This is why I don't go on Saturdays any more it looks rammed packed. Wonder what the ratio is today for Fastrack to main queue.

This is why I don't go on Saturdays any more it looks rammed packed. Wonder what the ratio is today for Fastrack to main queue.

It must be horrible today. Stealth and samurai are down, Colossus and saw are currently 140mins and inferno and swarm are currently 90mins. X is even 45mins and vortex, rush, detonator, slammer and zodiac are all over 40minutes at the moment as well. Dread to think what the mazes are like.

(All according to queue-times.com).

Every maze is 140+... the highest the queue boards can say for some reason.

When I went last Saturday, the queue board was broken, however when they fixed it all mazes displayed 140mins straight away. In reality, we were told they were 3-4hours standby. To be honest, I think it's just the park don't want to look TOO bad with ridiculously long queue times.

Thanks for the info.

1. Joe Jessener @joejessener16

   @THORPEPARK massive overselling of fasttrack... 45 mins for mazes? Are you not making enough money already?

THORPE PARK Resort        ✔ @THORPEPARK

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@joejessener16 Hey. Fastrack does not offer you instant access to a ride and it instead cuts your queuing time by 1/3. Thank you.

8:19 PM - 26 Oct 2014

Someone's had a long weekend on the twitter account.

so 1/3rd of the train is going towards fastrack which quite frankly is disgusting. Anyone has a right to say that it is overselling. It shouldn't exceed 10% let alone 25%. To moan at a 45 minute wait for a fastrack queue is perfectly acceptable but if that is 1/3rd of the queue then that main queue must have been horrific. Sell less of fastrack, introduce queueline entertainment like tvs with games, music ect. and then someone may have a positive experience at the park rather than they waited 90 minutes for every ride and paid £45 to do so. 

Sheer idiocy. On both the guests behalf and the park management.

so 1/3rd of the train is going towards fastrack which quite frankly is disgusting. Anyone has a right to say that it is overselling.

 

Just to say, that's always how Fastrack operates.  When the park isn't insanely busy, it normally works 'okay' (by which I mean, okay for a Fastrack system...)

I knew it was high but I thought their old complicated system was still in use which worked out to be 25%. 33% is stupid and insulting to anyone who paid to get in. 

Sheer idiocy. On both the guests behalf and the park management.

Why would buying fastrack make guests idiots?

so 1/3rd of the train is going towards fastrack which quite frankly is disgusting. Anyone has a right to say that it is overselling. It shouldn't exceed 10% let alone 25%. To moan at a 45 minute wait for a fastrack queue is perfectly acceptable but if that is 1/3rd of the queue then that main queue must have been horrific. Sell less of fastrack, introduce queueline entertainment like tvs with games, music ect. and then someone may have a positive experience at the park rather than they waited 90 minutes for every ride and paid £45 to do so. 

 

that's not what the tweet says

Wait does it mean cut it by a 1/3rd or make it 1/3rd of the main queue? Because at the moment what it is saying is that if the fastrack queue was 40 minutes the main queue would be an hour. 

If the main queue is 60 minutes in Fastrack you will wait 1/3 of that so 20 minutes.

HOWEVER, read the tweet carefully. It says that fastrack CUTS your queueing time by 1/3. Meaning if the main queue was 60, you would wait 40. The twitter team never have a clue what they're saying anyway, just trying to get rid of the endless complaints.

Anyway, 45mins in fastrack is not acceptable it's being way oversold, people on facebook have been waiting 60mins to buy fastrack then 90mins followed at guest services.

I thought that was the case but reading that tweet it says otherwise. Cut your wait by 1/3rd makes it seem as it will reduce your wait by 20 minutes instead of making it 20 minutes. If they think RnR can fix this then they are wrong, all it will do is hide the problems to the public. Thats why they think it works. 

Isn't Thorpe's twitter external these days? Would explain the miscommunication there as it shouldn't be a low difference between queues if they want to make Fastrack feel like value for money...

The only idiocy with Fastrack I see is when guests buy an Ultimate one with less than 15 minute queues... The masses buying Fastrack at this time neither care nor realise how much the overselling affects those in the normal queue, the park are the ones fully at fault for allowing it to spiral out like this...

45 minutes, regardless of it being shorter than the normal queue, doesn't read well considering the prices of the Fastrack packages... Then considering how that 45 minute queue affects the regular queue, that's not a lot of happy customers really...

Yet, every year its the same... Is it Thorpe? Or is it Thorpe trying to achieve Merlin set targets?

I just don't see the point in complaining about fastrack/the dreaded ratios, then accepting priority passes as a form of compensation.

Its the fastest way that the people at guest services can deal with them. Terrible system but can result in being beneficial if your complaint is not about fastrack and is about something else. 

Yes I know why they are given out, what I don't get is why those who complain about it accept them.

I guess they accept them because they think that its the only thing they can do. In a way it sort of is the only thing they can do. 

They can refuse it as a matter of principle, that's not hard. Serious hypocrisy on their account.

They would have just waited 30 minutes to complain, after being annoyed enough to go and complain. At that point I think anyone would find it hard to take the moral high ground. 

Why would buying fastrack make guests idiots?

Because queueing as much as shown in the picture and the Fastrack queue will pretty much take the same amount of time as the main queue! (I was talking about the queue shown in the picture).

People on facebook have been waiting 60 to 90mins to get into guest services, let alone be dealt with their complaint. I'm pretty sure if you've had to wait that long, after a bad experience you only have two options:

-Leave the park with your dignity.

-Take the priority passes and hope you can save back the time you have lost.

To be honest, either way thorpe are losing customers. The amount of people on facebook and twitter who have said they won't be returning ever again. There is a high bad reviews to good reviews ratio

I think the park seriously needs to considering their marketing schemes as a whole. The park seems to want to grab your money, then chuck free stuff at you to hope you return and then spend more money, however knowing next time to buy fastracks to make your day better. The park make enough money as I see it, getting £25-£50 per customer and then £5 per ride on fastrack. It's easily going to total up and I don't see why thorpe don't set a limit. After all, if there was good customer satisfaction, people are more likely to return. Anyway, I think the park should really consider how they want to present themselves next year, I know Paramount park isn't built yet, but it's soon around the corner and has the potential to steal Merlin's guests if they aren't careful.

They would have just waited 30 minutes to complain, after being annoyed enough to go and complain. At that point I think anyone would find it hard to take the moral high ground. 

 

 

If it was so bad you were prepared to go and complain about it, why not take the moral high ground? I mean, what do people seriously expect to receive or achieve by complaining? They're hardly going to stop selling fastrack or suddenly improve the ratios... I also know far too many people who complain for the priority passes.

Paramount Park will take away customers and they will take away even more if people remember experiences like the ones people have had over the last few weekends which they will. Not many people forget something like that.

So you've wasted 30 minutes queuing at guest services, all that time you are surrounded by people with a similar mind set. You are wasting even more time trying to talk to someone. They will be there to try and get there money back. If they are explained that refunds cant happen then they either have to settle for the next best thing or walk out;. Walking out will have tiny effect on the park so wont impact them. The only person who would have an impact if they walked out was if that person had a way of spreading their opinion to the masses. Like a journalist or something along those lines. 

Another point you raised that people complain for the passes is another fault of Thorpe. People know that they are going to get something for nothing so they are going to play the system. If Thorpe didn't give them out so much less people would do it.