How long are you willing to wait?

[epcotobsessed]

Just curious how long, on average, you are willing to wait for a ride. Our strategy has always been rope drop--->ride as much as possible--->three FP in a row starting about an hour after rope drop (and grabbing something to eat in that block)--->ride anything else/see a show that has less than a 20 minute wait time--->go back to the hotel and enjoy the pool (and sometimes come back later for fireworks). I guess this is why I like Epcot so much because to me it's a great park to spend all day in even with riding only a few rides. Now that my kids are older (preteen/teen), I wonder if we are being foolish/missing out by bypassing all rides with wait times more than 20 minutes.

 

[Dug720]

Depends on the ride - but I have never been allergic to lines as a rule.

This past trip, I got in line for Flight of Passage when the posted wait time said 140 minutes. This was a case where that was overinflated and I was only in line for a little over an hour, BUT the queue is themed so well and the ride... I'd easily wait that long for it.

At the other extreme, even if it was walk on, there is not enough money in the world anyone could pay me to sit through Star Tours. Having to sit through THAT is my idea of torture.

 

[Antaniasmom]

Usually not more than 1/2 hour...we did 90 min in Universal for HULK amd Skull Island Reign of Kong but I would never do it again. It's not worth it. We have never done rope drop. I've had good FP and always try to get more once the first 3 are used. I think we have always gotten on more rides than I expected. Also, I think at WDW the waits aren't usually as long as posted.

 

[epcotobsessed]

Usually not more than 1/2 hour...we did 90 min in Universal for HULK amd Skull Island Reign of Kong but I would never do it again. It's not worth it. We have never done rope drop. I've had good FP and always try to get more once the first 3 are used. I think we have always gotten on more rides than I expected. Also, I think at WDW the waits aren't usually as long as posted.

This is one thing that I can't believe I didn't know earlier - getting more FP+s after you've used your three. I am definitely going to make much better use of the MDE app when we go next month!

 

[KNJWDW]

Just curious how long, on average, you are willing to wait for a ride. Our strategy has always been rope drop--->ride as much as possible--->three FP in a row starting about an hour after rope drop (and grabbing something to eat in that block)--->ride anything else/see a show that has less than a 20 minute wait time--->go back to the hotel and enjoy the pool (and sometimes come back later for fireworks). I guess this is why I like Epcot so much because to me it's a great park to spend all day in even with riding only a few rides. Now that my kids are older (preteen/teen), I wonder if we are being foolish/missing out by bypassing all rides with wait times more than 20 minutes.

We tour just like you. The only ride I would wait in line longer for is FOP - maybe for 90 minutes.

 

[Antaniasmom]

This is one thing that I can't believe I didn't know earlier - getting more FP+s after you've used your three. I am definitely going to make much better use of the MDE app when we go next month!

Yes I believe it's only 1 at a time after that. If you're lucky enough to book your 1st 3 early in morning after you use them, you can book more 1 at a time. Idk if you've tried to do things like during a parade or fireworks...it's amazing when you can walk on PP during HEA(once you've seen it 2-3 times in trip..you're good)

 

[epcotobsessed]

That is one tip I learned here - we have never tried to ride during fireworks and definitely will next month! Thanks!

 

[DoryGirl1963]

On average we pass on most things over 30 minutes.. We're local annual passholders & utilize fastpasses mostly. However, we will line up for "special" occasions for up 2 hours for "special circumstances" such as FOP (well worth every minute), wanting to see original Soarin' one last time, 7DMT, & probably for Slinky Dog. Now, I'm a major Star Wars geek so, my time limit may be truly tested once Galaxy's Edge opens .

 

[DisneyWishes14]

30 minutes or less for us. There is so much we like to do that doesn't include rides, so it works for us!

 

[courtney1188]

As someone who is here now and loves using a strategy similar to yours...how did you keep it up with young kids?? We’re finding that ours want to meet every character they see, and as a result, hitting tons of rides at rope drop is super difficult - we’ve had no choice but to wait.

 

[Bostonbeans99]

Depends on whether it's in the blazing heat. My favorite thing at HS used to be the Great Movie Ride line. The long lines were fine because as soon as you entered the door AWWWWW the a/c hit you in the face

 

[wisteria1019]

I agree with the 30 minute wait limit. I do make it to every rope drop, experience my favorites, take advantage of FP and then see where the day takes me.

 

[WorldWalker18]

That is one tip I learned here - we have never tried to ride during fireworks and definitely will next month! Thanks!

Riding during fireworks can be a great way to avoid long waits. This is particularly true during MNSSHP.

In general, I don’t think I would wait longer than an hour for any ride.

 

[jeast]

I don't think we've ever gotten on a line that was more than 30 minutes, and 20 is the usual max without a FP.

With decent planning, rope drops, and FP, we've been able to hit all of the favorites multiple times most trips.

 

[slpeters]

I would say 20 minutes for a headliner, 10 for a non-headliner and 30 for FOP.

We were there for a week in November--crowd levels varied from 7 to 10. It was our first time so it was pretty important to us to do all the rides and shows. We never waited longer than 30 minutes for anything and the only thing we waited longer than 15 for was our two FOP FPs. The break in the middle of the day thing was amazing for not having to wait for stuff. It took a lot of careful planning and may not have been the most spontaneous way to approach it, but every time we wandered past one of those big lines where we had spent 5 minutes or less in line earlier my husband would say "wait a minute, they're going to wait how long?" We got to do most of the big rides twice and pretty much everything at least once with minimal waits but we were there for EMH/rope drop every day and closed a park every day (so we needed that break/nap in the afternoon). We never really arrived before rope drop but never arrived more than 10 minutes after either.

I was really grateful for all the great advice I got here that made everything run so smoothly--here's hoping it works just as well on our next two trips that we are already planning!

 

[gypsy_at_heart]

I am not good at waiting in line. 30 minutes is my limit. If it's higher than that, I'll come back and just do something else. If it's something I don't want to miss on my trip, I always FP it.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

30 minutes here too.

 

[ChefLife]

It really depends on the day, if it’s just my wife and myself then we’ll wait for an hour or less. However if it’s a family day and our one year old daughter is with us then we can pretty much only do 20 minutes or less. Anything more than that and she starts trying to run around and pull everyone’s hair that she meets.

 

[epcotobsessed]

As someone who is here now and loves using a strategy similar to yours...how did you keep it up with young kids?? We’re finding that ours want to meet every character they see, and as a result, hitting tons of rides at rope drop is super difficult - we’ve had no choice but to wait.

As I recall, we didn't (and still don't?) come across that many characters. Maybe we've just had bad luck, but most times we've had to seek out characters in order to see them. We usually FP the characters at Epcot (though often times, you don't really need to because the waits aren't that bad) and used to use a FP on a MK character(s). I can't recall any full-on meltdowns about forcing them to walk past a character, though I do remember some of those for leaving the park in general! We just kept walking and reminded them of the fun pools they had waiting for them at the hotel, which usually worked.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

In most cases not more than 25 mins but we have made exceptions for things we really wanted to do. We also often wait more than that for characters at Epcot. We made exceptions for the HP rides when they weren't included in EP at Universal. And don't ask about Six Flags. There's very little that can be done for short rides there (we aren't willing to pay that much for their EP equivalent). They open later so even RDing there doesn't help all that much.