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General Queue Times Discussion

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Hoping they are this low on Thursday when I’m there, The Smiler, Rita and Thirteen are the ones remotely high and I’m hoping to have them done by 10:30
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, did we ever ascertain what became of that week-long distancing trial on certain rides? Did the park ever extend the distancing removal to other rides? Was the policy reversed?

I’m guessing based on the current queue times that the policy wasn’t reversed, as they’re surprisingly quite low, but I’d be interested to know, if anyone does know!
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Wicker man is still running full trains. Smiler seems to be mixed, sometimes full and sometimes gaps. Not sure about Th13teen as I didn't ride it yesterday. Everything else is still running as normal
 
Clocked the wait times on today's visit to help people who might be put off by larger midweek queues. In the order we did them-
The Smiler (1st ride) - pre-open on the 3rd train of the day, so can't call it, heard the announcement upon opening saying it would be 45 minutes at the back of the queue though.
Rita - Advertised 0, waited 0 (PS, BEST ride I've EVER had on Rita, it really was glass smooth today, really bumped Rita up for me!)
Roller Disco - advertised 0, waited 0 (this isn't as bad as everyone says it is, mine was spinning wildly almost as if someone was manually spinning it!)
TH13TEEN - advertised 10, waited 0 (late opening for this but riding Roller Disco meant we we on TH13TEEN's third train of the day).
Gangsta Granny: The Ride - advertised 20, waited 45 (worth noting this would've been 15 minutes but it had quite a lengthy downtime, bumping it to 45).
Hex - advertised 5, waited 20 (the wait hadn't been updated, but whilst we were in the queue it crept it to 40 minutes, which I'm likely to believe as the length was double that we waited just before heading into the inside queue line).
Congo River Rapids - advertised 5, waited 15 (would've been 5, 10 minutes cleaning bumped it to 15)
Runaway Mine Train - advertised 10, waited 10 (first time on this in ages, my and my friend both agree it's so underrated for a family coaster, it's great!
Duel - advertised 0, waited 0
Funk'n'Fly - advertised 10, waited 10 (first time on this as it was down last visit, I personally loved this!!)
Wicker Man (1st ride) - advertised 50, waited 25!!! (from in the extension queue as well! You would've thought this was an omnimover ride if you knew no better, potentially the quickest operation I've ever seen on anything ever! Genuinely the queue was hardly stationary on this!)
Mixtape - advertised 0, waited 10 (loved this again, it's a great addition!)
Oblivion - advertised 30, waited 25 (would've been less but we hit the cleaning cycle)
Wicker Man (2nd go) - advertised 30, waited 15 (should've been on the front row but the ride host asked if we wanted a back row! I obviously said yes as I love it and wanted my friend to experience the back for the first ever time! That ride single handedly pushes WM back up to my Alton 2nd, and pushes for 1st place again)
The Smiler (2nd ride) - advertised 0, waited 25 (worth noting it was advertised 0 because the app cut it's queue to "closed" at 5pm so they had to reset it for the last 30 minutes of the day).

All in all, a great day!! First time on GG, Roller Disco and Funk'n'Fly today - Gangsta Granny is fun, would ride again! Roller Disco and Funk'n'Fly are both pretty great in my opinion!

EDIT: Rides on my list we didn't do and reasons-
Flavio's Fabulous Fandango - closed all day, no sign of activity from any maintenance or staff, which is a shame because I really like this and think it packs a punch.
The Blade - had the day been slightly longer, I would've
Enterprise - see above
Galactica - were about to after Funk'n'Fly, as it was advertised 20, but I heard the temporary delay announcement so didn't bother.
Nemesis - queue was too long when in FV, and it was also down for a decent amount of time.
 
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Danscott22 said:
Clocked the wait times on today's visit to help people who might be put off by larger midweek queues. In the order we did them-
The Smiler (1st ride) - pre-open on the 3rd train of the day, so can't call it, heard the announcement upon opening saying it would be 45 minutes at the back of the queue though.
Rita - Advertised 0, waited 0 (PS, BEST ride I've EVER had on Rita, it really was glass smooth today, really bumped Rita up for me!)
Roller Disco - advertised 0, waited 0 (this isn't as bad as everyone says it is, mine was spinning wildly almost as if someone was manually spinning it!)
TH13TEEN - advertised 10, waited 0 (late opening for this but riding Roller Disco meant we we on TH13TEEN's third train of the day).
Gangsta Granny: The Ride - advertised 20, waited 45 (worth noting this would've been 15 minutes but it had quite a lengthy downtime, bumping it to 45).
Hex - advertised 5, waited 20 (the wait hadn't been updated, but whilst we were in the queue it crept it to 40 minutes, which I'm likely to believe as the length was double that we waited just before heading into the inside queue line).
Congo River Rapids - advertised 5, waited 15 (would've been 5, 10 minutes cleaning bumped it to 15)
Runaway Mine Train - advertised 10, waited 10 (first time on this in ages, my and my friend both agree it's so underrated for a family coaster, it's great!
Duel - advertised 0, waited 0
Funk'n'Fly - advertised 10, waited 10 (first time on this as it was down last visit, I personally loved this!!)
Wicker Man (1st ride) - advertised 50, waited 25!!! (from in the extension queue as well! You would've thought this was an omnimover ride if you knew no better, potentially the quickest operation I've ever seen on anything ever! Genuinely the queue was hardly stationary on this!)
Mixtape - advertised 0, waited 10 (loved this again, it's a great addition!)
Oblivion - advertised 30, waited 25 (would've been less but we hit the cleaning cycle)
Wicker Man (2nd go) - advertised 30, waited 15 (should've been on the front row but the ride host asked if we wanted a back row! I obviously said yes as I love it and wanted my friend to experience the back for the first ever time! That ride single handedly pushes WM back up to my Alton 2nd, and pushes for 1st place again)
The Smiler (2nd ride) - advertised 0, waited 25 (worth noting it was advertised 0 because the app cut it's queue to "closed" at 5pm so they had to reset it for the last 30 minutes of the day).

All in all, a great day!! First time on GG, Roller Disco and Funk'n'Fly today - Gangsta Granny is fun, would ride again! Roller Disco and Funk'n'Fly are both pretty great in my opinion!

EDIT: Rides on my list we didn't do and reasons-
Flavio's Fabulous Fandango - closed all day, no sign of activity from any maintenance or staff, which is a shame because I really like this and think it packs a punch.
The Blade - had the day been slightly longer, I would've
Enterprise - see above
Galactica - were about to after Funk'n'Fly, as it was advertised 20, but I heard the temporary delay announcement so didn't bother.
Nemesis - queue was too long when in FV, and it was also down for a decent amount of time.
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Nemesis seems to be having a lot of Down Time this Season was Oblivion okay today as that seems to be struggling a little??
 
David Allen said:
Nemesis seems to be having a lot of Down Time this Season was Oblivion okay today as that seems to be struggling a little??
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Oblivion was fine as far as I'm aware today, the operations were slightly slower than I remember them being on there (it was double station loading) but it was running well, had a loose restraint so the drop airtime was fantastic.
 
Anyone know how many trains wicker man is on? I don't believe it's 90 mins for one second because the queue moves really quickly now
 
Ethan said:
Anyone know how many trains wicker man is on? I don't believe it's 90 mins for one second because the queue moves really quickly now
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It's running eleventyhundred and twelve cars today as a trial, but it is stacking quite a bit so that might be causing the queue.

As surely you know by now, there are many reasons it could be legitimately on a 90 in spite of your belief.
 
Danscott22 said:
More fast track on a Friday most likely holding it up. The fact the park hours have been extended from 6 until 7 today supports that I'd say.
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The smiler fastrack sold out at about 2 and the queue has been huge for it most the afternoon. It said 70 when I was in x sector but given where the queue was and the volume of fastrack there was absolutely no chance the queue was that low. Still at least Oblivion has been reliable as ever, with fast loading and an overestimated queue. Advertised 45 but I waited 15, how about that!
 
As I'm sure you're all aware, the current wait times are harder for the staff to predict based on some social distancing and others not in the queue. This therefore results in queues being both overestimated and underestimated. I know my experience will be different to others, but based on several trips (around 10) rather than just one, I have been able to figure out if a ride is normally overstated or under. I hope this helps people going but to clarify this is just a judgement not a fact.
Smiler- Underestimated. There have been occasions where I've waited less than advertised, however morely so I've ended up waiting longer in recent weeks. For example on 2 occasions the advertised queue was 70 and I waited from the same point both times and it was 80.
Wicker man- Overestimated. This has certainly become the case in recent weeks since the trains have started to be filled fully again, with waits normally much less than advertised which is great!
Rita- bit of both. It's hard to judge with this ride as it's the one I ride the least but I've never waited more than 10 mins longer than the stated time.
Th13teen- underestimated. The accuracy of the queue times for this ride are much improved now that they're filling nearly all rows. However, I've still ended up waiting a little more than advertised on most occasions.
Oblivion- stupidly overestimated. As I said I'm sure many have had different experiences but every time I've queued for Oblivion it's always been much less than advertised. Most recently yesterday it was advertised 45 and I was on in 15 mins.
Galactica- depends on if the ride is running 1 or 2 stations. If its on 1 then it's more likely to be accurate and if its on 2 then it's normally Overestimated
Nemesis- Overestimated. Most rides on Nemesis I've waited less than advertised. However the difference isn't as significant as my rides on Oblivion where the queue has been overstated much more
 
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So basically they should be used at best as a rough guide and not as irrefutable fact? And in fact they hold no real value at all to anyone outside of guests actually visiting the park. You’ve contradicted yourself saying there’s times you’ve waited shorter and longer for all of the coasters. For as long as the times are based on staff making estimates, rather than a Disney style measuring system, I don’t really see the point of going round in circles over it
 
I think the queue time measurements are very variable, as unless the staff member physically counted everyone in the queue and physically timed the dispatches of the ride, which is impossible unless CCTV coverage is very wide and they have another staff member using the Dispatch Timer app or whatever, then no estimate will be 100% accurate.

The degree of distancing in certain queues might vary, the dispatch times and throughputs of the rides vary to a degree, and even the staff member estimating might cause variation in the queue time, so I don’t think it’s necessarily possible to say with certainty whether certain rides are always overestimated or underestimated. Always is a very strong word.

From my experience, I’ve ridden certain rides on different visits and had vastly different answers as to whether the queue was overestimated or underestimated; for instance, Wicker Man in July 2020 was overestimated on both rides, and quite vastly overestimated in the case of my first ride, where the advertised queue time was 100 minutes, but ended up being only 35. However, in April 2021, Wicker Man was underestimated by a fair amount; the advertised time was 65 minutes, but we waited nearly 2 hours.

It really can vary!
 
Now Wicker Man is literally eating through its queue, I think you'd be unlucky to wait more than 30-40 minutes for it, when it was stated 50 the other day into the extension we genuinely couldn't believe we were on in 25. We usually play a little game in the queue line which requires standing still and we couldn't play it properly because it felt like we were always moving!
 
AstroDan said:
Wicker Man throughput/ operation is outstanding currently.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
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Do you reckon it’s exceeding 1,000pph? I clocked it at 1,059pph on my last visit in April, but I’m not sure if I did that right, as the ride’s theoretical is 952pph… I guess I’ll get to time it again for myself on Monday.
 
Dread the day the ride's baggage hold gets the same treatment as those before it and it slows it down :rolleyes:
 
Danscott22 said:
Dread the day the ride's baggage hold gets the same treatment as those before it and it slows it down :rolleyes:
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The baggage hold might not necessarily go; Thirteen’s and Smiler’s only went due to a reduction in the operating budget in 2018, and if anything, the operations budget only seems to be increasing at the moment!

I dare say I think we could even see baggage holds return on Thirteen and The Smiler in the not-too-distant future!

Out of interest, though; why is it that baggage holds make the queue move more quickly? I know that they increase the throughput of the coaster due to shorter dispatch times in the station itself, but surely baggage holds just move that time delay caused by storing bags into the queue itself as opposed to in the station, making little difference to the queue time of riders prior to the baggage hold?
 
Baggage hold systems on Thirteen and The Smiler just seem to be a bit of faff, you've got people getting in the way of each other that are collecting and putting their bags down. it definitely slows the time slightly, I'd be all for Thirteen and The Smiler baggage holds return, albeit I don't think they will.
 
Matt N said:
The baggage hold might not necessarily go; Thirteen’s and Smiler’s only went due to a reduction in the operating budget in 2018, and if anything, the operations budget only seems to be increasing at the moment!

I dare say I think we could even see baggage holds return on Thirteen and The Smiler in the not-too-distant future!

Out of interest, though; why is it that baggage holds make the queue move more quickly? I know that they increase the throughput of the coaster due to shorter dispatch times in the station itself, but surely baggage holds just move that time delay caused by storing bags into the queue itself as opposed to in the station, making little difference to the queue time of riders prior to the baggage hold?
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The difference is that the baggage cages are only accessible for a short time when a train is in the station and both guests embarking and disembarking have to scramble through the same cages. A baggage hold can operate at all times regardless of where the trains are and there are separate windows for embarking and disembarking guests so they don't get in the way, reducing faff.
 
Ah, that makes a lot of sense; thanks for the explanation, guys!

If Towers wouldn’t entertain the prospect of keeping staffed baggage holds, would it be possible to convert the baggage holds into double-sided lockers, kind of like what VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando has? That would have all the same benefits as a baggage hold, but without the extra staff!
 
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