Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Hopefully the queue layout is only provisional, and they’re able to squeeze a Single Rider Queue in there somewhere…
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Single Rider Queues at Alton Towers; could more return?
- Thread starter Matt N
- Start date
Maybe the coaster will only be 2 seats per row, reducing the need of a single rider queue. Let's hope that if they implement a pre show that it is a continuous rolling pre show like on Alton manor. Wicker mans is just a faff waiting around to go in the room. You could just queue through the room and have the pre show on constantly
Zeock
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
I would have hoped that they could change the queue layout at this stage, before anything is constructed.
BarryZola
TS Member
When I said the place was better in the 'bad old days' of DIC or whenever a few days ago, I wasn't joking. Maybe it's from a personal perspective, but my experience was much better.
You could turn up early as an annual passholder and get in half an hour or an hour earlier and get on a good selection of rides for that whole time before non -passholders got into the theme park. Passholders were a lot fewer then too, so it was genuinely a very good thing.
Then even when it got a bit busier later on in the morning/day you could rock up to the Single Rider queue on the likes of Nemesis, Spinball, Thirteen and anything else through those years and get on usually within 5-10 mins at most.
I could then treat myself to a decent burger or chicken meal and not feel like I'd been absolutely robbed. My favourite place to eat them was on one of the conveniently placed benches upstairs or in the library/poets corner in the Towers ruins. I'd be depressed now after paying ridiculous prices for lower quality food.
Talking of the ruins, you could have a good old explore pretty much all year round which was a great way to spend an hour or so. The roof, basement, and pretty much everything in-between (where safe). You could actually walk up the steps and across the sham bridge next to the lake before they decided to fence it off more recently (you know the one with the big Smiler sticker on currently). The bridge is only a little thing, but all the little things like that add up over time.
The fountains and stuff in the gardens actually used to operate more often too. Ride downtime seemed to be a lot less in those days too.
Things like pin badges used to cost about £2. Now they're £8! That's just an example of the constant invitation to extortion you feel is around the whole place these days.
You used to have Charlie or Toyland Tours to have a free go on if you felt like it, instead of a pay to use attraction (The Dungeons). I've to this day still never been on the latest version.
They used to run behind the scenes tours and gardens tours occasionally too. Pretty great it was really. And I've probably forgotten a lot more of the little things that used to make a day there more pleasurable, for me, anyway.
You could turn up early as an annual passholder and get in half an hour or an hour earlier and get on a good selection of rides for that whole time before non -passholders got into the theme park. Passholders were a lot fewer then too, so it was genuinely a very good thing.
Then even when it got a bit busier later on in the morning/day you could rock up to the Single Rider queue on the likes of Nemesis, Spinball, Thirteen and anything else through those years and get on usually within 5-10 mins at most.
I could then treat myself to a decent burger or chicken meal and not feel like I'd been absolutely robbed. My favourite place to eat them was on one of the conveniently placed benches upstairs or in the library/poets corner in the Towers ruins. I'd be depressed now after paying ridiculous prices for lower quality food.
Talking of the ruins, you could have a good old explore pretty much all year round which was a great way to spend an hour or so. The roof, basement, and pretty much everything in-between (where safe). You could actually walk up the steps and across the sham bridge next to the lake before they decided to fence it off more recently (you know the one with the big Smiler sticker on currently). The bridge is only a little thing, but all the little things like that add up over time.
The fountains and stuff in the gardens actually used to operate more often too. Ride downtime seemed to be a lot less in those days too.
Things like pin badges used to cost about £2. Now they're £8! That's just an example of the constant invitation to extortion you feel is around the whole place these days.
You used to have Charlie or Toyland Tours to have a free go on if you felt like it, instead of a pay to use attraction (The Dungeons). I've to this day still never been on the latest version.
They used to run behind the scenes tours and gardens tours occasionally too. Pretty great it was really. And I've probably forgotten a lot more of the little things that used to make a day there more pleasurable, for me, anyway.
djtruefitt
TS Team
Single rider could easily be added back to Oblivion tomorrow if they wanted. All the queue is still there and you always have a batcher on Oblivion, so I see no reason why that couldn’t be added.
Spinball would be easy to use the old fastrack entrance near the exit, they would have to put the queue line back, but wouldn’t be hard. And that’s always got an exit host now cause of RAP, so they can easily sort single riders out too. (Spinball usually has too many staff anyway).
Other rides it then gets harder. TH13TEEN could work, but fastrack and single would have to go in one queue until they get to baggage, then that merge person there would have to send FT to main queue and singles up a separate line. Only issue with that is if it’s really busy then you’ll have a group of people queueing for single and fastrack without the host knowing who is who until they get to merge, and days when baggage is shut then there I no way of having single rider open.
The likes or Rita and Galactica have lost their lines due to RAP or Fastrack. So there isn’t a way to add these back unless they had a complete redesign of the queue lines, which wouldn’t be easy.
The same for wicker Man, I can’t really see any way you could add single rider in to that now.
Spinball would be easy to use the old fastrack entrance near the exit, they would have to put the queue line back, but wouldn’t be hard. And that’s always got an exit host now cause of RAP, so they can easily sort single riders out too. (Spinball usually has too many staff anyway).
Other rides it then gets harder. TH13TEEN could work, but fastrack and single would have to go in one queue until they get to baggage, then that merge person there would have to send FT to main queue and singles up a separate line. Only issue with that is if it’s really busy then you’ll have a group of people queueing for single and fastrack without the host knowing who is who until they get to merge, and days when baggage is shut then there I no way of having single rider open.
The likes or Rita and Galactica have lost their lines due to RAP or Fastrack. So there isn’t a way to add these back unless they had a complete redesign of the queue lines, which wouldn’t be easy.
The same for wicker Man, I can’t really see any way you could add single rider in to that now.
Danscott22
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
Thought it might be wise to bring this one back now Spinball and Thirteen have single rider queues again. Would like to see Oblivion & Galactica at the very least also get them
It just wouldn’t work on Galactica because it has 2 stations. Oblivion should’ve been priority over Th13teen and Spinball to me so I’m surprised that’s yet to happen
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Galactica/Air used to have one and the infrastructure is still in place, and with Blivvy's upcoming rumoured station rebuild I could see them adding one as part of that.
VerticalLoop123
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Oblivion used to have one but it got turned into RAP I believe? Used to be brilliant.
Very pleased with the re-addition of the SRQs - especially when the infrastructure is already there! Is the spinball one the old srq?
No they’re building a new queue line for it. In regards to TH13TEEN I’m surprised they’ve brought it back as they seem to fill all the seats pretty well so how fast is the single queue likely to move if there’s rarely empty seats
Didn’t it work as even numbers to one station and odd numbers and single rider to the other or is my memory hazy?
AT86
TS Member
Yep the batcher would send all odd numbered groups to the right hand station and evens to the left.
That way the SRQ would be used to fill the gaps in the right hand station.
That’s just a faff. You have to ask numbers for every single group
AT86
TS Member
Diddums. I’m sure the batcher can cope.
Alexsniff7
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- ICON
so if anyone has used the two new SRQs yet please mention how efficient they are?
I am interested to know how the Thirteen one works, do singles and fasttrack queue together until baggage?? if so what if fasttrack has a wait?? do singles have to wait too
I am interested to know how the Thirteen one works, do singles and fasttrack queue together until baggage?? if so what if fasttrack has a wait?? do singles have to wait too
Leigh
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- EGF
If Oblivion’s doesn’t come back in some form (either with or without the inevitable station refurb/rebuild) I would be surprised.
Galactica could happen if the batching goes back to the old method of odds right, evens left.
Ship has sailed as far as Nemesis is concerned (unfortunately).
Galactica could happen if the batching goes back to the old method of odds right, evens left.
Ship has sailed as far as Nemesis is concerned (unfortunately).