[Fun] Best & Worst 'Waits' in DLR

[Spongeocto4]

To liven up the board, here is an opinion thread!!

What attraction is 'worth the wait' and which is 'not worth the wait'? The question is not on based on wait time, but rather what are you willing to wait to experience? Or what do you consider a waste of time to wait for?

Now some rules:
1. The experience must require a line or a waiting/viewing area, meaning walkthrough attractions, like Sleeping Beauty Castle do not count.
2. This must be something you are willing to wait for 15, 30, 45, or even 60+ mins to experience.
3. Live Entertainment, like Fireworks or Parades can be listed.
4. This also applies to the entire resort, not just Disneyland!
5. Feel free to explain your reasons for your choices!

EDIT: I removed the rule for no walk-on rides. The focus is still not on how quick the line goes, but the actual 'wait' in line(detail, queue design, music, etc).

I'll start off!

Best Wait: Big Thunder Mountain: Very detailed queue, with amazing rockwork, which enhance the ride.

Soarin over California: The line feels like it's charged with excitement and serves as a nice overture of what is to come

Rise of the Resistance: While it's queue is longer than it should be, the overall wait works by slowly building up your anticipation. And it pays off!

Honorable Mention: Matterhorn, because its one of my favorite rides!

Worse wait: Autopia: A queue line that is larger than it should be. Too long. Add in the Safety spiel going off every 3 mins, and it gets painful very quickly.

Jungle Cruise: While it's regular line is ok, it's extra upstairs portion is insanity inducing. It also breaks the laws of space, with a seemingly neverending queue.

[linkeq2001]

POTC a walk on?? Maybe in the off-season at 8:00 AM

You've kind of said the one I was going for but I'll add it in anyways.

Best Wait: Big Thunder Mountain: It's detailed, you hear the trains zip around you, it's outside but in the shade so its not suffocating, and at night it looks amazing

It's Tough to Be a Bug: I know it's gone, but I liked the show and the wait was interesting. Well themed lobby, the posters were always fun to look at it and it was air conditioned

Worst: Incredicoaster - Little to no shade, no theme

Unpopular opinion but, Haunted Mansion - It's totally contingent on how busy it is. There are details but that switchback queue outside can feel sooo slow, stretching room is great but then you get the biomass of slow moving often pushy people in the dark downstairs with some desperately elbowing their way forward. If it is a slow or even average day it is an amazing lead up to the attraction, if it's a busy day it's awful.

[Starcade]

Best Wait: POTC (it's rarely actually walk on) even when it's long the line moves so fast that your almost always on the move so you do not feel like you just waited 45 minutes.
Honorable Mention - Smuggler Run because the view of the Falcon is spectacular

Worst Wait: Jungle Cruise line seems to accordion and often stalls out and even though it's outside it's super stuffy and humid even on the driest days.
Honorable Mention - Peter Pan due to tight spacing and avg. 40 minutes for a 45 sec. ride so it has the lowest ROI in wait time to ride.

[tarheelalum]

Best is Indy by far. A lot of it is indoors with AC and the outdoor part is covered mostly with trees. Most of the line is loaded with scenes and interactivity. Every attraction should spend as much effort as Indy. It is the gold standard. And I say incredicoaster is the worst. Its line is nothing more than any other standard rollercoaster anywhere in the world. And in the summer its hot as fire.

[Darth Scottie]

Best wait is anything you can walk on.

Worst wait Indiana Jones. We waited an hour in line. No biggee. We got up to the loading area and the ride broke down. I refused to leave and we waited another half hour for them to get the ride going again. Then the cast members gave everyone who got stuck on the ride another go! Argh!! I still waited. The wait was soo long this poor old guy fell asleep in the ride vehicle.

[Sun Bonnet]

Agree with what's been written so far. Best waits: Indy, Big Thunder, Guardians
Not worth the wait: Jungle Cruise and Smuggler's Run. I had to leave the Smuggler's Run queue once because I thought I was going to faint in that stuffy room. We had already waited 30 minutes so it was a painful decision, but I was just too dizzy. We'd do single rider to skip that torture if that wasn't 100% guaranteed Engineer every time.

[Mike_M]

Best for me is anything with a well themed queue.
Indy
Pirates
HM (even the outside switchbacks work for me)
BTMRR
Roger Rabbit
Mr. Toad
Snow White
Radiator Springs Racers (Single rider or FP)
Star Tours
Millennium Falcon & RotR

I like the queue improvements that happened as part of project Stardust. May not be considered themed queues, but Matterhorn (FP line) and IASW are better than before and make the wait go by better for me.

Queue’s I don’t care for:

Peter Pan - I’d wait in that queue more often if it was a better experience. As it stands, I may ride it once per trip or even skip just because of the line. I’d love to see them expand the queue to make it more interesting. The line juts out beyond the building anyways. Might as well spend a few disney dollars and make it an immersive queue somehow. That would make the wait worth it.

Autopia - I call this a mix of line way too long, and it just doesn’t seem as fun as it used to. I’d rather spend my time in line for RSR.

[BillFraser29]

The best: POTC, as others have said, even when it looks super long it is very rarely over 45 minutes and moves the whole time.

The worst: Jungle Cruise, again agreeing with others about the hot and stuffy queue. I'll wait for it (with the promise of seeing some good ole O2H) but it is not pleasant.

[Spongeocto4]

Update: I removed the rule for no walk-on rides. for being to restricting. The focus is still not on how quick the line goes, but the actual 'wait' in line(detail, queue design, music, etc).

I'll add another ride to my list:
Best
Star Tours-While the overflow queue is very meh, the actual main queue is always enjoyable. Namely because of the detail and the droids in the line. I like how the droids have a large library of dialogue, as it prevents hearing the same thing over and over(I'm looking at you Autopia!).

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

I feel like many people are focusing on which lines are fast, but I think I care more about comfort and the visual/environmental experience. I think the worst waits in that regard are Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. Standing in switchbacks in the sun is never fun, even if the wait isn't excessive. In that respect, I think Peter Pan needs a revamp too (I've long argued to expand the queue into the Castle Heraldry Holiday Shoppe, but that still hasn't happened). Everything else I would have mentioned (Dumbo, it's a small world, and Matterhorn) saw big improvements after Project Stardust that made them all a bit more bearable.

My favorite lines to experience are actually Indiana Jones and Star Tours. Both of those do a great job of getting me hyped for the ride no matter how long I have to wait or whether they have to utilized their extended queues. Great music/sound effects, shade and mostly air-conditioned make these the gold standard. Honorable mention goes to Rise of the Resistance, which hasn't really been put to the test yet but is still enjoyable as a line.

As for California Adventure, don't even get me started. Grizzly River Run and anything in Cars Land are fairly pleasant waits. However, I cannot stand the Incredicoaster or the Monsters Inc. queues. Minimal effort/theming and terrible experiences when crowded (especially after MaxPass was introduced). Even the former MuppetVision Theatre got better queue theming than these rides. I could rant for hours.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Best wait is anything you can walk on.

Worst wait Indiana Jones. We waited an hour in line. No biggee. We got up to the loading area and the ride broke down. I refused to leave and we waited another half hour for them to get the ride going again. Then the cast members gave everyone who got stuck on the ride another go! Argh!! I still waited. The wait was soo long this poor old guy fell asleep in the ride vehicle.

I walked on to the ride as a single rider, and the longest wait I experienced was at the loading zone when the ride broke down. They didn't ask us to leave, and I don't even know how easily I could have gotten out without asking to be sent back up the elevator since the jeeps were still loaded/blocking the regular exit.

But something similar happened while I was waiting at the loading station. I decided to document it for posterity...

[sbk1234]

I love anything with a lot of theming. As others have said already, my top lines would be Big Thunder, Smugglers Run, Star Tours, Indy is probably the best theming, although Smugglers Run is pretty close.I haven’t ridden Rose of the Resistance, so I’ll reserve judgement there.

Worst lines for me include Autopia, Dumbo, Casey Junior, Peter Pan.

Honestly, how long I’ll wait depends more on the ride than the line atmosphere.

Im a little surprised that there’s so much anti feelings for Jungle Cruise line. I don’t think it’s the best, but I don’t think it’s the worst, either.

[linkeq2001]

I love anything with a lot of theming. As others have said already, my top lines would be Big Thunder, Smugglers Run, Star Tours, Indy is probably the best theming, although Smugglers Run is pretty close.I haven’t ridden Rose of the Resistance, so I’ll reserve judgement there.

Worst lines for me include Autopia, Dumbo, Casey Junior, Peter Pan.

Honestly, how long I’ll wait depends more on the ride than the line atmosphere.

Im a little surprised that there’s so much anti feelings for Jungle Cruise line. I don’t think it’s the best, but I don’t think it’s the worst, either.

I think in some cases it just really depends on what the overall mood is. I like Jungle Cruise and the whole Adventureland area, LOVE the theme, the music, everything about it. The fact that it's a crowded nut house every day all day totally takes away from it though, same with the Jungle Cruise line. If it's downstairs I enjoy the theme, it really takes you away and gets you into the experience. If that switchback takes you upstairs though....ugh it's warm it's musty, and it's super long while you end up looking out over a sea of people on the walkways when you aren't on the jungle side of the queue.

[zugzug15]

Worst: waiting for the parks to re-open from this virus.

[micromind]

My favorites are Haunted Mansion (the basic layout and scenery makes it seem like it's in its own little world) , Casey JR (I get to see all the people riding in the cars plus I can see most of the ride), Thunder Mountain (all the old-time mining stuff brings back fond memories).

The worst are Peter Pan (it's always way long and there's nothing to see, plus it needs some ventilation), Pirates (again, just a sea of people but it's better once you actually enter the building), The Monorail (not much interesting there).

[bayouguy]

Best wait: Pirates of the Carribean, especially the time you enter the building and see the boatload of guests who have completed the ride, and it just adds a great touch of anticipation for your turn...
2nd best wait: the Matterhorn, with the German music playing and the screams being heard from those on the ride...again it builds up anticipation for your turn...

Worst wait: Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters: the continuous loading option doesn't work well on this ride, unlike at Little Mermaid...
2nd worst line: Goofy's Sky School...it just is a too slow ride capacity so people will wait a long time...

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Best Wait: Hands down, Big Thunder. I've loved that queue since it opened in 1979. No matter how long the wait is it always seems pleasant. The atmosphere, the sounds, everything do such a wonderful job of building up the anticipation for the ride. Plus, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is my favorite rollercoaster in the world. I'll take theming & show over thrills & loops any day.

Runners Up: Splash Mountain, Indy, Star Tours, and Roger Rabbit.

Worst Wait: The Submarine Voyage in nothing much more than switchbacks. I always enjoyed the subs, but the queue is tedium. I don't mind a lengthy queue as long as it is not a boring queue.

[Spongeocto4]

Worst Wait: The Submarine Voyage in nothing much more than switchbacks. I always enjoyed the subs, but the queue is tedium. I don't mind a lengthy queue as long as it is not a boring queue.

I remember when the FNSV opened up and the line extended around the lagoon. The line ended in the old Matterhorn smoking area underneath the Monorail track(It's now a seating area).

Because this ride suffers from a poor RPH*, the wait time in line was an hour and a half. With no Fastpass option available.

And despite the noticeable distance of the line, temporary switchback were still installed in the line.

It was miserable.


*Riders Per Hour

[C. Andrew Nelson]

An hour and a half in the Southern California sun with no shade until you get under the Monorail station? Yikes!

[Spongeocto4]

An hour and a half in the Southern California sun with no shade until you get under the Monorail station? Yikes!

To get an idea of what part of the insanity look liked...there's a 2007 photo below.

Fun Fact: The empty lane on the left, served as the exit queue for the Monorail. After the speed ramps were removed, regular stairs were added to the west end of station. They can be seen in the photo.