General Queue Times Discussion

[Ethan]

Perhaps that has something to do with the park being virtually dead this week.

Even when the park is empty the smiler is the 1 ride that tends to get a queue. But somehow past few days Oblivion has had more queues. Probs down to the shambolic operations I guess

 

[Danny]

Even when the park is empty the smiler is the 1 ride that tends to get a queue. But somehow past few days Oblivion has had more queues. Probs down to the shambolic operations I guess

Shambolic operations on an off-peak day? What are you expecting? Every coaster with all staff positions filled, every single train on the circuits and running at maximum capacity? Give over.

This over-critical queue line analysis business during the off-peak midweeks days when not on park utterly baffles me. It's worse than the old Air tunnel diatribe.

 

[Ethan]

Shambolic operations on an off-peak day? What are you expecting? Every coaster with all staff positions filled, every single train on the circuits and running at maximum capacity?

Yes. Yes I do. I expect maximum efficiency from the uks biggest and best theme park. You don't see rides at parks like europa park on reduced capacity, regardless of how quiet it is

 

[D4n]

Yes. Yes I do. I expect maximum efficiency from the uks biggest and best theme park. You don't see rides at parks like europa park on reduced capacity, regardless of how quiet it is

As you yourself have stated - often - in the past, the Oblivion queue time is often vastly overstated. Unless you're there in person I wouldn't read anything in to the off peak queue times.

 

[Skyscraper]

Yes. Yes I do. I expect maximum efficiency from the uks biggest and best theme park. You don't see rides at parks like europa park on reduced capacity, regardless of how quiet it is

@Danny is right, why would Towers pay for loads of staff when the park is almost empty? Most of them would have nothing to do!

 

[Matt N]

Yes. Yes I do. I expect maximum efficiency from the uks biggest and best theme park. You don't see rides at parks like europa park on reduced capacity, regardless of how quiet it is

In Towers’ defence; as much as it would be great to have maximum capacity all the time in an ideal world, it’s not really feasible. On a day like today, queues are still perfectly low even when rides are on reduced capacity, and it costs money to run rides at greater capacity. Money that on some days, the park probably isn’t making, so it isn’t deemed to be worth spending.

On some off-peak days, the costs/drawbacks of running on full capacity probably substantially outweigh the benefits, and especially in the current era of COVID where the park is struggling for staff, I think running rides on reduced capacity is perfectly fine, especially when the park is quiet.

With a policy like Towers’ in fact, where rides must be at least partially loaded to send (?), I can imagine running on full capacity might be almost counter-productive on really quiet days, as guests would be waiting on the brake run for ages!

 

[rob666]

Bloody lovely today.
Virtually everything walk on, including nemesis front row.
Queuetimes often wrong...all day!
Longest queue ten minutes all day.

 

[John]

Re: Europa: EP does run rides at reduced capacity at off-peak times. They generally aim for short rather than non-existent queues - Silver Star & Wodan rarely run 1 train but 2 is not uncommon. Blue Fire runs 3 trains fairly often and occasionally just 2. Mir seems to run between 4 and 8 trains depending on demand. They don't even use all the rapids boats on quiet days! In most cases they have enough staff to increase capacity, they just choose not to.

It's a similar story at DLP - ToT typically opens on half capacity and the twin station coasters will only use 1 at quieter times - why have rides fully staffed when there's not enough guests to fill all the seats anyway?

 

[Matt.GC]

This reminds me of the "keep the dirt cheap season passes because I don't have a lot of money and live across the road and want to be able to pop in and out and ride £multimillion coasters as much as I like and sod everyone else" debate.

What Merlin do with/about AT's profits/losses is a separate debate from what is being suggested. If this was a flow chart, the first question would be whether they are making money or not. If the answer is No, kiss goodbye to investment in theming, opening hours, events, restaurants, accommodation, operations and new attractions. Operating the park anywhere near full capacity on off peak days during a distribution and recruitment crisis (or any year for that matter) is absolute business suicide.

 

[Mikw]

As you yourself have stated - often - in the past, the Oblivion queue time is often vastly overstated. Unless you're there in person I wouldn't read anything in to the off peak queue times.

I find it - on one station - to be the opposite. I was there the other week, the afvertised time was 60 minuntes, it took 90 to get onto the ride.

Meanwhile kudos to the Smiler crew, it said 70 minutes and was exactly that.

 

[Ethan]

I find it - on one station - to be the opposite. I was there the other week, the afvertised time was 60 minuntes, it took 90 to get onto the ride.

Meanwhile kudos to the Smiler crew, it said 70 minutes and was exactly that.

Jesus 90 minutes for Oblivion. You'd have to pay me to wait that long. And this is my point about operations, advertised 60 mins I'm assuming it was a weekend therefore. Oblivion should NOT be on 1 station at a weekend

 

[Danny]

They don't just pick and choose capacity at weekends; there are a number of factors depicting how a coaster runs - not least the staff that operate it. If staff are ill from Covid or a Hanley p*ss up the night before, running Oblivion on one station at the weekend may be the only choice they have. Well, or close it naturally, but that's hardly the better option is it?

 

[Mikw]

Jesus 90 minutes for Oblivion. You'd have to pay me to wait that long. And this is my point about operations, advertised 60 mins I'm assuming it was a weekend therefore. Oblivion should NOT be on 1 station at a weekend

Yes, it was a few Saturdays ago, thought the 60 minute queue would be a 40 minute queue to joined it, but moved painfully slow apart from when people gave up and left.

Smiler on the other hand (a ride not noted for queue speed) said 70 and was exactly that, even with the single rider queue being all the way down the stairs.

 

[Ethan]

Smiler on the other hand (a ride not noted for queue speed) said 70 and was exactly that, even with the single rider queue being all the way down the stairs.

Single rider queue won't effect the main queue will it? Filling empty seats where groups of 2+ couldn't sit anyway

 

[Mikw]

Single rider queue won't effect the main queue will it? Filling empty seats where groups of 2+ couldn't sit anyway

Well, it can if not operated correctly, like when they allow a group on when thee's an equal size group in the main queue.

Kudos to the crew anyway, Dave was operating it well as he always does, and the smile assistants were rattling through. I don't want to speak too soon, but it's gone from being notorious for downtime to one of the more reliale coasters in recent times.

 

[Rick]

Kudos to the crew anyway, Dave was operating it well as he always does, and the smile assistants were rattling through. I don't want to speak too soon, but it's gone from being notorious for downtime to one of the more reliale coasters in recent times.

Rattling through is a perfect description of that hunk of junk, for my money.

 

[Dave]

Yes. Yes I do. I expect maximum efficiency from the uks biggest and best theme park. You don't see rides at parks like europa park on reduced capacity, regardless of how quiet it is

I don’t know a park in the world that doesn’t reduce ride capacity when guest numbers are low. Even Disney World do this but their technique is to use those times to shut rides down for maintenance as they operate 365 days a year.

Jesus 90 minutes for Oblivion. You'd have to pay me to wait that long. And this is my point about operations, advertised 60 mins I'm assuming it was a weekend therefore. Oblivion should NOT be on 1 station at a weekend

The only reason Oblivion or Air would be on 1 station on a weekend is unplanned staff absence.

 

[Skyscraper]

The only reason Oblivion or Air would be on 1 station on a weekend is unplanned staff absence.

Or, in the case of Air, a station being unavailable due to technical reasons.

 

[jon81uk]

I don’t know a park in the world that doesn’t reduce ride capacity when guest numbers are low. Even Disney World do this but their technique is to use those times to shut rides down for maintenance as they operate 365 days a year.

Disney will also close stations or run at reduced staffing levels on quieter days too.

 

[Auribus]

The other alternative to capacity and staffing is to have early week closures - as in the 2019 season where in Sep, Oct and Nov you had Mon, Tue and Wed park closure.