• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

General Queue Times Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
It’s the same issue that they have during fireworks. When dark rides are a thing, RAP will always completely ruin operations on WM. Fastrack in general is fine, as the tickets are timed there’s not really a possibility of there being too many people showing up at once.

The discussion over RAP and dark rides is probably one more for the RAP topic, but there needs to be a change and fast. Whether that’s through timed tickets after a certain time for RAP or advising users of a queue line cut off at night, something has to be done. Having those in the normal queue wait that long for a ride despite such a short queue time being posted isn’t fair on both guests and the staff who are already working hideously long hours in the coming weeks.
 
I'm going with my cousin next Saturday who has RAP, because he's in a wheelchair and cannot walk very far (out of the chair and onto the ride can sometimes even be a bit of a worry) so I'm not looking forward to seeing probably hundreds of people using RAP unnecessarily next week. It really makes me angry when I see people on vlogs switching between the main queue and the RAP entrance.
 
We spent the first Friday and Saturday of scarefest 2021 on park
The Friday was not too bad with que times except rita and thirteen. Long despatch times particularly on rita. Very slow.

Rap ques were exceptionally long the Friday and yesterday too...I understand its a difficult one and sensitive yet this needs looking at.

We had ultimate FT yesterday and we needed it, there was barely any wait in any FT que, even at 8pm on wickerman.

We did the mazes Friday from 5pm and all were very quiet indeed. We re done mine tours yesterday and it was better than the Friday!

Despite the fact I lost my key on galatica, was never going to find it so gave up, it was a good weekend yet as I said poor operations on some rides hampered by rap and faffing guests....

Shame to see nemesis with no lighting package, looks like they gave it to wickerman.

Thirteen closed just after we got a night ride, there was one or two spots of drizzle. It didn't reopen yesterday evening.

Apologies for going off topic so much too.
 
Last edited:
If the sign at the entrance had said 120 minutes I quite simply would not have joined the queue.

There's two problems here which are loosely connected. Excessive RAP usage and inaccurate queue times.

I'm surprised this is a problem that's not been solved yet.

Apart from the wider issues of RAP allocation it seems to me the rate should be limited. Remember the normal queues being closed due to "queue at capacity"? Why don't they apply a similar restriction to RAP queues?

As for the queue time, I don't believe counting the rate of people flowing through the queue should be an unsolved problem. I appreciate it can fluctuate due to unforeseen conditions, but WM was running at good throughput and had no downtime so this wasn't the case here.

As an aside (this didn't impact the throughput), the host at the preshow was doing his best to overfill the room. It made for a claustrophobic experience and is ultimately self-defeating as the exit door then gets blocked. Why do they insist on doing this? Why doesn't somebody tell them how many people to get per batch and explain why doing more doesn't help?
 
Don’t shoot me down but been following the queue lines on the app over the weekend to get a guide on how long on average we be waiting in queues for rides on the 23rd October. Now if it says on the app that the queue is closed is that always that the ride having some downtime or do they also list this when the queue is full?
Won’t be doing the mazes as my daughter 9 but we be hopefully hitting all the 1.2m tall coasters and flat rides.
 
My tip: Avoid Wicker Man in the night until 8.55pm, especially if a Saturday or during half term. Join then. The ever-present abuse of RAP is now so dire, that joining any earlier if it's dark is a serious mistake that could well ruin your day.

Last night was a serious error of judgement on my part to join a "50 minute queue" at 7.10pm which turned out to be my last ride of the day. Never again.

FT did not seem to be the issue.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Don’t shoot me down but been following the queue lines on the app over the weekend to get a guide on how long on average we be waiting in queues for rides on the 23rd October. Now if it says on the app that the queue is closed is that always that the ride having some downtime or do they also list this when the queue is full?
Won’t be doing the mazes as my daughter 9 but we be hopefully hitting all the 1.2m tall coasters and flat rides.
Click to expand...
It's just downtime now - they used to put "queue at capacity" during COVID times, guests were spread out so there would be gaps in the queue line. It's quite rare now that a queue actually hits capacity with everyone not social distancing anymore, so if it says "closed" then it's for technical issues.
 
AstroDan said:
My tip: Avoid Wicker Man in the night until 8.55pm, especially if a Saturday or during half term. Join then. The ever-present abuse of RAP is now so dire, that joining any earlier if it's dark is a serious mistake that could well ruin your day.

Last night was a serious error of judgement on my part to join a "50 minute queue" at 7.10pm which turned out to be my last ride of the day. Never again.

FT did not seem to be the issue.
Click to expand...
Even so, if FT and downtime weren't the issue, then how can RAP have that much of an effect on the advertised wait time. How can the WM team be 70 mins off the actual waiting time, surely they know just by looking at the queue that the advertised time is innacurate
 
Ethan said:
Even so, if FT and downtime weren't the issue, then how can RAP have that much of an effect on the advertised wait time. How can the WM team be 70 mins off the actual waiting time, surely they know just by looking at the queue that the advertised time is innacurate
Click to expand...
I guess staff look at the queue and say "from the entrance to the station is 60 minutes", and it probably is normally... however this is based on assumptions. They're making an assumption of ratios at the merge point.

If suddenly the RAP gets overwhelmed and they change the way they mix guests at the merge point, the main queue could easily double. These calculations should be applied to the queue time displayed at the entrance.

This could easily be worked out if you had the mindset and I'd be somewhat surprised and dismayed (in equal measures) if nobody has done this.
 
For anyone whose been to the Fireworks event - Is this generally a very busy weekend on the Saturday?

Not expecting it to be quiet by no means, I’m debating whether or not to get FT especially if it’s going to be rammo.
 
Ethan said:
Even so, if FT and downtime weren't the issue, then how can RAP have that much of an effect on the advertised wait time. How can the WM team be 70 mins off the actual waiting time, surely they know just by looking at the queue that the advertised time is innacurate
Click to expand...

1. The waiting time should not have been so inaccurate, I agree.
2. From my extensive experience (as I am sure many of you also have), my initial thoughts at looking at the queue size was 'it's more like 1 hour'
3. RAP numbers yesterday were probably higher than usual, but as has been alluded to many times here, as soon as darkness falls - many RAP guests (understandably) want to ride WM. This means the main queue becomes a nonsense.

Quite literally, hundreds of guests at ATR yesterday were affected by this.
 
Matt878787 said:
Thanks! I can handle a 30 min fast track queue compared to a 2/3 hour queue if it’s going to be mega busy.
Click to expand...

There should not be 2 to 3 hour queues at any point between now and then end of the season on any ride - rides like WM, Rita and Smiler could easily hit 90-120 but generally not more than this. Capacity at fireworks will be more limited compared to capacity during Scarefest weekends. Rides such as Oblivion, Nemesis and Galactica generally won't go beyond 60 unless there is some sort of capacity issue.
 
I 100% agree that RAP is being abused, but in this day and age I don’t expect any staff member to question anyone’s right to join RAP queue for fear of being hung drawn and quartered. Those who abuse the RAP know all the tricks in the book and it won’t just be Alton Towers where they play the game.

I support a proof based doctors note system to be allowed access to RAP. It’s a vital service for people with physical and mental disabilities who can’t be denied the pure pleasure we all know and love from riding rides, however as with most policies designed to help those most in need, they’re being exploited by the greedy, the freeloaders, the lazy and self entitled and it makes me really angry because it negatively impacts the experience of the guests who genuinely need it.
 
s_g_k said:
I 100% agree that RAP is being abused, but in this day and age I don’t expect any staff member to question anyone’s right to join RAP queue for fear of being hung drawn and quartered. Those who abuse the RAP know all the tricks in the book and it won’t just be Alton Towers where they play the game.

I support a proof based doctors note system to be allowed access to RAP. It’s a vital service for people with physical and mental disabilities who can’t be denied the pure pleasure we all know and love from riding rides, however as with most policies designed to help those most in need, they’re being exploited by the greedy, the freeloaders, the lazy and self entitled and it makes me really angry because it negatively impacts the experience of the guests who genuinely need it.
Click to expand...
Doctor's notes are Indeed best as they specifically state the reason why someone cannot queue. The issue though is they can easily be forged/faked, as has happened in the past. DLA/PIP statements are harder to forge.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top