Reserve n Ride

[TPJames]

As I said, if they continue the reserve n ride I think they should have 3 options:

Main queue- as normal and you get all the build up and atmosphere- Free of course

Reserve N ride- wait in the virtual queue and go onto the ride at your time slot- Free to all guests

Reserve N ride+ - wait in the virtual queue but get your waiting time reduced by 90%- A paid system(basically fastrack)

I think this would be a good way to have it as it means you would be able to do other rides in between waiting for your first one. Also on an off peak day you wouldn't have to do all this silly booking stuff and you would be able to go straight onto the ride

[Benin]

Suddenly, I like this idea.

4 people - 4 smartphones. Book Swarm 4 times.

Go to plaza, say you do not have smartphones. Get paper tickets.

Ride swarm 5 times in near succession.

Success!

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

[JoshC.]

Okay, I was on park today, and tried out Reserve n Ride, of course.

First thing first. Today was busy, and I mean extremely busy. The car park was on the grass and pretty much at the fence. I was on park from opening (9:30am) till just after 1. I got on Swarm 4 times today - twice each way. So, in the respect of a ride count, the system does wonders; no way would I have done 4 rides on Swarm in that period of time, along with 6 other rides, on a day like today.

The way the system works, using a mobile, is very simple. You go on the site, and it shows the available rides (Swarm forwards and backwards), and what time you can ride them. You simple choose a ride, and the timer then comes up. An example...

(I booked this at about 9:25am for reference).

Once the timer hits 0, you are told you can ride...

(Sorry for the change in time; was trying to keep it altogether but forgot ).

You then simply hit a button and are given a QR code, which is scanned by staff at the main ride entrance.

Said code.

After that, you have a very short wait, in theory, and then your on.

Staff were handing out leaflets before the park opened, people on the bridge and dome were handing them out too. It was effective tbh. As you make the turning into Swarm's island, there's a tent where you can collect paper reservations, loads of staff with leaflets, and a couple of barriers (red ones like you see in banks and places, not the metal ones), which creates a ton of congestion in the area. Most people were a bit clueless as to what was going on in the morning, and it created a huge bottleneck in the area.

These aren't the greatest pictures, but it shows just how busy it was. Most of these people weren't 'getting through' either...

Before getting through.

After getting through. You can see the tent and the barrier-things I was on about in this photo.

Even when you arrive at the main entrance, people didn't get you had to reserve a ticket. People were arriving ages before their slot. It was just manic. However, we got through and were in the queue. Once through, there was barely a 5 minute wait (with one main problem being the good old bag drop...). As per usual, people didn't seem to realise how to get on the left hand side, so were clogging up the right side, leaving the left side empty pretty much. Woo.

We got a second reservation done and were on again around twenty past 10. From the time we got off Swarm to the time we were back on the island, we had done X 3 times and Flying Fish. Decent. There was still congestion and confusion around now, but a bit less than before. On our second go, where we reserved forwards once again, we headed to the left hand side, which was once again empty. There was 4 other people on our side, and no one was queueing for backwards. So rather than leave backwards empty, we asked if we could go in one of the backwards rows and were allowed. All this, and yet the right side was packed out. Needed some sorting that did. On a more positive note, the trains were flying out!

Anyway, we decided to try our luck once again and reserved for a 3rd time, this time going backwards. We arrived at our time slot and low and behold...

A queue. At least an hour going backwards, and probably a good 40-50 minutes at least going forwards. Oops.

I later found out from a member of staff that the system had crashed which led to these problems. To be fair, it's a trial system and there's going to be teething issues. We were pretty much the last people to get in actually. So the queue fizzled away, and once we made it to the end of the queue before the station, we said we'd just go forwards, as there was still a good 10 minutes in the station.

By the time we were off, the system seemed to be back on and all was well. We used the system once more later on, for backwards, and it worked fine and dandy.

All in all, I think the system needs a lot more publicising before it can be judged properly. However, I'm wary as to it being successful - it relies on guests being time-efficient, guests understanding the system, the system working and such. I think it could work on one or two rides, but as has been discussed, I think it's a step too far to see it on all rides, at least now. However, it's great to see the park trying new things and aiming to improve guest experience.

I'll finish on this quote, from the leaflet the park were giving out (scanner is on the blink, so can't scan it at the mo):

Why?

At THORPE PARK we like to be different so we're trialling a new system today that will help us become the first theme park in the world to offer a No Queue Guarantee in the future. Imagine that... No queues, more rides and an even better day out!

They seem quite confident then.

[Benin]

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?"

[Mark9]

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?"

Have lunch?

It is a trial Benin, I understand the downers and even expressed some of these thoughts to Marc but it iss just an experiment. If it fails, we can go back to overselling fastrack and queuing single file.

If it works then Thorpe will need to work out what to do with people if they spread it among more rides and there is no queue guarantees for everything.

I applaud the park for at least attempting to do something to help queues which is something a lot of parks seem totally ignorant of at times.

[Ryan]

Perhaps we could see an introduction of more shows, especially as the park is heading towards a family market. Shows would be great things to fill gaps in waiting times for rides.

[THORPE PARK]

A few issues I can see...

• If people can't 'wait' in a queueline any more, where exactly are people expected to wait? In the restaurants and around the paths? These are too overcrowded as they are on busy days! They will be condensing the crowds in to a very small area where there isn't a lot of space left for extra people.
• What happens if there are too few people ready and waiting to ride? Do trains go around with empty seats?
• Guests are going to have to be very organised to make the most out of their day... They can't just wander around and say "ooh, lets go on that one now!"
• People aren't going to stick to their ride times... It's just not going to happen. This will result in queues forming at certain times, and few people at other times.
• What happens in the event of a breakdown? Does everyone just turn up to the ride and wait at the entrance?? (dare I say, in a queue?!)

This system would be PERFECT if it was a free replacement of Fastrack (same as Disney, and Merlin's old system), but I think removing the queue entirely is far too risky... The park is not designed to handle this at all.

People expect to queue at a theme park. Queueing is not the problem here - overselling of Fastrack is! If the queues were good in the first place, then this new system wouldn't be needed.

Sorry to be pessimistic, but that's my opinion. Thorpe might prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

Hi Inferno,

To answer your questions -

- We are working on improving the experience on park for guests when they are not actually on a ride... Watch this space

- We would initially be implementing this on our most popular rides so it is unlikely that there will be seats going spare - but of course this is why we are trialling the system to see how it works and how we can troubleshoot any issues

- The system is smart enough that the virtual queue would automatically be extended for the duration of the down time

- We know it is risky it but we want to make it work for our guests which is why we are testing it out now

[JackR]

I agree with Josh on this one, I think this concept relies too much on people understanding how the system works and being able to time keep. I can see problems arising when somebody misses their slot and kicks up a fuss or something silly... In theory it's a great idea and I'm delighted to see that Thorpe are consciously trying to remedy the issue of long queue times at the park, but this reservation system could just turn your day into a huge timetable. I dread Fright Nights when every ride is booked up or 'normal' people wait for ages because reserved guests take priority.

I've also just returned from holiday and I met somebody who was talking to me about this system being used at SFGA. She said it' just makes the day stressful if you have a day full of reservations.

[Glitch]

Hi Inferno,

To answer your questions -

- We are working on a project to improve the park experience for guests in dwell areas around the Park for next year

- We would initially be implementing this on our most popular rides so it is unlikely that there will be seats going spare - but of course this is why we are trialling the system to see how it works and how we can troubleshoot any issues

- The system is smart enough that the virtual queue would automatically be extended for the duration of the down time

- We know it is risky it but we want to make it work for our guests which is why we are testing it out now

Cheers Thorpe nice to see you on the forum

[THORPE PARK]

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...

Thanks for the vote of confidence Benin

The system is not perfect but this is why we are trialling it, to see what potential issues there might be. If and when this becomes a permanent fixture, we would ensure that it was widely communicated to all our guests to minimise confusion about the system.

However to correct a misconception, it is not 'booking a slot' like Fastrack, it is joining a virtual queue - so the ride will not run out of slots, but the length of the queue will vary depending on how many people are in it.

It is unlikely that we will add this onto every ride, at least in the early stages - more likely just the most popular rides that tend to have longer queues. So people will still be able to ride other attractions whilst in the virtual queue for a ride, and make the most of their day at THORPE PARK!

[THORPE PARK]

Cheers Thorpe nice to see you on the forum

We read everything

[JoshC.]

Ah, one other thing I didn't mention...

There doesn't seem to be an expiration time on the QR codes. More confusingly, even after you've used your code, it still stays, saying your time to ride is now. In fact, checking my phone now, I still have the code from riding Swarm backwards I had at 1 today, saying I can ride Swarm backwards now.

I doubt if you can re-use codes, and I guess it sorts it self out when you make your next reservation, but just something I noticed.

I'm glad to hear this would just be used on major rides as well!

[Glitch]

I dread Fright Nights when every ride is booked up or 'normal' people wait for ages because reserved guests take priority.

Could work well with the mazes though???

[THORPE PARK]

However, they'd lso like to be able to join a queue and ride a ride when they want. If they wanted to ride swarm now, they'd have to book it and wait 2.5hrs until they can ride.

I bet you, if they had the option of either coming back in 2.5hrs and "not queueing" or joining a half hour queue, they'd do the latter.

The virtual queue will be the same length as the actual queue would be. So if you wanted you could stand in THE SWARM plaza for half an hour, or you could go and do something else and come back when you're ready

[THORPE PARK]

Suddenly, I like this idea.

4 people - 4 smartphones. Book Swarm 4 times.

Go to plaza, say you do not have smartphones. Get paper tickets.

Ride swarm 5 times in near succession.

Success!

Sorry won't work - we've thought of that! You will need to use your entrance ticket (or annual pass) to use the system - only one space per ticket can be booked

[Inferno]

Thanks TP for replying to these

If this works as well as hoped then fair play. It could be amazing on busy days.

Bit of a while elephant on quiet days though maybe? Hopefully it will only be used on peak days

We are working on a project to improve the park experience for guests in dwell areas around the Park for next year

This is very interesting! Can't wait to hear more about this...

[MarkC]

- We are working on a project to improve the park experience for guests in dwell areas around the Park for next year

What's a dwell area then Thorpe?

[OldFarmerDean]

so if it was on the main 5 rollercoasters... while you're in the virtual queue you can physically queue for another ride and get on it in the time that you would have been stood physically queuing for the coaster.

if that's the case it would only be on the main rides, I really like the idea... and providing there is a more accurate way of providing the queue times for the other rides, as it's vital you make sure you get to your time slot for the virtual queue!

[Fred]

Glad you're responding to us thorpey, it's very useful.

As end of the day approaches, how does this system work? Does it dump everyone left in the queue into the queueline at 6 (say park closes at 6). Or does it allow the 40mins or so potential amount of guests left in the queue come in as the timeslot appears? So, you can book your ride for swarm up to the minute to 6?

As you say, you've thought of this (only highlighting old fastrack issue). Doesn't this still mean you can book 4 rides with 4 different smartphones and still use paper though? Although you can only use paper once?

[Glitch]

As you say, you've thought of this (only highlighting old fastrack issue). Doesn't this still mean you can book 4 rides with 4 different smartphones and still use paper though? Although you can only use paper once?

Just what I was thinking Thorpe's answer was not very clear

[THORPE PARK]

Glad you're responding to us thorpey, it's very useful.

As end of the day approaches, how does this system work? Does it dump everyone left in the queue into the queueline at 6 (say park closes at 6). Or does it allow the 40mins or so potential amount of guests left in the queue come in as the timeslot appears? So, you can book your ride for swarm up to the minute to 6?

As you say, you've thought of this (only highlighting old fastrack issue). Doesn't this still mean you can book 4 rides with 4 different smartphones and still use paper though? Although you can only use paper once?

We are testing, but currently we close queue lines when the Park reaches closing time and then allow everyone in the queue to ride. The plan for the virtual queue would be the same unless we encounter issues with this.

No you couldn't, because you would have to use your entrance ticket number to validate the booking, so cannot duplicate

[Mitchada04]

Shame this isn't being trialled tomorrow as I wanted to give it a go

[Glitch]

We are testing, but currently we close queue lines when the Park reaches closing time and then allow everyone in the queue to ride. The plan for the virtual queue would be the same unless we encounter issues with this.

No you couldn't, because you would have to use your entrance ticket number to validate the booking, so cannot duplicate

But what if you wanted to ride more than once in the day would the timings reset so you can ride each coaster more than once?

[JoshC.]

But what if you wanted to ride more than once in the day would the timings reset so you can ride each coaster more than once?

I rode Swarm 4 times today, so can answer this for you. The first 2 times, as soon as I was out of the queue, I rejoined the virtual queue, resetting the timing. It's just like how you'd join a real queue again basically.

[Glitch]

cheers