New space mountain line routing

[DisneyCane]

I was at MK yesterday and found an interesting new line routing. Instead of splitting fastpass and standby at the top of the ramp and then just having everybody go immediately left or right they were doing something different. At the split off, Fastpass was routed left or right directly to the maze row closest to the loading platform. Standby was sent left or right to the farthest maze row by the back row and sent through a couple of switchbacks. Standby then ended up at the entrance to the first row of the maze where a CM was stationed to do the Standby/fastpass mix.

I don't know if this is new but it's the first time I've seen it. Other than utilizing some of the maze that used to be empty I'm not sure what it accomplishes other than making the standby line not go as far back down the hallway because more are held in the loading area maze.

 

[DisneyMusician2]

Werid change. It doesn't SOUND like it would shorten lines or congestion on the queue, but perhaps there is a grander plan in place I am missing...

 

[pheneix]

They do that when they run out of stand-by queue and the queue is stretched half-way across Tomorrowland. Its always a last resort because if you are in the stand-by queue and standing in that giant quad, you're gonna be there for a LOOOOONG time.

 

[the-reason14]

I think I know what you are talking about. I think I remember seeing this a couple a trips a few times back. Did they also have a single rider option?

 

[Chape19714]

During a crowded time period, this routing is used to prevent crowds from backing up outside the building. It requires extra CM's, but is pretty successful at routing large numbers of guests.

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

I've never seen this change but I have been there when the line is out the building and halfway across Tomorrowland

 

[basas]

I really wish they could re-work the queue somehow and use the indoor switchbacks. Having the line coming out of the building just creates so many problems. At least create some sort of temp. switchback system outside the standby entrance to avoid the line cutting across Tomorrowland all the way to Astro Orbiter.

 

[NemoRocks78]

This thing NEEDS a SRL.

 

[PoohsGang]

This thing NEEDS a SRL.

Would that mean its not authorized by THE IRON SHEIK?

 

[bob0012]

Or they could just do away with fast pass on it to take advantage of the whole queue solve the problem.

 

[basas]

Or they could just do away with fast pass on it to take advantage of the whole queue solve the problem.

Well that would just make too much sense to happen...

 

[hooters dude]

Have heard a trick they use at the end of the day to discourage people joining the queue is to leave it outside the building to give the appearance of it being longer than it is. And then hey presto, everybodies ushered in and the doors are closed!

Don't know if this is true or not, any one know?

 

[unkadug]

Have heard a trick they use at the end of the day to discourage people joining the queue is to leave it outside the building to give the appearance of it being longer than it is. And then hey presto, everybodies ushered in and the doors are closed!

Don't know if this is true or not, any one know?

Sounds reasonable enough. :wave:

Does Space Mountain have lockable front doors?

 

[Chape19714]

Sounds reasonable enough. :wave:

Does Space Mountain have lockable front doors?

To the best of my knowledge, no. Which brings up an interesting question, how many attractions have lockable doors? :lol: Something to think about when I drive over there tomorrow!

 

[bates1960]

I work the attraction, so I can answer some of these.

We call utilizing the extra queue lines as "opening the butterflies" in which the Standby line is sent into all the extra space. Everyone, including most managers, hates doing this because the job of merging the two lines together is awful, as every Guest screams in your face for cutting them off. The one to make the decision to open this is generally the Duty Manager of the Park or on a couple of occassions, the VP of the Park. Our managers make the call as well, depending on staffing. The purpose of doing this is to prevent cutting Tomorrowland in half by having our queue line go out the building.

As for keeping people outside late at night; it's happened. I've done it. It's what we call "stacking the line" and we very rarely do it, but if we do it's exactly for the reason stated. It scares people off. The Guests want to ride, yes, but we want to go home!

 

[Chape19714]

Hey there Space Mt. CM, I have always wondered 1 thing, if you don't want the line to go through tomorrowland, why hasn't MK turned that courtyard behind the old skyway station into queue area? Some simple re-routing and extension of the fastpass line could easily make that possible. It seems like a good idea, but there must be a problem, what is that? :lol:

 

[marni1971]

^ It used to be. There`s a whole switchback plan for that to stop the queue getting longer than the corner of the Skyway station.

 

[Matpez]

Slightly off topic, but still on discussion.
Once I had a very late dinner in the Land at Epcot, and the whole time I noticed that the Soarin wait time did not change from 45 minutes even though no large groups were going in. I started to figure that they were leaving it at 45 minutes to discourage more people from getting into line right before closing. I finished my dinner and with about 10 minutes to park closing walked right by the 45 minutes wait time and right onto the next ride.
Sneaky, Sooarin CM's, but I got it figured out! :wave:

 

[bates1960]

That "quiet area" next to the Skyway building is currently being looked at for that exact proposal you mentioned. If one of my managers gets his way, than the Fastpass line would come in from that direction while we would have better looking butterfly-type extension queues outside the front, similar to Buzz. Everyone hates using the butterflies inside the building so they are looking at other options to not use them.

Oh, and by the way, we don't have lockable doors. Just a chain and a trash can

 

[DisneyExplorer]

When I was last there in November 2002, they would only let a certain amount of people in at a time. We stood outside for a little bit until the CM would let us go in, keeping the line inside very short. The CM made the wait much more entertaining so I found this crowd control system worked well.