About Queue Times

Introduction

Zachary Bull Founder
I started Queue Times in the summer of 2014, when I was 15, after a school trip to Thorpe Park where I spent the entire day waiting in lines. Since starting the site with only one park, I've expanded it to numerous theme parks all across the world.

I spent four years studying engineering at Cambridge University, from 2017 to 2021, specialising in information and computer engineering, and I've put that training to work on the site ever since. The machine learning behind the crowd calendars is the clearest example.

These days I work in tech and run Queue Times on the side, in evenings and weekends. I keep it going because it now answers the question I wanted answered when I started: what's the best day to visit? It's great to be able to share that with everyone.

Mentioned in

Forbes The Independent USA Today Le Monde (in French) Daily Mail

Where does the data come from?

The queue times you see are the same as published officially by the park themselves, collected automatically every 5 minutes. If you don't believe me, download the official park app for the theme park you are interested in and you will see they match exactly!

How do you predict future crowd levels?

The site uses machine learning (specifically Gradient boosting regressors) to come up with crowd calendars. The model currently includes time of the year, park opening times and weather. The predictions are therefore based on past data, so accuracy tends to improve the longer a park has been on the site for.

What is a crowd level?

Crowd level is a measure of park occupancy. It's a percentage, with 0% being the quietest day ever and 100% the busiest. This metric is primarily based on queue times but may also consider other factors.

Can I add your data to my site?

You're more than welcome to link to the site, but I'd prefer if you didn't embed the site within your page.

Acknowledgements

Translations provided by Andrea Civitarese, Jasmine Shao, Josias Köhler, Paulo Henrique Martins, Roberto Bianchi, and Wesley van Kuijen (Opolo Webdesign)