Disneyland and Universal Studios wait times are dropping

A longtime theme park fan, Hastin Zylstra has spent a lot of time lining up for rides at Disneyland Resort.

So, he had prepared for the worst when he recently found himself in the queue for California Adventure Park’s new attraction, Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. But to her surprise, the wait was only 20 minutes – an unusually short time for almost any theme park, let alone a Disney park.

“It’s a shock to see the wait times so low,” said Zylstra, who hasn’t seen such short lines since a brutal heatwave in 2016 kept most of the fans from Disney home.

But Zylstra’s brief wait wasn’t an anomaly. Average wait times at Disneyland, California Adventure and Universal Studios Hollywood have fallen – significantly for some rides – since parks reopened after a closure caused by a pandemic that lasted more than a year, according to a comparison by one company outdoor wait times in August of 2019 and the same month in 2021.

Compared to two years ago, wait times have decreased on average by almost five minutes at Disneyland Resort while wait times at Universal Studios Hollywood have plunged by an average of almost 22 minutes. On some rides, such as Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios Hollywood and Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, queues have been cut by more than half, the data shows.

A combination of factors may be responsible, including the adoption of new reservation systems that give park operators greater control over daily attendance. In the past, park visitors and annual pass holders could cram into parks until they reached their maximum capacity. But now no visitor can enter either park without first going online to make a reservation.

Parks can manage the number of people going through the turnstiles – and therefore the number of people in the queues – by denying reservations when demand gets too high. They can draw the line long before the parks reach their capacity.

Parks adopted these reservation systems to reopen in April in accordance with state health protocols that limited occupancy. State occupancy restrictions have since been lifted, but reservation systems remain.

“Our reservation system has provided many benefits to our operations and has become an essential tool that allows us to distribute visits more evenly throughout the year and improve the overall experience in our parks. for guests and actors, ”said Liz Jaeger, a spokesperson for Disneyland.

Representatives for Universal Studios Hollywood declined to comment on wait times.

Another possible reason for the shorter queues may be that park fans are reluctant to return to crowded theme parks during a pandemic.

“A lot of people, especially the elderly, just don’t feel comfortable being in a theme park right now,” said Matthew Gottula, longtime Disneyland fan of North Hills. He said he was at Disneyland on a recent Saturday and hadn’t seen a line for more than 40 minutes.

But theme park officials reject the theory that low demand results in shorter wait times.

In a earnings conference call with analysts on Aug. 12, Walt Disney Co. chief executive Bob Chapek called demand for Disney parks in the company’s fiscal third quarter as “pretty good.”

“So we are always optimistic about the future of our parks business,” he said.

The Disneyland Resort has eliminated its virtual queuing systems, called FastPass and MaxPass, and ended its annual pass program during the pandemic shutdown. A new annual pass program, called Magic Key, launched on August 25, and a new queuing system, dubbed Disney Genie, is slated to begin this fall.

Industry experts and park enthusiasts suggest the lines are shorter at Disneyland Resort because sales of the new annual passes have only recently started. Others suggest enthusiasts stay away until Disney replaces the virtual queue system so they can bypass the lines at their favorite attractions.

But those theories don’t explain the drop in wait times at Universal Studios Hollywood, which hasn’t changed its annual pass schedule after reopening or eliminated its Express Pass system to avoid long lines.

Consider that the average wait time for Jurassic World – the Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood has dropped from 109 minutes in August 2019 to around 30 minutes in August 2021.

Theme park fans have been raving about the shorter wait times on social media for weeks.

Eric Oh, an annual pass holder from Thousand Oaks, said he believes Disney parks empty at night because the water and light shows after dark – World of Color at California Adventure Park and Fantasmic at Disneyland – have not relaunched since the pandemic shutdown.

That may explain, he said, why he didn’t wait when he got on one of the resort’s most popular rides – Radiator Springs Racers – around 9.45pm on a recent weekday.

“I noticed the wait times were dropping to around 6 hours,” Oh said.

Long Beach Disneyland pass holder Darren Pardee said he expects the long lines at Disneyland and California Adventure Park to return as more fans buy the new annual passes.

“I have been to both parks several times since the reopening, and August was by far one of the less crowded months,” he said.

The most notable exception to the trend for shorter lines was Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, which was revamped in July to remove what Disney calls “negative portrayals of natives.” The increased interest in the redesigned boat ride may explain why the average wait time in August 2021 was 23 minutes, compared to less than 11 minutes in August 2019.

The wait time data was collected and analyzed by Touringplans.com, a website that provides subscribers with planning tips and crowd forecasts for Disney Parks and Universal Studios Hollywood, among other tourist destinations. To calculate average wait times, the website relied on wait times displayed on Disneyland and Universal Studios apps and data displayed on “wait times” signs installed in parks.

Theme park experts predict wait times will remain low as park operators use reservation systems and other strategies to better manage attendance and disperse crowds during traditional days of low and high demand .

The parks will remain profitable, they say, as shorter lines will give visitors more opportunities to purchase food, drink and souvenirs. Plus, fans of happier parks will be less resistant to future ticket price hikes, experts say.

“They’re moving away from the idea of ​​’The merrier the more’,” said Bill Coan, theme park expert and chairman of Itec Entertainment Corp.

Ticket prices for Disneyland and other theme parks have already exceeded the rising cost of other entertainment, such as concerts and professional sporting events.

For years, park managers have tried to balance the pressure to maximize ticket sales with the need to provide an experience that visitors believe is worth the price of admission, said John Gerner, park consultant. theme and Managing Director of Leisure Business Advisors. Park managers, he said, could be on the verge of striking that balance.

“When you stand in line for an hour or more you’re going to be upset no matter how good the ride is, and it will have an impact if you come back,” he said.