Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 If Merlin really want to push fast track and VIP then they should considering adjusting their popular rides to account for it by doing what the operators on Inferno and Colossus were doing over the weekend and having a section of the cattle pen blocked off so that this row of seats is where the Fast trackers and VIP's sit, it was working quiet well, if there was no-one waiting they'd let an extra two/four through from the cattle pen to fill in the vacant seats. I only saw this system fail once when some spotty teenager decided to remove the plank blocking off the pen and 'queue' in the closed access hole, but one of the ride operators was on the ball and stopped him barging his way onto the ride in place of some poor sod more deserving (I actually mean that with sincerity, there was this really big, obviously physically disabled guy waiting patiently and the kid obviously had no intention of waiting his turn). What I mean is though, that there is is a specific queue seperate from the main queue feeding only those seats on the train, on most rides I saw the fast track queue feeds into the main one at some point in the process, they should keep the two systems totally separate with the flexibility built in that if there's FT/VIP waiting, the ride operator can let other on, it would mean rebuilding all the queuing systems though, and probably wouldn't be too popular with the folk who think fast track / VIP means instant access. I've never understood the obsession of front row riding, best place is always the back lol, only advantage of the front is you get a nice view for a few seconds at thtop lol. Paul2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 I'm not saying it is, you / fast trackers have paid extra for quick entry, they should have a unified system that is setup able to accommodate this, not one that has different procedures from ride to ride. I've never been on fright night so don't know what it's like, but to be honest we go to theme parks to ride the roller coasters, not play on the side attractions, I can do that at our local travelling circus, that's just me though lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 The ride teams at thorpe seem to think differently... They will almost always try and clear the fastrack queue before even letting anyone through in the main queue. It's at it's worst on fright nights, when the fastrack line is well over an hour and the main queue is over 3 hours yet they only try and continuously clear the fastrack queue which is unsurprisingly, impossible. That's not our fault though or other fastracks. Fright Nights as I'm sure you'll agree they let far too many people into the park full stop. Then on top of the normal fastrack and ours you also get the special Fright Night fastracks which they don't appear to be able to balance all three. It's a vicious circle because if a person with fastrack complains, what do GS do....they give a priority pass which then increases the queues even more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Haha well in my experience (other parks may operate this differently or dependent on each ride) VIPs often just come up the exit on their own accord when they deem the Fastrack queue to be too long for them. It's a big grey area in terms of a queueing system. There is no grey area - they get fastrack, so join fastrack queues where they exist. Where they don't exist they have a certain way of entering, as labelled in their guide. Hosts/Staff not obeying by these rules or not understanding them are where the issues lay. It's that which causes so much confusion and hatred of the pass, and the staff by the VIP holders too. You need consistency in Theme Park operations, and when it's a costly product even more so. Paul2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 I'm not saying it is, you / fast trackers have paid extra for quick entry, they should have a unified system that is setup able to accommodate this, not one that has different procedures from ride to ride. I've never been on fright night so don't know what it's like, but to be honest we go to theme parks to ride the roller coasters, not play on the side attractions, I can do that at our local travelling circus, that's just me though lol. Swapped to iPad quote works fine.Only park where fastrack appears to work fine is Legoland in my opinion, the queues are fine - those that have paid for it get their shorter wait times. Fright nights for me were media night just for mazes then a couple of other nights just for rides in the dark. Slammer in darkness is something else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 There is no grey area - they get fastrack, so join fastrack queues where they exist. Where they don't exist they have a certain way of entering, as labelled in their guide. Hosts/Staff not obeying by these rules or not understanding them are where the issues lay. It's that which causes so much confusion and hatred of the pass, and the staff by the VIP holders too. You need consistency in Theme Park operations, and when it's a costly product even more so. Just hope this year the staff are more on the ball, there was talk in October that the hosts had been given a copy of each parks relevant information (doubt it though) if they've got that then there isn't really an excuse for not following it. And this years new staff should obviously be in the know from day one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 That wasn't hapenning over the weekend, on Inferno and Colossus (those were the rides we were on most) a lot of VIP's were going to the exit and being asked where they wanted to sit. I saw several unhappy people in the front row queue excitedly waiting their turn only to find some VIP's run down from the exit while the car was being unloaded to claim the front seats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 That wasn't hapenning over the weekend, on Inferno and Colossus (those were the rides we were on most) a lot of VIP's were going to the exit and being asked where they wanted to sit. I saw several unhappy people in the front row queue excitedly waiting their turn only to find some VIP's run down from the exit while the car was being unloaded to claim the front seats.On a normal day that shouldn't happen Ian, last weekend at Thorpe it was a special event all weekend. Normal park days is where all VIP's should use what's listed in the booklet.Not too sure what's going to happen at Chessington this weekend with regard to queues given their most popular rides are closed but it is listed as a VIP event for us again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 I think we've decided to skip Chessington this weekend, my son's tasted the elite rides at Thorpe now (totally the oppersite of our plans preseason, we planned to work up to Thorpe), so with so many rides out of operation it probably won't be worth it, and unless they performed miracles construction wise over the last two weeks, I can't see the penguin walkthrough thing being open either, it was still a building site week before last, and that,s about the only other thing he'd be interested in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Fastrack feeding into set rows is a horrific system. It may be nice for the people which can use those rows but for the main queue it means there is a set throughput they can't use and the throughput they can use still has a 20-30% fastrack allocation. So on nemesis inferno the main queue serves just over half the train. It's a joke and annoying. Some allocations I've seen have been horrible. The swarm queue didn't move for 15-20 minutes while I was in it because of them selling fastrack at the entrance and a load of VIP holders putting up a fuss they had to wait 20 minutes. Well to be honest not a single person we talked to cared what they had to say as we had been waiting about 70 minutes. The pass shouldn't exist. Merlin may want to rake in the cash but there should be no option that allows someone constant use of a queue that is shorter and give it a name that gives them an excuse to act all high and mighty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 At the weekend the main queue on inferno was serving all but one row on the train, the row at the back, or second from back was serving disabled/vip's, the only time I saw that change was when a VIP wanted another seat, in which case they made them wait until the next train and temporarily blocked off the entry pen to that row, same for Colossus, most of the time the VIP's were not abusing the system. At one point the entire ride exit ramp on inferno was blocked by VIP's waiting, but the operator still only let one rows worth of people on at a time, the rest had to wait, and some got told off for cluttering up the exit ramp (how hard is it to queue in single file I ask?). If they run that operation throughout the year then I, as a general herded person, would have no problem with it, like most what annoys me is when the VIP's were refusing to vacate the ride and insisting the operators let them on for a second go, now that would piss me off, it should be made clear by Merlin that seat hogging is as unacceptable as main queue jumping. Also as I said, if there were no VIP/disabled people waiting, they just opened the pen temporarily and let enough people from the main queue through to fill up the vacant seats, I can't see that affecting throughput much, if at all, not when the train is still waiting to be dispatched while the other one is on track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete_A Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Re the above two posts. This is what gives vip holders a bad. Can I just ask, did the pass holders get to stay on the ride for a second ride? If so, that is completely unacceptable and the staff should be trained to say no and the passholder should be reported to the vip team. You see, this kind of thing annoys me. This pass should never have been named vip as it gives a general message that people are vips. We are not, we are just pass holders who have purchased fastrack. End of story. Why some people try it on is beyond me, but again maybe its those three little letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Also worth making a slight addition but in respect of last weekend it doesn't make a difference, there are some VIP holders who are also entitled to the Disabled Wristband which unless I'm corrected mean they use only exit / disabled and never the fastrack queue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 No idea as we bundled onto the back, but on Saturday on Swarm some were told to get off and use a sneaky gate to jump the queue back to the cattle pen, I'm not sure they were demanding a re-ride though, just asking how to do it quickly, didn't bother us but we had only been standing there was 30 seconds and the ride was essentially walk on anyway, we got a similar deal too as we walked off I asked DS if he wanted another go and the ride operator heard and told us just to jump back on since no-one was in the pen. There will always be a minority who give the majority a bad name though, the effectiveness of the system is in how TPTB re-educate them so it doesn't happen again. Should have called it a Platinum Pass or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Just to clarify the VIP pass doesn't irk me, I just think Merlin could have implimened it better. I myself would consider buying one, but like others would have he sensible hat on with it in regard to queues. Also I don't know they were 100% demanding a second ride, they were talking to the ride operator and could have just been slow getting out, we were more interested in getting on the back ourselves, I may just have add 2+2 and got 5. I did see it on loggers though, my son ask to go around again and the girl said no, so he replied well you've let those girls go again (the boat in front had two girls on), she didn't say much but one of the girls had a silver leynard, I just said to DS we'd run round as there wasn't a queue and it would keep us fit, but he didn't want to cos we were all soaked lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 In my opinion VIP passes should only be able to use the fastrack queue and never be able to reride unless the general public are allowed to. If a ride doesn't have fastrack then tough. No pass unless it's disability should allow exit access. TPJames 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 In my opinion VIP passes should only be able to use the fastrack queue and never be able to reride unless the general public are allowed to. If a ride doesn't have fastrack then tough. No pass unless it's disability should allow exit access. So no exit fastrack for passholders, what about people who buy fastrack on the day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted March 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 The problem is particularly bad at Thorpe Park because fastrack sales generally seem far higher than Alton Towers. Paul2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 So no exit fastrack for passholders, what about people who buy fastrack on the day? No fastrack ever should be using the exit. There are fastrack queues on fastrack available rides. At no point should anyone be queuing at the exit. If the park isn't busy enough to have someone at the fastrack queue then clearly you don't need to be using the system. Thorpe parks allocation is done by selling the number of tickets to be 1/3rd of the wait time of the main queue. Which is a fancy way of saying it cant exceed 25% of the throughput allocation. I don't know about Alton but I imagine it is very similar. The only difference is that Alton generally have high throughput rides. Paul2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 No fastrack ever should be using the exit. There are fastrack queues on fastrack available rides. At no point should anyone be queuing at the exit. If the park isn't busy enough to have someone at the fastrack queue then clearly you don't need to be using the system. Thorpe parks allocation is done by selling the number of tickets to be 1/3rd of the wait time of the main queue. Which is a fancy way of saying it cant exceed 25% of the throughput allocation. I don't know about Alton but I imagine it is very similar. The only difference is that Alton generally have high throughput rides. Sorry I must have got confused, I thought you meant if a ride doesn't have a dedicated fastrack queue then it shouldn't allow access via the exit? But then in some cases the fastrack queue is officially the exit -Rumba Rapids for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 I did mean that if there is no dedicated fastrack queue then you shouldn't be able to fastrack it. The rumba rapids definitely doesn't need to be fastracked. The whole queue filled only takes about 10-20 minutes, not exactly a big wait. If a ride doesn't have a dedicated queue for fastrack then you shouldn't be able to by pass the main one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 I did mean that if there is no dedicated fastrack queue then you shouldn't be able to fastrack it. The rumba rapids definitely doesn't need to be fastracked. The whole queue filled only takes about 10-20 minutes, not exactly a big wait. If a ride doesn't have a dedicated queue for fastrack then you shouldn't be able to by pass the main one. I can see your point but it isn't because of the pass, fastrack for Rapids has been via the exit for years and anyone who buys fastrack on the day gets it. You can see just from the Rapids fastrack that it only exists because it's sheer profit for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 I never meant it as it was the passes fault. I more said it as a general statement that no one should be fastracking the Rumba Rapids. I am aware they can and they do so via the exit but its pointless. It makes guests angry and saves them hardly anytime anyway. Paul2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2014 Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 Out of all of these I think the only one's where VIP holders get special treatment is Cbeebies Land. Those pages all set out where we go, only thing that can change it is if the staff instruct you or Fastrack is closed. The Dragon at LEGOLAND is missing but it's Fastrack (Q-Bot) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 10, 2015 Report Share Posted March 10, 2015 63 rides where you enter via the exit when fastrack for the ride shouldn't even exist for anyone, never mind VIP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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