Reserve n Ride

[Glitch]

Surely as a part of this test there should be a day where NO FASTRACK IS SOLD. And so the queue times can be compared and Thorpe can be shown the real impact fastrack has on queue times.

[TPJames]

There should be trials where you can ONLY use reserve n ride, no main queue or fastrack crap. Just reserve n ride by itself. And thorpe actually properly advertise it as most people didn't have a clue what was going on last Saturday until about 5pm when the mazes went straight to 5 hours. There were no signs about it on the website or on park which were ovbious, and only a couple of leaflets being handed out at the entrance to mazes and people thinking it was a paid system.

Only way it's going to show if the system will really work as this is how it was planned to be used.

[Project LC]

I dont think they will ever test it how it is meant to be used before they impliment it fully. Another one of the many reasons in why this system wont work.

[Mitchada04]

The initial one this year on all coasters was meant to be no main queue only RnR and Fastrack. But because (even with lots of explanation of a simple to understand system, people used to use the old free fastrack scheme fine!) people just complained about not being able to queue normally, so many people that the park gave in and opened standby. Then later in the day, these people probably ended up complaining again as the main queue hardly moved as RnR got priority.

 

Same in the summer, Inferno had a 60 minute normal queue, or walk on RnR, it's not difficult! On Friday 17th at FN, we entered the park and went to MBV. 90 minute main queue, pfft logged onto my phone outside the entrance, clicked "ride right now" on RnR and went straight in. Leaflets, signs, people, there were enough things explaining the simple system just people refusing to use it as they wanted to queue and then moan that their queue hardly moved.

[Whatever]

Surely as a part of this test there should be a day where NO FASTRACK IS SOLD. And so the queue times can be compared and Thorpe can be shown the real impact fastrack has on queue times.

Then they'll have all the poshies going 'our day was ruined because they didn't have fastrack, ya, and I had to queue with the peasants, ya.'

And what about those who are enabled a wristband?

Good idea, just can't see it happening.

[Mark9]

Then they'll have all the poshies going 'our day was ruined because they didn't have fastrack, ya, and I had to queue with the peasants, ya.'

And what about those who are enabled a wristband?

Good idea, just can't see it happening.

 

Can we drop the classist attitudes please.

[Mitchada04]

*Prepares for the up roar from people who want to see the system fail*

 

R'n'R dates for 2015 have been announced!

 

RESERVE N' RIDE will be returning to THORPE PARK Resort in 2015 on the following dates:

1.  8 to 19 June       

2.  30 June to 13 July        

3.  3 to 16 August             

4.  23 October to 1 November

RESERVE N' RIDE allows you to virtually queue using your smartphone on our top 5 rides: THE SWARM, Nemesis Inferno, Colossus, SAW – The Ride and Stealth. This means you are free to enjoy the rest of the park during your wait time, rather than standing in queue lines.  We have now added Fastrack too!  You can upgrade on your phone for a shorter wait.

Few moderate summer days but one major test. Fright Nights half term week (presumably to try and eliminate the 140+ minutes physical waits the coasters achieved last year).

 

Hopefully this time round they close the standby queues for the coasters and give 100% of the queue to R'n'R (which Fastrack will also be done through). However, it doesn't seem like they'll be using the cards again (at least for the first test) so I guess standby queue will have to be open.

 

 

Q:  What if I don’t have a smartphone?

A:  At this time we aren’t operating a facility for using RESERVE N’RIDE unless you have a smartphone, but look out for news of future pilots where we may introduce other options. However, registering and using RESERVE N’RIDE via your smartphone will continue to be the easiest and quickest way to take advantage of virtual queueing.

Oh and to get through the loophole that everyone was trying to exploit last year...

 

Q:  Why do I have to provide my details when I register for RESERVE N’ RIDE?

A:  You have to register so that we can create a unique account for you and your group, but don’t worry, we won’t use your details for any marketing purposes.  You will also need to retain your park entry tickets in order to authorise your account. 

Good. Scan your ticket with a QR on the app or type in the code then it can only be put on one account once a day. 

 

Obviously it's still going to have blips, problems and so on but the only way to fix them is to keep trialling it and seeing what works and what doesn't. Yes, the same old arguments of people being dispersed elsewhere can arise, mathematical formulae can be implemented for the worst possible situation where all 1000000000000 people in the coaster queues are all of a sudden straight in a flat ride queue meaning Vortex will have a 5 hour wait and so on. The system can work, it has worked for many people. For all you moaning about how this will destroy rerides, it won't. If there's no one in the station you will probably still be allowed to stay in your seat. All those moaning about not wanting to go on your phone because it makes an unsocial society. You'll have to go on it what, once an hour for a minute at most? Oh no you might miss out on Geoff telling you about the piece of broccoli he brought yesterday.

 

If you hate the system, then don't visit when it's happening. And instead of watching the RnR site all day on your phone just to see how busy it is, how about you go outside and talke to Geoff?

 

https://www.thorpepark.com/tickets-passes/reserve-n-ride/overview/

[TPJames]

Ahahaha! Reserve n' ride operating on the coasters during fright nights...?

Prepare for 5 hour queues for the mazes!

[Ian-S]

LOL I hope they fix the rnr site since it doesn't work on my phone.

I wonder if they'll make you scan each individual ticket into the system to register, or just the 'group leader' scans their ticket in then selects 4 or 5 people. Cos if it's the latter, that's open to serious abuse.

Plus you always find tickets laying about on the floor around the dome, I can see some potential loopholes already.... lol.

[Project LC]

I think its pretty safe to say a majority of you know my opinion on the shambles that is RnR, ill try not to bore you with all the details again. I'm just amazed that after 5 hour virtual waits and 2 hour physical queues with the system last time they even considered running it again. It was their most complained about day on social media by far and there was a massive backlog in guest services replying to emails. They are truly mental. I don't want to see the system fail, it already has failed. Every single thing about it is a complete failure as the whole concept doesn't even work. Which was demonstrated last time. The only people who like the system are the ones who abused it by using it first and making the people who didn't use it suffer. Its broken, no matter how much money they spend on it, it will not work. To make things even worse the people with out smart phones which do exist although Thorpe may seem to think otherwise now no longer have a system they can use. Something of which I was assured back when the system first started they would keep. 

[Mark9]

Phew, that wasn't so bad. Thank you for keeping it brief LC12.

[Coaster]

Glad they've released the details already...

 

... I know which days to avoid now!

[JoshC.]

*First off, apologises for the far-too-long rambly post.  I've wanted to get my full thoughts and opinion down on the system for ages now, but never really had the time or the patience to put it all down...*
 
The way I've read it is that the system has changed from last year in the following ways:
-You can only access the system from WiFi on park.
-When you sign in, everyone in your group needs to scan a valid ticket / pass.
 
These two things combat two of the biggest flaws in the system last year.  Firstly, it stops people who aren't on park reserving a ride.  This stops trolls from ruining the system, and it stops people reserving a ride when they're travelling to the park (if they're arriving after park opening).  Secondly, it stops people from the same group doing multiple reservations.  For example, if you're in a group of 4, one person would need to login, and then scan everyone's tickets.  So, if anyone else in that groups tries to sign in with a different account, they can't, as their ticket has already been scanned for that day.
 
That's a massive improvement.  This makes the system a lot harder to abuse.  In fact, I can't see any way the system can be abused now?  Between x people, you can make 1 reservation at a time for x people, and no more.  Also, many people bring up the point of 'What if someone doesn't have a smartphone?' or 'What if I don't take a smartphone to the park?'.  Well, you only need 1 person in a group to have a smartphone with them.  Out of every group that goes to Thorpe Park, how many of them will not have a smartphone (or a smart device with access to the internet) between them.  I'd be willing to bet almost all.
 
Of course, there are still potential problems with the system...
-What happens if 'the leader's' phone dies?  I guess you can sign in on other devices; you're not tied to one phone, just one account.  But the problem still stands - not many smartphones last more than a day of battery problem, and it is a potential problem (especially on the longer days).  It can be worked around, but it is something Thorpe should look into a big more if they want to make this work in the long term.
 
-What if the WiFi system on park crashes/is very slow/whatever?  Simply put, chaos would happen.  Wireless technology can always have glitches, especially with a large number of users, and it could really cause chaos if a problem happens.  I guess the good thing here is that the system is quite reliable these days, and will surely just continue to improve, so hopefully any system crashes will be minimal / non-existent.
 
-The system just spreads people around the park, putting pressure on the filler attractions.  This is always the big problem.  At this moment in time, Thorpe just doesn't have enough non-coaster things to do.  Yes, it's got a wide range of flats and water rides, and it's getting more 'other' attractions (like IAC, Angry Birds 4D, etc.), but it's still not enough.  It's good to see that a lot of the trials are occurring during Island Beats / Fright Nights, as that gives people other free options that aren't rides.  So yeah, at this moment in time, Thorpe don't have enough other things to do to roll this out on the big scale.

However, I still think people over-exaggerate what will happen.  There is cause to I suppose, given how bad some of the Fright Nights trails went.  On a very busy day, you're looking at about 5000 people that would potentially be queueing for the coasters being spread all around the park (that figure is a 'guesstimate', not one plucked from thin air).  Given the number of other rides available, as well as the fact there would be other things to do, that won't make too much of a difference to ride queue times.  There will of course be a difference, but assuming the system doesn't muck up, it shouldn't be that noticeable.
 
 
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The reserve'n'ride times will all also be displayed on queue times, so hopefully we will be able to look at their impact on how many rides a day people get as well as other stuff. I'm expecting huge reserve'n'ride waiting times because everyone will be both waiting for a ride while waiting for another ride, and as they are not using the system for all rides we can again expect that the flat rides and X will have insane queues all the time. X will probably max out at 140 mins, it wouldn't surprise me.

 
A perfect example of what I was just saying above about people possibly over-exaggerating the worse possible scenario.  Leaving myself a big opportunity to have egg on my face here, but I just really can't see ridiculous queues like that happening on X.
 

Ahahaha! Reserve n' ride operating on the coasters during fright nights...?

Prepare for 5 hour queues for the mazes!

 
Fright Nights was a weird one.  My personal experience was positive; the park was very busy, but I was able to get all 5 mazes done, plus Swarm, in just over 5 hours.  I didn't cheat the system, though do admit I was lucky in some cases, and will also say there were some problems (had a very long wait for Saw Alive, for example).
 
I think operating RnR on the coasters over Fright Nights instead of the mazes could be better.  The trouble is, many people were still prepared to wait in the standby queue.  Of course, they had a small allocation planned for the standby queue, but if many more people than expected were using the standby queue, then it creates problems.  They could adjust the allocation to get more people in the standby queue through, but then that increases the RnR wait, and they causes a backlog on the system.  But then if they leave it as it is, they then have the problem of a 3 hour standby queue (which will feel a lot longer too).  It was lose-lose really.  It was a brave decision to trial it on the mazes, especially since they couldn't be certain of things like throughputs and queue lengths.
 
Trialling it on the coasters instead is a much safer bet, since they will have a better knowledge of what allocation works best.  And, again, it shouldn't affect the queues of the mazes that much, sense everyone virtually waiting will be spread all around the park.
 

LOL I hope they fix the rnr site since it doesn't work on my phone.

I wonder if they'll make you scan each individual ticket into the system to register, or just the 'group leader' scans their ticket in then selects 4 or 5 people. Cos if it's the latter, that's open to serious abuse.

Plus you always find tickets laying about on the floor around the dome, I can see some potential loopholes already.... lol.

 
It sounds like you have to scan each individual ticket - let's hope it is that way!
 
As for finding tickets on the floor, it's not really going to lead to abuse.  If everyone who wants to use the system has to scan their ticket, then hopefully the vast majority of tickets will be scanned.  And for the ones that aren't scanned, then it doesn't matter unless you find the same number of unscanned tickets as there are people in your group.  To be honest, if anyone is desperate enough to pick up multiple tickets from the floor in the hope that they can get in a few more rides during their day, they should probably evaluate their life a bit...
 

I'm just amazed that after 5 hour virtual waits and 2 hour physical queues with the system last time they even considered running it again. It was their most complained about day on social media by far and there was a massive backlog in guest services replying to emails.

 

The only people who like the system are the ones who abused it by using it first and making the people who didn't use it suffer. Its broken, no matter how much money they spend on it, it will not work.

 

To make things even worse the people with out smart phones which do exist although Thorpe may seem to think otherwise now no longer have a system they can use. Something of which I was assured back when the system first started they would keep.

 
The system has had plenty of positive feedback as well.  Do you really think if the system was really poorly received on the whole, they would still keep it?  Yes, the Fright Nights trial was poorly received, but I wouldn't be surprised if, internally, Thorpe accept there were faults of their own there (plus the fact it was one of their busiest times in years didn't help I'd assume).  Should one or two bad trial make them say 'Well, we've had plenty of positive feedback, but we've had one bad trial, let's call it quits'.  Of course not.  We've seen Thorpe (and Merlin parks as a whole) make changes when they've had attractions / systems receive poor feedback, so they wouldn't break habit with something this big.

 

Also, maybe I'm just in my own little world away with the fairies, but are there really that many people in Thorpe's core demographic that don't have a portable device that can access the internet?  More or less everyone I know who would be in Thorpe's core target market has some sort of device that can access the internet.  And then if you take a group of 4 people say, surely one of them will have a smartphone?  Maybe I am away with the fairies and wrapped up in my own little bubble in thinking that though...

 

----

I think in general there's a couple of things to bare in mind about all this.
 
-These are still trials.  From what I've heard/understood, Thorpe wanted to trial this over a 3 season period (so 2013-2015).  They wanted to try the system in many different ways, see how it developed, how it was received, and so forth.  The long-term goal of the system is to create a "queue-less park" (or, more specifically, a park where you never wait more than 15 minutes for a ride).  However, that still seems to be a long term goal.  From the plans for WC16, we can see there's a long queue line planned for the ride.  So Thorpe clearly understand this isn't something that will happen overnight, and will no doubt be aware they need to become much more of a resort before they can offer a place which is queue-less and has enough to do.
 
-They've got to 'battle' against the common viewpoint that you have to queue at a theme park.  Even with RnR in place, people are still happy to queue in the standby queue, even if it's a longer wait.  People expect that they will have to queue, and are fine with that simple system.  If Thorpe really want to make this work, they've got to encourage people the RnR is the best way forward.  The only way I can see them being able to do that is if they offer so much that the only way to get everything done is if you don't queue; again, something they are a long way off.
 
-The trials have been well received!  The vast majority of people who have used the system have been positive about it.  For your average guest, it no doubt allows them to be able to do more.  As can be seen even in this thread, there's people on here who have been able to get more done as a result of the system (me included!).  And if the system continues to be well-received, Thorpe will try their best to make it work.
 
 
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Whilst I am quite positive about the system overall, I'm still not sure if it will have long term success.  I'm not sure Thorpe is big enough to be able to offer enough to do to make the system work and I'm not sure they'll be able to convince people that this is the way forward.  More importantly, I fear that a queue-less park could stop the natural and fun exploration that a theme park should have, and just suck the fun away from the whole theme park experience..

[pluk]

*Prepares for the up roar from people who want to see the system fail* etc etc....

 

 

No real need for the facetiousness, peoples misgivings about this aren't just plucked out of the air and are based on real problems with both the concept and execution if R&R. I don't think it's about anyone wanting to see the system fail, it's about them using the system with a bit of sense and control so that it is a help rather than a hindrance to peoples day.

 

On previous trials there have been numerous occurrences of people having significant waits in a real line when they return for their ride having virtually waited a significant period, if they can't manage such a basic aspect of it they really shouldn't bother. If they can find a way to stop that then great! 

 

Hopefully this time round they close the standby queues for the coasters and give 100% of the queue to R'n'R 

 

How could that possibly work? There needs to be a buffer of people to account for the variances in throughput which are entirely inevitable and the range of times the guests arrive during their allocation. How could they ever give an exact enough time to have both no queues and no empty seats? They can't! The important bit is how they calculate and display the standby queue time so people are suitably discouraged from joining a stupidly long (time wise) queue.

 

On the other and, when it comes to fright nights I can see the mazes working very well with R&R only. But only if they fully close that loophole. Fingeres crossed they actually have worked that one out now.

[Ian-S]

If they want to stop the buildup of the reserve'n'ride queue (presumably this was the fast track queue last year), then the person doing the scanning needs to be at the entrance not the merge point, then the only people in the queue, are the ones who are supposed to be there.

[Coaster]

It's not an exaggeration if its rooted in fact, X has been getting queues of up to 90mins this week with all other coasters running normally, so with reserve'n'ride rather than being in queues for the coasters they will be waiting for the other rides worth doing, X being one of them. We'll certainly see.

That's because it has been on reduced capacity for the whole season so far.  Not good.

[Ricky]

I honestly can't believe they are still clinging on to this terrible concept.

[Project LC]

Who honestly believes that Thorpe can create a queue-less park. If you believe that the park could get it so you never wait more than 15 minutes then you seriously need to reconsider your logic.

Another thing which is annoying me is how anyone could think this system could work without a physical queue. How on earth can you have 15,000 people divided up across the flat rides. Which if Thorpe do what they originally intended have 15,000 people divided up across just the shops and the odd flat that doesn't have it. RnR will see the park take a massive turn for the worse.

[Benin]

[/backtothefuture.jpeg]

[Marc]

Thorpe will have a much better idea of gurst feedback than we do. Everyone who uses the system are invited to do a questionnaire so maybe the feedback there is good?

The way they are implementing it is just like queue bot with a free version and you can pay for quicker access - I'm sure Blackpool do similar.

[JoshC.]

I see 2 negative comments there, 7 positive and 1 which gives no indication - I wouldn't call that "quite mixed"; that looks quite positive!

 

And the 2 negative comments seem to be more about the system itself not working technically, as opposed to not liking system.  So from those 10 tweets, you can see there are 7 people who used the system when there were no technical problems.  And out of those 7 people, 7 people liked it..

 

Assuming the system becomes technically sound and hardly ever breaks, that random selection looks quite promising.

[TPJames]

Thorpe will have a much better idea of gurst feedback than we do. Everyone who uses the system are invited to do a questionnaire so maybe the feedback there is good?

I'm still adamant in the mindset that the only reason the early trials had a selection of positive feedback was due to most people on park not actually knowing the system was in existence and believing it was a paid form of fastrack. The people who were using it were treating it as a free form of fastrack whilst the people in the standby queue were having a nightmare with ridiculously slow-moving queuelines. Thus this resulted in good reviews for reserve n ride in the early trials and awful reviews for the park as a whole from the general public who were in the standby queues being fastracked by users of reserve n ride.

It was clear that the opinion of reserve n ride got much worse after the fright nights trials where the system was in full swing. It was clear on the Saturday that the system was a nightmare to operate and it received awful reviews from the general public when everyone was using it. Even the staff on park were not only confused by the system, but shocked that it was having such nightmare effects on the park. The system not only induced nightmare queues upon the mazes, with standby reaching 4 hours, RNR reaching 5 hours virtually followed by 2 hours standby and 1 hour in the fastrack line however also introduced nightmare queues on supporting rollercoasters with all rollercoasters at 140mins+. The system was a burden for staff to operate and put an awfully negative light on the park, and I wouldn't be surprised if that showed in fright nights gate figures this year.

---

As I have stated before, this system is unable to work in a small scale park like thorpe park with little supporting attractions to the main rides and rollercoasters. If trials resume in 5 years or so time, I will have a more positive outlook on the system provided enough shows, entertainment and supporting attractions have been added to divert the public from the major rides. At the moment, having the system in place only diverts guests to smaller rides and will cause increased queues on supporting rides and the same waiting time overall as if normal queueing had been place anyway. A park like Disney, Europa Park or Portaventura is much more suited to a system like this and in thorpe park's current state, I think it is ridiculous they are even considering trialling a system like this to "remove" queues as it is destined to fail in the park's current state. Whichever team is behind the introduction of this system needs to reconsider their logic and ideas about the system as it is a system which cannot work in full swing, especially at thorpe park in its current state.

[Coaster]

The way they are implementing it is just like queue bot with a free version and you can pay for quicker access - I'm sure Blackpool do similar.

Blackpool's is a paid system, and is the worst fastpass system I have seen implemented anywhere.

 

Basically, people reserve a ride and wait for their timeslot (but the most expensive version reduces waiting time by 90% so they can just go pretty much straight on again and again), queue up at the exit, and then get put in a seat by ride platform staff.  Not only does this mean that people behind the airgates have to wait and watch their seats get "stolen" right in front of them, but it also severely reduces throughput of the coasters as dispatch times are slowed down significantly because platform hosts are having to deal with speedy pass as well as operation of the ride.

EDIT:  Actually, it's the second worst after Oakwood's.

 

 

Back on the subject of RNR, I've already voiced my opinion on it several times so won't bore you with it again, but one thing I think needs mentioning is that it's unfair to only run the system on mobile devices.  Believe it or not, some people still don't use smartphones (I do but that's not the point) so the card should still be an option.

[Ian-S]

I only became a smartphone user earlier this year, my dad last month (he's 74 so struggles to turn it on let alone send a text), I'm sure we're not the only ones late to the party, lots of people I know still have non-smartphone phones too.

[lewumbrajumbos]

Back on the subject of RNR, I've already voiced my opinion on it several times so won't bore you with it again, but one thing I think needs mentioning is that it's unfair to only run the system on mobile devices.  Believe it or not, some people still don't use smartphones (I do but that's not the point) so the card should still be an option.

 

When did they remove the cards? Why did they remove the cards? Both times I visited during Summer the use of a card was still an option which was great considering the website never seemed to load on my phone :/