My rule of thumb when deciding to plan to ride is a wait time of less than 30 minutes. This means that if I want to ride TT, FoP, 7DMT, etc., I need to get a fast pass. The trade off of not waiting in line is missing out on all the cool things that they added to entertain you while you are waiting in line.
How long are you willing to wait in a line?
Are there any rides that are an exception and why?
It really depends on the day and who I’m with and what our overall plans are. If we’re taking it easy, I would maybe wait up to 45 minutes if it’s a queue I know to be entertaining (ie Peter Pan). If we’re more into riding as much as possible, I wouldn’t wait more than 20 minutes. It also depends on what the ride is. I’d easily wait an hour for FoP if I couldn’t get a FPP or RD it, but I would never wait an hour for IASW.
General rule: no more than half an hour, but i would say it depends. I wouldn’t wait 25 mins for the tea cup ride. Also, If it was a ride I love like space mountain, I might be willing to stretch it to 35 mins.
I guess that I do not have a rule-of-thumb for this. My objective is to get through my planned list of attractions in the most efficient manner possible. That may mean standing in line for a long time for a given attraction if it was better to use my FPPs on other attractions.
We ended up waiting for an hour and a half for Peter Pan and another time was over an hour for Little Mermaid. I’m okay with one long wait, but usually less than an hour. But my plan better be designed for waits of less than a half hour or I lose my family. They start to wonder if its worth it and get cranky.
I may be spoiled as we go several times a year, but 10-15 minutes is about it for waiting for me. With week long trips, FPP, EMH, rope drop, and Touring Plans, there really is no reason to wait longer. But it has taken many trips to perfect my plans. The longest I have waited in the past 4 years is 35 minutes for Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We chose to sleep in and miss EMH so this was the punishment for that I guess! It was worth it though, 45 minute wait was way better than getting up at 6am after leaving Epcot at 11:30pm.
If it’s something I’ve been on before, 30 min is pretty much my max. If it’s a new ride, although I’ll certainly try to minimize the wait, I’ll wait as long as I have to. My all-time record long wait was 2 1/2 hours, when I was in DL during the pre-opening soft openings of Splash Mountain (July 1989). I was with some of my very best friends, so it really wasn’t that bad; we kept each other entertained…
What a wonderful memory. I could definitely see myself enjoying the wait if I was hanging out with friends. Thanks for reminding me that a wait isn’t really a wait, it could be something special in and of itself.