Ian
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Dizz, Bobby’s Yarn Land
It is amusing that at a time where the park is trying to cut costs and make savings wherever possible they will pay for a staff member to stand at each ride entrance selling Fastrack tickets. Surely the more cost effective solution would be to try and cut the number of staff doing this job and just use the existing centralised sales point in almost ever area.
For areas lacking such a facility why not give tickets to more outlets? Places like Katanga Cargo for example. Using existing staff, who are making money from sales of merch and food and drink and ask them to offer another service. It'd come at the expense of printing a simple Look At Me notice which can be stuck on the door saying "Fastrack tickets are now available from here for the following attractions: x, y, z".
Better still (Though no doubt the initial costs would put Merlin off investing in them) install a few touchscreen info points near various attractions, which allow guests to purchase the tickets. I'd no doubt cost a lot less each day than paying a human to stand around selling them. It works fine for Disney doesn't it? Just stick 3 or 4 touch ticket machines in each area, under a shelter like the lockers have, with a list of attractions, and time slots to choose from. These can then be purchased and printed on the spot.
As the time slot system is now coming in Towers could really splash out and have an LED display put in on the Fastrack attractions (Or use the scrolling signs available on the ride entrances) to display the next timeslot tickets are available for. This then updates when the stock of tickets for that time have been sold, and moves on to display the next. Now we're having a wireless network installed throughout the park this would be easier than ever! They could even integrate it into the app, and offer e-commerce tickets through it. Tap a few buttons, prompt for payment (PayPal could be included to speed up the process), then display a barcode or QR code which can be scanned by the member of staff at the Fastrack entrance. It could even have Push notifications to alert the user when their ticket is valid, and when it is about to expire.
At the moment Fastrack is such a shoddy, hashed together system which effectively penalizes other guests for not paying extra. With a bit of investment and planning the system could be turned around to make it a much more user friendly and effective process. The use of timeslot ticketing seemed like a step in the right direction, but if these upsellers are handing out "offline" tickets valid at any time of day it completely undermines the timeslot system :-\
Sort. It. Out.
For areas lacking such a facility why not give tickets to more outlets? Places like Katanga Cargo for example. Using existing staff, who are making money from sales of merch and food and drink and ask them to offer another service. It'd come at the expense of printing a simple Look At Me notice which can be stuck on the door saying "Fastrack tickets are now available from here for the following attractions: x, y, z".
Better still (Though no doubt the initial costs would put Merlin off investing in them) install a few touchscreen info points near various attractions, which allow guests to purchase the tickets. I'd no doubt cost a lot less each day than paying a human to stand around selling them. It works fine for Disney doesn't it? Just stick 3 or 4 touch ticket machines in each area, under a shelter like the lockers have, with a list of attractions, and time slots to choose from. These can then be purchased and printed on the spot.
As the time slot system is now coming in Towers could really splash out and have an LED display put in on the Fastrack attractions (Or use the scrolling signs available on the ride entrances) to display the next timeslot tickets are available for. This then updates when the stock of tickets for that time have been sold, and moves on to display the next. Now we're having a wireless network installed throughout the park this would be easier than ever! They could even integrate it into the app, and offer e-commerce tickets through it. Tap a few buttons, prompt for payment (PayPal could be included to speed up the process), then display a barcode or QR code which can be scanned by the member of staff at the Fastrack entrance. It could even have Push notifications to alert the user when their ticket is valid, and when it is about to expire.
At the moment Fastrack is such a shoddy, hashed together system which effectively penalizes other guests for not paying extra. With a bit of investment and planning the system could be turned around to make it a much more user friendly and effective process. The use of timeslot ticketing seemed like a step in the right direction, but if these upsellers are handing out "offline" tickets valid at any time of day it completely undermines the timeslot system :-\
Sort. It. Out.