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Fastrack - more being sold?

Meat Pie said:
James said:
How exactly do you become an elitist?

I somewhat find your comments very rude when you are accusing Fastrack purchasers of being 'selfish' towards those that cannot afford the perk...

Every park guest has already bought access to the rides, you are elitist if you then decide to disregard these other customers by purchasing a queue jump ticket.

I find the sense of entitlement that someone must have to purchase such a ticket to be rude as it shows little consideration for everyone who has already paid for access to the park.

Hmm, I understand your views - although I wouldn't go as far as to say someone is an elitist for buying a Fastrack.

Other people have said similar things to what I would say to you, so I'm not going to repeat what others have said against your views. I however have one question: If Fastrack was never free in the first place, and if there had always been a charge for it since it's introduction - would your views still stand?

Just generally those who are aware of it being free (ha, free, not something you see or hear these days!) many moons ago seem to somewhat have more of a negative view of there being a charge for Fastrack now.

In my views, I see it as an add-on to your day at Alton Towers, or a premium product/perk if you like. You pay the standard theme park charge to gain access then things such as express parking, Fastrack and all day dining you can bundle or 'add-on' to your visit to the park. So Alton Towers could vary from a 'standard' visit to a 'premium' one.

I do not think those 'premium' guests are elitist though. It's just like everything else in life. Some people have personal shoppers. Some people have a valet to drive them around. Some people buy branded products (HP, Nestle, Cadburys etc...). You live and experience life according to your lifestyle or well being. There's no right or wrong it that, it's just how the world works.

I myself cannot afford Fastrack, the cost of it is just ridiculous and something that given how much money I pay to get to Alton in the first place, add-ons are way out of the question. I'm fine with people walking past me with their Fastrack tickets. I just think 'fair enough, they can afford it'.

My issue with Fastrack as it stands is how it is managed. Alton simply sell too many tickets in one go, and this ultimately leaves Fastrack queues with there own queues! Then the main queue gets damaged incredibly by this, leaving an even longer queue. Then staff tell new guests entering the long main queue "You know you can buy a Fastrack ticket for only £X", guest buys the ticket, joins the growing Fastrack queue, main queue is damaged more... it's a vicious circle that leaves both guests in the Fastrack and main queue both frustrated.

The amount of Fastrack guests let through by staff seems to be all over the place too. If staff had a set number of guests (depending on queue times) to let through each ride cycle then it could be managed more well. With the over selling of Fastrack tickets overall. Alton need to place only a set number of Fastrack tickets per 15 minutes, and keep these as time slots then give guests a particular time slot, or with staff at ride entrances, give them the selected number of Fastracks allowed for that time slot. It's not too hard to do, just involves a few of the senior team to sit in a room and work out the figures. At the moment it's all 'profit profit profit'.
 
Re: Fastrack - more being sold?

Well you could consider that if fasttrack was removed then AT would need to generate the lost income from another source.

So one way of looking at it, is that guests who are willing room pay more are subsidising the others.

Maybe the gate prices would be slightly higher for everyone without fasttrack?

When all is said and done Alton Towers is a business not a charity or a force for social change. It sells entertainment and like any business will charge the maximum it can whilst balancing that with guest satisfaction.

An opt in revenue stream that helps to reduce the gate price is the way they have decided to go.

Badgy




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Fastrack - more being sold?

Just out of curiosity, if people were given free FT (like who went in the h/term) would you not use them because of the others in the que? I don't think so, just like you got them for going on a day with bad weather, 'they' got them by buying them... I can't see the difference?

Yes, it's ran badly as many have said, but I would rather pay the money than stand in line for 2 hours. Time is money in my eyes. If by paying on average £3 a ride, but it saves me 2 hours of queuing then it's a no brainer for me.

Even on minimum wage, people could just work an extra hour to save 4 (maybe more) queuing. Probably a backwards way of looking at things but it's what makes sense to me. So yeah id rather work a few extra hours the day before to mean I don't have to spend 6 hours queuing. I guess people just don't see it like that. Perhaps rightly.


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I think James has summed in up perfectly in that post. Fastrack is a premium product and premium products can be found in all sorts of different places. Another example I can think of is watching sport. If you want to go and see a football match it costs different amounts of money to sit in different places. The better seats cost more than the "standard" seats, so for example it costs more to sit on the half way line than it does to sit in the corner. Does this make those that choose to pay more for a better seat elitist as well? Are these people somehow being selfish? I know it is a little different to fastracks but it is the same in principle. Premium products exist, not just in theme parks.

:)
 
I know several people who are under the impression that as well as paying to get in, you also have to pay for every ride.... because of Fastrack. For this reason they refuse to go.

Just saying. ;)
 
The trouble is the price just to get to Alton Towers is already premium. If you have to pay an average of £20 to get in then an average of £3 a ride just to have a good day that's not premium... That's gold plated!
 
Not actually at Towers, but FastTrack nearly ruined our day on Friday when we went to Thorpe...the park was busy-ish but the queue for Swarm was three hours, and crawled along. The FastTrack queue was an hour long too, apparently. It seems ridiculous that it can be that long-especially as those with FTs seem to get priority over those who haven't when batching.

I don't know what to suggest they do though-it's difficult for them to only have an allocated amount that doesn't affect the main queue speed. Selling at the entrance just seems silly, though.
 
Its always worked in the past to have a quota, if they start to grind the queue of a ride that has a +1000 person an hour capacity then Merlin targets are going way too far!!!
 
On busy days, Thorpe seems to operate a "if you don't have a fastrack, **** you!" policy.
 
That's the thing with fastrack - if you sell enough of them, the main queue can become infinitely long. For all we know there could have been about 100 people in that Swarm queue.

Historically, Thorpe have been much worse than Towers for overselling of fastrack, but it seems that Towers may be starting to "catch up" in that regard :(
 
CoasterCrazyChris said:
kamfira said:
the queue for Swarm was three hours,

So much for they've had a bad season.....three hour queues!

???

They have been running it on one train this week, until agitation gets too high and they put the second one on.
 
Tom said:
They have been running it on one train this week, until agitation gets too high and they put the second one on.

That's another Thorpe trick that i hope Towers don't follow!
 
Fastrack - more being sold?

I have no moral issue with Fastrack at all, I have used it at parks where I have been short on time and unlikely to visit again anytime soon, or the queues have been very long (as I can't really do really long queues).
I do agree it should be capped at a much lower number per hour so that impacts the main queue as little as possible, and doesn't create a Fastrack queue (thus defeating the object surely).
I remember a day at Thorpe Park once where we watched the queue for Inferno, they were sending through the same number of Fasttrackers as people from the main queue, creating a very slow moving queue line.

Out of curiosity, do the people with the moral issues against Fastrack refuse to use them when they are complimentary (such at TT@10) or when guest services have issued them out?
 
DiogoJ42 said:
On busy days, Thorpe seems to operate a "if you don't have a fastrack, **** you!" policy.

This, moreso than Towers ever have done...


Going back to the "elitist if you buy fastrack" stuff, because I brought a QBot for my second day at Heide Park last year, am I such a thing? It often does depend on the context of such a purchase, for example my days at Heide were PACKED, and their queues lack even less shade than Thorpe's do. The result on my first day was sunstroke. In order to reduce my own waiting time in the sun and allow me more time in the shade to be cool and relaxed, I purchased a QBot... This meant I could pick and choose what rides I wanted to ride and until the time slot I could relax and stay out of the sun as much as possible...

Does this make me elitist? Or does it make me a sensible visitor considering it was very much a one off visit for the near future, which is the same for many visitors of Towers?

I think the issue is more how the Fastrack here is handled more than anything... QBot could be a potential solution due to the timed slots and ease of capping the number available in a day...
 
Benzin said:
DiogoJ42 said:
On busy days, Thorpe seems to operate a "if you don't have a fastrack, **** you!" policy.

This, moreso than Towers ever have done...


Going back to the "elitist if you buy fastrack" stuff, because I brought a QBot for my second day at Heide Park last year, am I such a thing? It often does depend on the context of such a purchase, for example my days at Heide were PACKED, and their queues lack even less shade than Thorpe's do. The result on my first day was sunstroke. In order to reduce my own waiting time in the sun and allow me more time in the shade to be cool and relaxed, I purchased a QBot... This meant I could pick and choose what rides I wanted to ride and until the time slot I could relax and stay out of the sun as much as possible...

Does this make me elitist? Or does it make me a sensible visitor considering it was very much a one off visit for the near future, which is the same for many visitors of Towers?

I think the issue is more how the Fastrack here is handled more than anything... QBot could be a potential solution due to the timed slots and ease of capping the number available in a day...

I did the same at Heide Park for one day of my weekend visit, the park was busy with more than an hour's queue on all major rides. My boyfriend had no interest in riding the coasters, so I opted to use a QBot, so that I could spend time with him throughout the day and then ride when the allocated time slot became available. I wouldn't necessarily say I was being elitist in this situation.
 
I personally like a park that offers free FastTrack (Disney) but have no real issue with FastTrack until it gets to the point where to get a good day your having to pay to get on every ride. In my eyes Fast Track should never be sold on any ride with a throughput less than 1000 an hour and it should never push the queue throughput below 1000 an hour (So nemesis has a throughput practically of about 1350 so they should sell 350 tickets an hour)

Sub-Terra shouldn't have FastTrack, it can't cope with it.
 
Fastrack - more being sold?

Completely agree - even on the slower throughput rides they could still sell some. I think if they sold 25% of the rides throughput to fastrack this would only have a small impact on the main que.

1600 pph = 400 fastracks ph
1300 pph = 325 fastracks ph
1000 pph = 250 "
700 pph = 175. "
And so on...

I think this is fair. I would be happy at the main que moving at 75% speed compared to if there were no fastback.



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The thing is though that the system does work to an extent. It only gets ruined when timed slots are not stuck to or they are sold on the entrance to attractions. Obviously untimed ones are given out by Guest Services (although this is a tiny amount per day) but I am interested to know whether anyone knows for sure if Sales & Information are selling timed or untimed Fastrack's this season?

If there are no timed Fastrack's being sold then the system does need a serious overhaul. However, if it is purely just on the queue tickets which are causing these issues then only a minor shakeup needs to take place.
 
Tbh let's get rid of fast track and all queue up as the ride is intended for.

No moaning then about people jumping in or having to pay or anything like that!
 
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