Why do we still line up for an amusement park attraction?

Everyone can remember his or her visit to an amusement park when they were younger, or maybe even recently. Besides the experiences of the themes, attractions and all other stuff that amusement parks offer is there something else that is connected to the experience of going to an amusement park: lining up for the attractions. Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ posted an interesting article why we still do this in a world where possibilities and opportunities seam infinite.
Line ups are known as the biggest dissatisfier of amusement parks for many years. Amusement parks have tried to come up with solutions, but no solution has been implemented completely successful yet. Even though there are no concrete solutions for line ups, the number of visitors is still growing.
3 Reasons why we line up
‘De Volkskrant’ spoke to some experts and summed up the arguments why we line up:
- We like to be in line ups
Apparently, we like to stand in line for a while. This was discovered by ‘amusement park professor’ Pieter Cornelis of Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg, who did research into the experience for both Dutch amusement parks Efteling and Toverland.
Visitors surveys show that in general the satisfaction of the visitor increases when waiting ten minutes to a quarter of an hour, and only after fifteen minutes it decreases. From a half-hour of waiting, the pleasure drastically decreases. Especially attractions where you have visuals of the attraction from the queue, visitors like to wait. Some rides are called ‘dark rides’ where you have no view of the attraction, with these rides the satisfaction decreases linearly from the start. Wessel Wit, founder of theme park website ‘Looopings’ and expert of amusement and theme parks, substantiates this.
The experience of a line up is not only dependent on the waiting time. Pieter Cornelis: ‘You can stretch the satisfaction to twenty minutes by designing a better driving experience.’ If the row becomes part of the total experience, you see that the satisfaction decreases less quickly. According to research, this is because relative waiting time is more important than absolute waiting time. Relative waiting time is influenced by the attention paid by the waiting person to the passing time; if you know how to shift the attention, the waiting time will be shorter. Nowadays, almost no attraction is built without theme or interactive nature.
2. Line ups seem fair
The Flemish philosopher and economist Antoon Vandevelde, author of ‘Het Geweld Van Geld’, points to a study by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler: ‘He asked people: how should scarce places be divided? By auction, by standing in line, or by a lottery? Standing in line was the best solution; that has the most connotation of justice. Lottery is the second choice and bidding the third and worst. That is a problem for economists because the market solution for this scarcity problem is up for grabs. Standing in line is economically inefficient, but only because it is linked to engagement, it is considered acceptable.
3. Alternatives affect negatively the adventure
A boarding pass downgrades the spontaneity of your visit. Once booked, such a pass requires some planning, and that is contrary to the amusement park ideal: adventure! The type of visitor who does not like planning, comes off worse in parks with alternative driving options than with old-fashioned rows. Thereby, a poor preparation is punished. For example, at Disneyland Orlando, when you are sleeping in a Disney hotel, you can start making reservations for attractions up to two months before your visit (otherwise 30 days).
Marketing and sales director René Peul of Avonturenpark Hellendoorn has another reason to skip the virtual row or boarding pass: ‘We do not like it when guests walk with a mobile phone through the park. We want parents to be busy with their children, that people experience the adventure together. We prefer to ensure that the waiting time remains low.’
Will we continue to line up in the future?
The main arguments are mentioned for lining up. The arguments seem legit, although the reason of Rene Peul arises some questions. His assumption is that people will be busy all day walking through the park with their mobile phone, if alternatives are implemented. The thought is understandable but I believe this image is a bit out of proportion. Thereby could the mobile phone be used as an extension of the experience, rather than just for the map, time schedule and queuing. This seems also more to match the new generation, who are literally born with a phone.
More and more theme parks are experimenting with alternative ways of dealing with line ups. At the Race Through New York opened in 2017 at Universal Orlando Resort, visitors wait comfortably in a lounge until it is time to get on board. They even promise a completely queue free future. At the Volcano Bay Water Theme Park, people only line up virtually, you will be pinned by a special bracelet when it’s your turn to slide down from the Krakatau Aqua Coaster.
Some players in the market are experimenting to find a better solution for queuing, which is not yet there. The arguments why people line up could help finding a better solution. Fact is that the ideals of amusement parks don’t work if people spend half of their time in a row. Now is definitely the time to put heads together and to make sure a visit to an amusement park is a true adventure again!

