March
05, 2001
Six Flags Debuts Queue Management
Ride lines
should be a great deal shorter at the 18 U.S. Six Flags parks in 2001, thanks
to a corporate-wide line management program.
Guests visiting the parks this summer will be able to avoid lines on nearly
100 different thrill rides.
The chain-wide rollout of several different queue management systems will begin
when the parks start opening for the season in March. "We are addressing
one of the major challenges all parks are facing today — long lines at the most
popular attractions," said Debbie Nauser, Six Flags corporate spokesperson.
Six Flags is the latest park operator to take a hard look at the way they manage
ride lines. In light of capacity limitations, some parks have already instituted
measures to reduce wait times while liberating riders to enjoy other aspects
of the park.
All the Walt Disney parks, worldwide, are now using the in-house-created Fastpass
virtual queue system. The three U.K. parks owned by The Tussaud's Group use
Directional Data Systems virtual queuing program.
Other parks use less technical ways to control lines. Cedar Point used a paper
reservation system in 2000 for its Millennium Force coaster, and Kennywood Park,
West Mifflin, Pa., will be using a paper system on its new Phantom's Revenge
coaster in 2001.
Universal Studios Orlando has early opening hours for its two-day pass holders
that will give the guests early access to the rides that effectively lowers
the line length for all later in the day. Universal also has a "no-line,
no-wait" policy for its resort guests. Anyone showing a room key to a Universal
resort hotel gets to go to the front of the line at both Universal Studios and
Islands of Adventure theme parks.
All Six Flags parks will be calling the system Fast Lane. Seventeen of the parks
will be using variations of a low-tech paper reservation system, while one,
Six Flags Over Georgia, will be testing one of the most advanced systems available.
Six Flags Over Georgia will open in March with a virtual queue system by U.K.-based
Lo-Q. "This will be the largest, non-paper virtual queue system installation
in the world," said Leonard Sim, chief executive of Lo-Q.
The Lo-Q system has been tested at Thorpe Park, near London, for the past three
seasons. "We have it fine-tuned and are now installing it in Atlanta,"
Sim told AB. He said he prefers to call it a guest services system, rather than
just a queue management system.
"It's much more. It can be used as a child locator, an interactive communication
tool, a position locator, a data collector for marketing and a proximity marketing
tool," Sim noted.
Guests who want to use the system will rent a Q-Bot as they enter the park.
Cost is yet to be determined, but John Odum, VP and general manager of Six Flags
Over Georgia, said the initial price would be in the $5 per person range. "That's
one reason we lowered our gate price by $5 for the 2001 season," he said.
The Q-Bot is about the size of a pager and has an LED printout screen. The park
can send messages to specific Q-Bots automatically through electronic locators
placed throughout the park. As the guest walks by a restaurant, a message promoting
a meal deal could be sent. As he walks past the theatre, the show times could
be displayed, along with a description of the show.
If a ride breaks down and throws the line waits off, the park can communicate
with the guest through the Q-Bot with special instructions and a new ride time.
"Ten minutes before your ride time, it will give you a message that you
should return to the ride at that time," Odum said.
To use its virtual queue capability, a person walks up to a booking point located
outside of a ride. He points the Q-Bot at the prompter and gets a place reserved
in the virtual line.
If the physical queue for the ride at that time is one hour, the guest is put
into an hour-long virtual queue. "The system does not put the guest in
front of anyone, it just provides a more enjoyable wait," Odum said.
"It's not a reservation system, such as Disney's Fastpass," said Sim.
"You wait the same amount of time as you would if you were standing in
line. But you don't have to stand there. You are in a virtual queue and can
go off and do something else until it's time."
The park will start the season with six or season rides on the system and when
the two new rides planned for a late spring debut are opened, they will be added.
"There will also be two more added before summer," Sim said.
Initially, there will be 150 Q-Bots available and Odum said those might be given
away to park guests for no fee in the beginning. "We need to start off
slowly and see how things are working," Odum said. "This is an educational
process. We need to let our guests know first that we have them, then we need
to show them that they work as we claim they will."
"By May 1, there should be 500 Q-Bots on line," Sim added.
Other than some management and overhead costs, there is no charge to the park
for the system, according to Sim. "It's a win-win situation for the park.
They invest no money and get to provide a wonderful guest service that is also
a revenue source. We provide everything and we share revenue with the park,"
Sim said.
Here's how it works at the parks using the paper system: Guests enter and head
to Guest Relations. There they will see signage on what rides are a part of
the program. They can ask for ride times for all the listed rides and if times
are available, can request multiple rides on the same ride.
Along with the tickets, guests will receive a brochure explaining how the system
works, what to do if mechanical failure pushes their reservation time back,
and that sort of thing, according to Nauser.
Each reservation for the same person will be booked two hours apart and the
guest will receive a pre-printed ticket with the ride's name and time of ride.
The guest cannot request a specific time. The tickets will be printed the night
before and the number printed will be determined by the capacity projections
on each ride for that specific day.
"When the tickets run out, there are no reservations left," Nauser
said. "The number available for each ride is determined by a percentage
of total capacity of that ride." She would not reveal what percentage the
company has set aside for reserved rides. The ticketing system was developed
totally in-house and tested in 2000 at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson,
N.J.
Several variations of the original version tested in 2000 will be used within
the 17 parks. "We will be testing and refining throughout the summer in
order to come up with a very workable system," Nauser said
Written by: Tim O'Brien