gad198

Nice article. Great Adventure is probably my favorite park to be at when crowds are manageable, which they were both Saturday and Sunday. It's nice to see that they're bringing back some of the flats and adding new ones, as that's really the only area they really lack at the moment. I see that they did not mention anything about the current state of that parking lot. It costs $20 to park there and yet the parking lot is in bad shape. They need to do a repave of that parking lot sooner rather than later. On a brighter note, the ride ops (particularly on Nitro and El Toro) are really quick and have been consistently good on every visit I've made to the park in the last few years. I love the fact that they genuinely try to get larger guests to fit if they're on the line.

Seconded about www.weather.gov. Forecasts are updated a few times a day and it's nice in that you can use pinpoint very specific spots by using the point and click feature on the maps. It's especially helpful if you're traveling to a location like Los Angeles or Denver where the weather can be very different in different parts of the city. I'll be there opening day also. I'll probably head up early for ERT and then come back later on once crowds start to thin.

Yeah, if you time it right you can get quick rides (and potential rerides) in row 2 on Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot. I love the funny looks I get from people in adjacent rows when I walk right into those seats. It's one of the best kept secrets in that park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg does have reserved rows on several rides as you mentioned, but those ride queues were not designed with Quick Queue in mind. Notice that Griffon merges in the station so there are no blocked rows for Quick Queue there. Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa used to have the second row blocked for Quick Queue for years but very recently they changed it so that Quick Queue users also merge in the station due to a new queue built specifically for that purpose.

This is precisely the wrong way to handle Fast Lane users IMO. Six Flags still loads Flash Pass riders on the exit side on some rides (Batman: the Ride comes immediately to mind), but keep in mind that on rides where they do that it would cost Six Flags a ton of money to build a new Flash Pass queue line to merge into the station. It's easier and cheaper for Six Flags logistically to just push Flash Passers up the exit and designate rows for them on the trains. Notice that on rides where they were once doing this and it was feasible to build a separate line to merge with the station that they did build the line to merge with the station instead (think Bizarro at Great Adventure). Designating whole trains for Fast Lane people is absolutely the worst way to handle those guests. The fact is that no chain right now outside of Cedar Fair, not even Six Flags, is designating whole trains for Flash Pass folks now on a regular basis. That should say something. I'll agree with this part as it's written. The issue is if Fast Lane folks ride more than those in the standby lines and that brings me to... I covered this in a post earlier in this thread. The only time that Fast Lane users affect wait times is if they ride more often (or less often) than those in the standby line are capable of riding. The longer the standby line the more likely it is that Fast Lane users will ride more than those in the standby line, thereby increasing the wait times for those in standby lines. Rides are only capable of giving a fixed number of rides in a day, and the more rides that Fast Lane users are getting the less rides those in standby lines are getting and the more time those in the standby lines will be waiting. Simple as that.

I went back and forth on whether to do this and decided against it. I saw the minimum bid went from $150 to $255 in two days so there's obviously a lot of interest. Any chance you'll post a quick update on how your rides are?

Seconded. That location will be seeing a lot of me this year!

The total ride capacity of all rides using the Fast Lane system is a fixed number daily. The rides are only going to give "X" number of rides on a daily basis no matter who the riders are. Fast Lane isn't adding capacity, it's merely reallocating the available capacity. Equation with no Fast Lane: total rides given = number of riders in standby line Equation with Fast Lane: total rides given = number of riders in standby line + number of Fast Lane rides given Those people with Fast Lane access aren't in the regular line anymore, so there's a decrease in the amount of people in the standby line. Those with Fast Lane access will ride, however, so there's no change in the total rides given. The thing that we know for a fact is that the number of Fast Lane rides given is a variable number; some people may decide to ride less but most will decide to ride more. On days with light crowds that effect will be minimized as the shorter wait times will allow everyone a chance to ride more. On busier days the effect will be magnified as only the Fast Lane users will have the opportunity to ride more than the people in standby lines. Let's assume you have a total capacity of 10,000 rides at any given park with Fast Lane access available. The equation may look something like this: 10,000 total rides = 9,000 total standby rides + 1,000 Fast Lane rides The Fast Lane ride numbers are variable depending on how much they want to ride. Let's assume you have the following equation instead: 10,000 total rides = 8,000 standby rides + 2,000 Fast Lane rides The Fast Lane users are taking 1,000 additional rides that aren't be available to those in the standby line. The ride capacity hasn't increased by 1,000 rides because that by definition is a fixed number. You can't create something out of nothing so some other variable has to change. The takeaway here is this...for every additional Fast Lane ride that's taken beyond what those in the standby line are capable of (i.e., if a Fast Lane user gets 2 rides in a fixed amount of time and another can only get 1 in the standby line, that's 1 additional ride), the amount of time for those waiting in the standby line must increase. This is an important distinction; Fast Lane users ONLY affect the amount of time those waiting in the standby line if they get more (or less) rides than they would have been capable of getting in the standby line. More Fast Lane users on any given day in and of itself may not lead to longer wait times. Only when Fast Lane users ride more than is capable by those in standby lines will you see an increase in wait times. It was brought out in an earlier post that Kings Island said that standby ride line times are about the same both pre- and post-Fast Lane implementation. What they're essentially saying is that those with Fast Lane access are riding about the same amount of rides as they would have anyway prior to Fast Lane being brought in. Surely that statement leaves a lot to interpretation and without actual numbers it's hard to make a fair assessment of that statement.

I think opponents of Fast Lane are objecting to the principle the system is using to allow people quicker access. Objectively, all Fast Lane is doing is taking a small amount of time from each person waiting in the regular line and giving it to those people using Fast Lane at the ride at any given point in time. If two people walk up the Fast Lane entrance for Diamondback, assuming 90 second regular dispatches, the people in Fast Lane are borrowing 5.625 seconds from the people in the regular line in aggregate. Spoken another way, the regular line would be 5.625 seconds longer on DB for every two people who utilize Fast Lane. Obviously on DB it's not that big of a deal, but on rides like Firehawk where the capacity isn't nearly as good then it creates a bigger problem. This kind of scenario just doesn't present itself too much in the real world so many people are still trying to get used to it. The lesson is still the same as always: visit on slower days and it won't be an issue. All Fast Lane does for those of you who can only visit on busier days is to give you some options that weren't available before. A Saturday in July at KI or Cedar Point is actually feasible now for many where it wasn't before pre-Fast Lane (or having to shell out the money for a VIP tour).

Wow, that Flight of Fear picture brings back a lot of memories. It was a very warm and sunny June Monday. I just graduated from Princeton HS and was working in an office in St. Bernard. They didn't want me taking a lot of time off since I was only going to be there for a little more than two months, but they graciously allowed me to take a half day which meant I could leave at 11. I snuck out a little early, stopped back home, picked up my friend Mike in my freshly washed '84 Accord and headed to the park. We got to the park a little before noon and headed back to the ride. I believe the official opening of the ride was supposed to happen at noon. We got to the ride only to discover that there were a few people in front of us. They were holding the line outside of the building, but I remember the line stretching under The Racer (as shown in the picture). We followed the line which then wrapped around to the right, past the swings, past the arcade, past the speed pitch and ended right around the old Flight Commander spot where we found a spot at the end of the line. I believe the line backed up to at least Vortex by the time we started moving after the ride officially opened. There's nothing quite like the energy that flows from the crowd during a big ride opening. I flashed back to the Cincinnati Enquirer article about the new ride, the specs, seeing the track layout for the first time and realizing that we were finally going to turn all of the anticipation into realization. I think that one brief moment is the reason why I love ride openings so much. It's not just the fact that you're going to get to ride but more that your frame of reference is going to shift. Your life, albeit it in a very small way, will be forever changed simply by being in that moment. It's a collection of things that will form an experience you'll remember for years to come. Your senses are heightened. The ride will be there for a long time but the experience of that day is singular. I remember waiting outside in line for an hour and being happy we finally got to the part of the queues in the shade. I remember the anticipation of going down the ramp and seeing the inside of the building for the first time. I remember seeing the mirrors along the wall and mistakenly thinking we were only seeing half of the queue line. I remember the what seemed like hundreds of times we saw the pre-show video while in line. I remember the couple of breakdowns where the line wouldn't move for 20 minutes at a time. I remember finally making in into the spaceship. I remember hearing the launch for the first time and subsequent screams, oohs and aahs. I remember seeing the launch for the first time... Zero to sixty in four seconds sounds impressive on paper, but I doubt that anyone who was there that first day will ever forget what it was like to see that train launch for the first time. Perhaps it was the fact that you could only see the top of the train being propelled into the tunnel only to disappear quickly into the abyss. I remember turning to my friend Mike with what I imagine was an open mouth and him turning to face me with exactly the same look. You then looked around to see the same look on so many other faces. I think that one moment instantly made the wait worthwhile. Five hours in line later we boarded in the second row. It's interesting because I only remember 3 things about the actual first ride: the launch, seeing that first part of the cobra roll out in the distance, and that low to the ground and corkscrew finale being taken at what seemed like a ridiculous speed. And then it was over. "That was fun", we heard the riders in the front row exclaim. Mike and I both nodded our heads in agreement. A great end to what was a cool experience. I probably had more fun at the openings of Son of Beast and Diamondback but the opening of Flight of Fear was definitely more memorable. That ride started what was the best summer of my life up to that point. Each time a major ride is announced at KI I realize that it's more than the ride that I look forward to. Those opening day moments at that ride are forever entwined with the ride itself. It's vivid memories of the park being etched in your mind that serve as reminders for how the park, you and others who shared in those moments with you continue to evolve. There's really nothing quite like those big ride opening days.

The thing that caught my attention here was the Flight of Fear page. "Brace yourself" and seeing pictures of those nasty OTSRs summed up the ride at that time pretty well!

Nice report by the way! Yeah, I was a little surprised not to see anything here about the two big shows in the park. Iceploration was really quite cool (no pun intended) and features a lot of very good skating. It reminds me of Sha-Kon-O-Hey that played the last few years at Dollywood, only with more colorful costumes and on ice. It's very much worth seeing IMO. The Burn the Floor show, as mentioned, was fantastic. I'm pretty critical of most dance shows that utilize some form of partner dancing in their routines (as it's usually done by people who don't have any real ballroom training) but this show was put together and executed fabulously. Plus, both shows are indoors so it's a nice way to cool off. I was down there that same Monday and ran into the same Cheetah Hunt issues in the morning. We got there right around 9:30 in the morning, got back to Cheetah Hunt and the posted wait time sign changed from 25 minutes to 60 minutes right as we were about to get in line. The catch with that ride is that you almost have to wait in the line if the ride is running because you don't know when it might go down and how long it might go down for. We saw trains stuck on the final brake run with the restraints up around 12:30, they had it up again at 1:45 when the Iceploration show let out, but was down again by the time we left around 2:30. Gotta love those Intamin launchers! Busch Gardens Tampa is one of my favorite parks, but the one thing I saw in the report that is absolutely a major strike against it are the ride operations. Sea World Orlando also has the same problem. I'd absolutely love to see that addressed at some point, as I would imagine the waits during the summer would only magnify the issue.

That section of I-75 in Tennessee stinks right now. The quoted delay times are accurate and it is wise to avoid that area. Keep in mind that this area is only problematic if you're traveling south. If you're traveling north along the same route then there currently aren't any issues. You can actually go two different ways from exit 160 in Tennessee: * turn left off the exit and take the detour listed above, which will add anywhere from 15 minutes (if there's no heavy truck traffic in front of you and no other significant delays) to 45 minutes or more depending on how many other people also get the same idea * turn right off the exit until you get to state route 297, take that road until you get to state route 63 and then turn left on state route 63 to get back to I-75 at exit 141 (this would be the route I'd take personally...we've used this before during another traffic snafu and it's really easy to follow the route...you also don't have as many drastic elevation changes so it's less likely to have slower-moving traffic on it) Because you're going to Pigeon Forge you could also take US 25E from Corbin, KY. US 25E will take you to I-81 at which point in time you can go south and then west on I-40 and head towards Pigeon Forge that way. You may want to give this route some serious consideration given the time you'll be heading down. It would probably add 45 minutes on to the normal drive time (compared to a normal trip down I-75) but it may be worth looking into. As it pertains to food...the cinnamon bread at Dollywood is no joke. This may be sacrilegious but I think that most of the other food items at Dollywood outside of the cinnamon bread aren't as fantastic as many others make them out to be. On your way back I'd recommend a stop at either Puleo's Grille (casual) or at Chandler's Deli (southern). Both offer really good food at very reasonable prices.

I noticed that Carowinds is offering their Easter meal again from April 6-8. If any of you happen to be down there that weekend I'd definitely recommend the meal offering. It's all-you-can-eat (includes soft drinks) and the food items offered on the buffet last year were all outstanding.

My situation isn't as interesting as the one The Interpreter is currently going through but I thought I'd bring this up for the sake of completeness. I renewed my Platinum Pass back in September. I went out to Knott's a few weeks ago, and the pass did not scan for either parking or at the gate. I went out to Knott's at almost the same time last year and it worked for both parking and at the gate on two separate visits. The only difference between this year and last is that I got a new pass in 2010 (for 2011) where I simply renewed in 2011 (for 2012). Long story short, Cedar Fair still seems to be working out the kinks of their pass systems. They've had over four years to smooth out the technology and the guest experience and they are still struggling with all of the implementation details. Platinum passholders are paying a lot of money for their passes each year. I would hope that Cedar Fair is cognizant of the fact that stopping at Guest Relations for admission, having parking refunded, not being able to renew online, etc. is leaving a bad taste in people's mouths. I realize that Platinum passholders make up a very small minority of the chain's overall customer base but that's still no excuse to provide a (sometimes) less than desirable customer experience.

I would be more than fine with this arrangement for several reasons: * much easier in and out access to that part of the parking lot * eliminate the need for the season pass checker (it's not as though they were out there much after the first few hours anyway) * eliminate the bottlenecks out of that part of the lot at the end of the evening. I'm betting that more people will use the north exit now so exiting traffic should improve

The WindSeekers are worth doing at other parks IMO. I've been on the ones at KI, Cedar Point and Knotts and they've all offered different experiences. The actual 'ride' experience is the same on each but the unique surroundings of each area make them interesting enough to make it worth it. As mentioned previously, Afterburn, Intimidator and the Gliders are the only must-do rides in the park apart from the Arrow coasters you mentioned. Carolina Cobra is perhaps the best boomerang around so it's worth a spin if the line is short enough.

The water section is gone, but I still believe that it's worth a trip if the line isn't too bad. If time is more limited I'd definitely opt to skip it, but if time isn't an issue it's worth a spin IMO. Busch is usually not terribly busy, but keep in mind that you'll be going during a week that many northern high schools will be on Spring Break. Most college Spring Breaks will be over by that time so that should help, but there's a lot of variability with crowd size there during that time. I checked Busch Gardens Tampa's website for their advance purchase Quick Queue and their rates for that time will be at their highest seasonal rates that week so I think they're forecasting higher numbers that week. Coincidentally I'll also be down there those two days so I'm also hoping that crowds will be at a minimum! Having said that... As far as the coasters go you'll definitely want to get on Cheetah Hunt first and then Montu. After that it's really what you want to do. The three big B&Ms have good capacity (assuming the operations are good which is very hit or miss), so you may want to opt to do Rhino Rally, Scorpion & Cheetah Chase before those lines get too bad. Honestly though, you can't really go wrong as long as you get Cheetah Hunt out of the way early. I'm not sure if you have tickets as of yet but here would be my recommendations: * get your tickets online (or through AAA) no matter what. Admission lines take a while to get through at Busch even when there aren't a lot of people in line, so make sure you have your tickets in hand before you get to the park * if you're 100% positive your visit is only going to be one day then I'd probably do the Play and Dine option (one day admission plus the All Day Dining deal) for $81.99. As an aside you can get this same ticket through AAA for $73.99 * if you think that you may do a second day your best bet is to do the one day ticket ($71.99) because that option allows you a second day free. You'll need to stop at Guest Relations before you leave the first day so you can re-enter on the same ticket the second day. Keep in mind that the one-day admission ticket for the Play and Dine option above is NOT valid for the second day free offer.

I've got three main goals: * ride all of the "big" new for 2012 coasters in the US and Canada (Wild Eagle, Verbolten, Skyrush, Leviathan, X-Flight...I probably won't get around to the new coaster at Discovery Kingdom unless something unexpectedly comes together) * ride the coasters that opened in 2011 (Wooden Warrior, new Texas Giant, and Green Lantern at SFMM) * beat 3 Point Challenge at least half of the parks I visit this year

Crowds on Sundays at Carowinds early and late in the season are usually quite lovely no matter the weather. The only day that you'd be wise to avoid early in the year there is the Saturday before Easter, but outside of that the crowds likely won't be that bad even if it's really nice outside (which it has been for our last few visits). It seems as though Carowinds crowds don't really start picking up until the waterpark opens. Sundays are also nice in that people won't start arriving in larger numbers until around 12:30, so if you're there at opening you should have smaller queues for a few hours. I'm sure that Carowinds is hoping to open up WindSeeker along with the rest of the park, but as kingsrattler replied I'd look at it as a bonus ride if it is indeed open at that time. Just a few other quick thoughts... * there's a really good snack stand in Planet Snoopy called the Snack Bar. The chicken tenders they offer at that stand are among the best amusement park food I've had. I'd highly recommend a stop there * make sure if you want to ride Nighthawk that you do that right at opening. I can't stress this enough. Even on very slow days there Nighthawk will have a 30+ minute wait, so get this out of the way first (by way of example, we went on an extremely slow October Sunday this past year and as long as you didn't want the first two or last two rows on Intimidator then you could walk right on. Nighthawk was still sporting a 45 minute wait) * Afterburn won't get a line until close to noon. If you're essentially on a mission to ride everything there then you may want to wait to ride that until you get on some other low capacity attractions first (Boo Blasters, the Flying Eagles, etc.)

Cedar Fair has really gotten their act together on this. This was actually more of an issue early in the year, but they seemed to have worked out a lot of the kinks at most parks. I went to the following parks in the chain this year: Dorney (1 visit) - no issues Kings Dominion (3 visits) - had to go to GR for admission all 3 times, although they did let me in the parking lot even though it didn't scan Carowinds (2 visits) - no issues Canada's Wonderland (2 visits) - no issues, particularly noteworthy because this park always presented major challenges in the past Worlds of Fun (8 visits) - issues during our first four visits (in June) but no issues the last four (in August and September) Michigan's Adventure (1 visit) - no issues...I went to GR here first and they said that they just had their systems upgraded shortly before our visit Knotts (2 visits) - no issues Cedar Point (3 visits) - no issues

Just a quick few items in a number of areas: * Give Gold and Platinum passholders 20% off all purchases (or, at the very least, extend the offer to get Beagle Bucks for 10% off like some other parks in the chain. Dorney, KD, Carowinds all come to mind immediately) * Open up more lanes for people leaving the park. Trying to funnel all those people through two (very small) openings at the metal detectors right up until the park closes seems silly at best * While we're on the metal detector topic, have an express line for people who don't have bags. I wouldn't mind it if this lane were only open for the first couple of hours a day, however. I'd personally also like to see a Platinum pass express lane at the metal detectors for the first few hours as well, but I'd much rather see the former than the latter anyway * Get some restrooms back near Long Line X Base. There are six outdoor restrooms in the dry side of KI (seven if you include the one just outside the park gates). By way of comparison there are six outdoor restrooms (seven if you include the standalone one outside the park) that I know of at Worlds of Fun, a much smaller park. I just get the sense that there are surprisingly few restrooms at KI for the size park it is * Agreed about The Racer needing to be given some TLC. Screamin' Eagle at Six Flags St. Louis and Great American Scream Machine at SFOG really showed how great these coasters can look if given a little time and attention

In fairness, I'm way out there as far as being an outlier in regards to in-park spending. I'm sure I'm one of the very few people that probably costs the park money on average each visit, but that's obviously not the demographic the park is after. Season passes at most every other park/chain (outside of Universal and Disney) are all priced about the same all things being equal. I can't imagine that is coincidental. Factoring in parking costs (i.e., passes that allow you to park free) you can get an season pass for the following at various parks: Six Flags: the cheapest rates going are at SF New England and SF America - $45 base price (when you buy 4) plus $50 season parking = $95. You can do even better than that when they're running their specials (buy 3 get one free plus one free parking pass per four passes purchased) Dollywood: $112 for a gold pass Busch Gardens (Virginia or FL): $99 - $109 depending on if they're running specials (right now a BGW annual pass is $99) Kings Island: $70 for a new Gold pass Holiday World: $115 Hersheypark: $135 Kennywood: $85 Looking at that I'd say that the Kings Island pass is a fabulous deal. You could argue that KI gold passes are the best value in the group and may actually be underpriced. Even season passes that allow you access to multiple parks run very similarly: Cedar Fair Platinum Pass: $159 Busch Gardens Platinum Pass (if you buy it at BGW): $299. This is a two-year pass so at the $299 rate you're looking at $150 per year, right in line with the Cedar Fair Platinum Pass price. This price varies depending on what Busch park you go to get it, but generally, the further you move away from Florida the cheaper the pass Six Flags (basic pass plus parking at all parks): $145. That's as low as you'll find it for an individual pass but you can drop the per-person cost if you get three others to go in with you on a purchase before October 31 The Disney and Universal passes are way more expensive, but they also are dealing with a much different demographic. Many of the visitors are there for multi-day stays, and they don't want to price their passes so low that people would automatically go that route during a visit, thereby leaving money on the table. As an aside, I love the Cedar Fair Platinum pass. My big issue with the pass is actually in the way that Kings Island administers it, or doesn't, in this case. I still believe that Kings Island (and every other park in the chain aside from Cedar Point) and Cedar Fair are leaving a lot of money on the table with their Gold and Platinum pass systems as currently constructed. Most parks in the chain have decided to wrap all of their Gold and Platinum benefits/perks into one "everyone gets the same perks and it doesn't matter if you have the Gold or Platinum pass" group, and I think that's a mistake. Cedar Point has a very clear distinction between their regular and Platinum passes. Platinum passholders get early entry and free parking, which alone make getting the pass worth it even if Cedar Point is your home park. I would venture to say that a fair number of regular parkgoers there have Platinum passes, and I'm willing to bet that Cedar Point has a much larger Platinum pass base (as a percentage of their passholders) than any other park in the chain. Cedar Point separates the value out of the Platinum pass better than every other park in the chain. The rest of the chain, including Kings Island, is a more hazy proposition as far as separating that value out from each pass. Why on earth would anyone visiting only Kings Island upgrade to a Platinum pass? There's also the small problem of the rather large divide between the current $70 Gold pass offering and the $159 Platinum pass offering. Most (Gold) season pass holders aren't in any way interested in the Platinum pass because there are no tangible benefits to them associated with that pass. The only people that are buying the Platinum pass have done an analysis and decided that they're probably going to be visiting at least one other Cedar Fair park (likely Cedar Point) or perhaps one along the way somewhere or while they're in another city for something else. Most people don't travel to Kansas City just to go to Worlds of Fun or Richmond only to visit Kings Dominion. I'll repeat, there is absolutely no tangible benefit to owning a Platinum pass if you only visit Kings Island and I think that most pass holders know that. I believe the solution to that issue is to separate the value of each pass more so that you'll get more people buying the Platinum pass. I think the best option is to take a little something away from two parks that offer tiered passes, Busch Gardens and Dollywood. Dollywood offers a 20% across-the-board discount on most everything inside the park with their Gold pass and free parking (regular passholders do not receive either of these benefits). Therefore, most people who buy Dollywood passes that go to the park together will usually buy at least one Gold pass for the group to take advantage of the Gold pass perks. People can see the value in the Gold pass and will usually elect to get one per group accordingly. This results in additional revenue for the park (the upfront cost of the pass as well as increased spending as a result of the discount), more perceived value for the guest, and everyone wins. Busch Gardens allows Platinum passholders admission to the other parks and free parking (like Cedar Fair's version), but Busch Platinum passholders get free preferred parking at each park. That provision alone actually got me to buy one last year. Unfortunately, Busch has the small problem of having their parks a long way away from each other (aside from the Busch Gardens Tampa/Sea World Orlando pair), so there's slightly less value here for many because it's tougher to get to one park from another. There are a few other minor benefits that Platinum passholders receive over regular annual passholders, but even those small things are more than what Platinum passholders receive over Gold passholders. Of course, you're going to have some people argue that just being able to get free admission into each park in the chain is a good enough reason to get a Platinum pass. Sure, that's a nice benefit but essentially what people are paying for (at Kings Island) in the $89 Platinum pass premium is a season pass with Gold privileges to the other parks. As I mentioned, there's no reason that a logical person who only planned on visiting Kings Island (frequently or not) would get a Platinum pass. My solution would be to give Platinum passholders the following benefits: * 20% off ALL in-park purchases, including Fast Lane passes (similar to Dollywood) * expand the current preferred parking area and create a very small Platinum pass parking area (ala Busch Gardens) * exclusive bonus ride times outside of the current ERT window (Platinum pass Diamondback ERT following park closing...similar to Cedar Point) * one get a friend in for $9.99 admission coupon to use any day during the course of the year, good at any park in the chain * exclusive discounts for select Reds games, local area restaurants, etc. That would solve a number of value issues, and those items above are just things I can come up with off the top of my head. I really, really wish that Cedar Fair would re-examine their Platinum pass situation and not leave money out there on the table while giving some additional incentives for Platinum pass holders.

Agreed. I would also argue that Canada's Wonderland has cooler looking buildings in their kids area. Their whole kids area just seems fresher and more lively than KIs. How their kids area isn't even mentioned in the Golden Tickets is beyond me.

Best trip report I've seen so far this year on any theme-park related site. Simply awesome!

I don't believe the season pass perks vs. Fast Lane argument is entirely valid. The key difference between the two is that very few of the season pass perks affect anyone beyond the passholder, whereas the folks in the Fast Lane line do affect people who choose to wait in the standby line. The only season pass perk that affects anyone beyond the passholder is early entry/ERT that the park offers. Even then, the only effect it potentially has is in the form of a wait at the beginning of the day for those first riders. At Kings Island that's not usually a big deal because the line at the end of the ERT session is usually minimal. It's a much bigger deal at Cedar Point (Millennium Force's wait at the end of ERT this past Sunday was close to an hour). The thing to remember here is the park isn't open to the general public during ERT. The park opens at the opening time and that's clearly stated on the operating schedules. A passholder (or resort guest at Cedar Point) that gets in early doesn't affect anyone in the general public. A general admission ticket gets you access to the park during normal hours. Those who are granted ERT don't change what my general admission ticket grants me. The GP shouldn't even care about ERT, more or less, because it doesn't affect them. The quantity of rides available during the normal operating hours doesn't change, nor do the way those seats are allocated change (without Fast Lane or the like) as it is first come first served. The other perks (usually discounts of some sort or free parking) clearly don't affect anyone beyond the passholder. Repeat the above for a concert or sporting event. The person sitting in the $250 seat at a Reds game doesn't affect the person sitting in the $5 seat. The $250 customer and the $5 customer are operating on completely different wavelengths as far as their experiences go. They're at the same event and yet their experiences are completely different. The person who paid $250 for a seat isn't cutting in front of someone who purchased a $5 seat in the concession line. If the $250 customer wants to eat 10 hot dogs, that doesn't affect the ability for the $5 customer to eat any hot dogs. The $5 customer doesn't care about how many drinks the $250 customer has. The bottom line is that there is a close to zero correlation between their experiences because they don't interact with one another. Fast Lane is, at its core, a way to steal a little time from everyone in a ride line and give it to Fast Lane users. The amount of time it takes me to get on to a ride is based on three things, assuming the ride is running: * what the capacity of the ride is and how many people per hour it can roll through * how good the crew is at moving people through the line * how many people are in front of you All Fast Lane is doing is changing the third variable. The wait for someone in the standby line is now potentially affected because of Fast Lane users. Any person who uses the Fast Lane pass while you're standing in line for that same ride will increase your wait time if they make it to the merge point before you do. Therefore, your wait time in the standby line is almost DIRECTLY correlated with how many people use (and how often they use) Fast Lane in front of you. We're at the same event (in this case, a ride), but the difference between this and a concert is that the person using Fast Lane directly affects my experience (in the form of a longer wait) if I'm standing in the standby line. Having said all of that I really do think that the impact on most regular guests is probably pretty minimal unless you're visiting on a busy day. I can't tell you how many times we've been to Six Flags parks and seen people using the Flash Pass even when there are station waits (i.e., past the merge point for the Flash Pass) for everything. I'm just looking forward to the next two weeks starting this Monday when lines will be manageable again.