Queue Review Finale - Star Tours

One of my favorite lines, but maybe not the best subject for a finale as three are almost exactly the same.

Disneyland Paris



I believe they are getting a 2.0 upgrade soon, but here is the original version of Star Tours, pretty much the same as the interior of the previous version at Hollywood Studios.  The exterior has a giant X-Wing fighter.

Walt Disney World - Hollywood Studios



All the 2.0 queues are roughly the same.  The exterior is some Endor thing, but when you're in it, it's just rope and wood.

Disneyland



I can't tell what's outside the main entrance, as I know there has to be more line than this, but anything is better than Hollywood Studios.

Tokyo Disneyland


At first I didn't like the switchbacks, but at least they're indoors.  I think there might be a few more droids as well

Queue Review - Space Mountain

I love all of the Space Mountain queues.  It tends to be one of the longest lines, and they had to get creative on how to lay it out.

Hong Kong Disneyland



A cardboard box overlay at the entrance, way too many safety spiel screens, and a teeny tiny load area.  This is the last time I'll pick on poor Hong Kong.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom



Both the entrance and exit run underground, underneath the Walt Disney World Railroad.  The TTA PeopleMover runs above the exit speedramp, and I believe the exit runs directly above the entrance.  I love this line for this reason alone.

There is a modest attempt to establish the ride as a space port at the beginning.  There are some video games that might ease the wait for thirty seconds, but unfortunately you end up dumped into a sea of switchbacks.  In the dark.  There are some OK visuals on the ceiling, but not enough for the hour wait from that point.  I haven't gone in a few years, but I imagine it's nothing but glowing smart phone screens.

Load area feels very efficient and is separate from the unload.  Has the best music of any version, or indeed almost any ride.

Disneyland Paris - Space Mountain Mission 2



I'll forgive the outdoor switchbacks as this really is a lovely area.  Tomorrowland needs more water features.  A nice dark windy hall, a not at all steampunk ride video, and then back outdoors to a 19th Century train station, which misses the whole point of being engulfed in dark cramped tunnels.  It all looks very nice, but that jarring theme change messes it up for me.  Also, aside from the banners, the train station is too generic roller coaster for me.

Tokyo Disneyland


Coca Cola!

They still have a speedramp as part of the entrance, which runs even when the line trails way outside the ride.  The theming doesn't get particularly spacey until right at the load area.

Disneyland



Perhaps more than any other land, Tomorrowland lends itself to being one discrete place, though the execution is usually lacking.  Space Mountain here does an excellent job of feeling like a part of a bigger whole, rather than just a distinct ride by itself.  Though the entrance area does feel a bit like a shopping mall.  There's a nice elevated outdoor area, the indoor area feels like a space station, and no switchbacks!

Queue Review - Pirates of the Caribbean

Disneyland


Chained outdoor switchbacks.  Go straight to hell.  Note that this isn't the overflow queue - the line is designed to be 90% outdoors.

The line leads into a house (groan), where it runs parallel to the boats themselves.  This would be incredibly awesome if not for the fact that the boats are floating through a freaking house with drywall ceilings.  There's a marginal attempt at theming as you get closer to the load area, which is the same as the unload.  I mentioned my attitude towards this kind of thing, and this is perhaps the worst offender.  While Magic Kingdom has the sense that you're getting your own boat, this one rubs in the fact that some other sweaty rear has been rubbing into your spot, as well as heightening the impatience of both parties as people are eager to get on or off.  I don't know how they keep kids from splashing water out on folks.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom



Starts with a nice covered veranda, which is roped into lines during busy periods.  The line splits in two, each with it's own minor scenes within a Spanish fort.

The unloading area is on a completely differently level than the load, to the point that one has a hard time figuring out how they relate to each other.  As it should be.

Disneyland Paris



Just brilliant.  The American parks have modest exteriors, while Paris almost makes it it's own mini-land fitting the status of one of their best attractions.

Queue Review - Haunted Mansion

The three Haunted Mansion rides and Phantom Manor all follow the same pattern - Mystic Manor in Hong Kong Disneyland is kind of an equivalent ride, but the queue is completely different.

There is an outdoor area, a foyer, the stretching room, and the final queue to the loading area.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom



This one is kind of vanilla.  Nothing outstanding, but nothing offensive either.  A long stretch to the foyer, with a detour to an interactive area.  I'm indifferent to the interactive stuff, but you can skip it entirely, making it inoffensive.  The door to the foyer is usually closed until the stretching room is open, so guests end up marching right through it.  We have the non-elevator stretching room (ceiling goes up) before being released to a short queue in near darkness.

Disneyland Paris - Phantom Manor



The outdoor area is appropriately decrepit, and you get a better feeling that you're entering an actual house.  Paris loves their switchbacks, and there's an ugly mother right there, though it appears to be used for overflow purposes.  This would have rated higher, but I hate their jank stretching room portraits.  Mainly, I don't like how they reveal things in the foreground as opposed to things vertically lower - misses the whole point in my opinion.

Disneyland Tokyo



I like the outdoor area of this one the best - looks like the place is falling apart.  Once you're inside, appears to be about the same as Magic Kingdom.

Disneyland


Well laid out outdoor area, but not spooky enough.  This is my favorite because the stretching room is a real elevator, and the second queuing area is more of a walkthrough attraction than a line.

Queue Review - Tower of Terror

All four of the Tower of Terror queues have the same basic structure - line to heavily themed hotel lobby, guests are brought by groups into the library for a pre-show, then another line to the elevators.

Disneyland Paris - La Tour de la Terreur - Un Saut dans la Quatrième Dimension

Disneyland Paris and Disneyland are almost identical.  The entrance abuts directly to the walkway, with switchbacks sprouting off to the sides.  For some reason, I get a bad vibe from the facade in Paris - too much fakey purple wear and tear.



Disney California Adventure - The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Much the same as above.  One advantage these two have over Disney World's is that you get a better chance to see the theming in the lobby.



Walt Disney World - Disney's Hollywood Studios - Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

This one wins for best outdoors area.  The lobby is well done, but there is an issue with line timing here.  There is only a few feet of line before guests are hurried forward to the area by the library doors, so there is very little time to check everything out.



Tokyo DisneySea - Tower of Terror

Not much of an outdoor area, but this one wins best facade.



This one has a different premise, that of a cursed explorer, so the preshow is completely different - a cast member makes an introduction and winds up a gramophone, which is awesome.



I couldn't find a lot of footage of it, but DisneySea's really shines in second line.  The second line is in a dingy boiler room in the other three versions - true to theme, but boring.  Here we have a two story walk through various items our explorer host has collected, mostly Egyptian stuff.

Queue Review - Splash Mountain

Disneyland

The overflow seems to snake along outside of the ride.  This one gives me PTSD, so last place.



Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom

The overflow here snakes around it's own little area, plus there's a neat effect with a shadow of a frog or something.



Tokyo Disneyland

Can't find any footage except for this animatronic owl, so winner

Queue Review - It's a Small World

Disneyland Paris



Starts off strong with a spacious, nicely themed area and wonderful facade, something most of the parks share.  A nice walkway in the front before being dumped into switchbacks with nothing but an aluminum roof and millions of French people to look at.  I think the has the best transition from load to the interior of the ride.

Hong Kong Disneyland



A cruel bait and switch.  Decent facade, a lovely bridge entrance to a narrow flat hallway, then...switchbacks.  As a side note, this is the version of the ride that began the sometime despised practice of adding Disney characters to the countries.  I'm just happy they painted the ceiling black - nothing I hated more than the well lighted white acoustic panels of Magic Kingdom.

Tokyo Disneyland



Nice facade, but that isn't where the line is.  OK mural with cramped metal walkways, and a mundane door.  This is the best version I could find.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom


This has the lousiest facade of any of the versions, but there is a decent simulacra inside the load area.  The exit and entrance switched a few years back, and now you find yourself walking behind the clock.  This one has the window to Pinocchio's Village Haus, which I always wave at because I'm four years old.

 Disneyland



The original(ish) and still the best.  A simple long walkway to duel, outdoor loading areas, with an unobstructed view of the facade.

Queue Review - Little Mermaid

Disney California Adventure - The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure

They must be trying to make Hong Kong Disneyland feel better about themselves.



I can appreciate their dedication to a theme, down to the public restroom stall wall at the load area.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid

Queue Review - Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Hong Kong Disneyland - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh



Poor Hong Kong.  For years this was their only dark ride in Fantasyland.

Disneyland - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh



I like how there's a long walk-up rather than switchbacks, and the outdoor load that Disneyland is famous for.  Almost a tie with -

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh



This is an interactive queue done right.  Almost all the others have a mild, 30 second diversion in the middle of an hour wait.  Here, children play while the parents keep the place in line.  I also like the honey walls, which sounds dirty now that I've typed it.

Tokyo Disneyland - Pooh's Honey Hunt



A different ride, sure, but whatever.  I like the country garden feel for some of the outside sections, the detail in Rabbit's house, and the ginormous book pages.

Queue Review - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Hong Kong Disneyland - Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars

Not exactly the same ride, granted, but the spiritual equivalent.  This one looks like the Expedition Everest queue, only with all of the theming stripped out.



You can't tell from this video, but this is the first example we've scene of the dreaded cheater queue.  The line approaches the load area, only to turn back into another room.



Tokyo Disneyland - Big Thunder Mountain



Starts off strong, or at least different, with a walk through fake rocks, but soon we're in an endless maze of cattle chutes.

Disneyland Paris - Big Thunder Mountain

Had a hard time finding good footage of this one.




From the looks of it, there's a lot of wooden walkways before hitting any railed switchbacks.

Disneyland - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad



The original Disneyland version has the advantage of the surrounding area, which gives more of a sense of the old west than some of the others.  A good portion of this queue is a long walk alongside the track, which is infinitely preferable to the unending spiral of rails we used to see at...

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Magic Kingdom wins this round if only because it's the most improved of possibly any queue ever.  What was once the worst example of corralling tourists is now at least tolerable.



I'm indifferent to the interactive elements, and I haven't been here to know how well they work, but at least the switchbacks have been broken up with walls so there is something, anything, to look at rather than the same tired faces passing you by again and again.  One game I liked to play is trying to high-five the same angry Dad over and over again until he either relents or tells me to piss off.

Queue Review - Peter Pan's Flight

Probably my second least favorite queue after Astro Orbiters, if only because it's inexplicably long.  Despite having an omnimoverish load at Magic Kingdom, it seems to have one of the longest wait times.

Tokyo Disneyland

Here's a video I can't embed from 1998, but other pictures I've found show there's been no changes.  A boxy switchback to a narrow ramp to the ride.  One themed side, and the rest looks to be bare and smooth drywall.  There's a little moving Tinkerbell at the load area, which may be unique.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom



One loooong line that goes down the building and back.  Like Tokyo there's an omnimover, and here there's slightly better themeing in the area.  Both Magic Kingdom and Tokyo have a jungle theme in the load and slaps you straight into Wenby's bedroom.  They're in the process of putting in an interactive queue, but construction shots so far just show more rails.

Disneyland



No omnimover, but the facade is a little nicer, and there's a better transition as the ship flies through a window to get to Wendy's bedroom as opposed to just jumping sets.

Disneyland Paris





Pretty much the same as Disneyland, but slightly nicer.

Queue Review - Toy Story Midway Mania

Disney California Adventures - Toy Story Midway Mania



The theme of the queue matches perfectly with the area, Paradise Pier, and with the ride itself.  It's a carnival game at a boardwalk.  This is also a horrible line.  It's like they're trying to upset me.  Outdoor snaking switchbacks with chains, ugh.  And Mr. Potato head is amusing once, for about thirty seconds.

Disney's Hollywood Studios - Toy Story Midway Mania



Much more like it.  So well designed you ignore that it doesn't make any sense.  We start out with the facade, which is designed like the Pixar campus.  As soon as you enter the building there's an over-sized wall of a kid's room, but then you're shuffled through normal doors through a cramped hallway into a room filled with oversized toys and games.  This room leads to a transition to another area with a half-carnival, half-kid's bedroom theme and a walkway that goes up and down.

It looks like a couple of converted soundstages, which is exactly what it is.

Tokyo DisneySea - Toy Story Mania



Tokyo DisneySea commits more fully to the child's bedroom theme.  The first queue area improves on some of Hollywood Studio's bare walls and has a higher ceiling, but I think I prefer the actual "stuff" of the the Hollywood version.  There is more of a sense that you're in a child's bedroom rather than just in a pile of oversized toy props.

The real advantage comes in the loading area, which I couldn't find great footage of:



Hollywood Studios had a mish-mash of concepts and some clunky architecture.  At DisneySea we have a giant door that leads us into a full-blown set of a child's bedroom.  At Hollywood we have the sense that we're walking around giant toys, but at DisneySea there's more of a feeling that we've become toy-sized.

Queue Review - Buzz Lightyear

Pretty much all the same, with the exception of last place:

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin



This queue trails outside the building pretty much at all times.  Inside are more switchbacks and an animatronic Buzz Lightyear.  The other four parks have identical queues, as far as I can tell, and differ from Magic Kingdom in that they have interior walls breaking up the view, and there's more of a feel of being toy size.

In a four-way tie, in no particular order, the rest of the parks:

Disneyland - Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters



Disneyland Paris -  Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast



Hong Kong Disneyland - Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters



Tokyo Disneyland - Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters

Queue Review - Astro Orbiter

The Dumbo on a Rocket Ship ride has had several names, locations, and designs, all of which have a lousy queue.  The ride capacity ain't great, and as they are designed to have a tiny footprint, the queues are tiny as well.

Tokyo Disneyland - Star Jets

Strangely, Tokyo has the lamest version.  It's the only non-steampunk one, and has the ultra-futuristic Space Shuttle motif.  Like Magic Kingdom it has an elevator, but here the ride sits sadly by itself, though that may be less sad than being next to a defunct Peoplemover track.

Normally something like an elevator would break up the monotony of a rail switchback, but it's such a normal, non-spacey elevator that it just makes things awkward.



Disneyworld - Magic Kingdom - Astro Orbiter

I hate this queue.  I know, intellectually, that the reason there is a line, any line, is that I'm waiting for the people that got there before me to finish whatever they're doing.  I know this, but watching these people while I'm waiting is just frustrating, which is why I'm in favor of any queue that has separate load and unload stations.  Here we:

• See all the guests waiting in front of us in the switchbacks
• Wait for guests to unload from the elevator before getting on
• and wait again at the top for the ride to finish and unload

Additionally, I know that once I'm on that elevator, my ride will start at the same time as everyone else in the elevator, but there's still the instinct to try to get in and out faster than everyone else, or to jockey to the front once the elevator unloads.  

The only saving grace is that the switchbacks are within the proximity of the TTA Peoplemover, and they are sometimes adjacent during the rare times the TTA has a line.

Disneyland - Astro Orbiter

Those stupid elevators are the only thing that let Disneyland's uncovered, unthemed, outdoor switchbacks to come in third.  I would say that there is some nice nearby theming, but I never got the whole Flintstones motif for Tomorrowland.

Hong Kong Disneyland - Orbitron

Better than Disneyland because at least it's covered.



Disneyland Paris - Orbitron

Still not a great queue, but at least they used the fake rock walls instead of rails or chains for the switchbacks.

Queue Review - Autopia

Let's start with a lesser queue - the Autopia and its equivalents, which exist at all five Disney parks.  Disneyland California had several incarnations of the ride, many of which existed at the same time.  In order of increasing bettertude we have in last place -

Magic Kingdom - Tomorrowland Speedway



A brief covered switchback that dumps you onto an uncovered ramp.  A titch of racing theming, but not much going on.

Tokyo Disneyland - Grand Circuit Raceway

Can't find any video, but from what I can tell it's pretty much exactly the same as Magic Kingdom, only maybe a little nicer.

Hong Kong Disneyland - Autopia



More ramps, but a little nicer.  And it's covered.

Disneyland Paris - Autopia



This is my favorite themed of the Autopia's, with a fifties retrofuturistic touch.  I like the proximity to Space Mountain.  I also like the viewing area, which looks to be a little circular island among the tracks.  The queue, meh.

Disneyland - Autopia



Mostly uncovered ramps, but I prefer ramps to switchbacks.  Also, there's a little indoor section with animations of talking cars, not Cars, just cars.  I imagine this decision has something to do with the sponsor Chevron.  The loops are short enough to get mind numbingly annoying if one was to spend more than thirty seconds at any one spot.  The fact that the last vignette involves someone being annoyed by a wait in line doesn't help.  Not much, but it puts Disneyland in the lead.

Queue Review - Introduction

I'm weirdly obsessed with the design of theme park ride queues, both the theming and load efficiency.  To really appreciate a Disney queue, go to a Six Flags park.  Watch as a single coaster train goes through the whole cycle of loading, safety, climb hill, ride, brake run, and unloading, where Disney would have twenty trains safely on the same set of tracks.  Observe trains with a third of the seats empty and you'll appreciate the "how many in your party?" and the two finger pointing.

And stand in an unthemed set of switchbacks, unprotected in the summer sun in a dug out rock quarry, watching a single TV set with a two minute loop of commercials, for two hours before being unceremoniously dumped into a pretty good thrill coaster, and only figuring out it was a Superman ride from the gift shop you exit out of.

With the possible exception of Ellen's Energy Adventure, you'll spend the longest stretches of time at Disney in line.  My longest line was the Splash Mountain soft opening at Disneyland.  Three hours in the sun, delirious, finally reaching the front only to have Wil *&$%ing Wheaton and his #@%&ing entourage cut in front.

Disney's been experimenting with ways of reducing or even abolishing the queue, from fast passes to the pager system at Magic Kingdom's Dumbo.  But until then, different parks with similar rides often have very different queues.

Over the coming weeks we'll be sizing up the four different Disney locations and Hong Kong (if it doesn't have Pirates, it's not a real Disney park).

For our purposes, a line begins at the point it would be rude to cut in front of someone, though that standard might not work for Disneyland Paris.  It ends when your butt goes in the ride vehicle.  So we're including pre-shows.

Plusses for:

• Theming
• Indoors
• Being able to see parts of the ride
• Level of overlap with other rides
• Load and unload in different areas, preferrably out of view of each other

I'm pretty indifferent to various interactive elements being introduced.  Playing a mediocre video game for thirty seconds doesn't improve on a two hour wait.

Minuses for:

• Unthemed outdoor switchbacks
• Loading and unloading being within view of each other, or worse, at the same station
• "Cheater" queues, when you think you're near the front before turning a corner and seeing a hundred people in front of you.

Spoiler alert - California doesn't do well.