Do people wait in lines anymore?

[smiths02]

I have often wondered this myself. I would genuinely love to follow along with the folks who say they never wait more than 15-20minutes for anything. Do they have a step-by-step touring plan? (I don't want to do that, so I check that off my list as a possibility) do they have a fuzzy recollection of the waits they've actually encountered? (maybe 15 min is an exaggeration that I will never be able to match) do they only go for the first 3 hours, then have a 4 hour resort break, then ride non-headliners on return? (I've never followed this pattern, maybe it's the ticket to no-line success?) I already know I've seen many of those people say that they do ride headliners, so it's not just that they spent all day whirling on the teacups

I have never expected to achieve a 20 min max wait on everything at Disney. I have used legacy FP, FP+ and internet tips for minimizing some waits where I can, but I've never managed a whole trip with 100% lines of 20 minutes or fewer, nor I have ever had the expectation that I *could* do that. I think I probably waited over an hour for Space Mountain on my early trips and 45-60 minutes isn't at all unheard of on my other trips for a few rides. 30ish is common for me. If I were wealthier, I'd surely invite one of these experienced DISers on my next trip and ask them to be my personal guide!! (no sarcasm - I really want to see it in action, I can't imagine it)

Our Touring Plan was mostly half days, which is why we never waited in line. HOWEVER, we would tour that way with young children in the heat of June/July (when we have to go) anyway.
We did wait more than 20 minutes for RNR, but the ride broke down and we never rode it.
So our plan was rope drop, FP+ kicks in, brunch/lunch ADR, maybe another FP+ or no-wait ride (Tiki Room, we love, teacups, we love)...go back to the hotel. Rest, eat out somewhere to meet characters (so we aren't doing lines or many FP+ for those). Go to sleep
So for us, the key was Rope Drop, using the FP+ we were allowed on long wait rides AND paying more to have some experiences outside of the park (character meals and a pirates and pals cruise so we weren't waiting for fireworks)

 

[JoshuaShaw]

I have often wondered this myself. I would genuinely love to follow along with the folks who say they never wait more than 15-20minutes for anything. Do they have a step-by-step touring plan? (I don't want to do that, so I check that off my list as a possibility) do they have a fuzzy recollection of the waits they've actually encountered? (maybe 15 min is an exaggeration that I will never be able to match) do they only go for the first 3 hours, then have a 4 hour resort break, then ride non-headliners on return? (I've never followed this pattern, maybe it's the ticket to no-line success?) I already know I've seen many of those people say that they do ride headliners, so it's not just that they spent all day whirling on the teacups

Outside of traditional rope drop and hitting rides during parades/fireworks, the biggest reason I can generally limit my line-waiting to <20 minutes is patience. Crowds are in constant flux. A ride may have a 60 minute wait one moment, but if I come back an hour or two later (filling time with attractions with already short waits) it's reduced itself naturally. This strategy won't work in peak seasons, but it's been a consistent winner for me the last week of October, though the recent increase in waits at attractions that traditionally had short lines is certainly hamstringing me a bit.

My recollection may be imperfect for some of those waits, but by and large I check the time when I enter the line and again when I approach the loading gates.

 

[smiths02]

Definitely yes to the subject question! Altho we try to minimize it by our 3 FPs, we have never gotten any more after (none worth it by then and we just come back another day). RnRc is just about always 60 min + altho the Single Rider line does help. Tower is a strange one that can be 15-120 mins sometimes (especially if one side goes down.)

Actually I don't need to tell you OP. Just load up the app on your phone and a few times a day, check the wait times for the attractions.

We had an hr before our next FP window opened and saw that GMR was only 30 min (normally higher) and we hadn't done it in about 6-8weeks so we got in line. That was a pretty hot (even in the shade until we got to the inside) long line for us but the movie sequence was nice and we jumped on our phones etc. 30 min is a long line to us...I really feel for the 60-120 'ers!

But there are long lines everywhere. How do the lil kids make it thru the Peter Pan cue (even with the pixie enhancements?!)

DHS was packed out last night. It finally didn't rain on us but was hot instead. Fireworks were stellar!!! The wind was finally in our favor and blew the ash the other way! We have to go out of town so I will only catch them one more time, Labor Day the last day. But anyway I digress. Bottom line, there are very long lines still and parks are just practically filled to the brim unless you come during a mass downpour.

I could never wait in lines this long! Book FPs, folks! Then skip 7D until closing (RD is going to be an hour) if you can't get a FP. Try TSMM during F! Be smart about your touring.

We even got the 2nd ride on TSMM (you know, because riding multiple times is impossible now). We went on an am EMH day in June (which easy WDW said was a bad idea, oh well). We got there a few minutes after 8am (so we also broke the getting there early rule), 1e went first to Jedi Training sign-up, then TSMM with a 15-20 minute wait, then our FP+ for TSMM kicked in.

 

[ciera321]

Haha well.. I plan and research, have been to WDW many times, but I also have next to no sense of direction so I still use the maps. Thank goodness for the GPS on the app because I'm a lost idiot most of the time.

I'm map/direction challenged also, but you do plan ahead, and I'm sure you know the approximate location of the most popular rides. I'm talking about the folks who show up, walk into the park, THEN start planning.

 

[CQuinn]

What GPS on the app?

When you're in the park, if you pull up the map in MDE it gives you a pin drop of where you are. It's also part of why the app drains my phone battery so fast. If you prefer it not to do that you can just turn the GPS function on your phone off

 

[nilla]

Yes, we've become spoiled.

Homer Simpson: "But we only got to go on two rides!"

Chief Wiggum: "Did you use FastPass?"

Bart Simpson: "FastPass is overrated."

Chief Wiggum: "Spoken like someone who has never had to live in a world without FastPass."

 

[Mikie]

Outside of traditional rope drop and hitting rides during parades/fireworks, the biggest reason I can generally limit my line-waiting to <20 minutes is patience. Crowds are in constant flux. A ride may have a 60 minute wait one moment, but if I come back an hour or two later (filling time with attractions with already short waits) it's reduced itself naturally. This strategy won't work in peak seasons, but it's been a consistent winner for me the last week of October, though the recent increase in waits at attractions that traditionally had short lines is certainly hamstringing me a bit.

My recollection may be imperfect for some of those waits, but by and large I check the time when I enter the line and again when I approach the loading gates.

I think I tour similarly and am also an October traveler - although we've been stuck with Columbus day week a couple times. I have a general idea how we'll approach the park (starting point, work our way around the left or right) and look at lines as we go, hopping into ones with shortish waits. I just don't think I've matched the <20 limit. Maybe I've been settling for 30-40 and should look a bit harder and walk a few extra steps for the <20 lines and it will all come out in the wash. We do benefit from the fact that we like nearly every single thing in the parks, so anything with a short wait is a "let's do it" opportunity for us.

 

[Lucius Best]

If I were wealthier, I'd surely invite one of these experienced DISers on my next trip and ask them to be my personal guide!! (no sarcasm - I really want to see it in action, I can't imagine it)

When you hit the lottery, hit me up, and I'll be your tour guide. Our last trip, our first with FP+, was in April, most days were moderately crowded. We rode every ride multiple times and honestly only waited more than 20 minutes twice. On our very first day, we got out of Crystal Palace breakfast just after rope drop and ended up waiting 30 minutes for our first ride on 7DMT. On another day the RnRC single rider line looked like 30 but turned out to be 45 minutes, but I didn't care, the only reason I was there was to kill time while my wife went to the Beauty and the Beast show.

We rope dropped every day, and had FP+ reserved for 10am/11am/12pm, and had a well-thought-out general plan for the morning to hit the busiest rides first. Then we'd grab a 4th FP, have lunch, check the wait times, and decide what we wanted to do the rest of the day. Like someone else mentioned, we were patient, if POTC was 15 minutes we rode it. But if it was listed 30 minutes, or looked long when we got there, we'd skip it, do something less popular, go back later.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Another big thing for me is the speed of the line, more than the length. I'd prefer waiting 30 minutes in consistently moving switchbacks than 15 minutes standing or moving at a crawl. With more rides having Fastpass, on our first FP+ trip, that sometimes affected my decision on whether to get in a standby line or come back later.

You have actually hit on something. Most people will get less upset at a long line that is moving, than a slightly shorter one that is stationary. The worst feeling must be right when someone gets to the gate and it closes and here comes the fast pass line for 10 minutes. Ouch that must stink. Never happened to me though.

Outside of traditional rope drop and hitting rides during parades/fireworks, the biggest reason I can generally limit my line-waiting to <20 minutes is patience. Crowds are in constant flux. A ride may have a 60 minute wait one moment, but if I come back an hour or two later (filling time with attractions with already short waits) it's reduced itself naturally. This strategy won't work in peak seasons, but it's been a consistent winner for me the last week of October, though the recent increase in waits at attractions that traditionally had short lines is certainly hamstringing me a bit. My recollection may be imperfect for some of those waits, but by and large I check the time when I enter the line and again when I approach the loading gates.

It still applies in peak seasons. It's just that the waits are longer to begin with. Don't hit the HM right after the throng from HOP gets over there applies in peak seasons too.

 

[BobC]

My limit is 30 minutes. I have no issues doing no FP for Peter Pan or Small World or Dinosaurs for that wait. Anything more than that I'll FP it.

I am a single rider many times on my trips which does help the wait. Even on rides without a single rider line, I've been 20-25 people back and a CM walked through the line asking if there are any single riders which does help me.

I can't fathom doing 90 minutes waiting for Space Mountain. I'll do that FP or EMH.

 

[Mikie]

When you hit the lottery, hit me up, and I'll be your tour guide. Our last trip, our first with FP+, was in April, most days were moderately crowded. We rode every ride multiple times and honestly only waited more than 20 minutes twice. On our very first day, we got out of Crystal Palace breakfast just after rope drop and ended up waiting 30 minutes for our first ride on 7DMT. On another day the 30 minute posted wait for RnRC single rider line turned out to be 45 minutes, but I didn't care, the only reason I was there was to kill time while my wife went to the Beauty and the Beast show.

We rope dropped every day, and had FP+ reserved for 10am/11am/12pm, and had a well-thought-out general plan for the morning to hit the busiest rides first. Then we'd grab a 4th FP, have lunch, check the wait times, and decide what we wanted to do the rest of the day. Like someone else mentioned, we were patient, if POTC was 15 minutes we rode it. But if it was listed 30 minutes, or looked long when we got there, we'd skip it, do something less popular, go back later.

I think I'm relatively similar in my mornings. Primary difference seems to come in that I really didn't take advantage of 4th FP+ - too lazy to look for kiosks or saw what looked like prohibitive lines for them. Through your afternoon is where I think we would usually end up with my long-ish waits. Even though we would do "anytime" rides or shows with lower waits, I think we'd always end up in some kind of >20 line in the noon-6pm hours. what do you do in those times of day that keeps you <20? (see how I'm trying to weasel the info out of you without winning the lottery and bringing you on my trip?)

 

[Lucius Best]

You have actually hit on something. Most people will get less upset at a long line that is moving, than a slightly shorter one that is stationary. The worst feeling must be right when someone gets to the gate and it closes and here comes the fast pass line for 10 minutes. Ouch that must stink. Never happened to me though.

We got caught once trying to be clever. BTMRR posted 45 minute standby wait time right before night parade, we knew it would be shorter, ended up being less than 15 minute wait. Figured we could squeeze in another ride, so got in line again. We were thisclose to the ramp going downstairs when the parade ended, and several hundred people returned with Fastpass, and they completely stopped the standby line.

 

[Lucius Best]

I think I'm relatively similar in my mornings. Primary difference seems to come in that I really didn't take advantage of 4th FP+ - too lazy to look for kiosks or saw what looked like prohibitive lines for them. Through your afternoon is where I think we would usually end up with my long-ish waits. Even though we would do "anytime" rides or shows with lower waits, I think we'd always end up in some kind of >20 line in the noon-6pm hours. what do you do in those times of day that keeps you <20? (see how I'm trying to weasel the info out of you without winning the lottery and bringing you on my trip?)

Getting 4th FP makes a big difference, especially at MK, but we also had success at AK and HS, we would get additional FP for those >20 minute lines. At MK for example, we would always get additional FP at kiosks, at most 5-10 minute wait for kiosk on a moderately busy day. During the morning, would scope out the locations, see which ones were more crowded. At 12:30pm, would have a choice such as Splash 6pm or BTMR 4pm or POTC 2pm. We'd opt for the 2pm POTC FP (standby line 30+ minutes), go to Tom Sawyer's Island or do some "anytime" rides, then after riding POTC check the kiosks again for 5th FP. Always something to do at MK. At AK, when lines got long, we'd do Rafiki or walking trails or EE single rider in between our additional afternoon FPs. At Epcot we'd bang out all of Future World in the morning and spend afternoon in World Showcase and never bothered with the kiosks. HS was a half day park, we'd leave at lunchtime. We also did single rider whenever it looked significantly shorter.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We got caught once trying to be clever. BTMRR posted 45 minute standby wait time right before night parade, we knew it would be shorter, ended up being less than 15 minute wait. Figured we could squeeze in another ride, so got in line again. We were thisclose to the ramp going downstairs when the parade ended, and several hundred people returned with Fastpass, and they completely stopped the standby line.

Ouch!!! I think my big lesson was learned at PP. We got a fast pass and it was about to come good. The line didn't look too long. 40 minutes, schmorty Schimutes!! Let's ride this thing and then we can come back and use the fast pass. Look at that thing move and not all the switch backs are open. So we hop in. Then we get around the corner. All the back switch backs are open. Cue the Price is right lose music.

No biggie though. We just hopped out of line and wasted about 2 minutes waiting for the fast pass time.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We even got the 2nd ride on TSMM (you know, because riding multiple times is impossible now). We went on an am EMH day in June (which easy WDW said was a bad idea, oh well). We got there a few minutes after 8am (so we also broke the getting there early rule), 1e went first to Jedi Training sign-up, then TSMM with a 15-20 minute wait, then our FP+ for TSMM kicked in.

June was not bad at all, I thought. Now, the last two weeks of July.....whaaaaaa! However, the week immediately following July 4 was wonderful!

 

[GaryDis]

People are willing to kill themselves working overtime to afford the trip, spend hours researching on the internet, stay up until midnight to book their FastPasses, but not willing to spend an hour in line chatting with friends and family to actually reap the reward. This does not compute.

 

[DoingDisney]

People are willing to kill themselves working overtime to afford the trip, spend hours researching on the internet, stay up until midnight to book their FastPasses, but not willing to spend an hour in line chatting with friends and family to actually reap the reward. This does not compute.

Why, after spending all that time and effort, would you want to stand in line ? That is what doesn't compute.

If I want to just stand around and chat with my friends and family, I can do that at home without having to work overtime, or kill myself, or spend hours researching.

I mean, reap the reward ? Never while putting in extra hours at work, or forgoing something else that I want have I said "This will all be with it to wait in line at WDW"

 

[smiths02]

Why, after spending all that time and effort, would you want to stand in line ? That is what doesn't compute.

If I want to just stand around and chat with my friends and family, I can do that at home without having to work overtime, or kill myself, or spend hours researching.

I mean, reap the reward ? Never while putting in extra hours at work, or forgoing something else that I want have I said "This will all be with it to wait in line at WDW"

There were actually a few rides...Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, TSMM, Dumbo, Star Tours that we had FP+ for (or went at Rope Drop) that our family would have LIKED to wait about 30 minutes for (now, the stand-by was actually much longer than 30 minutes when we rode, so it was a no-go) but my twins really wanted to see or play with all the stuff in-line.

 

[amylevan]

People are willing to kill themselves working overtime to afford the trip, spend hours researching on the internet, stay up until midnight to book their FastPasses, but not willing to spend an hour in line chatting with friends and family to actually reap the reward. This does not compute.

Why oh why do I want to spend thousands of dollars to sit around and chat with my family in line when I can (and do) do that at home for free? That does not compute.

We do not wait in any line longer than 20 minutes. It's a combination of a good touring plan, FP, afternoon breaks and low crowds (Jan/Feb trips).

And honestly, Disney brought this upon themselves. I distinctly remember waiting 2 hrs for Splash Mt back before FP in the hot blazing sun in the outside queue area. With the invention of FP, that essentially disappeared for all but the really busy times of year. (I don't even know if they use that outside queue area anymore...)

And when I go to my local amusement park and wait in the ridiculous lines, it's for a lot cheaper.

 

[Summertinkerbell]

I have often wondered this myself. I would genuinely love to follow along with the folks who say they never wait more than 15-20minutes for anything. Do they have a step-by-step touring plan? (I don't want to do that, so I check that off my list as a possibility) do they have a fuzzy recollection of the waits they've actually encountered? (maybe 15 min is an exaggeration that I will never be able to match) do they only go for the first 3 hours, then have a 4 hour resort break, then ride non-headliners on return? (I've never followed this pattern, maybe it's the ticket to no-line success?) I already know I've seen many of those people say that they do ride headliners, so it's not just that they spent all day whirling on the teacups

I have never expected to achieve a 20 min max wait on everything at Disney. I have used legacy FP, FP+ and internet tips for minimizing some waits where I can, but I've never managed a whole trip with 100% lines of 20 minutes or fewer, nor I have ever had the expectation that I *could* do that. I think I probably waited over an hour for Space Mountain on my early trips and 45-60 minutes isn't at all unheard of on my other trips for a few rides. 30ish is common for me. If I were wealthier, I'd surely invite one of these experienced DISers on my next trip and ask them to be my personal guide!! (no sarcasm - I really want to see it in action, I can't imagine it)

In the last 11 years, travelling only during school vacations (including Christmas-New Year's Day), we seriously have NEVER waited more than 15 minutes for anything, except for this trip when my DD & DH regretfully waited 60 minutes for the 7 dwarfs mine train. We always rode everything we wanted to ride.

When TourGuideMike.com was in existence (for 4 out of 5 of our trips), I studied and practiced all of his tricks. It required a lot of planning, but the planning is part of my enjoyment of the trip. I panicked on this trip because his website closed down. Fortunately, I saved a lot of information and remembered most of it; utilized other websites...I'm probably not allowed to list them here...and finally, added my previous experiences into the mix.

We always FP the most popular rides. We always go to the least busy parks at rope drop so that we can ride some rides before a long line has formed. We were able to ride Splash Mountain 5 times this trip without fastpasses. The only ride we weren't able to get an extra early ride on was Toy Story Mania. There was a 40 minute wait for TSM at rope drop. So we went on other rides with short or no waiting, then returned to Toy Story Mania for our FP.

We always stay at a Disney Resort and take full advantage of that.

Waiting in long lines is not necessary. For those that don't mind the lines, good for them. I will have none of it....Life is short...Make the most of every minute.