How Long Are Lightning Lane Waits?

[JenLT]

Well the title says it all. How long are the lightning lane waits this week? Are they about the same for all the rides or longer for the more popular rides? Also how long is the LL line for something like ROR?

 

[Sydnerella]

Seeing your caveat of “this week” makes me unable to fully reply.

Thanksgiving week the LL waits were “walk on“ to 30 minutes depending on the ride and its status. If ROTR has been down alot on a particular day or even at all, your wait may be longer if you come near the time it goes back on line, or anytime if it had alot of downtime that day.

in the LL we waited 30+ minutes for ROTR, Test Track and even Haunted Mansion if you can believe that!

FOP in a LL start to finish still took 35-40 minutes with just walking the queue lengths, LL line waits, preshows, experience, etc.

If you go during heavier crowds, everything just takes longer and longer than you may even expect as staffing feels short and attractions seem to have more technical issues - not just Rise.

 

[grapefruitjellybean]

This has probably been asked before so feel free to point me in the right direction. My question is how difficult/easy is it to buy a LL pass for ROTR or Mine train at park open? I’m staying off property and worried I won’t have a chance.

 

[Miffy]

Not sure about Mine Train, but all reports I've read about RotR are that it sells out in one or two minutes at 7 a.m., so your odds of getting ILL$ for RotR off-site are nil. Your best bet is to either rope-drop it--although remember that onsite guests have a half-hour's head start on you--or to get in line near the end of the day, when the wait isn't as bad.

ETA: I just saw on another thread that ILL$ for RotR were still available this morning at 9 a.m., although they were gone pretty quickly after that. So perhaps your odds of getting an ILL$ for RotR off-site are better than I mention above. Also, it'll depend on when you're there, how busy the parks are, etc. RotR is, from everything I've read, the most popular ILL$ and the first to sell out.

 

[grapefruitjellybean]

Not sure about Mine Train, but all reports I've read about RotR are that it sells out in one or two minutes at 7 a.m., so your odds of getting ILL$ for RotR off-site are nil. Your best bet is to either rope-drop it--although remember that onsite guests have a half-hour's head start on you--or to get in line near the end of the day, when the wait isn't as bad.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Miffy]

Thanks for your help.

@grapefruit: Please see the addition to my post. It appears that this morning RotR was still available at 9 a.m., although for a very brief period.

 

[Luisfba]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I’d use this one. Same question, about how long were Lightning lane wait times for the big headlines during the Christmas holiday timeframe?

mostly worried about ROTR, MMRR, FOP, and (I guess) just Rat.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I’d use this one. Same question, about how long were Lightning lane wait times for the big headlines during the Christmas holiday timeframe?

mostly worried about ROTR, MMRR, FOP, and (I guess) just Rat.

Didn’t do ROTR or FOP because I have young kids, but during Christmas week we never waited more then 15 minutes on MMRR or Rat. They were also both included with regular G+ during christmas week, so ymmv.

Edit: Actually, Rat was up charge, it was frozen that was included. Frozen was also the only one we waited more than 15 minutes for because the ride had been down.

 

[Miffy]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I’d use this one. Same question, about how long were Lightning lane wait times for the big headlines during the Christmas holiday timeframe?

mostly worried about ROTR, MMRR, FOP, and (I guess) just Rat.

We were there from December 12th thru the 21st and purchased ILL$ for all these attractions.

RotR went down two of the days we were there, so the line was a bit long when the ride was back up, but even though the line looked kinda long, it moved and it was maybe 15 minutes, max, between the time we got in line and the time we got to the preshow. If you've never done RotR, I highly recommend it. Quite the experience. Try to stay away from spoilers.

MMRR was a walk-on. We did the ILL$ once but rope-dropped MMRR the other times.

FoP was also a walk-on--no waiting. Of course the LL is not exactly a short distance from the entrance, so there's a bit of walking, and once you get to the sort of staging area, you can wait a while, since at that point the LL people and the standby people are together. Nevertheless, the wait was quite short. And the standby line was loooooooong.

Rat was a walk-on. Would I pay to do Rat again? Never. We were quite disappointed, but you may not agree. BTW, Rat is now open during ETPE, in case you wanted to do standby. No more virtual queue.

HTH.

ETA: The problem of any of these rides going down (RotR is infamous for breaking) is that you could have an ILL$ for 10 am and the ride could be down until 3 pm or 5 pm or never come back into service that day. There's no way to gauge it. So you have to go with the nonflow.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Rat was a walk-on. Would I pay to do Rat again? Never. We were quite disappointed, but you may not agree

My family felt the same way. We loved MMRR, but Rat was a letdown. I guess that’s what happens when you try to repackage an 8 year old ride as something new and innovative.

 

[HappyFairydust]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I’d use this one. Same question, about how long were Lightning lane wait times for the big headlines during the Christmas holiday timeframe?

mostly worried about ROTR, MMRR, FOP, and (I guess) just Rat.

I was at WDW during the marathon weekend.
I had an ILL$ for FOP and it took me a total of 30min from going in and out.
MMRR: only took 5min until I was in the preshow in ILL$ line.
Remy: 5min wait until you were in the ride. VQ stand by line was about 20-30min wait (i know they dont do VQ anymore but just to get an idea)

Soarin & TT LL: took 30min from going in and out of the attraction

did not purchase ROTR ILL$ so I don’t know but the ILL$ were sold out in few minutes (7AM) during 1/2-1/8.

 

[Luisfba]

Thanks. This is helpful just to try to get a feel of about how much time to allocate for the plans.

Part of what I'm trying to gauge for ROTR is also when we do it. Our HS plans right now are one evening for about 2-3 hours (night for the day we get there, we land at 2pm.. go to hotel, get settled, have dinner, then HS), and then a long/full day there on our last day. On one hand I hate to burn a huge chunk of time that first evening on one ride since we wont be there that long and have a full day later to take our time with things. However, I am concerned if we wait to do it on the last day we then run the risk it goes down and then we lose the opportunity to try it.

I'd say - plan to do it both days - but I'm sure while I'd love to repeat it (SW fan here.. I remember when my dad took me to see the movie in 1977 and I was hooked for life), for the girls it'll be a one and done.

MMRR doesn't see much downtime right? Relatively safe to leave it for the last day? (Although I bet this is one the girls may like to do more than once.)

 

[HappyFairydust]

MMRR doesn't see much downtime right? Relatively safe to leave it for the last day? (Although I bet this is one the girls may like to do more than once.)

MMRR was once down on our HSday 1/6 but quickly came back. (30min - I timed it)
Looking on google and also the CMs said MMRR down time is usually around 30min!
So I’d aay it’s safe to leave it for the last day. We loved it and rode it twice! (Rope drop and ILL$)