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.

[OldFarmerDean]

Unfortunately as the day goes on more and more people are hearing about the reserve and ride and using it... But all morning they have allowed reserve and ride to go straight on even with like a 30 min normal queue! So been good for me aha!

[Fred]

...Well that's the point of it. You don't reserve your ride, and then queue when you arrive as that'd completely defeat the object.

This is becoming a more elaborate test for a mobile qbot system though. One which doesn't require additional staff members and one which pays its way!

[Project LC]

if the real queue is only 30 minutes then it sounds like it isn't really being tested as its meant to reduce queues on very busy days.. The problems will arise when the queues should be 90 minutes long. That is when we will see if this system actually works. However at the moment it does seem to be a working system which can eventually lead to people loosing their jobs as fastracks can be sold online. I'm quite sure that is the true aim. Cut jobs and on the system have a big fastrack sign to encourage sales.

[Marc]

It won't cut jobs as staff will be required to scan your tickets, if anything will need more staff to run it well.

[pluk]

Unfortunately as the day goes on more and more people are hearing about the reserve and ride and using it... But all morning they have allowed reserve and ride to go straight on even with like a 30 min normal queue! So been good for me aha!

If they didn't allow r&r straight on then it wouldn't be working!

Anyone there to see how it's gone today? What queue lines they used? what the standard queue and r&r wait times got up to? wifi not fall over?

Hope this 'version' of it was a success!

[Project LC]

It won't cut jobs as staff will be required to scan your tickets, if anything will need more staff to run it well.

or 1 person to scan your ticket where the fastrack people merge.

[OldFarmerDean]

It also had waits of up to an hour and then sometimes would say we need more people jump straight to front of queue even though you're wait I'd say half hour... But after a while it will disappear when it gets too busy again. I thought the whole point of RnR is that you wait the length of the main queue before you're allowed on? But its really difficult to judge and is constantly fluctuating.

[Project LC]

well they need to base it on the real queue and that is really hard to work out when the real queue is influenced by the reserve and ride queue. I guess what they have done it allocate a certain throughput to RnR and another set to the real queue. so if that amount of people don't turn up or the throughput changes then it will go wrong.

On another note its spreading! They have a paper based system developing at cbeebies land.

[Fred]

CBeebies is literally to see if they can counteract the issue of long queues and kids stuck in them on night garden (if successful I imagine get set go and postman pat too).

[Project LC]

CBeebies is literally to see if they can counteract the issue of long queues and kids stuck in them on night garden (if successful I imagine get set go and postman pat too).

I'm just hoping that its not really successful and is introduced to the smiler.

[JoshC.]

I'm just hoping that its not really successful and is introduced to the smiler.

Huh?

[adam_sparks1]

RnR not running today Got in the park at 9:20 and been on stealth front row, inferno 2 times, Colossus, swarm and rush already!

[JamminGamer]

Didn't they say they were going to run it Saturday as well? Perhaps they are making more changes after seeing what yesterday was like. Hopefully they will always keep standard queueing as an option because this might sound weird but I kind of enjoy queueing.... to an extent anyway Basically I like seeing the ride and being immersed for a bit but I won't enjoy a queue for more than an hour and a half XD Regardless it's interesting to see the park adapt and change to see what works. That will hopefully mean that in the end we'll get something that we can say has been tried and tested and will hopefully work well within the park (Personally I'm hoping for it to be the new fastrack system )

[adam_sparks1]

When I asked them about it at the park today they said the bad feedback we got from yesterday means we will be 'delaying' the trail. So not on today! Getting loads of rides in!

[JoshC.]

I was afraid this was going to happen.

From what I understand, yesterday had three ways you could queue. Ordinary, Fastrack and RnR. That was just not going to work.

If you allot a certain number of seats to RnR, then - when combined with Fastrack - you're dramatically reducing how many people using the ordinary queueing method will get to ride and, as such, dramatically increasing the main queue time. It makes ordinary queueing pointless and anyone wanting to do it have sour tastes in their mouths. The other option of making RnR users virtually wait the real-life queue time (so, if you book at 11am and there's a 90min queue, you virtually wait 90mins) would not work, as there's just going to be too many people at any one time, and just increasing the queue.

It then also makes people question to point of Fastrack. Without RnR, you have the choice to queue normally or to pay extra and skip the majority of the queue at a time of your choice. But with RnR in the system used yesterday, you've got the third choice of being given a time to go straight onto the ride. It just comes across as Fastrack with less choice and you wouldn't know what to do.

Thorpe should have stuck to their guns with this one. Make sure that the tech behind it was working perfectly and just trial this as a full replacement for ordinary queueing. By not making it compulsory, they've made the system more confusing - both for guests and the system itself - and it just wouldn't have worked. Should have just stuck with it and seen if that worked. Or, if they've lost faith in that, trial it as a Fastrack replacement, paid-for service under a new name.

As I say, Thorpe should have stuck with their guns and tried the planned system for a bit longer.

[Coaster]

When I asked them about it at the park today they said the bad feedback we got from yesterday means we will be 'delaying' the trail. So not on today! Getting loads of rides in!

Grrr, wish I was there today! If they put it on tomorrow I will not be happy.

Glad to see that Thorpe have, for the time being, realised that it was ridiculous.

[Project LC]

If the first way didnt work and yesterdays way didnt work what are they going to try next. Personally I think they should stick with yesterdays system and refine the ratios of the queues. If the fastrack system is rolled into the RnR then it should work better as its only split 2 ways and the RnR can factor in the amount of fastrack exactly.

[Project LC]

New dates, guess what days I wont be visiting the park.

[J.S217]

Will be trying it out the day before the Alton towers TPM meet

[pluk]

TPM facebook says...

Thorpe Park Mania

1 hr ·

If your heading to Thorpe Park Resort this week Reserve n Ride will be once again trailing on the resorts top 5 coasters on some days, this includes:

23rd June - Reserve N' Ride will be available on the top 5 coasters
24th June - Fastrack will be bought using the Reserve N' Ride mobile platform
27th-30th June - Reserve N' Ride and Fastrack will be available on the top 5 coasters via the Reserve n Ride mobile system

By 'available' I'm guessing that it's optional and will work alongside the main queue line? If so this could be excellent, looks like they are working towards combining the two systems with the earlier trials so hopefully it'll go smoothly. One main queue, one FT/RAR queue combined, nice and simple. FT becomes a way of waiting less time for an RAR allocation or effectively being in two or more RAR queues at once, so still has its value (and will even more-so when more rides are added).

I like what this is turning in to a lot.

[Fred]

It's becoming a far better managed system. Wonder if the free queue system will continue to exist with the standby queue, or whether they'll just dump it for a Qbot..

[Project LC]

They have put a lot of time in this system. There going to stick with it, all they need to do know is work on the percentage of queue to RnR. However I still think the queue should favour the actual queue rather than RnR. A good place to start I think would be a 60:40 split.

[EddieGreen]

We popped to Thorpe on Friday - the plan was to enjoy some of the water rides we avoid in the colder months. It was busy with 90 minute queues for SAW and 60 minutes for many of the other rides. The staff seemed less friendly than usual which suggests they were under stress!

Reserve and Ride didn't seem to be working that well. We tend to take nothing into the park apart from cash and passes so didn't try the mobile system. At some points later in the day the R&R queue was slower than the main queue! Still open minded but I don't want to take my phone into the park - and there were long queues at many of the R&R points.

They have put a lot of time in this system. There going to stick with it, all they need to do know is work on the percentage of queue to RnR. However I still think the queue should favour the actual queue rather than RnR. A good place to start I think would be a 60:40 split.

On Friday we were queuing for SAW at 5:55. The R&R queue was 3 times as long as the normal queue! On the Swarm at 4:30 the R&R queue was twice as long and even getting preference moving no faster than the std queue.

I am normally a foul weather coaster fan - midweek in the wet off season in an empty park. So I don't expect to queue. If R&R can work then great. But still has some teething problems.

[Project LC]

Teething problems is an understatement. They need to ditch it once and for all. Ive had enough of reserve and ride, ive been suffering it all day all of Friday and 2 last year. It is the worst thing to meet any park in all of history. I would actually prefer q-bots. 

[Benin]

The problem atm seems to be that they've mixed the paying Fastrack and Reserve n Ride queues together in one queue...

 

Therefore combine that with Thorpe's over-selling of Fastracks, and it's a rather awkward situation... Especially given that there will be a lot of frustration coming from Fastrack buyers...