Hell Week Wait Times

[UNIrd]

Attention spans are A LOT shorter nowadays. I don't know how some of these families do it.

 

[IzzyB]

Attention spans are A LOT shorter nowadays. I don't know how some of these families do it.

Not really. People have phones and tablets to keep them busy while in line. We had nothing as a kid. My daughter just turned 5 and when my sister came in town we waited in some pretty long uni lines and my daughter had no issue. She knew to ride she had to wait. When I am with her by myself or with my husband we will give her the option if the line is long (with my sister she had no choice) and 95% of the time she picks to wait in the long line. She is always good and we have no issues with her. And we don't even use a phone. The only time we give her a phone is when waiting for sea world shows. In a line we are moving too much and that is enough entertainment for her.

Kids are not more impatient if you don't raise them that way. There was spoiled brats when I was a kid and there are spoiled brats today. But not all kids are that way.

 

[UNIrd]

Not really. People have phones and tablets to keep them busy while in line. We had nothing as a kid. My daughter just turned 5 and when my sister came in town we waited in some pretty long uni lines and my daughter had no issue. She knew to ride she had to wait. When I am with her by myself or with my husband we will give her the option if the line is long (with my sister she had no choice) and 95% of the time she picks to wait in the long line. She is always good and we have no issues with her. And we don't even use a phone. The only time we give her a phone is when waiting for sea world shows. In a line we are moving too much and that is enough entertainment for her.

Kids are not more impatient if you don't raise them that way. There was spoiled brats when I was a kid and there are spoiled brats today. But not all kids are that way.

You don't think we're currently living in an instant gratification culture? This affects kids too and yes.. even the way we wait in lines for theme parks. MyMagic+, Express, interactive queues, etc. isn't just about data mining and dollars. It's also a sign of the times.

 

[IzzyB]

You don't think we're currently living in an instant gratification culture? This affects kids too and yes.. even the way we wait in lines for theme parks. MyMagic+, Express, interactive queues, etc. isn't just about data mining and dollars. It's also a sign of the times.

I don't know. I just think it is how you raise your kids. Yes, technology allows things to be more at your fingertips and that causes a lot of this instant gratification world. But technology is also the reason they can do express and fast passes. When the parks first opened the tech wasn't out there to do things like this. Now it is and the parks see an advantage of keeping people out of lines and spending more.

But kids attention spans have always been the same. They say my daughters age has an attention span of 15 minutes. That was the same 100 years ago as it is today. It is just how their brains work. Now how you manage that will determine if you have meltdowns or not. As they grow up they getting longer and longer attention spans. It is just managing that. Like when it is a long line I tell my daughter we will be in line for a long time and if she acts up we will leave without riding the ride. Guess what? She doesn't act up. She realizes there is something good at the end of the line that she doesn't want to miss. She also knows that mommy and daddy follow thru on punishments and to not mess with trying to cross that line. Kids act up when there is no clear line and that 80% of the time they can cross that line with no punishment occurring. Once they see how to get around the system they keep pushing and pushing. That is no different from when I was a kid and parents did the same thing. Now there was less of those parents when I was a kid than there are today. But in my daughters daycare most of the kids behave because this school doesn't put up with any bull crap. So those types of parents get weeded out. Now her old school did not have a good policy and it is one of many reasons why we switched day cares.

I have friends that won't travel with their kids. Mainly because their kids act up all the time. They have zero control over the kids and the kids rule the house. Those types of people just don't go anywhere. They can't understand how we travel the way we do. In their mind it is impossible. Mainly because their kids have no consequences for their actions. No joke, the girl had a meltdown going into the ice cream store and the parents still got her whatever she wanted. She melted down at the table because she now decided she wanted something different. So the father got her something different. My then 4 yr old daughter (now 5) asked us why she got what she wanted when she wasn't being good. My daughter said no way would she scream and cry in an ice cream place because she knew she would not get ice cream. Even my 4 year old knew how to parent better than the actual parents. So do I agree there are more parents that seem to have that mentality, yes. But there are also a ton of parents who do not and would have no issues taking their family to the parks during this period of time. Typically the parents that have more control are the ones that would be doing these types of trips. Now mind you I have seen some pretty out of control kids in the parks, so there are some daring parents who try even with no control over their kids.

 

[Teebin]

^ Mercy, you had something to say and damn it, you said it...

 

[Mad Dog]

Great points on parenting Izzy. Wish more parents were like you.

 

[IzzyB]

^ Mercy, you had something to say and damn it, you said it...

LOL sorry, my pet peeve. Everyone has bad parenting days and children that melt down. But when I was in college I was in a game store and this child wanted some magic the gathering cards. The mom said something and the child, probably 12 said, "Mom you don't know anything you are dumb". The mother didn't say anything and bought the cards. I said to myself then I would never be like that mother and my kids would respect me. So when I see kids do stuff like that it drives me bonkers.

 

[captainmoch]

New Years Eve wait times as of 2:00 PM, under the spoiler cut:

Spoiler: New Years Eve Worst Wait Times

- Jungle Cruise: 115 minutes
- Peter Pan's Flight: 115 minutes
- Big Thunder Mountain: 130 minutes
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 130 minutes
- Space Mountain: 190 minutes
- Journey into Imagination: 60 minutes
- Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival: 70 minutes
- Spaceship Earth: 95 minutes
- Mission Space: 140 minutes
- Soarin: 180 minutes
- Test Track: 205 minutes
- Tower of Terror: 90 minutes
- Star Tours: 105 minutes
- RNRC: 110 minutes
- TSMM: 165 minutes
Universal, oddly enough, seemed to have mostly managable waits currently. I don't know if they're as bad as Disney or not on New Years.

 

[WAJAS]

The waits are averaging about an hour at Universal.

 

[Mad Dog]

New Years Eve wait times as of 2:00 PM, under the spoiler cut:

Spoiler: New Years Eve Worst Wait Times

- Jungle Cruise: 115 minutes
- Peter Pan's Flight: 115 minutes
- Big Thunder Mountain: 130 minutes
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 130 minutes
- Space Mountain: 190 minutes
- Journey into Imagination: 60 minutes
- Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival: 70 minutes
- Spaceship Earth: 95 minutes
- Mission Space: 140 minutes
- Soarin: 180 minutes
- Test Track: 205 minutes
- Tower of Terror: 90 minutes
- Star Tours: 105 minutes
- RNRC: 110 minutes
- TSMM: 165 minutes
Universal, oddly enough, seemed to have mostly managable waits currently. I don't know if they're as bad as Disney or not on New Years.

Historically, Universal crowds are not nearly as intense as Disney's for NY Eve & NY Day. Same thing for Xmass Eve & Christmas day.

 

[UNIrd]

Yeah, Universal seems to have the shortest wait times this week today. Meanwhile at Disney, 70 minutes for the Pixar Short Films.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

After the madness these past few days, the parks are relatively calm today. MK has nothing 100+ right now, everything that isn't TT or Soarin at Epcot is 30 or less, DHS is nowhere near as busy (RNRC is the highest wait at 100), and the only rides over 60 at Universal are Spider-Man, DM, Rockit, and Transformers.

 

[bob albert]

Yikes. I certainly could understand why parents call their kids in sick vs waiting in these lines. You could easily do about 3x as much per day a few weeks later in January and pay less as well. That would be rough on a budget. I wouldn't even consider a vacation at this time. I would probably rather go in the summer even with the heat. At least one can plan around some of the waits.

 

[Speed]

From the end of Christmas to the end of New Years, is the busiest the parks get all year. I made this thread to discuss some of the highest wait times you see this week. We had one of these last year so I thought it would be interesting to make another for this year. I'll get the ball rolling with this.

 

[JoeCamel]

So why don't those people do something else? HRRR is just not worth that kind of wait.

 

[Speed]

So why don't those people do something else? HRRR is just not worth that kind of wait.

The only reason I can think of is that it's the first ride people see besides Minions which probably had a 1 hour+ wait and Shrek which most people don't like.

 

[Frank Drackman]

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but a few weeks ago I was trying to see if I could swing a trip for a couple of nights. I wanted to go up the 26th and leave the 28th.

What I found was that if I included the 28th, there were no AP rates and I could only find expensive room levels. If I were able the change it to the 25th through the 27th, I had a good choice of of rooms with AP rates.

Anyway, I thought it was a little crazy that I could stay two nights starting on Christmas Day for less than I could stay one night on the 28th...so I assume the crowds start today (based on room availability).

But I won't know for I could not make a trip work out for us.

 

[epcyclopedia]

I use Waze for my daily commute so it recalls where I usually go and such.

This morning it informed me there's a 17min delay to drive into the MK area over normal driving conditions.

 

[UNIrd]

Universal/IOA Wait Times as of 12/28/16
2pm

FJ - 105min
Rockit - 90min
Mummy - 70min
Hulk - 120min
Simpsons - 100min
MIB - 60min
Despicable Me - 160min
Shrek - 40min
Popeye's - 60min
Gringotts - 105min
Kong- 140min
Spiderman - 90min
Transformers - 120min
Ripsaw Falls - 90min
Jurassic Park - 70min

 

[fryoj]

Universal/IOA Wait Times as of 12/28/16
2pm

Hulk - 120min

a 2 hour wait on a B&M is crazy.