Long lines...what's the professional solution?

[SSP]

I've gone to as many haunts as I could have this season, and the one thing that always baffled me are the lines. The lines that were short I felt that the haunt didn't do enough business, but the more successful haunts... one haunts wait time was A FOUR HOUR WAIT! AAAHHHHH!!!! I have seen the time slot method the most widely used, but even then it still seems a mystery how you can push so many people through a haunt and not have it be a rush.

My question I guess would be, how do you increase traffic in a haunt, increase the customer flow without having either a rush of groups or that annoying constant train of people from beginning to end? I know there are probably many methods depending on who and where, but I would love to hear the expert opinions on this one. All suggestions and tips are much appreciated.

[Nightgore]

At Kings Island I would send groups of (no more than) 6 through... every 45 seconds. When our line grew to the 3 hour wait... we shortened the timer to 30 seconds and I sent groups of (no more than) 9 through.

This is just how we did it, got our line moving pretty good! -Tyler

[SSP]

Thats pretty good, Thanks Tyler. But does it ever get to the point where one group slows down, another goes fast, and then you wind up with a train of 5 groups goin through all at once? Unless thats not a bad problem, I'm just assuming

Maybe it would be easier for those attractions with multiple haunts?

[haunter112]

Let's face it... a single haunted attraction can only handle so many people per night and still be effective. If you start pumping people thru like cattle, you're not gonna have to worry about those long lines next year.

I think it's better to split it into 2 or 3 smaller attractions (each with it's own entrance, exit, theme, and admission charge). This would reduce the wait time (per attraction) and you wouldn't have to turn people away.

The only exception I can think of is something like RAVEN'S GRIN INN where the full experience of the haunt is very dependant on the performance of the host.

[mindtumor]

Man I need the solution to getting long lines.

[Scaremaster]

We have been offering express pass tickets the past years (extra cost) to bypass the 2-3 hour wait. But now we are having to stop the sales of express passes because those too are filling up. One night we must have had 30 people in the express line!

We would never send groups through faster if the line backs up. Everything in the house is timed for 6 people in a group. (1 group a min). So, if they want to go, they wait. (Or buy an express ticket)

We actually had people waiting to buy the express pass tickets. (We wouldn't sell them if there were too many in the express line)

[SSP]

Express tickets sound good, but do they interfere with the normal line? Is the express line something where you alternate with general admission or let the express go first? If that's the case then the general admission line is slowed down 2 - 3 times as much as a normal wait.

[Todd Shumansky]

We send people through in groups of up to 9 people. When it gets very busy we have a secondary line that we open that is for groups with three or less people. It makes it easier to put more people through when every group is 8 or 9 people. If you send through groups of 5 or 6 but your capacity is a group of 9, you are reducing your throughput by quite a bit. The 3 or less line allows us to consistently fill up the group and put more people through.

[haunter112]

If your EXPRESS LINE is backing up, you might not be charging enough for it.
Aaaah... capitalism!

[Chris]

Long lines suck, but if you don't have them then people pass you by. We blew it last night by pushing too fast and killing our queue by 11. Still an okay night at 1200 people, but a stupid mistake.