However I imagine it's throughput is absolutely shocking. I always remember waiting ages for it when I was a kids.
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General Queue Times Discussion
You just made a joke without realising
I'm hoping that queues in the coming weeks are quieter than today as it still seems fairly busy to me. There's a huge difference between the queues today compared to a few years ago in September. No I'm not expecting walk ons but queues below 60 mins. There has been points today where every coaster has hit 1+ hours
I expect you'll see the most difference from Monday when colleges, universities and all schools should be back or at least doing induction (colleges and uni's)
Jaybomuso
TS Member
Yeah, this is what I'm hoping as well otherwise I might cancel my trip!
Danscott22
TS Member
Schools are still off that's why it's still 1 hour+
NuttySquirrel
TS Member
Sounds like that could get messy!
Danscott22
TS Member
Yeah for reference, my masters uni start date is September 27th, three days after I next visit, and my undergrad start dates were often in October, so don't expect dead queues basically.
jon81uk
TS Member
If queuing more than an hour is reason to cancel then you might not want to bother at all. Its a theme park, there will be queues.
mid-September once all schools are back will be quieter.
But its Alton Towers, there will most likely be a queue for something.
If you arrive at the park and get stressed trying to find the shortest queue you'll spend the whole day walking and not riding.
Matt.GC
TS Member
With loads of schools still off today, leading into a sunny weekend when hardly anyone can go abroad it's bound to be busy still. People don't stop going on September 1st just because it's not August anymore.
Surely having a busy September is a good thing isn't it after the last few years?
Surely having a busy September is a good thing isn't it after the last few years?
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
Is it normal that the queue time boards often overstate the actual queue time? Yesterday it was mega busy and most major rides showed 60-90 mins for most of the afternoon. But other than Wickerman which was fairly accurate, I think most of the others we went on we queued less than the shown time. For example Galactica late in the day showed 70 and was no more than 35. Thirteen showed 80 mins and was around 45. From the Thirteen queue, Rita dispatches seemed very slow so we didn’t bother waiting. Perhaps it was on one train, or is it always slow?
I have to say that although we felt like we spent the whole day in queues (yes I know it’s still summer holiday for some, but I understood that some schools were back so was hoping for less punters), the staff were very efficient with dispatch. On Nemesis we went in the front row queue, a good number of people in front but we still seemed to get on it in no time, so fair play to the staff.
Never seen cars queuing way back up the main road just to turn into the car park before. 14 hour day with travelling and a nightmare M6 drive down, for no more than a few short minutes actual riding time, enjoyed it, but visiting a theme park should be fun, not an exhausting slog! Lesson learned re: school hols, but I took my sons so had no choice this time!
I have to say that although we felt like we spent the whole day in queues (yes I know it’s still summer holiday for some, but I understood that some schools were back so was hoping for less punters), the staff were very efficient with dispatch. On Nemesis we went in the front row queue, a good number of people in front but we still seemed to get on it in no time, so fair play to the staff.
Never seen cars queuing way back up the main road just to turn into the car park before. 14 hour day with travelling and a nightmare M6 drive down, for no more than a few short minutes actual riding time, enjoyed it, but visiting a theme park should be fun, not an exhausting slog! Lesson learned re: school hols, but I took my sons so had no choice this time!
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Oblivion is normally the worst for being overstated. I remember it being advertised 80 and only waiting 40 so I just join it now days no matter what
Matt N
TS Member
Out of interest, is Wicker Man’s throughput drastically reduced on 2 trains compared to 3? I only ask because I notice that the ride seems to stack on 3 trains, in spite of the lightning fast ops on Wicker Man, so I’m assuming that WM’s 2 train throughput would not be a simple case of “3 train throughput x 2/3” due to the total ride duration being shorter on 2 trains (because of the aforementioned stacking not happening on 2).
Does 3 trains actually make a huge amount of difference to Wicker Man’s throughput, or is it only a matter of a negligible amount of pph? I’m certainly not complaining about Wicker Man being on 3 trains (I love that it’s exceeding its theoretical!), but I was merely intrigued to know.
Does 3 trains actually make a huge amount of difference to Wicker Man’s throughput, or is it only a matter of a negligible amount of pph? I’m certainly not complaining about Wicker Man being on 3 trains (I love that it’s exceeding its theoretical!), but I was merely intrigued to know.
Dipper_Dave
TS Member
Oblivion was shown 15, seemed about right but we were in the caged bridge almost straight away and most of the wait time was being at the gate itself whilst the trains from behind passed and people got on from the other side. What is that? Express pass? Disabled access?
When we considered a repeat ride it had gone up to 50 mins in that short time. I could tell there were a few more in the queue but it didn’t seem like that much of an increase.
Was there today, long queues for all the rides.
However, Galatica was on both stations, so the queue moved well. Smiler's single rider queue dropped the 80 minute advertsied time to only 20, At one point Spinball whizzer was advertised at 455 minutes! It was 45 in reality. WickerMan and Nemesis were as well operated as always, so at least the queues were moving.
Biggest offender was Oblivion on only one station - a 70 minute queue was about 85, and only because many were giving up and leaving the queue. At several points the sitiation wasn't helped by large groups of fast trackers at regular intervals
However, Galatica was on both stations, so the queue moved well. Smiler's single rider queue dropped the 80 minute advertsied time to only 20, At one point Spinball whizzer was advertised at 455 minutes! It was 45 in reality. WickerMan and Nemesis were as well operated as always, so at least the queues were moving.
Biggest offender was Oblivion on only one station - a 70 minute queue was about 85, and only because many were giving up and leaving the queue. At several points the sitiation wasn't helped by large groups of fast trackers at regular intervals
Loui Richards
TS Member
from my experiences this year, wicker man on 3 trains very rarely stacked 3 trains, in fact i wasnt hekd behind the station for that long either. From experience i would say the queue is 1.2X longer than it would be on 3 trains, so a 30 minute queue would turn into a 36 minute queue! Definitely has an effect on the queue but not drastically like galactica does on 1 station
Matt N
TS Member
I’m not denying that Smiler is a very popular ride, but its extremely long queues relative to the others might be helped by the fact that it doesn’t have the highest of throughputs compared to the others; I don’t know if this is the case all the time, but I clocked it at around 750pph on my last ride.
In terms of the big 7, I think only Rita was lower by my timings, although in fairness I’m yet to get around to timing Galactica (?).
I’m not denying that Smiler is a very popular ride, as I think it is certainly one of the park’s most popular alongside Wicker Man. But I do think that its relative throughput compared to the others might also explain its long queue times.