Disappointed in Deceiving Stand By Wait Times...

[danceteachermom]

Here now. First trip in awhile that we have not been the week before or after Easter. Missing the extended hours and finding my family in the parks more where long waits are posted. I do not mind waiting...what I do mind is Dieny using their posted wait times to manipulate crowds. It is crazy when a posted time is not even close to reality.

Several examples abound but two from DHS yesterday.... We arrive 45 minutes before park opening but still find ourselves behind a lot of people. Walk straight to TSMM. Posted wait was 105 minutes. We are with friend who could not get a TSMM fast pass and who have never done it. So they decide to stay in line....their wait 40 minutes. Less than half what was posted. Great for them but the dishonesty bothers me.

Then later in the evening we are back in park with the same friends and they want some extra rides on Rockin Roller Coaster. I was done with thrill rides so my daughter and I were walking around. TSMM was posted at 125 minutes. But with no visible line we decide to try it out based on the experience that morning. IT WAS A 15 MINUTE WAIT! A young family came in behind us and was not going to wait but asked my advice, I said given what I was seeing I thought maybe half an hour. So glad they stayed and got to do it. They had been to DHS a few times but had never done it due to the posted wait.

We have had a bunch of other experiences similar but not as drastic this week. I do not expect the times to be perfect. But within 15 minutes either way seems reasonable to me. I just think it is really deceiving and really hurts the guests who do not know better.

Rant over. We are having a great vacation. Minor problems and annoyances and major fun.

 

[Moms]

That's interesting ... we have seen long wait lines at park opening (Soarin comes to mind ... 120 minutes five minutes after entering the park at the International Gateway) but we have opted to skip it ... maybe it would have been worth the wait. Where we get really frustrated is when the wait time is significantly longer than the indicated time at the standby entrance. We had a FP for Star Wars at HS last Spring but we had an hour to wait for our window to open. We walked by the attraction and the wait time at the standby entrance indicated it was a 20 minute wait so we jumped into lie and cancelled out FP. We waited over an hour! That was a bummer!

 

[sturner324]

I agree that those discrepancies in posted vs actual wait times are a bit much... but as someone who often sets clocks to be 5-10 minutes fast to "trick" myself into staying ahead of schedule, I'd much rather the wait be shorter than posted than longer! So, I'm okay if they overestimate the line a bit. Perhaps those extreme cases happened right before they adjusted the time, and it wasn't neccessarily intentional manipulation. I'm sure calculating for FP+ riders and other variants is complicated and not always 100% accurate. I don't know. Maybe I'm just naive.

 

[mshanson3121]

So my question is: why do the discrepancies happen? System error, or is it intentional on their end? And if so, why? What is their gain?

 

[Amanda999]

I've heard this before, that wait times are inflated at the end of the night - seems they want to discourage people from getting in line (as you get to ride even if the park closes while you wait).

But what would be the reason to inflate wait times in the morning? (Just curious - not saying OP didn't experience it. I'm sure she did.)

 

[SureAsLiz]

But what would be the reason to inflate wait times in the morning? (Just curious - not saying OP didn't experience it. I'm sure she did.)

I don't believe they are necessarily inflating wait times in the morning, but rather they are posting anticipated wait times based on previous data. Since at opening there has not been enough time passed to accurately measure using the time cards, they have to guess based on the line length and anticipated attendance.

If they didn't try to guess the time, then everyone would be entering with a 10 minute posted wait (because that's what the time cards showed at that moment) but would instead be waiting an hour.

I've seen this happen at 7DMT after Wishes as well - the wait time will jump once the fireworks end even though no one new has entered the line because they know that when the crowd arrives, that will be the about the wait time for those entering

 

[goofyintoronto]

Here now. First trip in awhile that we have not been the week before or after Easter. Missing the extended hours and finding my family in the parks more where long waits are posted. I do not mind waiting...what I do mind is Dieny using their posted wait times to manipulate crowds. It is crazy when a posted time is not even close to reality.

Several examples abound but two from DHS yesterday.... We arrive 45 minutes before park opening but still find ourselves behind a lot of people. Walk straight to TSMM. Posted wait was 105 minutes. We are with friend who could not get a TSMM fast pass and who have never done it. So they decide to stay in line....their wait 40 minutes. Less than half what was posted. Great for them but the dishonesty bothers me.

Then later in the evening we are back in park with the same friends and they want some extra rides on Rockin Roller Coaster. I was done with thrill rides so my daughter and I were walking around. TSMM was posted at 125 minutes. But with no visible line we decide to try it out based on the experience that morning. IT WAS A 15 MINUTE WAIT! A young family came in behind us and was not going to wait but asked my advice, I said given what I was seeing I thought maybe half an hour. So glad they stayed and got to do it. They had been to DHS a few times but had never done it due to the posted wait.

We have had a bunch of other experiences similar but not as drastic this week. I do not expect the times to be perfect. But within 15 minutes either way seems reasonable to me. I just think it is really deceiving and really hurts the guests who do not know better.

Rant over. We are having a great vacation. Minor problems and annoyances and major fun.

I've noticed the wait time for TSM to be HIGHLY inaccurate most of the time. Like the OP, i've seen posted times of 80 min only to have practically WALKED ON! yes, walk on! Crazy right? I dont get it either.

 

[ITALIANNYC]

So in the end you guys got on the rides much faster then actually posted. That's a great thing. I wouldn't take time out of my wonderful trip to get on a message board to post about it but that's just me. I'd wait till I'm home and just enjoy my vacation.

Sometimes the human eye is better than wait time post boards.

 

[WDWRook]

Are any of the various line apps more accurate or better at predicting actual wait times than the posted wait times?

 

[AngiTN]

So my question is: why do the discrepancies happen? System error, or is it intentional on their end? And if so, why? What is their gain?

I've never quite figured it out myself.
They use those red cards that are given to guests to monitor wait times. I suppose it's possible for a large group to enter that skews the wait too fast for the red card to update the system
And in return, if someone doesn't turn in the red card in a timely manner it may extend the wait time.
I don't know if they also manually alter wait times too, I assume they do.

And this is also why we use the TP ride app. They put posted wait times and actual wait times. Rarely do the 2 match.

 

[BrianL]

I don't believe they are necessarily inflating wait times in the morning, but rather they are posting anticipated wait times based on previous data. Since at opening there has not been enough time passed to accurately measure using the time cards, they have to guess based on the line length and anticipated attendance.

If they didn't try to guess the time, then everyone would be entering with a 10 minute posted wait (because that's what the time cards showed at that moment) but would instead be waiting an hour.

I've seen this happen at 7DMT after Wishes as well - the wait time will jump once the fireworks end even though no one new has entered the line because they know that when the crowd arrives, that will be the about the wait time for those entering

This is the most sensible explanation. Wait times are estimates to begin with. They set the morning wait time based on the amount of people anticipated to fill in the queue. They can't really start timing with the red badges until there is some kind of queue established. Otherwise, when the throngs of people run to TSMM in the morning the wait would say 5 minutes even though as thousands of people pour in, the wait will go up fast. The estimate is better as too high than too low.

 

[allysetraskos]

Thats why I like to going on Touring Plans line app and see what they are saying vs. my disney experience... If theres a large discrepancy then something not right.

 

[kaybird]

So my question is: why do the discrepancies happen? System error, or is it intentional on their end? And if so, why? What is their gain?

A great example of TSMM is when you walk through the SB line, you can see many of the red cards given to guests to time the line. For what ever reason, people keep them, forget to give them to the cm, or just outright hang them on a post and leave them. This can often result on inaccurate times being posted, and takes several cycles of correct reporting to get it to sync up to something near the correct times. Have seen it on other rides as well, but maybe not as rampant.

 

[Dan Murphy]

The TP Lines app is fabulous for addressing this long time 'problem' that Disney has.

https://touringplans.com/disney-world-app

 

[DiannaVM]

I did experience this a few times when we went (and got carded on a few rides like Winnie the Pooh). I don't mind the discrepancies too much though. If its a ride I am still planning on going on, it will be regardless of the posted wait time (with some exceptions). I got on a lot of rides alot sooner than the posted time, and on the other hand I had to wait alot longer than I anticipated.

I like the surprise of getting on a line that says its a 45 minute wait, and then end up getting on within 15.

 

[HM]

After a few trips to WDW, we realized that wait times were almost always about twice as much as the actual wait. So, if we are willing to wait 20 minutes for a ride and it says 40, we generally will get in that line. Sometimes this doesn't work, but I'd say 85% of the time it does.

 

[Jennasis]

This is why we never go without my trusty lines app from touring plans!

 

[ejdmomma]

We were in the Magic Kingdom last week and saw really long wait times in the afternoon into the evening for just about all rides. I would say most of the long wait times were accurate based on our actual wait times EXCEPT towards the end of the evening. And not even that late like around 9pm (with a midnight close time). We had skipped Big Thunder Mountain and It's a Small World due to high wait times. At one point BTMR was over 120 minutes and IASW was around 90 minutes. Around 9, the posted wait time was 45 minutes for IASW, we waited 10 minutes. BTMR was 80 minutes and we waited about 20 minutes. I really think the wait times were accurate early in the day but for whatever reason, not so much in the evening. Also when we went through the line for IASW, the people in front of us had a red card that they turned in and when we excited the wait time did not change.

 

[Magpie]

I wouldn't consider myself "deceived", I'd consider myself lucky!

We regularly count on the wait times being inflated at the end of the day in order to enjoy an extra ride or two on Toy Story Mania. If it said 15 minutes, then everyone would be jumping into line 5 minutes before park close, and then it wouldn't be 15 minutes at all. It'd be 90 minutes and the poor cast members would never get to go home. So, inflating the wait times is not "dishonesty" (in the sense of "they're lying because they want to hurt us!"), it's just smart crowd management, and those of us who are willing to take a chance are the happy beneficiaries!

So, I am totally on board with inflating wait times at the end of the day. And, of course, you know they're just making their best guesses at the beginning of the day, with wait times that shoot up quickly. Plus, there's always the odd bit of ebb and flow that make it hard to be accurate - better to over estimate and end up with everyone happily waiting less time than they expect, than under estimate and have everyone grumpy.

As you get to know the ins and outs of touring, you often discover that things are not always what they seem. "Oh, the standby wait time on the Safari only says 20 minutes. Should we jump in? No, look at all those Fastpass returns - it's going to be about 40 minutes, not 20."

Enjoy your not-so-secret knowledge. This isn't a "problem", it's a bonus.

 

[loves to dive]

I usually just use my eyes and don't even look at the posted wait times. If you watch the line for about a minute, you'll get a sense of how fast it is moving. The only time we didn't do that was on the morning we were leaving we thought we'd get one more drop on ToT. Wandered over to HS (staying in Swan) around 9:30/10:00. Posted wait time was 50 min, we got in line and debated and decided what the heck, we would wait. Not a minute later a CM came down the line and said if you were beyond this point (about 4 people ahead of us) the wait would be 120 min, which we weren't willing to wait for. I can only guess there was a problem with one of the elevators, which they can not anticipate. All the aps and boards are just a guess, a good guess sometimes but a guess, I've seen the board flip over while standing in line.