Epcot/Guardians/Entering park from World Showcase

[Brian Noble]

hose people will still be long in the queue before IG guests even get halfway to WD.

I think the point was specifically for someone at Pop, AoA, CBR, or RIV. You can take the Skyliner to IG, walk, and be a little farther back in line, or you can go through machinations to try to get to the front entrance on Disney Transport before rope drop. But, the latter is DEFINITELY going to take real time, and possibly quite a bit more than any time one might lose by being farther back in line for Guardians.

And, that might be true even accounting for the fact that one will be "behind (at least part of) the crowd" for the entire morning.

 

[Gurkensalat]

If you come with early entry from IG, perhaps it would be a good idea to be at Cosmic Rewind a few minutes before the crowd from the regular entry time arrives there? The first wave of early entry visitors might be through already? Just a question.

 

[lentesta]

We tested two new EPCOT touring plans in the park yesterday. Regular park opening, not ETPE. No Lightning Lane.

One was a "cross the park to a popular ride", which started at the main entrance and went to Remy (then FEA, Anna & Elsa and back to Future World).

The other stayed in The Area Formerly Known as Future World, and did WS anti-clockwise when done.

The attractions were Frozen Ever After, Journey into Imagination, Living with the Land, Meet Anna & Elsa, Remy, Nemo, Soarin', and SSE.

The 'cross the park' person waited 166 minutes for the World Showcase attractions in the morning:

• 58 minutes at Remy at 9:05 am
• 74 minutes at Frozen Ever After at 10:23 am
• 34 minutes for Anna & Elsa at 11:46 am

And averaged 28 minutes in line at the Future World attractions.

The "stay in Future World" person waited 164 minutes for the World Showcase attractions in the afternoon. (So, 2 minutes less than the person who started there in the morning.) They were helped by falling wait times at Anna & Elsa. And they averaged 18 minute waits in Future World.

So not crossing the park for the first ride saved about an hour of waiting in line for those attractions.

Here's the order they followed for the lowest waits:

• Regular park opening was 8:55 am
• The Seas with Nemo: 0 minute wait
• Journey into Imagination: 0 minute wait
• Soarin': 27 minute wait
• Living with the Land: 23 minutes
• Spaceship Earth: 39 minutes
• Remy: 80 mins
• FEA: 67 mins
• Anna & Elsa: 17 mins

There were breaks and lunch in there too.

I'm trying to model Guardians with standby now. But I suspect it's not going to be a great idea to walk the length of EPCOT under most circumstances.

ETA: Fixed typo in clock time.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

The one exception to this that I can remember was when Flight of Passage in AK was new and routinely had 3-hour standby lines. They'd close the line early - can't remember how early, but possibly an hour, maybe more, before park closing time - but they would state it clearly, maybe with park hours? I can't remember the details!

They only did this for a few weeks until they realized that the late night waits for Flight of Passage were nowhere near what they were in the mornings and afternoons.

As mentioned earlier, the inflated posted wait times and line stacking techniques that have been in place for several years are a good deterrent to discourage late riders.

Our first ride on FoP was just about a month after it opened. The posted wait time was 130 minutes just before closing time but the actual wait was less than 20. It had hit over 200 that afternoon.

Don’t be surprised when Guardians behaves the same way.

 

[CarolynFH]

They only did this for a few weeks until they realized that the late night waits for Flight of Passage were nowhere near what they were in the mornings and afternoons.

As mentioned earlier, the inflated posted wait times and line stacking techniques that have been in place for several years are a good deterrent to discourage late riders.

Our first ride on FoP was just about a month after it opened. The posted wait time was 130 minutes just before closing time but the actual wait was less than 20. It had hit over 200 that afternoon.

Don’t be surprised when Guardians behaves the same way.

Thanks. I’m glad you remembered details, because I wasn’t there during the early weeks and couldn’t remember how long the early line closures lasted, only that they had occurred.

And in regard to GotG, I figure that Disney has enough information gained from VQ and LLSP bookings to feel confident they won’t have to do more than post inflated wait times to control the line at park closing.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

I have no doubt that Disney will inflate the posted wait time to deter weary park goers. However, AK is a less desirable park at night than Epcot, so I’ll be interested to see the potential comparison to FOP.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I have no doubt that Disney will inflate the posted wait time to deter weary park goers. However, AK is a less desirable park at night than Epcot, so I’ll be interested to see the potential comparison to FOP.

Guardians of the Galaxy and/or Tron may also be good comparisons. Both were reporting actual waits of 20 minutes or so within days of adding a standby queue. However, the posted waits on these attractions can often be 4x the actual wait in order to discourage late riders and funnel them toward the gift shops and eventually the exits.