Flight of Passage: Actual Wait Times

[No.1000]

I went at 10pm on EMH and the posted wait was 160 minutes. We waited 90. It was worth it.

What was it about the queue that makes it worth the wait? And do you miss that aspect of the queue if you use the fastpass line?

I have also done fastpass and yes, you do miss the queue. It is not interactive like PP, but it is beautiful with lots to look at. There are 3 areas...a cave area with cave drawings and such, a bioluminescent area, and a lab with an animatronic floating avatar.

 

[epcotty]

Maybe don't bother unless it's in the first 2 hours (maybe first hour in this case?) or the last hour, otherwise it could be really long. We haven't gone since Pandora opened, but I think that's what we would do

 

[NH-to-FL]

I did a rope drop visit to FoP and Navi River last Friday morning. I was waiting at the no bag Security entrance at 7:30am for a 9am opening. After waiting at the tapstiles and again at the rope at entrance to Pandora we were walked into FoP and I was back out front at 9:01am with a displayed wait time of 150 minutes.

So if you want a fairly guaranteed 90 minute wait, being early to rope drop is the way to go.

See my detailed trip report here:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/first-visit-to-pandora-8-4-17.3623699/

 

[CarolynFH]

Last Tuesday 8/8 during EMH we entered the line at 10:37, posted wait was 150 minutes. We were walking out of the building at 12:15, so less than 90 minutes in line.

 

[heidijanesmith]

What was it about the queue that makes it worth the wait? And do you miss that aspect of the queue if you use the fastpass line?

As the above poster stated; there is a beautiful cave area with drawings and skeletons of banshees, a bioluminescent area that has plant life and drawings and then the lab area with a floating avatar in a capsule (looks very much like the avatar in the movie).

We really wanted to try the regular queue at least once during our trip. Was the 90min wait worth it to experience the full queue x1, yes. Will will wait that long again, no.

 

[dphie28]

We just got back to our room from AK. When we got to the park at 12:45 pm today the wait time was 295 minutes. We had a FP for Na'vi River ride at 6:45. When we came out FoP had 120 min standby time posted...so we decided to get in line. The line was a constant walk all the way up the exterior and through the majority of the first chamber. We got on line at 7:05 and were getting briefed for our flight by 7:48! So that was wayyyy off. When we got out it was raining and the posted time was 150 minutes. (We were going to go again). However the line was down to the CM at the entrance and stayed that way the rest of the night. We had the same situation with frozen ever after yesterday (75 min posted and waited only 40 min)

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

The "posted wait time" system is based on guests going through the line while wearing red card lanyards. The information gathered from that system then gets translated into observational estimates. ("When the line backs up to this garbage can, it is usually in the XXX minute range.") Inasmuch as the Pandora rides are fairly new, the CMs are just now getting a handle on what the external markers mean in terms of translating to time. But all in all, the red card system yields accurate results and Disney has no real reason to fudge the results. There is nothing to be gained by reporting 190 minutes if the wait is really 60. All that does is discourage people from joining the line which in turn sends them home without riding the ride which in turn causes them to have a negative reaction to their trip. Conversely, posting a 60 minute wait when the actual wait time is 190 minutes does the opposite. It encourages people to get in the line which in turn causes them to kill over three hours in line which in turn causes them to ruin their entire schedule for the day which in turn causes them to leave with a negative reaction to their trip. Bottom line...conspiracy theories about "cooked" wait times always exist, but there is no basis for them. Disney tries to be as accurate as it can be and has no incentive to lie. (With the possible exception of the very end of the day where they might very well want to discourage people from jumping in line 30 minutes before the park's stated closing time and therefore might exaggerate the wait times as being longer than they actually are hoping that guests won't shoot for that "one last ride" and will go home instead.)

If memory serves correctly, we were told on our July KTTK tour that they don't use the red lanyards any longer. Now they do some sort of tracking using guest magic bands. I imagine that system is more accurate than the red lanyards.

That being said, I got in the FoP line with a posted 120 minute wait and only waited 60 minutes. That was, however, during EMH, so wait times could have been intentionally inflated.

I did notice some wait times that were really off on the app, though. For example, I was at EE and checked the wait time for KRR on the app. The app said 70 minutes. So I thought I would just head over to walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Walking past Kali, the posted wait time was only 20 minutes (less than five minutes after the app said it was 70) so I got in line. It was actually walk on. So any system using the app to mathematically calculate average wait times vs. posted wait times could be off if the posted wait time on the app is way off.

 

[rteetz]

The "posted wait time" system is based on guests going through the line while wearing red card lanyards

Nope, Disney now uses magic bands as the way to track wait times.