Disney's top new attractions for 2017 previewed for reporters earlier this week, but neither attraction offered extended soft openings to the general public. Pandora offered reservation-only previews to annual passholders and Disney Vacation Club members for a couple of weeks and a very brief public soft open yesterday. But Guardians offered only a hard-ticket, after-hours preview last night.
At Walt Disney World, visitors faced waits up to two hours just to get into the new Avatar-themed land, plus multi-hour waits for its two rides. The queue for Mission Breakout in California winded through Hollywood Land on to Buena Vista Street, hitting a five-hour wait by 11am.
End of line, midday. Estimate is 2 hrs to get into line, then 4 more for rides pic.twitter.com/sHzpwgMcSL
— Dewayne Bevil (@ThemeParks) May 27, 2017
Meanwhile, back in Orlando, Universal's Volcano Bay headed into its first weekend of operation with multi-hour waits for almost all of its water slides. Volcano Bay hard-opened to the public Thursday after a media preview Wednesday and a couple of days of team member service testing.
Volcano Bay is using an innovative park-wide virtual queuing system for all of its attractions, which Universal marketed to potential visitors as eliminating lines in the park. But getting rid of physical lines isn't the same thing as eliminating waits, as visitors faced waits of up to six hours for the park's most popular rides.
Remember that wait times equal the number of people in line versus the rides' hourly capacity. I have been told that Guardians can put through about 2,000 people per hour, while I estimate that the Flight of Passage in Pandora might do up to 1,200 per hour. But if Flight of Passage loads as slowly as it did on its preview day, its capacity easily could drop below 1,000 an hour.
And Volcano Bay's water slides have hourly capacities in the low hundreds for single-rider slides and slightly higher for multi-person rafts.
Universal has installed a manually-updated wait time board so that guests can compare wait times around the park.
Current virtual line wait times in Volcano Bay, 11:45am pic.twitter.com/fkKKwm415K
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) May 27, 2017
And I've been told that the Aqua Coaster is "off the grid" and allows visitors to claim a place in its virtual line while also waiting for another ride elsewhere in the park. (Update: Volcano Bay hit capacity and Universal closed access to the park by mid-day. Universal also is no longer selling one-day, walk-up tickets for the park and expects to close for capacity each day during the Memorial Day weekend.)
Were you at any of these attractions today? Please share your stories in the comments.
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Oh, wait, did I just spoil something?
I'll have you know though TH, as a native New Yorker who spent many years working in the theater industry as you have in the theme park industry, the Hamilton phenomenon is nothing new. Before Hamilton, it was Book of Mormon. Before Book of Mormon it was Wicked. Before Wicked it was Avenue Q. Before Avenue Q it was The Producers. Before the Producers it was Aida. Before Aida it was Rent and so on. In my mind, the only connection PTWOA has with Hamilton is that they're both high quality experiences in their industries that like so many other things in so many industries are so popular that demand exceeds supply upon initial release and thereafter for some time.
(Chuckle)
"By all accounts the system (for Volcano Bay) is not working (evidenced by Twitter posts of a seemingly empty park with 3 hour waits for each slide). Perhaps a complete overhaul is needed."
The answer to your question is no. Your wrist band is linked to you and you must surrender it when leaving the park. It is then recycled to another guest.
I'm a bit shocked about the throughput for FOP. Is that with 3 theaters working (there are 3 right?). In a park that has already so little rides that is a huge failure.
If Flight of Passage is really only about 1,200 riders per hour, I wouldn't be surprised if more theaters are added. That is a very low count for an E-ticket attraction and just isn't sufficient with the crowds WDW sees. Long lines are to be expected at opening, but if Soarin' can get 1,500 with two theaters and Flight of Passage can't even get that with four, there may be a long term problem.
As for Volcano Bay, I'm really curious to see what Universal does to tackle the problem. Even at the busiest waterparks I've visited, waits generally max out at around an hour, and with the times posted it would take at least two full days just to do everything once. I like the idea of Tapu Tapu, but it needs to be effective in order to be worthwhile.
Has the government or some kind of other monopolistic company, taken over disney, that such a crazy, boneheaded decision is made?? Last, I checked, disney still had tons on competition from universal????
I am far more excited about seeing Hamilton again (if I can ever get tickets) than I am about visiting Pandora again (if the crowds ever diminish).
Pandora's achievements are vast, however they do not relate to Hamilton's. The producers of Hamilton made something from the ground up, and created an all new experience that we didn't know we needed- but feel I love with. Disney on the other hand wanted to grab up an already established IP, then created a stunning world featuring experiences that we basically already have (a boat ride, and next gen soaring'). And that is why I believe some reviews put Pandora in the "meh" territory.
PS I have no interest in seeing Hamilton. The music just does not appeal to me. Les Miserables... now that was a spectacular, ground breaking musical.
The Projection Show that also premiered, was a surprise. Even the Disney staff on the street didn't know it was being shown.
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Does anyone know if you keep your spot in line if you leave the park? That's enough time to claim your spot in the queue, go to lunch + movie at CityWalk, for example. Or cross off quite a few rides from your list at either IOA or US, especially if you're a single rider.
I'm pulling for this to work, and for the kinks to get worked out, because standing in line sucks, and I'd love to see this implemented nationally, if not worldwide.