Wait Time Tracking

[fuerstjh]

Hello everyone. This is indeed my first post, but I've frequented themeparkreview for some time now. The reason I came here is to do research for a good website/app that tracks ride wait times at parks which don't have that ability already (like Disney). I've stumbled upon an couple of them but most seem to be defunct or not in use. So I was hoping to start a thread here where we can come together and find out what everyone uses to do this while they are at the parks. I hope one hasn't been created already.. if it has I missed it.

 

Its also a bit of a shameless plug as I'm a software developer by profession. I've attempted to start my own version of this and would love for people to use it and suggest updates. Right now I've only got parks from my home state Cedar Point and Kings Island. However, I'm going to use the park list from themeparkreveiw to slowly start adding more parks over the coming months. If you have any suggestions feel free to PM me or comment through my site.

 

Since this is my first post I will attempt to keep within the rules and keep the link to my site within the signature section.

 

I initially made this post in the "Random, Random, Random" section but feel like it should be here in the parks section. I'm looking for some input from everyone to help me determine if this project is worth perusing.

 

Through some research I've found the most popular "App" was RideHopper and I've also discovered that many parks are starting to add wait times to their official park apps. The reviews for RideHopper were pretty awful on the android side of things so I'm not too confident in using it as a reason to continue or not.

 

So here comes my question. Has anyone used these other apps such as RideHopper before? Did you enjoy the experience (did you submit your wait times)? Do you think you will download and use the parks official app for ride times? Would a one-stop-shop be better for this?

 

Do you even care about wait times while you're at the park? Or you normally have a pre-determined order to the rides and that's how you execute.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

I don't rely on apps, but I do download them before I go and use them to prepare for my trip and to help find things while I'm there. If you've been enough places, you know what kinds of rides usually have the longest waits. Plus the forum gives good information about which ones to go to first. I've never used any apps besides official park apps.

[SFOG1991]

I wish I could see Six Flags wait times before deciding whether or not to go to the park (SFOG is a 40 minute drive and I can go anytime with my season pass). Six Flags has an app and includes wait times but you have to be in the park for it to function, which drives me crazy. I usually just decide not to go in case it is busy since Six Flags prevents me from knowing that information.

 

That being said, I wish there was a popular app that people actually used so all park wait times were available. I just don't think the supply of users willing to provide wait times exists in the "ride wait time" market or social platform (whatever it would be considered). There is likely a reason any app like this has failed.

[fuerstjh]

I wish I could see Six Flags wait times before deciding whether or not to go to the park (SFOG is a 40 minute drive and I can go anytime with my season pass). Six Flags has an app and includes wait times but you have to be in the park for it to function, which drives me crazy. I usually just decide not to go in case it is busy since Six Flags prevents me from knowing that information.

 

That being said, I wish there was a popular app that people actually used so all park wait times were available. I just don't think the supply of users willing to provide wait times exists in the "ride wait time" market or social platform (whatever it would be considered). There is likely a reason any app like this has failed.

 

Do you happen to know how they obtain the wait time information? Is it also done via user submissions or do the park staff handle it in the same way the static signs at the ride entrance are handled?

[SFOG1991]

I wish I could see Six Flags wait times before deciding whether or not to go to the park (SFOG is a 40 minute drive and I can go anytime with my season pass). Six Flags has an app and includes wait times but you have to be in the park for it to function, which drives me crazy. I usually just decide not to go in case it is busy since Six Flags prevents me from knowing that information.

 

That being said, I wish there was a popular app that people actually used so all park wait times were available. I just don't think the supply of users willing to provide wait times exists in the "ride wait time" market or social platform (whatever it would be considered). There is likely a reason any app like this has failed.

 

Do you happen to know how they obtain the wait time information? Is it also done via user submissions or do the park staff handle it in the same way the static signs at the ride entrance are handled?

I think they just have ride ops report an approximation based on line length at a few points during the day, not sure. It isn't very accurate but overall it can give you an idea of how busy the park is in general.

[fuerstjh]

I wish I could see Six Flags wait times before deciding whether or not to go to the park (SFOG is a 40 minute drive and I can go anytime with my season pass). Six Flags has an app and includes wait times but you have to be in the park for it to function, which drives me crazy. I usually just decide not to go in case it is busy since Six Flags prevents me from knowing that information.

 

That being said, I wish there was a popular app that people actually used so all park wait times were available. I just don't think the supply of users willing to provide wait times exists in the "ride wait time" market or social platform (whatever it would be considered). There is likely a reason any app like this has failed.

 

Hopefully I can make your wish a reality!

 

I was able to locate the API that Cedar Fair's app use to pull the wait time. I have updated my website to pull information from this API. Currently I can get wait time information for Cedar Point, Kings Island, Knotts, and Carowinds. Looks like CF hasn't brought wait times to their other parks yet.

 

I'm going to look into doing this for Six Flags as well. Hopefully I can figure it out sometime next week. In the mean time I'm going to keep pushing forward with CoasterQueue. Maybe now with it backed by park information I can gain enough interest to get a user base going.

[SFOG1991]

If you can find a way to get Six Flags wait times which are not accessible on their app unless you are located in the park to show from any location I would be so on board!!! That would be a dream come true.

[fuerstjh]

If you can find a way to get Six Flags wait times which are not accessible on their app unless you are located in the park to show from any location I would be so on board!!! That would be a dream come true.

 

Its on the docket for my Sunday afternoon. I'll let you know if I get it figured out.

[SFOG1991]

So it's working for Cedar Fair parks (that offer in app wait times) already? I checked out your website and it appears to be working. Really easy to use. If this works for Six Flags it'll change my world in terms of deciding whether or not to go to my local park on any given day.

[QueueTimes]

I've been running queue-times.com for nearly 2 years now, user submitted times are simply not going to work unless there is a reason for a user to update the waits (i.e: money). I just use the parks own data sources, which are updated regularly and tend to be fairly accurate (although you should take them with a pinch of salt). I'll be interested to see what data you manage to collect on your site - I'm happy to be proved wrong.

[QueueTimes]

I've been running queue-times.com for nearly 2 years now, user submitted times are simply not going to work unless there is a reason for a user to update the waits (i.e: money). I just use the parks own data sources, which are updated regularly and tend to be fairly accurate (although you should take them with a pinch of salt). I'll be interested to see what data you manage to collect on your site - I'm happy to be proved wrong.

[fuerstjh]

So it's working for Cedar Fair parks (that offer in app wait times) already? I checked out your website and it appears to be working. Really easy to use. If this works for Six Flags it'll change my world in terms of deciding whether or not to go to my local park on any given day.

 

 

Correct. The cedar fair parks which currently have in-app wait times now have the same data feeding my website. That feature went live late last night.

[Midgetman82]

I wouldn't be surprised if Six Flags enters the information in manually. Another good thing to also have would be "average wait times" and list weekends/weekdays. This would be especially useful for parks with no system for prior wait time info, or if there's no current data.

[TheDarkMaxim]

If you have an android device, enable mock locations under developer settings. Then download a fake location setting app. You can then set your location to a SF park, and viola the app thinks you're at the park.

[SFOG1991]

If you have an android device, enable mock locations under developer settings. Then download a fake location setting app. You can then set your location to a SF park, and viola the app thinks you're at the park.

Is there any way to do this on an iPhone?

[fuerstjh]

If you have an android device, enable mock locations under developer settings. Then download a fake location setting app. You can then set your location to a SF park, and viola the app thinks you're at the park.

 

OR you can go to CoasterQueue and save yourself the hassle of downloading an additional app and spoofing the location!

 

Six flags data pulling went live yesterday. There may be a couple small bugs I will need to work in the next few days, but overall things seem to be working. Not all the six flags parks are open yet, so this weekend will be the real test to see if all the data is coming through.

[SFOG1991]

Just checked it out! So glad to finally have some insight into wait times when trying to decide whether or not I want to go to my local park. Thanks!

[fuerstjh]

Just checked it out! So glad to finally have some insight into wait times when trying to decide whether or not I want to go to my local park. Thanks!

 

Glad to help. Now just spread the word!!

[fuerstjh]

If anyone is still following this thread another update was made to CoasterQueue which allows users to view historical averages on a 'day-by-day' basis. For now you can select the day of the week and see the average wait times across all Mondays/Tuesdays etc. You have to go into the ride details to view it though. This is what it looks like for Millenium Force.

 

The data driving this is a bit limited at the moment so the times may not be a true reflection. As time goes on they should get better.

[RollerManic]

It would be really nest to overlay many of those graphs and figure out the best strategdy for a park on any day of the week... but I'm too lazy.

[zanson]

fuerstjh thanks for this, i couldnt even get the six flags app to report times in the park the other night.

 

I am a Dev/UI Designer as well, do you have a github setup to help improve the site? would also love to play with the data collected and get better stats for wait times and such based of time of year and best rotation of rides.

[A.J.]

Smartphone beacons. One at the queue entrance, one at the loading platform. Start time / end time triggered when a person's phone gets so close to the beacon.

[Six Flags Haiti]

If anyone is still following this thread another update was made to CoasterQueue which allows users to view historical averages on a 'day-by-day' basis. For now you can select the day of the week and see the average wait times across all Mondays/Tuesdays etc. You have to go into the ride details to view it though. This is what it looks like for Millenium Force.

 

The data driving this is a bit limited at the moment so the times may not be a true reflection. As time goes on they should get better.

 

First off, this is amazing and should be a great tool for the coaster community, especially a whore like myself who will try and fly in and out of a city on the same day to get stuff done.

 

Just to try and push the envelope, are you able to get a lens on date, or even month? A Tuesday at the start of the season in May will be way different from say, July 5th. As an analyst in real life I would love to be able to slice the data that way.

[fuerstjh]

If anyone is still following this thread another update was made to CoasterQueue which allows users to view historical averages on a 'day-by-day' basis. For now you can select the day of the week and see the average wait times across all Mondays/Tuesdays etc. You have to go into the ride details to view it though. This is what it looks like for Millenium Force.

 

The data driving this is a bit limited at the moment so the times may not be a true reflection. As time goes on they should get better.

 

First off, this is amazing and should be a great tool for the coaster community, especially a whore like myself who will try and fly in and out of a city on the same day to get stuff done.

 

Just to try and push the envelope, are you able to get a lens on date, or even month? A Tuesday at the start of the season in May will be way different from say, July 5th. As an analyst in real life I would love to be able to slice the data that way.

 

That is my eventual goal but I've only just started collecting data. Once I get a season under my belt I can start building more detailed data slicing. I also had a suggestion to pair this up with weather data. The "dream" would be an interface where a user could input some sort of date range like Monday, July, Sunny and get a rough idea of what the wait breakdown would be.

[fuerstjh]

Smartphone beacons. One at the queue entrance, one at the loading platform. Start time / end time triggered when a person's phone gets so close to the beacon.

 

I've had many thoughts along that line. The only issue is for any of that you really need the parks permission to set them up and the phone will need a specific app to detect the beacon. Really IMO the better solution would be an 2 arduino boards with IR distance sensors. Once across the queue entrance to track visitor entries. The second to detect a train as it leaves the station. You could then get a rough estimate of the input vs output of people. This would really give you a much better 'live' view of the system vs an estimate based on how long the line is.