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.

[Benin]

Fastrack makes tonnes of difference to queue times, it's clearly noticeable how queues deemed 60 minutes at park close reduce several minutes when there's no one Fastrack related coming in...

Seen it plenty of times on the likes of Fury and Vampire...

[Coaster]

You could enjoy the park without fastrack of course (even portaventuta) but you would IMO struggle to get on everything.

I always manage to get on everything...

Regarding Reserve N Ride, it sounds like a hassle and means that you can't re-ride anything. It's also stupid that they are trialling it on days which wouldn't be busy anyway, as it is actually preventing people from getting high ridecounts.

I will not be visiting on any days when they are trialing this system.

Bringing back single rider queues would be better!

[pluk]

It's easy to blame fastrack for queues, id be intrested to see how much difference it actually made, the queues may feel faster as you would move more but I'm not convinced it makes queue times as much longer as is made out.

It makes exactly as much difference as the amount of tickets they sell, which is LOADS. In it's current poorly managed and over sold form it makes a huge huge difference to the wait times, there is no question of that and I can't see how anyone can or would claim otherwise. It's just fact

For all of time there has been a recognition by theme parks that some people queue jumping ruins other peoples day, as shown in the 'queue jumpers will be removed from park' etc signs which have always been there and wouldn't have been if that were not the case. Then suddenly the parks allow people to break this rule if they throw them a few quid at them. The people standing in the queue still feel the same about it even if the rule breaking is sanctioned by the park. It sucks.

If fastrack must exist I hope this r&r thing evolves into a way to manage it more tightly, but the overall numbers sold needs to reduce (and price increase) dramatically for me to accept fastrack as something that isn't hugely destructive to most peoples day (including those using it too stupid to see the problem they are both creating and paying their way out of).

[Cal]

For all of time there has been a recognition by theme parks that some people queue jumping ruins other peoples day, as shown in the 'queue jumpers will be removed from park' etc signs which have always been there and wouldn't have been if that were not the case. Then suddenly the parks allow people to break this rule if they throw them a few quid at them. The people standing in the queue still feel the same about it even if the rule breaking is sanctioned by the park. It sucks.

That's what the signs say anyway, I was in a que for Vortex last Sunday and a que jumper got spotted and just got sent to the back of the que. He wasn't even far down in the que anyway.

[Marc]

Bringing back single rider queues would be better!

Interesting arguing against fastrack because it slows down queues but want a system which could slow down queues just as much also... ? (Although admittedly it was more down to how the system was abused!)

For all of time there has been a recognition by theme parks that some people queue jumping ruins other peoples day, as shown in the 'queue jumpers will be removed from park' etc signs which have always been there and wouldn't have been if that were not the case. Then suddenly the parks allow people to break this rule if they throw them a few quid at them. The people standing in the queue still feel the same about it even if the rule breaking is sanctioned by the park. It sucks.

Its interesting but I guess its the way things have evolved across the world and not just for theme parks, id put money on if you stopped fastrack sales you would get more complaints and unhappy guests who want to pay for the faster service than you do now.

[JoshC.]

I always manage to get on everything...

Regarding Reserve N Ride, it sounds like a hassle and means that you can't re-ride anything. It's also stupid that they are trialling it on days which wouldn't be busy anyway, as it is actually preventing people from getting high ridecounts.

I will not be visiting on any days when they are trialing this system.

Bringing back single rider queues would be better!

-Do you manage to get on everything because you know the park so well though? Or because you visit on quieter days? One enthusiast being able to get on everything during their visit won't be representative...

-Surely trialling the system out on quiet days is best? That way, if it doesn't work, then it affects less people? Just because some people aren't going to be able to ride rides 6-7 times in a day, should that mean they shouldn't trial it out? Also, being June, the park will still be semi busy on quieter days!

-Bringing back SRQ isn't easy though. You need to have proper queues put in place, and have the space. Thorpe don't have that with most of their rides. It's a shame, but I'd rather no SRQ than a bad one!

To be honest, I don't think RnR is a system that could work on the large scale. It requires a lot of attractions/things to do outside the rides (or at the very least, high throughput rides not on RnR), so something which Thorpe simply doesn't have. However, I'd love to be proven wrong and think that the system should at least be given a chance.

If it doesn't work on the full scale, it would be a good Fastrack replacement.

[darkadder312]

Bring back normal queue and single rider I say as I loved single rider queue on specific rides.

[Fred]

For all of time there has been a recognition by theme parks that some people queue jumping ruins other peoples day, as shown in the 'queue jumpers will be removed from park' etc signs which have always been there and wouldn't have been if that were not the case. Then suddenly the parks allow people to break this rule if they throw them a few quid at them. The people standing in the queue still feel the same about it even if the rule breaking is sanctioned by the park. It sucks.

To be fair to the parks, since Fastrack was introduced the amount of queuejumping as diminished. Not because people are politer, but because those likely to queue jump just purchase fastrack instead.

[kinnaird]

Bring back normal queue and single rider I say as I loved single rider queue on specific rides.

single rider made some of the queues shorter and that lovely time when you got front row

but I think that it shuld still be an option becouse then you get a full carage and I dont think meny people mind if a stranger sits next to them I have allways had quite nice convosations with the people that are sitting next to me!

[Flipper]

do you just buy a Fastrack ticket and use it whenever? Or are you given a strict time slot to keep to? Or what?

In theory most Fastrack tickets at Thorpe are 'one shots' so it is advertised as 30 minutes from your time slot, with time slots being on each 15 minutes (aka 1, 1.15, 1.30, 1.45...) although it's often allowed for up to one hour; regardless though if a ticket holder misses their time slot (and people do) they can go to Fastrack and be re-issued with a new time slot. The issue with fastrack times lies a lot more with ticket touts at entrances, who will sell fastrack tickets for an hour or two in advance on a 45 minute queue, and then people have the realisation they've just paid a few quid to go and stand somewhere else basically.

I haven't seen R&R used but I look forward to it. I think it 'could' work well; as at the end of the day it's pretty much the same concept as Disney Fastpass? People say about walking - well unless you're coming off SAW (but then you're a thirty-second walk from the machine at Colossus) or Stealth (again, near to Inferno) then I don't see what the issue will be with the cards; because the concept will be that you're coming off a coaster, to go and book your next coaster.

I do understand people's criticism's about the flat rides though, and I do believe the 'argument' for it is to encourage people into food, shops, and Angry Birds 4D - but in theory it does give people the ability to experience additional rides that they wouldn't usually experience. Okay, maybe Samurai will get a bigger queue than usual, along with a few others; but even if a ride like Samurai goes from a 15 minute queue to a 30 minute queue, I highly doubt we're going to see people queuing for two hours for a flat ride, like some seem to believe...

I think this will just be a wait-and-see scenario. But I think after tests, it could become a brilliant addition to 'up the game' with Merlin - especially with the new ticketing system thats due to be coming to Thorpe - clearly the plan is for this to all tie into one like, the fore-mentioned Disney Fastpass at Orlando with pre-plan.

[Benin]

Even Disney couldn't get FastPass+ to work perfectly, that doesn't really provide much hope that a Merlin park can do it better...

The idea is to get people to spend more time spending on other things (I.e. merch, food, games, etc), but the issue is more that there isn't that much to do of those things or anything else at Thorpe (as Fred already pointed out)... It's not like at Towers were you could spend your time between rides walking to said ride, or indeed spend time in the Gardens, or find a sit-down restaurant, or ride one of the many rides that never gets a queue... Even Chessie has the zoo to wander around to waste time between rides...

That's more the issue tbh, that's there's not a lot for the guests to do in between waiting for the next slot... All it will do at Thorpe is move coaster queues into other ride queues because that's kinda all there is to do at the park...

[JoshC.]

Just might be worth saying, tomorrow's trial of RnR has been cancelled, so that they can "tweak" the system (and it stopped today after 3pm by the sounds of it).

Bare in mind this is likely a complicated system and there could possibly be some faults with the technology behind it (indeed, that happened early on in the trial last year when they were just using Swarm), so it's probably something that could not have been predicted until it happened in practice. The next trial will be Friday.

[Project LC]

The more problems it has the better. I'm one of the very few people left in this world with out a smart phone and I don't want to spend my time running back and forth between the dome and stealth. I want my ability to get off stealth in the morning and get straight back on 4 or 5 times. then work my way round the coasters. Running between the dome and each coaster is stupid. I'm not spending my time in the increased waits for the flat rides, I go to Thorpe park for the coasters and apart from rush and slammer I can find the other rides else where. I don't go to Thorpe park for the other reasons they seem to believe people go there like shopping and "fine dinning". If this does become permanent I wont be coming back until this stupid system is gone. So if anyone knows if this is becoming permanent please let me know and you can save me some money from buying my next annual pass.

[Coaster]

The more problems it has the better. I'm one of the very few people left in this world with out a smart phone and I don't want to spend my time running back and forth between the dome and stealth. I want my ability to get off stealth in the morning and get straight back on 4 or 5 times. then work my way round the coasters. Running between the dome and each coaster is stupid. I'm not spending my time in the increased waits for the flat rides, I go to Thorpe park for the coasters and apart from rush and slammer I can find the other rides else where. I don't go to Thorpe park for the other reasons they seem to believe people go there like shopping and "fine dinning". If this does become permanent I wont be coming back until this stupid system is gone. So if anyone knows if this is becoming permanent please let me know and you can save me some money from buying my next annual pass.

Absolutely agree!

[Mitchada04]

At the end of the day this will be a great system to replace Fastrack as it is limited and saves people having to walk back and forth to the two Fastrack booths.

They seem determined to make it a queue less Park though with one of the screen shots on the tutorial section showing Detonator and Flying Fish on the list alongside the Fastrack option so this is obviously what they are ultimately heading towards.

But if all the rides are on this system then there is nothing for guests to do apart from spend money (which not everyone will do). Yes they have Thorpe Live now but that's only twice every Saturday. Apart from that there's the 4D cinema (assuming that's not on the system) and the beach. Queue lines are designed to hold people and when all those people are on the main paths it will become awfully crowded.

It might work but probably won't. The only thing I'd like to see this used for is Fastrack and maybe at Fright Nights for the mazes as those queues are horrendous.

[Project LC]

I would agree on that. Using this as a fastrack system and for fright night scare mazes would probably be beneficial. using this for everyday use on everything or just coasters is a terrible move and will make the situation worse. As ive said before I experienced reserve and ride once and all I can say is never again. Normally I will ride swarm a good 5 to 30 times a day with the reserve and ride that was reduced to 1 ride. I know what the other rides are like so I go for my favourites not the same rides I can find else where.

[JamminGamer]

So if this system were to be implemented what is there to stop people from queuing in the way that we would do so currently? Would there be a downside to doing it this way? To be entirely honest the entire system confuses the hell out of me and I really dislike the idea of it :/

[Project LC]

So if this system were to be implemented what is there to stop people from queuing in the way that we would do so currently? Would there be a downside to doing it this way? To be entirely honest the entire system confuses the hell out of me and I really dislike the idea of it :/

The virtual queue replaces standard queueing. So you can not queue by standing in line. Instead you reserve a place via your smart phone and when that time slot arrives you may enter the queue line. This means the queue you join is only about 15 minutes long.

[tomathy]

As far as I can work out this is one of the worst ideas that Thorpe have ever had. Closing the five largest queues in the park will only cause the other queues in the park to increase; considering most of the flat rides have a low throughputs their queue times will surely soar. Also having to go back and forth to the dome every time you wish to ride one of the coasters if you do not have a smart phone seems ridiculous to say the least.

If they can get the system to work efficiently without having a huge effect on the neighbouring rides and attractions then hats off to them. I'd like to be proven wrong on this one.

[Project LC]

Something ive just seen is Saw The ride front. How on earth do you manage that one and why on earth do you have a second queue for it. There is only 2 rows so how and why would you make 2 queues. Another thing is that the number of dates has plummeted what was about 7 dates is now 4. Also I hope this system is taking into account that stealth is on half capacity.

All I can say Thorpe is that you have truly lost it and this entire thing is insanity.

[Coaster]

I'm not actually sure what the point of this system is. There is nothing else to do at the park besides going on rides and queueing for them. Therefore, what is the point of not having to physically stand in the queue? There's nothing else to do, so I'd rather be stood in a queue rather than standing like a lemon waiting for my turn.

[JoshC.]

There will of course be all the non-major coasters to ride whilst you're waiting for your time slot.

If the plan is to roll this out as a replacement for queueing, then there's lots Thorpe need to do. Shows, side attractions, etc. Not something that will happen overnight. Maybe this trial is ready for a Thorpe Park of the future, not necessarily a Thorpe Park of tomorrow.

Of course, if Thorpe are planning this to be a Fastrack replacement, once all the techy-issues are sorted out, I see nothing wrong with. Also, Thorpe should try and focus on a total experience more - create queues that don't feel like queues. Things like Hex's pre show, NST's pre show. Create a total experience so, even though you're queueing for the main ride, it doesn't feel like it.

[Coaster]

If the system is planned for a replacement for fastrack then why don't they do that, instead of closing the main queue?

I know I would have been very hacked off if I had visited yesterday expecting a quiet day with lots of re-rides, only to be subjected with having to walk to and from the dome every time I want to go on a coaster! Ridiculous.

[Project LC]

Another solution would be to build a ride with a higher throughput. They were fully aware queues were too long when they built the swarm but they still decided to go with an average 1200pph. If an american park were to build a major ride with a throughput of 1200 or even Alton towers did that they would see non stop moaning. All thorpe need to do is start adding new higher capacity rides. There hasn't been a major flat in the park since 2005. Storm surge and the dodgems do not count as high capacity. A new flat with a throughput of 500 would help. Have 2 or 3 of those plus a 1500 coaster and queues would become a bearable level. Instead Thorpe have gone down the cheaper option which will ultimately end up as a waste of money.

[JoshC.]

If the system is planned for a replacement for fastrack then why don't they do that, instead of closing the main queue?

I know I would have been very hacked off if I had visited yesterday expecting a quiet day with lots of re-rides, only to be subjected with having to walk to and from the dome every time I want to go on a coaster! Ridiculous.

The system may not be planned as a Fastrack replacement; who really knows! But I personally could see it working as a Fastrack replacement, since it's similar to QBot (I think?).

What you've got to remember is that most people won't think 'Let's got today so that we can get loads and loads of rerides'. Many people who choose to go today will choose to go because they expect it to be quieter / it's the only day they could go. Not everyone will have those intentions. Thorpe also mentioned this in advance, so it's not like it should be a surprise to anyone visiting today.

Another solution would be to build a ride with a higher throughput. They were fully aware queues were too long when they built the swarm but they still decided to go with an average 1200pph. If an american park were to build a major ride with a throughput of 1200 or even Alton towers did that they would see non stop moaning. All thorpe need to do is start adding new higher capacity rides. There hasn't been a major flat in the park since 2005. Storm surge and the dodgems do not count as high capacity. A new flat with a throughput of 500 would help. Have 2 or 3 of those plus a 1500 coaster and queues would become a bearable level. Instead Thorpe have gone down the cheaper option which will ultimately end up as a waste of money.

Smiler has a poor maximal throughput - somewhere in the region of 1000 I believe?

Swarm has one of the best throughputs on park I think, with on Inferno and possibly the likes of Rumba and Loggers being better. Given Thorpe's restriction on the coaster, it'd be a struggle to get a ride with higher throughput too I reckon, unless you just stuck an eight row on. Remember that Thorpe is very different to American parks, and even Alton Towers. You can't go comparing Thorpe to them for the addition of their rides. I agree that more, high-throughput rides are needed on park though.

I find it interesting it say a new flat with even 500pph would help, yet don't count Storm Surge, when I think that can get through about 400-500pph (someone do correct me if I'm wrong though!). Dodgems, no clue what they're throughput will be. I imagine that the 4D cinema will soak through a fair number of guests though and, in my opinion, is a better option than just bunging in another flat ride (since it breaks up the day, varies what's available, etc.).

Thorpe do need a couple more high-throughput rides; a dark ride that can eat through the queues, a high-throughput family coaster and a suitable flat ride (if there is one out there) would all be good choices for the park.