Fast Track

[Original]

Moving from the WnW Review there's Fast Track.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this the same name MW used at their park as a trial some time ago? Well it now has found a home at WnW, don't know if it has resurfaced back at MW, or if they plan to, or if they plan to introduce it at SW too.

So WnW Fast Track is pay $20 to skip Tornado, Constrictor, AquaLoop, Kamikaze and (correct me if I'm wrong) Black Hole, only once. Its 20 bucks a ride and boy is it popular. Tip: In the morning if the lines are already full don't do these rides because everyone buys Fast Track in the morning and the line will move painfully slow.

So once you have Fast Track, Constrictor and AquaLoop have separate queues. AquaLoop uses the old line for the little AquaLoop slide that used to be there (forget the name) and Constrictor uses the old TC2 entry/line. Black Hole has the Fast Track entry next to the normal entry. As for Kamikaze and Tornado, I can't comment as I didn't ride them.

As people turn up with their Fast Track band (much like Splash Cash) the rides logo is crossed out, preventing them from coming back. The system works as a one for one, one lot from the normal queue, one lot for Fast Track queue.

Rides like Constrictor which don't have the same through put as others, forces a line that starts at the slides entry to easily become a 90min wait as Fast Track people poor through the line. In fact Constrictor's Fast Track line at one point in the morning was nearly at the entry itself, that's how popular the FT Pass became as people who could afford it snapped it up desperate to skip lines that were moving slow due to FT. People would line up see how slow it was going, leave come back with FT which was only making the solution worse and making for a lot of irate people.

Now I could, if I wanted to afford this, but I choose not to, because I hate THIS system. Other systems may work, but from what I saw not this one and it left a sour taste in my mouth after what was a good day.

As I pointed out the other day, a lot of people were angry at this "line skipping" and I don't blame them, I was getting very frustrated as well. for families of that's $100, and its $100 most people don't have!

After finally seeing a system like this in place, haven't yet properly looked at one in a theme park, I will now say I am leaning towards the side of completely disliking them. I felt for the families who couldn't afford a pass like FT have to stand in a long and slow moving queue. We accepted the park would be busy and we would have to wait, but not have to wait extra long for people to skip the queues!

I believe in park, especially when riding rides, everyone should be on an equal footing, not to those who have more money, putting others at a disadvantage of having 30secs of fun down a slide. Just get the operations moving quicker!

What is everyone else's opinion and will it be rolled out across other VRTP's???

[jjuttp]

I don't really think that it would get very far at SW at the moment.......

[casey96]

I agree i absolutely hate the Fast Track System. When they did the trial at movie world, even though it was free, those who missed out on getting the fast track were forced to wait twice as long as usual because they did one train FT and one normal. It was very frustrating waiting in those lines and kind of made everyone a bit more angry. There's nothing worse at a theme park than standing in a long line that only moves slightly every 10 mins. end rant...

[Keegs]

Both Tornado and Kamikaze had their own separate fast track queues that went around the side of the normal ones. What was really annoying is after waiting ages for the Tornado and getting to the front, some people rocked up in the fast track and tried to get the raft I had already been allocated.

[Original]

I'll just add the park also had staff at the front of line directing the one for one traffic, they also seemed to be taking in how many people were using it and the wait times of the FT lines.

[rappa]

Most parks use the pay system which seems to be a proven model overseas. I prefer the Disney system which is free but that seems like it will change soon. What Disney does well is its a line shortening system not skipping. You do still have SOME wait and it's cant be 50/50 or it won't work.

[Gazza]

I don't really have a problem with a pay system, so long as so few people use it that you don't notice...The Busch and Universal parks are a good example of that. But when a large portion of the capacity gets taken up by queue skippers then that grinds a bit.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Gazza

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

• [*]Limit the number of passes available. [*]Have set times when those passes can be used

[S.W24]

From my understanding after enquiring about the system, there is only a limited number of pass sold during the day and the sale process is conducted during different increments of the day to eliminate congested use of passes. I spoke with one of the FT staff members about what they are recording and he said each FT ride staff member counts through the single entries from FT each hour that way an hourly figure can be generated to see how many of the 5 single entries have been used. For instance if you are to sell 100 bands that creates 500 single fast track entries. If at 12pm that number of entries so far only sits at 120 they may hold off a little longer on a re sale of passes until the usage rate gets higher. From the many days i was in park over this summer i was quite pleased with the system and felt it didn't hinder the traditional queue line at all. I know from last summer you could see a queue wait of 1hr and 20mins from slides like black hole and tornado purely because of the high in park attendance. This summer you seen a very similar queue wait maybe if not a little shorter with Constrictor easing the queue waits at some of the older multi person tube attractions. I really think that the time has been put in to make the system work, there is really great permanent signage at all the Fast Track attractions unlike the use of A frames at Movie World, and dedicated queue lines were created and implement. So its good to see that the money has been spent to ensure that such a product is going to work very much like the ones seen in overseas parks. If i was to give one piece of feedback it would be keep the number of Fast Track entries at 5 because if you think about it at $20 for the pass its only $4 per ride! but increase the number of attractions that Fast Track can be used at. This would also help relieve the pressure of Fast Track usage. All in all i think the system is great and works really well in the park.

[rappa]

Great to hear such a positive revue

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Screw it - make it $15 per person, per ride on top of a Q-bot... like they do for X-2

Edited January 20, 2013 by AlexB

[pushbutton]

Fast track is a terrible idea for 2 reasons. First, the whole concept of theme parks is that once you're in, everything is free. Second, why should someone jump a queue just because they have paid more? Totally unfair and very distressing for those who are patiently waiting their turn.

[Reanimated35]

^ If people want to pay more for it, let them. It's not unfair at all. It's giving people who don't like waiting in long lines an option not to. No one is forcing anyone to take it. If you find it distressing that someone has moved further ahead in the line than you, you might need some counselling before returning to a themepark....pretty much anywhere in the world. WnW has Fast Track DW has Q4U Disney has fastpass SF has Flash pass Universal has a VIP thing There's a bunch of parks you'd better cross off your list to visit.

[pushbutton]

Surely we can keep our discussions friendly can't we? It's a bit insulting to tell someone they might need counselling, just because they state their opinion. If your opinion if different from mine that's quite ok by me, and I'm happp to debate things if you want to, or else just agree to disagree (but in a friendly way)! In the spirit of theme parks, I hope this forum can be fun for all of us!

[joz]

I can't think of anything more repulsive then pay to cut systems. I haven't been to WnW this year because of the lack of dive in movies, and I feel as though Fast Track has validated that decision. To think that dive in movies finished in the same year that this system started shows the contempt which Village has for its customers, and probably signals the fastest decline in customer service in the history of the Gold Coast. I'm not saying that to be dramatic either. Sea World may have declined further a couple of years ago (and only now slowly on its' way back), but Wet 'n' Wild has declined much quicker this year. I don't respect someone else profiting by inconveniencing me. I don't care what other extra spending options they introduce, but if it has a negative impact on other guests than it's not something to introduce in a theme park, where the main product your selling is a good feeling.

[T-bone]

First, the whole concept of theme parks is that once you're in, everything is free.

Umm, I thought the concept of theme parks was to provide enjoyment and entertainment to those visiting? Man, if only you were around in the 1950's to tell Walt Disney this, otherwise Disneyland wouldn't have been a failure...

[Inverted]

In my humble opinion its not fair to people who cant afford to pay more to suffer longer waits. I think a good system would be to give everyone on entry a wristband with a barcode. Have 2 lines, One for 1st time riders (scan wristband) and one for 2nd or more times. Preference is given to those who havent ridden the ride that day. This way i know if I pay my entry fee, I would get the best chance of riding every ride in the park without queueing behind someone who has already been on a ride 10 time before that day. If I wish to reride something, I wait behind people who havent ridden that day. If the park cant handle giving everyone in the park at least 1 ride on any given day then they should really rethink the ride capacity of their rides. Just my 2 cents

[pushbutton]

What at a brilliantly simple and innovative solution inverted. I like it! T-bone, as far as I'm aware Disneyland is not a failure. I would say its extremely successful. If your comment was intended as sarcasm, please read my last pos. We're all here to have friendly discussion about a shared interest. Let's do so without having a go at each other!

[Brad2912]

Was certainly sarcastic and pointing to the fact the most successful theme park in the world has a fast pass system that doesn't stop countless millions of people having amazing visits each year. I have never purchased a fast pass at an Gold Coast theme park, and even in my 4 park visits this month in peak season, I have never felt I needed the pass to get the most out of the day, or that I missed out by not getting it If people want to pay to avoid queues, good on them. I don't hold a grudge against them, nor the park for allowing them to do so.

[joz]

You don't mind your inconvenience being a revenue source? Well in that case why don't we evict people who have been waiting for the parade because someone else paid extra? Why not make it so people who paid extra get to eat food off your tray in the restaurant? Hell why not make it that a prerequisite of entry that you are connected to a ball and chain that you can pay a small fee to remove? I'm not against extra revenue sources at all. If they create an awesome place to watch the parade from then I don't care if they charge for it, because it's not taking anything away from my day. But that's not how this system works; these systems ARE taking away from my day. Here's what I'd be totally OK with: Run the rides for an extra hour at the end of the day and allow strictly limited numbers of Guests to buy a wristband where they can ride the ride with virtually no wait. The rides wouldn't have been open so I don't care. See the difference here? You don't mind your inconvenience being a revenue source? Well in that case why don't we evict people who have been waiting for the parade because someone else paid extra? Why not make it so people who paid extra get to eat food off your tray in the restaurant? Hell why not make it that a prerequisite of entry that you are connected to a ball and chain that you can pay a small fee to remove? I'm not against extra revenue sources at all. If they create an awesome place to watch the parade from then I don't care if they charge for it, because it's not taking anything away from my day. But that's not how this system works; these systems ARE taking away from my day. Here's what I'd be totally OK with: Run the rides for an extra hour at the end of the day and allow strictly limited numbers of Guests to buy a wristband where they can ride the ride with virtually no wait. The rides wouldn't have been open so I don't care. See the difference here?

[Brad2912]

Chill dude. If 5-10 people jumping the queue on Tower of Terror winds u up that much maybe just avoid public spaces??

[Reanimated35]

I like how most of the people complaining on here are likely to have VIP passes, which are bloody cheap for what you get, and have the opportunity to visit the park whenever they want to. The target audience for the fast track would be genuine tourists and non frequent visitors. Sure other people would use it too, but so what. Don't most of you live within an hour or so from the park? There's 364 other days in the year (yeah whatever they're closed a couple of days, cbf looking at which) you could simply go back and do the ride you missed out on then when you had to wait an extra 5 minutes in each line.

[joz]

This sounds like another problem which could be solved by using tiered passes

[ads086]

What about a time-limited, limited number of passes. Between 10 and 11 they use Red armbands, 11 til 12 uses Blue, 12 til 1 uses Green, etc. Only issue 20 per hour. If all 20 were sold at the beginning of the hour and those people ran to the same ride, you'd have a maximum of 5 cycles to wait until the regular line started moving again (assuming they got to go ahead of everyone waiting, and not alternating). Those 20 people could go and buy another band again, but they'd have to wait til the next hours' bands went on sale.

[Gazza]

I dont mind fast track systems if they have such small distribution at a high price that you don't notice their impact. Universal Hollywood is a good example of that...I mean if you want to pay a ridiculous amount to skip some lines, be my guest, but when the park only has a handful of rides you ever have to queue for anyway, and they are high capacity, it doesn't bother me. At WnW I'd prefer Constrictor not to be on FastTrak...the capaciy isn't high enough, and the ride is in its maiden season so should be as 'available' as possible....Even SFMM were smart enough to Put Terminator, Green Lantern, X2 (And presumably YOLO coaster) on the platinum flash pass so they don't just get slammed by every man and his dog using a standard flash pass.