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Virtual queuing system

rob666 said:
BPB used to use the qbot system, it was great for us luddites.
Combined 3 versions of queue, fast, medium and standard...we used em all over time, queued in the bar on the standard.
Falls apart on busy days and with breakdowns...lots of queues either full or closed rides makes it messy.
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IMO BPB app is terrible. I never even noticed it had a Qbot system! Do they still use it? If not, why not?

I guess if a ride closes for good, then it could be annoying. I'll have to have a think about how that could alert you. Maybe a page with a blip blip tone or something. It's getting complicated now, though, for the average punter.
 
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They had a mass of racks of the qbot (tamagochi) machines in guest services.
£50 deposit, plus cost, starting at a fiver for the basic, and you "touched base" with the staff qbot to book in at the ride...you could then book your next ride on a simple menu led screen, and it buzzed and vibrated when the time was due for your next ride.
A really good system, but then they shoved it on a smart mobile app, which has been updated a couple of times since...now non mobile owners can simply rent a park mobile at guest services for speedypassing.
Edit ^...double post...whip him.
 
Keep reading up on Q bot. It's a great idea in theory but despite the fact it's been around over 2 decades it's had what you could describe as limited success and even the places that had it are now moving to an app/web based version of the same thing.

As you say in the first post, there must be a reason this isn't already ubiquitous.
 
WillPS said:
Keep reading up on Q bot. It's a great idea in theory but despite the fact it's been around over 2 decades it's had what you could describe as limited success and even the places that had it are now moving to an app/web based version of the same thing.

As you say in the first post, there must be a reason this isn't already ubiquitous.
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Will do.

But I still don't understand why AT (et al) don't actually use an app based system.
 
I think filling a train with guest with additional needs is not something merlin would go for, due to amount of staff that would be required for evacuation of the ride.
I would take it would utilise the 49mhz block as 153 and 450 blocks would not have the right propagation for alton towers.

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I'd like to think that the merits of a pager system for queuing are the same merits as the ones acknowledged by doctors, restaurants, firemen, coastguards etc.
 
delta79 said:
I think filling a train with guest with additional needs is not something merlin would go for, due to amount of staff that would be required for evacuation of the ride.
I would take it would utilise the 49mhz block as 153 and 450 blocks would not have the right propagation for alton towers.

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I would have thought it would need to be VHF rather than UHF.

I have no idea how many AN guests turn up to ride at any one time. Would not propose filling a train with AN guests, of course. My numbers are off, admittedly.
 
Re Walibi - it was only on the major rides as those were the only ones that already offered a fastrack option before they forced everyone to use it as virtual queue. In theory they could probably have implemented it on everything but they didn't bother. As for the long physical queues, that was a result of the limitations of the system - I think they just gave people a fixed return time based on the theoretical capacity of the ride and the queue length at the time of reservation . This didn't take into account the real-time throughput (they could pause/close the VQ due to breakdowns but that's about it). In short, the system was good enough as a fastrack option used by a minority but was never designed to be used by everyone. Any system intended to entirely replace queues has to be a lot smarter.

For a system that was intended to make social distancing easier, it ended up making the park feel far more crowded as everyone had been kicked out of the queues for the main rides and onto the paths (or queues for minor rides).
 
John said:
In short, the system was good enough as a fastrack option used by a minority but was never designed to be used by everyone. Any system intended to entirely replace queues has to be a lot smarter.
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I would assume that such a system would be impossible. What I propose would need to be exclusive enough to put enough people off of actually using it! I imagined it as a solution to AP plus an upcharged service used by a proportion of people. Exactly how many, I don't know.
 
Oh right, RAP/FT only. I misread the initial post and assumed you were going VQ for all, which TBH I think I'd now prefer. Can't be unfair if everyone uses it - part of the problem now is there's so many RAP guests and staff don't have any way of knowing how many they should be letting in from each of their 1hr+ queues.
 
John said:
Oh right, RAP/FT only. I misread the initial post and assumed you were going VQ for all, which TBH I think I'd now prefer. Can't be unfair if everyone uses it - part of the problem now is there's so many RAP guests and staff don't have any way of knowing how many they should be letting in from each of their 1hr+ queues.
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I don't think you can have VQ for all. A virtual queue for all is just a queue, except all the people are loitering in the toilets.

I propose to keep the fastpass. But give AP guests a pager, plus anyone else that's willing to pay because they can't take queuing but don't qualify for AP. It's fairer than fastpass because psychologically you aren't paying to queue jump, you're paying a rental charge for convenience.

Hmm. I need to think about this much more carefully.
 
They had a system back in the early 2000's called "Virtual Q" you got a ticket from ticket machine near the rides which had a timeslot on it, you then had to go to the ride entrance at the time given and you would be allowed entry to the queue line.
 
John said:
Oh right, RAP/FT only. I misread the initial post and assumed you were going VQ for all, which TBH I think I'd now prefer. Can't be unfair if everyone uses it - part of the problem now is there's so many RAP guests and staff don't have any way of knowing how many they should be letting in from each of their 1hr+ queues.
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Honestly I can't see that working well at AT, as a replacement system for RAP I think it's workable but not as main queue replacement. On busy days you'd be having to line up timeslots for all your rides at the start of the day and then frantically trying to meet all those 'appointments', doesn't sound like a fun day out to me. And if there's a stoppage the whole system breaks down.

Also I think if you were going to run a park like that you'd have to design it completely differently based on the fact that everyone is queuing virtually. So instead of large queuing areas you'd need a lot of milling space in the park with various sideshows and support attractions, and a lot of F&B. Putting a system like that in place for a park that's designed around the traditional model is asking for failure.
 
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