Insane Wait Times

[thanxfornoticin]

Some folks automatically go to blaming G+ for standby line troubles. I expect it's going to take a couple months away from the 50th/Christmas/pandemic 'rebound' craziness right now, to determine if standby lines are worse of about the same as they were with FP+. There are too many things happening at the same time right now to know for sure. When FOP opened, it was 3-4 hours every day.

 

[popy]

The new system is designed to cost you, not help you.
waiting in line at Disney is just a part of the enjoyment it has been and always will be, save your money and your vacation time and go somewhere better, less crowded, and less expensive. There are many places better and cheaper, a 5 to 10 min rides is every where, just shorter lines. i won’t wait 5 minutes after I paid for a ticket but then again in learned my lesson with Disney, I will never do again.

 

[Maxie86]

FP and LL makes the stand by lines much longer, doesn't matter if you call it FP or LL. LL is just a paid FP. Wait times are only going to get worse unless you pay...and pay...any pay... We went twice without either and the lines, although long, moved constantly. It isn't bad standing in lines that are moving. We went once after Genie and the stand by wait times were way higher and the lines didn't move nearly as fast. Been on the rides too many times to pay more than the high cost to get in.

 

[MrsInsG]

FP and LL makes the stand by lines much longer, doesn't matter if you call it FP or LL. LL is just a paid FP. Wait times are only going to get worse unless you pay...and pay...any pay... We went twice without either and the lines, although long, moved constantly. It isn't bad standing in lines that are moving. We went once after Genie and the stand by wait times were way higher and the lines didn't move nearly as fast. Been on the rides too many times to pay more than the high cost to get in.

This was not my experience last week (12/19-27) at all. I was pleasantly surprised by the wait times and felt that LL was better than FP+ in terms of impact on lines. I expected it to be crowded during Christmas week (it was), but the lines were pretty manageable. We’ve been going for 20 years and don’t feel the need to hit every ride, but our teens and adult daughter do. They made great use of single-rider and park hopping and got on everything they wanted to. We utilized LL for Remy (worth every penny of the $ spent to walk on at a certain time) and our girls used it for FoP (again, well worth it). To each their own, but I didn’t see the negative impact that we saw with FP+.

 

[kalista]

We were at HS on 12/20 and some of our group tried to do single rider for RnRc but they had shut the line down. CM’s said standby was too long and maybe try back later. Didn’t know that was a thing? Or could’ve just been our luck that day.

 

[cjlong88]

We were at HS on 12/20 and some of our group tried to do single rider for RnRc but they had shut the line down. CM’s said standby was too long and maybe try back later. Didn’t know that was a thing? Or could’ve just been our luck that day.

In our experience, RnRC is one of the worst single rider lines. Sometimes we would wait just as long as the standby wait. We learned quickly that it wasn’t worth it like it usually is for TT or EE.

 

[princesswahooey]

I think a huge factor is how often the ride breaks down. We were there 12/19-12/26, and it was down for several hours everyday. We rope dropped one day and they couldn't even get it started that morning. They turned all the rope-droppers away. Another time we bought ILL$, tapped in, and immediately the ride broke down again. We waited 30 minutes in the ILL$ line until they came and offered us to return anytime after it came back up. (This was already at 7:30 pm and park closed at 9). It finally came back online at around 8:45. The ride was down several hours on Christmas Eve. Of the 5 times during our stay that I tried getting in line for it (via rope drop or ILL$ I only successfully rode it twice.)

People who had already waited on line an hour+ didn't want to just abandon the line, even when it broke down, so the back-log of people is more to blame than ILL$, I think. When it was actually up and running, things seemed to move at a decent pace. I just don't know why they can't keep it running.

 

[PamNC]

All I can say is although the holidays are beautiful at Disney, I won't go again in the month of December unless it's a quick weekend with a focus more on resort visits than parks. no way. Jose.

 

[Tyler's Dad]

We were there for the past 2 weeks and my thoughts when riding were that they seemed to be moving way more people through on the standby lines than they used to. Quite often, when having LL access, we would watch large numbers of standby folks go in before us. LL had some waits on all rides, where FP+ used to just fly through. The lines were still much shorter than the standby queues, but it definitely seemed like the standbys were flowing better than before.

That said, I hope they keep this up. We were there the busiest 2 weeks of the year and lines were moving great. It makes me believe that going during non-peak times will be a breeze and LL will probably not be needed much at all. For everyone's complaining about the system, I think what Disney did was make waiting in line and getting on all of the lines a possibility for most of the year now.

 

[gharter]

Some folks automatically go to blaming G+ for standby line troubles. I expect it's going to take a couple months away from the 50th/Christmas/pandemic 'rebound' craziness right now, to determine if standby lines are worse of about the same as they were with FP+. There are too many things happening at the same time right now to know for sure. When FOP opened, it was 3-4 hours every day.

We were there in April without Genie+ and October the week it rolled out. As another poster noted, the effect of Genie + was noticeable immediately. without LL, the standby line continued to move. With LL, the ratio of LL to SB was about the same as FP+.
Some of the current issue is its the busiest week of the year. And lots of people are returning after missing the last year +, so a lot of pent up demand.

 

[gharter]

We were there for the past 2 weeks and my thoughts when riding were that they seemed to be moving way more people through on the standby lines than they used to. Quite often, when having LL access, we would watch large numbers of standby folks go in before us. LL had some waits on all rides, where FP+ used to just fly through. The lines were still much shorter than the standby queues, but it definitely seemed like the standbys were flowing better than before.

That said, I hope they keep this up. We were there the busiest 2 weeks of the year and lines were moving great. It makes me believe that going during non-peak times will be a breeze and LL will probably not be needed much at all. For everyone's complaining about the system, I think what Disney did was make waiting in line and getting on all of the lines a possibility for most of the year now.

This was clearly not our experience in October. Maybe they were staffed better for December? When LL's started, the SB lines slowed way down.

 

[tehSAC]

Genie + and LL are optional.

True, but this option is the best option to experience attractions for once in a lifetime families, or short vacations. Disney knows this, and its ruining the experience IMO. It's expensive enough, but Disney keeps hitting that "grift" button to take advantage of people mentioned.

 

[jimmymc]

In our experience, RnRC is one of the worst single rider lines. Sometimes we would wait just as long as the standby wait. We learned quickly that it wasn’t worth it like it usually is for TT or EE.

I find this is true. I think it helps than not as many people know the Everest line exists.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I just saw that the standby wait time for Rise of the Resistance was 245 minutes. Over 4 hours!!! That is insane. There were never wait times like this prior to Genie+ and LL. Why would anyone wait that long for any ride? It used to be with FP+, cast members would alternate between the FP+ people and the standby to keep both lines moving. Now, it seems like all Genie+ and LL people are allowed in while keeping the standby lines at a standstill.

Rise was virtual queue only prior to Genie so hardly a fair comparison
Plenty of other rides have had 4+ stand by lines over the years. People really are wiling to wait that long

 

[IndyToThere]

Rise was virtual queue only prior to Genie so hardly a fair comparison
Plenty of other rides have had 4+ stand by lines over the years. People really are wiling to wait that long

Actually it went to standby queue for a bit before Genie/LL came out. We were there in mid-Oct just prior to the launch of Genie, and it was standby-only. Wait times were around 2.5 - 3 hours during the day.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Actually it went to standby queue for a bit before Genie/LL came out. We were there in mid-Oct just prior to the launch of Genie, and it was standby-only. Wait times were around 2.5 - 3 hours during the day.

Point is it wasn't FP+, which OP was comparing it to

 

[Kmilos1024]

Down here now and the standby is standstill so often. Yes it is packed but there is tons of absolute stopping while lightning lane continues through. I understand that's what you sign up for but constantly moving vs standing still makes a huge difference. Also the posted waits for the most part are not inflated at all.

 

[wgeo]

Went to Animal Kingdom today - walked thru at 8:01, left the park at 3:44 - we got 4 rides in. Did EE, then Safari then FOP and finished with Dinosaur. That's it. We did stop to eat lunch. The lines were long, and very often came to a complete stand still. We're AP holders and this is our first time going with Genie+, waiting in a line that moves is way better than one that stays in the same place for 5 or more minutes. It seemed like Safari and FOP were much worse with stopping the stand by line and trying hard to empty the LL que before letting a few stand by in. The other two seemed to alternate more.

I had a great time with my kid, but Genie + has so significantly devalued our AP. I would have had to spend $60 today to use LL on the rides we rode today. I was hoping it wouldn't really be all that bad just standby, I was wrong.

 

[Davey Jones II]

In our experience, RnRC is one of the worst single rider lines. Sometimes we would wait just as long as the standby wait. We learned quickly that it wasn’t worth it like it usually is for TT or EE.

The RnRC single rider is great when used about half an hour before park close. Yes, the standby line is much shorter than usual at that time, but the single rider is a breeze, and you also bypass the pre-show (which most of us have seen a zillion times anyway).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This is from a poster on a different thread who just got back from WDW:

"Wait times were not accurate - in our favor! We found them to be much less than advertised - especially RoTR - it was posted as 245 minutes (ridiculous, i know) but we did it anyway - we were in the first shuttle in 75 minutes!"

Just remember unless you're there in person or have someone's experience to go off of wait times on the app always have the ability to be inaccurate. Our trip in 2017 we had plenty of inaccurate times between the app, posted on the sign wait times and real actual time waiting.