Queue Management

[Guest]

Its organized better at DLR than at WDW. DL Fastpass you can grab a fastpass for an e-ticket with a long line and go ride Mr Toad/Peter Pan/Jungle Cruise or whatever without having to worry about dealing with a large Fastpass integration because those rides dont use them, go back and ride your FastPass ride, repeat. At MK Peter Pan and Jungle Cruise both have FastPass so the standbys suck, making the system pointless.

[Capitalize]

I prefer Universal's Express Pass, it's expensive, but you get what you pay for.

The problem with the Disney system is that it's free, and too many people use it, and basically it isn't getting you in a ride faster.

 

Totally disgaree, WDW's Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain I walk up and get a pass first thing I come up to the rides and rather then wait 60+ minutes I come back 3-4 hours later and get on in 10 minutes. Good stuff.

 

I like the Disney system best. Six Flags pisses me off the most.

 

Cedar Point used to have a good system. Disneyland, too. It was called "capacity" or something, I think.

 

Virtual queues are the devil. Unfortunately, people focus on how they help avoid the long lines, and not the fact that they help create the long lines.

 

The parks can and should be able to do as they want, of course. They're private businesses. But let me leave you with this thought: If a park now has to choose between adding a train to reduce the line, or keeping it long in order to sell "skip the line" passes, which one do you think more parks will opt for?

 

+1, you make a lot of good points. I refuse to give Six Flags the extra cash for a QBot, and everytime I go to the park the lines get worse because there are more and more people using the QBots.

[Sunfire]

At my home park (and job) CGA, there is no queue management system. Basically, everyone has to wait in the lines. There is no standby-fastpass, just regular queues. Unless you come on a busy day such as July 4th, or the day of a big concert, Weekend lines shouldn't be more than 30-40 minutes for the most popular rides. Weekdays are not crowded at all, with most rides having 10 min. or less waits.

 

However, for disabled guests, you can obtain a "Special Access Boarding Pass" which allows you to enter the ride through the exit. Here's the catch: if the line is less than 30 minutes, the ride op lets you on at that time. But if it is more than 30 minutes, the op will give you a return time (sort of like fastpass). So when the disabled person gets on the ride, they get to pick their seat (usually the front on coasters). What angers me, is that many people that have these disabled passes, don't appear to be disabled at all. Many of them are able bodied, and don't seem to have any mental disabilites, but that is another story.

 

Other than the disabled policy, all other guests wait in the line, so the only way we can shorten the wait times is to have good throughput.

[Electerik]

You can have your theories that refute mine, but I feel that I am smart enough to realize how much FastPass enhanced my enjoyment of my four days at the DLR this past March...and I didn't "perceive" that it helped me. It actually did...

 

I don't have "theories," I have math. You have "feelings." So, really, we're not even speaking the same language.

 

But I'm glad you had a good time at Disneyland.

 

I'll be at Holiday World, and we'll both be happy.

[JDo217]

I try to avoid using the flash pass systems but I don't completely hate it either. But it's just wrong when >50% of a roller coaster train is loaded with flash pass users. I think the flash pass system really comes down to how the park chooses to manage it.

[sam06pr]

Well Disney seems to work best!

[AmyUD06]

Their highest profile park is the only park at which the "Cedar Fair" formula makes any sort of sense. The majority of their parks that I have been to DO NOT run like Cedar Point. And even then again, I queued 45 minutes for both Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster. Comparibly, with my Gold Q-Bot, I bypassed a 90 minute queue for El Toro and got on in 8 minutes, Kingda Ka in 4.

-Jahan

 

I visited four of them this summer. Granted, I visited Cedar Point on a Tuesday and Thursday and King's Island on a Wednesday, which mean lines will be shorter, but that doesn't impact my observations on operations. At Cedar Point, trains were being dispatched often before the previous one even hit the final brake run (so man ops seem to forget that a train can leave the station before the previous one clears the MCBR, so long as it won't crest the lift hill before that happens), opening gates as the previous passengers were getting out (not after they all leave the station as at many SF parks), helping people put their bags/drinks in the stoage bins, etc. I could've finished the entire park in one day with time to spare if I didn't take time for sitting down to eat, smoke breaks, and photos.

 

King's Island had some pretty low attendance the day I was there, but still operations were very efficient just like at CP, so much that every ride (except Firehawk and Flight of Fear) would've been walk-ons if I didn't want front or back row. Finished EVERY thrill ride in 6 hours.

 

I visited King's Dominion on a busy Friday with great weather and a decently sized crowd. The only ride I had to wait more than 10 minutes for was Volcano, which has inherently slow operations due to limited train size and the lack of a MCBR.

 

I visited Dorney Park on a very busy Sunday. Walked through the entrance gates at 10:45 and finished every coaster, the bumper cars, and many other rides by 2:00PM when we crossed to the water park. There, I didn't wait more than 10 minutes for any slide (except the Mat Racer) and did the entire park (including a 10-ride marathon on Riptide) by 7:00 PM. Again, 6 hours for nearly all adult rides in the dry park and every slide in the water park, on a busy weekend day.

 

Conversely, I went to Six Flags America on a not-so-busy Sunday and met with one-train operations (or cycling so slow it might as well have been one-train) throughout the park and no less than a 30 minute wait for every coaster. Batwing would've been 15 minutes, for back row even, except my group was jumped by Flash-Passers 8 trains in a row.

 

On each of my visits to Six Flags Great Adventure this summer, regardless if it was a weekday or weekend, I faced at least a 45 minute wait for everything except Rolling Thunder and Mine Train. Of course, here the blame is shared between Flash Pass, the no-articles-in-the-station policy, and slower operations.

 

Don't even get me started on the Six Flags Great Adventure's "VIP Tour" system where I waited four full cycles while the same large group rode Kingda Ka, in the front two rows, on all four trains, over and over.

 

Don't get me wrong, I could easily afford SFGA's Q-Bot prices, or even the VIP tours one or twice a year. However, after spending X amount of dollars to get in the park and Y amount of dollars on necessary hydration, I don't feel I should have to pay Z amount extra just to be able to ride every coaster (pretty much all there is for an adult to do there) in the park in one day when I see that other parks can and actually do much better.

 

Food and parking is expensive at nearly any park you go to and is a given, but between SF's entrance prices and the Flash Pass system, I cannot see how anyone can claim that Cedar Fair runs equal or worse parks.

 

Yes, Flash-Pass and the like get you past longer lines. But, if the reason the lines are long is the line-skip system, then management is the only one to blame.

[slasher x]

I realize this is my first post so be kind, but I honestly think the best queue management is at Universal Orlando.

 

They only sell a limited number of express passes per day based on park attendance. Then there are the folks that stay in the on-site hotels which get the express privileges with their room keys.

 

The ride attendants are very conscience about the lines and flow for both the stand by queue and the express. Express queue's are let through a few groups at a time, but are capped at usually around 10 to 12 riders per cycle, and then the stand by queue is ushered through. The system seems to work very efficiently.

 

The peak season tends to draw longer wait times but I have never seen a wait longer than 60 mins for any attraction in the park. And when the wait is 60 mins for the stand by queue you better bet you are going to wait close to 25-30 minutes in the express lines.

 

Most of the time if you go to the park anytime that is not June or July you are looking at 30 mins or less for any ride in the parks using standby. Many times especially in Sept, Oct, Nov, I find that you can just walk through the queues and get right on even during weekends.

 

On top of that nearly all of the queue's are themed for the ride, are indoors and airconditioned. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part it makes the waiting less mundane to have neat goodies to look at while waiting, and to be cool and not have to deal with the sweaty funk of an outdoor line.

 

All that being said, I wish HHN was run at anywhere near the efficiency of the daytime park operations. Last year at one point the wait for the Nightmare on Elm haunt was over 3 hours. Express pass is the only way to see HHN or spending $$$ and getting the RIP Tour. I think that the parks really should take a look and consider a strategy for improved effiecency for this event.

 

I havent been to a Six Flags in over a decade, and after hearing about the price and hassle of their systems in this thread, I will probably never go again unless something is done about it, so thanks for the information.