Single-rider lines are alternate queues offered at select Walt Disney World rides for parties of one person or groups that don’t mind splitting up to ride individually. Using a single-rider line can sometimes be the ultimate hack for a shorter wait time, but that may no longer be the case for one Disney World roller coaster. This follows another recent operations change at a different Disney coaster.
A popular Disney World ride changed a procedure that affects the wait time of the single-rider line. We have the details and tips for riding this attraction with a minimal wait. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including 10 new restaurants opening at Disney World and a new Star Wars popcorn bucket coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
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Queue Change for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Ride
Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain is the only roller coaster at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.
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On the attraction’s coaster trains, riders sit in rows of two people. Each party of guests waiting in the standby line or Lightning Lane is often an odd number, leaving an empty seat to be filled by a guest waiting in the single-rider line.
Until now, this swift procedure of single riders filling in empty seats available by odd-numbered parties made Expedition Everest one of Disney World’s fastest-moving single-rider lines, and a great recommendation for guests looking for a short wait, provided they didn’t mind splitting up their travel party.
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However, Disney recently implemented a change to Expedition Everest’s loading operations that has increased the wait time of the single-rider line.
In the final room of Expedition Everest’s queue, when the standby line and Lightning Lane merge, a cast member now sorts parties into groups of odd and even numbers. The cast member sends odd-numbered parties to one side of the room and even-numbered parties to the other.
This means odd-numbered groups are already paired when it comes time to board the coaster. For example, two groups of three guests, six total, are already sectioned off to form the total number of guests needed to fill three rows of seats, rather than one group of three people being loaded with an empty seat open.
The single-rider line’s wait time increases because of this procedure. With open seats of odd-numbered parties already taken care of, there is less need for a devoted line for one-person parties.
This procedure is new for Expedition Everest, but has been the longtime norm for TRON Lightcycle / Run at Magic Kingdom, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT, and Slinky Dog Dash at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. None of those attractions offers a single-rider line.
There is no guarantee that Expedition Everest’s single-rider line will be open at any given time. Following the queue change, even when the single-rider line is open, the option may not be as worthwhile as it once was.
The new system may be a test rather than a permanent change. Disney sometimes experiments with short-term crowd-flow procedures to improve operations and safety, such as ongoing changes at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
Other Disney World rides with single-rider lines include Test Track at EPCOT and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios had a single-rider line during its Aerosmith era. It remains to be seen whether the new Muppets version will continue the practice when it opens on May 26.
@CoasterK24 on X documented the Expedition Everest change.
Alternative Methods of Shorter Waits for Expedition Everest
Even though the single-rider line for Expedition Everest may move slowly now, guests who usually rely on it for a short wait still have a few other options.
A nonexistent line awaits hotel guests rope-dropping Expedition Everest at the beginning of Early Theme Park Entry. The line even remains short, sometimes still a walk-on, by the time the park opens for non-hotel guests 30 minutes later. This was the case for me during a recent visit when I rode Expedition Everest about 15 minutes after the park’s opening time, or 45 minutes after Early Theme Park Entry’s start time. There was no line whatsoever.
Riding toward the end of the day may also yield low waits for Expedition Everest and many other attractions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park typically closes around 6 or 7 PM, and crowds file out near dinnertime as guests head to other parks that are open later with nighttime entertainment.
Of course, there’s always the skip-the-line Lightning Lane service, for a fee. Expedition Everest is part of the park’s Lightning Lane Multi Pass lineup.
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