New Cedar Point App - Ride Times?

I foolishly updated to the new CP app and hate it. Aside from being very slow to respond, I cannot find the ride times anywhere anymore. I was in the park yesterday and thought maybe I had to be there but still could not find them anywhere. Has anyone else made the mistake to download this new version, and if so where are the ride times?

They're still there. You have to tap on the specific ride from the map to see them. Alternatively, and much easier, you can select the list view from the icon in the top right while viewing the map to get the list of rides and the wait times are there. I've seen many other people comment that the wait times are missing from this version but they're still there. Just not as intuitive.

Edit: Forgot to mention, you have to have location services set to 'always on' to see wait times. I was hoping they'd get rid of this silly requirement with the update but guess not

Be aware, when updating, the app doesn't hang on to your season pass info and you have to re-add it after updating. And for you iPhone users who then want to add the pass to passbook, the 'add to passbook' button isn't active for some reason. I'm sure it's just a bug but frustrating nonetheless.

The park map is extremely bland with no color or rides and points of interest shown very well. Not sure how it's supposed to help someone navigate their way around the park.

How is the app getting ride times now? They seem to be quite off from reality at times.

I can see CP adding digital wait time screens like Disney. It would make the wait times exact on the app.

I would love, love, LOVE it if CP could add their food and concession stands to the app to display whether a particular location is open or not. It may only be an issue at the beginning and end of the season when staffing numbers aren't at their peak, but it would sure save us a lot of wasted time trying to pick something to eat.

Ride times are way off....told me Valravn was 30 min, was actually 1-1/2 hours, said raptor was 30 min was actually over an hour.....dragster was listed as 30 min was more like 1-1/2 hours. Hate it...

It was the opposite for me at Kings Island last weekend. It was saying an hour when some were only about 10 minute waits.

Having worked on getting wait times for a Major Theme Park Company®, I can tell you that it's not usually the technology that's the hard part, it's the human part that gets the numbers into the technology.

It looks like all the Cedar Fair apps got an update, as the Kings Island one also changed this past week. I don't understand the change to the map. Instead of the "cartoon" map you would get when you visit the park, the map is now a bland satellite view of the park. It makes the map useless by itself for attempting to identify things.

I thought they had removed the ride wait times, but from the above comments, maybe they are just hidden somewhere I didn't look. I agree with the consensus that the times have generally been wrong when I have checked them...and they have been doing this at KI for 2 years now.

On the positive side, it does seem easier to identify what is going on in the park for the current day. That includes easier to identify upcoming show times.

I much prefer the new map. I don't see a satellite view, I see a clean map that is very easy on the eyes. The cartoon map was pretty good at emphasizing the coasters and major rides, but that seemed to come at the expense of showing everything else. This new map seems like a better choice, at least for a dynamic map that's meant to show everything the park has to offer.

And so far the new app is a big improvement.

They need to fix how locations are laid out and the description of said location. Otherwise its just a mess of text and not really of much use.

It took me FOREVER to find it.

If you go to the screen posted above, but click on the coaster icon to the left at the top, then pick "coasters" under it, you can hit the three line "hamburger" icon in the upper right and get a list of rides and wait times instead of having to look at them all individually.

But it's really, really horrible. It took me like fifteen minutes to find it.

Yikes, that's pretty amateur map labeling. That sort of thing is pretty easy to spot in QA and shouldn't be released.

Also take line times with a grain of salt. Yesterday it said Dragster was 20 minutes. From the timestamp on our locker until we exited the ride after our first ride it was 11 minutes. We ended up riding it three times in a row because it was a walk-on yesterday.

I saw a tweet at some point this weekend from Tony acknowledging the wait time issue and stating they are working on it. Tony also tweeted that your season passes need to be rescanned into the app, though they are still in my Apple wallet.

I haven't used the latest version at the park yet but the I did find a work around for the location services problem in IOS in the previous version this year. Although the app wants it as "always on, even when not using the app", this year was an option in iOS settings to set it to only when using the app. Last year was horrible because at least on IOS the app would drain the battery within a few hours unless I disabled location services and that was a real pain. From talking to an Android user they didn't have this problem.

To me, the fact that it erased the season passes (in some cases at least) is a big blunder and potentially could screw over a bunch of people heading to the park with their phone, but not the card, and finding they don't actually have their pass with them like they thought they did.

The labeling looks pretty terrible too and when I was there, I got wait times for a few flat rides, but the coasters in list view all just said "Fass Lane Available" or something like that.

I also find that once I launch CP's app, my battery seems to drain at least twice as fast as normal.

Angierae said:

Also take line times with a grain of salt. Yesterday it said Dragster was 20 minutes. From the timestamp on our locker until we exited the ride after our first ride it was 11 minutes. We ended up riding it three times in a row because it was a walk-on yesterday.

That's actually not too bad. I can definitely live with a "within 10 minutes" estimate. The problem I've seen at Kings Island has been rides that say the wait is 40 minutes when it really is more like 60-70, or water rides that say the wait is 90 minutes at 8pm when they are a walk on.

Jeff said:

That sort of thing is pretty easy to spot in QA and shouldn't be released.

So either:

1. The app did not go through a QA process before being merged
2. Incompetent QA

Given my thoughts about the QA for the product I work in, I vote #2 :P

I personally think the wait times are going to continue to be inaccurate as long as the system depends on a human to first estimate the wait time, then second call in the updated time, and finally continually monitor and repeat steps 1 and 2.

I am certainly in favor of all but eliminating the human aspect and rely on an automated electronic system. There are various ways to do this, all requiring a financial investment of course. But this is something Disney figured out how long ago now? They could even come up with a system that eliminates the physical RFID card being distributed to guests entering the line. Put Bluetooth receivers at the beginning and end of the line to automatically capture time entered and time finished. No human involvement needed. This system is how many traffic studies are done when collecting time traveled data on roadways. That data can then be integrated to whatever park management system and app. Are there any parks that utilize a system like this?

There are even ways to achieve a higher level of accuracy than this (in theory). As this system described above tells you what the wait was for the last person who rode, not necessarily what the wait is now. You can electronically and automatically calculate the most recent ride throughput and then compare to how many people are in line at any given moment. It might be overkill but I enjoy thinking about the possibilities. Queue theory and management was one of my favorite topics in school.

Regardless, CP's system has been long overdue for modernization. App or not.

Technically, a few electric eyes could figure this stuff out, though it wouldn't be completely accurate. This would give a count of guests entering the line and guests exiting the line. From that information, you could determine the amount of time it takes Exit to catch up to Entrance for total volume, and the difference between the two would give an estimate of the number currently queuing and those ratios would give you a time.

I'm guessing the "always on" location service thing the App requires would be another way to track, if the park system has access to the location of all those phones.