Toy Story Midway Mania?

[quantumottle]

I have not been to DL since 07', which was before TSM was opened. I just read where someone said they waited for TSM about 40 mins on a somewhat slow day. Is a 40 min wait for TSM considered good?

I would never even consider riding TSM at WDW without a fastpass, but I know that CA does not offer FP for TSM, so I'm curious about the wait times.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Sara*s_Mommie]

I think that depends on when you go. I went at the end of September (a Friday/Saturday) and the week before Halloween. We never waited more than 30 minutes - I'm thinking around 20 minutes. I also think it depends on when you ride. First thing should be ok, and later in the evening. But mid-morning to afternoon would be longer, I think.

 

[DDhunter]

We go frequently, and the line is almost always posted at 30 minutes. The lines move pretty fast. It was posted at 40 last time we were there (1-2-10) but it ended up being closer to 30.

We mostly go on Saturdays and I rarely get into DCA before noon.

 

[auroralark]

I was just there on Tuesday. The park was not busy, and there was a 40 minute wait posted. (There was a 30 minute wait for Soarin', and a 35 minute wait for California Screamin'.)

 

[DLR29]

The ways to ride TSMM with a short(er) wait:

1. First thing in the morning at 10AM, SPRINT (as fast as they let you ) to the ride and try and be one of the first ones there.

2. We found out (on our last trip) that the lines in the last hour of the park's operating hours had a VERY short line for TSMM. Granted, it was from 9-10PM and most of the crowds were watching the electric parade or leaving right after it. Especially when the Electric Light Parade is playing, that part of the park is deserted almost.

The rest of the day sees waits about 25-40 min.

 

[Flitterific]

The ways to ride TSMM with a short(er) wait:

1. First thing in the morning at 10AM, SPRINT (as fast as they let you ) to the ride and try and be one of the first ones there.

2. We found out (on our last trip) that the lines in the last hour of the park's operating hours had a VERY short line for TSMM. Granted, it was from 9-10PM and most of the crowds were watching the electric parade or leaving right after it. Especially when the Electric Light Parade is playing, that part of the park is deserted almost.

The rest of the day sees waits about 25-40 min.

Ditto to the second tip. I've never been there for opening but I have heard that the line for TSMM grows very quickly so you definitely need to get there a little before the rope drop for DCA in order to be one of the first ones in line.

I'd say a 30 minute way for TSMM is about average. If it is longer than 40-45 minutes (during peak seasons), I usually go on something else and then go back.

 

[HydroGuy]

TSMM at DCA seems to have have a very unusual line pattern. It surges first thing in the morning and that surge gets up to 40 minutes on moderately busy days. It seems to get to 50 minutes on really busy days.

Then as they day progresses the line shortens. By the afternoon it will often go down to 30 minutes, and by late afternoon or early evening it will be down to 20. Both times we rode it at DCA we just waited until later in the day.

 

[quantumottle]

Thanks for all the info and tips! I've seen the wait for TSM get up to 150 mins at WDW, so I suppose 30 to 40 mins is great by comparison. My kids (spoiled by fastpasses, Ridemax, ridiculous hours of planning, etc.) will have to live with 30 to 40 min waits if they want to ride.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[HydroGuy]

Thanks for all the info and tips! I've seen the wait for TSM get up to 150 mins at WDW, so I suppose 30 to 40 mins is great by comparison. My kids (spoiled by fastpasses, Ridemax, ridiculous hours of planning, etc.) will have to live with 30 to 40 min waits if they want to ride.

Thanks again everyone!

My kids are the same way. TSM is now the hardest ride at DLR to do with a short line. It fills up fast in the morning. It does not have FP or, sadly, single rider anymore.

It sounds like the best time to do it is late evening. However that often conflicts with evening entertainment. And will conflict with the WoC show after it starts in April.

So on our last two trips we have ended up riding it once late afternoon with a 30 minute wait.

 

[Sherry E]

In my experience, getting on TSMM first thing in the morning (getting inside DCA before 10:00 a.m. and then heading straight over to the TSMM just before 10:00 a.m.) is the best way to get on it and beat the masses of people who will be riding it after that. During the day, the line is longer and slower. In general, the line for TSMM moves pretty quickly, so even if it says a 40-minute wait, it may not take that long unless the ride breaks down. I have gone on TSMM first thing in the morning, in the peak of the afternoon and also at night, and my best experience with the line so far was when we went first thing in the morning, with the second best being at night (however, the nighttime lines can be almost as long as the mid-day lines).

I think part of the reason why getting on TSMM immediately when DCA opens is effective (don't stop to do anything else - just head right there as soon as the CM's allow you to walk there) is that, because DCA opens at 10:00 a.m., many folks have already been playing over in DL for two, maybe even three, hours by that time and they don't want to necessarily break their stride in hitting all the rides in DL to hop over to DCA. They would rather stay put in DL for a while and then meander over to DCA a bit later, not right when it opens. So use that to your advantage and break away from DL at about 9:40 a.m., then head over to DCA and by the time you get in the gates, you won't have too much time before the CM's begin letting people walk to the Paradise Pier area, and you will be on the ride within ten minutes. Sometimes they even let folks walk back there at 9:45 a.m., sometimes 9:50 a.m. But by the time you reach and get into the the queue, it should be a 10- or 15-minute wait at most, if you do it this way and beat the throngs of people who will be showing up within the next 30 minutes to an hour. It is not an exact science and yes, something could go awry, but from my own experience and from what I have heard from others who have done TSMM this way, it has worked for enough people that I can safely recommend it!

 

[La2kw]

Thanks for all the info and tips! I've seen the wait for TSM get up to 150 mins at WDW, so I suppose 30 to 40 mins is great by comparison. My kids (spoiled by fastpasses, Ridemax, ridiculous hours of planning, etc.) will have to live with 30 to 40 min waits if they want to ride.

Thanks again everyone!

It's better without fastpass because no one gets stuck with excessively long waits. Everyone waits the same amount of time and I've never waited more than 45 minutes. Usually it's more like 20-30 minutes when we have gone. With fastpass you have to run from place to place collecting fastpasses or you get stuck with ridiculous lines. Disneyland has learned that lesson and has fewer fastpass attractions than WDW does.

 

[bumbershoot]

Getting there first thing in the morning is great.

But...even my 5 year old doesn't mind a solid 40 minute wait for TSMM. Well, maybe our first ride on it he minded, but once we realized what a great ride it is and how worth that wait is, no one complains anymore. The queue is nicely done, you share camaraderie with your fellow waiters in those moments when you suddenly realized there is yet ANOTHER switchback that you didn't see until then, and before you know it, you're on. Good line, great ride, I've ridden it with 40 minute waits twice in one day and no one minded that "lost" time at all!

 

[Sherry E]

Getting there first thing in the morning is great.

But...even my 5 year old doesn't mind a solid 40 minute wait for TSMM. Well, maybe our first ride on it he minded, but once we realized what a great ride it is and how worth that wait is, no one complains anymore. The queue is nicely done, you share camaraderie with your fellow waiters in those moments when you suddenly realized there is yet ANOTHER switchback that you didn't see until then, and before you know it, you're on. Good line, great ride, I've ridden it with 40 minute waits twice in one day and no one minded that "lost" time at all!

It is a very fast-moving line, that's for sure. But I know what you mean about those switchbacks you don't see or had forgotten about! They seem to be endless! Some rides at DLR, luckily, have lines that seem to zip along or that never keep you standing in one place for more than a minute, if that. POTC is another one like that - even though the POTC line had not been too terribly long on my recent DLR trips, it was soooooooooooo long in December that I almost didn't go on it. Fortunately, even though the line was longer than I had seen it since the late '80s or early '90s, it zipped right along and we were on the ride in no time. Oddly, the Buzz Lightyear line, which is sometimes long but usually fast moving, was very, very slow and long in December.

 

[quantumottle]

It's better without fastpass because no one gets stuck with excessively long waits. Everyone waits the same amount of time and I've never waited more than 45 minutes. Usually it's more like 20-30 minutes when we have gone. With fastpass you have to run from place to place collecting fastpasses or you get stuck with ridiculous lines. Disneyland has learned that lesson and has fewer fastpass attractions than WDW does.

Hmmm, that's gonna be difficult for me to wrap my mind around - that anything can be better "without" fastpass. I think I've got the FP system down to a science and my family and I absolutely love it. I can probably count on one hand how many times we've waited longwer than 20 minutes on anything, thanks in large part to FP's. Yes, it does require a bit more criss-crossing the park, but after doing that at WDW for a few years it'll be a breeze at DL and CA where the parks are so much better planned and laid out.

 

[geekypeach]

I guess it depends on the crowds when you go. We went mid-March (read: Spring Break) on a weekend day last year, and it was a relatively hot day at that. We had ditched the stroller and so had the 18 month old in arm. He was hot and cranky, and the queue seemed to go on forever. I wrote on our map ">60 minutes." Even that wouldn't have been bad if the little boy wasn't in the mood he was!!

 

[Eeee-va]

Hmmm, that's gonna be difficult for me to wrap my mind around - that anything can be better "without" fastpass. I think I've got the FP system down to a science and my family and I absolutely love it. I can probably count on one hand how many times we've waited longwer than 20 minutes on anything, thanks in large part to FP's. Yes, it does require a bit more criss-crossing the park, but after doing that at WDW for a few years it'll be a breeze at DL and CA where the parks are so much better planned and laid out.

There are two reasons I can think of that FP is kind of problematic. One is simply that standby lines go much, much slower when FP is in play, so it involves a lot more planning. I'm cool with doing more planning, as there would STILL be super-long standby lines for popular rides during peak season...without FP, they might just be 90 minutes instead of 120.

The other reason that I can think of that FP can be problematic is that it keeps people out of the queues and out on the streets/in the shops/etc. That makes Disneyland (which is much smaller footprint-wise than MK) feel more crowded, because thousands of people are "virtually" waiting for one ride while "physically" hanging out on Main Street waiting for a parade.

That said, I personally would rather be free to wander while "virtually" waiting elsewhere. So as much fun as it would be for everyone ELSE to be off the streets waiting in lines while I use FPs , that wouldn't quite be fair. So I would rather the park have FPs for certain rides--I like the system more or less as-is.

 

[ttds17]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE TSMM. Therefore, we are always there 30 minutes before the gate opens. I've had it happen two ways:

1. CM's open the main gate early even though no rides are running. TSMM riders circle around past Soarin' and CM's start a temporary TSMM line there. A few minutes before the rides open, a CM walks the line to the entrance of TSMM so that sprinters can't cut in front. We then enter the line and the ride opens.

2. They open the gates at 10am and we RUN to TSMM.

We've never waited more than 15 minutes doing it this way and sometimes we walk right on. It's the only way I will ride. I love this ride, but am also spoiled with short lines and FP's.

 

[quantumottle]

There are two reasons I can think of that FP is kind of problematic. One is simply that standby lines go much, much slower when FP is in play, so it involves a lot more planning. I'm cool with doing more planning, as there would STILL be super-long standby lines for popular rides during peak season...without FP, they might just be 90 minutes instead of 120.

The other reason that I can think of that FP can be problematic is that it keeps people out of the queues and out on the streets/in the shops/etc. That makes Disneyland (which is much smaller footprint-wise than MK) feel more crowded, because thousands of people are "virtually" waiting for one ride while "physically" hanging out on Main Street waiting for a parade.

That said, I personally would rather be free to wander while "virtually" waiting elsewhere. So as much fun as it would be for everyone ELSE to be off the streets waiting in lines while I use FPs , that wouldn't quite be fair. So I would rather the park have FPs for certain rides--I like the system more or less as-is.

You make several really good points Eeee-va, however, my family and I were able to ride TSM 3 and 4 times on two separate days at HS, each time with a 8-15 minute wait, it sounds like that will be impossible at CA without FP unless we are willing to wait much, much longer.

I'll have to see for myself, but at this point it certainly sounds like FP is the better way to go.

 

[Hawleys]

There are two reasons I can think of that FP is kind of problematic. One is simply that standby lines go much, much slower when FP is in play, so it involves a lot more planning. I'm cool with doing more planning, as there would STILL be super-long standby lines for popular rides during peak season...without FP, they might just be 90 minutes instead of 120.

The other reason that I can think of that FP can be problematic is that it keeps people out of the queues and out on the streets/in the shops/etc. That makes Disneyland (which is much smaller footprint-wise than MK) feel more crowded, because thousands of people are "virtually" waiting for one ride while "physically" hanging out on Main Street waiting for a parade.

That said, I personally would rather be free to wander while "virtually" waiting elsewhere. So as much fun as it would be for everyone ELSE to be off the streets waiting in lines while I use FPs , that wouldn't quite be fair. So I would rather the park have FPs for certain rides--I like the system more or less as-is.

Sorry Eeee-va and others, I have to disagree with you. Queue theory says that FP actually makes wait times shorter for standby guest! FP allows Disneyland to "spread out" when guests are in line, making the lines on average shorter. All the people that got FPs are NOT in the standby line in front of you, only a fixed amount of them are returning each hour (in theory).

 

[karylrocks]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE TSMM. Therefore, we are always there 30 minutes before the gate opens. I've had it happen two ways:

1. CM's open the main gate early even though no rides are running. TSMM riders circle around past Soarin' and CM's start a temporary TSMM line there. A few minutes before the rides open, a CM walks the line to the entrance of TSMM so that sprinters can't cut in front. We then enter the line and the ride opens.

2. They open the gates at 10am and we RUN to TSMM.

We've never waited more than 15 minutes doing it this way and sometimes we walk right on. It's the only way I will ride. I love this ride, but am also spoiled with short lines and FP's.

I am debating whether it is worth it to get to the gate early just to not have to wait as long for the ride. According to this plan, you have already waited at the entrance for 30 minutes and then have to wait up to another 15 minutes for the ride. Even if you get right on you have already waited 30 minutes to get in the park. This doesn't really seem to save time over riding later in the day when the wait is the usual 30-40 minutes.