Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing at theme parks is timing ride throughputs and observing the operations on rides. With this in mind, I decided to make a thread for like-minded people who are interested in throughputs and operations to share their throughput timings and operational insights from parks around the world. Whether your timings and operational insights are from Chessington, Europa Park, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Oakwood or anywhere else in the world, I’d love to hear about them and I’m sure many others would too!

 

My reason for deciding to create this thread is because I have some throughput timings and operational insights of my own to share. Currently, I’m coming towards the end of a trip to Florida, so I thought I’d share some of the throughput timings and general operational insights I was able to log at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.

 

For various reasons, I could not time throughputs quite as comprehensively as I would normally like on this trip; things like metal detectors and themed queues obscuring sight of the rides at Universal and queues that were often too short to get a comprehensive average at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens meant that I had to rely more on chance occasions where I was standing within eyeshot of a ride at Universal in particular and as such, the averages are often based on lower amounts of dispatches than the 10 I normally aspire towards. Nonetheless, here are some of the throughput timings and general insights I was able to gain from Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.

 

Islands of Adventure

• Flight of the Hippogriff (Theoretical: 993pph on 2 trains) - 951pph (2 trains, 12th June 2023, average of 3) Note: I did not ride this, but I got a good vantage point from the queue line of Hagrid’s.
• Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 12 trains) - 1,617pph (unknown number of trains, 12th June 2023, average of 10)
• Incredible Hulk (Theoretical: 1,920pph on 3 trains) - 1,138pph (possibly only running 2 trains (as I did not stack, which I didn’t think was possible on 3), 12th June 2023, average of 4), 1,608pph (unknown number of trains, 21st June 2023, average of 3)
• VelociCoaster (Theoretical: 1,800pph on 4 trains) - 1,489pph (unknown number of trains, 17th June 2023, average of 3), 1,566pph (4 trains, 21st June 2023, average of 6)

Universal Studios Florida

• Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (Theoretical: 1,850pph on 7 trains) - 1,329pph (unknown number of trains, 13th June 2023, average of 3)

SeaWorld Orlando

• Ice Breaker (Theoretical: 650-750pph on 2 trains) - 564pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 2)
• Kraken (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and stacking on the brake run was routine. According to the dispatch timer in the station, the ride’s average park time seemed to be around 3 minutes. (16th June 2023)
• Mako (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 960pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 4). In terms of general insights, there was quite often a gap in the station between trains and the dispatch timer showed the train being parked for as little as 60 seconds on some occasions.
• Manta (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and 1 station, and stacking seemed fairly common. (16th June 2023)
• Pipeline The Surf Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 474pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 7)

Busch Gardens Tampa

• Cobra’s Curse (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 trains) - 527pph (unknown number of trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 2)
• Iron Gwazi (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 493pph (2 trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 5). In terms of general insights, stacking was routine and park times in the station averaged around 2.5 minutes according to the station dispatch timer, sometimes going as high as 3 minutes.
• Kumba (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 3 trains) - I did not get a reading for this, but the ride was seemingly only running 1 train. (22nd June 2023)
• Sand Serpent (Theoretical: 1,120pph on 10 cars) - 331pph (4 cars, 22nd June 2023, average of 4)
• Scorpion (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 357pph (1 train, 22nd June 2023, average of 2)

I hope you find this interesting; I know I certainly found this data interesting to gather! If I’m able to do any notable readings at Universal tomorrow, I’ll report back, but as my Florida trip is mostly over, I thought I’d report my current findings.

 

If you have any throughput timings and/or general operational insights from a recent park visit that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in this thread!

I’m back! This time, I have readings from my first ever visit to Flamingo Land, and this is one that I was quite interested to time the throughputs of, seeing as it reputedly has throughputs and operations on the other end of the spectrum compared to somewhere like Europa Park or Universal Orlando. I was led to believe that if Europa has famous operations, Flamingo Land has infamous operations.

 

Here are the readings I managed to gain today:

• Hero (Theoretical: 600pph with 6/7 cars) - 167pph (2 cars, 7th August 2023, average of 10)
• Kumali (Theoretical: 1,125pph with 2 trains) - 214pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 2)
• Mumbo Jumbo (Theoretical: 480pph with 5 cars) - 171pph (3 cars, 7th August 2023, average of 6)
• Sik (Theoretical: 1,250pph with 2 trains) - 373pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 4)
• Velocity (Theoretical: 518pph with 1 train) - 252pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 4)

These are some of the slowest operations I have ever personally witnessed, but in fairness, I managed 9 rides, and the longest queue all day was 40 minutes, so I can’t really complain too much.

 

The operations didn’t seem overly disproportionate to the crowd levels at the park, for the most part; they could have been faster, for sure, but a park of Flamingo Land’s calibre is never going to be hammering trains out at light speed and getting 1,800pph on every ride, and I honestly don’t think they really need to be given their visitor numbers.

 

One thing I did notice, though, is that the people batching the rides were the same ones who checked the restraints and dispatched the rides. I don’t know if this is par for the course at Flamingo Land, but the number of staff operating each ride seemed low compared to most other theme parks I’ve been to. Maybe the operations would be faster if the rides had more staff?

Mingo also has a more recent issue of removing seats off of things like Flip Flop and Pterodactyl, further reducing throughputs.

 

Guess the caravan park been a bit quiet with the poor weather. But those throughputs are god awful no matter what way its spun as "only" 40 minutes. Would've been far less and a far higher ride count if things were run even slightly better, but sounds like maintenance wise there's a lot of issues with stuff breaking down often.

26 minutes ago, Benin said:

Mingo also has a more recent issue of removing seats off of things like Flip Flop and Pterodactyl, further reducing throughputs.

 

Guess the caravan park been a bit quiet with the poor weather. But those throughputs are god awful no matter what way its spun as "only" 40 minutes. Would've been far less and a far higher ride count if things were run even slightly better, but sounds like maintenance wise there's a lot of issues with stuff breaking down often.

That’s a good point that I forgot to pick up on. I noticed that Pterodactyl appeared to be missing arms, and I’m guessing that’s why Flip Flop looked more like one of the KMG frisbee-style rides with gaps between seats when I thought that it was supposed to be one of the Zamperla rides with a continuous ring of seats all the way around?

 

I was perfectly content with the queues on the day I went; 40 minutes is no worse than I’ve encountered in many other places, and most queues were no longer than 30-35 minutes or so. Had the day been busier and the queues been longer, I can see how the operations may have been more problematic, and I can also see how my day may not have been as fruitful had I not followed prior advice on which rides to do first, but if considering my own day in isolation, I was satisfied with the amount I personally got on.

 

Breakdowns were a minor issue, as Cliff Hanger remained closed all day and Zoo Monorail and Pterodactyl both broke down as I was waiting for them. However, I’m not sure if that’s entirely the park’s fault; things break down, and that can’t really be helped.

I went to Chessington yesterday, and I managed to get throughput timings and insights from the 3 coasters I did.

• Dragon's Fury (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars) - 497pph (unknown number of cars, 17th September 2023, average of 10) Note: This number assumes that all 4 seats in a car were full for the sake of simplicity. Due to a rule imposed by Chessington allowing no more than 3 adults per car, seats were going out empty more often than not; some cars were going out full, but most seemed to be going out with only 2 or 3 seats filled out of 4. Therefore, the actual attained figure is most likely a fair peg lower than the one given above. For some idea, the average dispatch interval I timed was approximately 28 seconds, and in the period I wasn't timing, I'd say that the average interval looked to be somewhere around the 30 second ballpark.
• Mandrill Mayhem (Theoretical: 840pph on 1 train) - 575pph (1 train, 17th September 2023, average of 9)
• Vampire (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 418pph (2 trains, 17th September 2023, average of 6)
• Tomb Blaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 5 trains) - I could not time Tomb Blaster exactly, as I was ushered onto the ride too quickly to gain any timings, but my very vague timing (aka checking my watch) of the dispatch I was on came to roughly a 3 minute dispatch interval, which would equate to around 600pph if all 30 seats on the train were full. (unknown number of trains, 17th September 2023)

Overall, I'd say that the park was mixed to weak operationally, if I'm being honest. The staff on the ground were working very hard and trying their best, but I would say that the park had some of the lowest throughputs I've ever seen relative to the crowds it gets. The throughputs of most of the rides I did seemed to be stunted to some degree by either procedure, a lack of staff, or both; the operations were certainly no fault of the staff themselves.

 

The strongest operations of the day were on Mandrill Mayhem, by my reckoning. Yes, the procedure that means that guests can't wait on the platform behind the airgates is a considerable stumbling block for efficient operations, and that's probably something that could have been avoided during the design phase, but there's not a lot that they can do to rectify that now. With all things considered, I thought the ride was being operated very well. With the cards that have been dealt in terms of the intrinsic throughput of the ride and the H&S-related loading procedure, I thought that an average dispatch interval of just shy of 3 minutes was very, very good, personally; I was certainly pretty pleased with this figure seeing as the ride only has 1 train and has to load in the way it does. The ride seemed relatively well staffed, and the staff were doing an excellently prompt job of checking restraints and such. Great job, Chessington!

 

Weight limits notwithstanding, Dragon's Fury definitely wasn't operating as promptly as Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers mostly does. On Spinball, the cars continuously motor through the station, with the continuously moving loading system being well utilised and not really having any kind of delay, and dispatch intervals as quick as 20 seconds are achieved. On Dragon's Fury, however, the continuously moving loading system was not really being used (I could have sworn it had one the same as Spinball's from previous visits, but I could be wrong there), and 2 or 3 cars or so often seemed to be stacked up in the station at once. With that being said, a good number of cars were seemingly running, and 30 seconds certainly isn't a terribly slow dispatch interval by any stretch of the imagination, although the weight limit definitely limits the throughput potential of the ride and the likes of Spinball do show that faster dispatches can be achieved with the same ride hardware.

 

Vampire definitely had some of the most surprisingly slow operations of the day, and this was due in large part to the fact that the ride was seemingly lacking staff. One operator was running the whole show for the main queue, being left to both batch and check the restraints on the entire right hand side of the train. They had one companion, who was batching what appeared to be the RAP queue and checking the restraints on the entire left hand side of the train. These staff were working incredibly hard and certainly putting all their energy into checking the restraints and batching, but at very least, I feel that a separate bayloader for each queue would not have gone amiss and would have sped things along considerably. The whole process of the operator checking restraints, pressing the send button and then having to jump over the separating fence and batch people before jumping back over to check the restraints for the next train and repeat the whole process again definitely slowed things down, and as a result, dispatch intervals of over 4 minutes were timed in some of the slowest cases, with the overall average coming to around 3.5-4 minutes per dispatch, despite Vampire looking like a ride that could quite easily attain quick dispatch intervals on paper. It reminded me of Flamingo Land, where they run things in a similar manner, and with queues being markedly longer at Chessington than they were on my visit to Flamingo Land, I don't think this method is as proportionate to the crowds at Chessington as it is at Flamingo Land.

 

The situation at Tomb Blaster was very similar to that on Vampire. One operator was running the entire show on their own here, being left in charge of batching, checking restraints and sending the ride. The operator was working very hard and doing a very prompt job, but the fact that they were having to do everything slowed things down, and as a result, a ride that looks like it should attain fairly quick dispatch intervals on paper was dispatching around every 3 minutes. To be fair, though, the queue was not as long for this, with me only waiting around 30-35 minutes, and the ride's fairly large train means that a throughput of roughly 600pph would still have been attained, which, if I had properly timed it, would probably have been the highest on park. Similarly to Vampire, though, 2 additional staff members (one bayloader and one operator sat in the cabin sending the ride) would not have gone amiss and would have sped things up notably, in my view.

Fury can't run 8 cars and I believe hasn't since it first opened.

 

Usually 6 or 7 cars. Target was approx 600-700pph.

 

Doubt Tomb Blaster runs 5 trains either. Its shocking that a number of once fairly high throughput rides are so badly operated these days.

 

Lot of this concerns me that when I visit I'm going to spend most of my time being far more annoyed than normal.

I love theoretical throughputs, even on 8 cars there is absolutely no way it could get 950 people per hour. Its absolute maximum was 750 on 8 cars which it last did in 2005. 

For anyone who's interested, I managed to time various ride throughputs on my visits to Alton Towers yesterday and today. The throughput readings I managed to attain are as follows:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 871pph (3 trains/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 10)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,301pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8 )
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 1,146pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, 24th March 2024, average of 7)
• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 394pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 5), 357pph (1 train, 24th March 2024, average of 8 )
• Runaway Mine Train (Theoretical: 1,061pph on 1 train): 473pph (1 train, 23rd March 2024, average of 4) Note: The back car was missing, so the 473pph figure, which assumed a full train of 46, would have been more like 432pph in reality due to the train actually only carrying 42 riders as opposed to the usual 46. The average dispatch interval was 5m 49s, for reference.
• Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 829pph (2 trains, 23rd March 2024, average of 8), 770pph (2 trains, 24th March 2024, average of 8 )

I also have a few other side observations and insights to offer:

• Operations on Nemesis Reborn were noticeably slower today than they were yesterday. Yesterday's operations, listed above, saw dispatch intervals of 90s or less and little to no stacking, with a train often being dispatched as the one in front of it was still completing the course. Today, however, dispatch intervals of no faster than 2 minutes were being attained and stacking was routine. I'm not sure what the difference was, but today's operations were notably slower. I was unable to get a proper timing, but a brief attempt I made at timing saw a dispatch interval of over 2 minutes being attained, and I'd say that this was quite par for the course for the time I was in the queue. Pretty much every train I saw stacked outside the station for a notable period. For some perspective, I waited 60 minutes from the gun for my ride yesterday, while I queued 50 minutes from a little before the Phalanx shipping container lab for my ride today.
• The Smiler looked as though it might have been running 4 trains today, but I wasn't sure. I say this because the ride was often attaining perfect duelling, which I wouldn't imagine is possible on only 3 trains!
• I noticed that the intervals on Galactica appeared to be pretty inconsistent when I was doing the timing above. The intervals appeared to range between 80s and over 3 minutes!

Thanks for this @Matt N always find these interesting! 

 

Its so satisfying being in the Nemesis queue, always seem to have a good team running it and the queue constantly moves. Nice to see Oblivion is being ran slightly better this year hopefully that continues. 

 

Only timing I got last week was in the Wickerman queue as I was bored and was interested how it does on 2 trains. Were dispatching trains roughly every 2 mins so 720.

On 3/25/2024 at 12:58 PM, Cal said:

Thanks for this @Matt N always find these interesting! 

 

Its so satisfying being in the Nemesis queue, always seem to have a good team running it and the queue constantly moves. Nice to see Oblivion is being ran slightly better this year hopefully that continues. 

 

Only timing I got last week was in the Wickerman queue as I was bored and was interested how it does on 2 trains. Were dispatching trains roughly every 2 mins so 720.

Hopefully this is the start of slightly stronger ops on Oblivion! In previous years, it's often had slightly weaker operations, with throughputs slipping to 800-900pph on occasions, so I was pleased to see this improved throughput reading!

 

That's an interesting finding with Wicker Man. Clearly it was going a bit slower during your visit, as both of my readings had it closer to 800pph, or dispatches roughly 10s or so faster.

I got a few interesting throughput readings and operational insights from my recent trip to Legoland Windsor, if anyone’s interested.

• Minifigure Speedway (Theoretical: Unknown): 825pph (2 sides each running 1 train, 9th June 2024, average of 2)
• The Dragon (Theoretical: Unknown): 555pph (unknown number of trains, 9th June 2024, average of 2) Note: While I do not know the exact number of trains The Dragon was running, I should note that there was occasionally a small gap in the station between a train leaving and the next entering, so I’d maybe take a stab at 2?

I should caveat these numbers by saying that the averages are based off of a very limited number of readings due to either a very limited ability to consistently view the rides from their respective queue lines, me trying to conserve my phone battery or both.

  

In terms of some more general operational insights:

• Flight of the Sky Lion seemed to be operating pretty slowly. There was only one staff member in charge of both batching the main queue and managing Fastrack/RAP, and things seemed to be moving pretty slowly as a result. The one staff member was working very hard, but I think they could maybe have used another. I did not get an exact timing, but at an uneducated guess, I’d take a stab at there being not much more than a cycle going every 10 minutes. As I say, that’s an uneducated guess from me, and it could absolutely be wrong, but things felt like they were moving slowly on there.
• On some rides, I noticed that the park weren’t filling empty seats. I can fully understand why they aren’t rigidly filling all empty seats, particularly given the demographic that visits Legoland, but on Ninjago, for instance, I got an entire 4-person car to myself when there was a 60+ minute queue of people behind me. Surely a group of 2 or 3 could have been batched next to me?
• In general, I think Legoland could do with some higher capacity rides. The queues often seemed to move quite slowly, and for some of the park’s more major rides, advertised queues were quite often approaching or over 60 minutes for much of the day. Minifigure Speedway is a start in this regard, with a throughput that definitely seemed improved on many of the park’s other rides, but similarly to Chessington, I think they could do with a few queue munchers. At least one new attraction that can get close to or exceed 1,000pph with relative ease would be good.
• For reference, the day of my visit was a Sunday in early June where the park closed at 5pm, so it wasn’t an especially peak day by any means.

Overall, I’d say operations and throughputs at Legoland were somewhat slow. In many cases, the queues did seem to be moving quite slowly. How much of that was down to operations and how much of that was down to the intrinsic throughput of the rides, I don’t know, but many queues were quite slow, and I think the park could do with some higher throughput rides. Minifigure Speedway is certainly a start in this sense, though, and the operations on there seemed pretty good!

For those interested, I was able to get some throughput timings during my visit to Alton Towers today. The readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 863pph (3 trains/2 stations, average of 4, 28th July 2024)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 954pph (2 trains, average of 7, 28th July 2024)
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 997pph (6 shuttles/2 stations, average of 9, 28th July 2024)
• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 758pph (2 trains, average of 8, 28th July 2024)
• The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 4 trains): 755pph (4 trains, baggage hold open, average of 7, 28th July 2024)
• Thirteen (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 3 trains): 1,102pph (3 trains, baggage hold open, average of 6, 28th July 2024)

In terms of a few other general insights:

• Operations on Nemesis generally seem to be notably worse post-retrack. I’m not entirely sure why, but before, you’d often get  dispatch intervals of close to 90s, whereas it now seems like dispatch intervals of more like 2 minutes are more par for the course.
• Galactica’s dispatch intervals varied between very quick (~80s) and very slow (multiple minutes). I’m assuming that this is down to the dual stations?
• On The Smiler, I noticed that they seemed to be struggling to get enough people from the main queue up into the station quickly enough to match the ride dispatches at times. I also noticed that the merge host was heavily prioritising Fastrack and RAP over the main queue and single rider. Single rider in particular was abandoned for quite a few minutes at a time, although I accept that this may be something to do with them wanting to stagger the number of single riders in the station and using the baggage hold.

Galactica having a theoretical throughput of 1,500 an hour is just so hysterically optimistic.

8 hours ago, Inferno said:

Galactica having a theoretical throughput of 1,500 an hour is just so hysterically optimistic.

It’s quite optimistic nowadays, but it apparently came close to this figure in its early years. I was told it used to frequently hit or exceed 50 trains per hour (1,400pph) in its early years.

The Thirteen crew smashing it I see. Kinda glad that the most accessible of the Towers coasters has a capacity that high.

I’ve just realised that I forgot to post a couple of timings from my time in East Anglia; I have timings and operational insights from Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Pleasurewood Hills!

 

I’m afraid I don’t have many timings due to many of the queues being too short to get any meaningful timings, but the timings and insights I do have are as follows…

Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach

• Roller Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 trains) - 315pph (1 train, average of 2, 11th August 2024)
• Family Star (Theoretical: 600pph on unknown number of cars) - 404pph (5 cars, average of 2, 11th August 2024)

In terms of general insights, operations seemed pretty good for a park of Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach’s calibre! Family Star was whacking out cars in little over 30 seconds (I’ve seen far worse than that on similar rides elsewhere), and even though only the one train was running, checks on the Roller Coaster were very prompt; they didn’t even seemingly need to check our restraints, so we pretty much just sat down and went! I do think the ride would benefit from a second train, however; with the separate offload area, there was actually time being wasted while people got off the ride and the onload area was empty. All in all, though, I thought GYPB had pretty good ops for a park of its calibre; queues were certainly short, anyhow!

 

Pleasurewood Hills

• Cannonball Express (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 5 trains) - 159pph (1 train, average of 4, 12th August 2024)

In terms of general insights; the queues were too short to gauge a reliable picture of Pleasurewood’s ops, but I thought they were perfectly good, for the most part; I didn’t think they seemed excessively slow by any stretch. Similarly to the Roller Coaster at GYPB, I think Cannonball is hampered considerably by only having one train in operation, with that separate offload area actually slowing things down. Cannonball Express was the only ride I saw build up any kind of considerable queue while I was at Pleasurewood Hills; it took us 15-20 minutes to pass through a short queue of only a few people, and it looked much longer by the time we got off.

I got a few throughputs on my trip, some which slightly surprised me (some didn't)

 

Europa Park

 

Voltron - 1382 people per hour (ppH) - (Theoretical 1600). Slightly down on its theoretical of 1600 but still a good number. My husband tracked a day before and it was running at 1598 an hour which is pretty much bang on.

 

Swiss Bobsleigh - 963 pph (Theoretical 1100). Obviously it's not getting this number as a lot of carriages will only have one person in them. Nonetheless, a very good number for a support rollercoaster

 

Matterhorn Blitz - 784 pph (Theoretical 960). Mightily impressive number for a wild mouse, its run remarkably well and the 20 minute queue board was accurate.

 

Disneyland Paris

 

Thunder Mountain - 1840 pph (Theoretical 2424). Not really sure where that theoretical number comes from, 1800 is still a good number. My only problem with Thunder is that every day it has a massive shutdown which takes it out of action for 2 hours minimum. As regular as a 2pm storm in Florida.

 

Small World - 2723 pph. Amazing number. if you ever see Small World on a 30 minute queue, its a very busy day..

 

Indian Jones and the temple of peril - 925 pph. Not bad for a support rollercoaster but nowhere near the level required for Disney.. well at least it wasn't back in 1995. Nowadays this would be considered a fantastic number for a disney attraction.

 

Buzz Lightyear Spin - 2450 pph. Not much to say here, great number.

 

Phantom Manor - 2050 pph. Number affected by a stoppage for disability guests. However, this is still a great number.

 

Efteling

 

Baron 1898 - 692 pph (Theoretical 1000). This was on two trains with a 20 minute queue and to be honest the third train always sits on the breaks waiting so actually this was the best they can do on a 33% capacity drop. It was running very consistently and lets face it, its an amazing ride whatever the wait time.

 

Python - 583 pph. Not bad considering it was on a one train service. Wait was 30 minutes but the staff were fast and effective.

On 9/21/2024 at 1:24 PM, Mark9 said:

Thunder Mountain - 1840 pph (Theoretical 2424). Not really sure where that theoretical number comes from, 1800 is still a good number. My only problem with Thunder is that every day it has a massive shutdown which takes it out of action for 2 hours minimum. As regular as a 2pm storm in Florida.

There’s definitely something up here isn’t there - during my recent trip (and in the random queue time checking in the weeks leading up to it) BTM went down for several hours every day without fail.

Actually this and Space Mountain had dreadful downtime, lasting several hours, every day all week.

Weird, and very impactful given how the park has been.

BTM has always been fairly unreliable over the years for some reason.

 

Can't say for why though. 

Apologies for being nearly a month late, but I have some throughput timings and insights to share from my recent trip to PortAventura World in Spain. The throughput readings I was able to get were as follows:

• Dragon Khan (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 trains) - 668pph (2 trains, average of 4, 10th September 2024), 806pph (2 trains, average of 3, 11th September 2024), 409pph (1 train, average of 4, 12th September 2024)
• El Diablo (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 trains) - 1,000pph (2 trains, average of 4, 11th September 2024)
• Furius Baco (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - 580pph (2 trains, average of 3, 10th September 2024), 622pph (2 trains, average of 10, 11th September 2024) Note: The 11th September average was skewed downwards by one particularly slow reading at the end; the picture up to that point was closer to 700pph.
• Red Force (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 434pph (2 trains, average of 10, 11th September 2024) Note: This average was skewed downwards by one particularly slow reading at the end. Up to that point, the average was closer to 550pph, or a train around every 80s.
• Shambhala (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 816pph (2 trains, average of 10, 10th September 2024), 774pph (2 trains, average of 9, 11th September 2024), 425pph (1 train, 12th September 2024, average of 2)
• Stampida (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains per side) - 1,229pph (2 trains per side, average of 6, 10th September 2024)
• Tomahawk (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 552pph (2 trains, average of 3, 10th September 2024)
• Uncharted (Theoretical: 900pph on 3 cars) - 720pph (unknown number of cars, average of 2, 12th September 2024)

Overall, I did not think that PortAventura’s operations were nearly as bad as I was expecting. Were they overly fast? No. But I also didn’t feel that they were abysmally slow either. Express Pass also wasn’t oversold, and queues moved decently. Queue times weren’t too bad either; I didn’t queue over an hour for anything all trip, and while the likes of Shambhala and Dragon Khan did get longer queues on occasion, there was always a major ride on a short queue to ride. Stampida, El Diablo, Street Mission and the water rides amongst others never seemed to get a queue longer than 20 minutes all trip.

 

In terms of the actual throughputs themselves; the only time I saw anything run on 1 train was Shambhala and Dragon Khan in the slightly hairy weather on Friday. Under normal circumstances, everything seemed to run at least 2 trains, and while not lightning fast, I didn’t think the dispatches were excessively slow either.

I have some throughput timings from my trip to Alton Towers on 26th and 27th July that I’d like to report!

 

Across the two days, I managed to grab the following throughput timings:

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations): 1,207pph (3 trains/2 stations, average of 4, 26th July 2025)
• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains): 1,163pph (2 trains, average of 5, 26th July 2025), 1,130pph (2 trains, average of 5, 27th July 2025)
• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations): 787pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, average of 3 dual dispatches, 26th July 2025) (Note: This figure was obtained in a brief moment when the ride did not have a batcher, so the platform staff were having to multitask), 939pph (5 shuttles/2 stations, average of 4 dual dispatches, 26th July 2025), 644pph (4 shuttles/1 station, average of 2, 27th July 2025)
• Spinball Whizzer (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars): 631pph (6 cars, average of 2, 26th July 2025 (Note: While I got relatively few readings for Spinball, I had a longer timing that I accidentally messed up by missing one, and the longer timing had a very similar, if not slightly faster, average; ops seemed pretty consistent on here for the whole time I was in the area)
• The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 5 trains): 882pph (4 trains, average of 10, 26th July 2025), 830pph (4 trains, average of 6, 27th July 2025) (Note: This figure was skewed downwards slightly by one instance of a larger guest who didn’t fit needing to be rechecked and evicted; the average of the other 5 readings was higher)
• Thirteen (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 3 trains): 1,272pph (3 trains, average of 7, 26th July 2025) (Note: This reading was skewed down by 1 or 2 instances of larger guests needing rechecking, as well as 1 instance where guests lingering from the prior train needed ushering off the exit platform prior to dispatch)
• Toxicator (Theoretical: 1,200pph): 482pph (average of 3, 27th July 2025)
• Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains): 970pph (3 trains, average of 10, 26th July 2025), 1,080pph (3 trains, average of 6, 26th July 2025), 991pph (3 trains, average of 7, 27th July 2025)

Overall, I thought operations were broadly excellent across the weekend! In terms of a few specific thoughts that stick out to me:

• After a bit of a slip in efficiency last year, Nemesis seems to have returned to its pre-retrack form in terms of operations; they were brilliant on there all trip, with little to no stacking, and there were staff members hurrying people along on the platform and at batching!
• It has been a bit inconsistent on some trips in the past, but I have to say that Galactica was doing brilliantly last weekend! They were killing it on 3 trains and 2 stations; I rode it twice and didn’t stack either time, and whenever I was in the station, it seemed very common for there to be a notable gap between a train leaving my station and the train behind re-entering it. The train was frequently slowing down on the lift hill (because the train in front hasn’t cleared the block yet) too. Brilliant!
• The key throughput highlight of the weekend was probably Thirteen. Given that my 1,272pph average was skewed down by a couple of larger guests needing rechecking, I think it’s fair to say that the Thirteen staff were doing brilliantly! It was on 3 trains, and they were throwing the trains out; when they were on a roll, they were getting dispatch intervals as fast as 50s, and the vast majority of dispatch intervals were under a minute! There was a dispatch where the staff had checked the train so fast that they had to usher the guests still exiting from the previous train off the exit platform to dispatch. Isn’t that awesome? It was like being in Europa Park or Universal! That ride really is a queue muncher when it runs to its full potential!
• The one bleaker spot on the otherwise excellent throughput picture was Oblivion. When I encountered the ride on Saturday, it was lacking a batcher at one point; that 787pph figure is probably the worst I’ve ever measured on 2 stations, and it was almost solely due to the platform staff having to duck out from the platform to come and batch people at periodic intervals. They did regain a separate batcher later in the day, but even then, the operations were not exactly staggering, with the average still being above 2 minutes between dual dispatches. It was also only running one station on Sunday, which definitely isn’t ideal in the summer holidays. This is the one ride that notably doesn’t quite hit its potential; I think baggage is the key thing that stymies it, as it takes a long time for people to cross those long rows. If it had a baggage hold or fancy cages like Yukon Striker, I think the throughput on Oblivion would go up two-fold.
• Wicker Man was doing really well as usual, with frequent cases of a train going up the lift hill before the one in front hitting the brake run, but I do think it might now be time to dispense of the compulsory pre-show. I noticed that they were often having to wait for the pre-show to end before they could fill the airgates (the station queue was running out of people before the doors were opening to let a new batch in), which did seem to slow dispatches down in some cases.

Overall, the weekend boasted broadly excellent operations, and no queue was very long at all! It’s weekends like this one that make me disagree with the common consensus that Alton Towers have dreadful operations; I’d argue that figures like these suggest that the park actually do very well on throughputs in general, with most rides running on full capacity and dispatching promptly!

The actual operations at Towers are broadly always excellent. It's whether the rides are actually open that is Altons problem. 

Before I potentially gain a whole new arsenal in Blackpool tomorrow, I’ve got a number of throughput timings to report from recent trips!

Alton Towers

• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains) - 1,130pph (2 trains, average of 5, 24th April 2026)

• The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 5 trains) - 722pph (4 trains, baggage hold closed, average of 5, 24th April 2026)

• Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains) - 920pph (3 trains, average of 3, 24th April 2026) Note: The ride briefly went down after this, so this reading might be slightly unreliable.

That was a quiet day at Alton Towers, so I wasn’t overly concerned about timing throughputs and frankly didn’t have the time to on a lot of rides (throughput timing is a secondary priority to riding!), but on the whole, operations seemed strong throughout the day! Oblivion was on 1 station, which was the only minor detractor, but as it was a quiet day, I didn’t think it was massively concerning.

Thorpe Park

• Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains) - 841pph (2 trains, average of 3, 12th May 2026), 833pph (2 trains, average of 9, 12th May 2026)

• Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 1,023pph (2 trains, average of 3, 12th May 2026)

• Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars/2 stations) - 789pph (unknown number of cars/2 stations, average of 3 dual dispatches, 12th May 2026)

• Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 906pph (2 trains, average of 6, 12th May 2026)

As with Towers above, it was a very quiet day and I wasn’t overly concerned about timing operations, but on the whole, throughputs seemed really strong throughout the day! Hyperia and Stealth in particular seemed to have excellent operations given the low crowd levels!

Paultons Park

• Drakon (Theoretical: Unknown on 3 cars) - 593pph (3 cars, average of 10, 16th May 2026)

• Farmyard Flyer (Theoretical: Unknown on 1 train) - 284pph (1 train, average of 2, 16th May 2026)

• Flight of the Pterosaur (Theoretical: 650pph on 1 train) - 465pph (1 train, average of 3, 16th May 2026)

• Raven (Theoretical: 720pph on unknown number of cars) - 447pph (3 or 4 (?) cars, average of 10, 16th May 2026)

• Storm Chaser (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 886pph (2 trains, average of 2, 16th May 2026), 790pph (2 trains, average of 3, 16th May 2026)

• Velociraptor (Theoretical: 750pph on 1 train) - 586pph (1 train, average of 4, 16th May 2026)

I’ve often said that Paultons doesn’t have overly strong operations, but this was my first time scrutinising them properly since 2021 (my 2025 visit was so quiet that there was no point even trying!), and I perhaps hadn’t given them enough credit previously, to be fair. Operations across the park were generally very good and prompt, for the most part! Maybe there are areas for improvement, but I thought levels of urgency given the hardware the park are working with were generally strong.

I realised that I’ve been on quite a few trips since I last posted any fresh throughput timings, so let me provide some from my trip to France in June and my recent trips to some Merlin parks last week!

Parc Astérix

• Cétautomatix (Theoretical: Unknown on 9 cars) - 690pph (unknown number of cars, average of 1, 29th June 2026)

• Goudurix (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 797pph (2 trains, average of 3, 29th June 2026)

• OzIris (Theoretical: 1,600pph on 3 trains) - 1,124pph (2 trains, average of 9, 29th June 2026)

• Pégase Express (Theoretical: Unknown on 4 trains) - 1,000pph (4 trains, average of 4, 29th June 2026)

• Tonnerre 2 Zeus (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 762pph (2 trains, average of 7, 29th June 2026)

• Toutatis (Theoretical: 1,260pph on 3 trains) - 1,156pph (2 trains, average of 1, 29th June 2026), 954pph (2 trains, average of 9, 29th June 2026)

• Trace du Hourra (Theoretical: Unknown on unknown number of trains) - 1,090pph (unknown number of trains, average of 6, 29th June 2026)

• Vol D’Icare (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 5 trains) - 425pph (unknown number of trains, average of 1, 29th June 2026) (this figure assumes 8 riders per train, which I’m not certain is actually correct)

In terms of some general operational insights:

• A number of the rides here had a rather peculiar loose article storage situation, wherein riders would stack their bags in a big trolley. It certainly made the platform operations speedy, but there must be a less faffy way to store bags before and after the ride, as getting them out at the end was a right faff! Other rides, curiously including Goudurix, had riders take bags on with them; you certainly wouldn’t be taking bags on a 7-looping Vekoma in Britain!

• A number of lap bar rides did not do manual restraint checks, which made for very speedy operations. Trace du Hourra in particular was a standout, and I feel like my 1,090pph figure does not do the operations on there justice; it was quite routinely banging out 40-45s dispatches, with the odd one even being under 40s. That’s absolutely obscene, and I dare say puts even Schweizer Bobbahn at Europa Park to shame; on this ride, you would frequently have a train leave the station before the one in front had left the lift hill, and for the most part, the operations on there ran like clockwork!

• Cétautomatix ran like absolute clockwork; it had a conveyor belt loading system, and they seem to have nailed those consistent 20s or so dispatch intervals down to a fine art!

• Operations were generally very, very prompt on the larger coasters, with both Toutatis and OzIris seeming pretty well operated. Again, both figures I have, particularly the one for OzIris, seem too low relative to how prompt I seem to remember the ops being; they really were quite fast on there! I seem to remember OzIris most typically managing 90s or so dispatch intervals.

• The loading process on Pégase Express was quite disorganised, with nobody really knowing where to go and this causing delays on the platform. The platform staff were still very prompt and dispatches were still pretty good on the whole, but it did sometimes cause trains to stack on the brake run.

On the whole, I would say Astérix seemed like a pretty well operated park, with limited downtime and generally fast throughputs! Even though some of the queues were quite long, they mostly seemed to move pretty quickly (with Toutatis being an odd exception; is there a lot of Fastrack on there or something)?

Disneyland Paris

• Avengers Assemble: Flight Force (Theoretical: 1,800pph on 5 trains) - 1,613pph (unknown number of trains, average of 2, 2nd July 2026)

• Big Thunder Mountain (Theoretical: 2,424pph on 5 trains/2 stations) - 1,577pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 6, 2nd July 2026)

• Indiana Jones et le Temple du Peril (Theoretical: Unknown on unknown number of trains) -  1,073pph (unknown number of trains, average of 2, 2nd July 2026)

• It’s a Small World (Theoretical: Unknown on unknown number of boats) - 1,155pph (unknown number of boats, average of 1, 2nd July 2026) (I had this down as 1,732pph, but I for some reason put that it had 24 riders per boat while Wikipedia claims 16, so I’ve adjusted the figure downwards to compensate… is Wikipedia correct?)

• Space Mountain (Theoretical: Unknown on 5 trains/2 stations) - 1,642pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 6, 2nd July 2026)

In terms of some general operational insights:

• Things generally operated very, very promptly. Disney parks may not rank as my absolute favourite parks, but the operations are one aspect of them I cannot criticise and generally very much like; similarly to Universal Orlando, the platform staff operate with almost a military degree of precision and speed and queues generally move quickly!

• They had quite a good common sense policy on restraint checking here that I very much liked and made things move promptly. They had everyone pulling up on their restraint to check that it was locked instead of doing checks up and down the whole train, which made things go quickly; why can’t more parks do that?

• Like Astérix, Disney seems to have a surprising tolerance for loose articles on intense rides. Both Avengers and Space Mountain have you carrying all loose articles, including bags, on board, which surprised me; is H&S more lax in France or something? I guess I could also ask the same question about the point above, actually, as I feel like the UK wouldn’t let you get away with bags on a looping coaster or no physical restraint checks, as much as I felt no physical restraint checks made sense and made things move more quickly…

• One exception to the “queues moving quickly” rule was Spider-Man; this seemed like ever such a slow queue, for some reason…

So all in all, then, I was generally very pleased with the operations at DLP; the queues are long, but they move quickly and the park generally operates their rides very well!

Alton Towers

• Galactica (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations) - 533pph (2 trains/1 station, average of 3, 21st September 2026), 622pph (unknown number of trains, average of 3, 22nd September 2026)

• Nemesis Reborn (Theoretical: 1,400pph on 2 trains) - 1,141pph (2 trains, average of 4, 21st September 2026) (take this one with a pinch of salt as they began sending every other train around empty, hence I stopped the timing), 566pph (1 train, average of 2, 22nd September 2026)

• Oblivion (Theoretical: 1,900pph on 7 shuttles/2 stations) - 468pph (3 shuttles/1 station, average of 6, 21st September 2026) (skewed upwards by one 167s dispatch; the other 5 dispatches ranged between 104s and 128s, averaging 114.4s and coming out at around 503pph), 610pph (3 shuttles/1 station, average of 2, 21st September 2026)

• Rita (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 392pph (1 train, average of 4, 21st September 2026)

• Spinball Whizzer (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars) - 626pph (5 cars, average of 1, 21st September 2026)

• The Smiler (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 5 trains) - 734pph (3 trains, no baggage hold, average of 2, 21st September 2026), 706pph (3 trains, no baggage hold, average of 5, 22nd September 2026)

• Thirteen (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 3 trains) - Didn’t get a timing, but it was definitely only on 2 trains and had no baggage hold operating (22nd September 2026)

• Wicker Man (Theoretical: 952pph on 3 trains) - 897pph (2 trains, average of 3, 21st September 2026), 978pph (3 trains, average of 3, 22nd September 2026), 728pph (3 trains, average of 10, 22nd September 2026) (this one was skewed down by 3 anomalously long readings of 147s, 192s and 166s; the other 7 ranged between 78s and 114s, averaging 97.3s and coming out at around 888pph)

In terms of some insights, I would say the following:

• People aren’t going to like me for saying this, but I think that the operation of the pre-show 100% stifled Wicker Man’s throughput last week. The platform staff were as prompt as ever, but so, so often, the train was sitting empty in the station waiting ages for people to be batched into it because the ride was operating more quickly than the pre-show, meaning that quite a few seconds were wasted and the batchers were having to run around like lunatics to batch everyone into an empty train as quickly as possible. It didn’t matter too much, as the ride wasn’t too busy at all, but if this is what happens on a busier day, I think the process needs work. While I acknowledge that there were 3 anomalously long dispatch intervals and the other 7 averaged 97s, having 3/10 dispatch intervals being 2.5+ minutes when the ride is running 3 trains is not great; that’s definitely the worst throughput I’ve ever seen on Wicker Man running 3 trains. I would argue that putting 3 trains on it, while of course welcomed, was possibly not the park’s top priority on the Tuesday when other things were running 1 train and had longer queues; Monday proved that it still does fairly well on 2 and the pains with the pre-show meant that 3 frequently offered little to no benefit in practice on this visit.

• It was disappointing to see Rita on 1 train for the whole trip. The ride routinely had queues of 30+ minutes going up to 45 minutes, and the cause didn’t even appear to be mechanical; the ride was running a different train each day, with the blue train running on Monday and the purple train running on Tuesday.

• Oblivion appeared understaffed, with the ride being on 1 station and seemingly having a staff member having to both batch and dispatch simultaneously. This slowed the ride down to an average of under 500pph on one 6-interval reading, which isn’t great even on 1 station; even when I take the anomaly out of the equation, the other 5 readings only narrowly exceeded an average of 500pph.

• Nemesis was doing quite well on the Monday, but seeing it on 1 train on the Tuesday was disappointing given that the queue still hit 30 minutes. They also appeared to start the practice of only filling every other train on Monday, which seemed odd…

• Given that the ride wasn’t operating a baggage hold and only ran 3 trains, I thought Smiler’s operations remained impressively prompt, on the whole. They always do pretty well on that ride! I would say the same about Thirteen given it was also only running 2 trains and had no baggage hold; the staff were prompt, the ride pretty consistently didn’t stack and queues remained relatively low!

• Spinball always remains pretty strong operationally; while I could only time 1 dispatch, they seem to have nailed that consistent 20-25s dispatch interval down to a pretty fine art and have it running like clockwork, to the point where it actually outdid a fair few of the larger coasters on throughput this trip! It certainly runs much better and more consistently than Dragon’s Fury down at Chessington, anyway!

All in all, I wouldn’t say this was my finest trip to Alton operationally speaking. I had a very good visit, getting on lots of rides each day, and in the main, I can’t complain too much, but there were still queues in excess of 30 minutes where I would argue there didn’t need to be and lots of things were running on reduced throughputs. I’ve often said that Alton’s ride throughputs are pretty good and overly criticised, and on the whole, that’s a stance I stand by, but if this visit was my sole experience of Alton Towers operations, I could perhaps empathise with the criticism a little more.

Chessington

• Dragon’s Fury (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars) - 443pph (unknown number of cars, average of 10, 25th September 2026) (This reading was skewed downwards by 3 slower readings of 43s, 42s and 40s; the other 7 readings ranged between 23s and 34s, averaging 28.6s and resulting in around 504pph. This reading also assumes full cars of 4, which was not always the case due to the policy of only allowing 3 adults in a car.)

• Mandrill Mayhem (Theoretical: 840pph on 1 train) - 605pph (1 train, average of 4, 25th September 2026) (This reading was skewed downwards by 1 slower reading of 207s; the other 3 readings ranged between 144s and 166s, averaging 153s and resulting in around 659pph)

• Vampire (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 512pph (2 trains, average of 5, 25th September 2026) (This reading was skewed downwards by 1 slower reading of 200s; the other 4 intervals ranged between 154s and 167s, averaging 161s and resulting in around 537pph)

In terms of some general insights:

• Dragon’s Fury, while they make an earnest effort on there, definitely doesn’t run as consistently well as Spinball at Alton Towers. While you occasionally had those 20-25s glimmers of excellence shining through, the ride is hobbled by the whole procedure of the scales and the weighting faff, and unlike Spinball, they struggle to have it consistently clearing the 500pph mark. This isn’t great when Dragon’s Fury is a headline attraction at Chessington while Spinball is a decidedly peripheral coaster at Alton Towers. And that’s before you consider that Fury frequently doesn’t fill the cars unlike Spinball, which would make the real world throughput even lower than my numbers imply.

• Mandrill Mayhem continues with the odd charade of not letting you stand in the airgates until the ride has come to a stop, which seems counterintuitive when the ride is already a headline coaster that intrinsically can only run 1 train. The actual platform staff seem quite prompt on there, to be fair, but there’s only so well they can do when the ride only runs 1 train to begin with and the Wing Coaster is intrinsically slightly more difficult to operate quickly.

• In fairness, Vampire seemed better staffed and operated than last time I came to Chessington, with a dedicated batcher and 2 platform staff, and as a result, the average dispatch interval was a good minute faster (2.5-3 minutes compared to nearly 4 minutes in 2023). The platform staff were prompt and the actual restraint checks were very good and quick! However, the batcher frequently didn’t batch the airgates until the train was in the station with people waiting to board for some reason, which seemed odd and like it was wasting unnecessary seconds. I also never noticed before how the ride has perhaps the slowest train parking known to man, with nearly 50s passing between trains being parked in the station; that certainly can’t help throughputs!

• While Chessington as a park lacks capacity compared to Towers or Thorpe and many of their rides, particularly more recent ones, have quite low inherent capacities, they have some rides that I feel could and should be relatively high capacity, but aren’t due to procedure, inherent design flaws or a mix of both. Vampire is one example, but the most egregious one is probably Tomb Blaster. A ride with multiple large trains and simple lap bar restraints should attain a pretty good throughput, right? And yet, it doesn’t! One poor man operates it entirely on his own, it takes what feels like forever and a day for one train to leave the station and another to park in it, and when all these things are added together, the ride ends up having a surprisingly slow throughput! ZUFARI is another one where I feel like it should theoretically have high capacity; big safari trucks feel like something you should fairly easily be able to bung people onto and send to get a good capacity, but it seems quite sluggish and has some odd design choices, such as having exiting guests cross directly in front of those who board unnecessarily… what is that about?

All in all, I would say Chessington generally has weaker throughputs than Alton or Thorpe. While the operations themselves aren’t overly terrible by any means and the staff mostly make an earnest effort, I do think the park inherently has a real lack of capacity and is hobbled by some rather odd procedural quirks. I do fear it could really struggle on peak days next season if Minecraft proves popular unless they invest a bit of money into improving throughputs, or at very least put some energy into improving throughputs as Thorpe seemingly did prior to Hyperia opening.