six hour wait for flights of passage this weekend????

[MomOTwins]

I am not in the least bit surprised. There were 300+ minute waits every day when we went there the Christmas after it opened. President's Day weekend is known to be one of the busiest weekends of the year. The problem is compounded at AK where there are very few rides compared to some other parks; it is only a full day park if you include shows and the zoo walkthroughs, which in turn increases demand for Pandora.

My attitude when we go with Disney is not to expect to go on everything, and just enjoy what we are able to do. We got to go on it once, and I enjoyed it, but not six-hours-in-line enjoyed it. I don't get to plan far enough ahead with my line of work to book vacations 60+ days ahead, and I know we are almost certainly not going to ride it on our upcoming trip a week from now (booked last week). We might check out the posted wait time at park closing and if it is not bad go on either FOP or Navi then, but I doubt it. We are planning to spend the morning at MK and just go to AK in the afternoon and have afternoon FPs for safaris, lion king show, and Everest.

 

[FSU Girl]

That is just insane. I try to not even ride anything without a fastpass anymore. That's an entire day for one ride, no way. The lines for Star Wars are going to be even more insane. We aren't renewing our annual passes and going to give the crowds some time to adjust to the new rides before we head back.

 

[dlavender]

That is just insane. I try to not even ride anything without a fastpass anymore. That's an entire day for one ride, no way. The lines for Star Wars are going to be even more insane. We aren't renewing our annual passes and going to give the crowds some time to adjust to the new rides before we head back.

This is us too...

Didn't renew our AP's this year as every time there is a 3 day weekend and we wanted to go, so did everyone else....

Also speaks to the issue of AK having such a small number of rides. 100k people and 6 rides leads to long waits......They are slowly adding things to the other parks, but HS is going to have the same problem even with SWGE.

 

[wilbret]

How in the world do you pass the time? I can see cell phones dying and people panicking...

 

[sachilles]

Do they still open Animal kingdom an hour before published time just for Pandora? They had done this last year during our visit. Made it possible for us to get on the ride quickly.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I showed my fiancé the story on FB and I said, I guess you don’t think I’m crazy to get up at 6 am 60 days out to make Fastpass+ reservations anymore, do you? Lol this was the day after an article about how dating or marrying a Disney Theme Park fan is advantageous and sent into detail about how the uninitiated get a great vacation with very little planning because some of us live for this high of scoring certain Fastpasses!

 

[Erzengel]

I'm not sure how people are but, if I don't ride Seven Dwarves, or Frozen or Slinky Dog when I'm each respective park, I won't leave disappointed. But, FOP, Soarin or Tower of Terror/Star Tours, Space Mountain? I'd be upset leaving the park without riding those.

 

[DisneyPrincess1984]

Okay so we're planning on going next February and have never been in February before. Is this just because it's President's Day week? If we go early February, will we fair better? (I understand SWGE but -- ) -- or is all of February typically like this now?

 

[eliseisawkward]

Okay so we're planning on going next February and have never been in February before. Is this just because it's President's Day week? If we go early February, will we fair better? (I understand SWGE but -- ) -- or is all of February typically like this now?

We were there 2/5 and did the DAH at AK, but we did keep an eye on day time waits and they were really not bad that day. Went to universal 2/6 and almost every ride was 10 min max wait until about noon when the crowd increased some wait times to a whopping 20 min.

I think early Feb is one of the least crowded times, but all bets are off once SW:GE opens... so it’s a dice roll for next year.

 

[Ds4angels]

I wonder how many people saw that thing and thought it was a 3 hour wait, not really doing the math in their head correctly

 

[igrsod]

We were at AK this past Friday... the wait time for FOP was insane. I believe at one point while we were riding it FP, we heard over the speaker that due to technical issues wait times would be longer than expected. That might have been when the 4-6 hour waits occurred. If you were already in line and had been there for an hour or so, I suppose many people would just wait it out and hope for the best, you are already so invested. It is a great ride, but not worth standing in line for more than an hour for. The fact that one ride gets such long lines tells me that Disney is slipping in finding enough experiences for the amount of people they are allowing into the park per day. The lines shouldn't get to that point. We had over hour waits for everything that we didn't have a FP for. We are lucky that we go many times a year, so we don't mind if we don't do everything, but I feel for those that don't get to come often and they really feel the desire to experience as much as possible per trip. I hope Disney reads these posts and realizes that there is a tipping point and they need to be careful and not turn off people.

 

[yulilin3]

I wonder how many people saw that thing and thought it was a 3 hour wait, not really doing the math in their head correctly

this happens all the time. I'm walking around and hear people say "oh it's an hour and 30 minutes" when in fact it says 130 minutes. People get vacation brain the minute they step inside the parks

 

[yulilin3]

Okay so we're planning on going next February and have never been in February before. Is this just because it's President's Day week? If we go early February, will we fair better? (I understand SWGE but -- ) -- or is all of February typically like this now?

Presidents Day weekend has affected crowds for sure. The "normal" wait time for FoP is around the 2 to 2.5 hours. As of right now the wait is 4 hours

 

[otten]

That is just insane. I try to not even ride anything without a fastpass anymore. That's an entire day for one ride, no way. The lines for Star Wars are going to be even more insane. We aren't renewing our annual passes and going to give the crowds some time to adjust to the new rides before we head back.

Yep we're doing a Panama Canal cruise next year instead. And it doesn't sail out of PC next year so there won't be any temptation to visit a park beforehand.

 

[HydroGuy]

Well, this old timer has decided to stop giving Disney our money . After 16 years of yearly trips, our trip in December really felt like Disney has pushed us past our tolerance level. It was packed. They have Raised the price of the candy bar and made it smaller by cramming more people in the parks, having steep price increases and making people wait 3-6 hours for some attractions.
We will wait about 5 years, then see how things are then. Maybe other people are reaching their tolerance level too. FOP is the greatest ride I have ever ridden, but to us, its just not worth it anymore.

Disney is amazingly popular and the only way to manage the demand is to increase prices (to keep some people away, like yourself unfortunately) and/or to expand the parks and increase capacity (Pandora/TSL/SWGE + others in the works at Epcot and MK).

 

[agame2323]

I've been happily spending my money with US for the last 5-6 years. I'm trying to talk myself back into giving Disney a shot but hearing things like this... I don't know. Is this like the ONLY great ride in the park?

 

[Beer Me]

I was talking about this with another resort guest this past week at Disney. I did not go to AK but we were saying if you are paying over $100 for a ticket, you should be able to get on every ride in a park. They should limit how many people can enter a park per day. I just can't justify spending $120 to stand in line for more than hour. That is just absurd.

I agree but would also note that you should be able to ride most everything if you plan ahead with FP and arrive before rope drop. I can't imagine any normal scenario where you have to wait multiple hours for a single attraction.

 

[BK2014]

Unfortunately, Disney does not care and will not miss you. There are plenty of others coming along that pay and will continue to pay. Not saying that to sound mean but it’s the harsh reality of how Disney runs their business.

This is not harsh, nor is it unique to Disney. Any company that had a product in such high demand that they can keep raising prices while keeping demand high would do so. Especially a publicly traded company like Disney; they owe a duty to their stockholders.

 

[Mome Rath]

I've been happily spending my money with US for the last 5-6 years. I'm trying to talk myself back into giving Disney a shot but hearing things like this... I don't know. Is this like the ONLY great ride in the park?

IMO, no it's definitely is not the only great ride in the park, but for me, it's the best ride of any theme park at this time. Wait 6 hours for it? Heck no. Plan a trip so I can ride again with a FP, heck yes. lol

 

[otten]

I've been happily spending my money with US for the last 5-6 years. I'm trying to talk myself back into giving Disney a shot but hearing things like this... I don't know. Is this like the ONLY great ride in the park?

It's a good ride but to me the best parts of Animal Kingdom aren't Flight of Passage or Pandora. It's the street entertainment and the walking trails. No lines for those.

As for Universal, when I went last winter Forbidden Journey was posting 4 hour waits so it's not like these excessive wait times are unique to Disney.