To think some theme parks deliberately liad rides slowly to encourage visitors to pay for fast track?

[gottaloveascamhun]

Visited Chessington today. My DCs are still young so we weren't into the big rides and expected to queue for a while as it was half term and sunny. However although the queues were short it took ages to get into anything! The attendants were really slow getting people on, checking stuff, swapping people round, faffing about, deciding to add people, long announcements. Even the little rides took 50-60 minutes. We still had a good day but it was quite annoying!

Interesting theory! Did you say anything to the attendants at the time?

Yes, the bastards do the same at airport security as well.

Ridiculous. The staff aren't on a go slow; they'll be getting hounded by their bosses to keep queues down.

I really doubt it.

More likely they don't want a child not being strapped in properly and getting injured/killed a la Drayton Manor perhaps?

Well given the fact that fast track costs about £6 per person per ride I think it would be in their interests to be slow loading. Actually on one ride it took 10 minutes to get started once we were sitting on it, but the one viral piece of safety instruction is where to fasten our straps was never mentioned. Luckily I'd been on it before so could fasten my kids in safely.

Maybe I'm paranoid and it's a conspiracy theory

Vital piece of safety information not Viral

You can think what you like, but you're wrong.

I'm all for safety, absolutely. And what happened at Drayton Manor was unthinkably horrific. But there wasn't much checking of straps or explaining going on. Just attendants chatting to each other, not counting how many spaces there were so adding the wrong number of people, etc.

I'm confused

How does paying for fast track get the ride going quicker? It's the same train right?

Some riders are just slow loaders.

Re the safety bit - I suspect had you not fastened your children in they would have then showed you/assisted.

If you pay for fast track you queue separately so get on the ride much quicker.

The ride was about to start and there was no announcement or sign about strapping in, the strap was hidden but I knew how to do it. The attendant didn't check any straps, he was too busy chatting to his mate.

Not a conspiracy theory - sheer incompetence. We saw the same at Legoland last summer.

You just need to see how they do it at Disney in Florida - it's a well oiled machine, the staff are focused on the job and there's no standing around chatting or farting about, they are all about the customer service. The staff in UK theme parks just don't give a shit.

Ok you GET ON the ride quicker

But it doesn't start without everyone on

I wouldn't be surprised if this theory was correct!

I've notice the loading at chessington is horrendously slow. Even when it's quiet it takes forever to get through the queue and on to the ride.

Disneyland Paris is great as well, they're so efficient and well trained. It's like a military operation at times - Peter Pan in particular, which has tiny capacity and always a massive queue; it's all so streamlined, there's no way they could do it faster. Chatting between themselves just doesn't happen.

I've never noticed chatting at Paulton's Park (aka Peppa Pig Land), try there with young DCs.

I think the fast tracks definitely cause the queues in the first place.

Without fast track tickets at all, I wonder what the queue times would be?

Some rides are very slow loading though. Never go on tiny truckers we have another name for that

And yes, Paultons Park is a MILLION time better than Chessington. Better value, better rides, better queue times (even on a weekend).

Chessington is the worst theme park I've been to for queuing times. Basically you need fast passes for every ride, even the toddler ones.

Chessington is the worst theme park I've been to for queuing times. Basically you need fast passes for every ride, even the toddler ones.

Thorpe Park are pretty speedy and same company; think they must just be lazy at Chessington! I was going to do Fast Track at Thorpe Park once, but was surprised to learn it has to be a specific time - so you have to scheduled your day around a 2pm Fast Track on X ride, a Fast Track for 3pm on X ride and so on. Plus Fast Track is pretty expensive there.

movingto you get on the ride in front of the people in the normal queue. They then have to wait longer than fast track customers.