What's with the wait times!? (hint.. they're low)

[TROR]

I'm fairly indifferent on where Star Wars should've been built. For those opposed to putting it in DL proper, do you feel Disneyland should just remain as untouched as possible? Or would you favor expanding Disneyland with something other than Star Wars?

Frontierland expansion.

 

[shambolicdefending]

Back in LA for the weekend. Flew in tonight.

I kept my eyes out at LAX for obvious Disney-bound Star Wars nerds getting a jump on things before Monday. Didn't spot any, but there was the well-designed Millenium Falcon billboard off the 405.

 

[JD2000]

So with Galaxy’s Edge now open to everyone; be sure you don’t check wait times in the morning, and do give it a few days, before potentially deeming it not very crowded.

 

[Mac Tonight]

Considering only Signature, Signature+, and Flex pass are allowed into DL these days... I don't really think crowd levels are going to explode, even with GE open.

 

[Monorail_Orange]

For the moment, wait times are still very low across both parks, even though SW:GE has moved into boarding party access only.

 

[truecoat]

If GE wasn't open today, I wonder what the ride times would be with the same amount of people right now.

 

[Monorail_Orange]

Longest waits on the board right now 1:20pm DL time:
Matterhorn: 60 (min)
RSR: 55
Indy: 30
Big Thunder: 30
Space: 30
Splash: 30

Note: Smuggler's Run was showing 45 when I started typing this, just refreshed to 80

 

[TP2000]

One week from today the highly restrictive reservation policy to enter Star Wars Land will be over and replaced with some sort of "virtual queue" thing that no one knows much about. Sitting here at the car dealership waiting on an oil change, I thought I'd capture these wait times on the Disneyland App to compare them to next Monday afternoon. Today there's a heavy marine layer and its 71 degrees.

E Tickets from shortest to longest wait time;

Grizzly River Run - 5 Minutes
Jungle Cruise, Small World, Millenium Falcon: Target Run - 15 Minutes
Star Tours, Submarines, Thunder Mountain, Pirates - 20 Minutes
Haunted Mansion, Incredicoaster - 25 Minutes
Indiana Jones Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy, - 30 Minutes
Matterhorn Bobsleds, Soarin' Over California, Splash Mountain - 40 Minutes
Hyperspace Mountain - 65 Minutes
Radiator Springs Racers - 80 Minutes

Most of the other C and D Tickets range from 5 Minutes (Little Mermaid, Mater's, Casey Jr.) to 15 Minutes (Luigi's, Storybook Land, Mr. Toad, Dumbo, Goofy's Sky School, etc). Peter Pan and Midway Mania are at 30 Minutes.

It's a week later now, the reservation period for Star Wars Land is over, and wait times across both parks actually seemed to have declined even further today. The only ride that has a higher wait time compared to a week ago is Millennium Falcon: Target Run.

Here are the wait times this afternoon. It's a perfect summer day in SoCal, cloudless blue sky and currently 78 degrees with a light breeze.

Pirates, Small World, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion - 5 Minutes
Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Tours - 10 Minutes
Submarines, Incredicoaster - 15 Minutes
Indiana Jones Adventure - 20 Minutes
Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Soarin' Over California, Grizzly River Run - 25 Minutes
Hyperspace Mountain - 30 Minutes
Matterhorn Boblseds - 45 Minutes
Radiator Springs Racers - 75 Minutes
Millennium Falcon: Target Run - 80 Minutes

The rest of the C and D Tickets have more 5 and 10 minute wait times compared to last week. Everything in Fantasyland is 5 or 10 minutes; Pinocchio, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Roger Rabbit, Casey Jr. Storybook Land, except Peter Pan's Flight at 30 minutes. Winnie the Pooh and Monsters Inc. dark rides are 5 minutes. The six spinners in DCA plus Little Mermaid are all 5 minutes. Autopia and the Disneyland Railroad is 5 minutes. Luigi's Roadsters and the Pixar death wheel is 15 minutes. Midway Mania is 30 minutes.

In short, it's a beautiful early summer day at Disneyland and the wait times remain very low. Even the Millennium Falcon, unencumbered by idiotic Fastpass, has an 80 minute wait on its first day of open access.

I wonder if they are panicking yet in TDA? It only took them a couple days in early June to start shoving bizarre VISIT US NOW! AHORA! messages out via the Disney Parks Blog. I wonder if they'll let this ride through the 4th of July, or start panicking immediately?

 

[TP2000]

As a point of reference, here's the current wait times (early evening Florida time) for similar or cloned rides from Disneyland. It's currently 95 degrees in Orlando, with a heat index of 103 due to the humidity, so water rides will remain very popular at WDW in early evening.

Disneyland Pirates - 5 Minutes / WDW Pirates - 45 Minutes
Disneyland Jungle Cruise - 5 Minutes / WDW Jungle Cruise - 45 Minutes
Disneyland Splash Mountain - 25 Minutes / WDW Splash Mountain - 90 Minutes
Disneyland Haunted Mansion - 5 Minutes / WDW Haunted Mansion - 50 Minutes
Disneyland Peter Pan's Flight - 30 Minutes / WDW Peter Pan's Flight - 80 Minutes
Disneyland Hyperspace Mt. - 30 Minutes / WDW Space Mountain - 75 Minutes

The longest wait at WDW's Magic Kingdom is currently Snow White's Mine Train at 95 minutes. That's 15 minutes longer than the current wait for Millennium Falcon at Disneyland.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

So what you're saying is, WdW > DL?

 

[TROR]

Guardians of the Galaxy with a 10 minute wait? That's less than Tower of Terror's 13 minute wait. Guess it is a failure after all...

 

[TP2000]

So what you're saying is, WdW > DL?

Exactly.

 

[chadwpalm]

If GE wasn't open today, I wonder what the ride times would be with the same amount of people right now.

Good question. I looked at the historical data for Disneyland in the last week of June over the past 2 years (based on Touring Plans) and DIsneyland was only on average between a 4 to 6 on their crowd index (out of 10). So it's quite feasible that since Galaxy's Edge can comfortably hold 5000-6000 guests, it would make the overall impact on the rest of the park much lower.

But that begs the question, where are all the people that should be in the park right now waiting for their virtual queue boarding passes? This is the first day of GE being open to the public. Are people still weary about going this early in its opening due to being scared of large crowds? Are the majority of the country's vacationers just waiting for the WDW opening? Will this summer actually end up being pretty light until the SoCal APs are unblocked?

 

[mickEblu]

Good question. I looked at the historical data for Disneyland in the last week of June over the past 2 years (based on Touring Plans) and DIsneyland was only on average between a 4 to 6 on their crowd index (out of 10). So it's quite feasible that since Galaxy's Edge can comfortably hold 5000-6000 guests, it would make the overall impact on the rest of the park much lower.

But that begs the question, where are all the people that should be in the park right now waiting for their virtual queue boarding passes? This is the first day of GE being open to the public. Are people still weary about going this early in its opening due to being scared of large crowds? Are the majority of the country's vacationers just waiting for the WDW opening? Will this summer actually end up being pretty light until the SoCal APs are unblocked?

I was always of the thought that the extra capacity SWL created at DL would be greater than the guests it would be pulling in, especially after the initial craziness died down. I predicted this for a few reasons... the identical copy being built at DHS and the overlap of Star Wars fans and Disneyland fans. In other words, how many new people would SWL be bringing in that aren’t already frequent visitors or APs? This isn’t exactly a new market share. Then as far as tourists go, they get split between WDW and DLR with more of them most likely going to WDW.


Definitely didn’t foresee crowds being this light. Obviously we ll get a better idea when all of the APs are unblocked in September and then again when their demand goes down after a few months.

Lastly is that 5-6000 capacity without ROTR running? I thought originally we heard the capacity estimated at 10,000?

 

[TP2000]

Here was the big lineup of people at Disneyland's entrance this morning as the sun rose. Maybe two or three dozen?

 

[TP2000]

It's early evening now on Day 1 of Star Wars Land open access. Wait times have dropped from earlier this afternoon.

Some of these E Tickets have astonishingly low wait times now!

Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Small World, Haunted Mansion - 5 Minutes
Soarin' Over California, Star Tours, Thunder Mountain - 10 Minutes
Submarines - 15 Minutes
Guardians of the Galaxy, Indiana Jones Adventure, Incredicoaster - 20 Minutes
Hyperspace Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Radiator Springs Racers - 25 Minutes (!!!!)
Splash Mountain, Grizzly River Run - 35 Minutes
Millennium Falcon - 60 Minutes

I wonder how tense the Tuesday morning recap meeting will be in TDA?

 

[captveg]

Summer has been the offseason for Disneyland for several years now. Add extra capacity and people fearing long lines with a brand new land, and BINGO - ideal conditions.

It's gonna be slammed in October, though.

 

[TP2000]

Summer has been the offseason for Disneyland for several years now. Add extra capacity and people fearing long lines with a brand new land, and BINGO - ideal conditions.

It's gonna be slammed in October, though.

Yes, I agree with you. But it was obvious they planned for big crowds this summer and the positive financial impact that would have on the 4th quarter of Fiscal Year 2019. October is Fiscal Year 2020, and something entirely different.

If this low crowd trend continues, it will be interesting to see how they respond to it. TDA has proven they aren't really good at not panicking.

I'm sure the cubicle farm of the Disney Parks Blog will be put to work on new AHORA! propaganda before lunchtime tomorrow.

 

[DisneyRoy]

This is very interesting reading. Especially since I am in NY and we usually travel to WDW. But we got some insane flight prices out west this summer and are making the trek here the week after the 4th. I can only hope that this trend continues until then!

 

[TP2000]

At 5:05pm they turned off the Virtual Queue system to enter the land. Star Wars Land is now wide open, free-flow, for anyone who wants to wander in. The wait time for Millennium Falcon is holding at 60 minutes with the land wide open for all.