As promised this post will cover how you can possibly survive only riding standby. I know that there are times where purchasing Lightning Lane could make sense. Say when you can only visit the parks on rare or special occasions. Or if you only have a short time and want to experience as many attractions as possible. I can see where anything that can save time in line would be attractive, at almost any cost. These trips are hectic whirl-wind adventures that are exhausting and can be more than a little frustrating.

This blog is all about how to relax and unplug. A Disney adventure does not have to be exhausting and an anxiety producing experience. Grandma and I go to relax, unplug, and recharge. Racing around with my face in the phone trying to maximize my LL investment is the antithesis of that. It is possible to skip the line skipping offerings and still ride many attractions. Here is how Ol’ Grandpa does it. (for those impatient ones skip to here for grandpa’s strategy

Choose Your Park

It starts with a tiny bit of planing. Since we stay on property, we get early entry. Early Entry is now only 30 min before the park opens instead of the hour that it was in the past. But for now, every park is open, instead of a single park or two. NOTE: This is different in Disneyland where DCA and DL alternate days. This really helps thin the herd a bit as you are not competing with every other on site guest for a single early opening park. Downside is not every ride is available during this time. Rope dropping early entry is a must as far as this grizzled park veteran is concerned.

Which Park

But which park grandpa? Once again Grandpa reaches for the crowd calendar. Here you have a couple of options. Do you rope drop a park that will be crowded during the day or one that will be less crowded? I tend to hit the crowded park. Why? Because if you wait, the park will fill up and the lines will get much longer. Better to hit these parks early and have less competition for the rides. Once we do the rope drop initial pass through the park, we head back to the room, rest a bit, then park-hop to a less crowded venue. In the above case we would rope drop Hollywood Studios.

Which attraction

Ok so now what? The next step is to layout which rides you want to visit. This is all personal taste. We hit a popular ride that is near the gate. Why? Well Ol’Granpa is not near as spry as he used to be. We stroll, or if truth be told, mosey to the attraction. The WDW web site has a list of all the attractions at each park that are open during early entry. It is also just as valid to head to the furtherest attraction and work your way back.

Attractions by Park

The following is taken directly from the WDW web site linked above. These are subject to change.

Magic Kingdom Park

• “it’s a small world”
• Astro Orbiter
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Mad Tea Party
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Space Mountain
• The Barnstormer
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Tomorrowland Speedway
• Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
• Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress

EPCOT

• Beauty and The Beast Sing-Along
• Frozen Ever After
• Mission: SPACE
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Soarin’ Around the World
• Spaceship Earth
• Test Track
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

• Alien Swirling Saucers
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
• Slinky Dog Dash
• Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ™
• Toy Story Mania!

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

• Avatar Flight of Passage
• DINOSAUR
• Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• It’s Tough to be a Bug!
• Na’vi River Journey
• TriceraTop Spin

*Please note that attractions are subject to change and may not always be operational.

What is NEXT? Standby Strategies

Ok so now we get to the purpose of this post. How to get the most out of standby. There are several major factors at play here:

• Length of Standby Line
• Length of Lightning Lane
• Merge Point
• Posted Wait Time
• Standby Ratio

The first three are not directly manipulated by Disney. They are mostly readily observable as you approach the ride. Sure the queue can be wrapped, a different queue section can be opened, but you can see that. So key to this strategy is to USE YOUR EYES. It also does not hurt to use a little common sense.

What Grandpa does is first look at the posted wait time. When I see low wait time, I usually get in line. If the wait time is really high (over 90 min.) I go and look at the Queue. This is what I am looking for:

Length of Lightning Lane

Length of Lightning Lane. If no one is in this line, then it is a good bet that the wait will be much lower than the posted wait time. Remember that the cast members service the Lightning Lane FIRST. They also let more people in from the lightning lane than standby. However if there is no one in line, then standby will move pretty quick.

Length of Standby Line

This one is obvious. Look at how long the line is. Watch and see if it is moving at all. Many rides have several sections in the standby Queue. Is all the sections open? Are only a few open? Are a lot of people rushing to jump into the line? Look – Watch – Observe are the keywords here. Also what kind of ride is it? Some rides like Haunted Mansion services the queues continually. Others are a stop and load like Peter Pans Adventure. These make the lines move differently for different attractions.

Merge Point

The merge point is where the Lightning Lane guests merge with the Standby line. This is the point where they no longer hold an advantage. Some merge points are very close to the boarding platforms. Others the merge point is well back. I will be outlining where this merge point is on a future post. But until then, it takes a bit of experience. In Disneyland, for instance, Indiana Jones has a merge point right before you enter the temple. The Lightning Lane queue is very short. Once you enter the temple, everyone is equal.

Posted Wait Time

The posted wait time is often inflated to influence crowd flow in the park. People will avoid a whole section of the park if a key attraction has a wait time in excess of 90 min. When I see a ride at 120 min plus wait time, I go and checkout the queues. I will get in line if the Queues are short. On a recent trip we saw that Rise of the Resistance had a posted wait time of 120 min. However there was no one in line! We got on in less than 20 min and most of that time was walking the queue. The ride had experienced down time and as a result no one booked Lightning Lane for it. Now when we got out, the lines were long and the wait time was pretty accurate.

Conclusion

So Grandpa has been fooled and had to stand in line longer than expected. This shows that no strategy is fool proof. But by observing a few simple rules and applying a little common sense you can survive standby. Now will you manage to ride as many rides as someone that uses Lightning Lane. Maybe but probably not. AND THAT IS OK. Remember vacation is about relaxing and recharging and not furthering the hustle and bustle that is your everyday life. Relax, Unplug, and Enjoy

Until next time