Josh Hendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,294
So I'm checking the wait times here and here every so often during the day (and evening) ...
Never having been to the parks and planning to visit in a couple of weeks (with five ppl including kids, no FOTL and probably no single-riders), I'm wondering about some things that maybe some recent guests or TMs can answer or comment upon.
Do actual wait times tend to be somewhat less than published times? Would it be reasonable to count on a "discount" of a certain percentage? I assume that whoever posts the times would rather surprise people to the upside than the downside.
Judging from the queue times as posted from hour to hour (or whatever schedule they use) I gather that in the summer if you have no FOTL and are not willing to take the single rider queue, you had better do your major rides by 11am or else be prepared to spend a loooong time checking out the theming in the ride queues.
Once the queues become long between 10-11am there seems to be a bit of a lull before most of the live shows start. Presumably one should use this time to eat lunch and visit minor attractions.
If you've seen and done most everything you wanted by say 2-3pm it looks like you might as well head back to the hotel for a swim (or to the bar for a drink) until at least 6pm, because the heat and crowds will not be at all pleasant during these hours (on a typical summer day). Even at 6pm it seems that the most popular rides are pretty jammed so you might have to be mostly contented to soak up the atmosphere and do people watching until maybe the last hour or so before closing.
Certain rides seem to develop long queues relatively slowly, presumably due to their high capacity and/or location in the park: Dueling Dragons, MIB, Simpsons. Although these are hugely popular rides would you agree that they could be deferred until after some of the other monster rides like Hulk, Spiderman, Ripsaw, Mummy (and of course HRRR if open)?
Never having been to the parks and planning to visit in a couple of weeks (with five ppl including kids, no FOTL and probably no single-riders), I'm wondering about some things that maybe some recent guests or TMs can answer or comment upon.
Do actual wait times tend to be somewhat less than published times? Would it be reasonable to count on a "discount" of a certain percentage? I assume that whoever posts the times would rather surprise people to the upside than the downside.
Judging from the queue times as posted from hour to hour (or whatever schedule they use) I gather that in the summer if you have no FOTL and are not willing to take the single rider queue, you had better do your major rides by 11am or else be prepared to spend a loooong time checking out the theming in the ride queues.
Once the queues become long between 10-11am there seems to be a bit of a lull before most of the live shows start. Presumably one should use this time to eat lunch and visit minor attractions.If you've seen and done most everything you wanted by say 2-3pm it looks like you might as well head back to the hotel for a swim (or to the bar for a drink) until at least 6pm, because the heat and crowds will not be at all pleasant during these hours (on a typical summer day). Even at 6pm it seems that the most popular rides are pretty jammed so you might have to be mostly contented to soak up the atmosphere and do people watching until maybe the last hour or so before closing.
Certain rides seem to develop long queues relatively slowly, presumably due to their high capacity and/or location in the park: Dueling Dragons, MIB, Simpsons. Although these are hugely popular rides would you agree that they could be deferred until after some of the other monster rides like Hulk, Spiderman, Ripsaw, Mummy (and of course HRRR if open)?
