Stand By Wait Times Since FP+

[jhaig]

I keep seeing stand by wait times that blow my mind. 60+ minutes for Pirates, 30+ for Small World, 45+ for Haunted Mansion etc. Is this the new norm, where if you don't have a FP+ for a certain ride you will have a much longer wait? We haven't been to WDW since the inception of Magic Bands and our next trip is scheduled for the second week of September. I am dreading having to possibly have an hour-long stand by wait for rides that have historically not even needed a fast pass to begin with. I am hoping, also, that since we are going in September it won't make much of a difference. Please help ease this obsessive planner's troubled mind

 

[KatieCharlotte]

I started worrying about those wait times also and checked out the touring plans website and looked at real wait times from the day before, hour by hour. I noticed, for example with PotC, that the wait times go up and down a lot all day long. I believe it will still be possible to avoid the worst wait times. I think IASW is still very manageable also.

However, because Haunted Mansion is my kids' favorite ride and we always end up there once in the afternoon and once in the evening, I am seriously thinking about booking an afternoon FP+. (My kids are not interested in the mountains or ETWB).

 

[CurtisB]

We were at WDW from Jan 2-9th and never saw wait times like that. Yes the usuals like Toy Story Mania, Soarin', Space Mountain, etc had longer wait times but I never saw Haunted Mansion get above 25 min wait. It didn't seem to me that FP+ had any impact on the standby wait times.

 

[shalom]

Is this the new norm, where if you don't have a FP+ for a certain ride you will have a much longer wait?

I've been concerned about this as well, but for everyone talking about huge waits there's someone else saying they were just there and FP+ worked great because they got to do lots of things with little waiting.

Since Disney has a history of deliberately inflating waits to steer people away from some rides, and because the addition of the FP+ lines at some attractions make the lines harder to guage, I also have more faith in the people who are actually riding than I do the people who are just recording the posted waits.

Hopefully by September things will have settled enough that Touring Plans and EasyWDW and the like have a much better idea of what actual wait times with FP+ are. And I think that a pretty reasonable hope -- WDW is highly motivated to get FP+ up and running Most Soonest.

Best of luck!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I've been concerned about this as well, but for everyone talking about huge waits there's someone else saying they were just there and FP+ worked great because they got to do lots of things with little waiting.

Since Disney has a history of deliberately inflating waits to steer people away from some rides, and because the addition of the FP+ lines at some attractions make the lines harder to guage, I also have more faith in the people who are actually riding than I do the people who are just recording the posted waits.

Hopefully by September things will have settled enough that Touring Plans and EasyWDW and the like have a much better idea of what actual wait times with FP+ are. And I think that a pretty reasonable hope -- WDW is highly motivated to get FP+ up and running Most Soonest.

Best of luck!

My thoughts as well at this point.

 

[gamerlovesdisney]

When I went to Disney last October, SB lines were terrible. I got in the line for TSMM at 9:10 in the morning and didn't get out until 10:45. I always go the same time of year and I could normally ride it twice before 10:00 using the SB line. I especially remember the long SB line at the HM. We waited over a hour just to get inside the building. I was really surprised at this since the SB line was always so quick in the past. The long SB lines really affected our vacation - we didn't do as much as we could in the past. Oh, and even though we did have our 3 FP+ each day, we found that we only averaged 1 each day because we were always on the wrong side of the park or eating when the time window was open. I guess I'm just not good at daily planning - I prefer going with the flow.

Do remember that this was during the initial testing of the FP+ so things may have changed.

 

[Eoghann]

I'm not judging anyone in particular, but I'm finding the wait time reports hard to credit as reliable. They all seem to be either incredibly long or incredibly short. And frequently for the same ride on the same day.

I don't know what the different factors are but it's hard to believe in rides that have wait lines swinging wildly for 90 minutes to 15 and then to 60 minutes again.

Particularly when that's not what sites like Touring Plans have been reporting.

 

[daizieduck]

I was at MK on Saturday. It was very busy but wait times at 12:30 pm were only 25 min for Buzz Light year, 10 for Stitch and Monsters, zero for the transportation authority. On the other side of the park though wait times for Pirates and Jungle cruise were 50 minutes. It's a Small World was 40 minutes. I decided to wait. I didn't look at my watch but I am pretty sure it was not 40 minutes. Felt like 25 min max. Haunted Mansion said the wait was 25 min but the line was almost to Columbia Harbor House. Is that how long the line should be at 25 min out? I didn't wait to find out. Seeing that volume of people waiting was a turn off.

 

[Eoghann]

Haunted Mansion said the wait was 25 min but the line was almost to Columbia Harbor House. Is that how long the line should be at 25 min out? I didn't wait to find out. Seeing that volume of people waiting was a turn off.

People naturally tend to connect queue length and wait time because it's self-evident that more people means a longer time.

But it's a little more complicated than that, because it is actually possible for a line to be longer, but also moving faster than a short line.

For example let's say that there were very few FP+ people boarding. Then the line is long because everyone is standing in the one queue, but it will move faster, because there are few people jumping in front.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

Can't you just look on the MDE app at any time and see what the waits are?

 

[Eoghann]

Can't you just look on the MDE app at any time and see what the waits are?

You can, but some people don't believe those posted wait times.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

You can, but some people don't believe those posted wait times.

Yeah, I can see that. The last time we were there was before MDW so we used Lines and UT and I found the UT app to be very accurate. Not sure about now though.

 

[Eoghann]

The Touring Plans Lines app always worked well for me. But I never tested it out "to the minute" just as a broad strokes thing of that one's quiet lets do that.

 

[jhaig]

I'm not sure I necessarily believe any of the posted times at all. If Pirates is above 40 min in Sept.......? No way.

 

[nfceagles]

Wish I was in MK today. Wait times look great. Space Mountain's been 10 minutes all day. BTMR 10 minutes. Pirates 5mins. ETWB just moved from 20 to 30. HM is at 15.

Touring Plans has MK at a 2 today.

MDE times seem a pretty close match. Some things may have changed 5 minutes while I looked around. Everything at MK is listed under the Short Wait category in MDE.

Soarin and Test Track are at 35 and 40. Everything else at Epcot is at or below 15.

 

[DVCcurious]

Just got back and my answer to this question is yes and no.

The lines were longer. For example, Pirates now has one line for FP+ and one standby whereas they used to have two standbys. The standby line extends outside where I've never seen it that long in any previous trip. Same with HM, a very long (distance) line, and IASW also had linked chain extended queue working even though this was MLK week (like wednesday, not the weekend) which is a low time.

I also saw posted wait times that were longer than I've ever seen (and I've been in July 3 times). HM was an hour a lot of the time, Pirates at 40, heck I even saw DINOSAUR! at 45 minutes!!!

But I got in that DINOSAUR line and the actual wait was closer to 20, not 45. Pirates also seemed a lot quicker than the 40 posted, more like 25. So I think the posted wait times were inflated. But the lines were definitely much longer (distance, not necessarily time).

 

[ougrad86]

I use the Lines app - it shows the posted and the expected - that is the time it takes someone to go through the line - not that can change once you get to the end of the line, but that is supposedly how Disney does as well, and then adds a little to it; I did do it last time we were there, but very difficult to enter a time as your trying to get on a ride!

 

[nfceagles]

Wish I was in MK today. Wait times look great. Space Mountain's been 10 minutes all day. BTMR 10 minutes. Pirates 5mins. ETWB just moved from 20 to 30. HM is at 15.

Touring Plans has MK at a 2 today.

 

[jhaig]

So are the wait times being artificially inflated because there are lower crowds or are they trying to move crowds to other less popular attractions?

 

[delyrium]

From what I've read at on other sites, they're likely still figuring out how to accurately gauge wait times under the new system.