It really depends. A few tips:
- Every time a show gets out at the Royal Theater, the line gets flooded. So don't go then.
- Most of the time, mid-show is a good time.
- When the shifts change (on the hour? half hour?), the lines stop, so don't be surprised/concerned. Yesterday, we got in line at 3:55 and were behind two families. No one moved until 4:05. Then we were done by 4:10 and still managed to see the parade. A show got out while we were in line/meeting, so the line was really long by 4:10, whereas it had been almost empty 15 minutes before.
Sometimes we go early in the morning and it's empty; other times there's a 30-minute wait almost immediately. (I suspect this has to do with whether they have both sides running inside.). If it's long, we always ask the cast member working for a good time to come back. The ones working there are pretty solid with knowing the pattern of the day.