Wait times and general impressions from my Halloween Weekend solo trip

[Disneyhanna]

I'll eventually make a trip report, but I wanted to summarize the wait times I experienced and my overall thoughts from my 10/28-10/31 trip while it is still relevant (aka no MaxPass/Genie+). I hate waiting in lines, and have always made good use of MaxPass/FastPass+ at the Disney parks by refreshing a lot. I was nervous about this trip with crowds and having to wait in standby lines, especially as I did not have anyone to keep me company! You'll see from the wait times below, but I generally waited less than the posted wait times.

Thursday Evening, 10/28
7:18 Indiana Jones (CM at entrance said it was basically walk on, no single rider)
Posted 50
Actual wait 14
Post-ride posted 25

7:46 Winnie the Pooh
Posted 5
Actual wait 7

8:00 Splash posted 25
Posted 25
Actual wait 22

9:18 Space Mountain
Posted 40
Actual wait 33

9:56 Buzz posted 5
Walked right on, park closed at 10:00

Friday, 10/29
Guardians 8AM rope drop, took about 20 minutes from entering the queue to being seated in the elevator

8:30 RSR had not opened with rope drop and was still listed as closed in the app but the CM started letting people in the area in line, at 8:32 it flipped to a 0 min wait in the app and I was on in 7 minutes with maybe 40-50 people ahead of me
Post-ride posted 95

8:59 TSM
Posted 20
Waited 18

9:38 Web Slingers BG #50 called
9:52 Scanned into Web Slingers
Waited 37

11:42 Little Mermaid
Posted 5
Waited 3

12:05 Soarin
Posted 20
Waited 20

12:45 Guardians
Posted 30, jumped to 65 at 12:55
Waited 30 (in elevator seat)

1:42 Matterhorn (single rider)
Posted 30
Waited 12 (SR line was very short)

2:15 Splash (single rider)
Posted 55
Waited 12 (SR line was very short)

3:35 Guardians (Monsters After Dark)
Posted 70
Waited 35 (in elevator seat)

5:57 HM Holiday (ride was down for an hour, I was waiting near entrance and was only behind ~30 people when it reopened)
Waited 9 (into stretching room)
(Wait after stretching room is negligible, I was onto the ride about 4 minutes after entering the stretching room)

6:20 Pirates
Posted 30
Waited 12

8:06 RSR (single rider)
Posted 86
Waited 31 (very long SR line)

I was called for my RotR BG #205 from the 12PM drop at 8:32 but did not make it in time as they closed the queue at 9PM (11PM park close). I did try to make it, and was off RSR at 8:45 but did not get to RotR until 9:08 given the hub crowds for the 9PM fireworks.

9:36 Guardians MAD
Posted 70
Waited 29 (in elevator seat)

Over 31k steps this day!

Saturday, 10/30
8:03 PPF (rope drop, behind ~75 people)
Waited 9

Snow White, Pinocchio, and Mr. Toad were not open yet

8:15 Alice
Posted 5
Waited 5

Pinocchio and Mr. Toad opened

8:25 Dumbo
Posted 5
Waited 4

8:33 Mr. Toad
Posted 5
Waited 7

8:43 Pinocchio
Standby 5
Waited 2

8:57 HM Holiday
Posted 40
Waited 18 (into stretching room, onto ride in 3 mins after)
Post-ride posted 75

9:42 Jungle Cruise
Posted 40
Waited 29

10:25 Snow White (finally opened, pretty long line)
Posted 15, jumped to 40 at 10:30
Waited 31

12:02 Indy
Posted 45
Waited ~30 (was off by 12:35)
Post-ride posted 65

1:05 Guardians (in line to park hop into DCA at 12:53, into DCA 1:00)
Posted 35
Waited 23 (in elevator seat)

2:30 RSR (no single rider)
Posted ? I think it was around 60 or I wouldn’t have gotten in standby
Waited 38, single rider opened around 3:00

3:41 Incredicoaster (single rider)
Posted 25
Waited 23
SR was so confusing and involved 2 elevators and I would not recommend

5:57 RotR BG #165 called, the ride had just been down and reopened
6:10 Scanned into RotR
Waited 57 to get to first pre-show, then an addition 13 to be onto the actual seated ride vehicle, off by 7:30

8:12 HM Holiday
Posted 75
Waited 46 (into stretching room)
Post-ride posted 105, probably the post-fireworks rush

Sunday Morning, 10/31
8AM PPF rope drop, only ~30-40 ahead of me this time and was on by 8:07 so only a 4-5 minute wait

8:10 Snow White
Waited 6

8:19 Alice
Waited 2, only like 6 people in line

8:27 Storybook Boat
Waited 4

Noticed HM was not open at 8:30

8:39 Matterhorn (regular line)
Posted 10
Waited 10

Noticed HM was now open around 8:45

9:12 HM Holiday
Posted 55
Waited 14 (into stretching room)

9:41 WtP
Posted 5
Waited 4

9:54 Indy
Posted 20
Waited 21
Post-ride posted 55

10:28 Pirates
Posted 35
Waited 9

11:57 Star Tours
Posted 15
Waited 17

12:25 Space Mountain (single rider, behind maybe 5 people)
Not sure of standby time, guessing around 40
Waited 4 (single rider)

1:00 Guardians (was in line to park hop at 12:44, into DCA at 12:56)
Posted 25
Waited 15 (in elevator seat)

1:34 RSR (single rider, medium length line)
Posted 55
Waited 20

Random other thoughts:

• Stayed at the Best Western Plus Park Place Inn (my second time here). This is as close as you can get to the parks, about a 5-6 minute walk to security. It was around $250/night after fees. I’d say this is a 2 star hotel, it does the job but it is not fancy, I recommend not looking too closely at anything (needs a remodel). The beds were lumpy and the fan was incredibly noisy but nothing beats being back in your room in minutes at the end of a long day. They are serving a free hot breakfast which is not as good as pre-COVID, but is still a great deal for families especially.
• My Uber at 5PM on Thursday took an hour (traffic) to get from SNA to the BWPPI and was about $23. My Uber from the BWPPI back to SNA on Sunday at 3PM was also $23 and only took 15 minutes. I found Uber to be cheaper than Lyft and had no trouble being picked up quickly, both drivers were friendly.
• The parks were crowded and all days were fully reserved, however I think they felt more crowded due to lack of shows. I rarely encountered a line for the women’s restrooms, and if there was a line, I just went to a different restroom...pretty sure this means it wasn’t actually that busy!
• I really missed MaxPass as a solo traveler. Anything over 20 minutes feels really long when you’re alone. I brought a 20,000mAh battery pack with me because I went through my phone battery really fast. I can see how groups benefit from having no MaxPass/Genie+ as it makes planning way simpler and I didn’t cross the parks as much.
• I asked every time and never witnessed the SR line for Indy. The RSR SR line seems to open and close all day long.
• For mobile order, I typically waited 2-5 minutes after clicking the I’m here prepare my food button. I think the longest I waited was 11 minutes for Bengal BBQ at 11:12 on Saturday. I did not have any issues with mobile ordering, and everything was prepared quickly. Pick up windows were usually immediate or within an hour but I found a few refreshes would often lead to an immediate window if one wasn't available at first glance. Note that you can cancel your mobile orders and not be charged if you never click the I’m here button. If you do click I’m here and do not pick it up, you will be charged. I know this because I did this at Pym’s Tasting Lab and then discovered I lost my Driver’s License, and then was unable to pick up my drink. But that’s a story for the TR!
• Mask compliance was pretty good, they are required indoors and on most rides. Maybe 25% of people wear them outside, you will not stand out if you choose to wear them outside. Lots of people take them off during rides and I think this prevented me from being able to link ride photos.
• CMs were all so nice. I read lots of reports that things have gone downhill, but I didn’t really find that to be the case. Things are different which is to be expected, but it still feels magical. Not everything was perfect but I felt like most CMs were working very hard to provide a somewhat normal experience for guests. This was my first “vacation” since March 2020 and I’m glad that I decided to go.
• I really missed park hopping before 1, and if you have 3 or more days I think it's better to start in Disneyland for the majority as there is more to do (even though I love the vibe for DCA, it's more relaxing).
• I never waited for security, it was fully staffed and they were quick. I arrived between 7:20 and 7:45 for 8AM park openings and was still towards the front of the rope drops in the park. You could definitely roll in just before 8 and still get a good spot except for maybe RSR.
• I found the virtual queues to be really challenging to get. I completely missed both of my 7AM RotR opportunities even though I knew exactly what to do. I thought it was so much easier to get RotR BGs in WDW when they were doing it that way.

Hope this is helpful to anyone who is concerned about wait times without MaxPass or Genie+. I was pleasantly surprised especially given I was expecting awful crowds for the holiday weekend.

 

[Hatboxer]

Thank you for all the great info; this is really helpful for my upcoming trip (Nov 6-9)! Did you use another app to see actual vs posted wait times before entering a queue, to guide which rides you picked when? You seemed to have some good luck with HM in particular .

 

[Angel141925]

This makes me feel better. I’m so stressed out about wait times with a toddler. Genie+ just doesn’t make sense for us. Hoping it stays like this for our trip.

 

[Disneyhanna]

Thank you for all the great info; this is really helpful for my upcoming trip (Nov 6-9)! Did you use another app to see actual vs posted wait times before entering a queue, to guide which rides you picked when? You seemed to have some good luck with HM in particular .

Of course! I did pay about $8 for the DL subscription to Touring Plans for access to their lines app, but I did not think it was as helpful as the WDW version probably is. I was hoping there would be more user-submitted wait times but it’s not widely used and there were only a few submissions per ride, per day. Sometimes I disagreed with their advice to ride or wait based on my own experiences during the trip. I didn’t really use their wait times but I think it could be helpful if you are new to the parks and could use more touring guidance in general.

Apart from HM and PPF, the lines were really up and down all day for most rides. I found that I got pretty good at guessing the wait time based on the outside queues. For HM, all of my shorter waits had a relatively short line outside of the entrance. Longer waits had lots of wrapping around outside by the Mint Julep. Pirates has a big overflow outside of the queue and if the overflow was pretty empty, chances are the wait would only be 10-15 whereas a full overflow outside the queue was a longer wait. Once you ride once you can get a pretty good idea of how long a wait might be, assuming loading goes smoothly. The first two hours of park opening were definitely the quietest. HM breaks down a lot but usually is open in 30-45 minutes so if it’s been down for half an hour, it may be worth lingering around the entrance, the CMs will say they have no idea when it will open and then suddenly with no warning they will open the gate. The DLstats Twitter is really useful, they post when rides close and reopen and the average close time and I was able to catch several reopenings that way. So if you see a ride is closed, you can check their Twitter and decide if you want to wait it out for a bit or not.

Edit: for guardians, I rode enough to also peek at the outside queue and know if the wait would be short or not. If they are not using all of the permanent outdoor queue space inside the gates (meaning they rope off some of the permanent lanes to make a shorter queue), then it will likely be a quick wait probably 30 or less assuming all elevators are loading. I think this may have been the most inflated ride time of all. Even if the queue spills outside of the gated area, it moves really fast and my longest wait I think was under 40 minutes even though they were using the overflow area outside of the gates.

This makes me feel better. I’m so stressed out about wait times with a toddler. Genie+ just doesn’t make sense for us. Hoping it stays like this for our trip.

It was so much better than I thought! I rarely waited over posted and that was really just for shorter times. If you just avoid the hour plus lines you should almost always have a pretty manageable wait. The lines moved really fast too, almost constantly. Friday and Saturday were quite busy but Sunday was noticeably quieter. I would try and do early mornings and then take a break, it was really empty until 10am. Fantasyland was a breeze if you do them all before 9am.

 

[gelatoni fan]

This matches my impression pretty closely. Wait times are generally inflated and particularly bad for Guardians.

While I have experienced some inflated wait times for Pirates and Haunted Mansion, I haven't gotten differences as big as yours whenever I have timed those. I have seen some inflated wait times for RSR in the before times too but the time inflation seems particularly bad post-pandemic. Again, I can't help but think that Disney is intentionally inflating the wait times more than before so that more people will buy Genie+ than if the wait times were accurate.

 

[StormyCA]

Thanks for the detailed timelines! You really put a lot of work into this.

My next trip may be a solo one, 2-3 days next Spring. It'll be interesting to see how G+ affects solo travelers. I've been wondering whether they'll even have single rider at that point.

 

[rmonty02]

Thank you so much Disneyhanna!! Love the detail about what the lines looked like outside vs. your actual wait vs. posted times. Super helpful

 

[Disneyhanna]

This matches my impression pretty closely. Wait times are generally inflated and particularly bad for Guardians.

While I have experienced some inflated wait times for Pirates and Haunted Mansion, I haven't gotten differences as big as yours whenever I have timed those. I have seen some inflated wait times for RSR in the before times too but the time inflation seems particularly bad post-pandemic. Again, I can't help but think that Disney is intentionally inflating the wait times more than before so that more people will buy Genie+ than if the wait times were accurate.

I definitely got lucky on HM a few times, every time they drop the wait time there’s always a mass rush to ride and luckily I usually beat that. Disney has so much data that you’d think there would be a way to count the number people entering and exiting the queue to at least give a better estimate than whatever they’re currently using…but agreed, they will easily sell more genie+ if the listed times look long! And rhey

Thanks for the detailed timelines! You really put a lot of work into this.

My next trip may be a solo one, 2-3 days next Spring. It'll be interesting to see how G+ affects solo travelers. I've been wondering whether they'll even have single rider at that point.

No problem! Taking notes on my phone sure helped pass the time! I wish there was an easier way to do single rider, it seems like it creates chaos on some rides but works well for others. It’s a bummer to wait in long lines alone when there are so many empty seats.

Thank you so much Disneyhanna!! Love the detail about what the lines looked like outside vs. your actual wait vs. posted times. Super helpful

Of course, I’m glad people are finding it useful! I rely so much on posts on here so I’m glad to contribute!!

 

[Pluto468]

Thanks so much for the great report! I hope you found your driver's license.

 

[twodogs]

I am glad you had a great time! Your report was super helpful! If you are not able/willing to ride Single Rider, many of those times would have been much, much longer (as you pointed out) and you would have been able to do far fewer rides in each day. So families who want to ride together won't have the success you had, but hopefully still a managable day by knowing what you showed, which is wait times are often inflated and you have to survey the line yourself and then decide!

 

[Disneyhanna]

Thanks so much for the great report! I hope you found your driver's license.

No such luck, but luckily TSA let me onto my flight and my replacement is already on the way

I am glad you had a great time! Your report was super helpful! If you are not able/willing to ride Single Rider, many of those times would have been much, much longer (as you pointed out) and you would have been able to do far fewer rides in each day. So families who want to ride together won't have the success you had, but hopefully still a managable day by knowing what you showed, which is wait times are often inflated and you have to survey the line yourself and then decide!

Thanks!! Single rider definitely helped me get some extra rides on things I wouldn’t have waited for otherwise. But for the most part, regular lines were much more tolerable than I expected. I’m sure there are a lot fewer disappointed guests now that everyone is on the same playing field! It’ll be so interesting to see if genie+ leads to really long standby lines or not, Disneyland is a whole different beast compared to WDW, and since there are so many locals, I’m wondering how many will shell out the $20 or if they will skip and just do a few rides in regular lines.

 

[Angel141925]

Of course! I did pay about $8 for the DL subscription to Touring Plans for access to their lines app, but I did not think it was as helpful as the WDW version probably is. I was hoping there would be more user-submitted wait times but it’s not widely used and there were only a few submissions per ride, per day. Sometimes I disagreed with their advice to ride or wait based on my own experiences during the trip. I didn’t really use their wait times but I think it could be helpful if you are new to the parks and could use more touring guidance in general.

Apart from HM and PPF, the lines were really up and down all day for most rides. I found that I got pretty good at guessing the wait time based on the outside queues. For HM, all of my shorter waits had a relatively short line outside of the entrance. Longer waits had lots of wrapping around outside by the Mint Julep. Pirates has a big overflow outside of the queue and if the overflow was pretty empty, chances are the wait would only be 10-15 whereas a full overflow outside the queue was a longer wait. Once you ride once you can get a pretty good idea of how long a wait might be, assuming loading goes smoothly. The first two hours of park opening were definitely the quietest. HM breaks down a lot but usually is open in 30-45 minutes so if it’s been down for half an hour, it may be worth lingering around the entrance, the CMs will say they have no idea when it will open and then suddenly with no warning they will open the gate. The DLstats Twitter is really useful, they post when rides close and reopen and the average close time and I was able to catch several reopenings that way. So if you see a ride is closed, you can check their Twitter and decide if you want to wait it out for a bit or not.

Edit: for guardians, I rode enough to also peek at the outside queue and know if the wait would be short or not. If they are not using all of the permanent outdoor queue space inside the gates (meaning they rope off some of the permanent lanes to make a shorter queue), then it will likely be a quick wait probably 30 or less assuming all elevators are loading. I think this may have been the most inflated ride time of all. Even if the queue spills outside of the gated area, it moves really fast and my longest wait I think was under 40 minutes even though they were using the overflow area outside of the gates.


It was so much better than I thought! I rarely waited over posted and that was really just for shorter times. If you just avoid the hour plus lines you should almost always have a pretty manageable wait. The lines moved really fast too, almost constantly. Friday and Saturday were quite busy but Sunday was noticeably quieter. I would try and do early mornings and then take a break, it was really empty until 10am. Fantasyland was a breeze if you do them all before 9am.

I’m ok with moving lines it’s the just standing ones I’m dreading. Toddlers only have a certain threshold of just standing and waiting lol. Now let’s hope genie+ doesn’t throw a wrench in it all.

 

[Disneyhanna]

I’m ok with moving lines it’s the just standing ones I’m dreading. Toddlers only have a certain threshold of just standing and waiting lol. Now let’s hope genie+ doesn’t throw a wrench in it all.

The lines were soooo much better with the constant moving. It made a world of difference. I think the only slow lines I experienced were my one SM standby wait (which a toddler wouldn’t be doing ) and Snow White on the day it didn’t open right away. Everything else moved super fast, sometimes it felt like we hardly stopped! I’m hoping genie+ doesn’t mess that up either, if it’s limited to one time per ride I think that will help a bit.

 

[evilmommie]

Sounds like a GREAT trip. Thanks for sharing your notes.