Hildebrandt tweets - 2012 additions cont

Dispatch Master Transport said:
The one thing I have about these wait time signs is that they are incredibly inaccurate...

It seems to me the wait times at CP have been generally accurate (if a bit overestimated, which is the right approach). I don't see why simply digitizing that information would impact its accuracy.

Dispatch Master Transport said:
The one thing I have about these wait time signs is that they are incredibly inaccurate, at least from my experience with them working during the volunteer days. The front person would basically eyeball the crowd and guess.

I don't doubt that the want is there. I think it could only help.

My Pros:

Wouldn't have to awkwardly walk past the line to see the sign.
Would add some much needed modernization to the park.

My Cons:

Current queue signs a heavily inexact science, accuracy would be an issue.
Who's going to update it - ride ops or management?

The way Disney does it, the way I think we should if we adopt signs like this, is they hand out RFID tags every so often to guests waiting in line which are scanned in at the beginning of the wait and out at the end. This automatically updates a computer system which updates the wait time for the signs at the ride and those around the park.

We got a shot out from John!

@CPGMJohn: Looking forward to meeting with 100 PointBuzz members on a winter tour of Cedar Point tomorrow. Dress warm!

^ So pumped for that :D and I think if they do refurbishment they could auction off some of the props!

djDaemon said:

It seems to me the wait times at CP have been generally accurate (if a bit overestimated, which is the right approach). I don't see why simply digitizing that information would impact its accuracy.

I actually think the digital ones are much more accurate considering that the employee at the front gate of the ride hands a guest a card that they swipe and give to another employee before they get on the ride. Im pretty sure that the cards they swipe are keeping track of how long that gurst is standing in line. This would make it more legit than just estimating the times like how they do it at Cedar Point.

That only seems like it would be good at telling you how long a line was if it stayed the same length and moved at the same pace all the time. Someone could wait in line for an hour. But that doesn't mean the line is an hour long after they've reached the station. It could be longer or shorter. The park already has a system to determine wait time and they seem to estimate it fairly well. The signs would just create a way to distribute that info quicker and more efficiently.

Based on the different points in the queue, you know how long the wait will be. You know how they have the signs saying x number from this point. You can only jam so many into so much space. Of course this assumes a roughly normal throughput.

As long as the crew is producing, you can update the wait time just based on how long the line is.

Jason Hammond said:
That only seems like it would be good at telling you how long a line was if it stayed the same length and moved at the same pace all the time.

Even at Disney, I think the ride operators can manually adjust the wait time. When the Nemo show gets out, Everest gets swamped with people, especially the fastpass returns. Even if you have the automated wait length, the operators need to be able to manually adjust the wait.