Theme park queues manipulate your sense of time, here's how
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- Опубліковано 20 тра 2024
- We’ve all come to expect at least one thing from a visit to a theme park - queues. You wouldn’t choose to sit in standstill traffic for an hour - so why do we decide it’s okay to queue an hour for rides and roller coasters? Theme parks around the world have become masters at designing queue lines - ones that we all don’t mind waiting within. So, how do they do it, how do they get everyone to be okay with queues?
A huge thanks goes to Jan Walsken for helping to research and write this video. Learn more about him and his work here: www.whu.edu/lsm
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00:00 Introduction
01:08 1: Queue entrance
03:31 2: The Queue Layout
06:50 3: The Queue Design
10:46 4: Dealing with uncertainty
11:53 5: End of the line
13:27 6: Boarding
15:25 Conclusion
Credits:
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Coaster Studios: / coasterstudios
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Psychology of theme park queues
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Always head to the back of the park when it opens you will end up on the 1st 2nd or 3rd train ...
Cloudy days,
might rain. etc.. are the best days to go with less foot traffic
I think you missed one very important design aspect of good queues: rooms! If you split the queue up into distinct rooms with their own themes and elements, and at no point you can see the _entire_ queue, it will make the queue seem much shorter because you never get the impression of a 'mass of people'. This is very likely a big part of why the queue of the Flying Dutchman at Efteling (also featured in the video!) is famous for _feeling_ only half as long as it actually is, despite the end of the queue feeling a bit slower than the rest.
Rooms is a great element, definitely! Having the theming in the queue change regularly definitely makes the queue less repetitive.
Another example is Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin at Disneyland, CA. Just as you mentioned there is a lot of themeing and rooms of sorts that distract you of the wait.
flight of passage is a great example of this
the amount of stuff to look at in the queue helps you deal with the consistent 2 hour wait lmao
Disney queues will often break it up with differently-themed areas before and after a pre-show room right in the middle. You've got a bit of entertainment that is an attraction in itself, that you can anticipate in the first half of the queue if you know the ride. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Dinosaur at WDW are good examples of this. For Dinosaur, the first half of the queue is a "museum" with narration from Bill Nye the Science Guy, then you have the pre-show introducing you to some characters and setting up the story (also incorporating safety announcements), then the second half is more industrial-looking, taking you to the Time Rover boarding station. Rise of the Resistance (from what I've seen--I haven't ridden it) takes it to an extreme with multiple pre-shows, one of which is actually a mild simulator ride in itself, taking you "into space" to the Star Destroyer where the main ride happens.
The queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal is so impressive that I could see people who don't want to ride the ride going through it just as a walk-through attraction and leaving at the chicken exit.
That is one thing BGW did really well with verbloten
Longer queues also make riders more anxious, especially if they’re going on a ride they’ve never been on before and they don’t know what the ride’s like
its always the opposite for me, i feel so much calmer after waiting for a while in the queue haha!
@@siobhanmale6300 same! I only get anxious the closer I get, like if in next in line!
@@DestiniJ yeah!
When I board an unfamiliar ride that I'm nervous about, I tell myself that these nervous feelings in the queue are actually part of the total ride experience (which they are--most thrill rides are built to look very impressive and scary from the ground). That makes it a bit better--it's like the ride has already started, and I might as well keep experiencing it.
@@DestiniJ I nearly po*ped myself waiting 90 minutes in line for Motorbike Adventure.
Another element I've seen used at queue lines, are single rider lines. These help fill in unecessary gaps in the actual ride, whenever parties want to ride together and leave spots open on the ride. The single rider lines help push the ride to maximum capacity, overall reducing wait times.
This is what my group of friends discovered on our trip to the park. When the main queue said "300 minute wait time" we decided we were not going to bother and then we noticed the single rider queue. We did not get to sit right next to each other but we still all ended up seated in the same group of riders and we were on the ride within 10 minutes.
@@disenfranchisedrealist4433 have experienced the opposite because LOTS of people do what you just described and even though the queue is much shorter, it only advances if there are single seats which might not even happen on every train. So sometimes you end up waiting just as long as the wait time for the main queue
@@borstenpinsel Yeah, I called BS on that myself because this is any easy thing to figure out and exploit and it would be just as long as the other queue.
Last time I went to a theme park I went through the single rider line and got to ride the same rollercoaster 3 times within 20 minutes.
The main line would have taken about 2 hours for one ride.
@@samshepherd26 it depends so much on the ride and their amount of seats!
I was very impressed by the Secret Life of Pets queue at USH. It winds through a bunch of apartments and even has animatronics to look at
I saw a video of it, and it looks amazing, almost like it isn't a queue at all because you just wander through all the different rooms. Honestly that whole attraction looks so good.
Yeah man, that queue looks amazing :)
I spent an hour in the queue and the ride is terrible. and if think it’s going to be long it not worth it. It’s not worth more than ten minutes.
queue better than ride
@@-_a-a_- Then there is Rise of the Resistance, with 3 pre-shows, one of which could pass as a ride.
We all know there’s a psychology behind queues but to hear it broken down like this is fascinating. I understand why corners and twists are included but, when they seem never ending, they really irritate. That said, I’d rather keep turning corners than go back and forth in a cattle pen.
There's definitely a balance to be had with queue line design in general. I'm glad you found fascinating!
Or when you think about the transformers ride que at Universal, it's full of buttons and switches, so you can try pushing all of them, or watching the screens, or looking at the knobs and dials make something move, so it made a 1 hr wait feel like 15 minutes
@@vibechecked7522 even when the line's short, I'm pressing as many buttons as I can lol
0:55 I think it's a bit disingenuous to say people "don't mind" waiting in a 3 hour queue for certain rides. They do it because they've spent a lot of time, money and effort to get to the park, and realise that the only way to get on the ride is to go through the chore of queueing.
Aside from that, I can name a few small parks that clearly gear the design and operation of a ride to making the queues long and boring, in the hope of driving up the number of queue-jump passes sold.
The absolute worst queue I've ever waited in was Movie World's Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster. A whole hour in an empty, dark warehouse where their idea of immersion was playing the same loop of behind the scenes interviews with the movie cast over and over again on multiple screens
You have touched the after life and seen what awaits those who don't repent.
Facts I thought about that ride while watching this. It just zig zags forever through the warehouse
I love that ride and I don't accept a different opinion 😂 We went like three times without a line during the parade.
Play on your phone
I think Disney is a great example of good queue layout. They tend to swap their queues between sections that go very slow and then go progressively faster. This means that as you get longer into the wait you feel like you're making more progress, so you won't feel the fatigue of waiting in line. They also oftentimes stop you outside the entrance before queue capacity is filled so that you walk down the queue for around a minute or two unimpeded, feeling like you have made immense amounts of progress. Then they load as much wait time as possible into the station itself, so they can squeeze in extra wait without worrying about boredom as the party would be filled with anticipation. Really smart mind manipulation. Of course not every disney ride does this, such as the jungle cruise or big thunder mountain, but most of their newer rides do. Queue interaction also helps, like small little games you can play to pass time or actively changing soundscapes as you walk along.
Que interaction reminds me of the transformers ride que at Universal. The entire ride que was interactive lmao
the only queue line at disneyland that felt as long as it was was space mountain, as thats almost entirely a cattlepen. out of an 80 minute wait i believe that 50-60 of it was spent in just that one cattlepen room. nowhere to sit down in that line either. take that in comparison to rise of the resistance, which i experienced a 90 minute wait on, but felt considerably shorter. it had better theming (cave type thing) narrower lines, and it was down hallways that had occasional benches on the side as well as ac coming through the cave holes in the ceiling. that 90 minute wait felt like 45, and the 80 minute wait of space mountain felt like 120
The Indiana jones que does this! Very long but often you walk through with minimal people around you at one time so it feels faster & more exciting
Slinky Dog Dash and the 7 Dwarves were a painful wait for our group, in the end both were alright but I would only ride them if they had a much much shorter wait, definitely super long and tiring.
The best queue I've ever seen is easily Rise of the Resistance at Disney. It feels like an actual part of the attraction. Plus, they make it all part of the ride's narrative. You're not waiting, you're getting briefed on your mission, you're embarking on a ship, you're being brought in for interrogation by the First Order, etc. The mere moment you enter the queue, the ride starts. It's really well made.
Rise of the resistance is an incredible attraction, truly immersive from start to finish
Love the Disney loop; bringing you near the entrance over and over to psych you out
Longer queues are ok as long as you are moving. It’s hard for me just to stand in place waiting like at six flags
Half way through the video and I'm yet to hear a rule that the queue for Dragon's Fury at Chessington hasn't broken.
Dragon's Fury has a tragic queue line
when i went i got to go on 6 times in a row because there was no queue🤷♀️🤷♀️
Couple of weeks ago when I went: advertised wait 20 minutes, actual wait over an hour
Chessington fails at every queue line, no matter how long it takes it feels like double, it took 3 hours to ride the Vampire but it felt like 5.
Great video. One issue I don’t think I heard: line jumping. I infinitely prefer queues that are designed to prevent or at least minimize line jumping. If I’m waiting in a long line and see line cutting ahead of me and no staff stopping it, I get very frustrated.
And the worst of all: lines that are designed to have fast pass people enter from the exit side of the platform and take seats away from people who are just about to board the train.
Yeah I hate that too
Fast Pass should load AFTER the normal queue and no more then 25% of the train/seats to Fast Pass holders. Allow 75% from normal queue and then let Fast Pass fill in the empties, like a single riders queue.
@@KWHCoaster they should load at the same time to keep the line moving, and Universal actually has an amazing system, where if the express and regular line meet, first they let a lot of people in express go, and then a lot of people in the regular line, go and they just keep on swapping, there is no percentages or ratios, it is just kind of random but fair.
Don’t they pay more?
@@marknoonaniv346 Yes, they do. But as most parks demonstrate, there are ways that allow fast pass people to get on quickly without overtly frustrating the regular crowd. Most obviously, feed the fast passers into the regular crowd just before the station, so fast pass people have a much shorter wait but everyone enters the station together and groups can figure out where they want to ride without being disrupted by royalty.
When I was younger, I was waiting for Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom in Orlando. A staff member gave me a special lanyard and told me that they were going to time me going through the line for the estimate. I felt so special!!
I'm work with livestock and we do the same thing 🤣😅
@@KrolKaz 😂😂😂
Cattle pens are frustrating for sure. I would really like to see more single rider lines pop up, as someone who often goes to the cattle pen parks alone, those are often much more tolerable in my opinion. The cattle pen seems shorter.
Single rider lines are great and cattlepens are definitely not ha ha :)
Same. I go to parks alone often and I wish more parks had single rider lines. I hate standing in line by myself, especially in a cattle pen queue. And it just seems like it would make sense for parks to employ single rider to fill in empty seats on trains, especially with B&M coasters or any other coaster that employs four across seating.
@@coasterbot at least you can't just pay an exorbant fee to get into the single rider lane.
Single riders are a great idea but I have seen people go to the line that was not singles.
@@annearly3200 yes but sometimes what happens is that with single rider lines you don't get to choose where you sit, so technically you can still queue with friends and get to the ride faster but you will be separated afterwards.
I waited 3+ hours in line for Flight of Passage without knowing it was opening week and nearly walked out multiple times. The lab/forest section of the queue really helped to motivate me to wait a little longer.
Yeah, the theming in the queue really helps, especially with that specific ride lol. Even years after its opening, it still pulls substantial wait times and I’m just glad that the line is pretty nice to wait in. (It even has a bathroom halfway through with the one water bottle filler in Disney that doesn’t taste like swamp)
Bwahahaha that's evil. I don't think the DMV even makes us wait THAT long.
This is actually amazing. Today I was at universal Orlando and was waiting in the Queue for Velocicoaster. Once we got inside after the outside queue, I felt like we had only been in line for 30 minutes, but it had been 50. Amazing.
That's awesome to hear!
Velocicoaster was super fun! I went there the week before if officiallu opened so it was super popular. Iliked the queue there too it was fairly intricate so I was busier looking around than waiting lol
I didn't get to go on that when I was there, but the Transformers ride is a perfect example of a good wait que. Waited and hour, but it felt like 15 to 10 minutes, surprisingly. Then I i got spot on by a transformer, but hey, the wait was fun!
Velocicoaster is the best coaster ive been on, and amazing and immersive queue. 1000/10
As a driving instructor I always use queues to explain a phenomenon called the "accordion effect". The more people are in front of you, the slower a queue seems to move, or the longer it seems that you have to wait. Closing in on the station it feels as if you go faster. But most of the times you actually do. For example: When waiting in front of a traffic light, you can drive away immediatly when it gives a green light. But this changes when you've got 5 cars in front of you. The cause of this lies in what you described at 9:11 . Called the accordion effect as it closely resembles how you pull apart an accordion. The middle parts will move as last. This could be solved by making automated queues, or full-continuous attractions like the one on 12:06 .
That's a great way to put it!
Some queues are so well designed that I honestly like them more than the actual ride, Escape from Gringott's and Rise of the Resistance being the first two that come to mind. As much as I love the ride, Flying Dinosaur's queue really felt like a huge missed opportunity especially after riding Velocicoaster, which absolutely nails its queue!
Flying Dino's queue is a shame - you can't win them all though I guess
The flying simulator (forgot it's name) in Europa park does queueing extremely right: it was an amazing scenery, a world with lore, an app with a game that fits the world... I was hyped. The ride itself was a massive letdown.
Gringotts is so good tho!!
Something I feel was missed was when rides stay moving constantly, a great example is log flumes where the vehicle is continuously moving in where those getting off the ride feel the need to get off quickly and where those boarding the rides feel the need to get on soon so they go through the entire ride safely. By having it moving constantly, it tricks the subconscious mind into where the rides feel that it's unsafe if they're not buckled in immediately even though they know the ride will not start if they're in unsafely.
Like the People Mover at Disney World…the platform rotates when you get off and you feel like you have to hop out quickly
8:07 not just a flat plot of land, that ride was literally built on top of the parking lot and they didn’t even bother to remove the parking lines
Ha ha yeah, I thought Scream was a perfect example of how not to landscape a ride!
Even I have to admit SFMM dropped the ball on that one. They have fun rides but they really need to work on theming 😅
So far I’ve found the best queue to be rise of the resistance. It’s mostly inside, has benches kinda built in (something other rides need), and has an intriguing atmosphere. The queue makes you feel comfortable but also prepares you for the ride, which by the way is one of the best rides ever built. More rides need a queue like rise of the resistance.
Rise of the resistance looks awesome from start to finish!
I had to sit down so many times on that one bc my legs were dying. Also feels like you made more progress because it goes from being outside to inside and it puts you in the environment.
I also like the gringotts one a lot. Maybe even more than Rise
Queues sometimes feel like running through a dungeon to get to the boss in a video game. Busy queues feeling like grind quests and the rollercoaster breaking down feeling like a game over.
Though honestly, I’d love to see more interactive elements in queues. Maybe if you have the park’s app, there’s a game you can play on your phone through said app to keep you entertained that is exclusive to that queue / area?
Disney has this
Virtual queues would be a good idea however the thing that comes to mind straight away is if you get a notification that you're next in the queue and you're already boarding a ride or unable to get there.
Never heard of virtual queues before.
Does that mean a single user can queue multiple attractions at once? If yes, does not that significantly increase queue time for each attraction?
@@sieevansetiawan4792 virtual queues just mean things like Disney's FastPass system. I don't think anyone has figured out how to make a ride literally walk-on from a virtual queue, so you pretty much always virtually queue until an appointed time, then go into the fast queue (or the only queue if it is one of the rare places that got rid of the standby line entirely).
Usually, those systems only allow you to queue one at a time as a way of preventing people from virtually queuing in every popular attraction as soon as they walk in (which would instantly push every queue to hours within minutes of park opening). Though, Disney World had an interesting alternate approach: their FastPass system allowed you to virtually queue for 3 attractions for the entire day. You were 'queued' for all three simultaneously, but didn't get to make additional selections (unless you rode all 3 and there were somehow still FastPass times left). Given that you could start "queuing" weeks before you visited, that approach was much more similar to a reservation than a queue, but when a resort is that popular, they aren't that different in practice.
Even with the one at a time approach, it still increases queue times because people can usually queue virtually and in-person at the same time.
My family and I just came from vacation at Universal Studios and had this same discussion. It wouldn't feasible to have queues in a park because it would back up too quick. Rather, in Volcano Bay you can go to the beach or the lazy river for half an hour until the wait is up. BTW the queue for Krakatoa, the water coaster, is insane not to long after the park opens
Thank god for queue psychology. I generally don't have a phobia or overwhelming anxiety to coasters, but my bladder shrinks like a mf from any amount of anxiety or excitement, which only makes me more anxious and need to pee even more starting a downward spiral of paranoia that I'd either piss myself or take the walk of shame after an hour of waiting. A well designed queue alleviates that problem and allows me to not dehydrate myself on those flaming hot walkways.
Hagrid's queue does an excellent job. It turns corners, features lots of cool theming, and many different rooms. It's incredibly long, sure, but it also keeps moving so the wait feels much shorter. That 75 minute wait felt much shorter. Compare this to Disney's Haunted Mansion, which I waited 70 minutes for. It felt like an eternity. There's theming outside, sure, but you can see more of the queue in more places and because of the long preshow, you rarely move.
Also, recently, I went up to Kraken, which said 40 minutes, but the ride was practically a walk-on. If they were measuring the front row wait only, that'd be more accurate. Their rides have always posted slightly longer wait times than you actually wait, but 3 vs 40 minutes? That's weird.
Hagrid seems like it has a great queue! Yeah, inflating a 3 minute queue to 40 minutes is a bit excessive
@@coasterbot To make it even better, there's a painting on the wall that shows the dragons from the former Dueling Dragons coaster!
I actually really love Hagrids queue. Such a great job with theming. I hated going during "COVID" times when you would skip most of the queue because you don't get the full experience. As much as I hate lines, sometimes it makes the ride. Like F&F is such a garbage ride but I recommend everyone go through it at least once for the amazing queue.
@@RobertoMezquiaJr True! And that's interesting, I've never cared to ride F&F. Might have to sometime, for the queue (and to see how bad it is lol)
@@Wesley-76 as long as you get the entire queue, F&F is pretty cool. The ride is meh, it's literally Kong Skull Island but with cars and bad acting
Another advantage of queuing is the avoidance of motion sickness. I’ve visited theme parks on quiet days when I’ve been on far too many rides and very quickly felt sick. It made me appreciate having to que for an hour between rides!
When my daughter was a baby we went to an amusement park with some friends and it ended up so that just as my husband and I were coming down the last chute of the log flume ride with the baby, our friends were in the part of the queue that overlooked the chute and was right where we'd walk past to exit. So we handed the baby over the fence to our friends so they could take her again, since she loved it so much. Then we got in line and were in the perfect spot to see our friends come down the chute with the baby. Then they handed her over the fence to us. We just kept cycling like that for quite a while, enjoying the people around us crying out delightedly, "Oh! Look at the baby!" That was a wonderful day and was probably the best time anybody ever had in an amusement park queue -- not just us but the others watching the baby come down the chute and get handed over the fence.
The luckiest baby!
I just spent 16 minutes watching somebody talk about queues and loved every second of it
Queue times depend on the ride’s operations, but operations depend on capacity, liability of the ride, number of trains in use, weather and the speediness of the operators. But operations ALSO depend on quickness of guests.
We crank out 32 riders every 60-70 seconds when The Incredible Hulk coaster is running 3 trains. But when guests are too busy looking around in the queue (when I worked at Forbidden Journey), are slow to pull down their harness, buckle their belts or even have to be removed for loose articles it can slow down operations and that backs up very quickly. Also when groups use the single rider line then demand to ride together when they reach the grouper can cause trains to dispatch with a few empty seats.
Our wait times are estimated according to what point the line is backed up to. These are typically the wait times when we’ve had the lines reach back to that point. But that time can be flexible due to everything I mentioned above. Hope this helps.
If a group went in the single rider line and demanded to ride together I would tell them to get lost lol
@@kalebzehr6850 We do. But they block the actual single riders needed at that moment to fill empty seats on the train in the station. Any empty seat means a longer wait for those waiting.
I'm happy to wait for maintenance if they tell me that's what's going on. A park that tries to hide ride maintenance or breakdowns is very clear about its priorities.
Oh this is glorious. The is the stuff that made your channel grow so crazy big. With your amazing eye for beautiful matching shots, and editing skills to blend them seamlessly along with oodles of valuable information. Pure glory in the true sense of the word. THANKS!
Thanks for the kind words. We want to keep making videos like these! :)
@@coasterbot The news upates are cool and I enjoy when you and your girlfriend are on camera together - very charming couple, but this type of video is what makes you rock!
And then there is Cedar Point….
I never been okay with ridiculous wait times, especially bcs in europe opening hours are often 10-18 or something similar. If I pay 30-50 euros for entrance, I pay that amount to do as much as i can within that time. With wait times upwards of 90 minutes, you might be able to do like 4-5 rides before the park closes.
The queue of F.L.Y is a great example.
It has an impressive first impression (Rookburgh) great theming and interaction (F.L.Y cycling next to queue) and the queue ending and boarding is impressive with it's awesome station.
Am currently in the queue of life to queue in that queue. These Coasterbot videos are the distraction.
True, I waited ~90-100 minutes for F.L.Y. but it felt like 15-20 minutes
I almost wished F.L.Y's queue could have been longer tbh, we got there first thing in the morning. Watching the trains fly (hah) past you is amazing, around every turn were new impressions and that station building is just... wow. I wasn't sure if the boarding instructions were real at first, because they fit the theme so perfectly.
Have to visit soon
As im from the nearby city of bonn, its a nice day trip
@@the_retag Lucky you. I rode 400km yesterday to F.L.Y. and I didn't regret it. Best theming I've ever seen!
An excellent design I've seen is a circular queue, where you'd line up in a spiral sort of shape. The way it ended up, you'd end up getting on the ride before you'd even moved all the way around the circle. This made the queue look smaller, and feel smaller. I'm completely aware of these tactics but it works every time and it's insane.
I don't like queues. I don't think they're "ok", and that's why I won't go to theme parks as much as I would otherwise. But he is right, Disney among others overestimates the line, which does make it exciting when you beat the time, which is pretty much every time.
Yeah, same. Themed queues always feel like an attempt to sweeten the bitter pill, not a welcome addition to the experience. Case in point; the part where he said about short queues diminishing the experience... yeeeah no, mate. Disney's queue polish is indeed world class, but I will take Busch Gardens' 5 minute queues on a quiet midweek over a 4 hour wait for Avatar, thanks.
the smiler has actually always been one of my least favourite queues, i have no idea what kind of person enjoys bright rapidly flashing lights and loud repetitive grating music but it honestly just overwhelms me and gives me a migraine.. not to mention the cattle pens with nothing interesting except fences. the only good part is being able to see the ride go past imo. i get that it's good to have an immersive experience and it fits the theming but like.. i don't think that should go as far as causing irritation, overstimulation and discomfort in people forced to queue for often over an hour. the absolute worst part is the dark room with flashing lights near the end sorry in what world is that an enjoyable queue experience 😭😭 maybe i just sound like a cranky old person but omg it really bothers me and i love riding the smiler
Agree wholeheartedly, just commented the same thing.
It made me feel exhausted before I'd even gotten on the ride.
I wonder if any of the queue effects had been thought about at all, there wasn't even a way to avoid or shield yourself from it.
The concept of the smiler it's actually pretty overwhelming on itself imo, plus the themed music can definetely get on your nerves after a while , great ride though.
i think overstimulation is part of the point of the smiler but idrk
I just avoid queueing when the queue is long enough to get stuck in the cattle pen. I always queue single rider, and I would say that the single rider queue is significantly worse bc the majority of the wait time is on one staircase, you barely move
im happy u showed so many examples from Phantasialand, ive just been there some days ago and every line feld shorter than they actualy were it made us all feel more happy and even surprised when we saw that we were the next ones to be chosen to be put in the line where we had to take place for our seats. Also feld more confident to wait an hour since they all feld like 20min. Amazing video!
I appreciate the call out to Volcano Bay at the end. What they have with the Tapu Tapu is genius.
Also, I really enjoy Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure but that really is a bad queue 😅 if it's your first time, choose single riders! You aren't missing anything but 2 hours of empty hallways and Hagrid talking far too quietly.
A great queue is Kong: Skull Island. The entire setup is really spooky and has a ton of awesome animatronics.
Gringotts has a pretty interesting queue as well, the last room is pretty stunning and the Gringotts Bank interior is extremely well decorated. Very impressive.
The Hulk's queue is also quite terrifying - labs and broken lab equipment leading up to the final launch room where you see people get launched at high speed out of the tube. It's really scary, but a fun ride! (Makes me sick though)
I think the worst queue I’ve ever been in is the Despicable Me ride at Universal Orlando. I spent most of it outside standing on concrete while the same goddamn minion video looped over and over. It was a 200 minute wait. Once we got to the inside queue it was more pleasant. Best Universal queues are the MIB ride and the Mummy coaster. Unless some kid in the Mummy queue does the thing that makes the lights flicker. It’s always some snotty ten year old boy and I hate them
Yeah, Despicable Me is awful with it's queue
Spent the weekend at universal and came away thinking they have mastered the que. almost every ride had twisting ques through rooms with fantastic theming and decorations to where I often found I had underestimated how long we actually waited, and I didn’t mind waiting again for a second ride. Of course the attractions themselves are also so good you feel it was worth the wait. Nothing as bad as waiting for a ride that lets you down.
I agree completely, with the exception of Rockin Roller Coaster. Every other ride in the more heavily themed zones had the best line queues I've ever had the pleasure to experience.
@@VolguusZildrohar Yeah, I wouldn’t wait long in that que, I never rode it with a wait longer than 15 minutes.
Rockin rollercoaster is at Hollywood studios
My main peeve about queues is low lighting. While often atmospheric, it can sometimes be nearly blinding. The DRP version of Pirates of the Caribbean is a particularly bad offender.
I dont See the point why thats to be negative
@@cryfier I want to be able to see.
Super informative vid as per usual. As much as its cattle pen hell I love The Smiler queue....all about those unique views.
Thanks! I agree, the Smilers cattlepen is a cool queue because you can see so much. If the ride wasn't above you, it'd be horrendous
You didn't mention that lines absorb crowds. Other activities in the park such as food, shows, shopping and photo ops can seem less crowded because long lines on popular rides are holding crowds. This is a problem with virtual queueing - they will tend to cause other activities to become a lot more crowded.
That's a very good point!
I've been queueing for Roller Coaster 1 for ages.
Man, seeing the bland hagrids entrance reminded me of how amazing the dueling dragons entrance was. And the queue. Shame they ever changed it and got rid of it.
I miss dueling dragons so much. I talk about it seemingly every time I go to universal
this was such a fascinating video! thanks for your hard work putting it together!!
Last year, 2021 in October. Me and someone i was with at Disney were in animal kingdom around 5 ish on a Wednesday.
The wait time for Flight of Passage, we were told and shown at the entrance, was 145 minutes.
But we both felt like since we never went on it, we'd try it out regardless of the wait time.
As someone who's never been on the ride, it occurred to me that we were doing lots of walking just to get from the entrance to the start of the line.
We just kept walking and walking. Around dozens of zig zagging barriers non stop wondering how far up everyone was.
we eventually got to a point where a staff member asked us how many were in our group and it was the most confusing thing ever because there was no one in front of us or behind us.
It turned out that there was no wait time for the ride. We walked so much because the entire queue line was empty.
Either the staff members at the entrance weren't informed there was no line, or they knew and kept it as a long wait anyway keep the line short for people willing to take the chance.
Regardless, it seemed as tho people were seeing the wait time and just deciding to go somewhere else. Even at the entrance people was turning away.
Loved the ride btw
"Theme parks also aim to have the smallest number of queue lines possible"
Then you have Yukon Striker at Canada's wonderland :
Single Rider line
Front row Only line
2nd 3rd row line
Fast lane line
Edit : I forgot the amazing Moving Loose Article storage which is just a beauty to see.
I almost passed out at a cattle queue once of The Delirium at Kings Island. I was standing in the hot sun for so long, that I became dehydrated. The only reason I didn’t pass out was because it just happened to be our turn when I started to lose consciousness. I immediately sat down, and the only thing I ended up enjoying about the ride was cool breeze that was created when it began to move. Afterwards we immediately went to a nearby cafeteria, which also had a long line, and I chugged two 20 oz bottles of Aquafina before I payed for them.
This was brilliantly explained. I’ve worked on queuing for lots of retailers and have worked for Disney and Warner attractions and I think you have covered the subject really well
May I just say this is a really well put together video essay - throughly enjoyed keep up the good work!
Thanks for the kind words, that means a lot :)
I think one important thing that most queues should do is having fixed lines. Sometimes when a line gets too big they extend the line, this is most commonly seen in universal but it happens in other parks too. But if a line is naturally long and can’t be changed, you spend a lot of time getting to the back of the line and during that time the line moves forward a bit making it seem like you waited less time.
This was one of the best roller coaster videos ive seen in awhile. thank you so much for the high quality content!
Wow thanks that means a lot :)
Discovered the realm of themed entertainment LITERALLY the last quarter of my animation degree and adored it but unfortunately didn’t have the chance to officially study it. Your videos are helping me do that sans the college tuition so thank you!! 😆
0:44 That is a very debatable statement 😅
I said this to someone else here but allow me to say it to you too.
What Walt did, and his son in law Ron W. Miller tried to do, and Michael Eisner gave Renaissance to, has all been dashed to pieces by Bob Iger and Bob Chapeck.
There are no Disney's working at Disney anymore and it shows.
Iger and Chapeck have ruined one of the greatest legacies in the modern era. The stain they made cannot be removed without great effort, and none are aiming at, instead they wish to stain it and "remake it in their image", but no one likes their image.
@@TheRadioAteMyTV Yup, it's very sad to see...
@@TheRadioAteMyTV what’d he do?
personally, i adore bob iger (especially after reading his autobio)- i go to disney world several times a year so i’m not really sure what you’re talking about but we can agree to disagree lol
From my experience the closer you get to boarding the more likely you are to be able to wait, often the boarding rooms are the slowest part of the queue but the most exciting, the feeling of "I've made it this far"
I remember when I was 13 me and my cousin waited in line for 3 hours to ride California screamin’… and we did it 3 times in one day. I remember afterwards thinking about how weird it was spending that much time in line and not even realizing it till afterwards. But we did enjoy just chatting along the way.
I love that so many simple aspects of life are truly a science! Having the queue be covered by an awning or structure, having mist spraying to cool everyone off, limiting line of sight with narrow but non-constricting passages to help keep everyone at ease etc…
I never guessed queues were so complicated! Very interesting video, and hopefully this will make queues more admirable.
Thanks for the kind words! :)
"Likeable music, which *isn't repetetive* [...]" **Footage of Euro Mir** I'm crying😂
😎
That's the track i thought of immediately when he said that 😂 it's such a bob
In addition to theming allowing the people in line to have views with interesting angles of the ride are important too.
The best example I can think of is the straight on shot you get on Velocicoaster of the train coming through the Mosasaurus roll. There’s also a good view of the train dropping down from the top hat. That’s definitely one of the best designed queues of any roller coaster and does a great job of building anticipation.
Theme parks fascinate me... a lot.
The psychology behind them and why people attend them is... well... fascinating.
I visited Disney Land in the Christmas of 1991 - during a trip to Europe I stopped off in LA - and was very lucky as I had to wait in queue only twice - once for a haunted house experience (about 15 min) and once for 20,000 leagues under the sea (about 45 min).
The wait for the haunted house was worth it as it was a clever attraction using optical illusions and tricks to disguise exactly what was happening.
BUT the wait for the 20,000 leagues under the sea was a HUGE waste of time. The 20,000 leagues under the sea ride was basically a trip through a nightmare of a (literally) rusty reef and "dead" plastic fish. The water was very dirty with more empty food containers and submerged empty drink bottles than actual "fish". And the so called "fish" were bad plastic replicas that were attached to metal rods - many of which were upside down and even rusty. The surface of the water was covered in oil, grass clippings and floating plastic rubbish.
And in general the park was just one after another animatronic ride showing - very similar - thematic dioramas of the Disney movies. It was repetitive, boring and a huge waste of my time.
It did make the Simpsons episode when Lisa & Bart visited a theme park and the ride that gave hallucinations after they drank the water a surreal feel as I had a quick "flashback" to the nightmare that the "small world" ride had been. That ride should have been banned by the United Nations as psychological warfare and inhumane.
I did not get to see all of Disney Land: I did not go to the water park "land" as it was winter and the Wild West "land" was closed for repairs (or some other reason) on the day I was there... I actually saw ALL of the park that was open in less than 4 hours.
The only good part was the Haunted House attraction and the New Orleans section... which was just shops and eating venues. The Clam Chowder served in bread bowls was the best food I ate in the USA (and I was in the USA for more than a day). I ate it for lunch and dinner: I would love another bowl of the chowder BUT not enough to attend the park for any other reason that I can currently see.
Visiting Disney Land... It was almost a trip to hell and back for me and I'd rather have all my toenails removed without pain relief than go to another theme park... If my experience in 1991 is what a theme park is.
It does not matter how long the wait if the ride or attraction you are waiting for is rubbish.
I would wait longer and be happier with that wait if the ride was great... or even just good - the better the ride... the greater the "payout"... the longer I would be happier to wait - NONE of the Disney Land rides in 1991 (EXCEPT the Haunted House attraction) was worth waiting even 5 min for.
However I understand that my experience is not that of others and if you love to go - Fantastic. I am happy that a visit to a theme park makes you happy... and I am also fascinated by others need to attend and their love of theme parks... so I find videos about these parks fascinating to watch... so thank you for producing and posting your videos.
The way everything has gotten so jammed packed these days, NO theme park is worth going to when 70-80% of y our day may consist of standing in long queue lines. What's the point? That one minute ride experience isn't THAT impressive. I think the hype makes it seem like it is.
I guess it all comes down to how much you enjoy that ride. I'm a huge fan of roller coasters and would be willing to wait in queues all day to experience some of the best around the world. I appreciate not everyone is like that, but it seems that people are willing to wait for cool rides :)
I never been to a theme park before and honestly waiting hours for 5 minutes for a ride seems like a very bizzare behaviour.
"Blue fire" and "Euromir" has one of the best waitline music ever
One time at Disneyland, when Peter Pan's Flight broke down, we ended up waiting for a long time. The ride operator decided to do a quiz, with the question, "When did Peter Pan release?" I answered "1953" (I only knew it because it was close to the Park's opening date" and since it was the correct answer she gave me and my family free fast passes, even though we couldn't get any more, which was very cool.
That is very cool!
I can not stand virtual queues. They want you to go off and do something else, but every park that has virtual queues has lines so filled that you can't, not in time. I'd rather just sit in line thanks.
I’ve recently become rather obsessed with theme parks, engineering, theming, rides, animatronics, etc. This video is fascinating. It goes to show that not just the ride itself needs to be great, but EVERYTHING truly needs to be great.
at my local amusement park, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, my favorite ride is Verbolten. Not only is the ride super thrilling and unique, the line is well decorated and feels smaller than other rides in the park. There's a small house structure highly decorated with foliage, books, television screens, CCTV footage, really immersing you into the story and getting you excited for the ride. I've ridden it dozens of times and I find something new almost every time!
Great video, Harry; incredibly well researched and informative!
Out of interest, is your brilliant operations series returning this season? I loved the operations videos from last year!
I actually think Q Iines make the experience more memorable because that's when you get to chat with your friends and family...
I went to 6 flags with an old gf and we bought the fast passes. We planned to be at 6 flags the whole day, but we rode everything worth riding in less than 2 hours, then rode some things twice and then we were bored lol.
That’s a big reason I never really opt for fast passes at theme parks- waiting in lines is part of the experience for me! I like looking around at all the fun designs and such and chatting with the people I came to the park with.
While I can't agree that waiting in lines is part of the experience, I do agree having been to Disneyland in the middle of summer with a large extended family reunion type of trip line lengths did not matter as much because there was always someone else to talk to or play games with whether other adults or kids. Now that same experience with just my wife is definitely not the same, as we've heard each other's stories already. That said compare that to when we'd go during the "golden age" when "slow days" were extremely empty and going on something like Space Mountain was a 15 MAX wait time, I do kind of prefer that in the grand scheme of things, where you literally can ride every ride in the park multiple times by dinner time and leave if you want or just chill and do slower things like shows, theater, etc 😁
@@Mike__B I think Disney is a bit of an exception because the lines have gotten almost comically long and the Kingdom is so big its hard to ride everything even with a fast pass... But for smaller parks like 6 flags or Carowins is a different story. Plus I'm only 25 so I'm not married and don't have kids, so that's also a different calculus, but I feel you!
@@c.w.k.n.5117 True to an extent, as mentioned "back in the day" riding everything was a very real possibility especially as an adult who could go during times when kids or college students were in school (i.e not during summer or other vacation breaks). It seems those days have long since disappeared though (double so now with kids so I'm stuck to vacations 😢😢😢)
I normally go to theme parks alone so don't get to enjoy that.
Looking at that Flying Dinosaur queue is insanity. Soooo many people in such a tight space. Tells you how good the ride must be!
It is an insane queue line! I'm sure it's worth the wait though
I'm local to Cedar Point, so the majority of my lifetime park experience is with their style of queue.
Most of Cedar Point's queue design is huge "cattle pen" switchbacks, with little to no theming. Just row after zig-zagging row, passing the same people in the next row over and over.
They employ almost none of the tactics listed in this video.
So when we went to Disney recently (first time), I picked up on many of the differences listed in this video.
The one that stood out the most to me is that Disney deliberately breaks up most queues into smaller, visually separated chunks. Some of CP's queues have separate sections, but in their case, it seems like they only do it for space purposes (to get around ride structures)
Once I was in a quite small Theme Park and it was a rainy day, so there weren't many visitors. There was actually no one waiting for one roller coaster and my friends and me could head right into the ride. We went again several times but in different seats (at the very front, at the very end, etc.). The staff allowed us to just switch seats right when we got off the ride, as no other people were waiting. But we liked the design of the queue so much that we went all around and through the queue area each time :)
Let’s face it we all wanna throw eggs at the people using the fast lane 😂
Well that's the mid dinner cooking entertainment sorted.
another useful thing is sometimes lines will have ways for you to leave halfway through the line, (not just ducking under the wire) that will help you not feel trapped and panicky, this is also helpful for when you are in a group and one person needs to go to the washroom, one person leaves and goes and then comes back at a different part of the line and is let in by their group.
So single people are punished by having to start over at the end of the queue if they leave, but people in a group can line-jump after leaving?
Honestly don’t care about queues unless they move at a standstill. Example: at Alton towers they wait till the station and last part of the queue is empty before letting more people in. Meaning you don’t move for like 10 mins and they FEEL a lot longer, especially the smiler. At Blackpool, the queues just run with the ride, and god they feel quicker. Also, I think blackpool just do a really good job with capacity, last year it took 20 mins to get through the avalanche queue, insane for such a low capacity ride
I would love if theme parks did something like Rose of Resistance qt galaxy’s edge where you book a time and then go on, it definitely made the queue so much smaller
Of course it makes the queue smaller, it allows you to pay money to skip most of the line, all the while you're actually making the people standing in line who didn't pay wait even longer because they prioritize everyone who pays and they really do try to squeeze in as many extra-paid customers as they can.
No one likes waiting in queues, I get that, but there is something beneficial for waiting in a queue granted it's not beneficial for the people waiting but it is beneficial for everyone else elsewhere in the park. Simply put someone waiting in an hour long line (or longer) isn't someone who's making the line you're in longer. That was one of the big stinks I had when Rise opened up originally and had the virtual queue, it literally made every other line longer because everyone in that virtual queue could effectively be in 2 lines at the same time for a set period of time e.g. they're not waiting 1-2 hrs in one line so they're waiting that 1-2 hours in other lines (of multiple rides most likely)
Actually, with Rise of the Resistance they didn't make it cost money. At two times each day tickets for the ride would become available, and if you got tickets you were assigned a time where you could go get in line and wait maybe thirty minutes. This definitely reduced the wait times a LOT since it's one of their newest rides, and it's Star Wars so it's massively popular anyways.
@@eviecox3124 I assume the original poster was talking about how it currently is, because before you couldn't wait in a standby queue you either got a virtual boarding group or you simply did not get to ride the ride.
But you are correct there was a time when two times a day you could get virtual boarding passes (I think it was 7am and 2pm or something like that).
Before that however there was only one time a day you could, which was right at the park opening which you had to physically be in the park (ticket scanned) and those reservations were quite literally gone within a minute so if you are a little slow on the go, don't know the system, or your phone has connection issues you were definitely out of luck. And if half the reason of choosing that particular park for the day was to go on this new ride everyone is raving about you were screwed and more or less waste your opportunity which isn't a big deal for those with annual passes but for a family making a once in a lifetime trip yeah it was a pretty horrible thing since it potentially removed a choice if they want to stand in line or not, which as we see now is long yes but it's not absolutely horribly outrageous (3+ hours) long
@@eviecox3124 yea I rode it, I personally thought it worked really well for when I used it.
It’s the old ROTR reservations were not a great system…it didn’t give you the ability to wait in line if you really wanted to do the ride. It was also really bad when the ride broke down, since they didn’t have a way of dynamically adjusting the flows - all the reservations would pile up.
The most effective step is making the whole experience optional. People who don't like the trade-off of waiting for riding just don't go to a theme park.
The concern I have with virtual queues is that they might do something like requiring everyone to report to the ride ten minutes before their scheduled time to make sure they've all watched the safety video and are ready to go. This doesn't sound too bad, especially if the normal standby wait was far longer than ten minutes, but then they might push to fifteen as too many people miss their ten minute window or show up at the last second and things might start to fall behind as the day goes on so that you're actually starting a bit later than your scheduled time. If they aren't careful, they could create a situation where people wait in a virtual line just to wait in a real line later.
One of my best overall riding experience was a park with queues at BOTH of its rollercoasters no longer than it's capacity.
The park was mostly packed with small children, who were too small, and their parents who was afraid of both coasters and living their kids alone. Imagine a sight of five people long line for a boomerang coaster and a fourty people long line for teacups, staring at fear at the table that prohibits anybody under 140, anybody who had chronical disease, any personal belongings etc, and wondering if it's going to break down.
Wonderful. P.S. the coaster was great and thrilling, smooth and under two years old, probably a bit too short. With the rest of the park the less queue the more thrilling the attraction is worked just fine.
Once waited over 2 hours for Stealth😭 2 hours for a whole 30 seconds!!!
Madness isn't it!
Admit it, you were looking for all of the rides you've been on at your favorite park.
Great video, it would be great if you could add the name of the park with every clip you use (if that doesn’t take too much time of course). You show a lot of parks, and though I recognize some, like Disney, Universal and Efteling.
I’d love to discover more parks, so being able to know the names of the parks allows people to do more research and maybe even visit new parks they didn’t even know of before
Fantastic video-- I feel so informed now and I'll be sure to look out for these elements the next time I'm in a queue!
Thanks for the kind words!
I'm completely OK with queues that are nearly as entertaining as the ride itself. Hagrid's is a perfect example of an excellently designed queue. Every section, every room, tells a story so the focus is more on what's playing out around or in front of you and less on how far you are from the ride itself.
Hagrids looks amazing!
The problem with Hagrid's though is the last bit of it is a great big cattlepen. Funnily enough though, we never queued above 25 minutes for it when it was advertised as an 80+ min wait.
If parks are giving larger queue estimates than reality, it’s to make you buy fastracks
That's a part of it but it is also better to set expectations. If a guest is told a wait time is 1 hour and it only takes 30 minutes to get on the ride, they'll be much more satisfied than if the park over promises and under delivers.
I wasn’t sure how you could have 16 min video about queues but wow. That was fascinating and I was engrossed. I’m off to a theme park today so will be taking notes of the queues 😂
I absolutely love videos like this and I can't articulate why.
I don’t think they will get rid of queue lines because they are an important part of the story, they set the ride up and make it more enjoyable and immersive. Universal Studios does a really great job with this.
I still remember Revenge Of The Mummy with its jumpscare queue air jets that can be triggered - and the reactions watched on a screen - from further up the queue.
That's awesome!
going on expedition everest with an estimated 55 minute wait, an actual wait of 40-45 minutes, ended up being entertaining and felt like 10 minutes passed by the time we were about to board. the artifacts and open parts of the ride, and hearing exclaims of people onboard was pretty entertaining and made time go by much faster. even if the wait is long the next time you go to someplace similar to disney, i suggest just going on it and waiting
Disney has the dope spot on this method. Galaxy’s Edge queues are sometimes just as entertaining as the ride itself. Worst: Universal Studios.
1:21 gekoloniseerd jongens
VELO at Universal IOA just does it so well. The lighting, the theming, the different looking queue rooms made me forget the time I was investing and made for a great build up.
An excellent and very informative video is this. Some really good clips used throughout to suit the audio.👍
Thanks for the extremely kind comment. It took a while to gather enough footage to match the audio, queue line footage is hard to come by!
No they haven’t. When there is 10 minutes wait all the time, then it’s mastered. No thank you to paying 100 bucks to wait in hours long lines.