Benin Posted July 21, 2013 Report Share Posted July 21, 2013 I think Six Flags use Q-Bot... Which is insanely expensive and is constantly linked up to the park's database to limit numbers... Q-Bot is a very decent system imo from when I used it at Heide Park as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBobJones Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Why can't people just wait their turn? It is the cheapest and a very simple solution to have. If you go to a ride and its 90 minutes, you either wait 90 minutes or go elsewhere. This is the most fairest system of all rather than the current system of 1st class and 2nd class citizens. Parents have to say to children "Sorry you have to wait for the people with more money to go on first" pluk and MattyMoo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkadder312 Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 I would love to go back to the way of normal and single rider queues. BigBobJones, OldFarmerDean, MattyMoo and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 In reply to Mark9 - Guest Services and hotel have changed their system of dealing with complaints at towers. Although they still give fastrack, they're actually linked up to the fastrack system now and take out from the daily quota, they also have to provide a reason for issuing the ticket which is printed on said fastrack. Amusing how many actually say "Come from thorpe". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 A teacher friend was at Thorpe Park this morning, this was taken at 11am. Fast-track tastic! My view on Fast-track - I've never liked it, and never will like it. And, more to the point, I never have, and never will buy it pluk and BigBobJones 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikhilSharma Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 I think Six Flags use Q-Bot... Which is insanely expensive and is constantly linked up to the park's database to limit numbers... Q-Bot is a very decent system imo from when I used it at Heide Park as well... They do use Q-Bots, I've been to various Six Flags and I have to say they are totally worth it!. The most expensive one is $120, this equates to around £75 if I'm correct. Which is only £5 more then THORPE's ultimate fast track wristband. Six flags have limited amounts of Q-Bots on hire each day, there is only one area on park you can rent Q-Bots from. I went to Six Flags Great Adventure last year and bought the $120 Q-Bot, this allowed me to miss out the 1hr+ queues, I didn't have to wait anything! there wasn't any queueing in the Q-Bot queue, and you are allowed to stay on the ride twice!!. It's an amazing system. And their park hours are amazing, the day I went it was 10am-10pm, I left around 7pm, It's worth it at places like that. They manage their Q-Bots well, THORPE should take a leaf out of Six Flags room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 That pic amazes me, all them people stood in a queue without even heading on park to see what the queues actually are... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 It's not even like there's a queue board near them to see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Shocking eh? Maybe it's the sheep mentality of just joining a queue without knowing what it's for? Apparently some queues today were up to (and over) the 2 hour mark - not sure if anyone can verify that but that's what my friend told me (admittedly not a theme park fan so don't take it as gospel ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan. Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 I went today, the max queues were: Swarm (both backwards and forwards) 120mins Stealth 140mins Inferno 90mins Colossus 120mins Saw 120mins Loggers 90mins Rapids 40mins Tidal wave 160mins Rush 80mins (on one swing!) And my favourite, leaving the car park 45mins! It hit 34 degrees too according to the car so there were massive queues at all drinks stands to add to the queuing fun! Although when all the school kids left at around 4, the queues died massively and the most was 30/40mins! MattyMoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 A teacher friend was at Thorpe Park this morning, this was taken at 11am. Fast-track tastic! My view on Fast-track - I've never liked it, and never will like it. And, more to the point, I never have, and never will buy it That looks like you have to queue longer to get the fastrack than to get on the rides! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 was there today, and spoke to a member of staff, it's fair to say it is/was one of the busiest days off the year... not too sure what the actual queue times were as I found the boards on several occasions to be pretty inaccurate, but the park was busier than I've seen it on fright nights - queued 10 minutes or so just for KFC! Seen tidal wave queue board peak at 140 mins, the swarm front & back, and Colossus 120 mins, Storm Surge, Loggers Leap & Saw 100 mins to mention a few! Managed to get on, Swarm x2, X x4, Nemesis Inferno x2, Detonator x1, Vortex x1, Colossus x1 (fast track), Flying Fish x2, Loggers Leap x1, Rocky Express x1, Quantum x1... so not too bad considering how busy it was! Seen Storm Surge go round with an empty boat presuming it was broke down/testing? at one point. Rapids seemed to be closed for most of the day, Stealth & Vortex was apparently unavailable at some point during the day according to the queue time boards. Loggers Leap was down for the first few hours. Slammer is not open at all and listed as CLOSED on the queue board instead of unavailable (was told by a ride staff it's down for the rest of the season as it got stuck at the top for over an hour with people on). Saw stopped operation for a while when I was in the queue, not sure the reason for it, but left the queue as it started back up. Rush was on one swing operation and was getting queues up to the entrance which must have meant an easy 90 minute queue! I seen samurai having a bit of a problem parking, and later on was closed and testing. Got in the queue for The Swarm at the end of the day and we had 2 announcements on separate occasions that it had broken down, luckily was up and running with 5 mins each time. All the coasters seemed to be running on full capacity, and nemesis inferno staff were trying to get the people on and off the ride as quickly as possible; got 4 circuits on flying fish, and ride staff were spraying the water out a hose pipe tap as people were going around (such a good idea ). Even though I didn't have a refillable cup, each station seemed to be open, and were offering separate queues with little or no people in them (thought I'd mention it as it was brought up the other day how bad it was). Unfortunately the slush machines were out of order most of the day after they sold out in the morning as it would take them ages to refill them and freeze it up. as the queue on Colossus was out the entrance, a staff member had a handful (looked like loads - too many) of fast tracks in his hand offering to sell them to people (me being one, and am glad I bought them), but a sneaky way of making money! the fast track queue on saw at one point was queuing out the queue and up to the photo stall - looks like a case of too many being sold! got speaking to a ride queue staff on Colossus, he was the one that let me know about slammer, he also mentioned that we'd just skipped a 120 minute queue by getting fast track, and that he was told (presumably by thorpe? well that was how it sounded he was told by) that Colossus is getting bigger queues than The Smiler, and was shocked to hear when I informed him it closed yesterday, and was closed today due to a bolt falling off the track... he said that bolts come off Colossus quite often and it's just a simple case of close the ride, replace the bolt (which they have loads spare of), test the ride and reopen it the same or next day. [not sure how true some of this information he is giving me though haha] All in all still a good day though with boiling weather, and took advantage of the annual pass offer...bargain! going back next week on friday, and staying for the Summer Nights! pluk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBobJones Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 OMG those queue times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Cheers for the clarification - wow, those are some epic queues. 2hrs 40 mins for Tidal at peak? Thanks for the Slammer info - that's a shame if that's true. I haven't had a ride this season, and I don't think I will get one now by the sounds of it! Rush on one swing....? Can only assume that there must be a problem with the other swing for that to be happening with a park of that capacity! My friend said she only got on one ride in the time she was there, and since it was a school party (I'm guessing younger kids), and if she was there 11-3, and they had to have lunch, then that's evidently quite possible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Cheers for the clarification - wow, those are some epic queues. 2hrs 40 mins for Tidal at peak? Thanks for the Slammer info - that's a shame if that's true. I haven't had a ride this season, and I don't think I will get one now by the sounds of it! Rush on one swing....? Can only assume that there must be a problem with the other swing for that to be happening with a park of that capacity! My friend said she only got on one ride in the time she was there, and since it was a school party (I'm guessing younger kids), and if she was there 11-3, and they had to have lunch, then that's evidently quite possible! The queue looked massive for tidal wave, so can only presume the queue board was correct. Slammer had a sign out the front, I think similar to what samurai had towards the end of last season saying it was closed, but they managed to get it back open for fright nights, so you never know about slammer... but they don't want more people getting stuck up the top! I actually love rush, but on one swing operation (must have been a fault with the other one), I wouldn't even consider queueing for it... it has a bad enough throughput on both swings, let alone one! And overheard someone in the queue for Vortex that they didn't get there til 11 with a school trip and had to be left by 4, and this was gone 12 and it was their first ride... I can imagine so many disappointed school kids only getting on 2 or 3 rides (unless they buy some fast tracks, which some kids don't really have the money for that). I got there at half 9, and got in a queue for The Swarm just before it shut at 6... I was surprised how busy it was as soon as the park opened, got to the swarm about quarter to 10 and it already had a half hour queue, because normally the first half hour or maybe hour, are pretty dead, but no, the school children seemed to be out in full force haha; I was expecting the last hour or two to die down completely as well, and still stayed reasonably busy (although flying fish was a walk on ), got in swarm queue quarter to 6, and with the two 5 minute breakdowns didn't get on it til about twenty past, so still a 25 minute queue at the end of the day - a lot of the school trips must have been around the london area so therefore could get there earlier and leave later, compared to when you hear about schools from scotland going to alton towers for the day and only getting a few hours in the park! heard a staff member in the annual pass office saying they had to close the drop off point just to park more coaches, that's how busy it was! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Sounds like the Tidal queue was correct - wow. Still, maybe that'd make the soaking even more satisfying after that wait! I agree on Slammer - I wouldn't be surprised if it does open before the end of the year, but I'm guessing Merlin don't want to chance their arm too much what with Ramases recently - wouldn't be too good for PR. Rush on one swing would be a no-go for me too. Hope it returns to 2 swings soon, as that will help dissipate the queues. Certainly sounds as if yesterday was an exceptionally busy day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 School days </3 Hateful, hateful days apart from the first and last hours... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Lots of schools are definitely changing the way they visit on school days. They certainly used to not leave from school until about 8/8.30am (normal school start time), meaning they didn't arrive at Thorpe until 11ish. Now most schools are setting off much earlier, say 7am - leading to the park instantly being crowded upon opening. Definitely days to avoid! OldFarmerDean 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Yep agree with that, and its pretty decent of the park to keep people informed that these days will be busy to IMO! Inferno 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sully1311 Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Yep agree with that, and its pretty decent of the park to keep people informed that these days will be busy to IMO! Yep, it's a shame Alton Towers can't do the same (about capacity and The Smiler being closed!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rOsSwA28 Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Hmmm.. Wonder how busy it will be tomorrow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastercameron98 Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Hmmm.. Wonder how busy it will be tomorrow? I believe tomorrow is the last day for most schools so I should assume the same or maybe a bit quieter because of it being the last day and most schools tend to stay in school and have a "fun day" on the final day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 well thorpe only stated a few particular days (yesterday being one), that to expect the park to be busy due to high numbers of school visits... so unless lots of people (as many school kids as the past few days) who are now on summer holidays decide to go, which is highly unlikely, rest assured it won't be as busy as I experienced yesterday rOsSwA28 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rOsSwA28 Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 I believe tomorrow is the last day for most schools so I should assume the same or maybe a bit quieter because of it being the last day and most schools tend to stay in school and have a "fun day" on the final day. Ok, Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkadder312 Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 This is why I normally go to Thorpe when it is term time at schools and they all at school so the queues are barely visible 0-15 min queue average. It is queue season now till September when they go back to school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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