Just back. Quick tip, for those going soon.

[Notso]

We had an amazing trip with great weather! The crowds were much much higher than the same week in previous years, but still manageable.

However, I wanted to warn anyone going between now and the new FP+ to be careful when riding anything standby. Especially in the magic kingdom. As others had mentioned, they seem to have upped the number of FP for every attraction, and let in roughly 1 party of standbyers to 10-30 FPers. We had wait times jump several times even on low crowd days. The worst was Friday morning when the 20 minute wait posted for jungle cruise ended up being about 90 minutes. The same thing happened during the EMH at space mountain last Sunday. We went in with a 15 minute posted wait and got on the ride over an hour later. Both the LInes app and the My Disney apps were consistently way off on wait times.

I've never experienced jumps like that before, or noticed them taking so low a ratio of standby riders to FP users. I'm hoping they get this under control with the new system, because we missed using a few fast passes due to the wait times being so very very far off!

 

[mesaboy2]

We had an amazing trip with great weather! The crowds were much much higher than the same week in previous years, but still manageable.

However, I wanted to warn anyone going between now and the new FP+ to be careful when riding anything standby. Especially in the magic kingdom. As others had mentioned, they seem to have upped the number of FP for every attraction, and let in roughly 1 party of standbyers to 10-30 FPers. We had wait times jump several times even on low crowd days. The worst was Friday morning when the 20 minute wait posted for jungle cruise ended up being about 90 minutes. The same thing happened during the EMH at space mountain last Sunday. We went in with a 15 minute posted wait and got on the ride over an hour later. Both the LInes app and the My Disney apps were consistently way off on wait times.

I've never experienced jumps like that before, or noticed them taking so low a ratio of standby riders to FP users. I'm hoping they get this under control with the new system, because we missed using a few fast passes due to the wait times being so very very far off!

This has been a suspicion of many for months now. Standby estimates that far off (and not in your favor) may even be worth a visit to Guest Relations to relay your experience.

 

[Notso]

Sadly, we are home now. Visiting Guest Relations never occurred to me, though I will say it left a bad taste in my mouth. For example, we will considering staying off property (though we love Boardwalk enough to make it a hard choice) from now on. Evening EMH's used to be a huge perk, but with only two hours, if you end up stuck in line for over half that time, it's hardly worth it.

 

[FortForever]

We had a similar experience in January on a few rides, in the absence of break downs.

Soarin' posted 40 minutes, waited approximately 2.5 hours. Space Mountain posted 30 minutes, waited 80 minutes. Test Track posted 20 minutes, I left the line after 90 minutes as I don't care for the ride and was only there for my DH and DS. They gave up and left the line about ten minutes later.

We were there for a week and everything else was accurate, including those rides on different times and days. I hope that isn't becoming the norm and increasing as it gets closer to fastpass + time.

 

[mesaboy2]

Sadly, we are home now. Visiting Guest Relations never occurred to me, though I will say it left a bad taste in my mouth. For example, we will considering staying off property (though we love Boardwalk enough to make it a hard choice) from now on. Evening EMH's used to be a huge perk, but with only two hours, if you end up stuck in line for over half that time, it's hardly worth it.

I can certainly understand that. In all my visits, I've been very fortunate not to hit an estimate that bad.

Hope your next trip goes better!

 

[growinupdisney]

this absolutely terrifies me for our upcoming trip I hope this worked out before we go....

 

[DisGirl819]

Uhhh, wow I hope Disney works this stuff out by July. Otherwise, with heat and crazy lines I may not be a very happy person

 

[saturn5]

I have noticed that. I work ODF in MK, and one day working in front of Space Mountain, I could not figure out why SM was a 90 minute wait. The park wasn't that busy that day. I would think WDW would want to get them out of line so they could buy ice cream and popcorn from me....Maybe new approach on things?

 

[AR81]

I have a trip planned in 10 days. So we should always do the headliners on fp only and the less popular rides ok with standby? I am trying to come up with touring plans and getting anxious. Not to mention, our last visit was 10 years ago!

 

[Ckmommy72]

This happened to us in January on pooh, we walked up to use our fps just as the ride was reopening after a closure, and the cm at the entrance said to us that we should just save our fps and go standby cuz we'd just walk on. Well, there were 4 parties on front of us and we waited 30 minutes by the interactive honey screens as they would let everyone in fp line go, then 1 party from standby, then we'd have to wait for the line to get to a certain point before the cm would let anyone else go, by then the fp line would have built up again and 1 standby party would go after they all went. It was annoying because we had fps but didn't use them cuz the cm said not to (still our call, I know). I don't know if there were more fps in play or if it was people coming back to use theirs from the closure time period. Just our experience.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

This has been a suspicion of many for months now. Standby estimates that far off (and not in your favor) may even be worth a visit to Guest Relations to relay your experience.

I agree. If I saw this happening I think I would complain, and I normally dont but that would be very aggravating.

We had a similar experience in January on a few rides, in the absence of break downs.

Soarin' posted 40 minutes, waited approximately 2.5 hours. Space Mountain posted 30 minutes, waited 80 minutes. Test Track posted 20 minutes, I left the line after 90 minutes as I don't care for the ride and was only there for my DH and DS. They gave up and left the line about ten minutes later.

We were there for a week and everything else was accurate, including those rides on different times and days. I hope that isn't becoming the norm and increasing as it gets closer to fastpass + time.

I would be livid.

this absolutely terrifies me for our upcoming trip I hope this worked out before we go....

I feel the same way. I am planning a trip right now and the last thing I want to do is to run into this kind of problem. I use fast pass when we can, but if there is a wait time of less than 20 minutes sometimes we will wait, or ride twice. Hearing of this problem has me a little nervous.

 

[Planogirl]

I hope that people keep on posting their actual wait times versus what's posted. If these reports get to be a trend, I don't know if I can stand waiting for so particularly when we don't know that it will happen!

 

[Sandy Fisher]

Okay, we don't have any immediate plans to be at Disney soon, but I'm curious. Someone explain the "math" ?? There are a lot of rides we never rode anyway (fast pass or not) and I know we rarely waited longer than the posted time on standby and even more rarely enough that we got out of line. I'm not terribly familiar with the fastpass plus that everyone speaks of, so maybe someone can explain it -- in simple terms.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I think if this keeps happening and many do end up complaining over at Guest Relations, eventually they will see the "bigger" picture of what is going on. I know when I go, if it happens to me on more than one attraction, I will politely tell them I do not appreciate going onto a line with a 20 minute wait to to only have it turn into a 90 minute wait due to only FP's being taken.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think if this keeps happening and many do end up complaining over at Guest Relations, eventually they will see the "bigger" picture of what is going on. I know when I go, if it happens to me on more than one attraction, I will politely tell them I do not appreciate going onto a line with a 20 minute wait to to only have it turn into a 90 minute wait due to only FP's being taken.

This would especially be the case with me if one of these extended underestimated standby waits caused me to be late for an ADR or FP return on another ride.

Ride breakdowns happen. But this is really getting to be far too common. Couple that with FP+ coming and the fact that many of us will be using standby more often, and it really becomes an important issue.

 

[MichelleVW]

This happened to us in January on pooh, we walked up to use our fps just as the ride was reopening after a closure, and the cm at the entrance said to us that we should just save our fps and go standby cuz we'd just walk on. Well, there were 4 parties on front of us and we waited 30 minutes by the interactive honey screens as they would let everyone in fp line go, then 1 party from standby, then we'd have to wait for the line to get to a certain point before the cm would let anyone else go, by then the fp line would have built up again and 1 standby party would go after they all went. It was annoying because we had fps but didn't use them cuz the cm said not to (still our call, I know). I don't know if there were more fps in play or if it was people coming back to use theirs from the closure time period. Just our experience.

No way would I have stayed at waited. I would have gotten out of line and used my Fast Pass after I saw how it was going.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

This would especially be the case with me if one of these extended underestimated standby waits caused me to be late for an ADR or FP return on another ride.

Ride breakdowns happen. But this is really getting to be far too common. Couple that with FP+ coming and the fact that many of us will be using standby more often, and it really becomes an important issue.

exactly, now are they going to make exceptions for you and allow you to enter late with your FP because you were held up due to a wait time that was totally off.. no, probably not. This is not what the FP should be all about. It is getting out of hand. If this is what it is turning into, they need to just do away with it. I hate to say this, (and I do love Disney) but it is almost as if they are trying to control our every move now...

 

[Sandy Fisher]

Well, as I should have done before asking a question, I looked up the info on fastpass+ and I can tell you that we wouldn't structure our time at Disney so strictly (even with the option of changing our rides/shows) and guess it won't apply to us.
I'm still confused as to why people in the FP line would be given such an overwhelming percentage of the line boarding the ride. I know when they narrowed the fast pass return window and enforced it, the FP lines were longer sooner.
We pretty much only used fastpass on Soarin' and that was because we wanted to be sure to ride it twice (first time on standby at park opening) and didn't want to deal with a long line.
Not sure what's going on. We used FP occasionally when a ride was down and we had to come back later. In most cases it ended up the ride was down for an extended time and we gave those FP away because we didn't use them.

 

[mom2rtk]

Well, as I should have done before asking a question, I looked up the info on fastpass+ and I can tell you that we wouldn't structure our time at Disney so strictly (even with the option of changing our rides/shows) and guess it won't apply to us.
I'm still confused as to why people in the FP line would be given such an overwhelming percentage of the line boarding the ride. I know when they narrowed the fast pass return window and enforced it, the FP lines were longer sooner.
We pretty much only used fastpass on Soarin' and that was because we wanted to be sure to ride it twice (first time on standby at park opening) and didn't want to deal with a long line.
Not sure what's going on. We used FP occasionally when a ride was down and we had to come back later. In most cases it ended up the ride was down for an extended time and we gave those FP away because we didn't use them.

They did not narrow the window, only started enforcing it. And many believe they started experimenting with maximizing the number of FPs they could milk out of they system on a daily basis, which I believe is the reason this problem started coming up more.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

They did not narrow the window, only started enforcing it. And many believe they started experimenting with maximizing the number of FPs they could milk out of they system on a daily basis, which I believe is the reason this problem started coming up more.

I agree! They may very well be experimenting with numbers. They may need this information for the future when they go the next step and either sell them as Universal has gone to or when they do their tier system for the resorts.