Did you know that Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom has a single rider lane? Neither did we!
By Brian Miller
The wait time at Magic Kingdom's Space Mountain can sometimes push your Disney World wait time to 70 minutes but there is a way to cut it shorter.
Space Mountain has a single rider line and we were blown away when we found it.
When you enter Space Mountain, there is no mention of a single rider lane. No mention from the cast members, no nothing regarding the line at all. You are sadly, forced to wait your turn all the way through the interior maze of the stand-by line.
But there is actually a single-rider line and when we visited the last time, my 12-year-old son saw the small little sign and we jumped about 15 to 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the guests.
Once you get to the end of the main stand-by line where you can finally see the twisting turnstiles and the actual ride cars themselves, there is a metal gate and a cast member on the right. Along with a little sign that says, "single riders".
We told him we were willing to ride single and were instructed to walk a different route that took us all the way around the other guests who were turning left to right through the stand-by line. When I got to the end of my instructed route, a cast member walked over, confirmed I was a single rider, and immediately directed me to an open seat.
On the other side of the room, there are two sides to this ride, my son was directed the same way. We literally got off the ride within one car of each other. Our wait time was reduced considerably.
The only question I have is why not promote this from the beginning? Other attractions offer a single rider option. At Animal Kingdom you can reduce the sometimes 70 minute wait to about 10 minutes by taking the single rider line.
Other attractions also offer a single-rider option but frankly, every attraction at Disney should offer this.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will almost always ask for single riders in order to keep the line moving. At Tron: Lightcycle run they did the same. No single rider lines but they were looking for single riders. Avatar: Flight of Passage does this as well. At EPCOT's Test Track, they clearly advertise the single rider lane and it is a fantastic way for guests to jump on and jump off.
Why not just offer a single rider option all the time everywhere? It may seem that by doing so, wait times could be increased but in reality, that is not the case. A single rider line will 100% cut down on the wait times for each attraction because that line will never create additional wait for anyone but the single rider who has to wait to be called.
For Disney, it is a win-win situation.