phillip9698
Well-Known Member
Was at MK on the day in question. The wait times were not correct. Only one ride was a 30 minute wait, Jungle Cruise, everything else was essentially walk under 20 minutes and walk on.
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Explain to me like I'm 5 why there are 60+ minute waits today
- Thread starter retroeric
- Start date
KBLovedDisney
Well-Known Member
Explain to me like I'm 5 why there are 60+ minute waits today
Because Disney is being a big poo poo head. That's why.
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No really, they are being big dummies.
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
Posted wait times are inflated, Ratatouille AP previews have started, discounts offered, and running attractions at lower capacity as explained by others. Mostly though wait times are inflated.
HS, as others have stated, is also an oddball right now. In addition to what others have said, HS is drawing extra crowds because WDW customers are playing the HS Rise Boarding Group lottery. People have to choose which park they want to visit each day, and they don't know ahead of 7:01am if they will get a BG for Rise.
Instead of there normal ratio of visiting HS at a ratio of 1 day/per 5 days/per WDW vacation (1 HS, 2 MK, 1 AK, 1 Epcot), they are electing to visit HS a little more often. Perhaps choosing 2 HS per 5 park days. Especially perhaps during the Food and Wine Festival, when it is easy to visit Epcot for food starting at about 2pm. Mind, the 2 of 5 ratio is just a rough example. Many folks visit WDW for a week or longer, so instead of 5 park days maybe they have 6 or 7 park days. A little change in the ratio = a more crowded HS.
HS, as others have stated, is also an oddball right now. In addition to what others have said, HS is drawing extra crowds because WDW customers are playing the HS Rise Boarding Group lottery. People have to choose which park they want to visit each day, and they don't know ahead of 7:01am if they will get a BG for Rise.
Instead of there normal ratio of visiting HS at a ratio of 1 day/per 5 days/per WDW vacation (1 HS, 2 MK, 1 AK, 1 Epcot), they are electing to visit HS a little more often. Perhaps choosing 2 HS per 5 park days. Especially perhaps during the Food and Wine Festival, when it is easy to visit Epcot for food starting at about 2pm. Mind, the 2 of 5 ratio is just a rough example. Many folks visit WDW for a week or longer, so instead of 5 park days maybe they have 6 or 7 park days. A little change in the ratio = a more crowded HS.
If you look at the TouringPlans Crowd Calendar, where they rate crowds in a park on a 1-10 scale, yesterday was considered a 1.
From TP site: "These numbers represent the average peak wait times for each attraction — in other words, the highest waits expected for that park by crowd level. The numbers are the range you'll typically expect as a peak wait time. They measure wait times every day between 11am and 5pm."
A 1 means that rides such as Space Mountain will have waits in the range of 13 to 64 minutes, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 50-70 minutes.
At Studios, a 1 is Slinky Dog Dash between 50-73 minutes.
In other words, depending on many factors, when you look at the headliner attractions in each park around 4pm yesterday and see approx. 60 minute waits, the only real reason you are surprised is that you are expecting things to have not changed at all in 10-15 years.
(also, as some have said, these wait times tend to be posted high, and you may find most actual times to be much less when you go thru the ride. This is a way of pleasing guests. "oh, I thought I had to wait 60 minutes but it was only 30-40 minutes, that wasn't so bad, yay Disney" )
From TP site: "These numbers represent the average peak wait times for each attraction — in other words, the highest waits expected for that park by crowd level. The numbers are the range you'll typically expect as a peak wait time. They measure wait times every day between 11am and 5pm."
A 1 means that rides such as Space Mountain will have waits in the range of 13 to 64 minutes, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 50-70 minutes.
At Studios, a 1 is Slinky Dog Dash between 50-73 minutes.
In other words, depending on many factors, when you look at the headliner attractions in each park around 4pm yesterday and see approx. 60 minute waits, the only real reason you are surprised is that you are expecting things to have not changed at all in 10-15 years.
(also, as some have said, these wait times tend to be posted high, and you may find most actual times to be much less when you go thru the ride. This is a way of pleasing guests. "oh, I thought I had to wait 60 minutes but it was only 30-40 minutes, that wasn't so bad, yay Disney" )
Yes. ROTR and Ratatouille will both have virtual queues as well as the ability to purchase "Individual Attraction Service" - paid FP for a single ride.
EOD K9
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I can live with either one at this point. I was there last month and both days got BG 38 and 29.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Seriously, there has always been lines at WDW since the place opened. Does anyone think that just because one wants to just walk on to every ride that it is just magically going to happen. It is part of a theme park experience. The only way that they can stop that from happening is to either charge so much for admission and the rest that only people with millions to spend will go there or that enough people are pushed out that they can no longer make that profit to the extent that they run in the red every single day. There is no cure for the lines and there never will be unless people just don't go anymore. If that happens there will no longer be lines because there will no longer be a theme park or enough people to support it.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
I always wonder if we have selective memory when we think back on wait times, I’ve only been visiting the parks for a decade but I distinctly remember days where I walked on most rides, I also distinctly remember people constantly complaining about the long waits on the blogs and websites, including this one, so that makes me think it’s always been busy.
Mabye we simply remember the positive and forget the negative or maybe there just aren’t any slow days left to remember.
That said, even on busy days I don’t think we ever wait more than 30 minutes for anything, we hit the e-tickets early and/or late in the day and do the rest of the rides midday when it’s chaos, or better yet we go back to the hotel for cocktails by the pool.
Mabye we simply remember the positive and forget the negative or maybe there just aren’t any slow days left to remember.
That said, even on busy days I don’t think we ever wait more than 30 minutes for anything, we hit the e-tickets early and/or late in the day and do the rest of the rides midday when it’s chaos, or better yet we go back to the hotel for cocktails by the pool.
DfromATX
Well-Known Member
Your post made me laugh because I just happened to be looking at wait times on Tuesday around 3:00 central time. I even took screen shots to show my husband because, aside from a few being 60 minutes, many were very low (and because I'm a nerd lol). Space, Big Thunder, even Splash were 20/25 minutes. Nothing was over 30 minutes at Epcot. Everest was 15 minutes and Flight of Passage was 35. Now Hollywood Studios was a different story... at the time I looked most were all OVER 35 minutes and Rise of the Resistance was temporarily closed.
Anyway, what are the odds that we would both be looking at WDW wait times on that specific day?? I knew I wasn't the only one!
Anyway, what are the odds that we would both be looking at WDW wait times on that specific day?? I knew I wasn't the only one!
Attachments
This. We were at the studios Sunday and Epcot last night. Posted wait times seemed double what the actual wait time was.
larryz
I'm Just A Tourist!
FTFY
We were there this past Sunday. Went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot for the Ratatouille preview.
Slinky Dog was showing 45 min wait in the app and on the board. The CM at the entrance told us it was only a 20 min wait. I timed it at 25.
At Epcot, Soarin was showing 25 min wait on the app and the board. We waited just under 10 min.
I take the wait times on the app with a grain of salt.
Slinky Dog was showing 45 min wait in the app and on the board. The CM at the entrance told us it was only a 20 min wait. I timed it at 25.
At Epcot, Soarin was showing 25 min wait on the app and the board. We waited just under 10 min.
I take the wait times on the app with a grain of salt.
TotallyBiased
Well-Known Member
Well, you see Timmy, when a man and a woman love a ride very much...
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
Both can be true. Over most of the last 15 years, if a wait was over 20 minutes I usually just walked away, though sometimes I judge by looking, not the posted wait time. Others may well do the reverse, see a posted wait of 30 and walk away. Still others opted to wait in the 30+ minutes line.
2. WDW has busier weeks, like holidays, and slower weeks. Perhaps folks both visited in 2015, but chose different weeks.
3. Even over the course of a single day, the peak waits occur 11am to about 4pm. Maximum wait time is typically very different from the morning and late PM wait, or the wait with FP. You don't need a complex plan to know that the wait for Kali peaks in the late afternoon. Kali has a short wait in the AM hours, you just have to be willing to get wet. If I ride it at 11am, I don't pay attention to the 2pm wait. (Unless I decide to re-ride it.)
4. Even during the peak hours, many attractions have short waits. I don't understand why so many park visitors don't manage their time better, but waiting in peak lines is their choice. If they opt to do it, so be it. I think many folks just don't want to think it through.
Trackmaster
Well-Known Member
Be mindful of what time of the day it is too. Maybe there were 60 minute waits at peak, but you probably could have cleaned up at rope drop or in the last few hours of the day. Since I generally go after work for the last hours of the day, the parks are a lot more dead when I see than when other people do.
DfromATX
Well-Known Member
We very rarely wait in long lines (45+ minutes). Two exceptions - we waited 1.5 hour for FOP at the end of the night when it first opened. (We had already fast passed it earlier and wanted to end the night with a bang. We were a large group and spent the time talking and laughing, so it was worth it.) And, we waited 50 minutes for Slinky Dog back in February (because it pretty much stayed at that wait time).
Otherwise, we move along to something else if we think a ride is too long to wait. You won't catch me waiting hours for rides. No way. I feel like we are good at managing our times. Back in the old times (before pandemic and with FP), we could knock out all of Fantasyland before 10:00 - and that was during summertime.
Possibly there is influence from the general situation? It seemed that more people were looking at options for schooling beyond the standard public schools (including things like home schooling).
If that has, in fact, increased that could increase demand as those families would have more freedom to schedule their vacations when others can't as they don't have to stay tied to a standard schedule.
DfromATX
Well-Known Member
We went last February, during a school week, during the pandemic and with the limited capacity, and we observed lots of children. I was surprised to see so many kids considering the situation. It seemed pretty busy actually, but it was still nice.
OG Runner
Well-Known Member
Because more people go to Disney World than to other parks and they like the same rides you do.