New strategies for park rides!!!!

Given that the parks are only open for 10 hours each day, if wait times get to the 60 minute mark we will likely be skipping some things. The exception would be jumping in those lines near closing as a way to extend the day.

Our trip starts Aug 30 and I’ll be watching wait times and reading trip reports etc to try and get a sense of what, if any, plan I need to have.
 
I'm not going to read this entire thread, but I saw some of the first few comments mentioned fastpasses and longer waits as a result of not being able to obtain fastpasses.

Without FP+ in play, standby lines will move quickly. The reason most standby lines actually move so slowly is BECAUSE of FP+. If there was no fastpass in the parks at all, I'm fairly convinced that people would spend less time overall waiting because all lines would move faster. Disney's implementation of extreme ratios of FP+ vs. standby riders causes a backlog of standby riders at all attractions throughout the parks. They have essentially prioritized the FP+ experience over the overall experience. This is probably due to the psychology of people thinking that not waiting at all for 3 attractions (or so) is better than shaving a little bit of time off of waits at every attraction.

At holiday party events (which are still pretty crowded), there are no fastpasses and standby lines for headliner attractions move pretty well. Attending the Halloween party last year actually made me kinda wish they'd get rid of FP+ completely and have only a single queue of riders.
 
I'm not going to read this entire thread, but I saw some of the first few comments mentioned fastpasses and longer waits as a result of not being able to obtain fastpasses.

Without FP+ in play, standby lines will move quickly. The reason most standby lines actually move so slowly is BECAUSE of FP+. If there was no fastpass in the parks at all, I'm fairly convinced that people would spend less time overall waiting because all lines would move faster. Disney's implementation of extreme ratios of FP+ vs. standby riders causes a backlog of standby riders at all attractions throughout the parks. They have essentially prioritized the FP+ experience over the overall experience. This is probably due to the psychology of people thinking that not waiting at all for 3 attractions (or so) is better than shaving a little bit of time off of waits at every attraction.

At holiday party events (which are still pretty crowded), there are no fastpasses and standby lines for headliner attractions move pretty well. Attending the Halloween party last year actually made me kinda wish they'd get rid of FP+ completely and have only a single queue of riders.

There are several caveats to comparing Day park visits to a Hard Ticket party. A large portion of the guests at a party are NOT there for the normal attractions but rather the special parades, fireworks, stage shows/dance parties, special merchandise, and character photo ops. Wait times are typically low because it really isn't the primary focus of the party goers. Even with limited attendance, the parks typically feel more crowded at a party because people aren't as spread out in ride queues.

That said, I do agree with the points that even with increase sanitation efforts and lower ride capacity, the lines will probably move faster and more efficiently with no FP line.
 
I think wait times in July-September will be nice and low. I think Oct-Dec will be awful. Disney has said they’ll be increasing capacity gradually, so capacity will be lowest in summer, and so will demand—too many people scared off by masks and heat.
 


I know there has been a lot of frustration and disappointment the last few months but with the parks officially reopening, and people now getting their reservations set, I wanted to do something a little more hopeful

1) With no fast passes to rely on, what order are you going to go for rides for each park?
2) what will your ride picking strategy be?
3) do you think the lines will be long


My answers:
1) MK: 7 dwarves mine train first
EP: Try to hop around future world and get as many big rides as possible and then hope there is a lull at the frozen ride later
HS: Minnie and mickeys first!! (we have already been on ROTR and the kids are too little for it)
AK: Avatar!!!! I’ve been waiting sooo long!!!

2) I’m going to watch the lines of the MDE app for the first few weeks (we go in sept) to get a feel for which rides have long lines. I feel like there are rides that traditionally have manageable lines that will be much longer due to social distancing measures (ie leaving seats open and cleaning between guests) and some that can basically run just like they did previously but now with fewer guests (most of the dark rides) making the waits shorter. I may change my strategy and which ones we go to first based on that.

3) On this one I am torn. Well I feel that the decreased crowds and keeping the park at only 30% capacity will definitely make the line shorter, with out fast pass and with all the social distancing measures I’m not entirely positive that the lines will be that much shorter. In fact some lines could be surprisingly long. I’m curious what other Disney fans are thinking about this.

Let’s get excited about Disney again!!!

I was wondering the same. It's is difficult to plan when there are so many unknowns. In the past, rope drop always worked for my family. Our last trip in 2019 we didn't have a Fast Pass forSDMT and we roped droped. There was a fairly large crowd waIting but once the park opened we were on the ride within 15 minutes. It didn't take long for the waits to become long though so we were happy we were close to the front of the rope drop crowd. I have to say that SDMT and Avatar are my favorites. avatar is hands down the best ride I have ever been on. It's amazing! Not knowing what the crowds would be like I think rope drop for the headliner rides is the best strategy. When we went in November of 2019, there were no additional fast passes available in any park They were sold out. All we had was the 3 pre booked ones. But I guess the crowds were a trade off for mild weather.
 
I don't think there will be any lines. I thought all the rides will be on a virtual queue, with no standby. Otherwise, how can you have social distancing?

From my understanding it's only going to be standby lines with no fast pass line and no virtual queues- at least in the beginning. they are not going to leave the the fast pass queues empty though. They are going to combine the space formerly used for fast passes along with the standby line space in order to create enough space for social distancing. That being said standby lines will move considerly faster with no fast pass lines.
 
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I'm just going to wait and see how things are going leading up to our trip. We were originally scheduled to go the last week of August, but we rescheduled for 11/30-12/7. Hoping for the best. I've never really been a fan of the Fastpass, so I'm excited for a sort of old school way of doing Disney again. However, there are still several months to go until my trip so I'm sure things will be changing. The only thing I'm not liking is the no park hopping. We are huge park hoppers. So sticking to one park for the entire day will be difficult. Hoping that comes back by our trip.
 


We are making a general to do list for each day. Then after that we will just see what the wait times are. With a 10 day trip we have 2 days at each park and an extra half day at DHS and MK. I have a 6 year old who likes to know the "plan" and be mentally prepared so we will make enough of one to help her be relaxed. I think they will both enjoy the "whatever we want to ride next" attitude that we might be able to adopt.
 
Go back to the old way. MK start going counter clockwise . Pirates, splash, BTMRR. JC. HM, and then SM what will have a line . Then start again with the other attractions.
 
It will be just like 1995 again!

Yes, please!

We had 4 trips between 1988 and 1994 and I'd love to go back to *that* WDW!

For our Sept. trip we have 2 days in each park. My very loose strategy is to have the goal of hitting half of the headliners on our first day in each park and then shoot for the other half on our 2nd day.
We have a TouringPlans subscription a solid 2 months from parks opening until our trip, so hopefully the touring plans software will be updated to meet our needs in this "version" of WDW.
Also, and this is kind of stating the obvious.... I'll be checking DisBoards Forum for reports from people as they visit in July and August.
 
We go to MK tuesday and I plan on getting there at opening, as I have to leave between 4 and 4:30 to pick up the cat from the vet. I'd like to get as much as possible and will use attractions like CoP to help us cool off love it any way). Maybe a sit down lunch at The Plaza. Hopefully the rain holds off!
 
I think wait times in July-September will be nice and low. I think Oct-Dec will be awful. Disney has said they’ll be increasing capacity gradually, so capacity will be lowest in summer, and so will demand—too many people scared off by masks and heat.
When cold and flu season hits, there might be fewer people coming due to illness, or fear of booking during cold and flu season due to concern about having to cancel or cut short a trip due to illness. We're living in a world where you can't acceptably have a cough or run a low grade fever in public anymore. (Not saying that's wrong, just that it's a big change.) It will be difficult to travel in winter given those standards, especially for families with school-age kids.
 
When cold and flu season hits, there might be fewer people coming due to illness, or fear of booking during cold and flu season due to concern about having to cancel or cut short a trip due to illness. We're living in a world where you can't acceptably have a cough or run a low grade fever in public anymore. (Not saying that's wrong, just that it's a big change.) It will be difficult to travel in winter given those standards, especially for families with school-age kids.

very insightful post
 
I agree w the old days and no FP. My main advice is to go immediately to the back of the park and work your way toward the entrance, while everyone else is still taking their picture with the MK castle, or the Epcot ball, etc. And lines DID move well when there were no FP. In all the recent years, I have not yet seen the whole inside queue, both sides, on Space Mountain used. The first time I rode that and got all the way up the ramp and could see the coasters going by and then turned the corner and saw ALL the indoor snake lines... OMG! But we did it. And they moved. The other homework here is to study how the rides load and what their capacity is. And as long as they're still posting wait times I think it will be doable.
 
I'm not going to read this entire thread, but I saw some of the first few comments mentioned fastpasses and longer waits as a result of not being able to obtain fastpasses.

Without FP+ in play, standby lines will move quickly. The reason most standby lines actually move so slowly is BECAUSE of FP+. If there was no fastpass in the parks at all, I'm fairly convinced that people would spend less time overall waiting because all lines would move faster. Disney's implementation of extreme ratios of FP+ vs. standby riders causes a backlog of standby riders at all attractions throughout the parks. They have essentially prioritized the FP+ experience over the overall experience. This is probably due to the psychology of people thinking that not waiting at all for 3 attractions (or so) is better than shaving a little bit of time off of waits at every attraction.

At holiday party events (which are still pretty crowded), there are no fastpasses and standby lines for headliner attractions move pretty well. Attending the Halloween party last year actually made me kinda wish they'd get rid of FP+ completely and have only a single queue of riders.

Not too sure about that. Still the same amount of people wanting to ride rides. Still the same amount of popular rides. Loading efficiency isn't increased because you're loading off of one line. The only thing that may change is the people who use FP and refreshing may not stay in the park as long.

Best case scenario is that standby stays the same and other rides have long wait times due to increased capacity. As a refresher, I know that I would never stand in line longer than 30-40m for a ride. Mine train for 1-2 hours? Pandora for 1-2 hours? Dear lord.
 
Still the same amount of people wanting to ride rides. Still the same amount of popular rides. Loading efficiency isn't increased because you're loading off of one line. The only thing that may change is the people who use FP and refreshing may not stay in the park as long.
No, the lines will actually move more quickly without any FP usage. Haven't you ever been in a standby line, immobile, while the FP people were put in front? That will go away. It's a fact that rides like Pirates, for example, used to be quick standby rides before FP was added to them. Now the lines will go back to moving forward constantly. It will be a big improvement.
 
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No, the lines will actually move more quickly without any FP usage. Haven't you ever been in a standby line, immobile, while the FP people were put in front? That will go away. It's a fact that rides like Pirates, for example, used to be quick standby rides before FP was added to them. Now the lines will go back to moving forward constantly. It will be a big improvement.
Not necessarily. I'm not sure how Disney will pan out but Silver Dollar City, which doesn't utilize a FP system, has reported waits are just as long as if the park was full and they are not even at their COVID capacity.
 
No, the lines will actually move more quickly without any FP usage. Haven't you ever been in a standby line, immobile, while the FP people were put in front? That will go away. It's a fact that rides like Pirates, for example, used to be quick standby rides before FP was added to them. Now the lines will go back to moving forward constantly. It will be a big improvement.

Well the people that may have been using the FP line are now in the Standby line. Still the same amount of people trying to get in to the ride, unless not having FPs at all depresses attendance or ride demand.
 
Not too sure about that. Still the same amount of people wanting to ride rides. Still the same amount of popular rides. Loading efficiency isn't increased because you're loading off of one line. The only thing that may change is the people who use FP and refreshing may not stay in the park as long.
With the same number of people/capacity, it is true that the average (mean) wait is the same; however, the standby waits should be shorter with no FP+. Without FP+, everyone in line waits the same amount as capacity is distributed equally among them. With FP+, standby folks are waiting longer while those with FP+ receive a disproportionate share of ride capacity and enjoy a shorter wait. Imagine a a ride that with a capacity of 1000 riders per hour, then the guest who is in the middle of a line of 1000 would expect to wait 30 minutes to ride. If you introduce FastPass for 250 of those guests, those guests will receive priority and get through the line in 15 minutes, and the guest who is in the middle of the standby line (400th out of 800) will wait 37 minutes (15 minutes for the FP+ and 22 minutes for the folks ahead in the standby line). Maybe not as significant a difference as some think (30 versus 37 minutes), but there is an increase and it's dependent on how many FPs are given and where you are in line. For instance, first in the standby line would expect to be wait 1 minute without FP+ and 16 minutes with FP+ in the model above. FP+ makes some rides obtainable for more people (i.e., families with younger children who have a hard time waiting in line for more than 30 minutes), while extending wait times for the folks that were going to ride all the big rides anyway.
 

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