Disney's trick at night with some of the rides?

[mi*vida*loca]

Our go-to attraction for Line Stacking has always been Toy Story Mania. Even during the height of it’s popularity, you could always count on a short wait during the last hour of operation.

Posted waits would be 80-90 minutes and of course no one would want to get in line for fear of missing Fantasmic. The actual wait even in mid-summer would be 15 minutes or less and you could easily ride 4 times and still make it to the show.

Those late night Toy Story family tournaments are still a highlight of our trips.

I also found TSM to have the shortest waits late at night. Last trip it was posted as 60+ minutes and we walked right on.

 

[SL6827]

Disney inflating the wait times (a good bit) during any part of the day really leaves a bad taste in my mouth since they monitized "fast pass". When they fudge those numbers and possibly benefit from it financially, they should not get mad when guest do the same thing for a financial benefit.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Disney inflating the wait times (a good bit) during any part of the day really leaves a bad taste in my mouth since they monitized "fast pass". When they fudge those numbers and possibly benefit from it financially, they should not get mad when guest do the same thing for a financial benefit.

I use the touring plans app for the wait times and never look at Disneys wait times. Best $13 (maybe it’s more now) I spend on the trip.

 

[AndreaDM]

Also CM want to go home.
Those poor CM plan on a few in line at closing time not 100.

We were the very last ones in line for Soarin' back in April. We could have fit it with the group in front of us, but the CM held us and we had our very own private flight, just the 4 of us, front row center. It was a nice thing for him to do and a nice way to end our trip!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Disney inflating the wait times (a good bit) during any part of the day really leaves a bad taste in my mouth since they monitized "fast pass". When they fudge those numbers and possibly benefit from it financially, they should not get mad when guest do the same thing for a financial benefit.

The main goal of Line Stacking is to steer guests toward the gift shops and eventually the exits. Disney knows that people are more likely to stop and spend before the park is “closed”.

In reality, those store leading out to the exits are scheduled to remain open for at least an hour after the rides close and there still is plenty of time to shop on the way out.

 

[puffkin]

While they may not line stack at park opening, they also overinflate the wait times then to get people to disperse more evenly through the park. For instance, they know everyone heads to Snow White so they hit it with an 80 minute wait when in actuality it is probably half that. At park opening most people are not going to buy an ILL for that first hour or two so you are only dealing with standby on that ride and they can clear the entire queue fairly quickly.

 

[SL6827]

A lot of us DIS members know these tactics and can be aware, but the general public, not so much.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

A lot of us DIS members know these tactics and can be aware, but the general public, not so much.

And that’s what makes it work so well.

 

[SheSingsAlong]

Last night (8/9) at MK we noticed that Space Mountain and Tron were "temporarily closed" 15 minutes before park close (and before the start of Deluxe Evening hours). As soon as 10pm struck (park close/start of Deluxe hours), both rides were magically back online....curious.

 

[Mle8308]

Who sets the official wait times? I always assumed their was some secret complex algorithm or it was managed in some "attractions war room" deep under Cinderella's castle. I picture it looking like mission control for NASA.

But you are saying the times are just set by the managers walking around?

Nope, no war room. There are a few ways. Back in my day, we’d hand out red cards to guests at the entrance (called FLiK cards) of the attraction. The CM would scan the card right before giving it to a guest and the guest would be told to hand it to last cast member they saw before boarding the attraction. When they handed it to that cast member, they would scan it there, and that determined how long the person was in line. We could enter what you might call a fudge time on that, so for instance, if the guest waited for 30 minutes, it might update the wait time to 40 minutes if we put in a 10 minute buffer. That is how we used to determine the times. Not sure what they use at WDW now, I think it’s based of magic bands. DL still uses the cards. And, for any experienced attractions person, you could pretty much tell how long the wait was by where the line ended. During the day we would normally have the wait time be updated by the cards given to guests, but at any time, a manager can go into the system and change the wait time to whatever they wanted. Every once in a while, we would have a guest who would accidentally drop the card in the queue and maybe an hour or two later another guest would pick it up and hand it to the last cast member, then all of a sudden you might see a three hour wait posted! I was able to go to a computer and change the wait time to whatever I wanted, however you did have to be working in that location. For instance, if I were Tomorrowland ops, I couldn’t change wait times for an Adventureland attraction. Now managers and coordinators may use their iPhones in addition to a computer to change the times.

 

[Mle8308]

The main goal of Line Stacking is to steer guests toward the gift shops and eventually the exits. Disney knows that people are more likely to stop and spend before the park is “closed”.

In reality, those store leading out to the exits are scheduled to remain open for at least an hour after the rides close and there still is plenty of time to shop on the way out.

Not really, it’s to clear the park. But yes, stores towards the main entrance/exit are scheduled to be open past official park close hours.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Last night (8/9) at MK we noticed that Space Mountain and Tron were "temporarily closed" 15 minutes before park close (and before the start of Deluxe Evening hours). As soon as 10pm struck (park close/start of Deluxe hours), both rides were magically back online....curious.

That's nice for those going to the event as I feel bad when day guests pack the lines at park close when there is a special event happening after the park closes.

 

[LUVMYGSDOG]

I remember those red cards! Always seemed as was the one who got handed one.


Kim

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Not really, it’s to clear the park.

Don’t tell my wife and daughters. I really believe their main goal at closing time is to spend whatever we’ve got left.

 

[Mle8308]

Don’t tell my wife and daughters. I really believe their main goal at closing time is to spend whatever we’ve got left.

I think I like your wife and daughter!

 

[parasail_of_congress]

It's really weird to hear about people complaining about the posted wait times being off because outside of open and close (when the wait times are rather sporadic), the numbers are actually pretty accurate (plus/minus 10 percent). Of course there are anomalies, but I think the reasons there are so many different experiences is that people forget to start the timer when they get in line, or maybe they stop the timer too early before they get on the line.

Regardless, we just got back from Hersheypark, and their wait times aren't even in the same ballpark. Apparently they call around to the rides and the people working the rides sort of guess. So even though there are wait times posted on the app, you could just switch them between rides and they would probably be just as accurate.

 

[raidermatt]

It's obvious why it is done. To lower costs. No matter how long it takes to close an attraction down after the last ride, Disney could schedule accordingly. They prefer to save the $'s.

Certainly it is within their rights to do this however they want. They could even close more attractions earlier.

The question is SHOULD they do this, or should they trade the extra costs for increased guest satisfaction.

Based on their actions we know how Disney views this. Personally I think it's a short-sighted strategy, but hey, that's just me.

 

[Mle8308]

It's obvious why it is done. To lower costs. No matter how long it takes to close an attraction down after the last ride, Disney could schedule accordingly. They prefer to save the $'s.

Certainly it is within their rights to do this however they want. They could even close more attractions earlier.

The question is SHOULD they do this, or should they trade the extra costs for increased guest satisfaction.

Based on their actions we know how Disney views this. Personally I think it's a short-sighted strategy, but hey, that's just me.

They do schedule appropriately and no one is preventing a guest from going into any line as long as it’s prior to park close. If all closing procedures are completed ahead of time, Cast are allowed to go home early, and many appreciate this. Especially after a long hot day dealing with literally thousands of guests. I guess I don’t see how or what is short sighted. Guests are happy when the wait is a lot less and Cast are happy if they can go home early if they so choose. And you could argue Disney makes money because it pushes people towards the shops to spend money.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

It's obvious why it is done. To lower costs. No matter how long it takes to close an attraction down after the last ride, Disney could schedule accordingly. They prefer to save the $'s.

Certainly it is within their rights to do this however they want. They could even close more attractions earlier.

The question is SHOULD they do this, or should they trade the extra costs for increased guest satisfaction.

Based on their actions we know how Disney views this. Personally I think it's a short-sighted strategy, but hey, that's just me.

I’m not sure that intentionally inflating the wait times really causes much guest dissatisfaction. Most guests simply believe what they see and either choose to head elsewhere or just hop in line anyway.

If anything, the average guest will be pleasantly surprised if they decide to hop in line and find the wait to be about a fourth of what they expected.

We’ve been playing this game for over 25 years now and it works very, very well. I would be disappointed if they ever tried something different.

 

[jeneric997]

Disney learned very early to under-promise and over-deliver. Guests are happy when lines are quicker then they expected. Longer than they expected, guests run and complain. It does work, many companies now employ it.

If they stopped someone from entering the line because the posted wait time was after closing, then that would be an actual problem.