesn’t guarantee a ride. And this is stated on the back of the ticket. So beware of this gotcha.

Sorry this was so long but I wanted to state everything as clear as possible.

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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

Thanks for the detail. I'm going wedneaday, and I'm still not sure wheather to use it or not. I'm heading towards using it. Your post has helped me a lot, thanks.

Bottom line on this. If you are going to waste money with this pass, than do it on the weekends. During the week would probably be a waste.

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""Coaster riding is a disease and SFGAm is the cure!!!!!!!""

So in other words, it's like an exit pass that's only good for 4 rides total?

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Don't fight it, Ride it, Raging Bull!
Webmaster:SFGAm 2001
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/Coasterz

Awesome...thanks for the details!

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-Glitchey
Former Moderator @ Danimation.com

All I have to say is, I hope they add Deja Vu when it open's otherwise forget it.

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BMCOASTER

bmcoaster@wi.rr.com

The negatives you describes are exactly the same as what they're trying at IOA.
Go here if you wanna read some threads.
http://64.225.125.24/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=30

At IOA they have Express Pass. It's basically the same thing, except you get the tickets from a Kiosk machine, then hand each one to a guard.
You go thru a seperate line, then merge with the regular queue. Yeah, you get dirty looks from people. And it slows down the regular line to a crawl. I'm not a big fan of it. When you have the tickets, it's great. But imagine a father who brings his family (wife and 2 teenagers). He'll have to shell out 40 extra dollars, otherwise they'll end up waiting in slower lines. At least they're only giving out 2000 of these cards.
It's the wrong solution. The answer is to build more attractions, and have early opening hours so the real fans can get more rides before the GP arrives.

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Robin Fox - "I see Stars, Can You See Them Too?"

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MF#1RB#2BVL said:
"Thanks for the detail. I'm going wedneaday, and I'm still not sure wheather to use it or not. I'm heading towards using it. Your post has helped me a lot, thanks."

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One other thing I should add. We were told that the tickets get sold out around 1:00 - 1:30 pm on the weekends and from what we heard, that was the case on Sunday.

What I would do in your case MF#1RB#2BVL is to go to the park, see how crowded it is and then decide as the day goes on if you want to buy it. Don't get it right away. You may not need it on a weekday.

Blink3020: To answer your question "So in other words, it's like an exit pass that's only good for 4 rides total?" -- Yes.

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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein *** This post was edited by DEK on 6/25/2001. ***

at SFA the fast lane passes are free. I don't see how anyone is gonna pay 10 bucks just to get on the ride without the regular wait time,I know I would not pay 10 bucks for that!

If they add something like this it should be the timed queue entrance time feature. I really don't like the pay option. It is just another way for the park to make money off of gullable guests.

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BMCOASTER

bmcoaster@wi.rr.com