5/15/12 - Crowds are Heavy; Lines are Long

[disneegrl4eva]

i hope in 10 days it gets better and rude ppl make me soo mad i am not a nice person when ppl aren't nice to me. I know ive got a temper just try real hard not to bite there heads off.

I do hope the 89-90% wont kill my trip

hahhaa Jade....im the same way...i will go off on people that act a fool but alas, i think you better mentally prepare yourself because you are going over Memorial Day week and more and more people are getting out of school and grad nights of course so its better to prepare for the worst and hope for the best

 

[Mugglemama]

It just looks long, because they haven't started weaving people in the queue... on a busy day Splash can get to 60-90 minutes and the line won't reach the exit on HM.

I must be very unobservant, then. Because I just walked through the queue and it appeared that all available space in the standby line was filled in. Is there a part of the INDOOR portion of the line we don't see when walking through with FP's?

 

[HydroGuy]

Again, I do not want to dismiss the OP or anyone's claims. I am sitting here in Colorado and I am not there. I subscribe to Lines iPhone app which takes real time data from folks there and uses that to estimate wait times. I have found their real time data to be quite accurate over multiple trips to DLR and WDW.

Here is what Lines says now at 2:30PM (mid-day crowds) in SoCal for standby wait times :

DL:
Indy - 26 minutes wait
Space - 33 minutes wait
Splash - 36 minutes wait
ST - 39 minutes wait

DCA:
CS - 18 minutes wait
GRR - 29 minutes wait
SOC - 42 minutes wait
ToT - 30 minutes wait
TSMM - 40 minutes wait

This says to me moderate to heavy crowds. All the DCA wait times are approaching mid-summer wait times - maybe a little lower.

All the DL wait times are much lower than mid-summer wait times - about half.

I am not saying anyone in this thread is right or wrong. I am just saying what Lines says is happening right now for everyone's general information.

Best wishes to everyone at the parks this week and hope you have great experiences in spite of some of the differences from what you expected!

 

[Disney Dreams]

with all due respect, I've been trekking through the parks all day and it *has* most definitely "been that busy". You can see from other posts by people who've been in the parks that I'm not imagining it. Not sure what wait times you're viewing, but a 30 minute FastPass line on a non-holiday, non-summer weekday seems unusual as far as my experiences go.

I never said that you were imaging anything. What I was saying is that what you are describing does not mean the same thing to me as it seems to mean to you. For mid-May, I do not think what you are reporting is busy, especially when it's almost 80 degrees out and an absolutely gorgeous day.

I hear what you're saying...however, wait times listed Splash at 40 minutes a bit ago but the line wrapped all the way around to the exit of HM. Is that actually a 40 minute wait? I don't know personally, because I've never gotten into the Splash line when it's that long.

Oh, and anytime we've walked past TSMM in the past 3 days, we've never seen it listed under 50 minutes...and have seen it as high as 70 minutes on Monday.

What you're sharing about TSMM is not unusual at all for a beautiful day.

It just looks long, because they haven't started weaving people in the queue... on a busy day Splash can get to 60-90 minutes and the line won't reach the exit on HM.

This is exactly right when it comes to Splash. What CrazyDuck is saying about the perception of the line vs. the wait is very accurate. If they have to snaking ot appears to be shorter than if they just let it go all the way down to mansion without the back and forth.

Again, I do not want to dismiss the OP or anyone's claims. I am sitting here in Colorado and I am not there. I subscribe to Lines iPhone app which takes real time data from folks there and uses that to estimate wait times. I have found their real time data to be quite accurate over multiple trips to DLR and WDW.

Here is what Lines says now at 2:30PM (mid-day crowds) in SoCal for standby wait times :

DL:
Indy - 26 minutes wait
Space - 33 minutes wait
Splash - 36 minutes wait
ST - 39 minutes wait

DCA:
CS - 18 minutes wait
GRR - 29 minutes wait
SOC - 42 minutes wait
ToT - 30 minutes wait
TSMM - 40 minutes wait

This says to me moderate to heavy crowds. All the DCA wait times are approaching mid-summer wait times - maybe a little lower.

All the DL wait times are much lower than mid-summer wait times - about half.

Agreed.

I hope, regardless of crowds or lines, anyone lucky enough to be at DLR right now is having fun!

To some people $100 is a lot for dinner. To some people it's not. At DLR, whether a 20 minute wait is long or not is a matter of perception.

- Dreams

 

[jakoky]

We were in the parks today and have to say we were shocked at how
busy it was. We got in line at noon for grizzly and it said 20
min and we waited at least 40-45. We went in Monday too and
found the crowds far less. Space mountain broke down while we
we were on it, thankfully we were almost at the very end
and
my daughter and I only needed to use a small step ladder
To climb off. Having an awesome time; but there are crowds!

 

[DizFan13]

I am watching this thread attentively; we will be there on Friday, and I know that either way we will be thrilled and will have a wonderful time, but it is nice to be prepared for crowds. I have noticed an increase in crowds during what is generally considered off-time this entire past year, so it does not completely surprise me that it might seem shocking to some. I am still anxious to get there, grad nights, heavy crowds, and all!

 

[Mugglemama]

I never said that you were imaging anything. What I was saying is that what you are describing does not mean the same thing to me as it seems to mean to you. For mid-May, I do not think what you are reporting is busy, especially when it's almost 80 degrees out and an absolutely gorgeous day.


What you're sharing about TSMM is not unusual at all for a beautiful day.


This is exactly right when it comes to Splash. What CrazyDuck is saying about the perception of the line vs. the wait is very accurate. If they have to snaking ot appears to be shorter than if they just let it go all the way down to mansion without the back and forth.


Agreed.

I hope, regardless of crowds or lines, anyone lucky enough to be at DLR right now is having fun!

To some people $100 is a lot for dinner. To some people it's not. At DLR, whether a 20 minute wait is long or not is a matter of perception.

- Dreams

20 minutes is not a long wait to me. Waiting 30 minutes to ride GRR or TOT when I have a FP in hand is, though. When we were done riding Splash, the sign at the beginning of the queue said 55 minutes. That does seem long to me for a non-holiday, non-Summer weekday. We only waited about 10 minutes with FP's though, which was great.

DH and kids waited about 30 minutes for BTMRR, 20 minutes for POTC, walked on to IASW early this morning. We never made it onto PP, as we never saw a line shorter than 30 minutes, even though we arrived in FL about 5 minutes after rope drop (but it was a MM so I wasn't surprised).

We didn't encounter nearly as much rudeness today, so that made the day sooooo much nicer. We've said goodbye to DLR for now and are back at the pool relaxing (although DD and her bf are still at the parks).

 

[dlinne]

We're going to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo (it's an aquarium and zoo in addition to a theme park), the crowd dynamic there is very different than SF Magic Mountain (which I grew up going to several times per year). I've never personally encountered pushy, rude people at SFDK.

My family really enjoyed Discovery Kingdom. I was surprised at how mellow most of the lines were at DK in the summer in comparison to DL during Spring Break. There are some great animal shows. My daughter's favorite thing was going on stage to demonstrate how to pet a porcupine

Hope you all have a great time!

 

[Priory]

DK sounds cool. I used to live there when it was Six Flags Marine World and it was an absolutely miserable place. Sounds much better now. I will always love that gorgeous view of the park from the rest area on I80 W. I will have to revisit someday.

 

[Mugglemama]

My family really enjoyed Discovery Kingdom. I was surprised at how mellow most of the lines were at DK in the summer in comparison to DL during Spring Break. There are some great animal shows. My daughter's favorite thing was going on stage to demonstrate how to pet a porcupine

Hope you all have a great time!

Thanks! We've only encountered reasonable lines with most of the rides there, too.

DK sounds cool. I used to live there when it was Six Flags Marine World and it was an absolutely miserable place. Sounds much better now. I will always love that gorgeous view of the park from the rest area on I80 W. I will have to revisit someday.

I never saw it when it was Marine World, and I have to agree with many who worry for the mental well-being of the animals with the sounds and vibrations from the rides. However, it's one of the last places in the country to view an orca up close (which is a good thing - I'll be glad when no more are taken from the wild to be forced to perform...), and since we don't have time to fit in a trip to Sea World, and DK is calm, comparatively, and only 90 minutes from our house...we're looking forward to the change of pace from DLR. The whale at DK isn't really forced to do "tricks" to the extent that the ones at Sea World are, so that's a plus (in fact, I'm not sure the one at DK does any real "tricks" at all?).

 

[FireflyJar]

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