Inflated wait times.....

[birdiesunshine]

On my past two trips I noticed inflated standby wait times by about 15-20 mins on a lot of the attractions and I am wondering why Disney does this. Is it to disburse the crowds a little bit or just incorrect info?? Have you noticed this too?

 

[Eljay]

I've noticed that myself. I wonder if they would rather over-estimate so that you are pleasantly surprized at the end rather than annoyed?

Also, I'm sure you have seen the plastic ticket on a lanyard thing that they give to someone in line and tell them to give it to the CM at the end. That is a timing procedure, to see how to adjust the wait times. Maybe it's just difficult to keep the wait times accurate.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Disney uses a card system to get the standby line time. Here is how it works. A cast member at the entrance to the line will hand a guest in line a card with a specific code on it. When that guest gets to the front of the line he hands the card to a cast member who scans it, to see how long that guest had to wait in line for an attraction, then that time is used to update the Stand by wait time. So really the time on the Standby Marquee is indicative of the wait time of the last timed guest. Normally this give a good average time, but it can be way off.

For example: The time on the Standby Marquee outside of the Haunted Mansion says a wait of 10 min. Folks getting off the Liberty Bell Riverboat see the marquee and hop in line in droves. A guest is given a card his wait may be 10 min, but the next 150 people off the boat may have to wait 30 min, but the time won't change untill the next person with a card reaches the end of the line.

Most of the time the system is pretty accurate, but with the advent of fasspass it has become more difficult to correctly guage Stand-By wait time. I'm not sure if all attractions use this system, maybe some have a more high tech system, don't know.

Maybe I'm completely off, but a cast member explained the process on my last visit.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

i would say it would be to keep people from complaining. You know the ones that see ooohh 30 minutes let's do it and if it's 31 they are right there stating how their vacation was ruined?? just my guess, we never seem to care about wait times, if we want to ride we wait and just chat with eachother and then suddenly we are there

 

[ZoZo]

On my last trip to WDW last October, I was asked a couple of times to carry the "standby timing" card through the line. I had not realized that they used this method, and thought it was a really good idea. Things change from minute to minute, though, so even the estimates on the standby time boards can change frequently.

 

[Disney Doll]

Sleeping Becca pretty much has it right. The wait time is only as accurate as the last guest they handed the card too, and if something happens between that guest and you (parade ends, boat lets off, fireworks start) then the wait time will be wrong.

They may also have a "better to underpromise and overperform" mentality as well. You know, better to tell someone their wait will be 20 minutes and then make them wait only 5 minutes, than to tell someone their wait is 5 minutes and then they actually wait 20 minutes.

 

[LadyDulcinea1]

Just have to add that I've noticed this too. Every time I've walked by the Haunted Mansion the wait time has said 10 min. But when I got online I either walked on immediately or waited at most 2 minutes. Personally, I'd rather think the wait is longer and be pleasantly surprised

 

[STEAMBOAT209]

I too have noticed that the wait times are wrong on most of the attactions, but its a good thing. The times are usually shorter than longer the ones I have noticed or waited in.

 

[Kick Save]

Most of the time the system is pretty accurate, but with the advent of fasspass it has become more difficult to correctly guage Stand-By wait time. I'm not sure if all attractions use this system, maybe some have a more high tech system, don't know.

I'd think FP would make it easier to judge since it gives a fixed number of people through the attraction per hour. That number is only going to fluctuate down, which could be part of yielding the shorter than expected time.

We were the people with the card at Buzz once, halfway through the queue I asked the Mrs if we should let 20 or 30 people go around us.

 

[birdiesunshine]

I've actually been handed that plastic little card a few times, but as you can see by the number of trips to WDW i've been on in the past year or so, I've just noticed the standby wait times are off more recently than they have been in the past. Thanks for all your thoughts on why this seems to be. I guess I've just never noticed this before.

 

[RedxPanda]

I noticed this as well on Saturday, june 3. We were at the MK from open - lunch time. All the wait times were off by at least 10 mins. Good news is they were 10 mins less than the posted wait times

A few factors affect the stand by wait line.
1) Time of day. EArly mornings have short wait times, and are harder to judge... FPs aren't in affect for most rides until later in the morning.
2) The "card swipe" method they use could affect it a lot as well. I'm not sure how often they send a card through, but the CM at the start of the line for SM had quite a few hanging on a pole next to him. So they could send one out every 5 mins or every 15 . Only a CM could enlighten us on this.
3) The ebb and flow of guests choosing to ride standby at that point in time.
4) Most influencial factor: the number of people using their FastPass at any given time. The FPs get priority over the StandBy line. If there are little to no FP users when you're in line then your wait time could be substantially shorter! hooray when that happens!

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I'd think FP would make it easier to judge since it gives a fixed number of people through the attraction per hour. That number is only going to fluctuate down, which could be part of yielding the shorter than expected time.

We were the people with the card at Buzz once, halfway through the queue I asked the Mrs if we should let 20 or 30 people go around us.

A fast pass window is one hour. So folks have one hour to decide when to ride the attraction. Many times the fast pass line will build up and they will let the fastpass riders go on the attraction untill the fastpass line is down to a reasonable length, making Stand-by guests wait even longer than usual. Same for the reverse, later in the evening when most people who obtained fastpasses for a ride without looking at the return time don't ride an attraction, there are less people using the fastpass line.

When a large tour group uses Fastpass on a ride like Peter Pan, Stand by time is greatly increased.

 

[Kick Save]

A fast pass window is one hour. So folks have one hour to decide when to ride the attraction. Many times the fast pass line will build up and they will let the fastpass riders go on the attraction untill the fastpass line is down to a reasonable length, making Stand-by guests wait even longer than usual. Same for the reverse, later in the evening when most people who obtained fastpasses for a ride without looking at the return time don't ride an attraction, there are less people using the fastpass line.

When a large tour group uses Fastpass on a ride like Peter Pan, Stand by time is greatly increased.

True, but flip the hour, look at it from the ride's standpoint. Regardless of when a person decides to walk up during their hour (or after their hour ), the ride is still getting a max number of people per hour. The group example, or the late night no-FP people left in the park are the extreme ends of the curve, the average is fairly well controlled by FP. The extremes will definitely effect the stand-by time, but you can't really account for the extremes in this system.

Plus, in the group example, they're eating up a big chunk of that hour's capacity in one shot. Once they're through the line, there won't be as many FP people coming later in that hour and the stand-by line should move a bit faster.

Overall it's meant to level the demand for a ride through the day...from the ride's standpoint.

 

[pouncingpluto]

I seem to be asked to hold the card a few times on every trip. It seems to me that everyone can't be asked to hold it that frequently. Do they maybe look for adults-only couples or parties to do it? Like they figure parents have enough to deal with?

 

[TinkGirl]

My kids have been asked to hold the card several times. We did notice in January that Space Mountain always said 20 minutes and Tower of Terror always said 13 even though they were practically walk-ons. It was like our little happy secret.

 

[AnaheimGirl]

We've also been asked to carry the card several times each trip, and last time we had an 8yo and a 2yo with us. I think they just give it to whoever walks up at the moment they need to check it again. Or maybe they look for someone who's not scowling

 

[pixiepower1971]

Doesn't TOT always say 13 minutes when it is a walk on? I have never seen that wait sign say less then that. Part of the attraction?

I have also noticed that the wait times are usually listed at more then they really are. My kids have also been given the time cards many times.

 

[mill4023]

Our kids have also been asked to hold the card several times. They thought it was pretty cool to be able to help out the CM's.

I agree that they would rather overestimate than underestimate, because of the effect it has on the guests. Nobody minds waiting 15 minutes when the sign says 30, but you'll have plenty of irritated guests if you reverse that.

 

[mill4023]

Doesn't TOT always say 13 minutes when it is a walk on? I have never seen that wait sign say less then that. Part of the attraction?

Yep.

I wonder if for rides like Space, they like to post 15 or 20 minutes even if it's a walk-on because they know how quickly a line can build up, especially if everyone thinks there is no wait.

 

[rlovew]

I look at the posted wait time and then the number of actual people in line. I guess I have been there enough and am a pretty good mathematician but this past weekend the wait times they said when I looked at the line were generally for 10 minutes more than the line would account for (even with FP). For example Snow White (which has cars leaving about every 30 seconds with 3 rows of people; a max of about 12 adults per minute) said 30 minute wait (this is not a FP ride so it doesn't effect the wait time. The lines only went halfway down the queue and were 4 rows long. This meant there were about 30 people per row or 120 in front of me, giving me a wait time of about 10-12 minutes instead of the 30 minutes shown. By the way it was exactly 11 minutes when I got on. At the same point by the time I was leaving due to a crad being turned in the wait time had jumped down to 20 minutes but there were many more people in the queue and it probably took at least 20 if not 25 minutes to get them all through.