Stupid Guest Tricks

We also sometimes over estimate the wait time because we know we're about to get a huge line, like the parade's about to end or something and it might be too chaotic to change it at that time.

This summer, working at BTM, I really got to see quite a few different views on how to handle the electronic waiting time sign.
Typically, people looked for the queu to reach certain points where you knew that the wait would be about half an hour, fourty minutes, one hour etc.
A few of my collegues liked to keep to these "rules" but added fime minutes extra all the time just "to be safe". Others would deliberately underestimate the low waiting times to fill up the ride in off hours and then exhaggerate the waiting time on peak hours to keep people away. Can't say I saw it work, really.

Another few didnt like working the computer controlling the sign, so they just let whatever the sign said remain ther eno matter what, hoping the next "bump" would do the job for them.
I liked to put in very odd numbers, like "24" or 37" minutes, so that people looking at it would think the computer somwhow actually estimated the waiting time. That way they wouldn't ask me wether or not the sign was accurate - they'd assume it updated on its own. :D
I got caught doing this once and tried to explain it, but my superior failed to see the finer points in my story. Maybe it was just my french. I had to stick to zeroes and fives from then on.

Then there are the joys of not having the wait time posted out front of your attraction, So some one will ask you as you're walking past checking queues, or while you're actually attempting to do your job, and then of course you get the wonderful people who don't believe you so they ask the people in line how long they've waited and they of course say that they've waited for about 45mins, in your 15min line....yes of course I lied to you, I wanted to trick you into wasting your time....then when they get to the front they are amazed at how fast the time flew it seemed like 15 mins to them....hmmmmm let me think about that one.....

Yes - that really is a notion that I don't understand. People assume that just because they cannot SEE any lines that there are none and they take offense to it saying stuff like "You just don't want us to go on the ride...!"...
I mean ??

Have to tell you though it is kind of cute that Tower at DCA is always 13 minutes of wait time.

LittleDollClaudia wrote:Have to tell you though it is kind of cute that Tower at DCA is always 13 minutes of wait time.

Yeah, I've noticed that too! I think when the wait is under 20 minutes, ToT and HM can have a little fun with their wait times.

Like others said, we always boosted our wait time at RnRC a bit when we were running at slower capacity (fewer limos on the line, someone needing some extra time to get settled into the limo, minor technical problems, etc.) or just before a rush. We usually kept them about 5 minutes over actual wait time as a rule too, because guests are less likely to complain about a wait being shorter than posted than they are about it being even one minute longer. At Muppets, we kept a 15 minute wait time at a minimum unless we were truly at a walk-on (meaning the doors were open, and people were walking right in without slowing down). This was because many SGs didn't count the preshow as part of the attraction and we actually got complaints when we posted a 0 minute wait and they weren't going right into the theatre. That tended to happen when they had to wait any time outside the attraction. There was less of a chance they would complain when they walked right in, especially when it was 100 degrees outside!

I've also noticed that Pirates is often a walk-on but they always post 5 minutes, probably because it takes that long to walk though the line!

One day this week I saw Safari posting a five, and I never knew before it could do that. In the past it always said 20, and just recently they had adjusted it so it could occasionally say 10.

Big Wallaby wrote:One day this week I saw Safari posting a five, and I never knew before it could do that. In the past it always said 20, and just recently they had adjusted it so it could occasionally say 10.

On empty days, I still get an FP for safari to shorten my walk.