Was I just unlucky with Queue Times?

[LeeP]

So I went to Thorpe yesterday and found the queue times to be massively unreliable - some queue times showed 30 minutes but we queued for 10 minutes and some rides said 30 minutes and we queued for over an hour, I don't think there was a single ride with accurate an accurate queue time which made it really difficult to plan our day. Is this a normal occurrence or was I just unlucky on that particular day?

[pluk]

Normal, sadly. There was a new queue board system installed this year and I've never seen it work properly, I don't know why they find this so hard but they don't seem to be able to get it right, leading to accusations of exaggerated queue times to boost fastrack sales. Unusual to find a queue board showing a time shorter than it really is, normally the other way round only unless the ride breaks down.

They need a turnstyle in and turnstyle out to wirk out the queue time ala Disney. Simple!

[James_C]

Once you become a seasoned fanboy...you will know how long a queue is by simply looking at the length

[Marc]

They have setup some cameras in the Stealth queue line, it looks like they count the people entering the normal queue / fastrack queue and then theres one to count at the exit also.

I'm guessing this could be to do with trying to get more reliable queue times?

[Benin]

To be fair, a LOT of parks over-exaggerate queuetimes, for various reasons, but more commonly it's down to making people think that if they queue for a less amount of time than advertised they're getting more value out of their day...

Not too sure how cameras facing the entrance/exit of rides will help create reliable queuetimes though...

[planenut]

Not too sure how cameras facing the entrance/exit of rides will help create reliable queuetimes though...

and it's dependent on who's monitoring it and for what purposes.

[Marc]

They are placed looking straight down on the queue lines so I guess they will be able to do some sort of count of people entering.

[Benin]

Who will be? The ride hosts or central control?

Considering the effects of Fastrack on a regular queue, I'm not sure how the use of cameras will help queues (aside from maybe reducing queue-jumping, which is always a good thing)...

[Marc]

By the looks of it some automated system. It also has one above fastrack so they can count the amount of fastrack guests in the queue.

I guess its some sort of trial at the moment

[Merry-go-girl]

Once you become a seasoned fanboy...you will know how long a queue is by simply looking at the length

Yep. Queue length + car capacity - cars running - batching performance = time for lunch.

[Fred]

They are placed looking straight down on the queue lines so I guess they will be able to do some sort of count of people entering.

Place to look down girls tops!!

Not complaining.

[J.S217]

FAST TRACK=LONGER QUEUES BUT WORST OF ALL IS WHEN FAST TRACK IS RUN POORLY Cough The Swarm Cough Fast track is over sold which is Horrible creating queues that are 70mins-100mins

[EC!]

FAST TRACK=LONGER QUEUES BUT WORST OF ALL IS WHEN FAST TRACK IS RUN POORLY Cough The Swarm Cough Fast track is over sold which is Horrible creating queues that are 70mins-100mins

God that was torture today, I think it nearly got to 2 hours, me and jack both considered leaving the queue we were in the exact same spot for 45-50 odd minutes while they just let fasttrack and backwards on, UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!

[Han30]

I've never really had a problem or issues with people using Fasttrack - until Saturday. Swarm forwards was advertised as a 70min wait.....70mins my ass. Not only were we followed by wasps (striped buggers) but were stuck in the same place for what seemed like eternity. Had I realised beforehand how bad it was I wouldn't have bothered - I could have cheerfully slapped all the fast trackers in the face (not that I am violent) - either they had oversold fast track that day or were batching very slowly. Frustration doesn't even come close to how it felt being stuck in the same spot for chuffin ages

But I guess all the while people are willing to pay to get on a ride quicker they are going to continue taking money from members of the public - they must make a fortune from it. I personally think it takes the pee and would never pay to get fast track - it costs enough for other stuff at theme parks let alone to get on a ride slightly quicker