Accuracy of Stand-by Wait Times

[WDWVolFan]

If you are right there in the smack of July...I promise you the times posted will be right on OR longer.

 

[KCheatle]

This is good to know!! I'm having to re-learn wait times for my next trip. Having gone in September and May for the past few years, wait times have not really be an issue. But, going in July this year will make this aw hole new ball game for us. Hopefully the updated FP+ system will already be up and running for our trip so we can utilize it as much as possible!!

 

[WDWVolFan]

Get your Portuguese lessons in...Brazilians will dominate it.

 

[rct247]

Waits times for most attractions are just slightly posted above the actual wait time to account for a minor stop, to make Guests feel better, and to round up. Most attractions with a Fastpass Merge Point have the "actual standby wait" posted at the bottom of their screen now. It also depends on the attractions, the time of day, or if they just had a downtime. Big name attractions like Soarin, Toy Story, and Space Mountain are notorious for inflating wait times to make a truly long wait much more of a surprise that it really wasn't that long. Wait times also jump up after parade & fireworks dumps and following downtimes as they are expecting an influx of people, especially through the Fastpass lines that will result in having to follow stricter ratios sending standby guests less often. Wait times will also be manually inflated to detour people sometimes right after a downtime or closer to park closing. I've seen them do this at Toy Story to keep the line down so that it take forever to clear the attraction. The times when they are not accurate are when you enter and then a downtime, stop, or show/parade dump occurs while you are in line. Then you will typically wait longer than the posted time.

In general though, those wait times have some accuracy to them based on the FLIK cards that are sent through. They won't just make a wait time 50 mins when it is really 20 just because, there is usually a reason. Most of the times waits are something like 43 minutes actually and 55 mins posted or 7 mins actually and 15mins posted.

 

[GeneralKnowledge]

I've always assumed that if the wait time says 30 minutes, then the wait time was 30 minutes 30 minutes ago, since it should be based on somebody's FLIK card that entered the line 30 minutes ago. I don't know if they employ any algorithms to average FLIK card readings, or use the trends between them to project current wait times, or use any historical data to feed into it.

Does anybody know if it's a straight projection based on the most recent FLIK card, or if it's more complex than that?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I've waited longer, shorter, and right on time. The biggest example of an inflated time was at Toy Story, hubby and I popped over to HS one night with the sole purpose of riding Toy Story and the line said 90 minutes and we were through in 30. A very nice surprise! So we popped back into the line the time still said 90 minutes and we were through in less than 30 again and by the time we got off the ride it was closing time in the park and no one was waiting at the boarding stations, it was kind of strange to see.

The longer time that comes to mind is at Big Thunder, the time clock said 10 minutes and we ended up with 30 minutes, still a ride worth the wait!

 

[bgraham34]

In all the time that I have visited the posted times are usually about right or actually longer. Very few times have I had them be shorter.