Ride wait time boards

Wait time estimates being significantly inaccurate seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps there's a bit of a learning curve now with FL/FLP, but there's no reason to think they won't figure it out sooner rather than later.

RonAnnArbor said:
...most likely due to complaint from Cedar Fair.

This isn't going to happen.

That's an awful lot of assumption based on absolutely nothing factual.

Back in 1996,I wrote a letter to CP and suggested this. Electronic boards showing estimated wait times and down due to maintenance or down for the day.

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I think another idea would be that they could post the wait times on the FunTV screens throughout the park.

Why does everything need to be about riding as much as possible? I admit I fall into that trap too, but there is a whole lot of the park you miss out on if all you are doing is jumping from line to line looking for a short one.

Isn't that the main reason almost everyone goes to the park? To ride and get the most done? I'm not a fan of shows.

No!
Lots of people go to watch the shows, eat, shop, play the games and people watch.
I go to ride, see the shows, sit, relax and people watch.

You don't like water parks either, but look over there. It's mighty busy.

Point is, not everyone who goes to a park spends their day busting out ride after ride to the exclusion of everything else. I'd venture to say most people who visit Cedar Point are far more casual about it, not caring if they have to pass on a ride for a long line or if they don't get all the coasters in.

I think it would be nice to have wait times posted around the park in several places, but if Cedar Point can't or won't do it I'm not mad about it. Those who say it won't work at all have probably never seen it function at Universal or Disney. I think there's a use for it, particularly if a ride happens to be closed or down. I've seen groups of kids running down the trail to get to Maverick near closing time and I feel bad if I can't tell them the ride is down or the wait is still an hour and a half. And those that claim it could spoil their time when lines are short are just being selfish. Everyone deserves to have as good or as convenient a time as anyone else.

^Good points! I, like many others here, enjoy the early ride time, and exclusive nite ride times as well. The balance of the day is at our leisure. Seeing the 'kids' rush into a line @8:30 doesn't bother me. Chances are, I've ridden , and they haven't yet that day. When I get there, the wait will most likely be the same, oh well. I see any 'live board' wait times not profitable for CP. Most will just run to a shorter line, getting the all inclusive "I walked right on" bragging rites. And not spending $ in between. I plan my trips, yes indeed. I plan on early entry (getting there before 9am). I pick the random nite ERT for my family's enjoyment. After that, anything else is a bonus! I PLAN on having fun anytime I go ! Go have fun!

Paisley said:

Thabto said:
The ride hosts could update them since they are the ones that change the signs by the queue entrance.

Well this even ing the sign said an hour and a half wait for Top Thrill even though it was more like 15 minutes. UnfortunatlyI had to grab my kids and leave to take care of a problem at home so they didn't get to take advantage of it. The employee sitting next to the sign admitted they didn't have any clue how long the wait was so the boards may not be that big of a help. If they don't have the right estimate at the ride itself putting it on a board somewhere else in the park won't matter.

I call bull-puckey on this. All it takes is for the person at Crowd position to take a glance at the queue and see how full it is. The queue is sectioned off so they can easily see how long the wait is, give or take ten minutes or so.

Now, I will add that it is NOT unheard of for a ride crew to over-estimate the wait time toward the end of the night so that they can get out of there in a reasonable amount of time.

Well obviously the guy at the entrance with the stick was over estimating and giving me a song and dance because within 5 minutes my kids were at the station and I'm sure it would have taken no more than another ten to get on if we had been able to wait instead of having to get home quick.

Since there are the Fun TV screens throughout the park now I think it would be nice if they put up little alerts of some kind when rides are down for more than a few minutes.

Thabto said:
Isn't that the main reason almost everyone goes to the park? To ride and get the most done?

This sounds like an absolutely awful way to enjoy my leisure time.

Yeah, this will never happen. Sorry to dash your hopes. But this is like asking for a live parking lot web cam, which will never happen either.

Why are you so sure? Other parks do it, and it would seem like an effective way to even out ride wait times.

Time boards seem archaic. An app displaying current wait times would be far more beneficial with an obvious solution being the utilization of a wireless network to transit data from stations to the central computers.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why not a few boards with that same data pumped to their app?

Some people actually don't carry their smartphone with them when in the park.

The apple app is still on the store under Cedar Point Ride Watch

djDaemon said:

Thabto said:
Isn't that the main reason almost everyone goes to the park? To ride and get the most done?

This sounds like an absolutely awful way to enjoy my leisure time.

What do you do at the park? For me the rides are the main reason I go.

They should have a large board at the entrance of the park with major attractions wait times posted and smaller boards in front of each attraction that warrants one.

I'm surprised given Matt's background that they didn't adopt Disney's method of updating wait times. First time I noticed what they did was when I went to ride the updated Star Tours. A ride attendant will swipe a bar across a device at the entrance and hand it to a guest just entering the queue. The guest will carry it throughout the line and will then hand the bar back to a ride attendant at the ride station, where they swipe it across a device and it updates the wait time. The longer it goes without the bar being swiped, the higher the wait time will automatically adjust. Its really quite ingenious, as long as the ride attendant has good judgment and doesn't hand the bar to the wrong type of guest.

Universal Studios has boards. I made great use of them in October. They have a LED message board on top then a left panel of show times and a right panel of rides and attractions wait times. If you have never seen them, http://bit.ly/1jdYyGV is an image of one. They also have a website USHWaitTimes.com that updates.

Both seem to work well for Universal.

I don't see the connection between posting queue times and cramming in as many rides as possible. Who says, "I don't care if this is a 90 minute wait. I'm here to relax."