Riding rides at park closing time?

[westminster]

I understand you’re allowed to ride attractions at end of day so long as you get on line before park closing time. I’ve also read that wait times are intentionally exaggerated at that time of day to dissuade people from riding. What are folks’ general experience with riding headliners at end of day? For example, if we wanted to ride FOP and get on line at 7:59 for an 8:00 park close, how long can we expect to wait? If posted wait times are 90 min, what can we expect to be actual wait time? Same question for Space Mountain at 8:59 PM? I am thinking about this as a strategy to ride some things twice that we already have an FP for.

 

[pwmitch237]

I've waited 20 minutes at closing for FOP, and 80 minutes.

Usually, you will find the wait much smaller than what is posted.

For some attractions, they will start closing off some portions of the attraction (e.g. one side of Space Mountain), prior to the queue being completely empty if it is late closing, but the lack of fastpass, especially for the headliners, will significantly speed up your wait time.

The big factors here: Are Extra Magic Hours or another after hours event occurring? Is the park's night-time entertainment at park closing? How crowded was the park that day? How late is the park closing time? All of these factors can change the wait time, but it will be minimal and moving.

 

[Robo]

1. I understand you’re allowed to ride attractions at end of day so long as you get on line before park closing time.
2. I’ve also read that wait times are intentionally exaggerated at that time of day to dissuade people from riding.
3. if we wanted to ride FOP and get on line at 7:59 for an 8:00 park close, how long can we expect to wait?
4. If posted wait times are 90 min, what can we expect to be actual wait time?
5. Same question for Space Mountain at 8:59 PM?
6. I am thinking about this as a strategy to ride some things twice that we already have an FP for.

1. Generally true.
2. Yes.
3. Well, I'd not wait until 7:59... More like 7:35 to 7:50-ish to be "safer."
4. & 5. There is no standard "formula" as to the listed wait time vs. the actual wait time.
(The CMs can just basically choose a time to post. Sometimes that number can be well over an hour or even two.)
Some rides will have longer standby waits than others and that wait can be substantially longer (or shorter) on any given night.
6. Should normally be a good plan. (But, if there has been a "breakdown" earlier and/or the standby line is simply "TOO long," they may start a "cut-off" point even earlier than closing time.
Again, don't wait "too" late to get to the attraction.
(And, understand that this will only work for a guest for ONE attraction per night.
So make your choice and hope for the best.)

 

[DavidNYC]

For headlines I roughly estimate half of what is posted although as others have mentioned - it does vary. But I find that half is usually in a reasonable ballpark (also assuming everything is running normally).

 

[Heather07438]

We made it over to Milennium Falcon with only seconds to spare and ended up waiting around 20 mins. Not bad at all, probably because most people chose to watch HS fireworks or do SDD.

As David posted above me, park closing wait time is usually half of what they post. Even the hardest rides end up being 45 mins or under, and worst cases are never much beyond 60 mins.

 

[Klayfish]

Depends on the attraction. For many, you'll literally walk right on. TSMM is a great example. At 8:50pm, there is absolutely zero line. Same with things like Small World, SE, EE, etc... In our experience, the ones that still have lines at park close are the really popular headliners, such as FOP, 7DMT. However, even those lines aren't that long.

 

[mjr0483]

The posted times are exaggerated for sure.

 

[cgattis]

Depends on the attraction. For many, you'll literally walk right on. TSMM is a great example. At 8:50pm, there is absolutely zero line. Same with things like Small World, SE, EE, etc... In our experience, the ones that still have lines at park close are the really popular headliners, such as FOP, 7DMT. However, even those lines aren't that long.

We’ve had a wait for TSMM at close. As PP have said, all sorts of factors can cause there to be some wait. But again, probably still much less than posted.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I wouldn't wait until one minute before park closing, that's cutting it much too close. We jumped in line for FOP about 20 minutes before closing, posted wait time was 210 minutes, we waited just under an hour.

 

[westminster]

Thanks all, super helpful. And point well taken, we won’t cut it too close!

Are Extra Magic Hours or another after hours event occurring? Is the park's night-time entertainment at park closing? How crowded was the park that day? How late is the park closing time?

For our MK day, park close is at 9, no EMH or after hours events, high crowds expected. My idea was to hit Tomorrowland after the fireworks (and during OUAT) to ride Astro and PeopleMover, and then ride Space or Buzz at end of night depending on wait times.

For our AK day, park close is at 8, no EMH or after hour events, also high crowds expected. Planning to walk around Pandora after ROL to see it all lit up and was thinking this would be a good time to hit FOP if kids want to ride it again (we have FP for earlier in the day).

 

[Darcy03231]

For us posted wait time at FOP was about an hour and half. We waited about 40 minutes.

 

[gharter]

In general, we get in line about 5 minutes before the park closes.
The posted wait times at closing are usually inflated a lot. FoP we have waited 15-35 minutes when posted was 60-90.
SDD was 15 and posted 60.
The lines also move faster as there is no FP line.

 

[AngiTN]

In general, we get in line about 5 minutes before the park closes.
The posted wait times at closing are usually inflated a lot. FoP we have waited 15-35 minutes when posted was 60-90.
SDD was 15 and posted 60.
The lines also move faster as there is no FP line.

Which also contributes to the incorrect wait times.
The times displayed at closing are taking in to consideration FP returnees.
They never re-update them after closing so having no more FP to slow down stand by it greatly changes wait time.
So it's not just to keep folks from getting in line. That's more just a by-product of the fact that they no longer update the returns.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I did FOP about 5 minutes before closing during Spring Break last year. It had a posted wait time of 90 minutes, I think. But we were through and off the ride in about 30. I’ve also done 7DMT at the end of night and that line took about 15 minutes to get through.

 

[mkla2015]

Never tried FOP but we did get in line for SDD about 30 mins before park closing and waited about an hour... the posted time was 90 minutes.

 

[MarkS2112]

I understand you’re allowed to ride attractions at end of day so long as you get on line before park closing time. I’ve also read that wait times are intentionally exaggerated at that time of day to dissuade people from riding. What are folks’ general experience with riding headliners at end of day? For example, if we wanted to ride FOP and get on line at 7:59 for an 8:00 park close, how long can we expect to wait? If posted wait times are 90 min, what can we expect to be actual wait time? Same question for Space Mountain at 8:59 PM? I am thinking about this as a strategy to ride some things twice that we already have an FP for.

So on our January trip we were able to do MFSM 3 times in the last hour with posted wait times of 3 minutes. They let us on at 759. At Space Mountain we went on minutes before closing and the wait was less than 1/2 the posted 50 minute time.

So times are generally less than posted.

For FOP everyone does the end of day trick so we have found that it will still be a long wait.

Many times it depends on when the park closes. If it closes the same time as fireworks then the waits are way low. If there is Extra Evening Hours then likely not so much so because resort guests like us are going there.

 

[brockash]

I wouldn't wait until one minute before park closing, that's cutting it much too close. We jumped in line for FOP about 20 minutes before closing, posted wait time was 210 minutes, we waited just under an hour.

Just curious why would recommend getting in line 20 mins prior as opposed to a few mins. prior?

 

[Robo]

Just curious why would recommend getting in line 20 mins prior as opposed to a few mins. prior?

They can sometimes arbitrarily cut off guests entering the line if it gets too far backed up.
Doesn't happen very often, but (depending on all kinds of things) it might happen on your night.

Besides, you might as well spend those last 15 min., or so, actually in the line.
If nothing else, you'll be ahead of others who arrive later.

 

[TarotFox]

I only jump in line prior to the last second if the time has ticked low enough that I don't think I'm be able to anything else in the amount of time left. 30 minutes left? Probably time for at least one less popular attraction before walking over and jumping in line.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I understand you’re allowed to ride attractions at end of day so long as you get on line before park closing time. I’ve also read that wait times are intentionally exaggerated at that time of day to dissuade people from riding. What are folks’ general experience with riding headliners at end of day? For example, if we wanted to ride FOP and get on line at 7:59 for an 8:00 park close, how long can we expect to wait? If posted wait times are 90 min, what can we expect to be actual wait time? Same question for Space Mountain at 8:59 PM? I am thinking about this as a strategy to ride some things twice that we already have an FP for.

We often find the posted wait time to be about 4x the actual wait close to closing time.

Using FoP as an example, on our last visit we did jump in line at 9:29 for a 9:30 close. The posted wait was 80 minutes but we were in the first pre-show in 17.

At Space Mtn, we hopped in line 35 minutes before closing time and were able to ride 4 times. The posted wait was 50 minutes. That one did take a little running though. It’s a long way from the exit back to the entrance.

I have several other examples as this is our favorite time for multiple rerides.