Current Wait Times and Park Hours

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'll be down at WDW the end of next week and I've been keeping watch over the wait times the last couple weeks. There has been a pretty dramatic increase in wait times across all parks. I noticed earlier today that if we wanted to hit the top 6 attractions with the longest wait times at MK, it would take us close to 6 hours with the wait times posted. The park is only open for 9 hours. How in the world do they expect guests to even get to see half of what they're wanting to do? Without FP or EMH, you have no choice but to wait in line. DHS is even more of a mess with longer wait times and less attractions.

I remember in years past when parks were anticipated to be busier than predicted, they would lengthen the operating hours either the week before, the week of or even sometimes the day of. I notice they have added an hour to both Epcot and AK on 9/26. I understand why they shortened park hours before, lots of things had VERY short waits for awhile, but it things seem to be picking up across all 4 parks. It would make sense to me to start adding an hour or 2 so that guests are actually able to do more than half the attractions in the parks while paying a full day ticket. Does anyone else think this should be something they should implement now as the crowds, while still falling under the capacity limit, start to grow?
 

Queen of the WDW Scene

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
If you've ever been you must know that many times the wait times are overdone.
If its concerning then perhaps postpone until the parks can return to more of a normal operation.
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
If you've ever been you must know that many times the wait times are overdone.
If its concerning then perhaps postpone until the parks can return to more of a normal operation.

Never said it was concerning. I have been to WDW numerous times. Yes, sometimes they are higher than normal, other times they aren't. I simply asked if with the park crowds increasing if extending the hours are something they should do. I didn't ask for your opinion on whether I should take my trip or not, thank you.
 

The4mousekeeters

Well-Known Member
We were at MK and HS over Labor Day weekend when there were larger crowds, at least larger than there has been. The wait times were exaggerated 85-90% of the time in our experience, especially earlier in the day - a 45 min wait at Splash was only 15. A 30 minute at BTMRR was only 10. With distancing in the lines and the way they have to load parties in ride vehicles (distancing) I believe it's harder for them to post accurate wait information. We were there at "rope drop" each morning and easily able to do everything that we wanted to do, including all "major" attractions. Including a boarding pass for ROTR.
I hope that you find wait times not to be an issue on your trip and that you have a great time! We really enjoyed our trip, even with all of the differences right now. I hope you have such a great time as well!!! :)
 

Yellow Shoes

Well-Known Member
We were at MK and HS over Labor Day weekend when there were larger crowds, at least larger than there has been. The wait times were exaggerated 85-90% of the time in our experience, especially earlier in the day - a 45 min wait at Splash was only 15. A 30 minute at BTMRR was only 10. With distancing in the lines and the way they have to load parties in ride vehicles (distancing) I believe it's harder for them to post accurate wait information. We were there at "rope drop" each morning and easily able to do everything that we wanted to do, including all "major" attractions. Including a boarding pass for ROTR.
I hope that you find wait times not to be an issue on your trip and that you have a great time! We really enjoyed our trip, even with all of the differences right now. I hope you have such a great time as well!!! :)
We'll be there Sunday--hope you all are correct. Of course, it isn't worth stressing over--I've got packing to do. THAT'S stressful.
 

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
I would imagine you need a different mindset when visiting parks during COVID. Instead of rushing to the best ride, maybe wait 3 or 4 hours on it, because everyone else will be going there first too. Ride 2 or 3 in the same time you took to ride one.
 

Yellow Shoes

Well-Known Member
I would imagine you need a different mindset when visiting parks during COVID. Instead of rushing to the best ride, maybe wait 3 or 4 hours on it, because everyone else will be going there first too. Ride 2 or 3 in the same time you took to ride one.
My dream is to get off, go back through the queue and ride again. Better yet, just stay on...
We are pretty stoked about videos we've seen of folks sprinting through the queues at Pirates and Mansion.
 

rct247

Well-Known Member
Wait times are likely overinflated to account for inconsistencies in how many people are loaded on the rides, cleaning times that occur every couple hours, and as a deterrent.

Party size plays a bigger role in ride capacity per hour now more than ever.

The deterrent factor is because the lines have to be social distanced out making them stretch out much further than intended. There isn't space to put all these lines. The other side is ops is still getting used to determining how long waits actually are with the new distanced queues. Party size, again, has a bigger role than before where number of people in line total was easier to determine.
 

"El Gran Magnifico"

Bring Me A Shrubbery
Premium Member
It's a crap shoot. When I was there it was great. Average 15. Longest about 30 (7DMT). Some 5. However, it was during the week and right before Labor Day. I heard Labor Day Weekend was significantly more crowded. I'm going to say that if you're in the parks mid-week it should be light. Weekends may get busier. Again, all a crap shoot. There is no reliable data you can draw from. Good Luck.
 

RoadiJeff

Well-Known Member
From the reports of those who’ve have just visited, the wait times posted are not accurate.
.

I spent the last two days (Friday and Saturday) at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. From my experience, the wait times on the app were always exaggerated. On average, I'd say my actual wait was about 2/3 of what it said it would be. Sometimes it was less than 1/2.

Had a GREAT time going solo. Wife had to stay home, couldn't get off work. No kids. On the Millinium Falcon Smugglers Run, I rode it twice and they let me have the ship all to myself each time. Naturally, I chose the right front pilot so I could operate the jump to light speed. On Rise of the Resistance, I had a whole vehicle to myself. I won't go into details for those who have not yet done the experience.

All I can say is don't get discouraged when you look at the My Disney Experience app and see all those long wait times. They are not accurate.

disney.jpg
 
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PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Excellent information, yall!! I'm glad to know wait times seem to be less than posted. This will definitely be a different kind of trip for us. We're APs so we go 2-3 times a year and the past few trips we've started to slow down more and just enjoy the atmosphere. I feel like this trip will also be the same.
 

Deadphish

Active Member
My dream is to get off, go back through the queue and ride again. Better yet, just stay on...
We are pretty stoked about videos we've seen of folks sprinting through the queues at Pirates and Mansion.
We were at MK on August 31st and were able to stay on the barnstormer 3 times without even getting up. Longest wait of the day was 7 dwarfs it was 20 minutes in the morning, but the last hour of the day we went back and rode 7 dwarfs 5 times in a row It would of been more but I couldn’t run through the queue as quick as my 10 year old daughter
 

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
The crowd levels are low for sure, but I wouldn't exactly call the lines short. If anything, I think that the slightly lower than average wait times are more attributable to Fast Pass not being used. I believe that if Fast Pass was being used, and the same priority was given to it that was given normally (very, very high) that the standby lines would be comparable. At least with Fast Pass, you can some chances to ride pretty much immediately, and if you're skilled it (like I am) pretty much all of your ride production is on Fast Pass.

Its funny how different parks have their philosophies for dealing with COVID. Universal has trying to expand their Virtual Queue to keep people out of lines. Holiday World is using Accesso and for the first ever going all virtual queue (they didn't ever have a priority queue at all before). And Cedar Point (and previously Kings Island) are experimenting with Access Passes that they never used before. Its funny how those parks are trying to lean more on virtual line management, and Disney completely got rid of theirs (except for the Rise boarding groups).


But back to my original point. Yes, fewer people are in the parks, but with a small fraction of the seats being filled, the cleaning procedures, and fewer experiences open, there just isn't nearly the same throughput. So the light crowds won't really benefit you that.
 

Ldno

Well-Known Member
Someone posted this past weekend the lines for slinky dog went back all the way to OMD and the wait was 80 minutes, I always feel DHS times are more accurate than the rest of the park.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I've been on Property for the last four days, and my experiences in the Parks have been this -

Wait times are typically more then the actual wait.
A Attraction showing a 60 minute wait is sometimes only 45.
Even better, a Attraction showing a 20 or 15 minute wait is often a walk on.

Lines for many of the major Attractions are HUGE at first appearence, but they move quickly.
So don't let the long snaking queues deter you.
The limited capacity now placed on ride vehicles and the spacing being implemented in the queue areas makes everything appear three times as lengthy as is typical.
Example -
Today I experienced three rides on 'Flight of Passage' within a two hour period , one of those times the line was all the way down the walkway that leads to Africa.
It moved at a steady pace, and although the wait time was posted at an hour it was in reality about 40 minute walk through the queue at a good pace.
Time flew.

As is to be expected due to many visitors 'Commando Touring ' mentality, and the fact the Parks have shorter hours, the first half of the day is the busiest.
If anyone has been paying attention to those graph charts @MisterPenguin has been posting in other related threads regarding recent wait times, you can see the obvious pattern -
The best time to hit the Attractions you want to do is either the first hour or the last two hours the Park is open.
I've experienced this first hand this week thus far.
The last two hours in particular is the best part of the day.
You can do a lot in that time if you already know your priorities.

I should also mention that there are a lot more people here and in the Parks then I was expecting based on reports from last month and earlier this month.
There ARE 'crowds'...and anyone coming thinking it's going to be visably reduced and everything will be minimal minute waits is just going to have to realize that is no longer the case.
Yeah, a little disappointing...but that is what I have been experiencing.

Very long lines for everything, exspecially any food options.
I advise reserving in advance a table service restaurant for a 'mask break' and a meal.
If you are not a mobile order kinda dragon like me, finding places to grab something to eat is somewhat challanging right now.
Glad I researched in advance and prepared.

-
 
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Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
I've been on Property for the last four days, and my experiences in the Parks have been this -

Wait times are typically more then the actual wait.
A Attraction showing a 60 minute wait is sometimes only 45.
Even better, a Attraction showing a 20 or 15 minute wait is often a walk on.

Lines for many of the major Attractions are HUGE at first appearence, but they move quickly.
So don't let the long snaking queues deter you.
The limited capacity now placed on ride vehicles and the spacing being implemented in the queue areas makes everything appear three times as lengthy as is typical.
Example -
Today I experienced three rides on 'Flight of Passage' within a two hour period , one of those times the line was all the way down the walkway that leads to Africa.
It moved at a steady pace, and although the wait time was posted at an hour it was in reality about 40 minute walk through the queue at a good pace.
Time flew.

As is to be expected due to many visitors 'Commando Touring ' mentality, and the fact the Parks have shorter hours, the first half of the day is the busiest.
If anyone has been paying attention to those graph charts @MisterPenguin has been posting in other related threads regarding recent wait times, you can see the obvious pattern -
The best time to hit the Attractions you want to do is either the first hour or the last two hours the Park is open.
I've experienced this first hand this week thus far.
The last two hours in particular is the best part of the day.
You can do a lot in that time if you already know your priorities.

I should also mention that there are a lot more people here and in the Parks then I was expecting based on reports from last month and earlier this month.
There ARE 'crowds'...and anyone coming thinking it's going to be visably reduced and everything will be minimal minute waits is just going to have to realize that is no longer the case.
Yeah, a little disappointing...but that is what I have been experiencing.

Very long lines for everything, exspecially any food options.
I advise reserving in advance a table service restaurant for a 'mask break' and a meal.
If you are not a mobile order kinda dragon like me, finding places to grab something to eat is somewhat challanging right now.
Glad I researched in advance and prepared.

-

I mean, it has nothing to do with appearances. At the end of the day, all that matters is demand versus throughput. When one person has the ability to take up eight seats now and there are cleaning cycles where the vehicles are sitting idly, you can have less foot traffic in the parks, but you'll still be waiting in lines.

In my opinion, the only reason stand-by lines are shorter now is because there's no Fast Pass. If hypothetically pre-COVID it was all stand-by with no Fast Pass, the wait times would probably be comparable to what they are now if not shorter. Don't underestimate how Cast Members sending through 4x as many from the FP+ line compared to the stand-by line will impact stand-by's wait times.

So yeah, your stand-by wait is shorter now, but you don't get to pre-book instant walk-ons now like you used to. If you really want on something, you have to wait for it. Obviously if every row was filled, this would be a different story, but the reduced throughput is killing the wait times.
 

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