[coasterbruh]

<!--QuoteBegin-carowinds said...+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (carowinds said...)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Finger Scan Grants Pass Entry
Entry into Carowinds is going high-tech. Next month the park begins testing a new biometric admissions system that will use a 3-D finger scan to admit Season Passhholders.

The first group to try out the new system will be Regular Season Passholders (Passes purchased after May . Platinum Season Passholders will not use the system with 2006 Passes.

The new system eliminates the need for Pass processing visits and waiting in line for Pass photos. The finger scan also speeds up entry time and safeguards Passholders from card theft.

At the turnstile, Passholders will scan a barcode on their Pass and insert the first two fingers on their right hand (like a peace sign) into the terminal. The machine scans the fingers and with a positive match, the Passholder may enter.

The biometric admission system is scheduled for a number of tests this Season with the help of Regular Season Passholders. If the Carowinds system performs as desired, the other Parks plan to install the technology next year.[/quote]

I remember scott mentioning something like this during the tour! Sounds exciting!!

[montumax]

So, we're giving the park the finger?

[ncgolfer]

Sounds like the same system Disney is using with their new ticketing system.

[AMartin777]

Barbara and I "experienced" Disney's implementation of this system in January. The statement that it will speed up entry is simply not true. It regularly took multiple attempts for many guests to make it through. I was not impressed. :huh:

[coasterbruh]

Sounds like the same system Disney is using with their new ticketing system.

yeah disney uses this system. Its funny because when I was at the parks it was just a sinch to get in but I dont see it being quicker than just flashing your pass.....

[Cephas]

Why does the park need this? I have never noticed problems getting people into the park, the lines for entry are relatively short because security slows everything down.

The ticket lines are really long sometimes though.

[coasterbruh]

^^ they are doint this to cut back on season pass fraud. when was the last time the person at the entrance actually looked at your pass to see if it was you?

[KenB]

I went to MGM / Epcot / Magic Kingdom last week (along with Universal Studios / IOA / Busch Gardens AND Seaworld)

I used basically this same system at all the Disney parks with my 2-day parkhopper and it seemed to be working pretty well then. I never had any problems with it and only saw a few holdups ahead of me. It isn't faster than them scanning your ticket, however. It might work somewhat better for passholders who will figure out what to do after a few times.

This kind of system makes more sense for the Orlando parks, where they have a lot of multi-day tickets and parkhopping that could lead to some misuse. Not sure it's really needed at somewhere like Carowinds for season passes, though.

One problem might arise if they install these at a few of the entrance lines and not all of them. That would create a "season pass line" and a "regular ticket line". While that sounds good for us season ticket owners, having witnessed this kind of seperation at SFOG and some other parks over the years it can be a REAL pain at park opening due to the amount of season ticket holders vs. regular ticket holders. Later in the day an SP only line can be quicker, but it can be quite backed up at opening.

KenB

P.S. Working on a trip report for my little adventure - let's just say it rocked I hadn't done IOA before, and hadn't been to Disney in about 20 years. I got lots of new rides, AND got much better rides on Kraken, Montu and Gwazi than I had back in 2001. Last but not least I got to see my favorite steel coaster (KUMBA!) again - and even with all I've been on since I rode it last, it remained my #1.

[Jay]

Damn Ken that sounds pretty awesome.. hope you can get those trip reports (and hopefully lots of pictures ) up soon.. just make sure you post links here.

[Cephas]

^^ they are doint this to cut back on season pass fraud. when was the last time the person at the entrance actually looked at your pass to see if it was you?

I wonder how many cases of season pass fraud they have per year? I just can't imagine why carowinds would spend thousands of dollars just to correct these few instances. Wouldn't it just be cheaper to like give people new cards or something? Can carowinds void an account the way that credit card companies can?

BTW, were comin up on 10,000 posts in the carowinds disscusion forum...

[Jonathan]

^ That's exactly what I was thinking. They already have it set so that you can only use your season pass once a day, so I doubt that season pass fraud is that rampant. Maybe the company isn't charging them anything since it's just a test run.

[Dukeis#1]

I agree with the above comments. This kind of seems like an odd thing to invest in. I don't think there are any problems with the current season pass cards, and it seems like sticking with the current system would be more efficient than getting all this new stuff up and running.

Like the saying, "If it's not broke, don't fix it".

I personally think the park keeping guest finger prints in its computer system is creepy.

:rolleyes:

[coasterbruh]

I understand what you guys are saying but season pass theft is a little different from season pass fraud. its not that hard for me to give my friend who is going to the park that weekend my season pass to use and save pratically 50.00 on a ticket. As I mention earlier, the employees at the gates dont check the picture on the pass like they should (I even scan my own pass!). So I think the park is trying to eliminate that part of it. So lets think about it like this lets say if season pass holders makes up 60% of the people who attend the park each year and 10% of season pass holders someone else useing their pass...still following me. Now, lets say 1,000,000 people attended the park, so 100,000 of those pass holders weren't pass holders. So the park would loose like aprox. 5,000,000.00 dollars just in admission alone if the admission was 50.00 per person.

So I can understand why the park is doing this. They arent doing away w/ the passes just making sure they are getting what they should get, and thats the money!! B)

[CoasterChris]

There's a cheaper way around that. Tell the dumb attendents at the gate to start looking at the photos on the passes.

This is not a good idea for the park IMO and will greatly slow down lines getting in. Just something else for our guest to complain about.

The finger thing is not all that good. When i went to Disney there were about 50 times people in line in front of me had to scan their fingers about 10 times for it to finally accept it.

Not a good idea is all i'm saying.

[bgwfreak]

I guess you can call me paranoid, but I personally don't want Carowinds knowing what my fingerprint is.

Just too much of a big brother thing to me.

The cards work fine, leave the system alone IMO.