Subsonic Radio

I'm playing tour guide for a couple of relatives for a quick two day trip in August and of course Soarin' is one of the attractions we must do. On a Thursday I plan on starting at AK then about noon heading to Epcot. Any idea when the FASTPASS run out for Soarin' on weekdays?

Depends on what time in August you go. We usually go in the middle of summer, so if you get to Epcot around noon, you will want to go straight to Soarin' to get your Fastpass. Your return time will probably be late afternoon/early evening. They usually completely run out of Fastpasses at Soarin' about mid-afternoon.
However, if you go towards the end of August (or even better, after Labor Day), the crowds won't be as heavy and you may be able to just do standby or grab your Fastpass for a return time of maybe an hour or two later.

We tried to book a vacation the second full week in August about a month ago and almost everything was booked up, so we decided to postpone our vacation until December, when the crowds are a little lighter. The first full week was almost full too, so if you're going one of those two weeks, allow extra time for EVERYTHING.

Does Soarin' consistently have long lines?

Pretty much. It is arguably the most popular attraction at WDW and I don't think I've ever seen the wait shorter than 60 minutes. They've put in interactive games that everyone can play to make the wait more bareable though.

spodie wrote:Pretty much. It is arguably the most popular attraction at WDW and I don't think I've ever seen the wait shorter than 60 minutes. They've put in interactive games that everyone can play to make the wait more bareable though.

Of all the times I have ridden Soarin', I have never waited as long as the queue sign has said.

agingerbugg wrote:

spodie wrote:Pretty much. It is arguably the most popular attraction at WDW and I don't think I've ever seen the wait shorter than 60 minutes. They've put in interactive games that everyone can play to make the wait more bareable though.

Of all the times I have ridden Soarin', I have never waited as long as the queue sign has said.

same here. We waited in a line that said 90 minutes, but ended up being like 30 minutes (if that).

If you are getting to Epcot around noon, I would get your Soarin' fast pass ASAP. They should still be available then but you don't want to take any chances. Since this is just a 2 day trip you want to keep the standing in line to a minimum. I also agree that Soarin' is a "must see" at Epcot.

I find that most of the time that the estimated wait time is usually about twice as long as you actually end up waiting on all the attractions. Not sure why. As for the fastpass, it depends on how many people grab a fastpass through out the day.

kcarts wrote:I find that most of the time that the estimated wait time is usually about twice as long as you actually end up waiting on all the attractions. Not sure why.

It maybe a ploy to keep the standby lines to a minimum. But, shhh, don't tell too many people.

I find the estimated wait times to be Right on. You have to remember it's the time from when you enter the line (or the red tag get swiped on the pad) till you BOARD the attraction. Soarin has effectively 3 wait times. From entering the gate till you get to the turnstile, from there you then requeue on concourse A or B, then you queue up waiting for the preshow.

Soarin is the only attraction at any of the parks I've seen with over 3 HOUR standby wait posted. It's just insane 3 hours out of say 14 hours of park time (9am - 11pm) that is about 1/5th of your day (assuming you go from "rope drop" till closing.)

johno

I waited in a 75 minute Soarin' queue in December (stand by) and it was definitely 75 minutes. It may have been a bit longer, actually. I wouldn't count on the Soarin' stand by line being shorter than advertised. You might get lucky in that respect, but don't plan it into your day.

The stand by queue is kind of cool, with the interactive games they have in there, but I wouldn't wait like that again. (Then again I didn't like Soarin' all that much so that might be part of it.)

I've also been wondering how the wait times have changed since they introduced the red tags/HID cards. They USE to do it with queue length, it use to be very simple people pack in the queue at some value per foot, the attraction handles so many people per minute, multiply the two together and you get minutes per queue feet. So when the queue got to so many feet the wait time from this point is 90 minutes. This corrects for a lot of small bumps like a 40 people getting in line as a group, or a short interruption of service.

With the new system, card gets swiped, wait wait wait, card gets swiped again (queue wait is based on how long the most resent card seen.) I assume as it waits to see another card, as the time creeps up but the other low tech system seems "better" to me.

johno

I've been there recently where I got my fastpass at noon and the return time was already at 7pm. They ran out shortly after that.

jcodirewolf wrote:I find the estimated wait times to be Right on. You have to remember it's the time from when you enter the line (or the red tag get swiped on the pad) till you BOARD the attraction. Soarin has effectively 3 wait times. From entering the gate till you get to the turnstile, from there you then requeue on concourse A or B, then you queue up waiting for the preshow.

Soarin is the only attraction at any of the parks I've seen with over 3 HOUR standby wait posted. It's just insane 3 hours out of say 14 hours of park time (9am - 11pm) that is about 1/5th of your day (assuming you go from "rope drop" till closing.)

johno

Toy Story Midway Mania sometimes shows outrageous queue times that are a lot longer than Soarin'. I saw 180-220 on multiple occasions for that one. The most at Soarin' that I recall seeing was 65-75 minutes.

well I've got a photo of soarin queue saying 180 Minutes, and I've seen it higher. My question is do you think TSMM will have 3 hour wait times in 3 years? I don't I think they will be high but not that high.

johno