Should front row seats be a premium add on

[Bowser]

Agreed!! If Merlin ever did implement such practices, they'd make a fortune on Oblivion

Baron (the dive coaster) at Efteling has a queue split quite early on, one way for front row, the other way for the remaining rows, with accurate estimated queue times for both.

Has no impact on operations as the batching is so early and follows respective routes. A very well designed queue.

 

[Ben Anderson]

I personally prefer how it's done on Nemesis now - I could never be bothered with the extra wait. I quite like the fact that it's random now and have a chance of getting a row 1.

 

[Burbs]

Rides with a front row queue effectively make them a premium add-on. You just pay with your time, rather than money. On a busy day you’ll wait longer, shorter on a quieter one, bit like dynamic pricing I suppose!

 

[Smiley]

I'd save it for the VIPs - as previously said, us Fast-trackers already have to do the "walk of shame (wealth)".

What needs to be done is to properly advertise the extended wait times properly. E.g. for Stealth/Swarm at TP you can see it easily - for Nemmy Inferno it is very deceiving. Best thing to do - especially on quieter days - is have a bit of bants with the loader and ask nicely. Wrost is they can say "no".

Or alternatively, just INSIST!
https://sl.bing.net/gQhypmecbNA

 

[DiogoJ42]

I could argue that fast track users feeling "shame" is a good thing, but that would be off topic....

 

[Smiley]

I could argue that fast track users feeling "shame" is a good thing, but that would be off topic....

It is buying privilege - there's no arguing. But walk tall and proud - any self-employed person will tell you the value of time!

As for front row, it should be offered to everyone - once you're selling tickets for it, the non-ticketed have no chance. So I agree with "expedited access" for a fee, but not exclusive access (unless you're buying an experience)

 

[rob666]

Self employed, tall and proud thoosie who really values their time here... I haven't got that much left.
Fasttrack is still crap.
On topic, separate front row queue on everything, for free.
Just increase the price of jump passes to keep things reasonable in the main queue.

 

[Smiley]

You should be asking what a poor experience theme parks are providing that you need a FP. Disney/Universal do incredibly well on manoeuvring people to shows/parades/restaurants. Get in a virtual queue and enjoy a "high capacity" event whilst waiting.

Sorry, but I go to a theme park to ride - not to queue. I can queue for free in my local supermarket!

 

[DiogoJ42]

It is buying privilege - there's no arguing. But walk tall and proud - any self-employed person will tell you the value of time!

As a self employed person, who spent the early hours of this morning ranting to my workmates, about how sitting around doing nothing (when we used to make art! together!) waiting for a penalty shoot out to end, when I should have been home an hour ago, was a waste of our futtocking lives.......

Sorry, I'm with Rob here. I'd rather be cash or time poor, but have stuck to my [personal] morals.
(And I mean that in the best possible "not judging anyone" way. Everyone's personal morals are different )

 

[Snexed]

I'm surprised that no theme park doesn't do virtual queuing ie. you can click a button on an app rather than standing in a line and you'll get a time slot. Fast track getting instant times rather than having to wait 60 minutes or whatever so they get their benefits.

Arguably benefits to Merlin having people able to do stuff whether it's playing games or what not rather than standing in a line doing nothing.

 

[AT86]

I'm surprised that no theme park doesn't do virtual queuing ie. you can click a button on an app rather than standing in a line and you'll get a time slot. Fast track getting instant times rather than having to wait 60 minutes or whatever so they get their benefits.

Arguably benefits to Merlin having people able to do stuff whether it's playing games or what not rather than standing in a line doing nothing.

This has been trialed many times, including at Thorpe Park a few years back.

The problem is theme parks are designed to have thousands of people stood in queues at any one time. If those folks are all ‘virtual queuing’ and are now wondering around the park the infrastructure can’t cope.

 

[Benzin]

Few parks have trialled it beyond Thorpe, but only on selected rides.

Responses are mixed to it.

 

[RoyalFool]

They could add some sort of robotic self-flagellation system to all seats, then add a card-reader to the lap bar so you can pay £2 once you are on the ride if you don't want to be whipped. Merlin could take that money and re-invest it into executive bonuses and their failing investments outside the UK.

Edit: I should probably write an actual response, which is I'm an old fart who remembers a time before any sort of fast-track ticket, and my observation is they are boiling us like frogs, they used to sell a lot less, so the main queue was almost constantly moving just with the odd family skipping the line, fair enough, but now they sell so many of them you don't even skip a queue, you just get to enter another queue, a queue for the haves, which gets priority over the queue of the have-nots.

They are also making queue lines as dull as possible to encourage more people to skip them, people joke about the merlin cattle-pens but don't realise that's intentional, if they added fun interactive elements in the line more families would be saying "I don't mind queueing", if you are in the queue, you should feel like a 2nd class citizen, you should spend that time stood still in a puddle to think "maybe I should get a fast pass after this".

The idea of possibly then selling front-row seats is horrible.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I'm surprised that no theme park doesn't do virtual queuing ie. you can click a button on an app rather than standing in a line and you'll get a time slot.

"Virtual Q" was a system used by Alton Towers in the late 1990s. There were banks of ticket machines near the entrance to a ride, notably Oblivion and Nemesis, which you would walk up to and either scan your park entry ticket, or press a button, to be given a ticket with your ride time on it. It was a free system, nearly identical to the one that you're describing, but not app based.

As everyone had to use it, it would often lead to longer queues than if you were to have queued normally. People would frequently miss their slot, and try to blag their way on anyway. Any pause in ride operations meant a back log of riders for the next time slot.

It sucked.

 

[AT86]

"Virtual Q" was a system used by Alton Towers in the late 1990s. There were banks of ticket machines near the entrance to a ride, notably Oblivion and Nemesis, which you would walk up to and either scan your park entry ticket, or press a button, to be given a ticket with your ride time on it. It was a free system, nearly identical to the one that you're describing, but not app based.

As everyone had to use it, it would often lead to longer queues than if you were to have queued normally. People would frequently miss their slot, and try to blag their way on anyway. Any pause in ride operations meant a back log of riders for the next time slot.

It sucked.

If my memory is serving me correctly it was only compulsory on Oblivion and only for a short time.

It soon switched having both the virtual and standby queues and evolved into free fastrack. This iteration worked brilliantly in my experience.

Then they realised people were prepared to pay for it….

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

If my memory is serving me correctly it was only compulsory on Oblivion and only for a short time.

You're completely right. Unfortunately not much has ever really been written up, or documented about it, so our hazy memories are all we have. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to find a BBC News report I remember seeing about it at launch, to no avail. *cough* @Squiggs *cough*

 

[AT86]

You're completely right. Unfortunately not much has ever really been written up, or documented about it, so our hazy memories are all we have. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to find a BBC News report I remember seeing about it at launch, to no avail. *cough* @Squiggs *cough*

This one?


From: https://youtu.be/zWlxT5NneWY?si=6xIm4MCrLk1Z2Wkb

 

[rob666]

I'm surprised that no theme park doesn't do virtual queuing ie. you can click a button on an app rather than standing in a line and you'll get a time slot. Fast track getting instant times rather than having to wait 60 minutes or whatever so they get their benefits.

Arguably benefits to Merlin having people able to do stuff whether it's playing games or what not rather than standing in a line doing nothing.

Blackpool does via app on smartphones.
It works really well on quiet and mid busy days, and falls apart rapidly in the peak times.
Still a matter of putting too many punters on too few low capacity rides in the end.
Limit numbers at entry and fasttrack, reduce queues overnight.
Oh such anticapitalistic thoughts...shoot the commie.

 

[GaryH]

I remember the virtual queue system Alton introduced - also remember people would walk through the turnstile to get their ticket, put it in the pocket, walk around grab another one, and so on. It was badly abused sadly. And yes, wow, to recall going to Alton in the days of no fast track!

It’s been an interesting debate though, some have been in favour of it, others have not.