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Timed Ticketing to avoid lines, multiple attractions

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  • Timed Ticketing to avoid lines, multiple attractions

    Hey everybody, I'd really appreciate some help and any ideas. Here's the situation.

    We have a farm with a corn field walk, a hayride, and a big midway. We have a ticketing system from gatemaster where we can program different groups to be sold in order at different times, etc. The capacity for the corn is about 2800, we hit that a few times a year, and the midway/hayride is something like 4500 but we never get even get close to that. Right now we sell tickets, and group people in 20 min increments to go into the corn and they can go on the hayride whenever they want. The longest the line has ever been is 25 minutes, and the hayride 30 minutes. We want to keep lines at about that level. During the Day we have a fall festival which is the main part of our business so we are committed to closing at midnight so we can all work the next day. Our business has a guarantee that anything we sell (including services) if people are not happy with they can get a refund. So we're pretty committed to not making them wait in long lines and making sure they get to do everything before we close the events.

    We are planning on opening another attraction next year, a walk in the woods. We figure the capacity will be the same as the corn and assume that most people will want to do all three events. To schedule everyone to get through the corn, through the forest, and on a hayride I've designed a ticket schedule that I think is feasible, but Its a little complicated. I figure we'd print tickets with all of the possible times on them and the tickets sellers will just highlight the correct times for them to go into the attractions. So to program it, it'll be a bit complicated but presented to the customer it will just be a time to enter, pretty straightforward. We'd use a punch system on the ticket so they only have 1 thing to carry. There is leeway built into the entrance times so people can go to the bathroom or get a drink or something between events. I'm preparing our people to be flexible about the times and rules, we'll tell the customers we're very strict about it but the employees at the entrances, if there is no line they can let people go early, if 1 person out of a group is the later time they can let them go with their friends etc.

    I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel here, I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this. I'm worried people won't think its fun if its too scheduled. If anyone has any experience with doing this or designing a ticket system like this I'd love your thoughts and feedback. Any other ideas would be great too. I would love some help from anybody with any experience at this. thanks in advance!

    --Lucas
    Lucas Cox
    Cox Farms
    www.Fieldsoffear.com

  • #2
    I'd look at the multiple tab wristbands instead of having them carry a ticket, etc. Better yet, give Bird a yell over at Haunted Hills Estates in Uniontown PA. They do a very similar set up, might be helpful to get with them and see what they got going on. Good Luck....http://hauntedhillsestate.com/
    Like a midget at a urinal, you gotta be on your toes

    http://www.wellstownshiphauntedhouse.com

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    • #3
      Thanks Sean, I'll do that.
      Lucas Cox
      Cox Farms
      www.Fieldsoffear.com

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      • #4
        Options

        I'm not saying either one of these are the best option for you, but I have seen three ways to get this done.

        At our place we have 1 main queue line in our midway. Tickets are taken once people enter the queue line, and they can't get out of the line once they've entered. They will go into our first haunt with a 5 minute to 1 hour wait (depending on time of season and night). They will then go from the back door of our first haunt to our queue area for our hayride which includes a pre-show video in a barn. They will have a very short line to enter the hayride (less than 10 minutes). The hayride then drops them off in a corn field which takes them on a dark corn walk to our last house. There is a short queue line there too. The idea is to use the queue areas as buffers to keep a regular flow going through your houses. Best part for us is, the first house starts at 700. hayride starts at 730. last house starts at 8. They shut down in the same order. We also see 3000/busy night. We also see 300 on a slow night... In 4 years running the show like this we have never had a guest enter our park on time and miss a segment of our show. This model has worked out very well at our haunt.

        I've been to major haunts where they will direct you to one line at the beginning of the night. Then you must complete the haunts in sequential order. As long as you post your order when people arrive, and it is very clear what order they are to complete the tickets... it could work out well for you. The idea is that you have one major wait, then the rest are very short.

        Also I went to another haunt with 5 events including 2 houses and a hayride which handed you a slip of paper. It gives you "suggestions" on which order to complete the haunts before the park closes. Every 1/2 hour block of time had a different suggestion. We followed the suggestion given to us, and it worked out rather well.

        if you have any questions shoot me an inbox message and I can send you some more info.
        Patrick Barberry
        www.legendsofthefog.com
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