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Is Virtual Queue Evil?

A Gripe Session by: Ted Cromwell (CoasterFanatic)

In the future will hour-long waits be replaced by a doctor's office style lobby where you can read your favorite magazine while waiting for your appointment to ride. Join me as I dissect and examine what makes virtual queue work and why many parks are making the move to a no wait future.

Everyone knows that one of the biggest complaints made at all large amusement parks is that the lines are way too long. This summer you can expect on a busy day to wait 2 hours and over for such popular attractions as Spiderman (Islands of Adventure), Thrust Air 2001 (Paramount Parks), and X (Six Flags Magic Mountain). Park owners know that these types of waits can discourage people from the parks. So what are they doing?

As a regular at the flagship park for virtual queing, I feel that I am the perfect person to write an analysis on the subject. After all, you really have to see the system in action before you draw a conclusion of how it effects your visit.

Before moving to Florida, the last time that I visited Disney World in Kissimmee, Florida was in the Spring of 1996. While on Spring Break from College in West Virginia, a few friends and myself decided to take a trip to Orlando to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. If there was one thing that I remember about the Magic Kingdom it was that an equally spectacular line accompanied every spectacular ride.

Although the lines were still long, they seemed to go by quickly. This I later came to realize was because Disney had expanded their list of attractions almost two-fold since the last time that I visited in 1980. Sure, both sides of Space Mountain were hanging out the door, but the wait was still under one hour. Not too bad for one of the busiest times of the year on Disney's most popular attraction.

In July of 1999, Disney began a program that would change the way that we wait in lines forever. FastPass©, as it was called, would allow guests to insert their ticket into a machine near the ride entrance and receive a reservation for that ride. The guest could then return to the ride inside of their one-hour "window" and ride the attraction without any wait. This sure sounded like a good idea. I mean c'mon, who wouldn't want to get on Splash Mountain without waiting an hour in line. It almost seemed like everyone benefited by this new invention, even the park. After all, the park could now keep people out of lines, and give them something better to do like spending $6 on a hamburger, or dare I say $2.50 on a bottle of water.

It seemed as if everything was perfect at the Magic Kingdom until I came upon one conclusion. If I am riding more than I used to, then someone else is riding less. Even though the FastPass© System is probably the best planned of all the virtual queing systems, it still has many flaws.

The first flaw is that no longer can you pick when you want to ride the rides that you have come to love. Now you must ride the ride when the FastPass© computer tells you, or you face the challenge of making it through an up to 2 hour stand-by line without losing your mind. Another drawback to the FastPass© system is that you no longer get to build up the adrenaline rush that you used to get by watching the ride for a half-hour before you ride. Most importantly, the intricate queues that Disney has prided itself on for many years now sit empty while FastPassers walk right through them.

One thing that Disney has done correctly so far with the FastPass© system is that they have kept it free. Another thing that has kept the FastPass© system from getting out of hand is that you are only allowed to have one active FastPass© at a time. This enables everyone to play on a level playing field while visiting the park. But who is to say that it will stay like that forever. Maybe they will one day decide to allow people who stay in Disney Resorts to be able to get more than one FastPass at a time.

Even though Disney owns the patent on the FastPass© system, this has not stopped the other Theme Parks from trying to mimic the system. Universal Parks, Six Flags, and Cedar Point have all tried various other methods of Virtual Queing. The most dangerous of all of the different techniques, is any that gives special treatment to any guest who pays more money.

So in conclusion, before you go to a park that has a Virtual Queing system in place, be sure to learn as much as you can about how the system works. Because, until all of these parks come to their senses and destroy virtual queueing, the only way to beat the system is to exploit it.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.