Disneyland Is Lining Up Ways to Shorten the Wait

Disneyland is planning to experiment with ways to reduce one of the park’s most unpleasant experiences: waiting in long lines on hot summer days.

In an innovation being tested successfully at Walt Disney Co.’s Florida parks, visitors to the Anaheim theme park on selected days will be offered a choice of how to line up for some of the most sought-after attractions. They can wait in the often long regular lines, or obtain a boarding pass from a machine that sets a time for them to return later in the day and stand in a separate, shorter line.

The program--known as “virtual queuing”--reduces visitors’ frustration and potentially boosts spending by giving them more time to buy food and souvenirs.

“They want to get it up and running by the Fourth of July,” a Disney ride expert said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Virtual queuing will be tested first at Space Mountain, followed by Splash Mountain and the Indiana Jones Adventure, the source said. Currently, the wait for those rides can easily stretch to 90 minutes on congested summer days.

Also in the works this summer at Disneyland is the relaunch of Columbia, the sailing ship replica that has been closed to parkgoers since a fatal accident Christmas Eve. The ship could return to Disney waters by month’s end.

How virtual queuing will be tested at the park in Anaheim is not entirely clear. The passes used in Florida have set time periods--an hour say, or a half-hour--for riders to return later in the day. But the source said a more flexible system is under discussion at Disneyland. “It’ll be along the lines of, ‘Show up anytime after 3,’ ” he said.

While the plan could substantially reduce waits for some of the more than 13 million visitors to Disneyland each year, it is far from a done deal. Even in Florida, “this is only a test,” said Walt Disney World spokesman Rick Sylvain. Variations of the program are being tested at a number of the company’s attractions in Florida, but he declined even to provide average wait times.

“To say anything at this time would be premature,” Sylvain said. “Streetmosphere” entertainment, misting devices and air-conditioned queues are among the ways Disney combats the boredom and annoyance of the lines.

Former Disneyland employee Kevin Yee, who recently visited Disney World in Florida, said he had only a five-minute wait when he tried out the system at Space Mountain there. He said he enjoyed avoiding a long wait but saw some potential side consequences. One would be that riders who save time at the most popular rides might simply wind up creating longer lines at secondary attractions. And, he said, not waiting in line short-circuits the chance to experience the atmosphere and story lines that Disney designers build into waiting areas.

One park worker saw another potential snag in Anaheim: lack of space. At Space Mountain in Florida, it was easy to carve out room near the exit for the “virtual queue,” but at Disneyland--built on a much smaller piece of land--there is little room to spare near the exit, he said.

“And if you set up two separate lines at the entrance, it could cause irritations,” he said. “What do you do if people [in the long line] get mad and start jumping into the other line?”

Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez couldn’t be reached for comment on the prospects for the new queuing program.

The relaunch of the Columbia comes after nearly six months of soul-searching by park officials over how to best ensure guest safety, including a ride-by-ride review of the entire park. The state Assembly this month passed a bill to provide safety oversight of permanent amusement parks in California and sent it on to the Senate for consideration.

The accident occurred last December when a worker tried to moor the ship as it approached a dock too fast. The line ripped a metal cleat from the bow and sent it flying, fatally injuring a Washington state tourist and severely injuring his wife and the worker. State officials said the employee was inadequately trained. Christine Carpenter, an assistant manager, was filling in for a regular ride operator on the day of the accident.

The California Department of Occupational Safety and Health fined the theme park $12,500 after finding serious safety violations in training and equipment use.

The docking system for the Columbia was overhauled after the accident. Under the new system, three workers share responsibility for how and when the Columbia is lashed to the dock.

The ship’s captain will ease Columbia to the dock and use bells to signal to a worker on the bow when it stops. The bow worker will acknowledge the stop, also using bells, then drop a mooring line over the side. Only after hearing both sets of bells will a third worker, on the dock, take the line from the ship and place it over a mooring post.

A recorded narrative about the ship’s history and the sights onshore has replaced wisecracking spiels delivered by Columbia’s workers. A speedometer also has been installed.

Elsewhere in the park in coming weeks, Disneyland will spotlight Tarzan’s Treehouse, remodeled to promote the animated film “Tarzan,” which opens today. The treehouse officially opens Wednesday, but insiders say the attraction, originally modeled after Disney’s 1960 film “Swiss Family Robinson,” could unofficially open as early as Saturday.

The Mark Twain paddlewheeler also has been out of action for a boiler replacement and general refurbishment. Park workers said it too will soon return to Disneyland’s Rivers of America section, along with Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes, which operate only during the summer.

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Hurry Up And Wait

Estimated time spent waiting in line for popular Disneyland rides during peak summer period:

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Minutes Indiana Jones 30-60 Dumbo 45-60 Pirates of the Carribean 15-30 Big Thunder Mountain 20-45 Matterhorn 30-60 Space Mountain 45-90 Splash Mountain 45-90 Rocket Rods 60-120

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Note: Wait times vary according to time of day, parade schedules and the number of attractions closed for renovation.

Source: Al Lutz, creator of the Disneyland Information Guide, an unofficial Disneyland site on the Internet.