Five Disney World rides not worth the wait, and three that are

Great list. Slinky dog and Peter Pan are some of our favorites. The queue for Peter Pan is quite good too.

The Na’vi River Journey for me will always be a “what might have been” sigh. When it was announced that this attraction would help anchor the Pandora expansion I had hopes of a much longer boat ride with more detailed show scenes involving AA’s of various Pandoran wildlife and Na’vi figures. What we got instead almost plays like a next-gen Worlds Fair showcase for the most recent developments in projection mapping affects and lighting design. Dont get me wrong, the Shaman animatronic at the end is a sight to behold and worth the price of admission herself. But you only see her for but a few brief moments. I feel like once you settle into the groove of this trip and start to really get immersed it’s time to unload. Alas, budget constraints will be what they will be.
Agree 100% on Peter Pan. It’s a rite of passage for little ones and the queue at WDW has done much to temper the frustration of the wait times with the recent interactive updates added but the actual ride itself is clearly outdated, with mostly static show scenes and lighting so dim that the more, how should I say, adventurous among us might be inclined to recreate the infamous boat journey on Pirates of the Carribbean that Robert talks about in his book. You know, the boat ride where the passenger’s head “disappears” for a while into the other guest’s lap? Great read by the way lol.
Seven Dwarfs is a must-do but only with a Genie+ reservation. I would never wait in a line for it longer than 40 minutes. It’s a pretty great family coaster though. But it’s not the E-ticket folks would have you believe.

Robert, you should do a post on the inverse this one:
Lesser Attractions With Little to No Wait That are Great Diversions

My vote goes to The Peoplemover at Tomorrowland. Great for a breezy sit down tour that only breaks down during the times when you really have somewhere else to be in a hurry. Love it though!!!

At least when they built Toy Story Land at WDW they built a fun, well themed, family friendly, good capacity roller coaster instead of building the awful half pipe coaster they have at Toy Story Land in Paris and Hong Kong. Personally I think its a great multi-generational coaster, although when Penguin Trek opens its going to be a lot harder to justify waiting in line for Slinky when Penguin will probably have no wait most of the time.

Sorry I got to disagree with you that the Frozen ride at Hong Kong. While I, like many other theme park people, don't like where the Frozen ride ended up at WDW...it is unquestionably a better ride than the extremely short, dinky little Frozen coaster at Hong Kong that is basically Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at MK but half the length (which you have listed in the "not worth the wait" list). The Frozen area at HKDL is beautiful but that ride is so bad.

I would place Remy above Avatar to be honest. I was shocked at how much fun that one is, and I really like where it is placed too. You can get off that and have a nice coffee and pastry. Interesting that EPCOT has my two favorite new attractions in all of WDW.

Lesser Attractions With Little to No Wait That are Great Diversions

Oooh some good ones here like Living With the Land, People Mover and others

Personally, I'd probably take Slinky Dog Dash off this list and replace it with Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. The former is a pretty solid junior coaster that provides a unique experience not duplicated on any other attraction at the resort, while the latter is generally considered the lowest quality of the three trackless dark rides at the resort yet usually has the longest line at Epcot. I'd also add two honorable mentions: Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom (an opening day attraction past its prime with inconsistent ride quality) and Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run at Disney's Hollywood Studios (something really neat in concept but with major flaws in execution).

@the_man4: I’m pretty sure he means that Frozen Ever After is better in HKDL than Epcot’s version.

Will we (or did we) see a piece titled "Five Universal Orlando rides not worth the wait" or is TPI just dumping on Walt Disney World ... again?

@TH: let me be the first to cast my vote for Kong: Skull Island or whatever the full name actually is.

@ fattyackin: Oooooo! Even behind 'Fast & Furious: Supercharged'?

@TH: I’ve admittedly not had the chance to experience the Fast & Furious: Supercharged attraction. But I have seen videos of it online and in the 2 times I’ve been back to UO since watching said videos I’ve made zero effort to go see it. So, make of that what you will…

And the irony of Kong “not being worth the wait” is it has a fantastic and completely immersive queue lol.

I'm completely on board with Peter Pan, and would tend to agree with SDD, but not for the same reasons as listed above. I agree with AJ that SDD is a decent coaster that's widely accessible, but the amount of time it takes to ride is not proportional to its quality, particularly when based on typical lines for other attractions at DHS. I'd much rather wait 2 hours to ride RotR, MFSR, RnRC, ToT, and even TSM over riding SDD. The thing is that after RotR, SDD is often the second longest line in the park. Typically, you could ride both RnRC AND ToT for the amount of time it takes to ride SDD, so I would easily choose riding those two over riding SDD once in terms of time investment.

As far as other skip-worthy attractions, I would put all the spinners up there (Dumbo, Aladdin, and Astro Orbiters). I also think typical waits for Soarin' (on both coasts) are not commensurate with the quality of the attraction, particularly if you've already experience both films. I would probably be willing to wait 30-45 minutes for Soarin' (in it's boring cow-pen-like queue), and even if I'm waiting that long, I'm asking to wait an additional cycle to not get stuck in the back rows.

To TH's question, I think it's pretty easy to come up with some mediocre Universal attractions. For me, The Simpsons Ride tops the list because of the annoying load process and the difficulty in gauging the true wait to ride (I've rarely gotten in line and had the posted wait time be within 5 minutes of reality). The ride is cute and has all the Easter Eggs you want from the IP, but the technology is old, and it's just not worth the normal 45-60 minutes waits. I'd also put Jimmy Fallon and F&F on this list, but the lines for those attractions are not typically more than 15-30 minutes, so in my view, it's worth those minimal waits just for a change of pace and some time in the AC. However, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem is not worth the 45-60+ minute waits that ride typically carries. Again, the attraction is cute, but relies on old technology and can feel like a time sink after you've gotten off. I would also tend to agree with Kong, but it does at least have a really well done queue.

I wouldn't get in line for Pan if it was walk-on. It doesn't help that he is one of my least favorite characters.

Sadly I saw that this fall on our first trip UO, that Fast & Furious will be closed for refurb. Now I might just cancel the trip! ;)

100% agree with your #1 (Peter Pan) and #2 (Frozen). I was in the standby lane for Peter Pan and it was the most painful experience I have ever encountered! Don't do it!! If you want to ride either #1 or #2 I more than highly recommend do so only in the Lightning Lane.