TPJames Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 It's absoloutley appauling to state a 60 minute queue when there isn't one to promote fastrack sales. In fact, it is downright theft. I can't believe it either- the staff at the entrance push and push for you to buy the fastrack aswell! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 I can't believe it either- the staff at the entrance push and push for you to buy the fastrack aswell! In contrast, I've never been offered fastrack at a ride entrance before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 I think everyones over reacting slightly here on just an opinion with no real evidence to back it up. As said, a more likley reason is that staff havent updated it or the system isnt working right at the moment, on my last trip id say over 50% of the boards were not even switched on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 In contrast, I've never been offered fastrack at a ride entrance before.Well maybe you haven't been on a busy day then? Thorpe think they can get away with it when the rest of the park is busy. This is a day where Colossus was 90 mins, saw 60 mins and nemesis inferno 80 mins. They thought by advertising stealth at 60 mins they could increase fastrack sales. That day they had people selling fastrack at all of the big rollercoasters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daboywunda Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 I've not been offered it at the entrance.. I've seen it being sold there, but never shoved down my throat. The system had been updated on Good Friday, I saw it changing from 30 mins up to 60, down to 45, back up to 60 in the space of 2 hours, but the queue was still non existent. I think they were selling fast-track, but not sure how effective them sales were... It certainly wasn't affecting the queue times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Well maybe you haven't been on a busy day then? Thorpe think they can get away with it when the rest of the park is busy. This is a day where Colossus was 90 mins, saw 60 mins and nemesis inferno 80 mins. They thought by advertising stealth at 60 mins they could increase fastrack sales. That day they had people selling fastrack at all of the big rollercoasters. I've queued over 3 hours for Asylum, 2 hours for Saw and Stealth in previous visits. I've probably been on more busy days than you've had hot dinners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 It is the less busy days that this is a bigger problem really. The days that are actually busy fastrack is an offensive to me but legitimate service. I have had it happen to me (last year or the year before, can't remember. It's in one of my trip reports somewhere), Saw queue, being shouted at as I entered about 'Skipping the hour queue' to find the queue was actually passed the merge point. There is no rational explanation other than trying to make fastrack sales where none are required. There is no way staff can honestly mistake a walk on ride for an hour queue, it just isn't feasible. The whole thing is disgusting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Queue time boards should only be updated by rides dept. And if they are, there's absolutely no way they'll inflate a queue time to increase fastrack sales. Rides staff consider fastrack an absolute bane of their life. Chances are they've forgotten to change it/deliberately left it to deter people from queuing. Not to increase sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobD Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 See, in the most part I'd just slate Thorpe for it's inability to operate rides efficiently, that and it's superb ability to let twice as many guests in as it really should. I would agree queue times are not bolstered for fastrack sales, it's laziness/forgetfulness/irrelevence. To be quite honest, on busy days, there is no point paying any attention to queue times anyway, as any ride which shows anything more than 20-30 mins less than the others of it's type (so lets say, NI: 90, Stealth: 100, SAW: 90, Swarm: 60), you can guarantee by the time you get to the Swarm, the queue will be closer to 100 anyway... It's all down to how small Thorpe is, and how little variety there is. Unlike at Alton, where people get busied by the gardens/walking around/transport rides/family attractions, Thorpe has 100% Thrill seekers, going for, basically, 10 main rides. Too many people, too few rides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideAddict Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 I've been to the park about 75 times since late 2004, since then I've paid for fastrack only twice. I always read it as "fast rack" even though I know what it means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBobJones Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 What made me laugh yesterday was the cattle pen queue system out side guest services, next they will be selling fast track for that too! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Fish Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 What made me laugh yesterday was the cattle pen queue system out side guest services, next they will be selling fast track for that too! lol that guest services gets incredibly busy when the park is full, its a lot better then having the world's longest queue in the dome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkadder312 Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 see them on 2nd april trying sell fastrack x queue apparently 60 mins long I get on it within 10-15 mins what a joke thorpe anyways I got on all the rides pretty much quite surpised as it was a school holiday and had been quite warm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Don't think it's been said anywhere else yet - most of the rides now have a new, larger, colour led scrolling information board at their entrance now. Really helpful to see how long queues are from further away - e.g. seeing Saw's queue time from the Colossus pathway. They were installing the new large information/queue time board next to Rush on Thursday, so they should be back up and running soon (if not already). rOsSwA28 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jom222 Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Do you have any pictures of this??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Haven't got a picture from Thorpe, but the large scrollers outside rides are like this: http://www.qssuperplayer.com/ Some rides with with the smaller, circular, time only boards have also been updated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 I think every ride will have one of these. The old system wasnt great, hopefully this will be more reliable and looks abit nicer too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 I think every ride will have one of these. The old system wasnt great, hopefully this will be more reliable and looks abit nicer too! On the old system you couldn't actually see what the queue time was because it was faint, and it was flashing and half cut off. Unless you actually went right up and squinted you wouldn't be able to see the queue time. Which is why I am glad that thorpe have installed new ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Whilst I like the new ones, they should just show the queue times instead of saying "Welcome to Thorpe Park..." etc because you just want to see the queue time when walking past, you already know you are at Thorpe Park Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 I think most of the attractions with such LED banners here at other parks mention the park name as well... Usually followed by the park closing time... Nice to see investment in simple things though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Sounds like a great improvement there, hopefully now I can see if rides have a 90 minute queue without going right near the entrance. All they need to do now is replace the park queue information boas around a the park which the old ones are gone now. The one that was near Inferno didn't work for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 All they need to do now is replace the park queue information boas around a the park which the old ones are gone now. The one that was near Inferno didn't work for a long time. They have, there were two LED screens (not sure on the proper name, they were like the new queue times boards for the rides but on a much bigger scale) in the places that formerly had the queue times displayed. Yesterday they were only showing the Thorpe Park logo all day but I'm sure that they will show the queue times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Will be nice to see Thorpe catching up with Alton in terms of queue time display boards! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 Will be nice to see Thorpe catching up with Alton in terms of queue time display boards! Is that a serious comment? I truly hope it isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted April 13, 2013 Report Share Posted April 13, 2013 http://i47.tinypic.com/155l4j6.jpg http://i47.tinypic.com/155l4j6.jpg Couple of pics of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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