SDD wait times near park closing time?

[LavishWig]

HI all, my FastPass day is coming up soon but HS is my first day so I'm pretty much discounting any chance of getting a FP for SDD. I have two questions...

1) Which ride is generally recommended/ better/ has longer wait times that's also in Tier 1? I think I have the choice from Alien Swirling Saucers and Toy Story Mania. We are two adults that like thrill rides if that helps (not that I think either of these are thrill rides from what I know!).

2) What are the wait times like at park closing time? I'll be doing as much tap and grab as I can for FP but don't hold out hope for this one so think I'll be waiting in line instead. It's a Friday, will be 9th August.

THanks

 

[mshanson3121]

It was still about 60 minutes at 8:00 pm on Friday night.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

We have been booking the TSM FP and doing SDD at closing (as in 5 minutes before). We did it last July and President’s Day Weekend. Both times were about 35 minutes (posted wait time was over an hour).

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I checked yesterday just for an example. About 15 minutes before closing time, the posted wait was 35 minutes and the actual wait was reported as 26 minutes.

There have been several recent reports of 20 minute or less waits at closing time. Just keep in mind that the posted waits are intentionally exaggerated at night to discourage late riders.

 

[Mango7100]

When we were there in March the wait time 5 min before close was 85 min for SDD, and it was every bit of that 85 min!

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

We got into line at closing and it was only a 35 min wait start to finish. This was the 1st week of April. Definitely choose SDD to Fastpass, if you have that as an option.

 

[andthenjsaid]

RE: FP at 60 days - I am going June 13-18, and when my 60 day window opened, I was online at 7am choosing, and for a full half hour I could have anything I want at any park at any time. I was grabbing and rearranging and rinse and repeat for 30 minutes. Only around 7:30 was I starting to get the "nothing at that time but here are other times" message. My mother has had similar luck just jumping online early and getting everything she wants. Do other people have less luck?

 

[hertamaniac]

I was able to ride it 2X with my entrance time ~8:20 for the first ride (closing at 9). The 2nd ride, I just merely walked on as one of the last rides. To me, I would not ride SDD during the daytime as the night experience is far better.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I was able to ride it 2X with my entrance time ~8:20 for the first ride (closing at 9). The 2nd ride, I just merely walked on as one of the last rides. To me, I would not ride SDD during the daytime as the night experience is far better.

Twice in 40 minutes is a great example of how short the lines can get at night. Did you happen to catch the posted wait either time?

You couldn’t do that in the morning no matter how early you arrive.

 

[Davey Jones II]

Last October, my g.f. got in line for SDD about an hour before closing time, and was on the ride in about 40 min.

As for TSM, during the last hour of park operation, you can usually ride 2-3 times.

Our only experience with AS2 was that we waited maybe 45 min. in the regular standby queue. I think it was late afternoon.

 

[WDW1970]

I would not worry about getting a FP to SDD. If you can’t get at 60 days keep trying by modifying your tier 1 for that day and I can almost guarantee something will come up before your trip. We were at HS last week and there were multiple same day FPs available for SDD when I was checking at noon (after I used my original three). I wanted one last FP before we left park at 1 pm but the closest I could get after multiple refreshes and modifications for SDD was 3 pm (we were a party of four) so I was not able to ride again. If I was in the park all day I could have ridden many times.

 

[gharter]

We were there last week, had a late FP, but able to modfiy it at the FP drop (if it exists, the times matched up) and rode at the end of the night with a 15 minute wait right at clsoing. It is MUCH better at night with all the night time lights on.

 

[mamamelody2]

We were there last September 5. We rode Saucers 4 times in a row, all walk-on, waiting for it to get closer to closing time (8:30). Got in line for SDD at 8:23, wait posted at 40 minutes, it was 11. It's super fun in the dark!

 

[eeyoreland]

I'm hoping to ride SDD right before closing towards the end of June. We will only have one park day and I want to make the most of it LOL. I also want to see the fireworks at MK, but since I've never been on SDD, I think we'll try for that instead.

 

[LavishWig]

Thanks everyone, this is all really useful and I’m pretty convinced just to wait til it’s dark as that sounds cool. Will see what my window shows and just go with it, not going to stress over one ride!

 

[InWonderlandMom]

It's a Friday, will be 9th August.

THanks

We will be there the same day, and I have the same concerns. The night ride sounds really amazing, and my only hesitation is that we plan to rope drop AK the next morning (8am EMH, but would want to arrive no later than what 7:15?). I'm worried we will run out of gas!

 

[shocker]

To the OP, if you can't get an SDD FP now, don't forget to check again the night before this park day or the morning of your visit. There's a large reshuffle during thus time & I've never not gotten a hard to get FP. But, this ride is tiered with TSM, so you should grab that for now, then you can trade for SDD later, if possible.

 

[kathy884]

I realize that this is one of the newer rides (still it's a few years old, though) and is one that is good for almost all ages, but the popularity blows me away. Sure it's cute, but we don't think it's worth more than a 15 minute wait lol, so don't include it on our touring plan. For us it was a one and done ride. The time we did do it was and hour and a 1/2 till closing to at a sold out Christmas Party (10:30 p.m.). Posted wait time was 45 minutes and actual wait time was an hour and five minutes (I timed it). After that, though we ran over to Space Mountain and got two rides on that before midnight.

We were at the Magic Kingdom this past January on a Saturday. Looking at touring plans, the day ended up being a crowd level 10 (some special NFL event) seemed to really bring up weekend crowds, as during the week at other parks we did actual crowd levels were a six at most of the parks (we just did AK and Epcot). We went to visit Arial at the end of the day after fireworks and the line at 7DMT then was posted to be 75 minutes. Most of the day, the wait time was posted to be 120 minutes, so a shorter posted time at night, but still a very long posted wait time. It was a night time EMH night though, so the park was open really late. We don't know what it actually was that night, as we didn't look at our touring plans ride app or do the ride, due to lack of interest.

Based on many posters experiences, at closing may be your best bet and give you the shortest wait without FP, but it's not always the case that the line will be short, especially when the park has high crowd levels.

 

[beesly]

I realize that this is one of the newer rides (still it's a few years old, though) and is one that is good for almost all ages, but the popularity blows me away. Sure it's cute, but we don't think it's worth more than a 15 minute wait lol, so don't include it on our touring plan. For us it was a one and done ride. The time we did do it was and hour and a 1/2 till closing to at a sold out Christmas Party (10:30 p.m.). Posted wait time was 45 minutes and actual wait time was an hour and five minutes (I timed it). After that, though we ran over to Space Mountain and got two rides on that before midnight.

We were at the Magic Kingdom this past January on a Saturday. Looking at touring plans, the day ended up being a crowd level 10 (some special NFL event) seemed to really bring up weekend crowds, as during the week at other parks we did actual crowd levels were a six at most of the parks (we just did AK and Epcot). We went to visit Arial at the end of the day after fireworks and the line at 7DMT then was posted to be 75 minutes. Most of the day, the wait time was posted to be 120 minutes, so a shorter posted time at night, but still a very long posted wait time. It was a night time EMH night though, so the park was open really late. We don't know what it actually was that night, as we didn't look at our touring plans ride app or do the ride, due to lack of interest.

Based on many posters experiences, at closing may be your best bet and give you the shortest wait without FP, but it's not always the case that the line will be short, especially when the park has high crowd levels.

I agree with your last sentence as it can be applied to multiple popular rides, but just wanted to add for clarification that the OP is asking about Slinky Dog Dash at DHS.