When I recently rode Test Track with my daughter, we waited in the Standby Line. The Single Rider Line was much shorter, but we wanted to ride together. It was as simple as that.
As the car before ours boarded, a child from the Single Rider Line was told it was her turn. She looked panicked, as did her mother. This girl couldn’t have been more than six years old, there was no way that she should have been riding by herself. The mother immediately complained that they couldn’t ride together.
The Cast Member at the front of the ride tried to explain what Single Rider means, while another Cast Member called the next person in the line to take that spot. Since there were two groups of two in our car, the mother and daughter did end up riding together, just not in the same row. They had cheated the system.
Single Rider lines are few and far between at Walt Disney World, and this is probably part of the reason why. Rides like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind have even and odd lines instead of Single Rider. If someone is riding alone, they’ll be paired with someone else in the odd line.
No one wants to wait in a line for over an hour on a Walt Disney World vacation. Single Rider Lines help to fill empty spots so that all the lines are shorter. But remember, if you choose the Single Rider Line, you’re not going to ride with your group. Sometimes it happens, but that’s rare.
If you’re with a group and decide to try Single Rider, pick a meetup place for after everyone is off. It could be several cycles before the next Single Rider is called.
And please, don’t try to cheat the system. I ended up sitting next to that little girl, and she was terrified the entire ride. I’m sure that she would have enjoyed Test Track if she had just been able to hold her mother’s hand.