and wait times for some popular attractions in theme park can get over an hour
This is one of those fun projects I did with a group of friends who are passionate about solving real world problems.
Inspiration for this project points back to frustrating experiences of two our teammates who visited Universal Studios and Six Flags (in LA) on consecutive days. A visit to the theme park usually brings back cherished childhood memories for most people, at the least everyone expects to have fun time enjoying the rides and a day out with friends and family. Unfortunately we were very frustrated at the long wait times in the lines, which eventually killed our interest. With a little research we realized that we share company with millions of visitors who expressed their frustration in online surveys. These surveys reveal satisfaction remains low mainly because of the increased time visitors spend waiting in lines for rides. Theme parks have tried to address the problem with mobile applications that display wait times, maps, and other information. However, they don’t solve the core problem of wait times! Immediately we started exploring this space which generated $7.2 billion last year in the US market and primed for robust growth.
Statistics from IAAPA studying the global theme park attendance estimates that 135 Million people visited North American theme parks in 2013. We believe the problem of long wait times affects all of those visitors and ideally most of them will benefit as target user for this application.
To axe wait times, we are developed Amusemax (POC) with the motto “min wait, max fun.” Designed to enrich the theme park experience, Amusemax is a complete solution that enables park visitors to:
The application’s centerpiece is park queue management, supported by an algorithm that estimates effective wait times in real time. Visitors are provided with wait time as well as any updates on potential ride downtimes. This lets visitors plan for rides on the go and enjoy other activities while they “stand” in line virtually. Freeing guests from waiting in line will increase park profitability because visitors could make purchases instead.
We believe the below features embody simple elegant solution for a pleasurable theme park experience.
Rides’ Details: This will display the list of rides in a specific park. Further ride details like level of rides, highlights of the rides, videos, minimum height or other requirements to get on the ride, etc. are presented to the user in an elegant, simple and intuitive display.
Wait Times: Our algorithm calculates real time wait times for each ride and presents it to the user in the ride info page. This will help users to make informed decisions and facilitates better scheduling on the fly. We considered several parameters like number of parameters like start time of the ride, ride frequency, number of slots assigned for in app reservations, and temporary ride unavailability to compute real time wait times.
Stand in Line Virtually: This is the central piece of our solution. Through the app we will allows users to stand virtually in lines. This will enable users to spend less time in lines and more times in parks. User can simply look for rides of his/her interest and with a click of a button s/he will be in a line virtually. Our app will notify the user when it is time to leave for the ride.
Smart Scheduling: We designed a smart scheduling algorithm that does accommodate users’ scheduling, rescheduling, and cancellation requests. User can also add rides to favorites and schedule them at a later point of time when there are any available slots with less wait time. We have also included between rides time management. Every ride schedule time is guard banded with pre and post adjusted time. While pre adjusted time accommodates for walking times between rides, post adjusted time accommodates for any time theme parks wants to add to accommodate more time for merchandise shopping or any other needs. These guard bands are customizable at ride level.
Merchandise Suggestions: Merchandise suggestions associated with theme park rides are sent as notifications to the user at the end of the ride. Users can look through the merchandise and commit to buy on app or decide to buy at the store and choose to pick up while exiting the park. This solves two main problems; visitors not buying merchandise because: 1) of time constraints or 2) unwillingness to carry them through out the day. Also, it serves as a marketing channel for theme parks and merchants to lure visitors to spend more money.
Future: We want to extend our development to finish the remaining modules, improve our algorithm, and tie up with a theme park to further enhance the user experience of the application. We also plan to purchase custom mobile devices to run our application, which will be made available to park visitors through theme parks. We also realize that queue management and wait times problem is ubiquitous especially in places like DMV, conference’s, and resort’s. We are inspired to improve the existing solution further to solve this problem at other places as well.