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How Long Would You Wait?

LiveForTheLaunch

LiveForTheLaunch

CF Legend
In light of the outrageous queues that Slinky Dog got when it opened, it made me wonder just how long people are actually willing to wait for a ride, and especially for a ride that's just a glorified family coaster (despite looking cute as all heck). So yeah, how long would you wait for something along the lines of Slinky Dog vs. something like an RMC if you had never ridden either coaster before and wouldn't be back to get the cred for a long time?
 
I waited 5-6 hours for Rocket Rods when that opened at Disneyland. Probably about 3 of that was waiting for Tomorrowland to "officially" reopen while they had opening ceremony stuff.

Now? It depends solely if it's a park I'll get back to in the near future or not. If I've been on a ride, probably 60-90 minutes, and that's if I love it. If it is something that I wont get back to ride for years, it depends on what it is. If I'm at Phantasialand, I'm gonna wait all day. If I'm at a SF park, 2 hours.

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Anything less then a glorious machine? Not more then an hour. All of my longest waits have been on enormous monsters (either at the time or still are) and were worth it once I got on.
 
I consider two hours to be my upper waiting limit for any ride, unless I've got some exceptionally good company who's eager to ride and willing to wait. Unless the park is absolutely packed, you can get a lot of stuff done in those two hours, even if it means not riding the headline attraction.
 
For most smaller coasters, I put the limit at 30 minutes if it's a new cred. I'd say probably 20 minutes for something I've already ridden. However, other elements are involved as you would expect. If the queue is in AC or it's a relatively nice day, I don't mind the wait. If I'm visiting alone, then I listen to my podcasts; if I'm with others, then the line tends to go by pretty quickly.

For something top 10 worthy, I'd go for 2 hours. Top 25 or so, an hour and a half. When Star Wars Land opens, I'll probably wait 3 or more hours like I did for Avatar Land. Disney's queues tend to be in very well themed and in AC, so the wait doesn't feel too painful.
 
Hah, I've been thinking about this a lot given Steel Vengeance wait times - I clocked 9 and ½ hours in the opening weekend for wait time alone.

7 hours of waiting for Slinky Dog is just a bunch of ridiculous white people being silly. I'd only venture that territory for... well... Steel Vengeance. I'm a fan of being a part of the Opening Day "moment" - waiting an absurd amount more of time than you typically would to join the hype. But once you start getting closer to a full work day, it better be a very, very good ride.
 
I've managed a few 2 hour queues in my time but I'd say my limit now is probably around an hour. Probably less if it involves standing outside in high temperatures and burning to **** in a queue line.
 
When I was a kid I remember waiting 4 hours or more for the Black Hole and the Corkscrew at Alton. But that was then. Nowadays anything more than an hour puts me right off. I did end up waiting over 2 and a half hours for my first ride on Wicker Man but that was advertised at 90mins when we joined the queue. :(

The only exception would probably be most rides at Universal because the queues are air conditioned and actually fun to be in. In some cases the queue moved too quickly for me to take in all the great theming!

To answer the original question, I doubt I'd wait more than half an hour for a family coaster, even one with great theming. I'd imagine I'd wait 1-2 hours for something big like a new RMC or B&M, but only if it was brand new. I would only join a queue for most rides if it was 45 mins or less, but once I was in the queue I probably wouldn't leave if it ended up being longer due to breakdowns etc.
 
I skipped the Joker Funhouse Coaster at SFOG last month. There was a queue. Looked like 30 min. Might've been 20.

Thing is, I've been kind of been spoiled with short waits on amazing rides, so for me I'd probably have a hard time waiting multiple hours for anything.

With a couple exceptions, I've never really had to wait that long for a coaster in my Top 10. The exceptions are one of my Lightning Rod waits where they paused to put a second train on, and the night ride on Beast (both took around an hour). I've done half hour waits for Millennium Force, but that's no problem, especially with three trains and a constantly moving queue. For the rest I've never had to wait longer than 20 minutes, and even most of my rides on those have been walk ons.

I've had a few other random hour+ waits over the years where they were kind of unavoidable, like Superman: The Ride when it had the abysmal VR, Valravn in it's opening year, Gringotts because it's so popular, and my first Batman: The Ride at Great Adventure when it had ****ing one train operations. I think the longest I've done is 90 minutes for Hulk in 2010, but that's when I didn't know any better.

I might be thinking too realistically here. There are a lot of rides that are definitely worth an hour wait (probably the Top 20). Although I'd rather avoid waiting an hour for anything. I'm not gonna wait an hour for Skyrush during the day when I know the queue will die down later. Though I'll gladly wait for another Beast night ride, as you can't get around the temporary firework closure.

I've never waited 2+ hours for anything, don't think I would. I haven't done Steel Vengeance, that's probably worth it, but then again I'd probably just get Fast Lane. :p
 
I've waited around 2 hours for TTD, and 90 mins for Maverick, Steel Vengeance and Helix. Can't think of any other large queues I've suffered, I've been lucky really.
An hour is my limit unless it's exceptional.
 
As someone lucky enough to be able to visit parks during the week/off season (I work shift as do a lot of my friends) I generally put an upper limit of around 45 minutes indicated. Most of my park visits have been when it's totally dead and even the biggest coasters are walk on so I guess I'm spoiled.

Longest queue times I can remember: Wicker Man at over 2 hours (indicated at 60 minutes but many breakdowns happened) and around 1 hour for Flying Dinosaur single rider. Most have been 40 minutes or less.
 
It didnt feel this long but I stood in a 3.5 hour queue for Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom on my own. It was first thing so their wasn't any fastpasses cutting ahead and the queue moved quickly. Talked to people too which also made it feel quick.
 
2 and a half hours for Wicker Dude (advertised at 90 mins) before it broke down. Then another 90 mins (advertised at 45 ) in the fast lane queue. That makes a total of 4 hours.
For Wicker Dude! I must be mad.

Back in the day, waited 2 and a half hours for Air when it opened. Yeah, that wasn't really worth it either.

More recently, waited about 90 minutes for our first ride on Steel Vengeance, but we'd just met up with a whole bunch of US goons so everybody used the time to get to know each other. Which was nice :)
Plus.... it was Steel Vengeance. Which, in case you hadn't heard already, really is rather good. So it was most definitely worth it.
 
Generally, I find it hard getting to parks - life and money often get in the way. Because of that, I tend to try and go off-peak or mid-week so as to avoid spending my rare time in the park hanging around queues. If it's a special coaster, one hour is my maximum. Beyond that, I start feeling like I'm wasting time at a park I've spent money and effort to get to.
 
Depends on loads of factors. If I went to Kolmarden and Wildfire was a four hour queue then I'd suck it up and wait, I wouldn't travel all that way and bail.

On the other hand if I went to Thorpe (just down the road for me) and all the coasters were over an hour I wouldn't even attempt them, I'd cut my losses, do some smaller stuff and go home.
 
When I was 13, I waited 4 hours for Raptor at CP opening weekend of the ride. Other than that, I waited 3 hours for Millennium Force its opening weekend as well. I generally won't get in a queue if it's over an hour. All depends on the ride though. I tend to travel during off periods so I can avoid massive crowds as much as possible. I'll go to Universal Orlando in February or end of April to miss spring break trips. I generally will go to Cedar Point on a Sunday at the beginning or end of the season and the lines are minimal at best. I'll hit up SFGAdv during the week since I work 30 minutes away. I've been pretty lucky over the years with relatively short wait times when I go to parks.
 
Max I've waited for anything was 2:20hr for Dragon Kahn on one train this week! Queue advertised as 20mins, hence why I entered in the first place!

In general, I try to avoid anything over 1hr but will stretch to 2 hours for big rides. Nothing over 30mins for family rides though, have missed some interesting looking non-coaster rides due to this.
 
Here I go sounding like an echo chamber, but there are a ton of factors that affect how long I'll wait for a ride.

My longest wait was for Steel Vengeance - four hours including a breakdown. I waited three hours for my first ride on Maverick, Two for my first ride on Gatekeeper. Back when Goliath opened at Six Flags Great America, our group rode it three times and waited two hours each time because the park was packed and if we were going to wait for something, we might as well wait for something extremely good. As expected, my patience increases tremendously when the ride is either really good or new...or both.

Let's say it's an average Sunday at Cedar Point. I'd refuse to wait for Corkscrew, Iron Dragon, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Blue Streak, and the other smaller coasters that honestly shouldn't have waits. This tends to be my opinion for places I visit often - Cedar Point, Kings Island, Holiday World mainly.

Now let's say I visit a park I've never visited before. Depending on the park, I might budget the entire day in anticipation of crowds and if the park ends up being crowded, I'll jump into the mindset that I am going to have to wait no matter what I ride, so I might as well wait.
 
Back when Goliath opened, I waited 3 and a half hours on opening day. But damn it was worth it. My first ride was in the back row, and it blew me away.

Other than that, I think I waited like 2 hours or something for Millennium Force a few years back. That one was definitely not worth it.
 
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