Incorrect Wait Times Posted!

[joepoe]

Be very careful, folks. We were at MK last Sunday and the wait time for Peter Pan was listed at 30 minutes. Well, it was an hour, and the cast members seemed clueless as to how to change the sign. It remained at 30 minutes all day. Later, BTMR had 50 minutes posted as the wait time when actually it was about 5 minutes, tops.

Later in the week we noticed the board on Main Street said 45 minute wait for Splash Mountain, when in actuality it said 90 minutes at the ride.

At AK, the Kali Rapids ride said 50 minute wait time (on a very hot day) so we got fast passes and waited an hour to go on. It still said 50 minutes, but the wait was really 5 minutes. We rode twice.

I have never experienced such problems with wait times at WDW.

 

[TLinden16]

We had the same problem throughout our trip August 13-23. At least four or five times, we had to wait double the posted time. And a couple of times, we saw five minute lines for the mountains when the posted times were over an hour.

Karen

 

[kilee]

We had this problem often during our last trip (2/03). It made for difficult planning. We were at HM. Standby line said 15 minutes. So we hopped in line. We waited close to 45 minutes to get on the ride. It happened at POC, Jungle Cruise and Great Movie Ride. All were almost 3 times longer than posted.

 

[Msslaydbug]

I hope the crowds will be low enough when we go that we won't have to deal with this situation.

It is useless to have these type of signs to try and help people when the correct information isn't even displayed.

 

[Baloo]

That happened to us alot last summer especially in MGM.
Star Tours had a 20 min. wait,Joe can't ride simualtors so the boys and I hopped in line....over an hr later we got off the ride.It was dark by then and we played "Let's look for Daddy" for a bit in that area of the park! OY!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by joepoe
Be very careful, folks. We were at MK last Sunday and the wait time for Peter Pan was listed at 30 minutes. Well, it was an hour, and the cast members seemed clueless as to how to change the sign. It remained at 30 minutes all day. Later, BTMR had 50 minutes posted as the wait time when actually it was about 5 minutes, tops.

Later in the week we noticed the board on Main Street said 45 minute wait for Splash Mountain, when in actuality it said 90 minutes at the ride.

At AK, the Kali Rapids ride said 50 minute wait time (on a very hot day) so we got fast passes and waited an hour to go on. It still said 50 minutes, but the wait was really 5 minutes. We rode twice.

I have never experienced such problems with wait times at WDW.

I would say you have a definite suit here.

 

[LadyAurora]

We always had the opposite problem at WDW, wait times would be shorter than posted.
Too bad they weren't "on top of things" during your trip.

 

[Bill From PA]

My experience is the same as LadyAurora. I shave about 20% off the listed times and find that about right. This is more an art than a science so I'd expect them to be off, I would only hope that they're off in a consistent manner.

Bill From PA

 

[Goofyish]

We found the wait times a bit 'hit and miss' too - usually stating a longer wait time than there actually was though.

We went on Mission Space last week - the wait time said 45 minutes (we had a FP for Test Track and wanted to kill some time) - the wait was actually nearer 20 minutes!

 

[kpgclark]

You guys should send off a letter or an e-mail message to Disney.

 

[Regina]

We had the same problem with the Peter Pan ride in July. The posted time wasn't bad, so we went for it. An hour later, we were returning from our trip to Neverland.

 

[joepoe]

Originally posted by LadyAurora
We always had the opposite problem at WDW, wait times would be shorter than posted.
Too bad they weren't "on top of things" during your trip.

The Disney way is supposed to be "Set up an expectation and then exceed it." I was really surprised they didnt have their act together. It's so un-Disney like.

 

[songbert]

We had the same problem at Kali Rapids in July - we wanted to go at the end of our day, and hadn't gotten FP's earlier. The time posted for Stand By was 50 minutes, so we said what the heck, let's go. The time was actually 1hour and 40 minutes......the longest 100 minutes of my life!!! The ride was great, though

 

[jerseydizdreamer]

An hour and 40 minutes in line? Lord, I can't even imagine! I'm sure when I was a kid and went during the summer with my grandparents, it must have been like that. Now, I go off-season and rarely wait in lines longer than 20 minutes or so. I think I might actually have a tough time rationalizing spending more than an hour standing in line for an attraction. I'd sooner spend the time walking around, shopping, eating (always eating...)... even just people watching!

Richard

 

[Liam]

From my experience the posted time is usually shorter, actually I can't remember ever waiting much longer then the posted time. I guess I have been lucky

 

[ww52]

Wait times on our trip in early August were hit & miss; it caused a particular problem at TT - wait time was listed as 45 minutes; after 45 minutes we weren't even half way there; my daughter got faint - we left the line, then she had to get medical attention; spent over an hour in first aid (got FOTL passes for TT, but it wasn't worth her illness).

I spoke to a CM about it - we never would have gotten in line had the correct time been posted. When we walked back there, the line was shorter than when we got in it, yet the tiome posted was 90 minutes.

They have a strange system. They gave my daughter a card or whatever when we first got in line to give to the CM when we got to the front. Is that how they adjust the time? By the time we would have gotten up there (say it took 90 minutes), hundreds of people would have seen a wrong wait time. Or do they just use that info for future reference? ("When the line is this long - this is the wait time".)

Anyway - it's impossible to make a smart FP decision with the times so off; and since FP generally gets people out of line and spending more money, I would think Disney would be concerned. We certainly weren't spending any money sitting in First Aid.

 

[dianna112198]

Last week the wait time for Space Mountain said 25 minutes but the line went all the way to the Lunching Pad. It had to have been over an hour wait.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by jerseydizdreamer
An hour and 40 minutes in line? Now, I go off-season and rarely wait in lines longer than 20 minutes or so. I think I might actually have a tough time rationalizing spending more than an hour standing in line for an attraction

Richard

I agree, Richard. Actually, even 20 minutes is long by our standards. My wife went to WDW with me 4 times before she got to ride Jungle Cruise because the line was too long the first 3 trips. The advantage of going annually is that we don't feel obligated to stand in a line. If we don't see it this trip, we'll do it next time.

Of course, if a Disney visit was a rarity for us, we might feel differently.

Steve

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by dianna112198
Last week the wait time for Space Mountain said 25 minutes but the line went all the way to the Lunching Pad. It had to have been over an hour wait.

It can be tough to judge the wait time by the visible line at an attraction like SM. From the outside, you can't tell how much of the interior queue is being used. Same for Pirates, Big Thunder, etc. I think sometimes Disney likes it to look busier than it actually is. Having the line coming out the door accomplishes that.

Steve

 

[SueM in MN]

quote: Originally posted by dianna112198
Last week the wait time for Space Mountain said 25
minutes but the line went all the way to the Lunching Pad. It had to have been over an hour wait.

One thing the signs used to say was Wait from this point. So if the sign at the begining of the railings said 20 minutes, and the waiting people were about 20 feet closer to the entrance than the sign, you knew the wait was going to be less than 20 minutes. If the line went out farther than the sign, all the time before the sign was additional wait and your 20 minute wait would not begin until you passed the sign. I don't think people realize that since the sign was changed.
This is just a guess, but I wonder if the fastpass system has something to do with the incorrect wait times. The "wait time" signs used to be set by hand (often turning a dial for the number of minutes). Experienced CMs could tell just by looking how many minutes the line would take. It's possible that the wait times are set now by the fastpass system (which might be why somone posted the CMs were not able to figure out how to reset it). Now, the wait in the standby line isn't dependent on how many people are in that line - it depends on how many are in the fastpass line and how many of them come back at once to use their fastpasses. So, it's probably much harder to predict standby times.