We got in a Space line where posted was 60, TP expected 40, bc it was our only planned time that trip, my mom’s one requested ride, and had just opened after being down for emh where we planned to ride it. It was around 37 min wait. I was fine with that.
I also waited a crazy long time for BTMRR with fellow dancers and dance families after DD danced in an evening Main Street parade. That was bc Splash (their traditional after parade ride) was down. Too big of a group to have coordinated FP. Since Splash was down it was a looong line, we probably waited 60 min. I had to cancel DD and my CP ADR. But it was worth it to ride with her dance buddies, and not a bad wait with that many people to talk to (22 girls plus families). And then we ended up on the ride while the fireworks were going off which was magical.
I wonder, though, if past a 60 min wait people don’t do the math? 60 vs 90 vs 180 doesn’t seem too different, until you convert from minutes to hours?
My husband hates crowds and my 4 year old is not patient, so in general, I avoid lines that aren’t close to walk-on (10 minutes or under). That works ok at our local theme park in kiddie land, but not so well at Disney. When we went to WDW, we splurged on both EMMs and used FPP for most of our priorities. The longest lines we did with kiddo were for character meets that she insisted on, but we couldn’t get FPP for. Those ranged from 30-45 minutes and I would do almost anything to avoid those in the future. At Disney, we tried to keep most lines under about 20 minutes.
I have a confession. My last trip to Disney was a spontaneous one day hop between AK and MK. We bought our tickets AT THE GATE, tried for fast passes ON THE KIOSKS and planned nothing in advance. We started off great with several EE rides and a delicious Flame Tree BBQ lunch and it went downhill from there. It took a full hour to change parks. We tried to get a FPP for Space, but it disappeared from the screen as we tried to select three. I didn’t know about modify, so we took what we could get. We ultimately waited in line at Space for 2 1/2 hours (posted time 100 min.). I wanted to bail on the line knowing we could ride at least 4 other rides during that time, but the kids really wanted to ride. We were starving when we left the cue and wound up scarfing down chicken tenders and French fries INSIDE a restaurant while we could hear the fireworks exploding outside. Ugh. That said, we did make fun memories that day. I just wish I had known about this site beforehand… I might have convinced my traveling companions to let me do some advanced planning!
In previous trips, we just mapped out what we wanted to do in each park the night before and generally travelled clockwise or counterclockwise doing everything in one area before moving on. We waited. A lot! (Never more than the day at Space!). I had always thought that was just how it was. We honestly had fun every trip, we just never got to everything we wanted to do.
Now that I am in the midst of planning my first full Disney week with a master plan, I am excited to see how different it will be. We have some ADRs, I almost have all of our FPP (offsite - one morning at a time,) and we are deciding on T-shirts today. Just 27 days left!
I am incredibly grateful for this site and the people on it. It should be required reading when you purchase tickets!
About ten years ago, I went to Disneyland and waited over an hour for Indiana Jones. No regrets. I knew I wouldn’t get another chance for a long time, and it was my window of opportunity while DH took our then-young kids back to the hotel for a break. It was fun, and the queue was cool.
I normally wouldn’t wait that long, though. How long I’d wait depends on the ride, how boring the queue itself is, whether there’s anything else I’d rather be doing, etc. Probably 20-30 minutes maximum for most things. For my upcoming trip, I targeted the worst wait-time offenders for FPP selection so I wouldn’t have to make too many tough decisions about whether to wait.
I definitely can’t imagine waiting five hours for anything. There’s so much other stuff you could be doing! Then again I don’t think I would go right at Christmas at all.
I think that 20-30 min is my ceiling, with 45 on the outside if we really wanted to ride it.
I’m curious - has anyone gone on peak times (e.g. Christmas week) and been able to get those times of wait times with a combo of rope drop and FPP (including additional FPs?)
The one trip we were there during the Christmas/New year’s period (never again) we waited 2 1/2 hours for Peter Pan. Why? Because EVERYTHING was that long. We managed a total of 6 rides the entire day. We no longer go during busy times.
This would probably be hilarious. I’m picturing an old school Jay Leno “man on the street” interview. Even better if the interviews were done by Josh/easywdw. He often speculates that people see 240 minutes and think 2 hours 40 minutes. (Still an insane time.)
Before kids I think 45 minutes would have been the max. My sister and I got in a 55 min TSMM line at the end of the night once but I don’t think it actually took that long.
My kids are still too young to request rides but I imagine there will become some time where they will REALLY want to ride something. I’d be curious to know where their cutoff is. At this point in my life I’ll wait for the FPP thank you very much.
30 minutes at the most except I do plan to rope drop FOP next week and may have to wait longer than that. Otherwise, I just try my best to plan to avoid long lines. I also think it helps that most of us have been multiple times and have plans to return. We are fine if we have to miss something on a particular trip. Waiting in line, especially if it’s hot, is not fun to me. We like to rope drop and get out in the middle of the day and come back in the evening.
Well when we went 2years ago, we got a fair amount of extra rides in by looking for available FPs.
For example, on Christmas Eve, we went back to the park for dinner @ 6pm. Afterwards, we had an FP for Jingle Cruise, because I considered it a “must do”. We then walked to Pirates and found an FP for all 4 of us in 5 minutes, when the stand-by time was 30 minutes. Walked onto the Treehouse, then headed to Tomorrowland and got FPs for Buzz there and then.
Christmas Day we got extra FPs at Epcot for Mission Space, Nemo and SE, again for right away when the stand-by times were 30 mins+, more like 45 mins for SE. We’d already done SE once with a FP earlier in the day.
And yet at DHS on 30th, we saw people being turned away from Indy as the stand-by line was too long. One family were really angry, saying it had happened earlier in the day too. We did manage to get GMR though as an extra FP. And rode Star Tours twice in a row, as we timed it just right and went stand-by first, then used our FP.
On New Years Day, DS and I were at Epcot on a tour. After tapping into an FEA fastpass, our only one, we then booked two more for BTMRR and JC at MK, the first one for an hour ahead.
So it can be done, but takes a bit of luck. It wasn’t going to ruin our day if we hadn’t, as I had booked all our must-do rides as FPs over the trip.
We just got back from a week long (12/15-12/21) and only waited 30 minutes for one thing: Anna and Elsa M&G. Otherwise, we did not enter a queue that was listed at longer than 20 minutes and most of the time it was much less. So for me, given the choice between planning and waiting, I’ll take planning every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
BUT, if planning wasn’t an option or for whatever reason, I didn’t do it, and the choice was between waiting and not riding, I’d probably have a lot more tolerance for lines. (My kids probably would not, though). I mean, if it was genuinely “Wait for 2 hours for RnRC or don’t ride it” I’d probably suck it up and get in line.
BUT BUT, there are a lot of great attractions that don’t have ANY lines ever (all the theater ones) and even minimal planning like getting up early or staying out late will get you a reasonable line for everything that isn’t SDD or FoP.
The consensus seems to be 30 minutes, and I have to agree with that.
We did get stuck in line for Nemo for 45 on last trip when it was posted 15. Some huge group got in line before us and it was raining hard. It’s a decent queue and moved along but DH was starting to get antsy about wasting the time.
We were at a casino yesterday for a 3 o’clock show and there were hundreds of people lining up for the 7 o’clock show (at about 2 o’clock) because they were giving away free tickets. What are these folks thinking? Your 5-7 hours of waiting + plus show time. A lot of people do not equate time with value.
“How bad could it be?” is what you would hear me say before getting in a 60 minute line. I’ve done that twice (SDMT and SDD) and both times nearly passed out from the heat. So, 30 min seems to be my max.
We would wait 30 minutes tops, but it would have to be something great to wait that long. We waited 30 minutes to meet Anna and Elsa, but they don’t have FPP. The next 2 times we met Anna and Elsa (yes, same trip) we waited maybe 10 minutes each time.
I think it’s a personality thing. I’m the kind of person who stands in front of a microwave and yells “Hurry!”, so I am completely unable to offer any kind of insight whatsoever.
glad you found us, though!