If you are one of the many people that flinch at the thought of being by yourself, this is definitely not the experience for you. But if you are open to the idea, then being alone at a theme park could go to the top of your "To Do List." The freedom of choice in a place with so many options is an intoxicating feeling. You can choose your best route through the park, stop to eat or take a break whenever you want, and go over and over on the rides you like without compromising with anyone else. (Eight consecutive times at Men in Black Alien Attack is my personal record.)
Naturally, theme parks are well-aware of this and have created a concept that is not strictly for our use, but does serve us perfectly well — the Single Rider line, a resource so important for "loners" as a Fastpass or Universal Express.
Life is definitely not the same when you are a Single Rider at Disney or at Universal, however. It might not seem so at a first glance, but it is shocking how much more we are respected and even appreciated at Universal theme parks when you chose the Single Rider option.
At Universal Orlando Resort, for example, there are nine official Single Rider lines, including most their top attractions. And other rides, such Jurassic Park River Adventure and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, sometimes accommodate Single Riders during their busiest times. In Walt Disney World's four theme parks, only three attractions offer Single Rider lines. (In California, Disney’s selection is a bit bigger, due to Disney California Adventure.) It’s a big difference, one that you can feel when being alone at the parks.
Here’s a quick rundown of the Single Rider options offered at Disney and Universal parks in the United States:
In Central Florida
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Epcot
Universal Studios Florida
Islands of Adventure
In Southern California
Disneyland Park
Disney California Adventure
Universal Studios Hollywood
I dare say that, after these recent trips, I’ve gotten the feeling that Universal treats the Single Riders in a slightly better way. No, Disney can never be rude to its guests. But when I’m using the Single Riders lines at Universal I feel like I am in a win-win situation. “Hey I’m all alone here. Why don’t you help me go through this line faster, since I’ve got no one to talk to while waiting, and I’ll help you out by filling in this empty seat that nobody was going to use anyway?”
It may sound silly at first, but this thinking leads to better and faster Single Rider lines. I’ve never seen a Universal employee think twice before loading one or even two people from these lines onto empty seats at, say, Revenge of the Mummy or Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. And I've definitely seen, over and over again, cast members at Disney desperate to find a couple anywhere in line at rides such as Matterhorn Bobsleds instead of choosing two Single Riders – even if it means getting someone from way, way down line, near Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage! There were at least two occasions in this attraction in which guests who entered the regular line at the same exact time as I did got into the roller coaster first, rode it and left waving goodbye to me while I was still there, waiting for my turn at the Single Rider line.
I do know there is a matter of how many seats the attraction has - people in theme parks tend to travel in group with even numbers, so rides with three seats per row usually need more Single Riders. And let's not forget the matter of physical space, since one has to open up space to provide for Single Rider lines. But why can't Disney provide better service in the rides where it already offers this option?
Disney is surely powerful enough in this business to create its own standards. So why follow a trend that they obviously do not care for? Even though I’m a hardcore Disney park fan, I’ve found myself on more than one occasion leaving Disneyland Park or Magic Kingdom feeling that I could have done so much more if they provided better Single Rider options. This is an area in which, for me, Universal definitely has gotten the upper hand. By far.
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In a group, not only do you have to pay for your admission and meals, but you also have to pay for other people's admission and meals.
By yourself, you only have to pay for your admission and meals.
In a group, you have to compromise between what you wanna do and what everyone else wants to do.
By yourself, you only get to do what you want to do.
In a group, you have to pack extra stuff to suit everyone's needs.
By yourself, you only pack what you need.
In a group, if other people have important commitments the next day, even if you don't have any yourself, you can't stay out too late so that they can get enough sleep.
By yourself, if you don't have any important commitments the next day, you can stay as late as you want (until the park closes, that is.)
The guy from the Forever Alone meme doesn't know how good he has it.
I do wish more Disney attractions utilized the single riders lines - Pirates, BTMR, SDMT, Space Mtn, Soarin, Dinosaur, etc.
One thing that really irks me is when parties of 4 or more utilize the single riders line to try to minimize their wait, when people like me now have to wait longer because I am truly a single rider!!
We've also been caught in the single rider hell that is Disney's Matterhorn. It's like they are challenged to fill the seats without using the single rider line.
Over all I have to say Universal see's single rider as a crowd management tool while Disney doesn't seem to know how to use or manage it.
Disney has so many rides that a single rider option would help them speed things up but they just can't grasp the concept. Of course they think FastPass and Magic Bands are the answer to all of their crowd management problems.
At DCA they had a single rider option the Monsters Inc. ride that got to be so popular that instead of managing, expanding and using it they closed the option down!
I think the difference in the way Disney and Universal approach single rider lines has to do with the types of rides each resort has and the way the attractions are designed. It also has a bit to do with the guests. It wasn't noted here, but Toy Story Midway Mania at DCA used to have a single rider line, but the way it was facilitated was a bit strange. If the empty seat was next to a child, cast members would typically let the set remain empty. Sometimes they would ask a parent/guardian in the group to see if they were fine with a single rider sitting next to the child. While I can appreciate it considering the design on the TSMM vehicles (flat bench seating with no divider between the seats), it was rather annoying, and led to ebbs and flows in the single rider line. I've seen cast members do the same thing at both Radiator Springs Racers and Test Track, but not as consistently as they used to at DCA's TSMM. I also find it odd that DCA can pull off a single rider line at Soarin', but EPCOT cannot. Maybe the cast members at EPCOT are super efficient at loading, and rarely leave any empty seats, but there's certainly room in the queue for a single rider line. Both theaters in Florida have two load lines, one for disabled guests and the other for pre-loading, just like in California. All they need to do is send the single riders down the disabled guest lines as needed to fill empty seats during the pre-show.
As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to design an attraction with an odd number of seats per row, you should ALWAYS have a single rider line. Also, if you have attractions that regularly operate with 45+ minute waits and run more than 50 empty seats per hour, you should have a single rider line for that attraction. It doesn't have to always be open, but at least have the queue there for guests that are willing to fill those empty seats when standby lines get long.
Heck, if Six Flags can pull it off, every park should be able to do it. I just got back from Six Flags Over Texas, and their single rider line for Justice League was extremely efficient, and appropriate for an attraction with vehicles seating in 2 rows of 3. Other Six Flags chain single rider lines are not nearly as good - as Bobbie noted, the Zumanjaro line can be hit or miss, as well as the Green Lantern line (both Magic Mountain and Great Adventure). It upsets me to no end to see seats going empty on rides when I'm either in a park by myself or with my wife when we're more than happy to ride separately if that means we get on that much faster. There's no excuse for parks to run vehicles with numerous empty seats and overflowing lines.
Disneyland, on the other hand, is a mixed bag for single riders. Some rides (particularly Radiator Springs Racers and Splash Mountain) do an excellent job with it. Others are not so good. However, I understand why this is: Disneyland has many hidden policies on the use of single riders. While I don't know what they are, I'm sure some of these are to prevent problems with other guests (hence why single riders generally won't be seated next to young children) and to minimize abuse of the single rider line (hence why they make every effort to seek out small parties instead of loading multiple single riders together). I still rarely have found a single rider line to take longer than 30 minutes and have never waited longer for it than the regular queue, but I've found the time savings at Disneyland are usually small if the regular line is much shorter than a half-hour (particularly at Goofy's Sky School, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Soarin' Over California).
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I just visited Disneyland and USH last month and the difference in the single rider treatment is overwhelming. Universal never hesitated to put single riders into empty seats, even when that number was up to two. I went during the low season (mid september) so lines where not that long, but the single rider line was indeed a winner. I got on Revenge of the Mummy 10 times in a row using the single rider line and all the wait I had to do was the walk from the entrance to the loading station. The employees were just spot on when it came to filling in those empty seats. This goes for Jurassic Park River Adventure and Transformers too. Regular wait times were around 25 to 30 minutes but single rider guests only waited about 3 to 5 minutes in total.
Disney on the other hand left me with mixed feelings on their single rider option. Attractions like Splash mountain and Radiators Springs Racers have to be the fastest moving lines for single riders. They easily helped me save up to an hour or two of wait times. The Matterhorn though was just aweful. It even got to a point when it became frustrating because the line would just not move for 10 minutes straight. Disney cast members would give preference to couples or parties of three than to let a single rider fill in a seat. I probably waited about the same time in the single riders line as if I had queued on the regular stand by line. Very Dissapointing.