Single Rider Lines Added to Beauty & Beast and Fantasy Springs E-Ticket Rides!
Disney is adding Single Rider Lines to three of what are quite literally the most popular attractions in the world, giving guests an option for reducing their wait times without paying extra for paid FastPass, staying on-site, or arriving 90+ minutes and power-walking a mile at rope drop. Here’s the latest.
Let’s start with the basics: what exactly is a Single Rider line? It’s a line for solo guests or those willing to ride separate from their parties. Cast Members aren’t going to check your marital status prior to using the line. Disney isn’t the IRS, even if the two organizations are both experts at making your money disappear. You also not prohibited from entering the Single Rider line if you’re part of a group. You just will not be part of that group when boarding the attraction.
Officially, Single Rider lines are a “service that guides Guests experiencing an attraction on their own to an empty seat in a vehicle.” Guests can access an attraction from designated routes with a minimal wait. Single Rider service may not be available depending on the operation conditions. Basically, Single Riders are best thought of as “seat fillers” who will join other parties to prevent attractions from being dispatched with empty spots.
At Tokyo Disneyland, the most popular ride in the park is finally using its Single Rider line: Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast!
This mega E-Ticket opened ~5 years ago with Single Rider line signage in place, but that was either never used due to physical distancing or abandoned as Tokyo Disney Resort adopted paid Premier Access and wanted to push guests towards the paid route. Either way, I’ve never seen the Single Rider line in use there and it wasn’t listed on the website until today.
Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast has far and away the highest average wait time at Tokyo Disneyland. On our most recent trip, it was seldom below triple-digits. It often hit 100 minutes shortly after official park opening and routinely had its line cut with over an hour left until park closing. It is one of two attractions for which we purchase Premier Access, because that’s the only viable option for us to experience it with a toddler. Even that routinely sells out fairly early in the morning.
Over at Tokyo DisneySea, the two mega E-Tickets in Fantasy Springs are likewise adding Single Rider: Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey and Peter Pan’s Neverland Adventure.
Without a doubt, these are the top two attractions in Fantasy Springs. Both are nearly flawless experiences that are among the best Walt Disney Imagineering has ever created. Most guests will probably prefer the Frozen ride, but they’re both 10/10 attractions in my book. On Sarah & Tom Bricker’s Top 15 Disney Attractions in the World, Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey ranks highly and Peter Pan’s Neverland Adventure barely misses making the cut. (It would be on a top 20 list.)
Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey is right up there with Soaring: Fantastic Flight as the longest line in Tokyo DisneySea. We spent a lot of time at Tokyo DisneySea last year around Christmas-time, and Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey regularly had a wait time above 200 minutes. Its line was typically cut over 90 minutes before park closing during those visits, which is also not uncommon.
No matter how you slice it, doing Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey is difficult. On busier days, you need to arrive 90+ minutes before park opening for a realistic crack at rope dropping it.
Arrive any later and that’s off the table, but you might still be able to purchase Premier Access. Or maybe not–on several days, we entered the park shortly after official opening time and it was already sold out. Staying at a select Disney hotel for Happy 15 (early entry) or using the Fantasy Springs Hotel entrance is the most realistic shot for most guests.
We actually did rope drop Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey on one 10/10 crowd level December day…and with a stroller! After making the nearly mile-long power walk in roughly 10 minutes (that’s really good time, for those who have never made the trek), Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey was basically a walk-on.
We could’ve looped it with a second wait of under 45 minutes (also very good), but we had already purchased Premier Access for a second ride that would conflict with that. Rookie mistake, but after being shut out of the ride multiple times on previous days, we were overeager with buying the DPA.
The complicating factor with rope dropping Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey is that long walk. Even if you arrive early and are near the front of the pack at the turnstiles and security, you have to also be a fast power-walker once inside the park as you can lose your position during that mile-long walk. TDR guests move fast, and take strategy seriously.
Honestly, we loved rope dropping Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey. It was stressful before getting into Tokyo DisneySea, but once we emerged through that tunnel and saw Mount Prometheus, it was pure magic. Not even kidding. It was one of the highlights of our trip, and an exhilarating experience that made us feel alive. Then again, we are a little crazy and live for conquering crowds and this type of thing. But our daughter likewise loved the rope drop race, and almost as much as she loves Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey (which is a lot). If you’ve got the stamina, we’d highly recommend it!
Single Rider is valuable at Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure, albeit less so from an objective perspective than Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey. Although this ride is the other clear headliner, it has healthy hourly capacity and it’s less popular with guests because it’s a motion-base simulator.
The end result is that Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure routinely has a wait time that’s more comparable to Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies than even Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival (let alone Frozen). In fact, there were times in December when it was the shortest line of the 4 rides in Fantasy Springs.
It was often the last to cut its line, and there were a couple of times when it was a walk-on at the end of the night–even as the Tangled and Frozen rides either had 100+ minute waits or had already cut their lines. Still, Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure regularly has a long line during the midday hours, and Single Rider will help with that.
Single Rider will also help people like me, whose party otherwise cannot experience Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure. This is the only Single Rider line of the trio we’ll be able to use given that we have a toddler (who cannot ride alone), and by “we” I really mean “me” since the motion and visuals of this attraction don’t really agree with Sarah’s stomach.
All told, here’s the current list of attractions with Single Rider lines at Tokyo Disney Resort:
Tokyo Disneyland
- Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast
Tokyo DisneySea
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
- Raging Spirits
- Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey
- Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure
Here’s hoping that this is just the start, and Single Rider is restored to both Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. The latter ended around the time that Premier Access was introduced, and the former was only offered briefly in 2019-2020, if I recall correctly (and I’m going off memory, so that could be wrong).
Single Rider lines at Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey, Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure, and Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast should be an absolute game-changer. Our expectation is that these offer an advantage similar to Indiana Jones Adventure, given the somewhat similar seating arrangements among the attractions.
It also helps that Single Rider lines are (historically) not particularly popular at Tokyo Disney Resort. That’s bound to change at least a little in the absence of free FastPass and with 180+ minute waits that are common, as the cost-benefit calculus will change.
Nevertheless, our expectation is Single Rider waits of 30 minutes or less for all three, which will amount to a massive time savings. We also wouldn’t be surprised if these Single Rider lines occasionally offer walk-on waits, as is the case with the current Single Rider lines at TDR.
Strategy has gotten really challenging at Tokyo Disney Resort, and especially Tokyo DisneySea, so this is massive news. It’s also a win for everyone, even families like us who mostly will not be able to take advantage of these Single Rider lines. That’s because Single Rider lines, as noted above, help fill empty seats. Improving the fill rate reduces wait times–everyone wins!
Planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Trip Planning Guide! For more specifics, our TDR Hotel Rankings & Reviews page covers accommodations. Our Restaurant Reviews detail where to dine & snack. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money post. Our What to Pack for Disney post takes a unique look at clever items to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Consult our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and City Guide to Tokyo, Japan.
Your Thoughts
Have you used Single Rider lines at Tokyo Disney Resort? Looking forward to taking advantage of the shorter waits at Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey, Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure, or Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast?Experienced heavy or worse crowds at Tokyo DisneySea since the opening of Fantasy Springs? Do you agree or disagree with our take? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I’m in the process of planning a trip to Tokyo Disney by myself so this is great news! It’s looking like I’m going to book a 2-night package that seems to include Premier Access for all of these attractions so this will allow me to ride them twice which will be nice since I’ll have limited time.
By the way, going through the process of booking a package is exhausting! I thought WDW was bad but this takes forever just to choose anything and they don’t allow you to just switch up the hotel to see price differences…you have to go through the whole process again! Also, I’m going in late March and many of the hotels/cheaper rooms are sold out. So if you’re thinking about booking a package at Tokyo Disney, do it early!
“By the way, going through the process of booking a package is exhausting!”
You might find this hard to believe, but it’s actually better/easier than it was in the lead-up to Fantasy Springs opening. It’s still very tedious, you’re 100% right about that, but searching before used to involve lengthy virtual queues plus the process itself (not to mention searching again and again for availability).
I wish I would’ve kept track of how much time I spent on the whole process. It was easily 20 hours just for that one hotel stay.
As someone who is severely immunocompromised and loves Disney with my family its a challenge for me to. I have to wear a mask entire time and really try to distance myself as much as possible. Recently we were getting on in France and as we were getting into the car the WDW employee motions for a single rider to get in with us . I politely ask her please do not put anyone with us im immunocompromised and this woman clearly was ill . She forced her onto car and off we went . I waited 45 minutes to get on this ride and now im sitting next to a walk on rider who is ill and is endangering me . I do not think WDW should force anyone to ride with a stranger , its unacceptable.
I’m sorry to hear that you are immunocompromised, and I hope you are able to recover to more stable health. In your current situation, I would recommend favoring outdoor attractions with outdoor queues where you can remain out in the fresh moving air. Some of those indoor queues can get such old stale air. I got sick once the day after getting stuck in the indoor Space Mountain queue for an extended downtime. That’s an old ride and the air barely moved in there. I should have followed Tom’s advice and immediately exited the ride once they declared the ride was down. By trying to wait it out, I wasted a LOT of time and was at much higher risk of getting sick (which is what happened). It’s those indoor confined spaces with poor airflow that can get really yucky, especially in winter.
My assumption is that Japanese guests place a really high value on riding together. Given their levels of knowledge, no other explanation (such as being unaware of the option) fits.
I wonder if they still do the slightly awkward thing of asking the person whether they mind a single rider sitting next to them. (Or maybe that’s just reserved for me?)
Not just you. And it cracks me up how the CMs always point back to the SR line, and guests look you up and down before answering.
I have ‘fond’ memories of getting rejected on Splash Mountain. Meanwhile, Sarah never had any such issues. Literally not once, ever. Funny how that works. I can only assume Japanese guests were taken aback by my intimidating aura.
Well that is indeed a game changer.
Indiana Jones has as a walk on waiting for pases at Disney Sea was massive for me as will paying less.
as you say things will change a bit but if i wait half an hour then im ok. it seems to be the rule in disneyland and california adventure nowadays anyway to cut waits in half but not more because of secret getting to locals.
I’m guessing 30 minutes is on the highest end of the spectrum for waits. I don’t see any of these being a walk-on (except for perhaps Peter Pan), but they should be short–a massive time savings over the 100-240 minute waits that are common at all 3!
This is huge! When we were there last year single rider turned Indiana Jones from an 80 min wait to a walk on, in the middle of the day. 2 of the 3 of us even ended up in the same ride vehicle! Especially with these being family friendly rides, I imagine there won’t be a huge percentage of guests willing/able to split their party which should keep the lines short!
Yeah, I made the ‘mistake’ of redeeming Priority Pass (FastPass) for Raging Spirits at Christmas, only to see that my wait was much longer than guests in the Single Rider lines. Not even sure why I didn’t do SR in the first place, frankly. Just didn’t think about it.
Went to Tokyo Disney for the first time last May. We live close to Disneyland so we will definitely be going back! Peter Pan and Beauty and the Beast are the best attractions we have ever been on. We missed Frozen as it was being maintained. So happy for the single rider lines!
Wow, this is great! We have made great use of single rider lines at Disney parks over the years (the parachute ride in WDSP was our first ever time using single rider when our DD was just old enough!). Although I like what they have done with Cosmic Rewind, Slinky and 7DMT where they divide odd and even-numbered parties into separate lines and pull from those to fill the entire coaster, obviating the need for single rider. (As a side note, why is it that Everest single rider is always such a time saver, while RnRC single rider rarely saves much time? Is it that the single rider entrance is right next to the regular entrance for RnRC?).
Cool, but I barely like flying to Florida from NY. So Japan ain’t happening . 🙁