Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Best / Worst Queue and Exit Layouts for Coaster Marathons

Benenen

Benenen

Hyper Poster
Bit of a wordy title but this was a good rabbit hole my mind went down trying to fall asleep last night. We all love a marathon if a park is quiet enough but there's definitely factors that affect how enjoyable a coaster is to marathon other than the actual quality and re-rideability of the coaster. The distance between leaving your seat at the end and arriving back in the airgates affects whether you have that one more go round. Here are some examples good and bad.

Bad
- Zadra and Hyperion. Similar styles of queue and distances. Fantastic coasters but if the gate isn't open on Zadra you're looking at a solid 5-10 mins before you're back in the station having then also depleted a chunk of energy needed for the day
- Fly. Again a huge walk but I'm always excited to walk through it for those lovely aerial views. Doesn't deter me massively from rerides as I like the whole experience and build up.
- Oblivion. This one is frustrating due to several factors. First the exit and entrance are on far sides of X Sector and the exit path feels pointlessly long. The queue is also long and burdenous to walk through with no shortening on quiet days. Yes you can be cheeky and go up the fasttrack then slide under the railing by the disco ball room but I spent 3 brutal seasons working on Coastguard HQ at Legoland telling guests off for doing just that so I can't bring myself to do it on Oblivion. Finally it runs so many shuttles that you're waiting at the end for ages while all the ones in front of you load in the station. I love Oblivion but I've never ridden it more than twice in a row as it must be getting on 10 mins between hitting the brakes and re-entering the airgates even if there's no queue
- Twisted Timbers. Not a huge offender but there's something frustrating about how the station is right next to the footpath yet the exit path takes you this convoluted route round the photo stall and then the non extended queue takes you round this lengthy loop before going up the stairs. It's not a massive walk but feels long when marathoning

Good
- Ride to Happiness. Not the shortest station to airgate walk I can think of but one of the most pleasant. Providing you walk over the rope fence on the outside section like everyone does it's not a long queue despite some zig zagging in the gorgeous indoor bits. The exit spits you out right next to the entrance which is great but as a bonus there's also a toilet in the station building providing great marathoning infrastructure. Bonus points too for that nice seating area under the canopy where you can have a breather. Stellar coaster for re-riding both due to the ride itself and the queue/exit layout making a short loop.
- Jersey Devil Coaster. In a park with some fiddly ride exits (that weird ramp on Nitro that spirals about 3 times at shallow gradient, the general faff of walking across a car park to get to and from the Superman and Green Lantern stations), Jersey Devil is tightly designed. Exit spits you straight back to the entrance, the queue takes a direct route to the station and the station itself is right next the the footpath. Lovely. Only downside is having to prove your pockets are empty to the gruff entrance hosts each time you re-ride.
-Alpengeist. Most BGW coasters are good at this but Alpie is the slickest. Again it's a short exit path, the entrance is then right next door and it's a direct(ish) route to the station which isn't distanced far away.
- Wildfire (Kolmarden). Another quick and easy one. In the queue entrance, straight up the stairs. Into the air gates. Done.

So there we go, my full thoughts on how queue and path layouts affect desire to re-ride coasters. Peak February theme park deprivation. Any other glaring examples good or bad that spring to mind?
 
Flucht von Novgorod spits you out in a completely different area of the park from where you entered it, and that’s after you have to go through that annoying maze section every time. If you’re not already familiar with Hansa-Park’s layout it may even be a struggle to find your way back to the entrance.
 
Oooh, nice topic.

You could add pretty much any major Towers coaster to the 'Worst' list here tbf. Also agree with Novgorod too; that was 'the' one which sprung to mind.

Worst
Nemesis Inferno. Possibly not too bad since Thorpe have a good re-ride policy, but the exit pathway is long, takes you a little bit away from the entrance, and then you have to walk through a cattlepen and up stairs to get back to the station.
Karnan. This is one of those attractions where the experience isn't just the coaster (I guess like Novgorod, but to a greater extent). But if you're purely interested in marathoning the coaster on a quiet day, it's a massive pain.
Vampire (Chessington). Long queue walk with no cuts, entrance a little round the corner from the exit.

Best
Skyrush / Candymonium. Entrances and exits close together. Short exit walks. Queues designed to be easy to extend / shorten. Very easy to just run round and go again.
 
Helix with it's zig zaging concrete jungle is a pain.

Nemesis is a trek back up a hill and then down through the queue.

Wicker Man is a pretty long walk followed by the pre show.

Steel Vengeance with the locker faff.

Best for me is Skyrush which ticks all the boxes. A short stroll up the stairs and usually a walk on.
 
Best:

Mako - It may be different on the busier day, but I've found that this is such an easy coaster to lap. The entrance/exit are right next to each other, and there isn't much of a cattlepen queue that leads into the station building.
Nemesis - When the extended queue isn't opened, this thing is so easy to lap! The queue is incredibly short and the exit is only a 25 second walk back to the entrance (if you go the route beneath the zero-g roll).
Iron Gwazi - Another easy one to do on a quiet day. The only cattlepen you have to do is the bit in the station, but even that's easy to pass if the park is dead! The giftshop and entrance are just around the corner from each other, so this definitely wasn't a hard one to lap either. Think I managed roughly 14 laps on this thing without any wait....my thighs were a tad sore at the end of that day 😂
The Smiler - I know what some might think here! But, the single rider queue comes in so handy! There's no cattlepen, it takes you straight up the stairs and you're pretty much ready to board! The entrance and exit/shop are in a fair distance of each other however I will admit that the exit corridor can be a bit of a stretch for marathons.

Pretty much all of the coasters at SeaWorld Orlando & BGT have pretty good queue entrance/exit layouts however.

Worst:
Velocicoaster - The entrance/exit are quite close to each other but the locker/metal detector situation does slow this queue down a fair amount. Think I only managed to get 4 laps on it in a row at night when there was no queue and I had a family member to hold our stuff.
Red Force - The entrance/exit are pretty far away from each other on this one. Getting a good few laps on this coaster is also prevented by the fact that the single rider queue doesn't start until halfway into the queue, where you have to walk through a lot of cattlepen to reach it.
 
Sad old man confession.
Lapping thirteen on a quiet wet day, skiving work because of rain forecast all day...I soon spotted a short cut nipping over the 4 foot fence from the exit back into the single rider queue.
Used it a couple of times, but third time unlucky, wet trainers and wooden fence.
Tall old git, but with dodgy knees and hips...
Face plant.
Time to start thinking about becoming a grown up.
Best, nemesis when it had the single rider queue, often got back on the same train!
 
I wouldn't advocate for fence jumping, single-rider or not.

Ninferno and Flynosaur have some of the worst queue layouts, imo. Flyno's isn't even all that well themed.

Expedition Everest's queueline, on the other hand, is fantastic. It's Didney - go figure.
 
Best:
Maverick's fast lane is incredible. It's pretty close to the exit and it leads you straight to the station.

Worst:
American Eagle's queue is pretty infamous with just how long and windy it is.
 
Dan? said:
I wouldn't advocate for fence jumping, single-rider or not.

Ninferno and Flynosaur have some of the worst queue layouts, imo. Flyno's isn't even all that well themed.

Expedition Everest's queueline, on the other hand, is fantastic. It's Didney - go figure.
Click to expand...
I advocated it for about forty years before changing my mind.
 
I have to say that Silver Star at Europa Park has a very good queue/exit layout for reriding. The exit of the ride practically places you right back where you started, and it doesn’t have an overly long queue line either, particularly when the section looping around the upper level of the building isn’t open (and when it was quiet enough to reride in quick succession, I found that it often wasn’t). On my last day in EP where I rode the ride six times, I found that this queue layout was very conducive for rerides!

I’ve never tried it first hand, but I can also imagine that Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach has quite a good queue/exit layout for this. The exit puts you back fairly near to the entrance, from memory, and the queue line itself is very short and easy to traverse, with no overly steep steps or anything.

Once again, I never tried this one first hand, but a ride that I can imagine was a double-edged sword for this was Dragon Challenge at Islands of Adventure. I seem to remember that the ride had a “re-ride” shortcut open to take you straight back to the front of the queue at quiet periods, which is obviously living the dream from a reride standpoint, but if that wasn’t open, then I imagine that reriding could have been quite an arduous process; from memory, the exit dumped you a fair distance from the entrance, and that queue line was extremely long and very windy!

One that I can imagine isn’t very conducive to repeat riding is Wicker Man at Alton Towers, what with having to watch the pre-show every time.

The Swarm at Thorpe Park also has a layout not the most suited to repeat riding, from memory of my experiences riding it multiple times in quick succession. The exit is at the opposite end of the area to the entrance, and that cattlepen queue is quite a long one to traverse when all of it is open.
 
Last edited:
Matt N said:
The Swarm at Thorpe Park also has a layout not the most suited to repeat riding, from memory of my experiences riding it multiple times in quick succession. The exit is at the opposite end of the area to the entrance, and that cattlepen queue is quite a long one to traverse when all of it is open.
Click to expand...
There is a gate the host can open to allow you back to the station split point. As for the cattlepen... Reriding it IMMEDIATELY wouldn't be on the cards if the queue's that full anyway, so the two minute walk back to the start of the queue wouldn't add much time anyway.
 
Best:

Kondaa - The exit sends in a small gift shop which leads right next to the entrance, the single rider queue cuts out a lot of walking as it leads you straight to the station
Goliath (Walibi) - A small exit ramp and your pretty much at the entrance again.

Worst:

Shambhala - Okay it's not on the small level as Hyperion or Zadra, but it's a lot of stairs from memory.
Galactica & Colossus - Granted there not coasters I would want to usually re-ride, but it can be a fair walk from the exit back to the station, especially if the the extended queues are open.
 
FistedColossus said:
Helix with it's zig zaging concrete jungle is a pain.

Nemesis is a trek back up a hill and then down through the queue.

Wicker Man is a pretty long walk followed by the pre show.

Steel Vengeance with the locker faff.

Best for me is Skyrush which ticks all the boxes. A short stroll up the stairs and usually a walk on.
Click to expand...

I guess I like Steel Vengeance's lockers. If I'm marathoning, I'd just leave my stuff in the lockers for a two or three laps before checking my stuff and renewing a locker... I usually am down to take a breather after three laps on it to save my thighs anyway, ha!

That said one bad one for me is Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City due to the elevation change and elevated station with the queue house three stories below the station. Plus it has a rather long and winding queue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top