"Wait Time" signs-intentionally wrong

[brownie]

I would think you'd pad the wait time some, just to try to account for any delays. Better to list a longer time and have people wait less time in line, than to have it say a short wait and make them wait a long time.

[Jared]

OK, I know I've been out of the loop lately, but what the heck is FLIK? I'm so confused. [img]graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Howdy Partner]

I actually waited over a hour for the living with the land ride. I guess because I had nothing better to do at the time. [img]smile.gif[/img]
It took me a few times to realize the 13 minute wait at TOT was made up. [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]

[Black Jack Shallack form Frontenac]

[img]graemlins/muscles.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/clappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/muscles.gif[/img] Belated Welcome to Intercot, IG_Pathfinder!
[img]graemlins/clappy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/muscles.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/clappy.gif[/img]

[Mufasa]

Originally posted by IG_Pathfinder:
Well the wait was over an hour due to all the virtual fast pass riders become real riders and getting first preference.

I know there are always questions about why do the CMs prefer to load people off of the Fastpass line instead of equally pulling people from Fastpass and standby lines? Part of that depends on the particular attraction and how it loads, but overall- the prevailing thought is that those people who have a valid Fastpass have already waited out their time in line.

FLIK (or Flick)- is an acronym, although I don't remember exactly what it stands for- something like "Fantastic Line Information Keeper" It refers to the white proximity scan cards on a lanyard that are handed out periodically to someone in the standby line and are used to measure the time it takes to pass through the standby queue (to update the computer model for wait times). They are scanned once at a point outside the attraction and again right before boarding the attraction.

Using FLIK helps to balance out those surges in returning Fastpass guests (especially after parades for example)- suddenly those standby wait times will shoot up.

FLIK really went into major use at all parks with Fastpass attractions in November of last year (although it had been in testing for a quite a while before that on certain attractions- like BTMR).

[Tink19]

Well all I know is that I have waited in the line for Living w/ the Land and the wait time said 60 minutes and I didn't think it was that long b/c it didn't look like it. To my surprise it was about a 90 minute wait . We waited FOREVER for that ride [img]graemlins/sleepin.gif[/img] . It only looked like it was about 20 minutes. The ride didn't even break down. Thanks for the info Mufusa [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] ..one question though..how do you know all of that? Did I miss something? [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]

[alittle figment of your imagination]

Mufasa you sit right up there with the tiki gods
[img]graemlins/tiki.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/tiki.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]
Max

[Disneydol]

Originally posted by Tink19:
..one question though..how do you know all of that? Did I miss something? [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]

You DID miss something!

Mufasa is a real live Imagineer!! And boy are we lucky to have him in our community!!

[Mufasa]

I wanted to add some more information on Fastpass (for those of you still interested). AKA- everything you may or may not have wanted to know about Fastpass.

First, why was Fastpass started? People hate to wait in line- especially at a theme park. Disney wanted a system to be able to have guests do more instead of waiting in lines (the more time your guests aren't in line, the happier they are overall and of course, hopefully that means more time they can shop and spend money)

Next, we wanted a system where we could operate the attractions more efficiently. Fastpass can dynamically adjust itself by ensuring a steady stream of guests through the attraction, while it takes into account just how well the attraction is running.

A key difference between Fastpass and other virtual line/ticket systems is that Fastpass will dynamically adjust itself.

For example, in other systems you may get issued a timed ticket and make a reservation for an attraction later in the day. (there are a fixed number of tickets available throughout the day). The assumption made is that the attraction is running at full, theoretical capacity. (worst thing that can happen is you return to the attraction and there's a line to wait because it broke down earlier in the day). There is no way to update those systems to really reflect just how well the attraction is running.

Fastpass is different- one of the innovations is there's something called a ticket distribution rate- it is how many Fastpasses to distribute at a particular time. This will fluctuate up and down, depending on demand. Here's a very simplified model of how this piece works:

g=number of guests carried (the attraction's hourly rider capacity)
x=guest count survey time in minutes (the current standby wait time)
z=percentage of capacity for attraction sent to the system (how much of the attraction's capacity is dedicated to Fastpass?)
p=ticket increment period in minutes (how we increment the return window time). For, example if it's 5 minutes we figure it's a fairly fast loading attraction. For a theater show we'd probably raise this value.

((g*z)/x) * p=dispense rate setting

Example:

A new attraction- Mickey's Nitro-Burning Flying Saucers Shoot 'Em Up can handle 2000 guests per hour (there are 2 loading platforms, each with 1000 guests per hour capacity).

Currently, there's a 60 minute standby wait for the attraction. The park operations folks want to maximize Fastpass on the attraction so they decide to distribute 80% of the capacity towards Fastpass (standby will be used to Fill-in as necessary for things like no-shows, aka people who grab fastpasses and don't use them).

If g=2,000, x=60, z=0.8, p=5, then
((2000 * 0.8)/ 60 * 5=133.33

So we round that down to 133. What does this mean? When we distribute 133 tickets via Fastpass, increment the fastpass return window by another 5 minutes.

What happens if let's say one side of the attraction broke down, suddenly our capacity is half so we want to slow down the distribution of Fastpass tickets (now we'd distribute 66 tickets before bumping up the return time by 5 minutes, if standby were still at the moment 60 minutes).

Of course, people holding current fastpasses will return to the attraction and the fastpass queue will begin to backup (so along with it standby backs up) which means that Fastpass begins to slow down it's ticket distribution and naturally continues to push those return window times further and further out (a realistic measurement of where the line stands).

This continues until the attraction can have a chance to clear up that queue. Fastpass return times are still pushed out, but by that time hopefully the attraction is able to clear out that backup (at the expense of making longer standby wait times).

Where Fastpass really has a huge benefit- starting with attractions like Mission: SPACE, we can continually plug in data directly from the ride system on just how efficiently the attraction is running. The closer we can get to measuring the actual rider capacity per hour (by measuring things like how long it takes the ride to cycle per hour against our theoretical model) combined with frequent, accurate measurements of standby wait times via FLIK, means more accurate wait times and everyone is happy.

[ November 12, 2003, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: Mufasa ]

[Tink19]

Wow I guess I did miss something [img]graemlins/silly.gif[/img] . That is so cool. I had no idea. I was thinking that person knows a lot.lol. I'm glad I know now . Glad to have you around Mufasa [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] . Thanks Disneydol for letting me in on it [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] . Keep up the great work Mufasa! [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]

[Pirate Storm]

Wow! Great info Mufasa. Do you need a physics degree to work there? LOL! I guess that helps explain how you can get a fastpass at one attraction for 1:00 PM and then go to the next attraction over and the fastpass times are 6:00 PM.

[Ian]

Mufasa ... You are something else! That was some seriously great information !!!!

That deserves a ....


[img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

[imported_PolyGirl40]

Originally posted by Disneydol:
And boy are we lucky to have him in our community!!

You can say that again!


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