Am I less of a hard core Disney Fan, as I don't want to wait (long)?

[k8Davies]

Just lately seeing the waiting times for some rides, I was really starting to wonder why do people wait that long..

Who are these people and what drives them to wait 4 hours plus for Soarin' and other rides.

I remember checking waiting times before my 2014 trip in the weeks leading up my departure, for SDMT and Elsa and Anna meet and greet. the coaster was 4 plus hour and at one point the M&G was 6 plus.

Now I have to caveat this as my trips are normally 2 weeks and I have a ticket throughout so technically that's 42 FP+ (and now with the potential for an extra 1 a day that could add up to a whopping 56).

Also I try to avoid the "peaky" peak seasons like Summer and Christmas.

Lastly I don't have the pester power yet as DS is only 2 and a half. Although even though I'd die for him there is no way I'm waiting 7 hours for him to meet someone.

I do love Disney and try to visit every chance I get. Once one trip is over I trying to frantically save up for the next one, but I can never imagine waiting these sort of times.

Honestly if it's above 60min I just avoid it totally!!

Now that just me and anyone can spend (and should spend) their Vay-cay time however they chose and if waiting is you thing then it's your thing - I'm just wondering why and am I missing out on a essential right of passage of Disney if I don't wait?

 

[Disneylover99]

Who wants to wait?
Waiting makes you less of a fan.

 

[Shanti]

Just lately seeing the waiting times for some rides, I was really starting to wonder why do people wait that long..

Who are these people and what drives them to wait 4 hours plus for Soarin' and other rides.

I remember checking waiting times before my 2014 trip in the weeks leading up my departure, for SDMT and Elsa and Anna meet and greet. the coaster was 4 plus hour and at one point the M&G was 6 plus.

Now I have to caveat this as my trips are normally 2 weeks and I have a ticket throughout so technically that's 42 FP+ (and now with the potential for an extra 1 a day that could add up to a whopping 56).

Also I try to avoid the "peaky" peak seasons like Summer and Christmas.

Lastly I don't have the pester power yet as DS is only 2 and a half. Although even though I'd die for him there is no way I'm waiting 7 hours for him to meet someone.

I do love Disney and try to visit every chance I get. Once one trip is over I trying to frantically save up for the next one, but I can never imagine waiting these sort of times.

Honestly if it's above 60min I just avoid it totally!!

Now that just me and anyone can spend (and should spend) their Vay-cay time however they chose and if waiting is you thing then it's your thing - I'm just wondering why and am I missing out on a essential right of passage of Disney if I don't wait?

Yes, not wanting to wait in line will get you kicked off Disboards. I expect you'll get a moderator message telling you that your account will be suspended soon. The rest of us here love long waits in line. Not. Obviously, a big reason many of us are on the boards is to find ways to minimize wait times at the parks. We have families, too.

Extreme waits are unusual. Soarin has had a long wait lately because it just reopened after being closed for several months, and does not yet have all 3 screens up and running. Frozen-related attractions are uber-popular due to the popularity of the film. Seven Dwarfs was the first new roller coaster in the Magic Kingdom for decades, and is family-friendly (young kids & grandparents like to ride on it as well as older kids and young adults), so that translates into long waits, and the waits in 2014 were crazy due to the hype when it first came out.

For the most part, though, popular ride waits top out around an hour, except during holiday peaks. Summer is not the most crowded season of the year anymore, either. That honor goes to mid-spring, in "honor" of spring break. Fall is becoming more and more crowded, as well, so be careful about relying on outdated advice to try to avoid crowds. Check the dates on Internet articles before taking their crowd advice as gospel: I've seen several popular ones that haven't updated their crowd advice pages in years, and during that time, WDW crowd patterns have shifted dramatically.

 

[mshanson3121]

Just lately seeing the waiting times for some rides, I was really starting to wonder why do people wait that long..

Who are these people and what drives them to wait 4 hours plus for Soarin' and other rides.

I remember checking waiting times before my 2014 trip in the weeks leading up my departure, for SDMT and Elsa and Anna meet and greet. the coaster was 4 plus hour and at one point the M&G was 6 plus.

Now I have to caveat this as my trips are normally 2 weeks and I have a ticket throughout so technically that's 42 FP+ (and now with the potential for an extra 1 a day that could add up to a whopping 56).

Also I try to avoid the "peaky" peak seasons like Summer and Christmas.

Lastly I don't have the pester power yet as DS is only 2 and a half. Although even though I'd die for him there is no way I'm waiting 7 hours for him to meet someone.

I do love Disney and try to visit every chance I get. Once one trip is over I trying to frantically save up for the next one, but I can never imagine waiting these sort of times.

Honestly if it's above 60min I just avoid it totally!!

Now that just me and anyone can spend (and should spend) their Vay-cay time however they chose and if waiting is you thing then it's your thing - I'm just wondering why and am I missing out on a essential right of passage of Disney if I don't wait?

Hah, 60 min? I wouldn't wait more than 30! At least for a ride. I might wait a bit longer for a character M&G, but I wouldn't wait an hour for anything. So now who's the lackluster fan?

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think it's mostly one-time visitors who have never done the ride before and either really want to do it or have read that they MUST do it. But I think the key is they aren't planning on coming back.

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

I love love love Disney, and I wouldn't wait more than a half hour, usually. Though it does depend on the crowd. I went this past May with a group of 5 friends, and we waited about an hour for SDMT. Their fault for making us late Though when I'm with a big group, I like to just kick back and go with the flow.

 

[aretha30]

I think it's mostly one-time visitors who have never done the ride before and either really want to do it or have read that they MUST do it. But I think the key is they aren't planning on coming back.

This! We won't wait 4 or 6 hours for anything but we go every year. If we miss something so be it. We will catch it next time. We wait an hour for something if one of our boys really wants to do it but that is about max for us. For the family who has never been and doesn't know if they're coming back or knows they will never come back they will wait if it's a MUST do.

 

[Allison]

Now I have to caveat this as my trips are normally 2 weeks and I have a ticket throughout so technically that's 42 FP+ (and now with the potential for an extra 1 a day that could add up to a whopping 56).

Also I try to avoid the "peaky" peak seasons like Summer and Christmas.

Lastly I don't have the pester power yet as DS is only 2 and a half. Although even though I'd die for him there is no way I'm waiting 7 hours for him to meet someone.

I do love Disney and try to visit every chance I get. Once one trip is over I trying to frantically save up for the next one, but I can never imagine waiting these sort of times.

See the quote above and think about the people who don't fit into the categories you lay out that .

I don't think it means waiting is their "thing". It may just be a result of the circumstances of their visit and what their priorities are in regards to what they want to see and do.

 

[Klayfish]

Same here. Our line in the sand is 40 minutes, and even that would have to be for something the kids really want to go on and we have time to kill. Otherwise it's FP+ for the crowded rides and standby for the ones that never get lines more than 30 minutes anyway.

I think the people who wait in the lines are likely first timers who don't plan and many probably don't even realize there are ways to not have to wait, and/or they just don't care and enjoy just hanging out in line and talking...or nowadays playing on their phones.

 

[shanethesaint88]

Im a hardcore Disney fan. And i mean hardcore. Ive been to WDW every year or so since I was on born, worked there out of my fandom, and dumped so much of my money there that i dont wanna even think about it lol (and im only 23 too) Anyway, my point, I would never wait over 30 min. Ever. There is to many other ways to ride the rides rather than waiting for 2 hours to ride Space Mtn. I think a lot of it is people who 1) dont realize fp+ exists or 2) kids have to ride the ride so they are gonna do it no matter what. Or even 3) they just go. They are unaware of wait times being low in morning or before closing so they are just gonna get in line whenever they want. No matter the wait the time

 

[missnikki411]

30 minutes is the absolute max we will wait for anything. Honestly, anything more than 20 and we are like "seriously?!?" We go every year. We go during quiet times of the year because we like being spoiled with short lines.

 

[ConnecticutFlea]

Once, before you could book fast passes in advance, I waited an hour for TSMM. Having flown in from CT, we didn't arrive at the Parks till mid afternoon, and my grandson REALLY wanted to ride.

I never wait more than 30 minutes. But that's because I am a hard core Disney fan, so I visit often and plan well.

56 fast passes......WooHoo! Lucky you. Enjoy!

 

[smiths02]

We go in the peak of summer...and I won't wait more than 30 minutes for anything...and I haven't had to.

Before the old FP system, when I was a kid going to Disneyland...we would wait for lots of rides, but since paper FP and now FP+...I won't wait

 

[momof2n2]

30 minutes is the absolute max we will wait for anything. Honestly, anything more than 20 and we are like "seriously?!?"

We rarely go, but this is our limit, too.
Thankfully, our recent May trip we only waited 20 minutes maybe 4 times, and most were M&G.

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

The max we've ever waited in line for anything was 75 minutes for Splash Mountain at Disneyland. We already held FP for another ride, so we waited. It wasn't that bad; we spent the time talking and joking around as a family. 4 hours though? Yeah, no. I would never wait that long for any ride!

 

[nilla]

Soarin has had a long wait lately because it just reopened after being closed for several months, and does not yet have all 3 screens up and running.

Wait, what? I thought the whole point of it reopening was because the 3rd screen was ready. Any word on when the 3rd screen will be up? Will it be up before the new film premieres?

 

[skywaywaver]

The old FastPass system (with paper tickets where you could get as many as you wanted) really spoiled us. I hate waiting in lines and try to avoid it as much as possible. Good luck at Disney, right? I FastPass everything that has long lines and/or is a must do and then we do the short line stuff. Easy in MK, fairly easy in Epcot, not so much in HS or AK but there's lots of shows to pick up slack there. Thankfully my husband only goes on the little rides (as in, I'm making him go on TT this year for the first time and he still hasn't forgiven me for making him go on Dinosaur a number of years back) so he's very happy to stay with our littlest one and take her on the tamer rides. So I split up our FP, put him and 3yo on tamer rides so they're not standing around waiting, and we go on bigger rides. They will stand on line for M&G but I'm all like, "I'll be over here in the shade. It would have to be something someone really wanted to do for us to wait 60 minutes and the queue would have to be climate controlled - we're going in August which impacts my wait time aversion even more. We have been numerous times (usually about every other year or so) and if we don't get to something (or the line is uber long), we'll be back and tell the kids as such.

 

[AngiTN]

Some people just think that long waits in line are normal. They are used to other theme parks where you don't have FP and it's not uncommon to wait 1hr+ in lines for every ride in the park.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

We won't wait more than 30 minutes for a ride. We've been to WDW many times and at this point the rides rank last as to why we go to Disney.
For DH, DD & I the reason we love Disney is 1-being at the resort (love you Polynesian!), 2-being in the parks and enjoying the atmosphere, 3-the dining, 4-the rides.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I think the most I would ever wait is about half an hour, maybe a little longer if something is new or if it was one of my favorite attractions, but that's what I use my FP+ to avoid just that.