Pirates and Mermaid Lines at MK

[briandancer]

I have read a lot of stories that the lines for Pirates of the Caribbean have grown severely due to the queue adjustment from FP+.

During slower times of year, I could count on waiting for Pirates for about 10 minutes, give or take. Am I really, really going to now have to wait 40-80+ minutes for this attraction or are these stories not necessarily true all the time? Has Disney fixed this issue?

Likewise, the previous trips, the Under The Sea attraction was basically a walk on--I barely stopped moving as I walked through the queue. Is this a lot longer now, too?

Give it to me straight--are the days of truly short queues over?

And if they are, doesn't that make the overall system FastPass Plus pretty much worthless? Simply "moving" minutes waiting from one attraction to another attraction doesn't end up saving me anything, right? What am I missing?

 

[stinkpickle]

I thought the wait times were getting longer last year BEFORE all this FP+ business. The only big difference I've noticed is the occasional FP return line backup.

 

[briandancer]

When we were there in June of 2013, the lines for Under the Sea and Pirates were as I described--very small. It's scary to think that in 7-8 months, the lines have risen 300-500%. I hope all that I've read is wrong and I won't see 60 minute waits for Pirates in late Feb.

 

[BrianL]

I didn't see long lines for either when I was there in October. JOTLM gets busy sometimes though becasue it is newer. I can see the issue on POTC where one whole side of the loading area is FP+ only. What I witnessed was NOBODY on that side, and no waiting on the SB side. There is no way with that setup though that they can shift SB over to the other side if the need arose.

 

[Hisgirl]

We went Saturday morning and also yesterday morning and walked onto Pirates. Like, literally, walked on with no line.

 

[DCDisney]

Yes FP+ is mostly shifting waits around in my experience unless you plan REALLY well. I planned on pirates being a short line but when we walked by on Friday and Sunday this week it was 40 mins wait. I also checked MDE it was ranging 20 ish or more. Not sure if it had been down because now when that happens it makes the FP+ line huge and BTMR had been down and they let you use the FP+ for pirates if you wanted automatically (we got an email). Under the Seas was listed as 20 but it was really about 10. Small world was 10 mins the whole trip. Buzz was definitely a longer line to me. HM was a bit longer to me as well. The headliners seemed about the same and the no wait ever were about the same but the ones in the middle seemed to have 5-10 min longer waits to me.

 

[ariel326]

Attendence overall seems to be growing- so that would make the lines longer, with our without FP's

I checked the MDE app quite a bit while we were there and we worked the crowds depending on wait times with that app. If it had a long line, we did something else, if it had a short line, we did it then.

Here are some of the wait times we had over our MLK weekend trip

Pirates- 20 minutes posted, about 15 minutes actual
Jungle cruise- 10
BTMRR- we had a FP, line was about 45 when we got there for our FP

Small World-5
Peter pan- We had a FP, line was about 60 when we got there for our FP
Belle- we had a FP, line was about 50 when we got there for our FP
Mermaid, we wait 40 for the ride, and another 2o for the M&G
Pooh- 15 minutes

Haunted Mansion- 10- The ride itself had been temporarily closed, and we got there when it had just opened back up. Good timing!

Buzz light year- 15 minutes
Monsters Inc- 15 minutes
Space mountain - I waited 60 minutes, while DH and DS went and did other things

Like I said, we worked the crowds, stayed the WHOLE day and were willing to come back and try later if the line was too long.