Seattle Mariners 2015 FanFest (Photo Gallery And Thoughts)

This was the day, lots of lines. Photo credit: Dan Hughes

As much fun as it was, the length of time in line wasn’t really worth the payoff. Part of the reason the wait is so long for all of the attractions is because of the Express Line feature for season-ticket holders.

That’s where the Disneyland comparison comes in again. Much like the Disney “Fastpass” fans were allowed to head to the front of the line of all of the attractions because they were season-ticket holders.

Look, I know the team wants to recognize and thank these fans. I get it. But, they were already allowed access into FanFest at 9 am for a meet-and-greet with Nelson Cruz. That should be enough. They don’t need to alienate other fans by continuing to kiss the posteriors of the season-ticket holders.

At one point, the line for the zipline ride in right field was three hours long. Really? The event was only five hours long!

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I don’t want to understate the fact that we had a good time, as did many others. The Dugout Dialogue chats were fun and informative. Tom Wilhelmsen danced his funky dance again. Taijuan Walker answered questions about his flashy shoes and there was a lot of great fan interaction.

The future FanFests should feature more of these types of things. More photo ops, more autograph sessions, or at the very least, more players at each session. Fans had to choose one of four sessions and then could exit and re-enter for vouchers to one of the the four sessions at the other three time frames.

In a previous FanFest, one autograph session included Michael Morse, Michael Saunders AND another player (was it Brendan Ryan? I don’t remember). They did combine John Hicks with Alex Jackson, Kivlehan with D.J. Peterson and Julio Cruz with Dave Henderson.

But they could’ve combined Taijuan Walker with James Paxton for example or Wilhelmsen with Charlie Furbush, instead of separating them.

We were able to secure a voucher to see Lloyd McClendon before the day ended, which was a smaller line, due in part to the fact that most people were stuck in other lines around the park.

As always, the staff was extremely friendly and did all they could to try to keep people’s minds off the fact they were in line over and over again. It was a long day – my son fell asleep 20 minutes after we left – but it was still fun.

I think though that if the team doesn’t make some changes for next year, we will either try to come on Sunday and test the lines then – supposedly less busy – or we may just pass all together.