Wait times seem high today - anyone in the parks today that can verify this?

[DLgal]

So, we were there yesterday for my son's 17th birthday. We have a DAS so we were able to do a lot in just 8 hours (12:30 to 8:30pm). However, the rides we did standby, the posted wait times were WAY off. We did Toy Story Midway Mania around 5:30pm with a posted wait of 55 min. It was 20. We got in the Jungle Cruise line and although no official posted wait since it's not technically open, we asked the CM at the entry point and he said "about 30 min." It was under 10. POTC said 40, was 20. So, just because you see long waits on the app, that doesn't mean they are accurate. We walked by many other rides that had long posted wait times, but by my estimation were half or less in actuality. I've gotten really good at eyeballing waits based on the length of the lines. I really don't think they update wait times very often at all.

That said, the park was very crowded yesterday. Disneyland, in particular. DCA was better.

 

[Newbie500]

I’m also hoping that since we are going on the 18th of Aug and LA schools start on the 16th it won’t be as crowded. Fingers crossed.

The school schedule is good to know because we are going to DL and DCA late August.

 

[smeg3030]

Disney side was packed today. It looks like precovid times. Pirates had the line wrapping around near Cafe Orleans. You know how congested Adventureland and Fantasyland were previously with wall to wall people? It's pretty much the same situation as before.

Peter Pan, Snow White lines were long. 30-40 minute waits

In the early morning as ride queues ramped up, times were more or less accurate. Indy was down around 8 so I rode Big Thunder which was about a 6 minute wait.

After getting off Big Thunder, Indy was opened again with a posted time of 10. That ended being being 25 minutes. As I exited the ride, the time posted was 40 minutes.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

If you can do single rider for RSR, take advantage. Then go to GOTG at rope drop. That will be the shortest wait for it all day. We always hoped after our first ride of GOTG we would hop back for a double dose with minimal wait but it never happened. (by the time we exited the ride wait was at 50+ minutes) So we went to TSMM one day and the wait was only 15 minutes and then swinging gondola Ferris wheel as a walk on. The next day after GOTG we went to Soarin' and the wait said 10, it was 25. My dd and dh gave me the side eye as they wanted TSMM instead. Oops! It said 10!! At least we got concourse B.

Single rider at RSR was always less than 10 minutes. Same with Matterhorn. Indiana Jones had single rider our first few days, but not on the last day which was a bummer for dh (and were weren't waiting over an hour in standby). Space Mountain was the longest single rider wait, but it was still much faster than regular queue. Same with Incredicoaster.

When you rope dropped Guardians did you enter through Hollywoodland or did you go through Avengers Campus?

 

[fly girl]

When you rope dropped Guardians did you enter through Hollywoodland or did you go through Avengers Campus?

Hollywood Land.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Hollywood Land.

Thank you. When Avengers Campus opened I heard then only way to get to Guardians was through the campus. I’m glad that isn’t happening now.

 

[robbs49]

I am here now and we spent the last few days with park hoppers.
1) The wait times is in a sweet spot. They are nothing like is posted almost for every ride. It used to be they were fairly accurate and maybe a little under. 10 minutes earlier than posted. Now 90=45. 50=25, 15=15. But what I saw was the second a ride gets to 15 on the app people rush to it. So unless you are right there don’t chase it. At night the big headliners all seem to get heavy wait times-I think in order to persuade people to not get in the line before closing but the reality it’s half or less than on the app.
2) opinion-Disney will get away with this technique to manage crowds for awhile, but just listening to people they are figuring out that the wait times are useless on the app. We started eyeballing the lines and made decisions and we were way more correct than the app. Once people know it’s all a big manipulation they will just get in line anyway and the line will be 90 plus. There is no one, compared to a normal July, walking around outside of Disney. By the CVS at 2:00 Monday it was a ghost town-no one trying to cross katella when that’s a normal zoo. When the outside worlds crowds hit Disney it will be ugly if they continue to try to manage lines like that. But we will see.
3) Disney, I know people know this, has some employee issues and you can see it. Full trash cans-like overflowing on the street and I have been to Disneyland and World a million times and I saw three separate occasions where the employee was outright rude to guests-I have never seen that in all the trips I have taken. We had a blast and loved the entire trip. But not sure how Disney is envisioning their future. Without FastPass seems to be impossible but maybe they have a trick or two.
4) Rise of the Resistance is the best ride I have been on-outstanding. Not my favorite ride ever, just the best ride. Wow.

 

[DLgal]

I agree about the trash cans overflowing. It's a major problem right now.

 

[camouseketeer]

Postings for wait times are sometimes inaccurate but on July 12, we timed our lines for both Space Mountain (posted 45 min) and Smuggler's Run (posted 50 min). Both lines were spot on accurate. Some rides you can eye ball the line because it is mostly visible or the end of it is visible and you can predict from there. Others are well hidden and that kind of prediction is harder. I will also say that on July 13 Toy Story was listed at 55 minutes and I waited 25.

I agree with the trash and bathrooms. It's noticeable because we are so used to such clean parks, so anything less is striking. Recently, it has been strikingly unkempt.

 

[Matrixleos]

Been monitoring the Disneyland lines today and a lot of Temporary Ride closures. So far this morning in the first hour and half of the park being open, Alice, BTMRR, Haunted Mansion, Pinocchio's, Mr. Toad's and Storybook Canal have gone down at certain points in time.

 

[DLRExpert]

I wonder if the incorrect wait times are due to the wait time system taking Fastpass guests into account.
A 50 minute posted wait time line, turned into 20-30 minutes, sounds like what would happen if FP was not involved.

 

[Matrixleos]

Also interesting to monitor Space Mountain today. Here are the wait times from the start of the day....

8:15 - 35 minutes
8:30 - 50 minutes
8:45 - 70 minutes
9:00 - 60 minutes
9:15 - 50 minutes
9:30 - 35 minutes

Seems like that's the #1 ride people target in the park early morning. Either ride it at rope drop or wait a couple hours for it, till that initial wave gets done riding it.

 

[DLRExpert]

Anyone else noticing that quite a few effects and animatronics not working?
During my last visit it seemed like quite a few things were broken.
For example...
Lights out on Splash Mountain
TNT effect, Goat with TNT not moving on Big Thunder
First Snowman on Matterhorn not moving
Drunk pirate missing
Snake on Indiana Jones not moving

I am guessing this is due to mechanic availability.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

The parks are not empty. They are busy, and without FP/Maxpass, waits are long.

Today, 7/13, was our third day in the parks. Being a Tuesday, with the least expensive one day ticket available, it was definitely more crowded than yesterday, and it rivaled Sunday's crowds. Waits for E ticket rides are 60+ minutes (some up to 100 minutes) and rides like Luigi's had waits of 40 minutes at noon. Ride lines do decrease late in the day, but E-ticket rides will still be 20-45 min waits.

I am a FP/Maxpass person, so these waits are long. It also feels warm (air temp is 82-84 but it feels warmer), so waits are even harder in heat.

People with one day tickets need to manage their time and expectations of what they will accomplish.

Being our third day of a three day trip, we have hit everything we wanted with breaks built into the day , but we have waited in line during this trip FAR more than we have, perhaps ever.

We were there on Sunday and Monday and

I am here now and we spent the last few days with park hoppers.
1) The wait times is in a sweet spot. They are nothing like is posted almost for every ride. It used to be they were fairly accurate and maybe a little under. 10 minutes earlier than posted. Now 90=45. 50=25, 15=15. But what I saw was the second a ride gets to 15 on the app people rush to it. So unless you are right there don’t chase it. At night the big headliners all seem to get heavy wait times-I think in order to persuade people to not get in the line before closing but the reality it’s half or less than on the app.
2) opinion-Disney will get away with this technique to manage crowds for awhile, but just listening to people they are figuring out that the wait times are useless on the app. We started eyeballing the lines and made decisions and we were way more correct than the app. Once people know it’s all a big manipulation they will just get in line anyway and the line will be 90 plus. There is no one, compared to a normal July, walking around outside of Disney. By the CVS at 2:00 Monday it was a ghost town-no one trying to cross katella when that’s a normal zoo. When the outside worlds crowds hit Disney it will be ugly if they continue to try to manage lines like that. But we will see.
3) Disney, I know people know this, has some employee issues and you can see it. Full trash cans-like overflowing on the street and I have been to Disneyland and World a million times and I saw three separate occasions where the employee was outright rude to guests-I have never seen that in all the trips I have taken. We had a blast and loved the entire trip. But not sure how Disney is envisioning their future. Without FastPass seems to be impossible but maybe they have a trick or two.
4) Rise of the Resistance is the best ride I have been on-outstanding. Not my favorite ride ever, just the best ride. Wow.

We were there on Sunday and Monday. I agree with you - very whacky posted wait times and no rhyme or reason. I do not think they have enough employees to manage the attractions. We went on several where there was no CM at the entrance at all. We were in line a couple of times when a CM came on the microphone to say "if you are currently in line for X attraction, you may experience a longer wait time than anticipated, thank you for your patience". I never had that happen before. If you have been to DL previously, you can pretty much tell if something will be 25 mins or 50 mins. If you've never been there, it may be harder to gauge. We were also very surprised and disappointed by how many attractions repeatedly went down. We are not newbies by any stretch and can totally roll with it, but to be honest, it was not ideal.

 

[dreynolds1982]

The school schedule is good to know because we are going to DL and DCA late August.

Same here. We will be there for 3 weeknights (Tuesday-Friday) in late August. Glad that school will be back in session. Should help with the weekday crowds some I think.

 

[brentm77]

We were there on Sunday and Monday and


We were there on Sunday and Monday. I agree with you - very whacky posted wait times and no rhyme or reason. I do not think they have enough employees to manage the attractions. We went on several where there was no CM at the entrance at all. We were in line a couple of times when a CM came on the microphone to say "if you are currently in line for X attraction, you may experience a longer wait time than anticipated, thank you for your patience". I never had that happen before. If you have been to DL previously, you can pretty much tell if something will be 25 mins or 50 mins. If you've never been there, it may be harder to gauge. We were also very surprised and disappointed by how many attractions repeatedly went down. We are not newbies by any stretch and can totally roll with it, but to be honest, it was not ideal.

I do think there aren't enough CM working the rides. Twice I was put in rows without space for me, and no CM around to help me. I ended up being split up from my party both times because of it, and causing issues for the people behind me who then had a row without space. I have never had that happen at Disneyland before, so to have it happen twice in one trip seemed to be an indication of staffing or training issues.

 

[disneylover102]

So is Guardians having technical issues or having super inflated posted wait times? All I’ve seen on the app recently (at all times of the day) is around 90 minutes, sometimes 120, and yesterday it was 175. That seems very high for Guardians, especially without Fastpass people slowing it down.

 

[nutshell]

Anyone else feel like they don’t know what to believe anymore? One person shares the opinion that wait times are exaggerated and what they experienced was half of what’s posted. Someone else chimes in that wait times were spot on. Rinse and repeat.

I guess I’ll find out for myself real soon!

 

[HenDuck]

Anyone else feel like they don’t know what to believe anymore? One person shares the opinion that wait times are exaggerated and what they experienced was half of what’s posted. Someone else chimes in that wait times were spot on. Rinse and repeat.

I guess I’ll find out for myself real soon!

THIS^

Please report back after your trip!

 

[Babybears]

Yes, please keep these coming! It's been helpful for me to have an idea of what to expect. I'm sure there will be bits of all of this, wait times right on per the app, wait times lower than posted, etc. But, it still is useful to planning to get perspectives on how things are at from all points of view. What's happening currently is quite different than what most of us have experienced on previous trips, so it's really been great to see and hear what thoughts are regarding real-time visitor experiences.