Funworld April 2011

by Keith Miller

When amusement parks operated under the traditionalpay-as-you-go model, there was a natural flow to visitors’ trips around the midway. With the Disney system, for instance, guests bought books of tickets assigned to various levels of rides (the company still uses the “E-ticket” terminology to this day when describing its biggest installations). Sure, guests used their “E” tickets for the “Matterhorn,” but to make the most of their purchases they took spins on the smaller “Mad Tea Party,” too.

Today, however, the pay-as-you-go model is more the exception than the rule at amusement parks. With all-access admissions, facilities acknowledge many guests spend their days going from one headliner attraction to the next, and this has created a couple of real challenges: first, cutting down on the long lines at big attractions and spreading guests out so they get the chance to experience other attractions, restaurants, and shops and help parks’ per caps; and second, how to keep guests standing in long lines happy.

Attraction Location Is Important
The most basic approach to spreading guests out is to do it through park design. Though this seems like an obvious strategy, areas with a cluster of big attractions can get extremely crowded, while other sections seem deserted by comparison. Two parks that have addressed this are Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (www.cedarpoint.com), and Silverwood Theme Park in Athol, Idaho (www.silverwoodthemepark.com).

Cedar Point is one of the most visited amusement parks in the world, and its most popular attractions are spread from one end of the complex to the other. “We really try to balance the park so that exciting rides and attractions, plus food and retail outlets, can be found throughout the park,” says Robin Innes, Cedar Point’s director of public relations. “We want our guests flowing to all areas of the park.”

Silverwood uses a good park design combined with a smart adjustment to its closing times to not only spread the crowds, but to also help its per caps. During the busy summer season, after guests enter through the main gate they can turn one direction to the Boulder Beach Waterpark or the other direction to Silverwood Theme Park because they’re both included in the admission. So, the facility opens them at the exact same time to spread out the crowds.

But they don’t want the waterpark guests to leave at the end of the day without visiting the dry ride park. “When the waterpark closes, if they go out the gate and not to the ride park, it affects our per caps,” says Nancy DiGiammarco, director of marketing, sales, and public relations for Silverwood. “So that’s why we stagger the closings. That way, they come out of the waterpark when it closes at 7 p.m., and they now pass back into the dry park, which closes at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.”

Freeing Guests from Lines
Several years ago parks began responding to massive lines at headline attractions with systems that allow guests to reserve a slotted time at a popular site then go enjoy other areas of the park. These systems have reduced many of the lines at big attractions and given guests the opportunity to visit other attractions, restaurants, and shops, thereby increasing park per caps.

The “Flash Pass” system employed by Six Flags New England (SFNE) in Springfield, Massachusetts (www.sixflags.com/Newengland), gives guests virtual spaces in ride lines and frees them to go enjoy other park offerings. When their wait time is up, guests receive an alert on a pager, at which point they can make their way back to the ride.

“It’s become one of the best ways to utilize your time at the park,” says Melissa Pinkerton, spokesperson for SFNE. “Our Regular, Gold, and Platinum Flash Passes were introduced last year and were extremely popular because they really reduce your time in line and free you up to do other things.”

Liseberg Park in Gothenburg, Sweden (www.liseberg.com), has five or six major rides that get long lines. “We are struggling with this problem of entertaining guests in [queues] and freeing people up from standing in line so they can do other things in the park and improve their experience,” says Pelle Johannisson, Liseberg’s marketing director.

The park addressed this challenge by introducing a new system last year. Liseberg worked with Entertainment Booking Concepts (www.ebookingconcepts.net) to develop “Quick Pass,” which allows guests to plan their entire stay at the park online at no additional charge. The pass includes reserved ride times, freeing guests from long lines so they can enjoy other park amenities. The park also likes the fact that there are a limited number of Quick Pass slots available, because once all of the slots are taken on a busy day, guests will book for another day.

But not all parks have found queue systems to their liking. Cedar Point introduced its “freeway system” kiosks a few years ago but then removed them after a few seasons. “We believe the first-come, first-served system is the best and fairest way,” explains Innes. “The key is having a very smooth and proficient program that minimizes down time and reduces wait time.”

Still, There Will Be Lines
Even with the best queue management systems, parks are still going to have lines and crowds around attractions and restaurants, so keeping guests who are in them happy is a priority. Some parks use ad hoc entertainment to accomplish this. “We can send entertainment—characters and marching bands— to areas we want to attract people and spread the crowds,” says Johannisson. “The green rabbit is our [mascot] and we have a lot of those, and they are very useful, too, with entertaining people who are standing in line.”

SFNE also uses entertainment as a method to amuse people in queues and to move guests to select areas. “We strategically placed two character stages at opposite ends of the park with the famous Looney Tunes characters,” says Pinkerton. “We’re also getting three new shows this season, including ‘Survivor Live,’ based on the TV show, and that should draw a lot of people away from ride queues.”

Not only are guests standing in long queues uncomfortable if they are thirsty or hungry, but they’re not contributing to a park’s per caps when stranded in line, so Cedar Point has addressed both problems at once with the use of vending machines in queues.

SFNE has opted for live vendors instead of vending machines, and Pinkerton explains why: “The live vendors interact with the guests and let the guests ask questions, and they really seem to appreciate that. It absolutely works for us.”

But selling to guests in queues can be a tricky proposition. “We’ve always been very shy on that and we don’t want to push it on people,” says Michael Mack, managing partner of Europa- Park in Rust, Germany. “There’s a different attitude in Europe with upselling things—a cultural difference between European parks and American parks. Frankly speaking, I don’t think you should push it too hard in queuing lines, and we are not so worried about losing [per caps] because of long queues. But we are putting in points of sale at our new rides, where we can sell drinks and ice cream to both queue waiters and non-waiters.”

In the end, Pinkerton contends the best way to spread out crowds is through a well-trained staff. “It’s all about the training of your team members,” she stresses. “We upsell all of the different attractions in the park when people are standing in line. We tell them about another ride to try out or a restaurant to visit. It really does work.”

Contact News Editor Keith Miller at kmiller@IAAPA.org.