dhmac

Test Track at Epcot has the best Single Rider line because each row in the ride holds 3 people, so most rows are frequently 2 people together and a single rider.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Hollywood Studios has a good Single Rider line that's usually short, but can move very slowly once you're close to boarding the ride because each row on the ride has 2 seats, so need a group of 3 or 5 or some odd number to show up before single riders get a seat.

Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom is another ride with 2 seats per row, so can be a slow moving Single Rider line if people in the standby or FastPass lines are in even numbered groups.

And I think it's disappointing that Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the Magic Kingdom doesn't have a Single Rider line because having that seems like it should be a given for a new ride. And I've seen trains leave on it with empty seats because they couldn't fit them up with the groups that were at the front of the regular line. A major oversight with an otherwise great ride.

JimRochester

My niece and her family are going in a couple weeks. The kids are young. I stressed to my nephew how important it is to take a break and get the kids a nap mid day. Tell them right in the morning after lunch we're going back to the hotel to swim and rest. If you try to push it you will regret it with two six year old twins and a four year old. Either that or plan to stay through the afternoon, leave for dinner then go back to the hotel to swim and bed. Do one or the other, just don't keep them awake.

mh4268

I'm going in mid-August. I'm missing the opening of Galaxy's Edge by about 2 weeks. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. Being that close to opening day and missing it is a bit disappointing but if it were open the crowds for the whole trip would be much more unbearable (though I am sure many people moved their vacation in order to miss opening thus making my time there more crowded).

Hokeyboy

Attendance is down a lot this winter and spring. That doesn't mean the crowds are light -- in this day and age, they never are -- but according to a few cast members I've spoken with, people are waiting for Galaxy's Edge to open before they make their annual/bi-annual/semi-annual trip. It makes sense. If you only come down once a year or every few years, best to see the new Star Wars mishegas while you're there.

I'm a FL resident and Passhole, and I will easily avoid SW:GE for as long as I can. I'll get to it eventually, but I have the luxury of waiting. I was up this past weekend and rode Slinky Dog Dash for the first time, finally. Cute ride. NOT WORTH A FRACTION OF THE WAIT, but that goes for most rides/attractions.

The Most Devastating News: They are closing down Mizner's Lounge at the Grand Floridian and repurposing it (along the menswear store next door) as a "Beauty and the Beast-themed lounge experience". In other words, one of the most enjoyably chill places to get a drink, listen to some jazz, and look out over Bay Lake is going to be turned into another Trader Sam's: filled with screaming children running around, stroller gridlock, hours-long waitlists to get in, overpriced dreck in the form of "themed cocktails" and "small plates"... and a Monorail Crawl destroyed in its wake.

Disney: you don't have to theme everything. Leave something for the adults. If I were paying top dollar to stay at the GF, I'd be plenty pissed.

Michael Corvin

I hope you're right. I'm going about two weeks before Galaxy's Edge opens (bummer) but it would be nice if crowds were lighter due to people waiting.

tanman

I would say yes. However you're still in the busy summer season.

tanman

I'm a recovering passholder. I really miss our passes though. But what I really miss is what the parks were like in the late 90's. Once it was just my cousin and I standing there at the entrance to the Haunted Mansion, and the only ones in the boat on Splash Mountain. You'll never see those days again.

Hokeyboy

Long gone. We used to come up for a week, the first week of December, every year. The parks were near empty, you never needed Fastpasses, the weather was cool and the Christmas decorations were up. It was magical.

There is never an off-season anymore. It's always packed.

devilshalo

I'll be there 2 weeks after Galaxy's Edge opens. Just wondering what that will be like as it's after the summer season, but I would guess it won't matter. Never been to WDW, so it'll be a new experience.

tanman

It's all about expectations. It will be hot. You will wait in lines. There will be a mass of people. But you'll still have fun and it's still a really magical place. And yes that is really cheesy. Disney is much more than just rides. The level of detail and customer service in the parks is bar none.

How long are you going for? With kids?

DRG

I went to Pandora in Animal Kingdom about 4 months after it opened, in a usually slow period, and it was still nuts. I can't imagine how crazy Galaxy's Edge will be 2 weeks after opening. It's compounded by the fact the last big new thing (Toy Story Land) is in the same park. Disney Studios is going to be madness in September. We're planning on going down there in late September/early October so we can hit Halloween Horror Nights and Epcot Food & Wine at the same time, but I'm already bracing myself.

devilshalo

Myself and my mom for 3 days. I'll pregame a plan to maximize all the rides once I look at the map.

skywalker8

tanman

That's cool. It will be a lot easier with two adults. Are you staying on property? If you are don't forget to book fastpass 60 days out.

dhmac

I've been a FL annual passholder for a little over a year now and, yeah, there are no slow seasons anymore, but you can sometimes luck out and get a somewhat slow day at one of the theme parks. I've yet to figure out a pattern for when that happens though.

I expect Star Wars Galaxy's Edge's opening to be crazy crowded just given how crowded Toy Story Land's opening was last Summer. I wasn't there but followed it using the Disney app and the standby line for the Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster got up to 300 minutes (aka 5 hours) on opening day, which was a hot Summer day and that ride has little to no shade for its queue. Brutal what people were willing to go thru just to be able to ride it on opening day. (I didn't finally ride it until late August and it's an okay ride, but it's no Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.)

Michael T Hudson

devilshalo

They do over-exaggerate the wait time. I remember it was like that when GOTG Mission Breakout opened and it was no more than a 3 hour wait in the standby line.

dhmac

True, they do that a bit and, on opening day, the standby waiting time listing is probably much more of a guesstimate given that they don't have prior data to work from. But the fact that they haven't worked out the kinks on a new ride yet makes me think the actual waiting time could easily end up being longer than what's listed.

And I think the lack of shade for most of the queue for Slinky Dog Dash is one of the biggest design mistakes I've seen at Disney World. They know what it's like to stand in the Florida sun when it's hot out and simply having shade for people in line seems like a no brainer. I notice that more recently they've added some umbrellas along the queue but that's still not enough. It needs a long continuous covering.

Hokeyboy

In my opinion, anyone who stands in line for 3-5 hours for a 3 minute ride pretty much deserves what they get Slinky Dog Dash is fun enough but for me, I wouldn't wait more than a half hour, tops.

I've lived in Florida since 1972, been going to WDW since the age of 3 (WDW and I are the same age, turning 50 in 2021), and sometime I get wistful for the "old" WDW. The one with one theme park, two resorts, a campground, a single water park, and serenity of the old Walt Disney World Village (now Disney Springs). Yes yes, I'm in full old fart mode but the Magic Kingdom wasn't overdeveloped; it had huge swaths of trees and shade, there was room to walk, and waits were rarely more than 45 minutes, if that much.

Of course that was when you still had to buy tickets for attractions. Once we were out, my brother and I would ride The Peoplemover and If You Had Wings over and over again, because they were "free".

These days, my wife and I basically avoid the MK if we can help it. Our preferred take on Disney is stay off property at a condo on Sherberth, then hit up a water park in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon for cocktails, then dinner somewhere in the Crescent Lake Resorts followed by a return to Epcot. Or doing a Monorail Lounge Crawl and hitting up the Top Of The World Lounge with DVC friends to check out the fireworks.

Old Man River? Probably. But there's so much to enjoy at a leisurely pace this way.

tanman

^ but you know what's beautiful about WDW? You can do just that. It's amazing that one resort (granted a really huge one) can be so many different things to so many different people. Sure the primary thing is to road trip it over there and cram it all in in a day or two. But being a native Floridian as well and now having a child of my own it's amazing how the parks have evolved to offer so many different opportunities. I've been going to WDW my entire life and I still haven't nearly done all there is to do.

Hiro11

My brother just got back from a week at Disney followed by 4 days at Universal and confirmed what you say: the crowds were still heavy but not the absurd levels of recent years. Disney is going to a shitshow once SW:GE opens and the multiple new resorts they've added come online. They really need to either up pricing (which is already ridiculous) or design more crowd-absorbing attractions.

Quote:

The Most Devastating News

Love that place and share your hatred of Trader Sam's. I like the Nomad Lounge in Animal Kingdom and Victoria Falls in the Animal Kingdom Resort. Not exactly on the monorail, though.

Hokeyboy

Nomad Lounge and Victoria Falls are two of my favorites. I love grabbing a cocktail or two at VF before dining at Boma. It could be a little larger -- sometimes there's a paucity of available seating -- but it's well themed and usually has a good game on.

Nomad is a blast. I'd rather hang there than ride FoP.

TheBigDave

There was a media preview of the new Rise Of The Resistance ride. Here's a POV video of both sides.

TheBigDave

If anyone's awake right now, ResortTV1 is livestreaming from the opening day of Rise Of The Resistance:

brainee

I'm planning a trip to Orlando in late July. I'll be staying on Universal property and that will be the focus of the trip, but with the new Star Wars area I'm considering visiting Disney Hollywood for a day. It's hard to believe but the 180 day advance for booking reservations comes up this week (tentatively planning for Wednesday July 29 to visit the park). Things I know I'll want to reserve:

1) Oga's Cantina ... this seems to be the hottest ticket and the one that I'll want to book as soon as I can to get my preferred time.
2) Savi's Workshop ... yes, I'm a Star Wars sucker who will pony up $200 for the role-playing experience and cool souvenir. Playing with reservations that seems booked about 2 months in advance. But I don't want to wait too long since July is a busy season.
3) Sci-Fi Drive In for a meal. Ate there as a kid on a family trip and love the ambience. I know the food isn't the attraction. This seems like it'll be a low-key reservation (it only seems booked a few days ahead).

As much as people staying on Disney property hate the "boarding party" system for Rise of the Resistance, I hope it sticks around for my trip since that gives me the same shot at riding as everyone else. So if things don't change, it'll be an early morning Uber to get to the gates by 6:30 am so I can get the RotR passes for that day.

I'm not holding out any hope at getting FastPasses (I imagine once the people staying on Disney property gobble everything up all that will be left are the rides that never need a FastPass anyway). But if we're in the park that early, I'm hoping we'll be able to go on a lot of things in the morning. Smuggler's Run, the Mickey Railroad ride, and RotR are the only things I feel I absolutely have to go on (I was just at the park a year ago). Smuggler's Run and Aerosmith R&R Coaster have single-rider lines too, which should help (though it sounds like Smuggler's Run will be more fun for our group to be together).

So I'm thinking the afternoon, when lines are typically longest, may be "ride free" (unless we get a FastPass or RotR Boarding Pass). Spread out the reservations: something like Sci-Fi dinner around 6, Savi's at 4, and Oga's a little after lunch time. The thought of summer crowds at Galaxy's Edge is a bit scary but I'm hoping we can make it work and be fun. I really do want to see the new things and it may be years (if ever) before there's another big family trip.

Anyone else planning to see Galaxy's Edge in Disney World later this year?