Sources for PREVIOUS days' wait times

[ErinAlb]

Does anyone know of sources that provide the wait times that were posted during days that have already occurred? I'm trying to get a sense of the range of potential wait times at certain times of day — especially to brace for worst-case-scenario lines, since I'm going to Disney World during a holiday.

I've been going through Touring Plans' "observed wait times" for dates during the most recent Christmas-New Year week. Does anyone know any other sources for this data? I'd like to double-check against another source.

I don't want averages, I want to know the actual times that MDE posted.

(I do understand that MDE wait times are not always accurate, but that's what we'll have to go by when we're in the park and making decisions about whether our plans need to change.)

Thank you so much!!

 

[monkyby87]

I can't think of any sites that compile that data, especially since they change constantly, and are much more variable now than they used to be. It's so hard now to predict wait times, the best you'll get is probably an average. I understand that's not what you're wanting, but that's probably all you'll find.
And if I'm being honest here, I don't think studying past wait times will benefit you, especially if you're going during a holiday. What you've already done is your best bet. Everything else is just too variable and ever changing. The range of wait times can be from anywhere from 15-90 minutes, for every ride, lol. SDD, FOP, and 7DMT can get up to 120 and more.

EDIT: I hadn't thought of touring plans, but they would indeed be the place to go for times. That doesn't change my opinion though that it's all a waste, lol.

 

[dfisher9]

Touring Plans has graphs for each attraction on each day that has predicted wait times, reported wait times, and posted wait times. Go to historical crowds, pick a month, pick a day, then pick a park, and you will get the charts.

 

[ErinAlb]

I can't think of any sites that compile that data, especially since they change constantly, and are much more variable now than they used to be. It's so hard now to predict wait times, the best you'll get is probably an average. I understand that's not what you're wanting, but that's probably all you'll find.
And if I'm being honest here, I don't think studying past wait times will benefit you, especially if you're going during a holiday. What you've already done is your best bet. Everything else is just too variable and ever changing. The range of wait times can be from anywhere from 15-90 minutes, for every ride, lol. SDD, FOP, and 7DMT can get up to 120 and more.

Yeah, I can't believe the range of wait times (and the range of how fast wait times get long) just for days that were rated "Crowd Level 10" on Touring Plans. But everyone says to have a plan, and I'd definitely rather plan for the worst and hope for the best — as opposed to planning for the average and finding out I should have planned for the worst, and as a result I don't have a plan at all.

ETA: For example, a lot of the recommended itineraries I've seen would be completely unworkable based on what I'm seeing for level 10 crowd days on Touring Plans' historical data.

 

[monkyby87]

I understand, it's hard to go in without much of a plan, especially during holiday times. But being flexible and not having a strict itinerary will be helpful. That way when things do change or something happens, you aren't completely lost. No plan at all can be bad, but over-planning can be just as bad.

 

[ErinAlb]

I understand, it's hard to go in without much of a plan, especially during holiday times. But being flexible and not having a strict itinerary will be helpful. That way when things do change or something happens, you aren't completely lost. No plan at all can be bad, but over-planning can be just as bad.

I'm shooting for sort of a plan of descending contingencies. So it's not really, "be at this ride at 8:17 a.m." but more like, "Here's what we're shooting for, and we have some idea which rides we want to strike from the list first." (And we have some idea of rides we might add if it turns out crowds aren't all that bad.)

So, here's an example of decisions based on the TP times I've looked at so far for busy days when Magic Kingdom opened at 8 a.m. (7 EMH), as well as a bunch of personal factors:

8 a.m. park opens to general admission - we have 7 a.m. EMH and will be in Fantasyland during that time
-Big Thunder Mountain (TOP PRIORITY - be prepared to abandon Fantasyland attractions to be here at 8 a.m.; the line gets long quickly, per ride data)
-Splash Mountain (only if the weather is decent and we're making good time after BTMRR)
-Pick up Pirate Adventure material on way to ...
-Pirates of Caribbean (TOP PRIORITY - close to Frontierland, and this line consistently stays short for quite awhile, per ride data)
-Aladdin's Carpets (only if it's a very short line & we're making good time, but this is a probably-scratch item)

By about 9:15
-Haunted Mansion (TOP PRIORITY - but our "worth it" threshold is about 40 minutes in line. If crowds are insane, we'd scrap Splash Mountain and Aladdin's Carpets to make it here before the line is 45+ minutes. Ride data suggests 9:15 is well within safe.)

10:00 (or after Haunted Mansion)
-Hopefully a fastpass for Seven Dwarves, Peter Pan or Jungle Cruise
-If that doesn't work out, there are several clusters of low- and no-line things to do. Also snacks, recombobulating, etc.

Do you guys think this seems reasonable, or am I being too planny? The idea is to identify just a few must-dos for 8-10 a.m. (BTMRR, Pirates and Haunted Mansion for the first two hours); have a pessimistic idea of when those lines are good; and fill in the rest with descending-priority attractions. I'm with seniors and small children, so walking stamina/proximity is a big factor.

 

[monkyby87]

I think that's a good plan, though in my own casual-nature I wouldn't even put time frames on it. I would just do by priority and not break down by time frames so much. But that's just me.

 

[2boysmommy]

easywdw.com runs frequent analysis of wait times for every attraction at WDW parks. It's a lot of information (!) but I'm sure you can find what you are looking for. It's all buried within blog posts but his information is pretty dang accurate.

 

[ErinAlb]

I think that's a good plan, though in my own casual-nature I wouldn't even put time frames on it. I would just do by priority and not break down by time frames so much. But that's just me.

Yeah, that's mostly a matter of bookending our three top-priority attractions so we don't show up at Haunted Mansion when the line is like an hour long.

Of course, It's a Small World could break down at 7:50 while we're on it during EMH, and then we're stuck on the little boats listening to that song for an hour. If that happens, we'll just dump the kids at Tom Sawyer's Island and go scavenging for valium. It'll still be a good day.

Really our biggest thing is park geography. At Disneyland last year we didn't plan very well. I'd never been to such a big theme park, and we ended doing things that were too far apart and got exhausted/hot/sore. At one point I had to run off to get something, and when I returned I found my 5-year-old in a princess dress, face down on the Old Hollywood street in Disney California Adventure. She wasn't crying, she wasn't moving. She was just lying there like a chalk outline, with her nose smushed into the pavement and her eyes closed. She said she was tired and wanted her shorts. So we peeled off her dress, my mom and I started drinking, and we just hit whatever rides were both nearby and semi-interesting. Everything was great, and the day went a lot more smoothly after that.

But I'm told winging it is easier in California. The lines were definitely shorter than what I've seen on MDE, and WDW seems to require a lot more knowledge of EMH strategy, FP strategy, rope drop strategy, ADRs, online snack orders, magic bands, bus schedules, etc. Like, you wouldn't dare wait an hour to stroll over to Big Thunder Mountain in Florida (we walked on at 10 a.m. in California). So even if making a plan isn't totally realistic, I feel like the planning process gives me some knowledge that could help us make decisions in a situation where margins could be tight. Does that make sense? Maybe it's just for my own peace of mind, to FEEL like we know what we're doing.