Disney World 1 hr wait all rides

[scrappinginontario]

Thread has been moved to Theme Parks Community board since it's turned into another FP thread in spite of being requested it remain on topic re: wait times.

 

[cjsmom5]

For those saying “waits are about the same”…no they’re not. When you had fp you waited a few minutes to get on a ride, then used another fp or you’d wait for a ride until your other fp selection was ready. Now that you have to wait 60ish minutes for EVERY ride your wait times are increased significantly. If you didn’t use fp that’s on you.

Said this in another thread…but if I’m waiting in the heat all day on vacation I’d rather be on a beach in Aruba with a drink than in line in the Florida heat surrounded by a bunch of sweaty people.

I encourage everyone to email Disney.

Agree. Disney does read emails. If you are not happy tell them. Nicely of course ... with no expectation for anything in return except to have been allowed to express your opinion.

 

[a1tinkfans]

 

[disneycat321]

I don't think it's fair to say, "Oh it's just July, July is always crowded." We last went in July 2019 and had a fantastic trip, but I wouldn't dream of going right now based on reports I've seen. Things are very different right now from the July of the past. There are several reasons:
1. No shows to eat up people and take breaks in the AC. For us, the shows are part of the WDW experience.
2. No FP - we didn't wait in 60+ minute lines ever because we utilized FP+ and....
3. No DAH - we did 3 of those in July 2019 for low wait times in cooler temperatures and they were worth every single penny.
4. No EMH - these weren't uncrowded, to be sure, but the evening ones were cooler, and that counts for a lot in July! Along with that....
5. Shorter hours. In July weather, we need early morning and late evening hours to survive the heat.

So yes, the lines were long in July, but we never waited in them because of a combination of FP+, DAH, and EMH.

It's hard for me to look at these wait times since I just went to DLR a month ago (granted, crowds have ticked up there since then too, though not nearly as much as WDW) and rode ROTR 3x in 3 days and didn't wait more than 30 minutes for anything at any time of day, including Smugglers Run, Space, Splash - all of it. WDW has raised capacity more than it can handle right now.

 

[Cabius]

WDW has raised capacity more than it can handle right now.

100% this. They desperately need to bring the rest of the dining and entertainment back online, extend park hours, reduce reservation capacity, or all of the above. I know that staffing is a major impediment right now, but it's rough.

That said, my family did have a genuinely wonderful time last week. Granted, we rope dropped every day and skipped most of the headline coasters: 2 toddlers, pregnant mom, and older parents mean we're not the Rock'N'Roller Coaster crowd. Actual times were consistently much lower than the posted times, and while it was miserably hot at times, we still enjoyed ourselves.

Yes it's too crowded, and there's not enough to do, and the lines are too long, and July is a stupid time to be alive in Orlando Florida. But it was still pretty darn wonderful.

 

[disneycat321]

100% this. They desperately need to bring the rest of the dining and entertainment back online, extend park hours, reduce reservation capacity, or all of the above. I know that staffing is a major impediment right now, but it's rough.

That said, my family did have a genuinely wonderful time last week. Granted, we rope dropped every day and skipped most of the headline coasters: 2 toddlers, pregnant mom, and older parents mean we're not the Rock'N'Roller Coaster crowd. Actual times were consistently much lower than the posted times, and while it was miserably hot at times, we still enjoyed ourselves.

Yes it's too crowded, and there's not enough to do, and the lines are too long, and July is a stupid time to be alive in Orlando Florida. But it was still pretty darn wonderful.

"July is a stupid time to be alive in Orlando Florida" - LOL thanks for that!

I'm glad that you were able to have a wonderful trip! I think you bring up an important point - a lot of it depends on the make up of your group. We are 2 mid 30s adults, sans kids, so a trip skipping all (or any, really) of the headliners wouldn't work for us. Also, we live in CA, and going to FL is a huge financial investment. For us, our DLR trips are like 1/5 the cost.

 

[CustodialQueen]

We were there last week as well, and it is definitely very crowded. As others have noted, the lack of entertainment, character meet-and-greets, and shows means that far more people are competing for the same spaces and attractions, so everything feels busier wherever you go. And when a big people-eater like Pirates goes down, as it did for much of our first day at MK, everything else spirals from there.

I did also notice, though, that actual wait times were consistently MUCH lower than the posted waits. For several attractions, a 40-minute posted wait time actually meant only 15-20 minutes in line. I eventually gave up on WDW's posted waits and just relied on the Touring Plan Lines app, which ended up being more accurate despite being just a general estimate.

I realized why that was when I went through the queue for Kilimanjaro Safari: those standby queues are NOT designed to hold the entire throughput of the attraction, and it causes major crowd control issues when they do, so they overestimate the wait times to scare people away and keep it from being even worse.

Kilimanjaro Safari has an hourly capacity of 3,000 people. If 2/3rds of capacity is dedicated to FastPass+ that means about 1,000 people/hour are expected to move through the Standby queue. That Standby queue may hold less than 1,500 people or so (rough estimate based on the time spent once we actually entered the "normal" queue area), so with FastPass+ running they might have space for a 90 minute wait in the Standby queue.

But when there is no FastPass+ queue, all 3,000 people move into a physical space that was not designed to hold them, and they spill out into the rest of the park. If there are 3,000 people in line (60 minute wait) then more than 1,500 people are in the extended queue, spilling out in the park!

On Kilimanjaro, the queue was posted as 75 minutes (3,750 people) and started at Tusker House, switched back down by Festival of the Lion King, and even ran through an ugly backstage industrial area (eww!) before entering the queue. And that was for an actual wait of "only" 50 minutes (2,500 people). If the wait was actually 75 minutes, I have no idea where they would put everybody.

Without FastPass+, they really only have physical space for a 30-minute queue, but of course everybody would ride the Safaris if the wait is only 30 minutes, and that would be unmanageable. So they lie to guests, consistently overestimating wait times to scare folks away and keep the miserable extended queues barely manageable. (Here is an article with some photos of the awful Safaris queue experience -- I was truly horrified.) https://www.kennythepirate.com/2021...om-attraction-is-now-using-a-backstage-queue/

I noticed the same thing on Pirates of the Caribbean, where the posted 45-minute wait actually took less than 20 minutes, but even at that point the queue almost backed up into the street.

This experience has me convinced that FastPass+ definitely will come back, and will likely have at least half of ride capacity dedicated to it on most attractions (e.g. not just as a super-expensive add-on to a minority of users). They just do not have the physical space in those queues to do it any other way.

You have the best explanation here for how FP impacts the standby line length. Thank you. Was trying to explain to my family about this very thing. Unfortunately, like others are reporting here, the longer-looking lines in the July sun deterred us from riding several of the big ticket attractions. I knew they were shorter than they appeared, but the heat, lack of shade, and general look of chaos forced our brains and bodies to settle for things such as Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy.

 

[scrappinginontario]

No offense, but you sure like to move and close threads since becoming a moderator.

Per the people who asked me to become a moderator,

'The DIS has a wonderful group of Moderators who have volunteered to assist our visitors and monitor the boards. Part of their responsibilities are ensuring that our guidelines are followed which may require that a thread is edited, deleted, closed or moved. If these decisions impact you, we ask that you respect them. Should you have any questions, please direct them to admin@wdwinfo.com. Any discussion about a Moderating decision that takes place on the boards could result in an infraction.'

 

[HashberryOTG]

No offense, but you sure like to move and close threads since becoming a moderator.

Sounds like a mod doing their job to me.

 

[gharter]

Sounds like a mod doing their job to me.

Agree and its a job I would not want as you will never please everyone.

 

[MontyColby]

So sorry for your frustrations. Having a plan is very important andI agree with those that go early, leave mid day or so and then come back in the evening. That worked back when things were normal and will work now. Getting out of the heat and crowd and taking a break makes for a better day.