Abnormally Incorrect Posted Wait-Times

[Frontierland's Finest]

To swing things back on topic here, from my experience the rest why attractions have "Incorrect" or inflated wait times is because management (at least in my areas) accounted for the amount of wheelchair and accessibility guest were in line for the attractions and the down times that come with the loading and unloading of those guest.

Side note: I don't condone the actions of attraction management in terms of wait times, but from a business stand point of running WDW is makes sense.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Again, there are always some normal variance in wait times.


What this thread was originally created for was to discuss a very current operations issue where cast members are periodically unable to update posted wait times. I'd be interested to hear from anyone that visited the parks in the past couple of days that could confirm this.

The attractions that were experiencing this had cast members outside the attraction repeatedly stating that the posted wait was much shorter than the real wait, followed by the expected real wait time.

Has anyone (that has been to the parks in the past few days) experienced this?

 

[xdan0920]

$15 an hour is a start.
But it also says a lot about the company that (spoiler alert) Full Time hours will be cut down, part time will be the new standard, and if you're not already full time there will be very little to do in order to change that.
Cast Members need a stronger union that actually can tell Disney, "No, that's inhumane and unfair."
Cast Members need to have good pension/401k/retirement plans
But a HUGE issue doesn't have to do with money.
I have never been made to feel more disrespected/small/inhuman as I was made to feel by attractions managers while working in Adventureland/Liberty Square.
Cast Members are treated so terrible by managment that it would seem like if I was lying if I told you stories.
That doesn't even touch on the fact that one of our managers was sleeping with a College Program kid and nothing was being done to stop it.
I've seen attractions managers "mysteriously erase" absences and tardies for each other while firing anyone who's two minute tardy pushed them over their algorithm.
I've seen attractions managers say words to cast members ON STAGE that I would not say to my worst enemy privately, forcing cast to break down in tears in front of Guest (I'm SPECIFICALLY talking about Adventureland's area manager, Kristen, here) .
I've never been made to feel more demoralized than I was by attraction managment.

Maybe I would have been able to deal with poverty wages better if I wasn't made to feel like the scum of the earth by the people making a 27k a year salary who lorded over the cast.

I agree CMs deserve more cashiola.

However....

I’d fire you in a nanosecond. So you wouldn’t get the extra dough anyways.

 

[xdan0920]

FWIW

I just got back from WDW. Wait times are 100% artificially inflated. I was getting off Soarin at 9:10 on Saturday morning. Posted wait time was 85 minutes. One CM said to the other.

“How can we be at 85 already?”

Answer:

“We aren’t. Not even close. More like 45.”

 

[Disone]

Wow. That statement says way more about you than it does about Disney.

Agreed!

But I disagree that the wait times are wrong because of crappy CPs. There are many factors that contribute to why the wait time was wrong.

I actually like the CP. Most of them are a breath of fresh air. Too many full-time cast members are entitled. You want more out of me pay me more kind of attitude that you see in this thread. Too many think they should be paid more because of how long they've been with the company, not what they have contributed to the company.

After I find that the CP, and I'll also had the international program participant, I have a different mentality. They come in one of two boxes, one is just here for fun, the other is actually quite serious and is looking to do more.

I agree with the general consensus here. In general wait times are usually inflated. Occasionally they're spot-on. And even where they're just wrong. I have looked at the wait time when they've been wrong and noticed it was adjusted up words while I was in line. Sometimes life just happens. I don't feel lied to. I just feel like life just happens.

Now one thing that does upset me is when I'm in the fast pass line in the standby line is literally faster. And I tried to explain that to the attraction house and they don't want to have anything to hear about it. That happened to me once on Space Mountain.

I escalated the issue up to a manager who explained that the attraction had been 101. While it was 101 they cleared out the line. But when they reopened all the backed up fast passes returned in far greater quantity. There was too many people in the Fastpass line and so that's why it became longer than the standby line. I found that excuse to be unacceptable. They should have slowed taking people from the standby line down to a trickle to ensure the Fastpass line got the priority if needed.

 

[JenniferS]

Girl, I fired MYSELF because I took an acid trip and realized I had more self respect than to allow a company to treat me so horribly just because the songs from the Lion King reminded me of my childhood or something.
Don't worry.

If the songs from The Lion King remind you of your childhood, then I suspect you have misrepresented your age.

You didn’t “feel” 51 to me.

 

[mikejs78]

Meanwhile, posted for me was 110 and the actual was 80. Mileage varies with the big E-tickets.

I've found TouringPlans Lines to be the most accurate - but it's still just an estimate.

Disney DOES inflate ride times on certain attractions sizabley to drive crowds away and spread out guests. I talked with an Ops manager and they confirmed this with me.

From my personal experience, big Es like FoP and SDD will often be around 70-80 minutes actual with posted varying from 70-120 minutes. There are exceptions, such as peak times where the actual will match the posted, but for the most part that holds true.

And again, the issue I've heard is not related to an intentional inflation, but an inability in older queues to update wait times. This would result in wait times posted that are much shorter than the actual wait times.

All the queues use FP+ now though. Any wait time inflation is intentional at this point.

 

[Kman101]

Wow. That statement says way more about you than it does about Disney.

You absolutely read my mind.

 

[Driver]

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.

Not true... red cards are still the most reliable check for wait times including Pandora....... got one myself this summer.

 

[JoeCamel]

Not true... red cards are still the most reliable check for wait times including Pandora....... got one myself this summer.

I would think MBs are the most reliable check. If TDO chooses not to use them then red cards are the best but why would they still be using them when when they have 2B tech to throw at the data?

 

[BigThunderMatt]

It is a shame, there are so few CMs who are as invested in the Guest experience as I was.

Wow, so humble and yet you don't work there anymore either. Is it lonely up there on your pedestal?

 

[Soarin2u]

Agreed!

But I disagree that the wait times are wrong because of crappy CPs. There are many factors that contribute to why the wait time was wrong.

I actually like the CP. Most of them are a breath of fresh air. Too many full-time cast members are entitled. You want more out of me pay me more kind of attitude that you see in this thread. Too many think they should be paid more because of how long they've been with the company, not what they have contributed to the company.

After I find that the CP, and I'll also had the international program participant, I have a different mentality. They come in one of two boxes, one is just here for fun, the other is actually quite serious and is looking to do more.

I agree with the general consensus here. In general wait times are usually inflated. Occasionally they're spot-on. And even where they're just wrong. I have looked at the wait time when they've been wrong and noticed it was adjusted up words while I was in line. Sometimes life just happens. I don't feel lied to. I just feel like life just happens.

Now one thing that does upset me is when I'm in the fast pass line in the standby line is literally faster. And I tried to explain that to the attraction house and they don't want to have anything to hear about it. That happened to me once on Space Mountain.

I escalated the issue up to a manager who explained that the attraction had been 101. While it was 101 they cleared out the line. But when they reopened all the backed up fast passes returned in far greater quantity. There was too many people in the Fastpass line and so that's why it became longer than the standby line. I found that excuse to be unacceptable. They should have slowed taking people from the standby line down to a trickle to ensure the Fastpass line got the priority if needed.

As someone who knew a lot of SM CMs ... (got close enough to one where at the end of his shift he’d gave away any paper fast passes to me and my fellow greeters occasionally. These were better than NSAs)

I recall late March having them increase the wait time to being three hours in order to get the FP people through. This caused the standby queue to be completely dead. I got complaints from many a guest during the days this occured due to the “outrageous waits” which were no wait at all had they gone through standby the line. I don’t know what happened in your situation. Maybe they changed procedures but I definitely recall them scaring off standby guests quite well by inflating the wait time to an otherwise outrageous wait for moderate attendance.

 

[draybook]

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.

In all fairness, this is a first world forum...

 

[Missing20K]

It's scary enough sober, I'd never wanna know what it's like on acid

Hmm, I thought quite the opposite.

 

[J. D.]

Well, since no one else has, I'll ask. How was IASW while on acid?

Probably akin to Fear and Loathing in Fantasyland.

"We can't stop here! This is mouse country!"

 

[HikerDana]

FWIW

I just got back from WDW. Wait times are 100% artificially inflated. I was getting off Soarin at 9:10 on Saturday morning. Posted wait time was 85 minutes. One CM said to the other.

“How can we be at 85 already?”

Answer:

“We aren’t. Not even close. More like 45.”

First thing in the morning wait times for popular rides are almost always incorrect. Consider how they would post a wait time first thing in the morning as guest come streaming into the park. The first guest should be greeted by a wait time of zero minutes, guest 100 might see a wait time of 5 minutes and so forth. You would need to be constantly changing the wait time, which is impossible. At rope drop we waited only 60 minutes for Flight of Passage, but the wait time posted was 90 minutes. What is interesting is my kids now claim they waited 90 minutes for the ride.

 

[Tribal Prophet]

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

As if hijacking the op’s thread wasn’t enough, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so desperate for attention.

 

[spacemtnfanatic]

Girl, I fired MYSELF because I took an acid trip and realized I had more self respect than to allow a company to treat me so horribly just because the songs from the Lion King reminded me of my childhood or something.
Don't worry.

I wish I had taken an acid trip, perhaps I would have gotten out sooner. But I am with you 100% on every comment you have made on this thread

 

[King Racoon 77]

As if hijacking the op’s thread wasn’t enough, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so desperate for attention.

Give it time ... your new here.

 

[Dave B]

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

So why did you leave and not work to get promoted to be able to teach these people that are doing it incorrectly?