As Disney World continues to open up and increase capacity, the wait times have gotten longer and longer. Higher capacity and no FastPasses means that there’s a ton of people going for those standby lines.
However, there’s an alternative for some attractions — going on a ride as a single rider! But it begs the question: is the single rider line really worth it?
Today, we stopped by Disney’s Hollywood Studios to give a few single rider lines a try! These lines are known for being super helpful in cutting wait times, but we’ve noticed that the single rider lines have grown and grown in the past few weeks. So let’s see what the lines were like today!
First, we headed to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster!
We hopped in line when the wait time was 70 minutes for the standby line.
The line moved very slowly. There were many moments where the line was at a standstill, and several guests sat down in line. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is typically a quick loader, and gets people on and off pretty quickly. Although the speed of the single rider line tends to vary, it was taking a WHILE.
At this point in the queue, right after you enter the building, we had reached a 40 minute wait time.
By the time we made it into the pre-show room, it had been about 50 minutes.
Here is where we had what felt like the biggest hold up. After we exited the pre-show area, we moved slightly and then stopped for a solid 20 minutes. Yep, about 20 minutes in the SAME spot!
Several limos went by before a single rider was needed. A few minutes later, we were called into a row and got to experience the attraction! Our wait time actually would’ve been a lot longer, however the majority of the standby line had been cleared, so several single riders got to ride together in one limo.
Overall, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was a rough single rider line for us today. The standby wait time ended up being less than the single rider line — it took us about 79 minutes to get through the whole single-rider line. In fact, after we finished riding, the regular line was down to a 60 minute wait!
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, on the other hand, was a very different experience today!
Many groups who entered the single rider line were able to ride the attraction together, and the line was only 15 minutes long. It was MUCH shorter than the 90 minute standby wait time for the attraction!
It wasn’t long before we were called into a group and we got to hang out in the Falcon!
This attraction does load very differently than Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, with six guests in each party instead of two guests in each row.
Overall, single rider lines might not be worth it for the time being. The wait times for single riders are not at all guaranteed to be quicker than the standby line. Without things like FastPass+, which typically minimize the size of the standby and single rider lines, these lines can end up being just as slow or even slower than standby. However, there is the chance, like with Smuggler’s Run, that you’ll be able to get onto a ride quickly.
A general rule of thumb that helps in these cases is seeing how long the single rider line is and whether or not that line is moving at all. Since single riders typically hold less priority when it comes to boarding a ride, you could end up at the front of the line and still be waiting a while. So, pay attention to how long the line is and how much it’s moving. Expedition Everest also had a long single rider wait time when we rode it the other day in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Of course, Disney World is constantly changing and you never really know how it’s going to go! That’s why we’re always keeping up with the latest Disney news, so stay tuned here for more!
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What do you think about the single rider lines? Are they worth it? Tell us your experiences in the comments!
The post Are Single Rider Lines ACTUALLY Any Faster in Disney World? first appeared on the disney food blog.