"Wait Time" signs-intentionally wrong?

[steve2wdw]

Back in the 70's and early 80's, the wait times were usually exagerated by 50%, meaning that if the actual wait time was 30 minutes, they would add 15 minutes to the wait time, making the sign say 45 minutes. Back then (pre-fastpass) everyone waited for everything and psychologically the exageration worked well. You always felt like you were getting more for your money because the line always went faster than the posted time.

 

[pjammer]

It is true that the wait time is intentionally increased so you more excited that you haven't waited as long. Because if we said 15 min wait and there was a ride stop and the person waited 17 min people would complain so if you just say a 25 min wait or 30 min and wait and nothing goes wrong then the guest are happy. As for attractions with fastpass they are suppose to always have at least a 15 min wait from my understanding to even justify the use of fastpass. And b/c of the merge point and downtimes you want to factor in a little higher of a leeway.

Living with the Land on the other hand actually is pretty much running that high of a wait. I mean it might say 45 which really means around 35...but normally they aren't running that many boats so therefore causing the wait to be longer.

 

[AndyMagic]

Disney's plan is all well and good. But do they realize that by increasing the wait times so much, that people will just be discouraged and not experience the attraction at all? I have seen SO many people walk up to rides and go, ohh we don't have time to go on this, while the children proceded to cry about not being able to go on their favorite ride. I have no problems with them exagerating a little bit, but the M:S posted wait times are almost always 20 minutes higher than they should be. For a ride they are trying to hype and make as many people ride as possible, this seems like a pretty stupid strategy of discouraging potential riders. :veryconfu

 

[Mike-O-Wave]

I was surprised on our trip last week how many wait time signs were wrong and understated the wait. For example, Philharmagic posted a 5 minute wait when it was 20 minutes instead.

 

[Blake]

Fastpass makes it quite difficult to estimate the wait because, since each guest has an hour to come back, there can be a sudden crash of Fastpass returns while at other tiimes, there will be very few...

 

[LadyDarling]

Wait times

I've found that during the off season, wait times are accurate or over stated by about 10 minutes.
This is a really interesting thread! I've never passed by an attraction for wait times. I've always checked back later, and worst case, ride it last, when the park is fixing to close and I can hop in line (where it doesn't matter because I'm not missing anything else except the crush to the gates).

As for Test Track, I've always fast passed it. I waited in line once a couple years ago where the sign said 25, and I know I was there for at least 40 minutes. I can understand when rides have to stop to load a handicapped person and I'm patient, so it doesn't bother me too much, but that perticular wait (probably becuase, though there is a lot to look at, the que is SOOOOO noisy) rubbed me the wrong way, so we fast pass that puppy, even if the wait is only 15 minutes by the sign. If I can see the line for test track, it's too long.

I'm picking up so many great tips for our trip coming up in 3 weeks! Thanks!