What's the problem with waiting in line?

[alicat8]

I'm much more willing to wait in longer lines at Disney than other theme/amusement parks-1. because I know they move them really well. If I'm moving at all, I don't mind the wait. It's the standing still that kills me. and 2. Most of the queues are really well done-shaded, things to look at/read. I'll wait 40 minutes for just about anything, but once it gets higher than that, I start to weigh my options a little more. I didn't ride TSMM for the first 3 times I was there and it was open, because I just wasn't willing to put in the time and effort it took to wait or get a fp. Last trip with fp+, I finally rode it and was glad I hadn't put in all of the effort before.

 

[maltdizzy]

An hour is about our limit, unless parks are packed and we know a longer wait in unavoidable. We know the parks well enough to know the best times for most rides. Some we hit early, others we hit at closing, and which ones are busy right before/after parades and shows.

By age 4, my son was conditioned and knowable enough to know when to skip an attraction for shorter lines elsewhere.

 

[blondietink]

I see where you are coming from. I just don't get people who won't wait in lines and feel they should be allowed to cut. This is especially prevalent at Disney World with some groups of foreigners who perpetually cut in lines. Since I haven't been to DL yet (November!!!!) I can't attest to those lines.

However, what do these people do when they have to wait in line at the bank, the airport, the grocery store, a sporting event, for a bus, etc?

 

[coaches24]

I agree that I think it depends on whether that particular ride is worth the long wait or not,to the rider. I love TSMM but I won't wait over 45 mins for it. That is why we only usually ride it first thing in the morning when the line is short. Then we usually always ride RSR SRL because we don't want to wait 2 hours in the standby line, same thing with Indy.

Same here. I've only ridden TSMM one time ever because the line is always too long and I don't think it's worth the wait.

 

[MinMou]

If it's just me and it's a ride I am interested in, I'll wait. Especially if the ride has lots to look at while you wait in line. But when we take our toddler for his first visit, I would rather spend time walking around the park so he can ooh and ahh than wait in a long line. Depending on the age of your children, a line could be a chance to look at fun scenery and people, or a meltdown in the making.

 

[qa4ever]

In that case, if my kids wanted to ride BTM, and the line was 45 minutes, we would either a) Get a FP for later if still available. b) Come back later on and see if the line is shorter or c) not ride. We wouldn't wait 45 minutes for a ride either. What we do is 1) Get to the park at rope drop and ride the attractions with the largest lines that have no FP first. 2) Make strategic use of FP and then 3) During the busiest parts of the day, we ride things that have large capacity and shorter lines like watch a show, or ride the train.

If you plan carefully, you don't have to stand in long lines and can still do most things you want to do. For us, 45 minutes is way too long to waste in a line, when we only have so much time in the parks. And we could ride the same attraction with much less of a wait with more strategic planning. Why wait in a line if you don't have to? We are not opposed to lines, and once waited for a brand new ride that had opened at our local amusement park for 2 hours. If we didn't have a choice, yes we would wait for 2 hours, but at Disney, you should never have to wait that long, because there is so many ways to avoid it. Unless you only plan to ride the top 4-5 rides in each park each day, and don't use FP, there is no reason to wait that long!

My kids do know how to wait in lines, and will wait when necessary, but I wouldn't consider waiting 45 minutes for BTM necessary or teaching them a good life lesson. A better lesson would be teaching them how to avoid long lines! And we do this in life in general, by doing planning no matter where we go, including shopping, stores, day trips, etc.

 

[basketballmom]

This has nothing to do with the line debate..
Several years ago, my youngest begged to get up at 4 a.m. to go Black Friday shopping for the first time. We were waiting in the huge line at Kohl's, and she said, "Hey! this is like Disneyland! We can pretend we are in line for a ride!" It made everyone around us laugh..

 

[TechGuy]

I don't really have a hard and fast limit. I have been to the park enough times that I understand the some rides are busy from rope-drop (Peter Pan...) to close and they will require some planning. Others get busy for a while and the line lightens up later. Some are light early and jam up later. FastPass rides help to manage this process by lightening the load on the longest lines, as do RiderSwaps. I have not utilized SRL much, we may this trip.

We tend to go with the flow and understand that when a line is light, get on the ride; if it's forever long, skip it and come back later. Multi-day trips make this easier. Our last trip, we rode every single ride at both Parks, during our visit.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I plan
I have trouble with my legs and do not like to get a wheel chair all the time. Normally by the end of a trip I may give in for a day or two and use a wheel chair. I now also have problems with the sun due to all the meds i have been on in the past month. Nothing serious just one thing after another I've been to doctors 7 times in the past month and each one gives me some med for this or that and three of them have said something about the sun.

I don't like long lines how ever if I know I want to ride something big that may have long lines I will plan on riding it early AM or late PM. I do use the FP system when i can. I kinda really liked what I was reading about the fp+ in wdw and I know I will get flamed for this but I hope they bring a FP+ to DL. Just change it a bit. Only allow FP+ 4 Rides, 4 shows, 4 character greetings ahead of time (and allow it to be multiple park). So you can still park hop. This should help the lines from getting to crazy.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Some of my favorite memories from Disneyland as a kid were waiting in line and playing silly made up games with my family...and using our Indiana Jones decoder card, haha.

 

[peterpanandwendy]

Hi OP

Based on the responses that I have read I feel a bit like the message of your original post was lost… I feel that you made it very clear that you were not referring to waiting all day in lines, and totally taking advantage of FP's and using time management strategies. I feel like some posters missed that part and felt they needed to defend how they spend their park time and how they prefer not to wait 45min for a ride… but I don't think that is really what your original post was about?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like your original post was very clearly about people who have a hard time waiting for things or expect that they shouldn't have to wait, even at Disneyland…

I have been to Disneyland with people like this… It looks like this:

Me: "What should we eat for lunch?"
Them: "Oh man, I could really go for some Mexican right now. I so totally want Mexican really bad."
Me: "Ok, cool, lets head over to Rancho for an Enchilada."
Them: "HOLY Sh*!, that line is stupid. I'm not waiting in that BS line. This is BS. Now I have to eat a crappy burger when I really wanted an Enchilada."
Me: "Well, we could just wait."
Them: "No way. I'm not waiting in that line. Lets go to Hungry Bear."
Me: "By the time we get to Hungry Bear we could have ordered here already."
Them: "Better than waiting in line."
Me: "Ok."
Them: "This burger is crap. I really wanted an enchilada. (Whine, whine whine, complain complain.)
Me: (You made the choice not to wait. Don't play the victim. You could have had an enchilada, you chose not to. Stop your whining and man up.)

THOSE people annoy the crap out of me.

 

[Mugglemama]

I agree with the PP who explained that not wanting to wait 45 minutes for a particular ride, does not equate to not knowing how to wait one's turn.

I would actually wait 45 minutes for BTMRR, if I was fairly certain I had no chance of the line being shorter later (we're usually there when the line for that ride is less than 30 minutes). I will also wait 45 minutes for PP, Splash, POTC, Soarin', and a large handful of other rides (including all the dark rides in Fantasyland.

I'd actually wait an hour+ for my favorites, if I had to. And I have, in the past. So, I (and my children) are perfectly willing and capable of waiting our turn, even if the wait is long. We do take advantage of FP at nearly every opportunity - simply because we're often trying to get to do certain rides MULTIPLE TIMES during our visit, and the only way to do that usually is to spend less time in lines.

There are rides you couldn't PAY ME to wait very long to ride...like, Jungle Cruise, anything in Toon Town, Finding Nemo, or Monsters, Inc. I'd rather go wait 40 minutes to ride the Peter Pan ride for the 10th time than wait more than about 15 minutes for ANY of those others.

If your child doesn't want to wait to ride rides, maybe she's the type who simply doesn't enjoy rides as much as some other people, and therefore doesn't feel the wait is worth the payout. I knew a child like that...a friend of one of my children. She was a people-watcher from a very young age, lol - perfectly content to browse stores or sit on a bench with an ice cream and simply watch everything around her.

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

I wait in line at many things in my life and so do my kids but at DL I try to wait as little as possible in line because I know there are so many different things to do that if something has a long line I can find a different time in the day to do it when the line is shorter, or get a FP if there is one. I try not to wait more than 20 minutes most of the time but will at times wait longer. But why wait in line at DL if there are other things you want to do that don't have a big line? Like I wont wait in line for any of the FL rides because I know I can get there at rope drop or MM (If I have one) and get them all done with little or no line at all. So it makes no sense to waste my time in line for those rides. I also wont wait in a long line if the ride has a FP. I see it as poor time management and for me its far more fun to find something else to do than wait in line for those things.

For me its time management. I have a strategy to do things at certain times when I know they are less busy and I feel like it makes my days there more fun.

I can relate to this a lot. I usually don't wait more than 20 minutes for any ride, yet I ride nearly everything, and often multiple times, in 3 days. It's not that I feel I deserve better than waiting in line, I just simply don't see the point when, if I managed my time a little differently, I could just ride it later without waiting so long. That's what rope drop and FP are for. Also, wait time apps are a godsend, and allow me to move to the rides with the shorter lines with ease.

I have a couple of relatives that tour differently and it can grate on my nerves sometimes. They will just ride whatever they happen to be standing in front of, regardless of the wait. I tell them that if we walked to this other ride it has a much shorter line and they say "oh well, we're already here." Even though it would only take 5 minutes to get to that other ride, and the one they are standing in front of has a 40 minute wait. Drives me crazy. I like to maximize my time in the parks as much as possible!

Also, I have been on all of the rides many times now, so I am not heartbroken if I have to skip one. If everything in the park has a long wait, I would rather people-watch and just eat some snacks on a bench. The rides are awesome but there is other entertainment to be had as well.

 

[retlaw_yensid]

This old fart remembers visiting Disneyland before fastpasses. Waiting in line was just part of the experience, and why they created elaborate queues. Could you imagine DL today without them? It would be like taking smartphones away from everyone. LOL