Not so "Fast" Pass

[Cashcow]

We were at MK Saturday night (5/13) and obtained Fastpasses to ride Space Mountain around 7:30pm. We returned promptly at the start of our return time. I noticed standby was about a 50 minute wait. We walked into SM and as soon as you make the turn (where the RCA dog used to be spinning on the turntable) and head up the long corridor the line was stopped. Both sides (standby and FP) were about even. DD chickened out shortly thereafter so I left the queue with her, but our friends stayed to ride. About 20 minutes later they came out of the exit. I asked him if both sides of SM were running and he said yes.

I have had similar experiences on SM where it took much longer than the Disney "Little to no wait" FP system.

What is with this ride and the FP slowness? I can't remember, but do they merge the two lines when you get to the end of the corridor? I.e. let the standby lines go to the right side? Or is the right side track for FP only?

 

[ChrisK]

Ride could have been stopped for some reason. Been to MK plenty of times and the lights were on inside and people were still in line waiting.

 

[Azure]

Space Mountain- Fastpass line is on the right side(?) Stand-By is on the left side(?). Don't go by what the sign says for stand-by. It's sometimes way off. The fast pass line moves fast but... it depends on how many people use it. You can't really predict what the line wait is going to be but you can give a rough estimate. I went and the ride broke down which was scary because you could see how high the track was.

Anyways, my point being sometimes the SB line would be as fast as SM because they all end up at the same place. Though, when the line ends both FP and SB lines have a choice of either the left ride side or the right ride side.

 

[Skylarr29]

Space Mountain has been breaking down quite a bit lately. Maybe that was the cause for the delay.

 

[Mickey1122]

Best FP is Everest in AK. They have a special 1st car line too. It was five minutes with a fast pass and first car during an hour+ standby wait

 

[Goofy4]

Space Mountain has been breaking down quite a bit lately. Maybe that was the cause for the delay.

Yep, broke down Sunday night just before we were going to get in line.

 

[Cashcow]

Best FP is Everest in AK. They have a special 1st car line too. It was five minutes with a fast pass and first car during an hour+ standby wait

I agree Mickey. On Sunday we did FP for Everest and waited about 3 minutes. Standby was a 60 minute wait. That is the problem I have with Space Mountain. It shouldn't take 15-20 minutes to ride SM with FP.

There was no break down with SM that I was aware of Saturday night. Like I said early I have used FP on SM in the past and had to wait 15-20 minutes to ride.

If Azure is correct (I honestly can't remember) that once riders get to the control tower area of the ride they get to choose which track they want (left or right) then that is the problem. Basically you can be the first FP in line at the control tower, but then get stuck behind 200 standby riders who have entered ahead of you into the second queue area.

I guess most other rides like Everest the FP line merges with the standby line right before you board the ride. It truly is front of the line access. With SM the FP line merges with the standby line too far back IMO.

Now if the right track was a FP only track....that would move the FP line quickly.

 

[TnTsParty]

I was there Sunday night (5/14) around 8PM and I didn't have a fast pass and standing in the stand by line and according to the time on my pictures it was only 16 minutes from the time I walked into Space Mountain (and took a picture of the front entrance) till I walked outside and took a picture of the sign outside. And to answer the question about the lines the stand by line went in on the left side and only used that side and the fast pass line went in on the right side and only used that side. Granted they can change the queue around anytime they want. It did seem the standby line was going quicker than the fast pass lane.

 

[PlutosFriend]

Best FP is Everest in AK. They have a special 1st car line too. It was five minutes with a fast pass and first car during an hour+ standby wait

I agree! We did FP with EE and got on in less than 5 minutes, no lie! TG for Soarin' FP too

 

[bicker]

The FastPass queue is affected by many factors, the most important being mechanical issues, but also including guests using FastPasses from earlier in the day.

 

[eeyoregirl]

Space Mountain has been breaking down quite a bit lately. Maybe that was the cause for the delay.

No way! This is one of our absolute favorite rides! And my DD7 has agreed to "try it" this time.

 

[seashoreCM]

A ride breakdown followed by a large influx of fastpass guests is a valid excuse for being able to come back later after the fastpass window to use the fastpass.

Both being able to use the air conditioned second queueing areas deep inside Space Mountain and being able to let riders choose left or right tracks is an unsolved problem to date.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Skylarr29]

No way! This is one of our absolute favorite rides! And my DD7 has agreed to "try it" this time.

Yes everytime I have been in line for SM I have had it break down (maybe its me lol) but I have been every month this year and I have been in the line almost to the front and then the lights come on and we have to wait. Look at the up side though.... if it keeps breaking down maybe they will finally refurb it like at DL!!!!

 

[kaytieeldr]

Okay, you have to remember - just because the FastPass line and the Standby line are about equal in length does NOT mean Guests are loaded onto the ride at an even pace. If the Standby time was 50 minutes, that was probably fairly accurate. The only way to determine this for sure (other than asking the CMs) would be for one person to get in each line and see how much longer it took the person in the Standby line to get onto the ride.
Say there are 128 people in each line, and each ride vehicle holds sixteen people. If they take twelve people from the FP line and four people from the SB line, the FastPass line moves three times faster than the Standby line. So, even if you and I are next to each other when we first reach the end of the line, your wait will be twenty minutes while mine will be sixty minutes (okay, fine, not MY ride - because I'd be in the FastPass line too, but the wait time for any random person in that line the same distance from the head of the line as any person in the FP line).

 

[88Keys]

Yeah, as other folks stated, SM was down a good chunk of Saturday -- we ran to TTA to ride it so that we could see SM with the lights on -- very fun