Return of Reserve N Ride?

[TPJames]

Hi all,

I was just having a look at the thorpe website and I've noticed a feature on it.

https://www.thorpepark.com/tickets-passes/ticket-information/

When you click on tickets the options come up, RESERVE N RIDE, is the last on the list however risk still there. However, when you click on it, it comes up with an error message! My question is mainly aimed at thorpe however it takes a while to do a direct message to them so I was wondering if anyone knew if they had plans to bring back the system?

Many thanks.

[Project LC]

They had to make the rides have a standby queue as when it was just RnR it didn't work. What happened was 3hr 30min wait virtually so if you didn't book fast there was no ride for you that day and when you got there it was a 50 minute queue because if 1 person is late it builds and builds until at the end of the day the RnR queue is massive. Its a broken system with no solution and I cant tell that I'm going to have to try and get a refund on my summer night tickets because the chances are a trail day is a day I'm there.

[Flipper]

I know what you're saying LC. And it is lose-lose, but I still feel within myself the standby queue is hindering; but then with the points you've made you give good reason to have it. I doubt it will run through Summer Nights though, and since its free might as well use it during the day?

[Project LC]

All the times ive been to a RnR it has been a terrible experience. Only coming away with about 10-15 rides when I should be easily getting 20+. 2 of the 3 times I have been caught out thinking I'm waiting for saw to go over there to find the system broke and its now a 90 minute queue as they try and get through the remains of the RnR and the masses of people coming over thinking its their time. The day where it made it to the end I was unable to get 4-5 goes in the last 20 minutes as I would needed to have booked multiple times hours ago. The time spent waiting for slots is horrible as all queues are moving slowly and your worrying your going to miss your slot and join the massive queue at guest services full of a load of other people with the same problem. It just adds stress and ruins my day, so I'm not going back to a reserve and ride again. If it becomes a full time thing then ill have to see if I can get a refund on my annual pass.

[Benin]

All the times ive been to a RnR it has been a terrible experience. Only coming away with about 10-15 rides when I should be easily getting 20+. 2 of the 3 times I have been caught out thinking I'm waiting for saw to go over there to find the system broke and its now a 90 minute queue as they try and get through the remains of the RnR and the masses of people coming over thinking its their time. The day where it made it to the end I was unable to get 4-5 goes in the last 20 minutes as I would needed to have booked multiple times hours ago. The time spent waiting for slots is horrible as all queues are moving slowly and your worrying your going to miss your slot and join the massive queue at guest services full of a load of other people with the same problem. It just adds stress and ruins my day, so I'm not going back to a reserve and ride again. If it becomes a full time thing then ill have to see if I can get a refund on my annual pass.

 

Only 15 rides over the course of the day? Oh the huge manatee...

 

Like, yeah, it's a burden, but getting 15 rides would probably be something to be celebrated by the regular guest...

[Mark9]

Maybe you should just go to Alton Towers then LC.

[Project LC]

I would go to alton if it wasnt 3 hours away, and if they had stealth. I know 15 rides for a normal guest would be amazing but going there often has its benefits. I know what the queue times are realitive to the queues end and also know when rides will be quite. RnR ruins that for me and makes queueing even less pleasant than it already is. All RnR is move when your queuing, thats all it does. I would much prefer queuing twice than queue once in a slow queue and get on twice at the end.

[Marc]

I would go to alton if it wasnt 3 hours away, and if they had stealth. I know 15 rides for a normal guest would be amazing but going there often has its benefits. I know what the queue times are realitive to the queues end and also know when rides will be quite. RnR ruins that for me and makes queueing even less pleasant than it already is. All RnR is move when your queuing, thats all it does. I would much prefer queuing twice than queue once in a slow queue and get on twice at the end.

 

Youve kind of just argued the point for this system though, 15 rides for a "normal" guest would be amazing, thorpe have to do what will please hte majority of its guests who fall under this "normal guests" cloud so thats what they will rightly do. 

[Project LC]

A normal guest (as we are now calling them) wont get 15 rides. I only got 15 because I knew when the queue times were lying and how to use the RnR system to its maximum potential. It wont have any effect at all on number of rides of the GP because all it does is move the queues. When all the rides are on this system then the queues will be exactly how they were just hidden. what was a 30 minute queue for stealth will now be an hour queue for 2 go's. Hour in a physical queue, an hour virtually. Thats it. Well it does also allow thorpe to get perfect number of fastrack sales and how to maximise them because no one can see how many of them there are.

[JoshC.]

A normal guest (as we are now calling them) wont get 15 rides. I only got 15 because I knew when the queue times were lying and how to use the RnR system to its maximum potential. It wont have any effect at all on number of rides of the GP because all it does is move the queues. When all the rides are on this system then the queues will be exactly how they were just hidden. what was a 30 minute queue for stealth will now be an hour queue for 2 go's. Hour in a physical queue, an hour virtually. Thats it. Well it does also allow thorpe to get perfect number of fastrack sales and how to maximise them because no one can see how many of them there are.

 

Huh?  What are you trying to say there?  

 

Surely a 30 minute queue (for on ride) is the same as an hour queue for "2 go's"?  Or are you suggesting that RnR is going to turn a 30 minute queue into a 2 hour queue (one hour for a virtual queue, another hour in the physical queue after that)?  I'm confused.

 

If it's the former, then there's no difference.  If it's the latter, then I'm pretty sure you're over-exaggerating a tad - no way is RnR going to quadruple you're queue time for a ride...

[Project LC]

What I mean is that the current physical system could have a 30 minute queue for stealth. Where as with RnR the physical queue will be 60 minutes as will the virtual queue. So if you were to wait for stealth virtually the same time as queueing you have waited 60 minutes for 2 go's. So effectively its the same. The problems with the system arise when fastracks are hidden in the system so the virtual wait becomes longer than it should be and the effect it has on people going round the park. I'm sure people are much more willing to wait 2 hours virtually for a coaster than a flat ride. So the distribution of guests also effect the virtual and real queues much more. 

[Fred]

The difficulty is that none of the rides at thorpe have any sort of decent capacity to hold a really good working reserve system (or free fastpass system).

 

If they had rides doing 2000pph, they could allocate a good 1000pph to the fastpass and it'll be absolutely fine, lovely.

 

Instead they have rides (if we say now they've included flats) which can do 400pph... so even 50 people using reserve will make a big difference to the main queue.

 

Fuuuuun. May as well change to Qbot if they wanna do this (oorrrr stick to allocated fastrack timeslots, of which you'd make far more money even when managed properly unlike a revenue share Qbot!)

[Project LC]

It is the same company as qbot's so that cant be the final aim. 

[pluk]

One thing's for sure, this ever results in a situation where it ends up causing people to have to 'queue to queue' (ie wait virtually to be able to join what is then an actual queue rather than getting on the ride when your time comes) then people will get pissed off mighty quickly.

The throuput will always be varibale to some extent. That's why they can never allocate 100% to the system, that's why there has to be a buffer standby queue, that's why no one is ever going to a queue-less theme park.

[Flipper]

What I mean is that the current physical system could have a 30 minute queue for stealth. Where as with RnR the physical queue will be 60 minutes as will the virtual queue. So if you were to wait for stealth virtually the same time as queueing you have waited 60 minutes for 2 go's. So effectively its the same. The problems with the system arise when fastracks are hidden in the system so the virtual wait becomes longer than it should be and the effect it has on people going round the park. I'm sure people are much more willing to wait 2 hours virtually for a coaster than a flat ride. So the distribution of guests also effect the virtual and real queues much more. 

 

Just to clarify your post which I sort of understand where many don't.

LC is saying if 50% of each ride is R&R, a 30 minute 'normal wait' for Stealth will become an hour. In the hour you're virtually queuing in the normal queue, he could RNR Stealth, for in an hours time (assuming the RNR time is for an hour) and thus ride Stealth twice, in exchange for an hour of queuing, in exchange for riding twice over the form of queuing for 30 minutes, twice, if RNR wasn't operating.

 

Although just being blunt here your philosophy is flawed. If RNR is 50% of main queue, a 30 minute queue would become 15 minutes worth of 'people' for a non-RNR day as the other 15 mins will be using RNR. Double the time to allow that it's 50% allowance to both, and thus, you're in a 30 minute Stealth queue still - so I don't understand your point. The virtual queue takes 50% out of the queue, and in exchange makes the main queue line the same length as if RNR wasn't running if you follow what I'm saying?

 

But who cares, Stealth isn't working anyway at the moment so as Mark9 said, if you don't like RNR and only like Stealth, might as well go to Towers. 

[Project LC]

My point was the maths behind it and keeping the number of people there the same. So if it was only 1 ride and 500 people were trapped there. So the 500 would still form a 30 minute queue but now it takes twice as long making it 60 minutes but they all get to ride twice. When this is open to more rides and people the same rules still apply. You still have X number of people in the park forming a set lenght of queue which is now twice as long but they all get to ride twice making it the same as it was before just in a different set up.

RnR will cause the average number of rides to stay the same but the extremes to become closer. So great for the stupid people who just join the first queue they see but bad for people who can easily get above the average.

However this system is able to sell more fastracks by turning a dial. Say fastrack sales are down, all they have to do is change the % of fastrack up so the wait becomes longer so more people will buy fastracks to fill the new created slots becuase the queue time has be artifically increased.

[Cal]

 

The next trail dates are set to be in late august, but obviously this is not 100 percent yet. This is just to let people know if they wanted to go during this time or for people who are trying to avoid it. I'm going to try and get down during this time, never used the system and really want to give it a go!

[Mitchada04]

Reservenride.com states that the dates are the 22nd to the 26th August

[Cal]

Reservenride.com states that the dates are the 22nd to the 26th August

 

Oh yeah, then it must be definite. It's been updated since the last time I visited.

 

It will most likely be really busy during these dates as it is in the holidays, so it will also be interesting to see how it works then, a long with a much wider range of attractions.

[Olistjj]

I'm staying over on the night of the 22nd, doing some vip stuff and then doing the summer nights on the 23rd. I'll be sure to let you all know how it works on a busy summer holiday day, not really sure what to expect tbh.

[Project LC]

Not really sure what to expect tbh.

Depression, misery and dissapointment. Nah I imagine it will benefit a fair few there on the day, however physical queues will feel very slow and the system will probally crash again. They still havent quite figured out that the number of people in the park corresponds to the number of people using RnR.

[JoshC.]

Depression, misery and dissapointment. Nah I imagine it will benefit a fair few there on the day, however physical queues will feel very slow and the system will probally crash again. They still havent quite figured out that the number of people in the park corresponds to the number of people using RnR.

 

I imagine that any physical queues won't feel any different to any other day.  Queues on non-RnR rides may be longer, but they won't (or, at least, shouldn't) be any slower, nor should they feel any slower.

[Project LC]

I imagine that any physical queues won't feel any different to any other day.  Queues on non-RnR rides may be longer, but they won't (or, at least, shouldn't) be any slower, nor should they feel any slower.

They will defiantly feel slower. If its now 50% of the ride is for another queue then its moving more slowly as less of the ride is for the physical queue. Its like queuing for rush with only 1 swing. That always feels significantly slower.

[JoshC.]

They will defiantly feel slower. If its now 50% of the ride is for another queue then its moving more slowly as less of the ride is for the physical queue. Its like queuing for rush with only 1 swing. That always feels significantly slower.

 

Doh, completely forgot how they're giving the option to queue normally; thought it was just full out RnR.

 

The theory would be that since people are using RnR, there won't be as many people queueing, so queue times shouldn't be any longer (hopefully), even though they'll feel longer.  Let's see if what works in theory works in practice though..

[Project LC]

Unfortunately that only works if the RnR uses disappear from existence whilst they wait virtually which unless physics has gone wrong isn't going to happen. All of those people would have just gone to queue for flats however now flats are also included they will just go wait for another coaster. Honestly it will just move queues and have no effect at all. 

[Project LC]

Anyone want to take bets on when the system will crash, if it hasnt already. If anyone is there on this section of reserve and ride can you please tell me how it is working becuase they seemed to have changed something as the flats are no longer in the trial. Still very anti the idea though, when I was at six flags they had 36,000 people on park and the queues were similar to what thorpes were on wednesday with only 12,000. If they think RnR is going to fix it they really are stupid.