Benin

Not that I've been reading much up on it to be quite honest, but I was referring to their interactive queue systems seen on Dumbo, Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid and soon to be on Big Thunder Mountain... Ways that make you queue but at the same time keeping your interest piqued (or in the case of Dumbo, letting the kids run around a play area for ages)... Isn't Fastpass+ meant to be uber expensive (like Platinum style Fastrack here?), I need to actually fully read up on it as I have no real idea as to what the system is planning on entailing in full because, well, I just haven't given a damn about it... Although planning your rides months in advance is slightly better than on the day as more time to research and what-not... I still think such limitations to guest choice as to their day out can be slightly detrimental to experience... Problem is with a lot of parks these days (Disney included) is that it's all a lot more focused on the income side of thing at the expense of guest experience...

There is of course still the issue of really limiting guests to what they actually are able to ride at specific times, which is more of an issue unless there is a massive change in stuff to do aside from actually riding or queuing like it is now... On a personal level, that's my main thing... I don't want to have to be that selective of what rides I can do at certain times of the day, it does result in an excessive level of planning that could easily result in confused and annoyed guests... There are ways of making queuing 'fun', although for promoting the whole "guests spend more out of queues" in the Disney style model this works best without removing Fastrack in it's current guise... Of course, in general, queues do move faster without Fastrack...

I look forward to having situations like below if it's brought out across all rides... "Let's go on Swarm, ok booked for 13:30, what can we do beforehand? Oh, everything is only available after 14:00, what can we do for 2 hours?"

Ahhh, the good old fashioned "use any barcode to create Fastrack tickets" abuse of the system, I approve of this...

Know what else is a simple concept? Standing one behind the other in a physical line waiting for your turn... So I turn up for opening, I want to go straight to Swarm but don't know about this system... I go to the entrance but get turned away because I don't have a slot... Assuming I lack a Cloud account or WiFi access, I now have to queue to get a slot, missing a chance to get a big ride out the way... Alternatively, I arrive late, what if there are no slots remaining for the rest of the day? How does restricting access to a ride like that benefit the guest? Then it goes onto every ride... Now I have to think what ride to 'queue' for so much more than just pointing to one and riding it... That sounds exciting, planning my ride list in advance to ensure maximum ride count... Sure the average guest will REALLY love that on their single trip of the year... Absolutely turd idea now that I've spent some of my trip home thinking over it...

Making the Swarm queue more confusing then... Paper tickets, wifi, what happened to just basic queues? Already sounding like it's going wrong as well... I can see what they're trying to do, but it just doesn't seem needed and really open for it going tits up regularly...

How deliciously pointless is that? I know no-one bothers turning up in between Scarefest and Fireworks, but, really? Lol...

First week of Scarefest back to 9pm close... You can all fill in your Alton Towers decision U-Turn square on your Bingo boards... Pluk's trip however is still not Scarefesty...

Flailing and panic around wasps actually makes things worse... They're not interested in humans unless angry, and most of the time in the park they're just after sweeties, so if they come near you, ignore them...

They don't seem to realise that there is a time and place for guest interaction on rides... It's good to have it, but not on the platform to the detriment of throughputs... Remember seeing an empty car go through the entire station because the batcher was locked in discussion with guests over what rides they'd done that day...

It's weird how World's End just, vanished from cinemas... Prince Charles Cinema in London is doing a Cornetto Trilogy marathon in October for people's information... Elsewhere, the other Marvel team film, Guardians of the Galaxy had a leaked trailer the other day, which has since vanished, but has left us with this gif... SO MUCH HYPE!

I remember the days when people had to keep their shoes on (or with them)... I miss those days... Such good times to platform <3

You've only cried at Monsters Inc? You clearly, have no heart or haven't watched Lion King or Up...

Whether or not that gives you 100% will no doubt be based on the other games... Least it's not easy to win...

By being a boss (like me, I managed to get 100%, the final game has a distinct nack to it)...

New series of games on the Smiler mini-site (I forgot that even existed) to piss about on... If you get 100% you can enter a draw to win 1 Smiler Fastrack, woooooo! 50 a week for a few weeks it seems... http://www.altontowers.com/advocatetest/

It'll be in German though, so ATMOSPHERIC SHOUTING <3<3 Doubt it from that angle, lift hill is going the opposite direction to that drop, reckon it's gonna be an Immmmelmann there... Though I wouldn't rule that idea out because who needs originality?

Isn't it still shut? I do love Slammer's annual downtime <3

Just because this is an official fansite shouldn't mean we can't pick apart the failings of a park (this goes for ANY official fansite)...

Problem for having an outdoor section is literally WHERE would it go? You've got Vampire one side, the park boundary another and the zoo surrounding the lift/finale... Without serious modification to the surrounding area, an outdoor section on Bubbles (in the current location) isn't viable...

The problem is the majority of the building sits on top of Vampire's station/brakes/maintenance shed... The best thing? Gut it and start afresh, the ride system is fine, just the theming is horrid...

They couldn't even get a front row queue to work properly, a back row one was never going to work... Baggage drops are useful for the most part, but it just doesn't work with Swarm for SOME reason? Maybe it's because you get people coming from two different directions is my guess... It's quite easily the worst one in any park that has it which is weird... Should've just done a Raptor and had bag boxes by the station exit... Simple, cheap and effective...

Falls is the only ride on park to break 1000pph... Back in the day, 3 train Vampire could also do this... I can't say what 5 train Tomb is though, close, but I think not beyond 1000pph... The park needs more rides that reach this...

Hey, you know what hasn't been in the news recently? LEGOLAND!! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2391102/Families-thrown-Legoland-brawl-erupts-parents-queuing-pirate-ship-ride-children-theme-park.html Classy parents... Bet you one of the kids was called Tyler...

Hopefully, once Thorpe make money through avenues such as food and merch (those things families LOVE to buy) they'll realise that the way they sell Fastrack is detrimental to guest experience and limit it a lot more...