Do people wait in lines anymore?

[artemis908]

My max for line waiting is about an hour. There are very few rides that are so important to me that I'll wait in a long line for. I personally don't like the FP+ system and having to plan so far ahead. This is coming from someone with spreadsheets and tables for our vacation. I like the planning of meals and which park we're going to, but not so much rides. I am glad they weren't using FP+ when we had the deluxe dining plan because planning 2-3 sit down restaurants a day PLUS fast passes was difficult. I will also never go to Disney during high crowd times like holidays and summers. We are going in November (not during Thanksgiving or Jersey Week of course) and getting dining reservations have been so difficult, it freaks me out that the parks are going to be more crowded than the crowd calendars predicted. We went in February a couple of years ago and it was great, only rides that had lines were rides like Soarin.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Lines suck. When lines are heavy I find a beer or dole whip. And I don't whine about it.

 

[Planogirl]

I don't wait longer than 30 minutes unless I really, really want to ride something. It's just not worth it to me.

I thought that FP+ was supposed to help get rid of some of that waiting but it doesn't seem to have done so. Now it seems that lines at secondary lines have increased probably partially due to FP+ which of course gets people out of other lines and also due to increased crowds.

 

[Summertinkerbell]

You have to understand. People didn't go from a standby-only system to the new FP+ system. People were used to having a tried and true strategy for avoiding long lines on very popular attractions.

And now, if you don't book FPs for some of those popular attractions before you go (probably LONG before you go), your chances of snagging one are low ... and completely dependent on whether someone else dumps the FPs you want ... on the day you want ... in the quantity you want.

So before, we knew we'd pull a FP for TSMM and not have to wait in an hour long line. Now, we know WAY ahead of time if that's probably not going to happen.

So yes, there are always stand-by lines. But doesn't it make sense why that's not my first and best strategy for riding SDMT or seeing Anna and Elsa?

And no, it's not the end of the world and worth "cry[ing] about it online", but it's disappointing, made doubly so if you logged on and tried to book the moment you were eligible to do so.

I think what's more surprising is when people are insensitive about others' disappointment. When you hit a snag in planning a trip, it's understandably frustrating. I'm not going to chastise people for feeling that way, and I don't understand why others do.

I agree with all of the above.

60 days out, at 7am, wasn't early enough for us to get SDMT...perhaps if only I'd tried at midnight. Since this was my first time, I didn't think that mere hours would be enough to lose a FP+.

It would be nice if there was more empathy and sensitivity about others' feelings...even if these are very much "first world problems."

What does it cost to be kind to others?

 

[itchin2go]

So wait, its not ok for people to complain they have to wait in longer lines than expected after paying thousands of dollars for a trip ....

But it is ok for people to complain about people complaining on a forum they access for free ???

lol

 

[Julylady]

My max wait time is 20 minutes. And that's been true way before fast pass plus. There is no ride or attraction worth standing more than 20 minutes for. I will wait longer if sitting like for Fantasmic.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Lines suck. When lines are heavy I find a beer or dole whip. And I don't whine about it.

You're their dream customer. Maybe the real goal of FP+ was to reduce efficiency to a point where people give up on rides and buy food with a 400% markup.

 

[tinkerbella16]

I remember back in the day, there were no fastpasses. We stood in line for 3 hours to see the Indiana Jones show in DHS. Not just us. Everyone. You either stood in line or you didn't see an attraction. We survived.

Over the years, with the increase of technology, we have become an instant gratification society. We want everything now. Yesterday. Along with that, Disney does not WANT people waiting in line. Take our 3 hour line wait at Indiana Jones.....if we had been out pilfering in the park (like FP allows us to do) we would have bought something. Thats money in Disneys pocket and they like money.

So its not just us. If Disney could devise a system where no one ever waited in line they'd implement it. Because that would keep people out of lines and into shops and restaurants.

I didn't even have to type what I was going to say because you did it for me, but I still will! Lol This! We waited for everything before fastpass.. I can remember standing in the heat waiting hours for Splash and believe it or not, Dinosaur actually had a line that ended up outside! We never complained, we wanted to ride so we waited for it. Now I see people all over the parks see a posted 20 or 30 minute standby wait time and they walk away because it is "too long". I just smh because that is nothing compared to years ago. If we don't have a fp for something and we really want to ride, we'll wait- not for hours and hours but a 30-45 min standby is not too bad considering what I used to do when I was younger. Now I go during the Fall in November (which crowdwise, seems to be the new summer), go at rope drop when there are no line for the first couple of hours.. take a midday break and head back out for the evening until the park closes and the lines get shorter as the night goes on.

 

[tinkerbella16]

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 started doing this, watching the time when I enter and then again just before loading- most of the time, it has been a shorter wait than what was posted. I started to think Disney does for crowd control... post a ride at 60 minutes, knowing lots of people are going to not want to wait and skip it and then it ends up only being a 30 minute wait in reality. This actually happened last year when we got in line for Haunted Mansion- standby said 45 mins but we were on the ride in 15 minutes.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

MK is packed out tonight! I can tell you a LOT of folks are waiting in line!

 

[WDW1971]

It's true. The lines have got so long that nobody waits in them anymore.

I'd hazard a guess that the reason that the OP encounters so many line defectors on this forum is that its membership tends to range from unhealthily obsessive compulsive to, um, healthfully obsessive compulsive about planning. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm there too.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Ditto about using the app to time attractions. Jingle Cruise had been 75 min wait. Thanks to the imminent Elec Parade, its now 20 so against our better judgement, we are going to give it another shot, at night, and hope for a funny Skipper. @Robo

Definitely use the app to avoid long lines and watch the general fluxes of people...

 

[Angel Ariel]

You see more threads lamenting not getting a Fastpass because now people find out two months before their trip that they didn't get a Fastpass. People are no more or less patient, they just have foreknowledge of what's to come.

I think this is a lot of it. Under legacy, people weren't dealing with the FP system until they were in the park. If they missed out on a FP, how many people are likely to get online in the middle of WDW and complain about it while they're in the park? I love the DIS, but I'm not on here when I'm in the park. Heck, I barely have my phone out while I'm in the park (only to check wait times). 60 days ahead of time, though, and planning out and finding out it's not available? It's a lot easier to hop over here for a quick vent with a community of people who (generally) understand the frustration.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Don't underestimate the value of raw data. In this case it was for multiple rides and with followup surveys. But even if it was just for a single ride, tracking the line lengths at individual rides helps them know how many FP+s to issue for a given time.

The red cards/lanyards are not new since FP+...

(edited to add a link to a 2008 DIS thread about the red lanyards)

 

[prudence64]

I will wait for 30 minutes. 45 is my max only for the best rides. Nothing in any park that I can't live without.

 

[bbjunkie]

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)

We are apparently "those people." We went in June, and never waited more than 20 minutes to ride anything. We had fast passes for Peter Pan, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and 7DMT on one MK day (all in the evening) and 7DMT, Space, and Wishes on another MK day. We arrived at rope drop during EMH on one day. That day, we went to Tommorowland and rode Space first, then Buzz, then Astro Orbitors before walking around to the Rapinzel bathrooms for the "2nd rope drop" before the path to Liberty Square at 8:45. We then walked with the CM crowd around to BTMRR and walked on that, then Splash after with a 10 minute wait, then went right back on Splash with a 15 minute wait. We walked into Adventureland and went on Magic Carpets with 10 minutes, then DD wanted to climb through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, so we did. It was still pretty early in the morning so it wasn't ridiculously hot doing that. By this time, it was about 10:30 am. We walked around to the Christmas shop and browsed, then went to the 11:00 am show at HOP. We had an 11:45 lunch reservation at Liberty Tree, then went on Carpets one more time at the request of DD, waited almost 20 minutes that time, but by this time it was after 1:00. We walked out, caught some of the Castle Show, shopped a little along Main Street, and went back to our hotel for pool time and a break. We swam/relaxed for several hours. Headed back to MK at 7:00. Ate QS at Cosmic Ray's, went on the obligitory IASW ride, no wait. Philharmagic, no wait, Tea Cups, waited for 2 cycles of the ride--however long that is---6 minutes? Peter Pan fast passes. Then to our FP site for Celenrate the Magic and Wishes. After, when the masses are fighting their way to leave, we headed back, first through Tomorrowland and Monsters, Inc, Buzz, Space, (that was almost a 25 minute wait...so I guess that one broke our no more than 20 minute rule) Stitch (yuck). Then we headed around to Fmatasyland, did Barnstormer twice, Dumbo, Teacups (fine with me if we never do that again)had our 11:55 pm 7DMT FP, Carousel, Dumbo again. Then as we headed out (park open until 1:00 am) we went on Space again, two times in a row. We waited, but I can't remember how long, as the line was moving the whole time. But we were back walking down Main Street and bought a golf shirt at 12:37, so we couldn't have waited that long at Space between our 7DMT and our shopping trip. So I'll say no more than 15 minutes each.

This is just an example. We didn't over plan. We followed Josh's touring advice in our method. I planned our FP to be in the same lands in the evening, and chose to ride other headliners at rope drop. But when we were there, we REALLY found it to be true that the parks clear out after fireworks, and that posted wait times are GREATLY eggsagerated.

We DO take long afternoon breaks at the resorts everyday. We enjoy the downtime poolside. We don't rush to get back, and enjoy riding the ferry or monorail in the evening on our way back. We would be exhausted, worn-out limp dishrags if we stayed all day from open to close. But the way we do it works for us, and we don't miss any headliners that we care about. Additionally, we figure if we stay in the parks for those hours in the afternoon, that's when all the long lines have built up that we would prefer to not wait in.

Things we DIDN'T do: we did not see Anna and Elsa, Talking Mickey, or Sleeping Beauty, or Tinkerbell. Those things were not priorities for us. We met characters at meals with the exception of Dug and Russell at AK and Daisy, Donald, Minnie, and Goofy at MK a different day. We didn't go on the Jungle Cruise, DD didn't care about it and that was fine. The Riverboat was closed. Pirates was down for refurb. We didn't do HM because I won't, and my husband and daughter could have but just didn't. We did see other things on other days.

So, as I have said previously, we are only available to go during busy times, but have no problem seeing everything we want to see. We don't spend our time waiting in lines, and it isn't because of impatience as much as it is because I feel that our time is better spent doing other things, like swimming and participating in the pool parties at the resort. There are people on the boards that complain all the time about FP ruining everything because they have to wait in long, long lines for things like IASW, and that just has not been our experience AT ALL. Our FP were kind of clumped together, but I didn't obsess over making them. We stayed on property but booked this particular trip only 47 days out, and we were able to get Fast Passes. (Again, did not try for A and E because we didn't care to, so I can't speak to the availability).

 

[PollyannaMom]

...I guess when I go to an amusement park I assume I will be spending a good amount of time in line along with the other people there. But I'm sensing now that people don't want to wait in line....Have lines gotten so horrible or are people just not wanting to wait more than 15 minutes?

I think it's a combination of things:

1) I do feel that, in general, people are less patient than they used to be. I think it's just a function of so many other things taking far less time than they used to. People adapt very easily to the new norms.

2) Disney is expensive, so people are looking to get the most for their money. If (depending on the individual) that means going on as many rides as possible, then the less time each line takes, the more rides you can go on.

3) People know in advance now if they didn't get something, so they mention it here when they wouldn't have bothered before. They would have waited in the line, or picked something else, and moved on without the rest of us knowing.

 

[Xennia]

The question is,


Why would you want to wait in line if Disney is offering you a way not too.


If you enjoy waiting, go for it. If you think it adds to your Disney experience, by all means do it. Everyone does Disney differently. Do what you want to do.

 

[Seeker615]

When I was younger lines didn't bother me so much, especially if it was a big thrill ride. I can remember waiting close to an hour for a big coaster. Our first Disney trip we did not do our homework and ended up going at spring break! Yikes...it was crazy busy with some lines reaching close to 2 hours. I never made that mistake again.

I do a ton of research now for any trip I go on big or small. I search boards like these, Tripadvisor and other sites to make sure I get all the info I need.

Our last Universal and Disney trip we stayed onsite at Royal Pacific and had the front of the line passes. Worked out awesome but we did queue up at a few places so my husband could see some of the better queues that Universal had. We attended Mickey's Christmas party and thank to the boards like these we arrived early and had a blast!

 

[lustergirl]

great thread!! On my last visit in the end of April I had fast passes for my favorite rides. The morning I went to AK I didn't need the fastpass for Safari as I got right on before hand due to low lines. I ended up cancelling that fastpass. Long lines had me worried because with my knees I can't stand in one spot very long, walking doesn't bother me however. I did encounter a few long lines but skipped those rides all together and hit them up at a later time.