Abnormally Incorrect Posted Wait-Times

[GlacierGlacier]

Throughout various attractions today, cast members have stated that they've been unable to update their posted wait times.

At dinosaur - castmembers stating the wait time was truly 45-60 minutes. Posted wait time was 10-15 minutes.

Star Tours - cast members stating wait times are 25-30 minutes. Posted is 10.

Normally wait times are inflated in reverse, with the actual being much less than the posted. This appears to be an issue with operations management.

 

[ChrisFL]

I think they go by magicbands these days?

 

[GlacierGlacier]

I think they go by magicbands these days?

Most of the new attractions do. Frozen, Pandora (NRJ FOP), and a few others use magicbands. However, older attractions still rely on a mix of red cards and cast-member knowledge.

A good way to check if an attraction uses magicbands is to look at the screen at fastpass/standby merge. If it displays two wait times (posted and real) it's a MB attraction. If it displays one, it's a classic wait time attraction.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Yeah, TSMM was posted as only 10 last Tuesday but I waited almost 30. I was furious and almost went back to the entrance and demanded a coordinator or leader to express my anger but decided it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight. I'm getting sick of the complete idiocy of attractions Cast/leaders lately and their inability to efficiently run the rides. If the wait is 30 minutes, say so. I hate being lied to in regards to wait time.

Wait times are at best, estimates. You were likely part of a large surge (unintentionally) of guests - totally unable to be guessed by ops.

Other issues can arise, such as high fastpass distribution, a shortage of ride vehicles, ride stops, etc. which can interrupt the expected.

TSMM has the new magicband queue estimates, which is better than the red card estimates. You were likely experiencing a standard rush or interruption, instead of an ops issue.

And 10 - 25 minutes? I'm always amazed when my wait is less than 30. ESPECIALLY for TSMM.

 

[ChrisE405]

Yeah, TSMM was posted as only 10 last Tuesday but I waited almost 30. I was furious and almost went back to the entrance and demanded a coordinator or leader to express my anger but decided it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight. I'm getting sick of the complete idiocy of attractions Cast/leaders lately and their inability to efficiently run the rides. If the wait is 30 minutes, say so. I hate being lied to in regards to wait time.

First world problems. I’d be pretty happy to only wait 30 minutes for an attraction like TSMM. Probably just an influx of guests that could not be anticipated.

 

[mm52200]

All attractions use the magic band system now. No more red cards.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

There is literally an excuse for everything on these boards. Sheesh.

Have you ever worked in the service industry? I find people who have tend to be much more understanding of customer service employees - and cast members are exactly that.

 

[JenniferS]

There is literally an excuse for everything on these boards. Sheesh.

Not every explanation is an excuse.

 

[Monty]

Yeah, TSMM was posted as only 10 last Tuesday but I waited almost 30. I was furious and almost went back to the entrance and demanded a coordinator or leader to express my anger but decided it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight. I'm getting sick of the complete idiocy of attractions Cast/leaders lately and their inability to efficiently run the rides. If the wait is 30 minutes, say so. I hate being lied to in regards to wait time.

Wait times are at best, estimates. You were likely part of a large surge (unintentionally) of guests - totally unable to be guessed by ops.

Other issues can arise, such as high fastpass distribution, a shortage of ride vehicles, ride stops, etc. which can interrupt the expected.

TSMM has the new magicband queue estimates, which is better than the red card estimates. You were likely experiencing a standard rush or interruption, instead of an ops issue.

And 10 - 25 minutes? I'm always amazed when my wait is less than 30. ESPECIALLY for TSMM.

There is literally an excuse for everything on these boards. Sheesh.

So why are you here?

You posted an entirely unrealistic, whiny post complaining about how much you "hate being lied to in regards to wait time" after waiting 30 minutes in a posted 10-minute line. Wait times at WDW have never been anything more than a measure of how long it took for someone who recently got onto to complete the wait, not a down-to-the-second computer-generated time calculation determined by exactly how many people are currently in line and precisely how long each of those people are going to take to load. So, either you have no experience in WDW at all and have entirely unrealistic expectations of what they can and can't do, or you have an extremely exaggerated sense of self-importance and will never find a satisfactory answer to any of the problems life presents you.

For future reference, if you happen to get "furious" because you've been made to wait an extra 20 minutes for anything in life, avoid doctor's offices, airplanes, buses, trains, DMV, and pretty much any service industry that triages waits based on need and/or availability. You'll give yourself an aneurysm getting so furious so often. The good news is, the hospital will probably bump you up the priority list once their triage of waiting patients determines that you've suffered an aneurysm.

 

[Soarin2u]

If the wait is 30 minutes, say so. I hate being lied to in regards to wait time.

However if the posted wait time said it was a 30 minute wait and it ended up being 10, I'm fairly sure you wouldn't be complaining that Disney is "lying to you in regard to wait time."

 

[mm52200]

I posted, what I thought, was a comment to support the OP's observation


I am a life-long visitor of WDW and former CM, so I'm well aware of how the system works. The fact I am narcissistic and think highly of myself is irrelevant


Those types of services are where I expect wait times to be longer than normal. I have zero tolerance for a wait time at WDW being incorrectly advertised because the two College Program Cast Members out front were too occupied gossiping with their bff to do their job.


I don't wait for anything over 20 minutes. So no, I wouldn't know the joys of experiencing the opposite wait time experience.

Ummm how were the CPs not doing their job? They have zero control over what shows up on the wait time sign. They don’t even hand out red flik cards anymore...literally all based off the magic band...

 

[mm52200]

Well for one they didn't acknowledge me when I walked into the queue because they were too busy occupied with their best friend. It a gd shame, there are so few CMs who are as invested in the Guest experience as I was. Alas, I don't want to derail the thread. So sorry I contributed evidence to prove the original post. I'll you "experts" (yeah freaking right) weigh in next time

Other things CPs or other cast members do is one thing.
But you were specifically complaining about the wait times being wrong because “the CPs weren’t doing their jobs”

 

[Soarin2u]

Well clearly they were not doing something right because this was a MAJOR failure. But, can't expect some poor little CP to be of any use

By no means should College Programmers be determined as "no use" simply because they're CP's. Thats demeaning to me and a whole lot of great/better cast members just because of how they got into the company. Its unfortunate you see them that way and categorize them under such a negative umbrella and make it a point to single out the fact that they were CP's as if it had anything to do with the fact that they weren't practicing good show.

I personally tended to ignore those who tried to stand and talk. I ended up making fewer friends than I probably could have at my workplace because I wanted to maintain the third key. OOOH well, I guess because I was CP I was still useless. *shrugs*

 

[ChrisFL]

Before we jump to too many conclusions...I do think there is some problem with wait time estimates because of FP+ guests. If you suddenly get a swarm of FP+ guests, that can affect the standby wait time depending on how the CM's handle it (and again I'm assuming they have a bit more control than just the computer telling them to stop one line and start the other...I could be wrong)

 

[Stripes]

Well for one they didn't acknowledge me when I walked into the queue because they were too busy occupied with their best friend. It is a shame, there are so few CMs who are as invested in the Guest experience as I was. Alas, I don't want to derail the thread. So sorry I contributed evidence to prove the original post. I'll you "experts" (yeah freaking right) weigh in next time

With regard to the wait time mess up, things happen. As a former CM I'm sure you know that better than most. The good thing about Disney is they're always more than willing to make it right.

I agree with you that CMs should be more dedicated to guests than striking up conversations with coworkers. As someone who worked in retail, 100% of my focus went to making the customer experience better. If things were slow and I was working nearby to someone I'd start talking to them, but I never let my coworkers distract me from my job. Retail is tough, and I'm sure working at Disney is too, but you've gotta find a passion in your job.

 

[mikejs78]

Well for one they didn't acknowledge me when I walked into the queue because they were too busy occupied with their best friend. It is a shame, there are so few CMs who are as invested in the Guest experience as I was. Alas, I don't want to derail the thread. So sorry I contributed evidence to prove the original post. I'll you "experts" (yeah freaking right) weigh in next time

I would say that in my experience, 95% of the time the actual wait time has either been less than or equal to the posted wait time (the wait times are usually inflated). Maybe < 5% of the time the wait time is longer than posted. (I've had it happen on two rides over my last several visits, so not often. ). It's not an exact science. But Disney gets it right far more often than most. With the OP, my guess is it is some kind of software malfunction.

 

[wdisney9000]

I dont understand how so many people claimed that the billions of dollars spent on NextGen, which magic bands are a part of, was soooooo needed for the infrastructure of daily operations, but all that technology can not accurately produce a wait time if there is an influx of guests to a park? Can the system not detect thousands of magic bands scanned at park entrance within a short time, then be prepared to adjust accordingly? And this is without mentioning myriads of other issues created by the magic bands.

 

[peter11435]

I dont understand how so many people claimed that the billions of dollars spent on NextGen, which magic bands are a part of, was soooooo needed for the infrastructure of daily operations, but all that technology can not accurately produce a wait time if there is an influx of guests to a park? Can the system not detect thousands of magic bands scanned at park entrance within a short time, then be prepared to adjust accordingly? And this is without mentioning myriads of other issues created by the magic bands.

Guests entering the park have no direct effect on wait times. Just because guests are entering the park doesn’t mean that a specific attraction will see an influx.

The system should be able to identify large number of guests entering a queue for a given attraction and adjust accordingly.

It sounds like some technology must not have been functioning properly that day as the OP mentions cast were openly telling guests the times were wrong and the differences were substantial.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Back on topic -

I would say that in my experience, 95% of the time the actual wait time has either been less than or equal to the posted wait time (the wait times are usually inflated). Maybe < 5% of the time the wait time is longer than posted. (I've had it happen on two rides over my last several visits, so not often. ). It's not an exact science. But Disney gets it right far more often than most. With the OP, my guess is it is some kind of software malfunction.

From what I understand, it is a software malfunction. CMs were often unable to update the time displayed on their sign at multiple attractions and parks throughout the day (and apparently a few days prior).

Guests entering the park have no direct effect on wait times. Just because guests are entering the park doesn’t mean that a specific attraction will see an influx.

The system should be able to identify large number of guests entering a queue for a given attraction and adjust accordingly.

It sounds like some technology must not have been functioning properly that day as the OP mentions cast were openly telling guests the times were wrong and the differences were substantial.

The MagicBands can actually track your position in the parks, which is used by WDW for crowd estimations. They can use this information for planning crowd control, alternate paths, and even wait-time inflation. However, it's not perfect. I doubt guests entering the park has a direct effect on wait-time estimations, like you said.

 

[EpcotEric01]

Yeah, TSMM was posted as only 10 last Tuesday but I waited almost 30. I was furious and almost went back to the entrance and demanded a coordinator or leader to express my anger but decided it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight. I'm getting sick of the complete idiocy of attractions Cast/leaders lately and their inability to efficiently run the rides. If the wait is 30 minutes, say so. I hate being lied to in regards to wait time.

What was the posted wait time as you left the attraction?