And so, our vote of the week. How long are you willing to wait? Not for the latest premier blockbuster, but for established rides, especially ones that you love to ride again and again.
To help answer this question, perhaps it would help to think of a specific situation:
You're ready to get in the line to ride (or see) your favorite theme park attraction. It's your favorite, so you have been on it before. You take a look at the posted wait time, which we will assume is accurate.
At what number do you turn around and say, "uh, maybe later"?
Or, let's put it another way, if the wait time were not posted, at what point during the wait would you start getting mad about the amount of time you had spent in line?
The fact we're talking about re-rides is important. I know that many readers will wait just about any amount of time to go on a hot new ride - so I want to take that situation off the table. What's your upper limit for wait times for established theme park attractions?
Tell us your ideas about wait times, in the comments, please.
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My biggest gripe about queues is that Fast Passes A) Make the queue longer and B) Make kids miserable. At the Magic Kingdom I constantly hear children crying because they want to just go stand in line and their parents are like, "No, we come back in THREE HOURS!!" To a child, standing in the queue is part of their instant gratification - they're in the queue, so the ride is really going to happen! It takes away from a child's enjoyment to deny them the queue and the impulsiveness of walking through the park, discovering an attraction, and queuing up.
Working the Fastpass merge point at Splash Mountain i would always get an earful from the standby line about how long they had been waiting. I got in trouble once for talking back. It was only sometimes that a guest would stick up for me and yell at the other guests who were yelling at me to be patient and that this was all part of the experience. Had a kid do that once, almost made me cry with happiness. Gave the kid free fastpasses for that too i was so grateful that even a child understood what it meant to be in a theme park; a lot of waiting in lines.
For Kings Dominion, I have a system, arriving to the park as soon as I possibly can get on a ride. I can ride all of the coasters by lunch.
Then if it is too crowded, I can head home.
For places that I do not live near, such as CA and Florida, I have a bigger tolerance for waiting since I am not there 10 times a year.
But, I still refuse to stand in line and wait more than 1 hour for any ride.
I realize that there are set capacities by the fire marshall, etc for theme parks, but when it is too crowded, I am miserable and I just leave.
My time is more valuable than standing in line.
I Respond: Great minds think alike!
Back in February, Mr. Niles asked us: " Which classic attraction should Disney change next?"
I responded thusly: ABSOLUTELY, NO QUESTION ABOUT IT, WITHOUT A DOUBT, PERIOD, END OF STORY: Peter Pans Flight! The current ride at WDW CONSTANTLY has a MONSTER LINE! Some might say that means "leave well enough alone. I say that it proves the popularity of the franchise (especially when it comes to Tink). Gut the lame, 1970s funhouse effects. Make it state-of-the-art. Market it loud and long and they will CRASH THE GATES.
Oddly, in the survey results PPF finished dead last.
Robert, no worries....age before beauty??? We can't remember it all!!! (or can we??? :) )
For me I've been spoiled to be considered well enough to work in some area of the Theme Park industries. I usually now don't wait at all to ride any kind of rides, and if I do, like I said...I voted less than 20 minutes.
I will say that I have, in my past younger than 30 years, waited much longer regardless of the place, ride or time! I could recall many long waits spending time in the queue's with that "special" lady (of the time), or even my pre teens with family. I guess that the time spent waiting with the ladies of my past is just another topic as Robert pointed out.
I have been at KI when a new ride was launching and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why people were waiting 2-3 hours to ride it when the rest of the park was empty!! I rode almost everything 2-3 times. I have flat feet and standing in a que doesn't help that but who wants to just sit there in the heat. Keep moving, plenty to see and do. And that attraction will be there for the next 30 years so I'll catch it next time and each time after that!!
As for blockbusters, I'll wait 90 mins for the likes of Hulk or Spidey at IOA but it takes everything I have in me to do it. Anything under 45 mins is a no brainer if you really want to ride that ride. 45 mins is the sweet spot I guess is what I am trying to say.
Now, on a hot day, I will wait 30 minutes for Haunted Mansion and Pirates to spend 15 minutes in the AC.
Ride I've never been on or the park's best rides: No upper limit
Ride I've been on several times that is really good: 1 hour
Ride that is good but not excellent: 1/2 hour
Ride that is just okay: 15 minutes
Anything else: 5 minutes at most
I will go on pretty much any ride if it doesn't have a wait as long as it doesn't cause discomfort.
Anyways...I personally picked the 45-60 min wait and that has to be on a busy day, otherwise like everyone else i will buy an express pass if i am @ universal or do the fastpasses at disney. But you will NEVER see me in a stand-by line for toy story mania, get there early enough(when the park opens pretty much) and you still have time to grab a fastpass.
I don't just count the Fastpass system as a life-saver; also, I have a Seasonal Pass - the block-out dates to go coincide with those peak seasons, anyway.
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