Theme parks are ruined if you don't pay for a fast pass?

[Twoweeksinaugust]

AIBU to think it's hardly worth even going to a theme park on a sunny day unless you want to pay the £300 extra for a fast pass?
The queues are absolutely awful, and it's very hard for the dc to understand that although it looks like we'll be on the next turn, a dozen people come through woth a fast pass and teh queue doesn't move at all.
It just feels beyond the reach of a normal (but expensive) day out, and is now in the realms of a once every two years thing if you want to buy the passes?

i struggled with the obvious inefficiency when we went to Legoland last year. The ride ‘conductors’ seemed to have no interest in being there or helping in any way trying to load the rides quickly. I found it super frustrating to watch.
Even the very fact that there is one at every ride having to guide people to the right gates, carriages etc seems hugely inefficient.
The continental parks I’ve been to rely on a bit more common sense and independence of their visitors and seem much quicker at loading the busy rides.

So glad this wasn’t a thing when our DC were young. We used to get Legoland annual passes through Clubcard so went a lot. I think they had the disability pass but fast passes must’ve come in just after.
We did DLP 9 years ago and even though they had a fast pass system you could see queue waiting times and book a slot for the popular rides.

I suppose theme parks presume that ticket purchasers would be able to understand that a fast pass is expensive and indeed exists because there were long queues for popular rides.

Its like it all the time. My friend took her DC to Legoland a few months back and they only went on about 6 things on a full day.

And uf you go just outside peak season or on a school day they close rides etc. They will basically only open if its heaving. They are charging people a fortune to stand in queues. Its because theyve been bought by private equity groups and riddled with debt.

Sadly, the best time DS & DH had at Alton Towers was when we bought unlimited fastrack passes for them both.

We bought the tickets cheap on eBay so saved quite a bit there, this was when The Sun were doing the ticket giveaway offer. Couldn’t afford for me to go too though!

Many previous years I think the average ride experience was 6, maybe, with lots of queuing! Quite frustrating but to be expected. Our favourite pastime when it was REALLY busy and we’d had enough of queuing, was soaking people on the rapids ride. Sadly they’ve since removed the water cannons 😒 It was pure entertainment.

For us, it was a one off treat. DS had been going through a particularly rough time at school, it was lovely to see him smile again!

They still talk about it now, we also bought the photo pass, so they could download all of their pics.

Other than that, once your DC become older, single rider queues can speed up your ride experience but sadly other than buying fastrack passes, long queues are to be expected.

No, it is not absolutely rammed all the time. Read the thread

The parks are a business!

Absolutely this. Theme park queues are part of the deal with going, and everyone should have to queue for the same amount of time. Queue barging just because you can seems mad. You couldn’t do it anywhere else, so why theme parks?

Many previous years I think the average ride experience was 6, maybe, with lots of queuing!

I remember going with friends to Alton Towers in 1992, long before fast passes existed, in August on a lovely sunny day, and we did every single ride and even managed a second go on the Corkscrew. Yes, we had to queue but because everyone was in the same queue, the queues were constantly moving. I was a student at the time so would never have been able to afford fast passes had they existed, I think we used some tokens out of a newspaper to get money off the entrance tickets and all chipped in for petrol for my mate's old banger to get us there. Happy days!

Tumbleweed? What month can you go where it's hat slow? Be ideal for avoiding queues

I remember the one and only time I took DC to Disneyland Paris and it wasn’t even peak season, it was a March weekday in term time (DC were under school age) and the queues were awful even at that time. You literally spend half the day queuing. Just isn’t worth it imo so yes, agree with you.

Why didn’t you do any research?

If you go to Disney and you haven’t done any planning, you have no right to complain about queuing 🤣

Careful planning is the key, not paying more for fast track ect.
Go on days like school inset days/half term in your area but not the theme parks area.
Single rider queues really cut down the wait.
Use the apps to find the rides with the least queue times.
The parks always go quieter late afternoon and the park doesn't close at close time but the queue line does, stay til the end and you'll get more in, if it's something like the runaway train and the staff are having a good day you'll whiz round several times, choo choo!
I've gone to the parks numerous times and have always managed to go on rides multiple times, if you go in the school holidays, long waits are to be expected.

Go to the beach instead

Maybe I’m just used to theme parks but I don’t feel this way.

We did Disneyland Paris last summers Chessington 2 days this summer and Legoland back in March and again last Tuesday.

Disneyland Paris was busy but we researched before and knew what times parts of the park was quiet. I think we paid one fast track for one rollercoaster that always had a busy queue. The rest we just timed strategically and our then 3 year old was fine.

Chessington we did on a Thursday and Friday in school holidays. The Thursday was fine, the Friday was admittedly very busy but again, we knew what times the busy areas quietened down and timed rides accordingly.

Legoland in March wasn’t busy, last Tuesday it was but again, we knew when the areas we wanted to got busy, prioritise the busy stuff first and last thing when the park was quiet. We bought one fast track for Flight of the Sky Lion but everything else we never queued more than 20 minutes.

The key is research and strategic planning. Admittedly we haven’t been on weekends pther than back in March.

What sort of research should I have undertaken? This was about 14 years ago so it isn’t something I care or think about now, the thread just made me remember the hell. I went in term time and on a week day so not in peak season, dread to think what it’s like right now.

Another thing i noticed last time i took my son is they have the minimum staff. So one poor young person probably being paid peanuts having to walk alomg and check all the seats then go and press start. Then come along and unlock seats... The queues would move much faster if they had more staff working them. Sadly its all about making money

You can do it in many places though.
Pay for exhibition tickets and skip the queue to the museum.
Pay for priority boarding in airplanes.
Pay to have your passport ready in 48h and not wait weeks.
etc