At Epcot today- avoid Test Track!!!

[2Tiggies]

I wonder if part of the problem is that they are running the regular FP as usual, i tandem with a testing phase of FP+ Is it possible that they are sometimes failing to take account of the FP+ guests, or counting them and not adjusting the FP issuing for regular FP guests?

 

[Tribe]

Here is another example of standby problems. Just Wednesday on the new Mermaid ride at MK we entered standby with a posted 40 minute wait. We got on the ride in 90 minutes. The funny thing is, as beautiful as the queu is, we spent over an hour in the worst part of it, in the two dark sections deep in the cave. We were moving one stride every 5 minutes. You could tell there must have been a continuous flow of fastpassers and they would let one standby party go about every 5 minutes. Our party was miserable being stuck in those caves for that long barely moving.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Unless I get to TT or Soarin RIGHT at rope drop, I'll grab a FP.... even slow days, the wait gets up to 30-40 minutes by an hour after opening... and I'm just not the type of person to wait for a ride that long... rides that last less than a few minutes - I can't imagine waiting 30 minutes to ride something that lasts 2 minutes

But I still love Disney, and why I'm a FP girl myself... When we picked up our FP for little mermaid, the standby wait was an hour, but the FP was for an hour later... and as I saw people getting into the standby line I coudn't help but wonder why they were getting in standby.

I personally would rather walk around, ride another ride, do a meet and greet or rest while waiting for my return time than I would spend the same time standing in line

Now I DO realize the the OP had a few extra factors like the ride being down, which would also affect the FP return people too... so sometimes things just suck. But I think they should have given you a FP for TT for your trouble and maybe even a bonus FP for soarin or something.
Most likely they already are holding a FP and can't get another yet.

We also had a reverse happy bonus at HS. The standby wait time was 50 minutes, but since we planned on leaving HS before our FP return time we decided to wait standby... the 50 minute wait was actually only about 20-25 minutes and we were so thrilled.

They may already have a FP for a different attraction and can't get another yet.

 

[DeluxePrincess]

There is no excuse for Disney to post a wait time that ends up being triple the time stated. In the past, I've usually waited in line LESS than the posted time. Seems they are now mostly underestimating waits by a very large margin. I don't know the reasoning for this, but it's obviously not an isolated incident. I hope this doesn't become the new norm when the FP+ system is up and running.

 

[mesaboy2]

I wonder if part of the problem is that they are running the regular FP as usual, i tandem with a testing phase of FP+ Is it possible that they are sometimes failing to take account of the FP+ guests, or counting them and not adjusting the FP issuing for regular FP guests?

There are no FP+ tests going on that I can see. All RFID scanning posts in MK at least are covered and not in use.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Does not account for the wait time discrepancy, but Epcot was listed as the worst (most crowded) of the four parks yesterday, on a day that crowds are starting to peak for the holiday.

 

[KlutzyK8]

I think one thing that would have helped is if there was some way for the CMs to communicate the new wait time to the people already in line...we asked just prior to the Design Studio (only because there were no CM's between the front door and there) and that's when we were told that it was the typical midday wait- we found out it was 45+ only when my DH excused himself through many waiting folks and found a CM in line past the Design Studio. If there was somehow a way to say "Your wait from this point is___
" then it would help. We got all excited when we saw the countdown in the design studio- we thought that was when we got to go on the ride. Nope.

Yesterday was our last day at Disney- we had to be back to the Beach Club by 3:15 for the MME. Had we had an entire day, I would have asked for another FF from GS- but by the time we got out of there, it was already 12:30. It was the only truly negative experience we had the entire 9 days we were there- we must have just used up all of our pixie dust by then

 

[Grundgetta]

We were at Epcot two weeks ago and had the same problem with TT. The posted wait time was 30 minutes, but we actually waited for 90 minutes. Very frustrating!

 

[MIChessGuy]

I did the single-rider TT last month. As I understand it, both singles and FPs get the 'abbreviated' design room, which might explain why I found the whole design-your-car thing to be fairly uninteresting. There was no problem with excessive waiting.

On the whole, TT always struck me as the weakest super-headliner attraction in the World. It sort of harkens back to the old days of EPCOT being perceived, fairly or not, as an excessively dry, educational theme park.

 

[mom2rtk]

Radiator Springs Racers at DLR is a similar sort of ride to TT from what I hear with even greater demand and breakdown issues. Their fastpass enforcement starts tomorrow. Gonna be interesting to see how that goes.

 

[bittybabygrower]

We also saw the single rider lines get shut down probably because the fast pass lines were so long. Our daughter and her friends has Fastpasses for TT and waited an hour.

 

[mom2rtk]

We also saw the single rider lines get shut down probably because the fast pass lines were so long. Our daughter and her friends has Fastpasses for TT and waited an hour.

Wow. One hour in the "Fast" pass line.

That just goes to show that unreliable rides coupled with milking a ton more slots out of the fastpass system are just not a good mix.

And I don't see what great good it does shutting down the single rider line. Unless maybe they just had enough in line already to fill the slots. Because if they didn't, it seems there would still be empty single slots to fill regardless of how backed up the FP and Standby lines were.

 

[ManyMinnie]

We also saw the single rider lines get shut down probably because the fast pass lines were so long. Our daughter and her friends has Fastpasses for TT and waited an hour.

An hour in the FP line is unacceptable, if the ride was operating normally.

I hope you complained at Guest Services.

 

[mom2rtk]

An hour in the FP line is unacceptable, if the ride was operating normally.

I hope you complained at Guest Services.

Since when is Test Track EVER operating normally?

 

[ManyMinnie]

Since when is Test Track EVER operating normally?

Not very often, but I thought I better put that in there, anyway.

 

[Victoria3]

We also saw the single rider lines get shut down probably because the fast pass lines were so long. Our daughter and her friends has Fastpasses for TT and waited an hour.

What does the single riders line have to do with the FP line?

 

[mesaboy2]

What does the single riders line have to do with the FP line?

SR can be shut down when rides are busy. If FP is long, then the ride is busy.

 

[bittybabygrower]

I don't know but they were shutting them down. Maybe to funnel more fastpass people in. And we did say something at guest services.

It wasn't just at test track, other rides had similar issues. It was crazy. We have been there during busy times before and this was pretty bad.

 

[nabi]

makes me wonder if someone forgot to hand out one of those "line time" vouchers that tell the CM's if the wait time is accurate (give it to someone in line, the expected time is given, then see how long it really takes for them to get there).

 

[MichelleBBB]

We were there on Friday and had no issues. Kids rode it 3 times in a row (using single rider) first thing, there was no wait at all. Later we got fastpasses for 2:50 - 3:50 return time and there was only a 7 minute wait at FP.

I did see the regular wait was 50 minutes and I wondered who would even consider waiting in that....