Sneaky CM's at Toy Story Midway Mania

Stitchaholic84

Stitchaholic84

Member
Original Poster
Don't know if anyone's picked up on this before or has mentioned it but could be a useful tip to someone.

Ok so we are just back from our 2 week holiday and twice arrived at DHS between 9.15am and 10am. As most people do, we headed straight to toy story to find the FASTPASS queue alone was backed up to VOTLM. The queue for the actual ride stretched down to past the Backlot Tour and the wait time was supposedly 145 minutes - it was pretty obvious that the majority of people in the park were in line for the ride.

So after waiting around 30 minutes in line, a few CM's announce they are having "technical difficulties" and begin kicking everyone out the line, not even giving them the option to wait which is the usual procedure. However, once the line has dispersed and about 15-20 mins has passed, the ride miraculously begins working again. Amazing that isnt it?
So even though it still says there is a 60 minute wait, we walk straight on with no more than 10 minutes in line.
 
sweetpee_1993

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
joanna71985 said:
That isn't sneaky. Rides do have technical issues (and there isn't always an option to wait in line).
Click to expand...

I think maybe at TSMM they ask you to leave the portion of the line that's in the building. When we were there for passholder previews prior to the official opening (I know, not the best occurance to compare) the ride went down and they made everyone leave the building. I asked if we could stay in line and was told no, everyone had to go out. On the outside I asked again and was told we could wait in the restricted area in line but we wouldn't be reentering the building until/if the ride came back up....which took over 2 hours. :lookaroun DH & I waited and got our hard-earned first ride. :D
 
Captain Hank

Captain Hank

Well-Known Member
Different attractions have different ways of dealing with downtimes depending on the situation and the estimated length of the downtime. It's entirely possible that Engineering expected that the downtime in question would take longer than it actually did to fix. Keep in mind that any evacs and queue dumps are done as a last resort at the discretion of the management not because of a decision from the front-line CMs.

It's also common practice to post a high wait time at an E-ticket attraction that's just come up from a downtime as there's a rush as Guests find out that it's reopened along with a long backlog of Fastpasses returning. It's entirely possible that the Standby was really 60 minutes long within a few minutes of you riding.
 
docandsix

docandsix

Active Member
SleepingMonk said:
That ride isn't worth wasting a FastPass on, if it's not a walk-on we don't even bother.
Click to expand...

Which means, I guess, that you never go on "that ride," because it hasn't been a walk-on since it opened, except maybe during a hurricane.

There may not be a single attraction in all of WDW which is more popular, especially when compared to its riders-per-hour ratio.
 
Texas84

Texas84

Well-Known Member
If you get there at opening in the off-season and skip the FastPass line you can get in with a 10-minute wait. Then go get your 4PM FastPass when that line is shorter. :D
 
SleepingMonk

SleepingMonk

Well-Known Member
docandsix said:
Which means, I guess, that you never go on "that ride," because it hasn't been a walk-on since it opened, except maybe during a hurricane.

There may not be a single attraction in all of WDW which is more popular, especially when compared to its riders-per-hour ratio.
Click to expand...



I think we've done it twice, both times in the off season/winter.

I'm glad people enjoy it, but both Buzz and MIB are much better examples of that ride style.
 
Dwarful

Dwarful

Well-Known Member
We were there the past two Saturdays...the first Sat. I think was June 4th and we were waiting at the turnstiles at 7:30 when they opened the park early..it was set for a 9 AM opening. We were the only ones headed straight for TSMM...everyone else was rushing around for the SWW events. We were able to grab FP's, then ride and reride..later used our FP's.
 
Stitchaholic84

Stitchaholic84

Member
Original Poster
What i'm trying to say is that there was no technical difficulties with the ride, they just wanted to disperse the crowds more to even out the park. Also, if everyone's standing in line they're not spending money.

Dwarful said:
We were there the past two Saturdays...the first Sat. I think was June 4th and we were waiting at the turnstiles at 7:30 when they opened the park early..it was set for a 9 AM opening. We were the only ones headed straight for TSMM...everyone else was rushing around for the SWW events. We were able to grab FP's, then ride and reride..later used our FP's.
Click to expand...

I get that on SWW people will go straight for those events. All the times we went were on weekdays purposely to avoid SWW, and both times we were there at opening they pulled this trick.
Just to give people a heads up.
 
Captain Hank

Captain Hank

Well-Known Member
Stitchaholic84 said:
What i'm trying to say is that there was no technical difficulties with the ride, they just wanted to disperse the crowds more to even out the park. Also, if everyone's standing in line they're not spending money.

I get that on SWW people will go straight for those events. All the times we went were on weekdays purposely to avoid SWW, and both times we were there at opening they pulled this trick.
Just to give people a heads up.
Click to expand...
And, what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't work that way. I work in attractions (though, not at Toy Story). Queues are not dumped unless there is a really good reason for it. There was no deception involved in what you encountered.
 
A

allgar

Member
Texas84 said:
If you get there at opening in the off-season and skip the FastPass line you can get in with a 10-minute wait. Then go get your 4PM FastPass when that line is shorter. :D
Click to expand...

Yup that's how we do it. Have never waited in line for this one for very long. Hit it at opening. Grab a fast pass after.

I like the ride and wait in the queue for it when at CA, but I love the FP option at HS.
 
Tori

Tori

Well-Known Member
Stitchaholic84 said:
What i'm trying to say is that there was no technical difficulties with the ride, they just wanted to disperse the crowds more to even out the park. Also, if everyone's standing in line they're not spending money.
Click to expand...

Do you work for Disney? Rides go down all the time.
 
ArtieJim

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
I think CMs would rather not have to deal with kicking that many people of a ride so popular. They're better off just letting them stay on line, so I don't think it's them being sneaky.
 
SleepingMonk

SleepingMonk

Well-Known Member
CAPTAIN HOOK said:
I think you'll find yourself amongst a very small minority with that statement (although everyone is entitled to their own opinion) - it is a very popular ride (judge by the queues)
Click to expand...


Maybe, but I think it's the limited ride options of Hollywood Studios that makes it so popular, not the ride itself.
 
the-reason14

the-reason14

Well-Known Member
SleepingMonk said:
Maybe, but I think it's the limited ride options of Hollywood Studios that makes it so popular, not the ride itself.
Click to expand...

I guess that's why the great movie ride and the backlot tour have equally long lines as tsm. There's not a lot to do so they line up for both of those as well. :rolleyes:
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom