Lines are long for multiple reasons

New attractions are notorious for their long lines. Guests routinely waited around five hours for Frozen Ever After. When Universal opened its Wizarding World of Harry Potter, lines just to get into these areas wrapped around the entire park, with many guests waiting all day just to set foot in this magical land. If you don’t want to dedicate your entire day to a single ride, you definitely shouldn’t arrive when it’s new.

Long lines are caused by a few factors. Naturally, one is the popularity of the attraction. However, those glitches mentioned above are another big driving factor. With queues that are extended through multiple buildings and hundreds of guests waiting for a single attraction, closing the ride is no small feat. It’s easier to leave the line in place while dealing with a down time than it is to announce a closure and empty the queue. 

The posted wait time may have been a workable three hours when you got in line, but if the ride gets glitchy and the Cast Members have to reboot or send a few empty vehicles every hour, you could easily end up waiting hours longer than anticipated. From your spot in the packed queue, you’ll have no idea what’s happening or how much longer you have to wait.

Down times and dumps are common

When ride problems really are too much to handle, those big-name attractions can and will simply go 101. Down times are far more common for new attractions than those that are good and broken-in. This means that you could wait hours to get into a new themed land only to find its signature attraction closed for the day. You also have a high risk of waiting in line for a few hours just to get dumped from the queue before you ever set foot on a ride vehicle. Wasted time is a natural occurrence when you’re around new attractions.

If you want to make the most of your theme park visit, packing multiple attractions into your day and maneuvering easily through the park, steer clear of big openings. Wait till the glitches are gone and the newness has worn off to get your thrills in quickly.