Theme park queues manipulate your sense of time, here's how

We’ve all come to expect at least one thing from a visit to a theme park - queues. You wouldn’t choose to sit in standstill traffic for an hour - so why do we decide it’s okay to queue an hour for rides and roller coasters? Theme parks around the world have become masters at designing queue lines - ones that we all don’t mind waiting within. So, how do they do it, how do they get everyone to be okay with queues?

00:00 Introduction
01:08 1: Queue entrance
03:31 2: The Queue Layout
06:50 3: The Queue Design
10:46 4: Dealing with uncertainty
11:53 5: End of the line
13:27 6: Boarding
15:25 Conclusion

Credits:

Psychology of theme park queues

[coasterbot]

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[crytocc]

I think you missed one very important design aspect of good queues: rooms! If you split the queue up into distinct rooms with their own themes and elements, and at no point you can see the _entire_ queue, it will make the queue seem much shorter because you never get the impression of a 'mass of people'. This is very likely a big part of why the queue of the Flying Dutchman at Efteling (also featured in the video!) is famous for _feeling_ only half as long as it actually is, despite the end of the queue feeling a bit slower than the rest.

[CottageCheese]

Another element I've seen used at queue lines, are single rider lines. These help fill in unecessary gaps in the actual ride, whenever parties want to ride together and leave spots open on the ride. The single rider lines help push the ride to maximum capacity, overall reducing wait times.

[jasminejohnston]

Longer queues also make riders more anxious, especially if they’re going on a ride they’ve never been on before and they don’t know what the ride’s like

[mischiefmanaged]

We all know there’s a psychology behind queues but to hear it broken down like this is fascinating. I understand why corners and twists are included but, when they seem never ending, they really irritate. That said, I’d rather keep turning corners than go back and forth in a cattle pen.

[FromTheAtticTV]

The best queue I've ever seen is easily Rise of the Resistance at Disney. It feels like an actual part of the attraction. Plus, they make it all part of the ride's narrative. You're not waiting, you're getting briefed on your mission, you're embarking on a ship, you're being brought in for interrogation by the First Order, etc. The mere moment you enter the queue, the ride starts. It's really well made.

[johnphillips]

0:55 I think it's a bit disingenuous to say people "don't mind" waiting in a 3 hour queue for certain rides. They do it because they've spent a lot of time, money and effort to get to the park, and realise that the only way to get on the ride is to go through the chore of queueing.

Aside from that, I can name a few small parks that clearly gear the design and operation of a ride to making the queues long and boring, in the hope of driving up the number of queue-jump passes sold.

[MadMovieMakers]

I was very impressed by the Secret Life of Pets queue at USH. It winds through a bunch of apartments and even has animatronics to look at

[StamfordBridge]

Great video. One issue I don’t think I heard: line jumping. I infinitely prefer queues that are designed to prevent or at least minimize line jumping. If I’m waiting in a long line and see line cutting ahead of me and no staff stopping it, I get very frustrated.

And the worst of all: lines that are designed to have fast pass people enter from the exit side of the platform and take seats away from people who are just about to board the train.

[thegalacticgator]

When I was younger, I was waiting for Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom in Orlando. A staff member gave me a special lanyard and told me that they were going to time me going through the line for the estimate. I felt so special!!

[RedPandaStan]

I think Disney is a great example of good queue layout. They tend to swap their queues between sections that go very slow and then go progressively faster. This means that as you get longer into the wait you feel like you're making more progress, so you won't feel the fatigue of waiting in line. They also oftentimes stop you outside the entrance before queue capacity is filled so that you walk down the queue for around a minute or two unimpeded, feeling like you have made immense amounts of progress. Then they load as much wait time as possible into the station itself, so they can squeeze in extra wait without worrying about boredom as the party would be filled with anticipation. Really smart mind manipulation. Of course not every disney ride does this, such as the jungle cruise or big thunder mountain, but most of their newer rides do. Queue interaction also helps, like small little games you can play to pass time or actively changing soundscapes as you walk along.

[stevenschiro]

Love the Disney loop; bringing you near the entrance over and over to psych you out

Longer queues are ok as long as you are moving. It’s hard for me just to stand in place waiting like at six flags

[chairleg]

The absolute worst queue I've ever waited in was Movie World's Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster. A whole hour in an empty, dark warehouse where their idea of immersion was playing the same loop of behind the scenes interviews with the movie cast over and over again on multiple screens

[thesisypheanjournal]

When my daughter was a baby we went to an amusement park with some friends and it ended up so that just as my husband and I were coming down the last chute of the log flume ride with the baby, our friends were in the part of the queue that overlooked the chute and was right where we'd walk past to exit. So we handed the baby over the fence to our friends so they could take her again, since she loved it so much. Then we got in line and were in the perfect spot to see our friends come down the chute with the baby. Then they handed her over the fence to us. We just kept cycling like that for quite a while, enjoying the people around us crying out delightedly, "Oh! Look at the baby!" That was a wonderful day and was probably the best time anybody ever had in an amusement park queue -- not just us but the others watching the baby come down the chute and get handed over the fence.

[baconcat]

This is actually amazing. Today I was at universal Orlando and was waiting in the Queue for Velocicoaster. Once we got inside after the outside queue, I felt like we had only been in line for 30 minutes, but it had been 50. Amazing.

[kaylawhipple]

Cattle pens are frustrating for sure. I would really like to see more single rider lines pop up, as someone who often goes to the cattle pen parks alone, those are often much more tolerable in my opinion. The cattle pen seems shorter.

[pvtred]

I waited 3+ hours in line for Flight of Passage without knowing it was opening week and nearly walked out multiple times. The lab/forest section of the queue really helped to motivate me to wait a little longer.

[thameslinkrail]

Half way through the video and I'm yet to hear a rule that the queue for Dragon's Fury at Chessington hasn't broken.

[BramvdSanden]

As a driving instructor I always use queues to explain a phenomenon called the "accordion effect". The more people are in front of you, the slower a queue seems to move, or the longer it seems that you have to wait. Closing in on the station it feels as if you go faster. But most of the times you actually do. For example: When waiting in front of a traffic light, you can drive away immediatly when it gives a green light. But this changes when you've got 5 cars in front of you. The cause of this lies in what you described at 9:11 . Called the accordion effect as it closely resembles how you pull apart an accordion. The middle parts will move as last. This could be solved by making automated queues, or full-continuous attractions like the one on 12:06 .

[henrybums]

I just spent 16 minutes watching somebody talk about queues and loved every second of it