As you’ve probably noticed, health and safety measures have been pretty consistently changing since the reopening of Disney World.
Hollywood Studios
Don’t believe us? Just look at ALL the changes to the Disney World face mask policy! We do our best to keep you updated on every single change that we see and how they’ll affect your vacation. Now, we’re wondering about a change we’ve noticed on a few attractions and whether or not it’s had that big of an impact on wait times!
Disney World has started to plexiglass and plastic barriers to select ride vehicles. We’ve seen this crop up in a few cases in Disney World and we’re wondering if these barriers ACTUALLY increase capacity and ultimately make wait times significantly shorter. Hm…
Train Cars During the Ride
To check in on this, we’re going to take a look at the attractions that started out WITHOUT plexiglass when they reopened and then ADDED plexiglass or barriers to the ride vehicles to load more parties per vehicle. Therefore it has the potential to increase capacity, The attractions this applies to are Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Living with the Land, and Rise of the Resistance.
Plexiglass on Tower of Terror
For each attraction, we’re looking at the last week’s average of wait times (November 28th through December 4th), compared to the last week of wait times prior to the addition of barriers on each attraction. Do note, it’s the holidays and crowds have been heavy, which likely plays into some of these wait times.
Rise of the Resistance
So, DOES adding plexiglass or plastic barriers to the ride vehicles decrease wait times meaningfully? Let’s take a look at what we’ve seen so far!
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
We spotted the addition of plexiglass on the Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway ride vehicles on November 18th, and SPOILER ALERT, it made a BIG difference.
Plexiglass Barriers
Based on three recorded wait times each day the week prior to the addition of plexiglass, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway had an average of 78.33 minutes. Whew, that’s over an hour!
Plexiglass Runaway Railway
Now (Are you ready for this?), the recent week (a HOLIDAY WEEK, no less) with plexiglass, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway had an average wait of 40 minutes. That means that plexiglass slashed the wait times about in HALF. Wow! Looks like these barriers can do a LOT for making sure more folks can hop on this ride!
Click here to see the plexiglass on Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway!
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
We will say that this hasn’t always been the case. Tower of Terror had barriers added to the elevators when we rode on October 12th and this fan-favorite attraction hasn’t exactly become a walk on.
Plexiglass on Tower of Terror
The week prior to the addition of plexiglass, Tower of Terror had an average wait time of 43.04 minutes. This past week, the wait time was 50 minutes. So, there really wasn’t too much change at all! We will note that the elevators are still not being filled completely so wait times MAY improve and we’ll be sure to update you if they do.
To see the barriers on Tower of Terror, click here!
Living with the Land
The other traditional-queue attraction that has had plastic barriers added is Living with the Land. This EPCOT attraction had barriers added EARLY in the reopening phases. We first noticed the barriers on July 28th.
Living with the Land Boats with Plexiglass
According to Touring Plans, the average wait time the week prior to the addition of plexiglass was 12.85 minutes. This most recent week, the wait times averaged at 12 minutes. So yes, this shows a slight decrease in wait times, but it may not be enough to be statistically significant.
Click here to see the barriers on Living with the Land!
Rise of the Resistance
Another attraction that has received plexiglass barriers is Rise of the Resistance. Now, this ride does NOT have a traditional queue but we can get an idea of whether or not capacity increased by how many Boarding Groups were called from the Virtual Queue.
Rise of the Resistance Vehicle with Plexiglass
We spotted barriers added to Rise of the Resistance on October 26th. Prior to that point, Rise of the Resistance was boarding an average of 95.5 Boarding Groups a day. So far, this has seemed pretty similar since the plexiglass was added.
Click here to see the barriers on Rise of the Resistance!
Frozen Ever After
Several months ago we noticed that Disney was testing the addition of plexiglass on Frozen Ever After, but it wasn’t the case on every boat. As of December 23rd, the ride is using plexiglass regularly and loading every single boat.
Frozen Ever After Boats with Plexiglass
And it HAS had an effect in this case! The week prior to the addition of plexiglass, the average wait at this attraction was 78 minutes. The week after the addition saw an average wait of 43 minutes. Whew! That slashed waits in half!
Want to see more info about the addition of plexiglass on Frozen Ever After!
Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run got its own plexiglass updates on December 26th. The Millennium Falcon cockpits look a little different now and a Cast Member explained that this set-up could potentially allow for a group of 1-4 people plus another group of 1-2Â at any given time.
Millennium Falcon
The week prior to the addition of plexiglass, this attraction had an average wait time of 57 minutes. With the plexiglass, it averaged a wait of 61 minutes. So, not too much changed with this addition thus far.
Click here to learn more about this change!
Flight of Passage
Okay, so this one is a little different. Flight of Passage did not receive plexiglass, but there was a major change to the loading process. Previously, Flight of Passage kept a seat or more between each party, as of December 29th every seat is being filled.
Flight of Passage loading every bike
The week prior, this attraction had an average wait of 64 minutes, and thus far since the addition, the average wait has been 75 minutes. It’s likely this had more to do with holiday demand, so we’ll keep an eye on this one to see if the plexiglass had an effect or not.
Click here to see the loading process on Flight of Passage!
Overall, the effect that barriers have on a ride’s wait times varies from attraction to attraction. We’re blown away by the effect it’s had on Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, but on Tower of Terror it didn’t really change much. If more attractions add plexiglass or plastic, we’ll be sure to monitor wait times JUST like we did here and add them to this post.Â
Boat with Plexiglass, Living With the Land
As always, stay tuned to DFB for all the latest updates in Disney World (like new plexiglass 😉) and for more insights and tips for your trip to a reopened Disney World.
Click here to learn more about health and safety changes in Disney World!
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We were in Epcot last week and wanted to ride Living with the Land one more time before we left. This was on Thursday evening. The wait time was listed as 35 minutes. We rode it in Nov during the daytime and had about a five to ten minute wait. I think the Christmas lights added to the land is making it a more popular attraction.
One more thing. The plastic hanging between the seats on the safari at AK made it a lot more difficult to see the animals on the opposite side of the vehicle. We rode it in mid-Oct and late Nov and both times got the very last seat in the vehicle (very bumpy back there as compared to other rows). Both times it was hard to see the animals.