There is a certain class of fan that treats a day at the park like a game. Most time on rides and least time in line wins. With the addition of FastPass, the strategy has become even more Serious Business.
— TV Tropes on Disney Theme Parks
In one of KTR’s great missed connections, I am at Disney right now. Here, as in your game’s forums, you can take advantage of the people who very seriously study your form of entertainment.
Most of our readers are not serious theorycrafters who believe others are borderline griefers if they are intentionally being less than maximally efficient. Those theorycrafters, however, are really useful to the rest of us because they find the efficiencies, and that knowledge can spread freely. You need not be maximally efficient to learn how you can do what you already do better with almost no effort.
Enter tourings plans. People have already figured out which days at the park are the busiest and what order to ride rides to minimize your time waiting in line. You do not need to take the maximally efficient route to knock an hour or more off your waiting time, which is a good thing both for you and for the people who would be standing behind you in those lines.
Bonus note 1: in the off-season, all lines are shorter, so I have stood in perhaps an hour of lines over two days. Bonus note 2: if you are relatively sedentary, as gamers often are, practice walking and being on your feet for hours. After two not-full days at the parks, we have one member of our party who wants a day off. That leads to bonus note 3: schedule a day off amidst a multi-park trip, preferably Saturday.
: Zubon
Wow, I honestly had no idea that minmaxing theme park visits was a thing, but I guess it makes sense if you look the theme park as a raid instance.
Minmaxing theme park visits are totally a thing. Many of the visitors you’re bumping into are only getting one trip every few years if they go at all. My sibling typically grabs a bunch of fast passes in a first loop in the parks and has a loose itinerary planned for most days, though is flexible enough to modify plans on the move.
Disney is testing a “schedule your fast passes” deal right now where you schedule rides before you enter the park. That seems too structured by far, on the other hand, the crowning memory of your sole childhood visit won’t be that you couldn’t get on the Toy Story ride because the stand-by queue was 90 minutes deep and mom and dad wanted to make it to the dinner reservations.
If you have a park hopper type pass, leave midday and take a break/pooltime.