Space Mountain Line on Thanksgiving night

[bexareaglecheryl]

I have been busy since I got home last weekend from our trip to WDW. Thanksgiving night was our last day at WDW before we left for home and DH and I wanted to eat up the last few hours of our PH tix. We were driving to MK while Wishes was going on at 10pm and it was fun to watch the fireworks driving up to the MK in the dark bus with just one other couple.

Well it was about 10:20 (park was open until 12pm and we stayed until well after that looking for a crazy hat on Main Street that our son had been looking for for days and which was magically found by a wonderful CM at 12:39 am).

Ok, 10:20 pm and the people are flowing out of the MK and we walk over to give Space Mtn a try. I have to use a Guest Assistance pass b/c of my disease and we had been using the FP line for a week. Well, surprise surprise! The standby line and the FP line were about the same and BOTH reached out to the about the Launching Pad restaurant. Amazing. I had no idea a line could even be this long. I could not even estimate the standby time and the sign read 50 minutes but that was a joke.

WoW. I now realize how spoiled we'd been in the previous week and our 2 previous trips in early Dec and mid Jan.

I am still 'Wowing' the length of that line that night. Of course we went over to BTMRR instead where the FP line was only about 10 minutes.

 

[SpaceMounatin]

OH WOW! I wonder how long that must of been!

 

[jimmiej]

Could it have been that they were "stacking?" That is, holding the line outside so it discouraged others from getting in line. This allows them to close the attraction at or near closing. Just a thought. Maybe a little early for that.

 

[Horizons16]

I have waited in that line before and it seemed like it was only 20 minutes from that point. A lot of the time it seems to be stacked, the star tunnel you walk through until you get to the actualy interior qeue which wrapped twice thats it. If you think about it, its a short ride with lots or cars so its pretty smooth operation.

As for the FP line maybe there was a shut down earlier and everyone decided to come back then??? I have never seen anything like what was described.

~Steve

 

[tjkraz]

Don't they have a single rider line now on SM? Are you certain it wasn't that line you saw?

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

We went on SpaMtn about 5x during our 8 day stay and I had a Guest Assistance Pass because of my disease which makes it hard for me to stand for extended periods of time. If I were in a line that was more than about 20 minutes I would have to get out of it to go to the bathroom, plus I probably would have started to have bladder spasms. With the GAP you are eligible to get into the shortest line possible. At SM that was only the FP line from what I could see. I never saw a Single Rider line there while we were at MK.

The stacking idea is interesting. The time we were there was at about 10:20 pm and like I said the closing time was Midnight. We started asking folks "are you sure this is the Fast Pass line for SpaMtn?". Everyone was so happy and full of Disney cheer that night they were all laughing and saying, "Yep, believe it or night this is the FP line!" We went all the way up to the front of the FP entrance and the StandyBy entrance to see what the deal was and, sure enough all we could see were people. We had not been in the MK all day that day so I could not speak to the crowds at SpaMtn during the other parts of the day, but I am sure that it was packed! Of course, we nixed that ride that night. Went over to SPlash Mtn.and BTMRR and then saw SpectroMagic in the relatively quiet isolation of Pecos Bill's exit area (this is my favorite place to see the late night parades, because it's at the end and hardly anyone is around and it's so cute to see the characters high up on the floats keep waving and acting cute right before those large gates are closed at the end of the parade.)

SM is my favorite indoor roller ride. RnR kills me and I've only braved it once.

Also, on our previous MK trips I never noticed that as you look up at the sky when you get inside the dome area near the loading area every few seconds or so you can see the lighted ride cars and the glow in the dark paint illuminated on the sides of the ride cars go by way up in the 'sky'. That was so cool. I suppose that is common knowledge but I had ever noticed it before. Now that we've been to WDW enough times (plus maybe I'm getting a little older), I'm really starting to enjoy and notice the little things about the theming of each ride's queue.

I sure would like to hear about that line from someone who was there that night.

 

[DisneyWisher]

Space Mountain doesn't have a single rider line. Only Missions Space and Test Track do.

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

It'll be great when the hang gliding ride ( Soarin Over California, I haven't heard what it will definitely be at WDW) opens at Epcot. We rode it multiple times at Disney's California Adventure (DCA)in February utilizing the Single Rider line. It was a terrific way to experience this phenomenal attraction without waiting in the ridiculouly long Standby and even the FP line. You get in even faster than the FP people. That is one attraction that I can't wait to experience again. I nearly cried as we soared down over DL during the night parade with Mickey and Minnie waving up at us and then ended with us soaring into the fireworks over the castle. Wow!