What are reasonable wait times for a 3 minute ride?

POLY LOVER

POLY LOVER

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looking at the wait times this week and felling so sorry for folks waiting 200 minutes and not realizing the ride is only 3 minutes long. What's reasonable ? How can Disney solve this problem? Is there a way to make the wait time match the experience? The fast pass system just doesn't completely work to balance this out. Which rides are worth the extended wait times.
 
John park hopper

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
The wait times posted these past few days are insane, personally I would never wait in line 5 hours for FoP which lasts 6 min or 2 hours for Rockin Roller Coaster which lasts 1.5 min. However from some of the pictures posted alot of people are willing to spend money to stand in lines most of the day at WDW. As long as people are willing Disney is not going to solve the wait problem because they don't see it as a problem not until it affects their revenue. Long lines destroy the magic for me
 
Marc Davis Fan

Marc Davis Fan

Well-Known Member
In answer to your secondary questions... there are two great ways to reduce wait times:

1. Get rid of FastPass. (That's a major culprit, maybe even the major culprit, in the standby lines becoming so long.)

2. Add more high-quality attractions.

Since we can't expect #1 to happen anytime in the conceivable future, perhaps:

A. Add more high-quality attractions.

B. Once (A) is sufficiently accomplished, it will be possible to lower the number of FastPasses that are made available per attraction, while still allowing guests to be satisfied with the number of FPs that they're able to get.
 
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Herdman

Herdman

Well-Known Member
Depends on the ride, how tired I am at that point in the day, and if I've never ridden the ride before. But, it's all mostly solved if you just do some planning and get out of bed. We went during the busy time of Thanksgiving week last year. We were at the parks before rope drop, had our FP+, and we had a plan. Even with crowd levels at 9 and 10 I think the longest we actually stood in line for anything all week was 45 minutes. Granted, AK is different now with FoP, but the other parks are essentially the same. If you don't want to get up early then be prepared for long lines. Same if you don't like to plan.
 
O

OsbourneCox

Member
PloyLover, I think you are not asking a good question, meaning it lacks specifics.
Many ask that same question in one form or another and it looks off due to ambiguity.


Here's why:
Some would not wait 15 seconds in line for a hypothetical 35 minute Dumbo ride. And others would wait 10 hours(and likely much more than that if they have access to bathroom and food) to ride the Journey to Center of the Earth which is a little over 3 minutes.

Some experiences I would not do with a 0 wait time and Disney paid me $12 like a Frozen meet and greet and other experiences I would wait 10+ hours and pay an extra $100 on top of normal admission for a 3 minute ride.
 
DisneyPrincess5

DisneyPrincess5

Well-Known Member
AndyS2992 said:
We have a 30 minute rule, any longer and we just skip it and try again later. After my recent November Disneyland Paris trip where every single ride was 5 minutes or less, I think I’ve been spoiled.
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Us too. I’d rather search for something else to ride, window shop or snack or people watch before I wait more than half hour for something.
 
Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
"Reasonable" is very much in the eye of the beholder.

I won't enter a line that's posted at over 30 minutes. I'm disabled and can't handle standing or slowly shuffling for much more than that. I either use FP+ or wait until another day or a future visit.

FP+ doesn't have as bad an impact as some believe. If you ask a few oldtimers, there were three hour waits before there was FastPass. Many of the folks with FP would just be in line ahead of you and though you might move more steadily, you're not getting there all that much faster. The math changes because of people like me who would simply never ride and those that use FP and then ride Stand By.
 
Goofy213

Goofy213

Well-Known Member
I once waited 7 hours for a 16 sec ride. Granted it was Top Thrill Dragster, the tallest fast roller coaster at the time, on it's opening day in 2002. The ride brokedown 5 times. Any other time I wouldn't wait a half hour.
 
correcaminos

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
20-30 minutes is our max. I cannot think of any ride that is worth more than a 30 minute wait.

Goofy213 said:
I once waited 7 hours for a 16 sec ride. Granted it was Top Thrill Dragster, the tallest fast roller coaster at the time, on it's opening day in 2002. The ride brokedown 5 times. Any other time I wouldn't wait a half hour.
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I've had friends wait about 5 hours for that ride. I personally didn't think it was worth it so I opted to ride bunches of other rides that day.
 
copcarguyp71

copcarguyp71

Well-Known Member
Marc Davis Fan said:
1. Add more high-quality attractions.

2. Once #1 is sufficiently accomplished, it will be possible to lower the number of FastPasses that are made available per attraction, while still allowing guests to be satisfied with the number of FPs that they're able to get.
Click to expand...

I think I would add to throw in some more quality high capacity Omnimover rides (that don't break down)...that DON'T have Fastpass availability. Those things are people eaters and can help to reduce queues at "wait to load" attractions.

For me I think 40 minutes is my highest level of tolerance but that would be for an E-ticket with a decent air conditioned queue. For lesser rides I think 25 minutes is my max.
 
JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
I never wait more than 20-25 minutes. But we have the luxury of time. We usually visit for 14 days with PH passes. That gives us freedom to walk away and come back another time when attraction waits are lower. I'm not wasting time standing in a line when I could be doing something more productive. The only possible time I MIGHT wait longer would be on my very last day when I know its the last time I'll ride my favorite ride again for a year.
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I usually don't wait more than 30 minutes for a ride, but there have been a few exceptions where I've waited closer to 45 minutes or an hour for a ride. Star Tour when it first opened, Radiator Springs Racers through singles on an extremely crowded day at DCA, some of the roller coasters in Hershey Park, etc. Sometimes I feel when it's crowded, I'd rather just stand in line for something for 45 minutes than do nothing.

Once we're talking more than an hour, though, I'm done. Nothing is worth two hours.
 
wm49rs

wm49rs

A naughty bit o' crumpet
Premium Member
POLY LOVER said:
Looking at the wait times this week and felling so sorry for folks waiting 200 minutes and not realizing the ride is only 3 minutes long. What's reasonable ? How can Disney solve this problem? Is there a way to make the wait time match the experience? The fast pass system just doesn't completely work to balance this out. Which rides are worth the extended wait times.
Click to expand...
Another original thread....
 
Chef Mickey

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Way too subjective.

In my current mood, I'd wait 3 hours to ride the Haunted Mansion despite having ridden it hundreds of times.

When I'm there, maybe 20 minutes.

If you think rides are 30 minutes long, you're not very smart and should have tempered your expectations.
 

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