What's with the line at Pirates of the Caribbean?

[RaymOOOnd]

We just returned from an overall very nice short trip. Easily the worst part of the vacation was waiting in line for pirates of the Caribbean at the MK, for which by the way I've never really experienced any substantial line before in all of my trips there. In short, there is NO semblance of order to this line. The path is broad and, at first assuming there was some order to things, we stood in a near single file manner only to have a cast member say something like "move up to fill in all available space, otherwise those behind you will be more than happy to fill it in for you". He repeated this about 10 times and clearly got a kick out of it. So it was about 45 minutes of people visibly annoyed at each other, trying to inch ahead competitively; groups being separated; some guests aggressively pushing forward with Disney's apparent approval. It felt like trying to get to the bar area at a concert.

Alright, I don't complain about much ever at WDW (honestly) and expect that most won't be able to relate to this (since until this very week I've never experienced anything like it).

 

[k8Davies]

I always thought this was a weird queuing systems too, as you could potential skip ahead of a load of people (strange).

so glad others share this opinion as I thought it was just me and my British sensibilities as we, as a nation, love a well organised queue lol

 

[lovethattink]

POTC, HM, and many other queues ask guests to fill in all available space. That isn't new. You're right, it makes it difficult to stay in order. We usually don't do standby in these lines. I'm claustrophobic. If I can't get a FP+ I'll choose to skip that ride or check wait times and ride once the queue is shorter.

 

[Paigevon]

We agreed these mass queues are chaos. Experienced them in other locations as well, such as the shows (FoTLK, MILF, Frozen singalong etc) and line for the monorail. Don't understsnd it at all.

 

[Scar1199]

The one that always gets me is Haunted Mansion, the door opens and it feels like a free for all. Maybe the fact that it is dark makes it seem worse.

 

[BeerMe]

If you've never been in a line at POTC you're lucky. We end up in a line there often. I don't think the line is unstructured at all. Different folks - different opinions I guess.

 

[Eastern]

I don't like the system, but I do fill in the space, at first. People catch on quickly after they see a few other people doing it.

 

[Mom2Stitch]

Waiting in line for PotC makes me crazy, mostly because I remember how it never use to have much of a line. It's one of my favorites and I haven't done it over the past couple of trips, once because of refurb and once due to the line. It's at the top of the list this September and guess I'll just be using a FP for it.

 

[MariMama]

There are a few lines like this at WDW, another is Test Track after the design room. Remember that infamous fight between the two women? It happened right there. I try to avoid them whenever I can.

 

[JimmyV]

We agreed these mass queues are chaos. Experienced them in other locations as well, such as the shows (FoTLK, MILF, Frozen singalong etc) and line for the monorail. Don't understsnd it at all.

It actually makes a lot of sense. The attractions with the "fill in all the available space" instructions are "mass loading" attractions. Hundreds of people, (thousands in the case of FoTLK) are going to see the attraction at the same time. It doesn't matter if you are the 10th person to arrive or the 50th, you are still getting in. So the CMs tell all of the people who have made it past the click-counter (and are definitely going to get in to the next show), to scrunch forward without the need for a line because they have already been counted as being "in". At that point, a long, single-file line is irrelevant.

In the case of Pirates, they don't mass load hundreds of people per boat, but they do load 10-15 on average. The space that is available for the people to scrunch forward is small enough that unless one tries deviously, they can't really move pass more than one or two boatloads of people. And if everyone follows the instruction to move forward, then it becomes impossible to "pass" a significant number of people. "Passing" only happens when some people follow the instruction and others don't--hence the CMs statement that "if you don't, others behind you will be happy to." If you had an aerial view of how the crowd behavior worked, you would see that very few people actually gain an "advantage" by moving past others, and those that do only do so because the "others" stood still and didn't follow the instruction. So they lose by way of amusement park Darwinism. Once they learn to follow the instructions, they won't be passed any longer. And the people who do move past others don't move past enough people to really matter, unless one is deviously trying to slip past everyone to get to the front. (I suppose that can happen if the crowd isn't tight enough, but is happens so infrequently so as not to matter.) But in general, think about your own experiences. Have you moved past a family that wouldn't move forward? Sure. What did that gain you? You were now ahead of 4 or 5 people who used to be in front of you. In a mass loading situation, that is irrelevant. Odds are, you will all be in the same boat, both literally and figuratively.

So do people enter theaters in the exact order that they arrived? No. Do people board Pirate boats in the exact order that they arrived? No. But do people enter/board in a close approximation of the order that they arrived? Yes. And from Disney's crowd control standpoint, this is all that matters. They care about fitting in as many people as possible into the pre-board and pre-show areas more than they care if the 10th person to show up actually enters the theater as the 15th person. Empty spaces cause the crowd to spill out into areas where they don't want a crowd to form. So their crowd control priorities take precedence over "perfect line order".

 

[TxWriterMama]

We always save POTC for one of the final rides of the night. The wait is never more than 15 min. Honestly, we've been here since 5/1 and we've ridden POTC every night except 5/3 as our last ride of the night and the wait has never been higher than 5 min. No line. No jostling. In. Out. Done.

 

[kandb]

Have been riding POC for the last 10 years (except last year when it was being refurb). I have NEVER once waited in line. What has changed? We usually go last week of Aug/Sept.

 

[CAS239]

Pirates is always hit or miss. It can have a 5 minute wait or it can have an hour wait with a huge line. Seems that within the last 1-2 years it's been more busy than its been in the past. We go often and I find it rare now to see a wait time under 20 minutes when it isn't super early or super late in the day.

As others have said though, filling in all the space isn't new and has been there for a long time. I think it would be better if they had a weaving queue where you could only go like 2-3 people wide. But when I enter and I see a lot of people standing single file I just go by until we come to a big mass of people. Their going to tell you to fill in all space so I don't wait until then. Kilimanjaro Safari is another one that's similar

 

[tinkerbella16]

Have been riding POC for the last 10 years (except last year when it was being refurb). I have NEVER once waited in line. What has changed? We usually go last week of Aug/Sept.

This has been our experience too. We've never had that problem. When I rode it many times in November, I practically walked right on each time. If there was a line, it literally was right around the wall before the CM asks the number in each group to load. During busier times, I'm sure it is a different story.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I think you can thank FP+ for the long waits now, POC was always fairly easy to get on with a minimal wait before it was a FP+ attraction

 

[Bullseye]

Pirates is always hit or miss. It can have a 5 minute wait or it can have an hour wait with a huge line. Seems that within the last 1-2 years it's been more busy than its been in the past. We go often and I find it rare now to see a wait time under 20 minutes when it isn't super early or super late in the day.

As others have said though, filling in all the space isn't new and has been there for a long time. I think it would be better if they had a weaving queue where you could only go like 2-3 people wide. But when I enter and I see a lot of people standing single file I just go by until we come to a big mass of people. Their going to tell you to fill in all space so I don't wait until then. Kilimanjaro Safari is another one that's similar

This! Usually we never have an issue with the POTC line when it begins inside. I've been in that scrum before with a BTG where the line was all the way out to outside rope area. It was ridiculous trying to maintain some semblance of a line order. Safari line can be that way too because the path is so broad. On the other hand though it does bug me when there's a wide open area but the people in front of me wont fill in. Eventually I'll just mosey in if they don't start figuring out it's not single family file.

 

[kandb]

When I posted tonight, I went on my Disney app, think it was around 7:00pm and Pirates only had a 5 minute wait. Hope it's like that when we are there. It's one of my favorites, even though someone just told me they don't fire into the water from the ship anymore.

 

[Shadowcat70]

The line at Pirates in DL is a very orderly, nearly single file queue, so on our very first visit to ride it at MK we were sort of taken aback by the cattle-call of it all. We noticed that a lot in the WDW queues. You don't see that at DL for some reason.

 

[Lothlórien]

The line at Pirates in DL is a very orderly, nearly single file queue, so on our very first visit to ride it at MK we were sort of taken aback by the cattle-call of it all. We noticed that a lot in the WDW queues. You don't see that at DL for some reason.

They do not have enough space for that in Disneyland. The walking areas are so tight in general that they have to limit the queuing areas to "thinner" lines. Haunted Mansion and Small World were the only exceptions we noticed.

All of the space in the queue itself is tighter than we are used to in Florida. One thing we notice in Disneyland is that they are definitely not designed with "Pooh-sized" guests in mind. No sticking your elbows out to your sides with your hands on your hips or having your kids play around the queuing lines. There is just not any space for that.

 

[maryj11]

Pirates is always hit or miss. It can have a 5 minute wait or it can have an hour wait with a huge line. Seems that within the last 1-2 years it's been more busy than its been in the past. We go often and I find it rare now to see a wait time under 20 minutes when it isn't super early or super late in the day.

As others have said though, filling in all the space isn't new and has been there for a long time. I think it would be better if they had a weaving queue where you could only go like 2-3 people wide. But when I enter and I see a lot of people standing single file I just go by until we come to a big mass of people. Their going to tell you to fill in all space so I don't wait until then. Kilimanjaro Safari is another one that's similar

How long do you think the wait will be for POTC about 10:00 am last week in June? Just wanted to know if we should get a FP at around that time.