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2019: General Discussion

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RicketyCricket said:
Pressure from management, down to team leaders and then down to ride staff?

Not saying this is the case, as AT queue times are generally pretty accurate but could be a possibility for other Merlin attractions.
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Can't speak for current policy but this certainly wasn't the case about 5 years ago, in-fact overestimating would have been frowned upon by team leaders.

Steve74 said:
A few Scarefests ago, I went to The Smiler at about 8.55pm and the staff member at the entrance said it was at least 2hrs. The queue was just at the end of the final cattle pen bit directly outside the door into the indoor queue so we knew it was nowhere near that. We took our chances and was out within 30 minutes. So they do inflate times occasionally. But to be honest, after a 12 hour day I don't blame them!
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Oh yes this certainly happens but it would be the ride staff wanting to get away, nothing to do with fast track and would be discouraged by team leaders etc.
 
evilcod said:
Oh yes this certainly happens but it would be the ride staff wanting to get away, nothing to do with fast track and would be discouraged by team leaders etc.
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Oh yeah, nothing to do with fast track and everything to do with not wanting to stay late!!
 
Over estimated queues are better for customers too. If you enter a queue that's an hour and it's only 50 mins, good times.

Enter a queue that's 50 mins and it takes an hour, that's negative and people complain.

I think a 10-20% over estimate is just playing safe.
 
spinba11 said:
The irony is at that time you posted a park may have been open for 20 minutes depending of if they are doing AM extra magic hours.
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I meant at 7.20 or so when the original post :) Disney hours are much better and extra magic is a great idea - also the early /after hours though stupidly expensive also looks great
 
@Lurker - that's true. You also have to provide some cushion for brief stoppages (or at least pauses in dispatches - large guests who need some encouragement to get into the restraint, guests who take longer to board for other reasons, someone with a camera etc etc).

Plus, if you're a park opting not to use SRQ, you will lose a percentage of your capacity per hour through empty seats.
 
Rick said:
@Lurker - that's true. You also have to provide some cushion for brief stoppages (or at least pauses in dispatches - large guests who need some encouragement to get into the restraint, guests who take longer to board for other reasons, someone with a camera etc etc).

Plus, if you're a park opting not to use SRQ, you will lose a percentage of your capacity per hour through empty seats.
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With an estimate that's already all taken care of though, an operator knows for that point in the queue with X number of trains the queue usually takes Y minutes. They don't then need to add on pauses or empty seats because they are already taken account for.
 
evilcod said:
With an estimate that's already all taken care of though, an operator knows for that point in the queue with X number of trains the queue usually takes Y minutes. They don't then need to add on pauses or empty seats because they are already taken account for.
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Perhaps so, but they might benefit from taking a worse case scenario on these small delays in order to be careful not to underestimate, which in my opinion is far worse than overestimation.
 
evilcod said:
With an estimate that's already all taken care of though, an operator knows for that point in the queue with X number of trains the queue usually takes Y minutes. They don't then need to add on pauses or empty seats because they are already taken account for.
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There's more to it than that though, not least for reasons of RAP and fastrack.
 
Judging by how long Quantum at Thorpe has been testing for and still it’s yet to open, I wouldn’t get your hopes up for enterprise reopening for about 2 months! :D
 
Just out of interest. When you walk to the entrance from the car parks. Just as you walk to the top of the coach park where the zebra crossing is, you can see a load of pretty new gas tanks installed, which would just be behind the Katanga Canyon sign, on the other side of the park border. I assume these are the gas tanks for Wickermans flames, with the pipework being buried under the walkway in the park. I don't see what else they could be for. Especially in that location.
 
DistortAMG said:
Just out of interest. When you walk to the entrance from the car parks. Just as you walk to the top of the coach park where the zebra crossing is, you can see a load of pretty new gas tanks installed, which would just be behind the Katanga Canyon sign, on the other side of the park border. I assume these are the gas tanks for Wickermans flames, with the pipework being buried under the walkway in the park. I don't see what else they could be for. Especially in that location.
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Yeah, they were installed for Wickerman.
 
On park today. Very busy coming in was quing from alton to drive into the park. Shocked to find oppperations are actually decent and they even swapped to making people share boats on the rapids when it got busy! We have only been once this season so far and things seem much more efficient even though the park is busy.

Edit 1: anti scratch boards on the galactica Bridge are standing up much better than the originals. The swastikas and penisis graffiti didn't add to the themeing
 
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Did have to laugh at the teachers lounge, which has to have a “new for 2019” tag

Nice new benches and seats but only for teachers with a sign up forbidding anyone else to use them. Do schools visit at weekends?

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