Rides with longest wait times

[winstongator]

I was thinking about how the parks will look in 3 years, and what attractions will have the longest waits. I figured I should look at attractions today and see which have the longest waits. Using touring plans data (thanks @lentesta ) for average wait on a level-5 medium crowd day I got the table below.

Flight of Passage	7 Dwarfs Mine Train	Slinky Dog Dash	Navi River Journey	Rock n Roller Coaster	Space Mountain	Test Track	Tower of Terror	Kilimanjaro Safaris	Peter Pan's Flight
195	130	115	110	110	95	95	95	90	85

The top 4 are new, but the rest of the top 10 are long-standing rides with two classics. Frozen Ever After just misses the cut.

What will this look like after all the rides under construction are finished? You could easily have 9 of the 10 longest waits being 'new' rides - we can debate how long a ride retains the new label. No matter how you look at the longest wait times, it will be dominated by newer rides. The next thought from that is that the parks will look much different in 2022 than they did in 2012.

Links to data.
https://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/crowd-levels

EPCOT Crowd Levels

touringplans.com

Hollywood Studios Crowd Levels

touringplans.com

Animal Kingdom Crowd Levels

touringplans.com

 

[Trackmaster]

RocknRoll and Kilimanjaro are deceptive since they have the single rider line which is much faster. I think you have to separate those two from the rest.

So much wrong with this post.

• There's nothing wrong about it. The reason the lines are so short is that most people prefer to ride with their friends and families and not by yourself. The SRL means that you must ride by yourself.
• RRC's SRL isn't that much shorter than stand-by.
• The SRL is for Expedition Everest, not the Safari.

A little unrelated, but:

• Similar to #1, you miss out on the detailed queue in the SRL for Test Track, RRC, and EE, so there's that drawback as well.

 

[larryz]

Star Wars: Escape from Reality and Rise of the Resistant will have the longest lines... that's not including the wait just to get into the land.

And what the daily average hourly wait figures don't take into account is the number of FP+s already allocated at 68 days out. To be totally honest, you'd have to include those waiting times in your calculations as well...

 

[aliceismad]

I'm sure the Star Wars rides will have the longest lines for years. But TRON, GotG, and even Rat will make the list I bet.

The question is whether any of those rides' standby times will go down. With more rides in the parks, will there just be that many more people? Seems unlikely that crowd levels will stagnate. I'd be more interested in a long-term look at how many rides average a 60+ minute standby.

 

[winstongator]

I'm sure the Star Wars rides will have the longest lines for years. But TRON, GotG, and even Rat will make the list I bet.

The question is whether any of those rides' standby times will go down. With more rides in the parks, will there just be that many more people? Seems unlikely that crowd levels will stagnate. I'd be more interested in a long-term look at how many rides average a 60+ minute standby.

I’m not 100% sure the standby lines for the galaxy’s edge attractions without fp+ will be more than flight of passage with fp+ - at least a few months out. I don’t think pandora dropped the lines for other animal kingdom attractions too significantly, but galaxy’s edge will be different. I’ve never spent a full da in pandora, but if they’ll let me, I’ll do it with galaxy’s edge. I agree Tron, GotG and Ratatouille will have long waits. Depending on how they do fp+ tiering at Epcot, there might be more movement on wait times there. A 2 hr wait for tron will hold like 1200 people which is like 2% of attendance. I could see the added capacity at the MK being swallowed by increased attendance. It’s possible that happens at DHS and Epcot too.

Touringplans published some of their wait time data for select rides. I’d have to double check how many of the rides the published averaged >60.

 

[aliceismad]

I’m not 100% sure the standby lines for the galaxy’s edge attractions without fp+ will be more than flight of passage with fp+ - at least a few months out.

I have no real data or opinion on how FP lengthened lines, but I assume the folks here know what they're talking about. I still think Star Wars will be up there. I can recall as a kid waiting forever for Star Tours in DL when it was newish long before FP existed. I just can't imagine the lines not being extensive.

 

[Trackmaster]

I have no real data or opinion on how FP lengthened lines, but I assume the folks here know what they're talking about. I still think Star Wars will be up there. I can recall as a kid waiting forever for Star Tours in DL when it was newish long before FP existed. I just can't imagine the lines not being extensive.

Think about it this way: CMs are supposed to run a 4:1 priority for FP+ over stand-by when the FP+ gets to the point that the FP+ line is building up. It can go down to a 1:1 priority if the FP+ line is more or less a walk-on. So on rides where the FP+ runs out, stand-by operates pretty much at 20% capacity compared to if it was stand-by only. Maybe call it 25% when you factor in the merge point where you're 50/50 with FP+. So taking GE off of FP+ will open up a lot more capacity and create available seats for people who can't get FP+ for it.

 

[Michael T]

I have no real data or opinion on how FP lengthened lines, but I assume the folks here know what they're talking about. I still think Star Wars will be up there. I can recall as a kid waiting forever for Star Tours in DL when it was newish long before FP existed. I just can't imagine the lines not being extensive.

FastPass+ typically makes stand-by about double the wait than stand-by without FastPass+. CMs are told to let FP+ in 10-1. So every 10 people in FP+, 1 is let in for stand-by.

 

[aliceismad]

So one post with 4:1 ratio for FP to standby and one post with 10:1 ratio. Which is legitimate? Or does it change based on time of year, crowd size, etc.?

 

[winstongator]

So one post with 4:1 ratio for FP to standby and one post with 10:1 ratio. Which is legitimate? Or does it change based on time of year, crowd size, etc.?

I’ve read 7:3 FP+, so 70% fp+. At one point I counted. I let someone ahead of me at spaceship earth thinking it’d be just them. Then they swap in the fp+ line and another 20 or so people go 8n ahead of me.

 

[Trackmaster]

So much wrong in your post.

Not accounting for the single rider times skews the numbers for Everest & Rock and isn’t representative of their real times. There should be an asterisk next to those rides.

Dude, did you even read the OP, or my post. Everest wasn't even on the list up there! And its very important to note that for TT, the stand-by line is such an important part of the ride that you really miss out in the SRL, and the SRL just doesn't help that much for RRC.

The best SRL is EE for sure. Its an awesome ride even without the ride, and you can get 5-6 laps in an hour easily with that SRL. The fastest SRL is TT, but you are missing a lot of the experience by using it.

 

[Trackmaster]

So one post with 4:1 ratio for FP to standby and one post with 10:1 ratio. Which is legitimate? Or does it change based on time of year, crowd size, etc.?

Now you have my interested. A CM told me the 4:1 ratio and sounded pretty confident, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was different. 10:1 sounds pretty high, the stand-by line would never move if that was the case!

 

[lentesta]

Now you have my interested. A CM told me the 4:1 ratio and sounded pretty confident, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was different. 10:1 sounds pretty high, the stand-by line would never move if that was the case!

The default ratio for most rides is either 3:1 or 4:1. CMs are given leeway to increase that up to 30:1 if the FP line gets backed up.

 

[Epcot_Imagineer]

CMs are given leeway to increase that up to 30:1 if the FP line gets backed up.

Thank God that FP isn't in SW:GE at open.

 

[Trackmaster]

The default ratio for most rides is either 3:1 or 4:1. CMs are given leeway to increase that up to 30:1 if the FP line gets backed up.

So basically, the end game is just to drain the FP+ as quickly as possible at all times. Personally, I like the idea of a hard limit, just to make sure that the stand-by line is moving at least a little. I think that 3:1 would be a natural ratio. That way for a dual tracked ride or a ride that loads two train at once, one train goes straight up to FP+, and the other train is split evenly between FP+ and stand-by.

 

[aliceismad]

The default ratio for most rides is either 3:1 or 4:1. CMs are given leeway to increase that up to 30:1 if the FP line gets backed up.

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

 

[winstongator]

The default ratio for most rides is either 3:1 or 4:1. CMs are given leeway to increase that up to 30:1 if the FP line gets backed up.

As I see it, the number of people in the FP+ side of the queue is variable, yet those with FP+ want a "short" wait time. If the FP+ line builds because people wait till the end of their window, or another ride goes down so there are more FP+ being used, that's when you want to shift the ratio up. You get what you get in the standby line. Wait times can jump there.

Thank God that FP isn't in SW:GE at open.

Absolutely. I like the FP+ system, but feel it would be a disaster for GE, at least early on. Also, the queues will make a convenient spot for 5,000 people per attraction, or 10k when both are open.

 

[Willmark]

All of them.

 

[Trackmaster]

As I see it, the number of people in the FP+ side of the queue is variable, yet those with FP+ want a "short" wait time. If the FP+ line builds because people wait till the end of their window, or another ride goes down so there are more FP+ being used, that's when you want to shift the ratio up. You get what you get in the standby line. Wait times can jump there.


Absolutely. I like the FP+ system, but feel it would be a disaster for GE, at least early on. Also, the queues will make a convenient spot for 5,000 people per attraction, or 10k when both are open.

Right, the basic concept is "drain FP+ ASAP and don't lose too much sleep over stand-by waits." I used to dislike the system, but it makes sense. You know the rules going on, and you know that if you want to have a good time, you need baller FP+'s set up. If you rely on stand-by... you're gonna' have a bad time (South Park reference for anyone who gets it). I guess the FP+ system just really calls attention to the fact that at Disney, you're only expected to have 3-5 ride laps a day to get everyone in the park on something. Contrasting this to other parks where you can easily get 20-25 ride laps in a day or more due to lower crowd levels.

To me, the best way to do Disney is just to go for a lot of days, and never spend more than a few hours at a time. That way you have a higher percentage of laps in on FP+, and fewer on stand-by.

 

[aliceismad]

Right, the basic concept is "drain FP+ ASAP and don't lose too much sleep over stand-by waits." I used to dislike the system, but it makes sense. You know the rules going on, and you know that if you want to have a good time, you need baller FP+'s set up. If you rely on stand-by... you're gonna' have a bad time (South Park reference for anyone who gets it). I guess the FP+ system just really calls attention to the fact that at Disney, you're only expected to have 3-5 ride laps a day to get everyone in the park on something. Contrasting this to other parks where you can easily get 20-25 ride laps in a day or more due to lower crowd levels.

To me, the best way to do Disney is just to go for a lot of days, and never spend more than a few hours at a time. That way you have a higher percentage of laps in on FP+, and fewer on stand-by.

If you french fry when you're supposed to pizza, you're gonna have a bad time.

I have no answers for how Disney should do things or what would make it better. I guess they could be content to keep prices as they are and limit gate entries, but I just don't see that happening with any money-making company. I've been checking ride line times for the past few weeks in the lead up to our trip, and maybe I'm misunderstanding or far too optimistic but most rides seem doable without FP. I'm going in with the realization that I won't get to everything at Disney, and for me, the appeal isn't riding all the rides (as would be with a standard amusement park). The atmosphere is half the experience, not to mention meet and greets, shows, etc.