Queueless wait system testing at RnRC

[MidnTPK]

Re-posting from Orlando Attractions Magazine:

Last week, we told you about Disney testing a queueless meet-and-greet system in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom in which parents would wait in line while their children played in a playground until it was time for everyone to meet a character.

Now it appears that testing continues this week but on a larger scale, taking place at the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Guests wanting to participate are given cards and invited to wait in a stand by area, rather than a stand by queue.

According to TouringPlans on Twitter, this area includes shade, a DJ, merchandise, and Guitar Hero video games and seems to be aimed at entertaining guests comfortably while they wait to ride. The comparison to how a supermarket deli works still stands, as guests are called by the letter-number combination on their cards.

Guests are not required to wait in the stand-by area but must report to the attraction within five minutes of their group being called or they will lose their chance to ride. The normal stand-by and Fastpass lines are still available during the testing.

While it wasn’t quite as obvious during the recent meet-and-greet testing, it’s fairly clear now that Disney is indeed testing the system they announced for the enhanced Dumbo ride that’s part of the upcoming Fantasyland expansion. Since the Dumbo portion of the expansion won’t be open until 2012, Disney certainly has plenty of time to decide on the details on how this system works.

[MidnTPK]

I'd bet that this is really a test of going to a 100% FastPass like/virtual queue.

Why would Disney want to do that?

1. Retail and dining revenue. Less time standing in line, more time to spend money elsewhere.

2. Combining security and park ticket into one step. If everyone has to produce a park ticket to get on every ride (the way Disney used to do it) getting into the park does not have to be as big a deal. And a 100% virtual queue will have to eventually be automated, like FastPass, or Disney will lose track of who is holding a fastpass and who is holding a ticket for standby.

3. Offering a first class experience to premium paying guests. If everyone has to step up to a machine to find their place in line, premium guest could be given a ticket in group B2 instead of C5. Or get a time window in the fastpass, instead of getting a alpha-numeric group. Without creating class-envy, beacuse everybody goes to the FastPass machines now.

[GrumpyFan]

This sounds interesting. Of course, Disney's hoping that if you're not in line, then you'll be more likely to spend money.

[BrerGnat]

I'd be ALL for this on a larger scale. But, not sure how it would (could) work. SO many people still don't know about or understand how FP works...

[Ian]

Maybe I'm just not getting it ... is this something that would become like FastPass 2.0? Or is this something that would eventually replace the idea of a line completely?

It seems to me that managing throughput this way would be a challenge.

[LoriSan]

I don't know about things at RnR, but I would have a problem with letting my DS5 run off in a playground while I stand in line. I am a parent that follows my child around the playground without taking my eye off him.

[gerald72]

I don't know about things at RnR, but I would have a problem with letting my DS5 run off in a playground while I stand in line. I am a parent that follows my child around the playground without taking my eye off him.

Maybe the playground is within view of the line.

[BowTie7]

Legoland in California does this with at least one (probably more) of their rides--parents wait in line, with a view of a play area (with Legos, of course)

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

This is an interesting idea, it will be intriguing to see how it actually plays out. I second the idea that so many people can't figure out how to use a FP, let alone a queueless line!

[BigRedDad]

The way I understand the system is everyone is given a "boarding group" like Southwest. They call out "boarding Group B2". All people with the B2 boarding pass now moves from the virtual queue outside and now moves into the traditional queue. This keeps people from standing in a chain link queue for an hour. Now, they can wait somewhere else to shop, spend more money on concessions, and lets kids run about a bit instead of waiting in a line.

[bouncer]

This would be a great idea as long as it executes as intended. You could possibly eliminate line cutting and arguments and grumpy children all at once.

[BMan62]

The way I understand the system is everyone is given a "boarding group" like Southwest. They call out "boarding Group B2". All people with the B2 boarding pass now moves from the virtual queue outside and now moves into the traditional queue. This keeps people from standing in a chain link queue for an hour. Now, they can wait somewhere else to shop, spend more money on concessions, and lets kids run about a bit instead of waiting in a line.

And what happens if you miss your 'boarding group'? Will it be like the FP system and allow you to board any time AFTER your 'group' is called? Or will they be strict and force anyone missing their 'group' to get another pass?

[Ian]

And what happens if you miss your 'boarding group'? Will it be like the FP system and allow you to board any time AFTER your 'group' is called? Or will they be strict and force anyone missing their 'group' to get another pass?

The original story explains that ...

Guests are not required to wait in the stand-by area but must report to the attraction within five minutes of their group being called or they will lose their chance to ride.

[Altair]

This is just going to make the common areas of the park more crowded once it is implemented parkwide.

[MidnTPK]

This is just going to make the common areas of the park more crowded once it is implemented parkwide.

But space will open up if they make queue areas smaller. Space that cold have interactive games, entertainment, benches, retail....instead of winding in a zigzagging chain link fence.

[wdwfansince75]

This is just going to make the common areas of the park more crowded once it is implemented parkwide.

For the Math nuts....Replaces Queueing Theory with Chaos Theory....Picture this....approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour of throughput for Soaring pulled from the queue and released back into the other areas of The Land Pavilion...or the diverted throughput of BTMRR and Splash released back into Frontierland....Or the traffic jam with all those now-queueless (and clueless) people from Stitch, Buzz, Astro, and Space Mtn jammed into Tomorrowland...For an already crowded MK, especially, IMHO, this will cause multiple choke points....Also note that there will be more active strollers and ECV, since people will not park them until their group is called. This will (should) cause them to change the crowd status numbers for the most crowded times of the year....Imagine releasing an hour or more of throughput for the top 5 or so attractions from the queues back into the park!

[MOJoe]

It seems to me that managing throughput this way would be a challenge.

I agree. This process is tedious even on a small scale. Anyone who has waited for their name to be called at O'Hana or the Crystal Palace knows how frustrating it can be when dozens of parties are milling around in an undefined queue. Multiply the numbers by 10 or 20 and i can't even imagine the amount of chaos that would ensue.

[MidnTPK]

Maybe I'm just not getting it ... is this something that would become like FastPass 2.0? Or is this something that would eventually replace the idea of a line completely?

It seems to me that managing throughput this way would be a challenge.

I absolutely think this is a step toward a FastPass 2.0.....and eventual 100% FastPass for many rides. While I'm not sure that people have had to show their park ticket for this week's test, from an operational perspective, this has to be part of an overall system.

Unless a guest has to produce a park ticket to get a place in the new virtual line, there is no way Disney could manage throughput. People could collect tickets for all of the queueless rides at once. And unless Disney is planning on significantly increasing ride throughput/capacity, there just wouldn't be enough time in the day to let guests experience all the rides they wanted. So this almost certainly has to be part of this kind of system.

And there's lots of incentive for Disney to figure out if this works at WDW. Like I said before, people not in line can spend money. And Disney can charge people more to wait in shorter lines. Or could charge people less if they don't want to ride the major attractions. Requiring people to produce their admission ticket at attraction entrances open up many new types of tickets for Disney to sell.

And to solve the class-envy problem, here's how the new FastPass kiosk will work: Above the machines, there will be a standby wait time and a FastPass return time. The FastPass kiosk will have a touch screen. When a typical gusts puts their ticket in, the touch screen will give two options: standby group B5, 40 minutes form now, or FastPass return window 2:25-3:25.

But when a guest who has paid for special access inserts his/her ark ticket, s/he'll get 3 or 4 options....the ones above, but also a ride-in-10-minutes-in-group-A6, or FastPass return at 1:30-2:00.

And unless a busybody were looking over someone's shoulder, you wouldn't be able to tell who paid to get shorter lines, and who didn't to be in the standard ones.

[BMan62]

The original story explains that ...

I understood that, Ian, but I believe that original FastPass statement was that the return time was inviolate as well.....Now, it is a "guideline" - return ANY time after the beginning of the window....

This is just a concern I have.....

[Ian]

And there's lots of incentive for Disney to figure out if this works at WDW. Like I said before, people not in line can spend money. And Disney can charge people more to wait in shorter lines. Or could charge people less if they don't want to ride the major attractions. Requiring people to produce their admission ticket at attraction entrances open up many new types of tickets for Disney to sell.

I totally agree with you here. I definitely think this is the precursor to a big shift in the way Disney handles queing. The only thing that puzzles me is that I had always heard that Fastpass never ended up resulting in the big uptick in merch and food sales they were expecting.

Maybe they're trying this out to see if they can get the bump they're looking for? Thing is ... I think they're looking in the wrong place. Merch sales are off because the merch isn't what it used to be, if you ask me.

I understood that, Ian, but I believe that original FastPass statement was that the return time was inviolate as well.....Now, it is a "guideline" - return ANY time after the beginning of the window....

This is just a concern I have.....

Oh oh oh ... yeah that is actually a very good point. You're right. How quickly will they bail on that five minute window once people start complaining?