Lake Compounce adopts Lo-Q texting service

No one seemed to care when I slipped this story into the forums on Monday.

Perhaps acceptance has finally come? ;)

I knew that you'd be first to comment. Next, LK drops by to say how wrong it is, and the fun begins!

I think it's awesome :)

I think this is doubly interesting because of the lack of propietary system needed for end users. Texting a reservation for a ride from your phone? That's pretty awesome stuff. Everyone already knows how to text.

Now if they could just work around buying 'credits' and just bill you directly on a pay-per-use basis, you've got something.

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Plus, this article is interesting in that it gives us a little insight into the real impact. It mentions (almost in passing) that 6-to-10 percent of guests opt for Flash Pass. That's huge info that we've wondered about for years around here.

I dunno. Anytime I can choose to not stand in a line, I'm going to take that opportunity.

How awesome would it be, to be able to buy your front of the line pass, through an app on your phone?

I know I can do it at Starbucks - I can order and pay from my phone, so I know it's possible.

There you go. A Virtual Queue app would be ridiculous.

EDIT - I mean that in a good way. :)

I really don't understand the complaints behind this "bogging down lines" and "clogging things up" - especially if it's only 6-10% of the people (count me in that 6-10%, btw.) that visit the park.

I still, to this day, can not comprehend the "enthusiast" gripes when things take an extra 15 seconds. I don't care if it prevents me from getting an extra 1.33656 rides on the carousel or whatever, I'm there to have a good time, and so is everyone else. Having a good time, means being comfortable and able to relax. If that means that people wear flip flops, and toss them in a bin, deal with it. Everyone paid the same (basically) money to be there, doing the same thing you are, and unless they're putting themselves and others in danger of harm, it's nobody's business but their own.

It's the same thing with pay-to-queue/skip/virtual queue - if that's how somebody enjoys their day, and it's allowed/sanctioned by the particular establishment, cool.

I think it's great, but find it kind of weird that a small park like lake compounce would be the ones to start this service.

I would have thought one of the big dogs like six flags or cedar fair(well, not as long as kinzel is in charge) would have jumped on board first.

Now that, I can agree with. Compounce is tiny-ish, and it's a bit odd, but maybe they wanted to start small, to see how it works out?

I find it interesting that they are using just a 10 minute window for the reservation. I've never been to the park and don't know how big it is, but it seems like such a short window would limit what you could do prior to your time. That is, you wouldn't want to risk getting in line for something else and missing your reservation.

Lake Compounce is apparently one park that doesn't mind if you take your cell phone on their rides.

Maybe that's part of their thoughts on how to prevent the "queue for two rides at once" phenomenon.

I'm not sure I understand what the issue is with the 10-minute window.

I reserve a ride for Boulder Dash at 3pm. The current line at BD is 45 minutes long. My reservation is for 3:45.

I show up at BD between 3:45 and 3:55 and ride.

I guess the problem is not being able to ride anything else unless you know it is a short wait. If you get in line for another ride that looks to be a 30 minute wait but you get stuck on the ride, or the line moves slower than expected you could easily miss the window.

$1 per ride is cheap, I am guessing that is per person? Hopefully you can reserve a ride for more than 1 person using a phone using 2 credits for 2 people.

$1 per ride? WTF?

$1 a ride is ridiculously cheap.

Seriously cheap. Some people would and do pay a whole lot more than that to cut.

"Don't want 10% of our park guests cutting in front of you? Purchase your very own line cut today!!"

I still hate it. It's blackmail, in my perspective anyways. It sucks that line cutting has become so acceptable, as long as one pays for the "privilege". It's still cutting in line.

...And now the price is so low, in this case, that EVERYONE can afford it? Wait times will be even longer. The non-Q-Botter get even more screwed.

(Sorry that I was so late. I was at Dollywood the last few days. Very low crowds and barely anyone had a Q-Bot, by the way.)

Thread complete.