General Queue Times Discussion

[Matt N]

Honestly, the day I went to Towers and Oblivion was running one station, the queue only took us 15-20 minutes. I certainly don’t think it needed to be running 2.

Ditto with Wicker Man on 2 trains on the same day; I had 3 rides, and the longest I waited for it was 20 minutes to the pre-show area, and the queue never went further back than the queue line shop. The queue was practically non-existent on one of my rides that day (as in, it literally only began directly outside the pre-show area), and 3 trains certainly weren’t needed!

With regard to your comment about Oblivion “not being worth it”; as @Danny says, there will be many people (the vast majority) who have never ridden Oblivion before, or at least not ridden it as often as us, and will absolutely relish it despite the queue! Heck, I still love Oblivion no matter the queue (my current ride count on it is only 17, admittedly; nowhere near triple or quadruple figures); I’d happily queue an hour or so for it myself, as even though I’ve done it before, I absolutely love it and it’s one of my favourites on park! At a guess, I’d also say that the sort of people saying “why would I queue an hour for a 6 second drop?” are not the sort of people who would want to visit a theme park to begin with…

 

[Matt.GC]

So we're discussing Thorpe's operations, claiming Alton Towers are making up well reported UK staffing shortages and asking them not to even bother opening any rides unless operating on anything other than maximum capacity even if the park is quiet due to the odd 60 min Oblivion queue? All this on a thread that's supposed to be about Thirteen? Talk about wanting to crack a nut with a sledgehammer!

 

[Matt N]

So we're discussing Thorpe's operations, claiming Alton Towers are making up well reported UK staffing shortages and asking them not to even bother opening any rides unless operating on anything other than maximum capacity even if the park is quiet due to the odd 60 min Oblivion queue? All this on a thread that's supposed to be about Thirteen? Talk about wanting to crack a nut with a sledgehammer!

Wait, this was the Thirteen thread? Sorry about that; I genuinely thought it was the Oblivion thread…

 

[Ethan]

I don't think people are understanding the point. Why create a massive queue due to operations when you could make it 30 mins for example. Waiting a long time on a busy day is unavoidable but waiting long due to operations just looks bad on the park

 

[Matt N]

I don't think people are understanding the point. Why create a massive queue due to operations when you could make it 30 mins for example. Waiting a long time on a busy day is unavoidable but waiting long due to operations just looks bad on the park

I can’t speak for every day of course, but on the types of days where I’ve seen Towers reducing capacity, all queues on the rides affected were less than 30 minutes; if full capacity was being used, the queues would have been practically non-existent!

 

[Danny]

I don't think people are understanding the point. Why create a massive queue due to operations when you could make it 30 mins for example. Waiting a long time on a busy day is unavoidable but waiting long due to operations just looks bad on the park

I think you're missing how a theme park operates. Area managers and the powers that be above don't just sit in their offices at the start of a day and methodically plan out how long/short they want queues to be. You are relentlessly failing to grasp the number of factors that can contribute to what you consider inadequate operations.

Staffing. Maintenance on ride trains/shuttles that is unavoidable yet spontaneous and thus unable to be scheduled accurately. Guests being unable to efficiently load/unload themselves. Weather conditions.

Even if by some miracle Towers were brimming with staff, there are still instances where they physically cannot operate the rides to their theoretical capacity. If a guest projectile vomits all over a train, there goes several minutes whilst the train needs to be cleaned. If a guest accidentally takes someone else's bag, and the other guest decides to start a punch up on the platform, there goes several minutes whilst staff are forced to intervene at their own risk/summon security. If a guest boards the train and has a panic attack prior to dispatch, there goes a couple of minutes whilst staff ensure they are fit to ride.

They do not create massive queues from operations just to p*ss you off. They are making a huge push this year on KPIs to ensure guests get on as many attractions as possible, hence the addition of the Retro Squad. They. Are. Not. Deliberately. Lengthening. Queues.

 

[Ethan]

I think you're missing how a theme park operates. Area managers and the powers that be above don't just sit in their offices at the start of a day and methodically plan out how long/short they want queues to be. You are relentlessly failing to grasp the number of factors that can contribute to what you consider inadequate operations.

Staffing. Maintenance on ride trains/shuttles that is unavoidable yet spontaneous and thus unable to be scheduled accurately. Guests being unable to efficiently load/unload themselves. Weather conditions.

Even if by some miracle Towers were brimming with staff, there are still instances where they physically cannot operate the rides to their theoretical capacity. If a guest projectile vomits all over a train, there goes several minutes whilst the train needs to be cleaned. If a guest accidentally takes someone else's bag, and the other guest decides to start a punch up on the platform, there goes several minutes whilst staff are forced to intervene at their own risk/summon security. If a guest boards the train and has a panic attack prior to dispatch, there goes a couple of minutes whilst staff ensure they are fit to ride.

They do not create massive queues from operations just to p*ss you off. They are making a huge push this year on KPIs to ensure guests get on as many attractions as possible, hence the addition of the Retro Squad. They. Are. Not. Deliberately. Lengthening. Queues.

I'm not expecting them to operate the ride to theoretical throughput as that never happens. I'm saying on busier days it should never be on 1 station unless there's staff illness. Ideally if towers had the staff I'd like to see it on 2 stations regularly but I accept that won't happen. But the ride being on 1 station on busier weekdays shouldn't happen, especially given they know the numbers beforehand due to essential pre booking. If its quiet then 1 station is fine but if they see higher numbers than usual for a weekday then they should accommodate

 

[Tommy85]

Well in that case if you see Oblivion on a 60 minute queue then how about you just don’t join it? Problem solved.

Guests who do want to wait an hour for Oblivion can then join the queue if that’s what they want to do. Not everyone visits three times a week. Maybe they would happily wait an hour because it will be their only chance for a couple of years.

This was the point of my original post. At least if the ride is open, but with a long queue, it puts the decision in the guests’ hands. Want to wait 3 hours for 13 then u can, don’t want to then dont. And from towers’ perspective it reduces complaints considerably. Not saying it’s ideal, but I think it’d be a good way of getting the ride through these final few weeks before working on the problem in the winter.

 

[jon81uk]

I'm not expecting them to operate the ride to theoretical throughput as that never happens. I'm saying on busier days it should never be on 1 station unless there's staff illness. Ideally if towers had the staff I'd like to see it on 2 stations regularly but I accept that won't happen. But the ride being on 1 station on busier weekdays shouldn't happen, especially given they know the numbers beforehand due to essential pre booking. If its quiet then 1 station is fine but if they see higher numbers than usual for a weekday then they should accommodate

Busier days I think they already do if possible (as in they have enough staff and enough working trains).

But on weekdays, if they queue is under 60 minutes most of the day thats fine. Yes it could be better, but if they aren't getting enough paying guests through the gate there is no incentive to spend huge amounts more on staff etc. this was also the issue with the old £55 season pass, some days had almost no guests actually paying for entry as there was so many who already paid for a cheap pass.

 

[Skyscraper]

That's 3 out of 4 rides closed in X Sector currently

 

[pluk]

Busier days I think they already do if possible (as in they have enough staff and enough working trains).

But on weekdays, if they queue is under 60 minutes most of the day thats fine. Yes it could be better, but if they aren't getting enough paying guests through the gate there is no incentive to spend huge amounts more on staff etc. this was also the issue with the old £55 season pass, some days had almost no guests actually paying for entry as there was so many who already paid for a cheap pass.

As much as it pains me, I'm largely in agreement with Ethan. An hour is excessive a queue for a quiet day simply because operations are so poor. If queue are that long its obviously not that quiet a day, is it? Regardless of it being arbitrarily peak or off peak, that is an engineered queue.

 

[Ethan]

As much as it pains me, I'm largely in agreement with Ethan. An hour is excessive a queue for a quiet day simply because operations are so poor. If queue are that long its obviously not that quiet a day, is it? Regardless of it being arbitrarily peak or off peak, that is an engineered queue.

Just because people tend to disagree with me doesn't mean I'm talking rubbish. Everyone has different views. The problem is everyone is so technical on here whereas I just view something how someone from the public would. People giving different factors as to why oblivion may be on 1 station don't realise that the GP aren't interested in logistics and just want to get on a ride as quick as possible. I've heard a lot on here that it's pointless the ride runs on 2 stations when it's quiet as the queue will be walk on. Well isn't that exactly what every guest wants?

 

[pluk]

Just because people tend to disagree with me doesn't me I'm talking rubbish...everyone is so technical on here whereas I just view something how someone from the public would

I'm agreeing with you, but OK. If not rubbish then massively illogically and/or ill informed. For example, saying a ride should close completely rather than run at a reduced capacity is just silly.

We are the public.

 

[Ethan]

I'm agreeing with you, but OK. If not rubbish then massively illogically and/or ill informed. For example, saying a ride should close completely rather than run at a reduced capacity is just silly.

We are the public.

It saves complaints to an extent though. If a ride is shut there will be complaints, if the ride is open but on a massive queue because it isnt running at full capacity then there will probably be even more complaints

 

[Matt.GC]

I would love to be a fly on the wall of a shareholder AGM where the CEO of Sainsbury's reveals his plan for the year ahead is to tell managers to shut any store where they may potentially have longer queues than usual at their checkouts on any given day.

 

[pluk]

It saves complaints to an extent though. If a ride is shut there will be complaints, if the ride is open but on a massive queue because it isnt running at full capacity then there will probably be even more complaints

No.

Hope that helps.

 

[Skyscraper]

That's got to be wrong lol

 

[Ethan]

That's got to be wrong lol

It's said queue at capacity most the day. I thought at start you were referring to mixtape because there's no way that's true

 

[Skyscraper]

It's said queue at capacity most the day. I thought at start you were referring to mixtape because there's no way that's true

Nope, I was referring to Galactica. I wouldn't be surprised if Mixtape is on 55 mins though; it's very popular and has a long-ish ride cycle and low capacity after all.

 

[Danscott22]

Mixtape very well could've been 55 minutes, it's been more than that more often than not - a full queue line would be well over that - especially if not all the arms are working.