News Six Flags Launches Fast Lane Ultimate at Most Properties

[mtorange]

Looks as if KD will be getting the Legacy Six Flags Flash Pass treatment under a new name of Fast Lane Ultimate.

My biggest gripe is that we have to show our pass on our phones at the line, but then there’s nowhere to store your phone once you’re in line. Won’t this result in more lost phones on rides?

 

[MrBradferd]

Yea hows this gonna work lol I go up to the line person scan my thing then go back to get a locker and then back to the line person hoping they remember they even scanned me?

This shit feels like its a way to force people to bring phones in so they buy lockers

 

[Mike541x]

The irony of parks enforcing no loose articles on rides, yet making us bring loose articles on rides to use their perks. And there is no way in hell am I leaving my phone by itself in the storage bin (of course Twisted Timbers lockers are an exception). Granted I usually wear my basketball shorts or my sweatpants with zipper pockets, but it's still seems like and inconvenience. It's much more convenient to just scan your barcode at a giftshop, get your wristband and calling it a day.

 

[JohnKell]

I have been able to use my Apple Watch for this. Hopefully nothing changes.

 

[AmyUD06]

Yeah, this is dumb. Legacy-Cedar's system was so much better.

 

[Zachary]

I'm so confused as to why Six Flags would make this decision. The Six Flags system has to cost WAY more to run than simple little slips of paper and wristbands. Do they really expect to make that much more off of single-ride FastLanes? Not to mention they had already worked out how to implement single-ride FastLanes for in-demand attractions under the old system...

And like others have said, logistically, it's an absolute nightmare. Never know what to do with my phone, the site will often be out of sync with what's happening on the ground (claiming rides are open that are closed or the other way around), and sometimes rides are just seemingly arbitrarily "Sold Out" of reservations.

It's a WAY worse system from a guest experience point of view, it's a WAY worse system operationally, and it has to be a WAY more costly system to implement and maintain.

Seriously baffling.

 

[amperedragon]

I strongly suspect this is part of Six Flags's plan to transition to having all of their products be app-based. Physical admission media has already been retired at all legacy Cedar Fair parks and some legacy Six Flags properties (with the rest transitioning out over the next year), and at least at my local Six Flags park (Knott's Berry Farm, which still uses the wristband Fast Lane), they've stopped issuing paper tickets for single-use Fast Lane and instead require a pass scan at the station. My assumption is we'll be seeing that rolling out at other parks once they open for the season.

As for using this system, I'll definitely acknowledge that it has downsides, but in my experience I've actually enjoyed the results of Flash Pass more than Fast Lane when I've used both systems. The biggest issue with Fast Lane is the unlimited usage wristbands can easily cause Fast Lane lines to reach 30-45 minutes on more popular rides, and when you're spending triple digits for a day of usage it's frustrating to be saving less than half of the wait time of the normal queue. By comparison, even on the busiest days I've rarely had to wait more than 10 minutes at the attraction itself using the Flash Pass system as the return times spread out arrivals, and especially with the top tier my next ride has generally been ready to board by the time I exited the current attraction and walked across the park.

 

[MrBradferd]

How does this work for unlimited re rides? When I was at scarowinds and had the wrist band fury had like an hour+ wait and I was just marathoning over and over with almost no wait. Can I not do that with this? Ill have to go sit somewhere and wait 5 or 10min?

 

[numberonetumbilidefender]

Assuming this is the same as flash pass there's 3 tiers you can buy.
Top tier - unlimited instant access to rides, just scan in and get on, basically legacy fast lane
Mid tier - let's you virtually queue for a ride with a 50% wait time. make reservation in the app, once half the posted wait has past you can scan into the fast lane entrance and get on.
Bottom tier - just virtual queue. make a reservation in the app, once the posted wait time has past you can enter the fast lane entrance.
the advantage of the cheaper one comes in the ability to do other stuff while you wait, grab food, shop, hit some rides in the normal queue, etc

 

[DE_Creative]

How does this work for unlimited re rides? When I was at scarowinds and had the wrist band fury had like an hour+ wait and I was just marathoning over and over with almost no wait. Can I not do that with this? Ill have to go sit somewhere and wait 5 or 10min?

No, you can’t. Which is honestly exactly why we’re praising the demise of that particular part of the system. If you bought it, it was bullshit having to wait 45 minutes for the fast lane queue on busy days, let alone the regular one, and if you didn’t buy it it was bullshit watching the same people pass by you and ride 8 times before you get a single ride in

 

[CoasterBroCam]

Honestly yeah I’m pretty glad this is being put in place bc it seems very similar to Disney's old fast pass system, which was pretty great just having a return time, and coming back.

 

[Zachary]

Honestly yeah I’m pretty glad this is being put in place bc it seems very similar to Disney's old fast pass system, which was pretty great just having a return time, and coming back.

Just wait until you actually have to use the clunky web portal.

Hopefully it will be properly integrated into the new app...?

 

[MrBradferd]

So how long is a virtural fast lane on a ride with only a 20 or so min wait then? If i still have to wait atleast 5 or 10min to get my reride then it doesnt seem worth the money if I can't lap a ride over and over. If the line is an hour sure thays fine waiting 10min or so but on a slower day and i decided to spend money on a pass I should 100% be able to lap that freely with 0 wait. I got 0 problem with watching others do that to

 

[numberonetumbilidefender]

So how long is a virtural fast lane on a ride with only a 20 or so min wait then?

it's a tiered system so it depends how much you pay
highest tier - instant, might have a small wait on hour plus lines
mid tier - half of wait time, so 10 minutes
lowest tier - full wait time, so 20 minutes

 

[MrBradferd]

it's a tiered system so it depends how much you pay
highest tier - instant, might have a small wait on hour plus lines
mid tier - half of wait time, so 10 minutes
lowest tier - full wait time, so 20 minutes

I thought there was only going to be 2 tiers

 

[AmyUD06]

it's a tiered system so it depends how much you pay
highest tier - instant, might have a small wait on hour plus lines
mid tier - half of wait time, so 10 minutes
lowest tier - full wait time, so 20 minutes

That's what it was when it was Legacy-Six's "Flash Pass." I'm not seeing any evidence that the new system will have three tiers; all we can infer so far is at least two, and we don't know how long they'll delay your return time.

 

[warfelg]

 

[Great Adventurer]

Very interesting that some legacy CF properties will be going backwards, in a sense. I do prefer a wristband system overall. Fast Lane being phone-based is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, from a GAdv perspective, I never had a problem with the Flash Pass system. Whether one could board immediately or had to wait a little depended on the standard queue, and I found it very fair for both users and those in the regular line. Since I only utilized singular skip-the-line passes, I more so used the reservation system as a reference for wait times, and it was always surprisingly accurate (mileage can vary on that, of course).

The downsides are plentiful though, and the locker question is a big one. Great Adventure has an odd mix of smaller "Free" locker banks for Flash Pass users at no loose article rides like JDC (and previously Kingda Ka), but for rides where loose articles are permitted, you're on your own. That policy bit me at Magic Mountain; I had 3 single-use passes that would have been very helpful, but my phone shorted out on me early in the day from an internal component presumably getting jostled loose on X2 (no exterior damage). The Flash Pass employees basically told me I was out of luck, and asked if I could use another person's phone for it. With all the 2 Factor Authentication stuff these days, I could not.

It was a real bummer. I only got to do 2 other rides that day: Scream!, and a ride over to the phone store for a temporary replacement.

 

[SixFlagsIssues]

I think it should be a combination of phone and wristband. You should be able to reserve a ride and then use your wristband to get into the ride queue, seems like the most sensible way if they're stuck on using phones.

 

[amperedragon]

So how long is a virtural fast lane on a ride with only a 20 or so min wait then? If i still have to wait atleast 5 or 10min to get my reride then it doesnt seem worth the money if I can't lap a ride over and over. If the line is an hour sure thays fine waiting 10min or so but on a slower day and i decided to spend money on a pass I should 100% be able to lap that freely with 0 wait. I got 0 problem with watching others do that to

Judging from the parks that have already gone live, it looks like there are two tiers with this new system:

Reserve: You join a virtual queue equal to the current waiting time of the attraction and are free to do other things while you wait, then once you are called you can head to the attraction and enter through the Fast Lane line. With this level, if the line was 20 minutes, you'd have to wait 20 minutes from reserving until you're able to ride.

Ultimate: You wait 10% of the posted wait time, which would mean if the line was 20 minutes, you'd be allowed to enter in 2 minutes. Because you can reserve your next attraction after scanning in, this ends up being negligible in most cases as by the time you ride and walk to the next ride you'll typically be able to enter immediately.

Looking at SFMM's page for pricing examples, the daily price for Reserve is $50-70 and the daily price for Ultimate is $100-130. By comparison, Knott's (which uses the wristband system) has $80-130 as their price range. Thus, it seems Ultimate is intended to provide equivalent access to the wristbands, allowing uses to maximize their rides during the day, and Reserve is intended as a more economical product for those who simply don't want to stand in the longer lines. All season pass products get users the Ultimate level, so there's no real loss of value there.