Posted wait times

[Lilsia]

Comsidering that it’s virtually impossible to know wait times precisely, and that it makes sense to overstate rather than understate wait times, I don’t think the posted wait times are as sinister as others do.

All you have to do is ask a cast member that works the ride consistently. I have found that they are pretty spot on if you ask them how long the wait is. Plus they used to hand out those little cards that they scan that kept track of wait times.

 

[wisblue]

All you have to do is ask a cast member that works the ride consistently. I have found that they are pretty spot on if you ask them how long the wait is. Plus they used to hand out those little cards that they scan that kept track of wait times.

Yes, but those red cards were a lagging indicator of the wait time.

If someone were handed a red card while entering a line at 1 PM and handed in the card at 2 PM, that would tell them that the actual wait at 1 PM was 60 minutes. That doesn’t mean that the actual wait time at 2 PM is still 60 minutes.

There are inevitably going to be some ebbs and flows in actual wait times, especially for the most popular attractions.

If a CM at the attraction thinks the current wait time is about 30 minutes, I would bet they are instructed to post something like 40- 45 minutes to anticipate the possibility of a surge.

Especially in the middle of the day I think those posted wait times are inflated mostly to avoid guest dissatisfaction, not to deviously squeeze more money out of them. Just my opinion.

We also use the Touring Plans estimates as a guide to deciding whether or not to enter a line. Often there isn’t that much of a difference, and some times there is. We usually find our actual wait to be between the two, and maybe closer to the TP estimate.

 

[hsmamato2]

Back when FoP was newer,I tried to hop in line about 15-20 minutes before closing,and they had closed the line...has anyone else experienced this happening? does it still happen?

 

[tguz]

We were at WDW in early December and found the posted wait times to be overstated most of the time . I always checked the Touring Plans expected wait time and found it to be pretty accurate in all but a few instances.

We were there from Dec 6 - Dec 15 and agree that wait times were inflated during our full trip. We had no probs jumping in line for a 45 minute wait because they almost always were only 25 minute waits.

 

[tguz]

Back when FoP was newer,I tried to hop in line about 15-20 minutes before closing,and they had closed the line...has anyone else experienced this happening? does it still happen?

It did not happen at all to us during our 10 night trip in December. That is one of our daily plans.....jump in line at the end of the night and still get to ride.

 

[Tom_E_D]

There is a TP Blogpost, written in November, comparing the accuracy of posted wait times pre-Genie vs. with Genie, ILL vs. non-ILL. It's worth a look if you're interested.

 

[gharter]

Back when FoP was newer,I tried to hop in line about 15-20 minutes before closing,and they had closed the line...has anyone else experienced this happening? does it still happen?

I have not ever had that happen if we were in line even a minute or 2 before closing. we usually try to be in line 5 minutes before close. We were in line at SDD and the CMs even let people into the line after close .Not sure that happens very often, but that night the line was really short.