Universal looks for smarter virtual queue systems
Here's a question that many theme park fans have had to face at some point. What do you do when you are in line for an attraction and it goes down?
Do you stay in line and wait it out? Or do you leave the queue and try to come back later? The more you know about a ride and its operations, the more informed a decision you can make. If a roller coaster goes down for rain, for example, you know that it's not coming back up until the shower passes and the ops team and reset the track. So a check of a weather app can help you guess how long that might be.
Unless the ride ops team is ordering everyone in the queue to leave, usually during a ride evacuation, the choice is up to you. But what happens when a ride goes down that has a virtual queue instead of a physical one?
Universal has a new plan for that.
In a patent application filed today, Universal describes its proposed "Systems and Methods for a Smart Virtual Queue." Theme parks tend to use virtual queues for their attractions for one of two reasons. First, the park simply does not have enough physical queue space for all the people who want to wait for a ride. Second, the park wants to get people out of a long physical queue and out into the park where they can be spending money on food, merchandise or even other rides and experiences.
Image from Universal's patent application
When a virtual queue assigns park visitors an estimated return time, a downtime wrecks those plans. The park could just hold the virtual queue, delaying everyone until the ride comes back up. But what happens when you planned the rest of your day around that original return time?
Universal's proposed system would automatically remove guests from the queue during a downtime, then suggest to them two or more alternative return times after the ride comes back up. The guest could then select their preferred return time - presumably the one that best works with their other plans for the day.
If none of the proposed return times work for the guest, Universal's automated system could offer some form of compensation, such as a priority access to some other attraction.
You can read the details of what Universal is proposing on the US Patent Office's website: Systems and Methods for a Smart Virtual Queue.
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The more I read and think about various VQs, the more opaque my understanding becomes. What most people think is a simple and fair "take a number" system that gives preference to those who are first in line, is far more complicated and convoluted with random number generators, misleading displays making you think you're next only to bump you to the back of the line for no reason, or timers that mysteriously reset or appear to use non-linear time constructs.
Virtual queues are quickly becoming a dirty word in the live entertainment industry, so if Universal is going to double down on the technology, it needs to be fully transparent and clear for guests to have faith that the system is fair.