Some Nemo Tips

[Maleficent's Dad]

I feel pretty lucky as I was able to ride the Subs this week (Tuesday, July 3). There's a lot of hype for this ride, and the lines have been insane lately.

I'll share with you my observations:

If you want to go in the morning, either be first at the gate or be prepared to wait. The chaos that has ensued this past week with people sprinting to Nemo has been appalliing to me. You need to be in the park first, and then walk quickly (although thousands of people do indeed run) towards the Matterhorn. They have CM's directing everyone towards the Nemo lines. There is NO confusing where to go any longer.

If you want to beat the crowds, here's one bit of advice: Do not take the monorail thinking you'll be ahead of the game. Nothing can be further from the truth. They do not start the monorails until the gates have been opened at the park (at least this week). You will have a minimum of a 90 minute wait by taking the monorail (at least with these current waits). The people at the gates will beat you by a mile.

We were travelling with our kids - so no sprinting for us. We had to come up with another solution. I recalled what I read here on Intercot -

We waited until the evening fireworks to give the line a try. No easy task for us as we are NOT night owls and we ARE early risers. But alas, DW planned ahead and had the kids napping that afternoon.

The posted time was 90 minutes - the shortest we've seen in 4 days at the parks to this point. We walk over and ask the CM's. They tell us that the wait is really about an hour from the point it was at. They also said it was the shortest they've really seen it during normal operating hours.

So, we jumped on.

We talked to many CM's about it - and if you're not first in the parks when they open, later in the night is the next best thing.

Also - everyone I spoke to agreed with this - guests and CM's - that after this initial summer rush, they don't anticipate constant wait times like this. Nemo is a good ride, but simply not that good! The CM's believed that this insanity will be short lived. The lines will be long next summer, but not like they are now. My family tends to agree. We will go on it again - but would never wait an hour or more for it again!

So my advice - take it or leave it - is to go early (EE works best - I believe the only weekday without EE was Wednesday for those on property) OR to go very late. Either way you're okay - but for now, try queueing up at 10 AM and you'll be there for 3-4 hours! (One day the wait time posted was 180 minutes. The CM told me that this was being very generous and the time was likely an hour longer than that!)

If there are any questions, feel free to ask!

[tinkwest]

because of its great members!!

Thanks for all of your thoughts and advice regarding this new attraction.

It usually doesn't take too long for the initial hype to die down and for the lines to become more realistic. But I don't see it happening before the end of summer, that's for sure.

[meldan98]

We are planning a weekend in the middle of Sept. so we are hoping the line will be much better by then.

[BrerGnat]

Glad to hear the night time seems to be the right time!

I am going on Friday ,July 20 with my sister and her husband JUST to go on Nemo at night while the line is manageable. Grandma will be visiting so she can stay home with the sleeping tots.

We were there last week on July 5 (DH, me, and 2 DS's) and the line was a VERY LONG 3.5 hours around 11am. It was ridiculously hot that day too...I can't even imagine who in their right mind would wait that long for ANY ride, ANYWHERE! There were babies in that line for goodness sakes! No thank you!

[kandokat]

Thanks for the information. I hope in September the lines are not that long!!

[SueTGGR]

We usually go for our annual trip starting with Father's day. I was all geared up to tell our 7 yr old he would have to wait until next trip to see Nemo. Sunday afternoon, after the Monorail driver telling us about 3-4 hour waits curving back towards Small World, it was not looking good. We remembered we had early entry the next morning & decided to try. We got in line about 7:20am and about 1-1/2 hours later we were inside the submarine. It wasn't too bad. My son was armed with his Nintendo DS. I even snuck him out for a quick spin on the cups & saucers! With that long of a wait & everyone still waking up, it was very mellow, visiting with our "neighbors" and some would jump out & back in. But over all everyone was very respectful that we were all there for the same reason. We throughly enjoyed the ride & the animation was amazing. But then all 3 of us really like Nemo. ;>)
That said, the next day we went back in early and because everyone was in line @ Nemo, we were able to get onto 7 rides in about a 40 minute time period, including Buzz that is open as well for early entry. So with the balance, a lot of rides were easy on because the majority of the people were in line over @ Nemo.

Keep in mind those of you with children who will stay up late (or adultswho don't have to worry about little ones), they are keeping the park open later for those in line. I believe it is another 1-1/2 hours after the scheduled closing time!

[GoofyGuy75]

Is there fast pass for this yet?

[Mufasa]

Is there fast pass for this yet?

There are no plans now or any time in the foreseeable future to offer fastpass for the subs.

There just isn't the operational capacity available with the submarines where fastpass would be effective (there would be an extremely limited amount of fastpasses available to begin with and they'd run out immediately so the average wait for all guests would increase even longer than it is now).

Fastpass works well for attractions with a moderate capacity- or perhaps I should say capacity in relation to demand. Some attractions with huge hourly capacity like Pirates or Haunted Mansion really don't benefit from fastpass (there's simply no need to offer fastpass in order to keep up with demand) while others like the subs have too little capacity to be effective.

[GoofyGuy75]

*POP* my happy bubble has been poped. well hope the lines are down by christmas.

[Lulie]

My family was there on July 17th. We waited until 10:00 pm to get into line and "only" waited an hour. We aren't big Nemo fans so we swore we wouldn't wait to ride it but we got caught up in the Disney magic and decided we had to ride it. My DH and I enjoyed it more than the kids. It was a favorite ride for us as kids.

[WDWizard]

How are the lines for all the other rides at 8 am when everyone is making a run for Nemo? Are lines for Tomorrowland rides like SM and Buzz affected by the Nemo crowds?

Does the line get any shorter at all other than at park closing and opening? I'll be visiting the park with just my brother, so I suppose we would wait in line for an hour to ride nemo, but not longer.

[Lulie]

We had no problem with lines on any of the rides last week. We were the first to enter the park through one of the turnstiles at 8 am and rushed back to Nemo only to find the line 2 1/2 hours long. The people with early entry get in at 7am and are already back ther waiting!

Fantasyland rides were very short waits. We rode most rides before 10 am....including Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. One benefit to the long Nemo lines, you aren't waiting in lines with all those people for the othe rides.

[Carol]

We took a different approach. We were in line at the turnstiles for Early Entry shortly after 6:30 AM. At that time the lines waiting to go in weren't too bad. They did swell behind us before the park opened at 7:00.

We went right toward the Matterhorn to get in-line-for-the-line to Nemo. There was no mass chaos that I saw. I have no idea what was going on behind me - but we only saw a few folks running. Most everyone just sped along and got into line. We were at the attraction within 45 minutes of entering the line. It moved very quickly and was not bad at all.

We all loved the ride. It is very well done. I'm glad we decided to take a shot and get up extra early. It was worth it.

I wouldn't make a point to brave the crowds again - but I'm glad I did for the first ride through.

One major peeve I had were the groups line jumping in and out to go on the other attractions while some held their Nemo spots. The Matterhorn seemed to be the worst.

[Maleficent's Dad]

We went right toward the Matterhorn to get in-line-for-the-line to Nemo. There was no mass chaos that I saw. I have no idea what was going on behind me - but we only saw a few folks running. Most everyone just sped along and got into line. We were at the attraction within 45 minutes of entering the line. It moved very quickly and was not bad at all.

Glad it worked out well for you Carol!

Hope the trip to the West Coast was a good one - Team Billy seems to live on!

[grego77]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but what I did to get on was a mix of New England pushiness, and a sprinkle of "common sense". I was there from Friday-Monday. I, as everyone else who stays on-property, got the free 1-hr previous to park opening Fantasyland on my park-hopper. What really irks me is that people use the 1-hr to WAIT IN LINE FOR NEMO! I thought this was disgusting, as people can't even enter the left side of the park and wait for any other ride...so why are people allowed to wait for Nemo when it's ONLY supposed to be for Fantasyland...anyway...I knew I would have to come when you can't come to the park EARLIER than when the park opens.
I realized the ONE day you can't use the pass was on Sunday. So my friend and I simply got to the turnstiles at 7 on Sunday...waited till the park opened, and walked VERY fast to the line, and only waited 20mins. It was definitely worth it....and yes do walk AROUND Matterhorn...you'll cut some time doing that