What’s Wrong With Single Rider and Lightning Lane?

Imagineers spend thousands of hours planning the perfect theme park attraction.

So, what happens when the joy of something exceptional conflicts with the need to keep theme parks operating efficiently?

That’s the challenge Disney has faced with some of its best rides, including the current alpha at two parks.

As a method of trying to reduce crowds at these rides, park officials have made some tough choices.

Now, Disney fans must do the same as we debate a challenging question.

How much of an attraction experience is too much to miss?

Let’s evaluate what’s wrong with Single Rider and Lightning Lane.

What’s the Problem?

Whenever Disney introduces something new, the experience comes with the expectation that everything about it will dazzle.

Obviously, not everything hits with everyone, but some attractions wow from the start.

In such instances, crowds naturally form to take a turn on the new hotness, which leads to management issues.

Notorious recent examples are Avatar Flight of Passage and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

The attractions debuted in 2017 and 2019, respectively, yet they remain among Walt Disney World’s most popular rides.

Over the past five years, Disney has attempted to address the prolonged wait times for each attraction.

During their early years, park guests waited three hours or longer, and the average line times remain 75+ minutes.

That’s a problem in that Disney doesn’t want its guests standing in line any more than we, the customers, want to do it.

When we’re standing in line, we’re not enjoying a Disney visit to the fullest.

Meanwhile, Disney isn’t selling us anything because we’re stuck in one place for an extended period.

That’s time we’re not shopping, eating, or drinking. So, it hits Disney in the wallet when wait times are too long.

How Disney Boosts Morale

For the person doing the waiting, it’s a fatiguing part of the theme park experience.

So, Disney has tried to make the problem less frustrating for us.

During the 21^st century, park strategists have prioritized in-line entertainment as a means of keeping up morale.

In fact, Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is currently closed as Imagineers create an entirely new line queue experience.

The Magic Kingdom version of Haunted Mansion is delightful, with interactive musical elements and even a murder mystery to solve.

Imagineers knew that Avatar Flight of Passage would require a long wait. So, they built an entire story into the line queue.

Guests will experience centuries of Pandora history as they wait their turn, with the story culminating in a modern Avatar lab.

Then, we have perhaps my favorite line queue of all, Peter Pan’s Flight. Imagineers invented new technologies for the Darling children’s bedroom.

Guests can make gestures with their hands and arms that cause butterflies to move around on the screen.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do during this line queue, and if you’ve ever messed with it, you know how great it is.

Experiences like the ones at Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan’s Flight make the time fly by and the lines seem shorter.

More importantly, they gradually become a part of the attraction experience itself.

Disney Introduces Shortcuts

Along those lines, the recently closed Test Track just wasn’t the same for me unless I designed my vehicle first.

I loved doing that so much that I rarely utilized an option available on that attraction, Single Rider.

People wanting to ride Test Track faster could skip the ride design section.

In exchange, they’d be slotted beside a total stranger during Test Track.

For many, the sacrifice was worthwhile because they saved themselves plenty of time standing in line.

From Disney’s perspective, Single Rider maximizes efficiency/throughput and gets guests through the line faster.

That’s a dream scenario for management, as long as guests don’t mind the opportunity cost.

With Single Rider, you typically miss out on integral parts of the attraction experience in exchange for riding quicker.

The primary exception is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, which is virtually identical in Single Rider.

With Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, you technically do everything in Single Rider. You just don’t know your crew.

How big a loss is that? It depends on how much of a social creature you are.

Even Lightning Lane sometimes requires these opportunity costs.

With Peter Pan’s Flight, you typically skip the Darlings’ bedroom in exchange for boarding VERY fast.

This issue is sometimes true at Expedition Everest as well.

On average crowd days, a Lightning Lane skips you through the queue so fast you cannot enjoy the antiquities on display.

That’s a net positive – and I mean a HUGE one – because you’re not standing in line for as long.

The loss is that you’re not enjoying all those clever touches that the Imagineers did to make the line queues entertaining.

Rise of the Resistance Changes the Rules

As MickeyBlog recounted on Monday, the rules just changed at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

Those of you tracking the ride for a while may feel the hairs stand up on your arm right now.

Yes, the attraction has undergone countless updates since its opening, as park strategists try to manage the lines.

This isn’t a change like that. On the contrary, it’s a smart addition, Single Rider.

Now, guests can enter Rise of the Resistance in what appears to be half the time.

However, there’s a sacrifice to be made. You’re going to miss about 30 percent of the attraction experience.

That’s not an exaggeration, either. I timed it to be as precise as possible, and the range is 30-33 percent.

When you enter the Single Rider line, two things happen. The first is that you’ll feel a bit disoriented.

That’s because Single Rider may be a limited-time option this summer.

So, you’re walking through areas that specifically indicate that they’re for Cast Members only.

You’re doing the thing that makes you feel like you’ll get kicked out of Disney if you get caught.

You have the Cast Members’ blessing to do so, though. It’s just…weird.

The other thing that happens is you miss two segments of the ride experience.

Specifically, you never meet with Rey and learn your mission. Also, you don’t ride the first ship and get kidnapped.

The Single Rider experience starts at the back of the Stormtrooper room.

Once you pass through the backstage area, you come out on the side of the First Order Star Destroyer. You completely skip the Resistance Transport Ship part of the experience. pic.twitter.com/tl0egLrdc8

— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 15, 2024

Our park reporter was updating throughout their first experience, and it sounded great for those who want to save time.

Our total time in line before we were divided into our cells in the First Order Star Destroyer was 35 minutes and standby was posted at 75. You skip the meeting with Rey & BB-8 and the First Order Transport Ship. pic.twitter.com/CI7iqt33VZ

— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 15, 2024

They indicated a 35-minute wait for something with a 75-minute estimate. So, that’s cutting the Rise of the Resistance time in half.

What’s Wrong with Single Rider and Lightning Lane?

Obviously, this new Single Rider option comes with some huge positives.

For starters, you’re assured of experiencing some form of Rise of the Resistance during a Disney’s Hollywood Studios visit.

I’ve had friends spend a week at Disney and not be able to do this.

For the longest time, Rise of the Resistance was the holy grail, and those memories linger.

So, this sort of guarantee still matters, even after five years of the ride being open.

Also, the transport ship where you get taken prisoner is somewhat notorious for causing nausea.

We’re only talking about a small percentage of people, but it does happen.

With Single Rider, they can experience the escape portions of the ride, plus the hilarious taunting by The First Order.

Meanwhile, they can avoid any risk of motion sickness, which is a terrific exchange.

For everyone else, the opportunity cost may be too great. Unless you’ve ridden Rise of the Resistance a LOT, you’re missing too much.

Imagineers carefully crafted this attraction to tell a story. Without the Rey interaction and the hostage-taking, you miss that.

How much does that matter? That depends entirely on you. Personally, I’m deeply conflicted by it.

I admire that Disney is trying to find new ways to maximize throughput at its most popular attraction.

My worry is that this is an overcorrection, though.

When Disney fans use Single Rider and Lightning Lane, they should still get the same experience.

Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments.

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