Disney's game plan is to try to make it seem like you aren't in a line at all, and if you are in a line it will go fast and there will be something to distract you.
Short article here with some of their "tricks". And another here.
I'm a big Disney Imagineer fan and I also love solving complex issues for maximum efficiency, so I was all over this "Device Deployment" design. Essentially, before school started we had to get 5,000 Chromebooks in student hands from 6th to 12th grade spread across 5 buildings with about 15 employees. We needed to collect payment and signed user agreement and give them the device set up specific for their grade and building.
Once we knew what building they were going to be in I went to work. We set up the first station, user agreement, inside the large entryway away from the door to make sure the line would never show from the parking lot. Then you went through a set of doors into a library classroom for the payment station. You'd exit that room on the opposite side to go across the hall to the cafeteria which had stations set up for grade levels and buildings. They exited out the other side of the cafeteria back into the parking lot they parked in.
The loop was perfect because you couldn't see each station from any other station. At most you might see the same two-three people in front of you at each station, but you never see the rest of the people moving through the loop. Most of the time you are "in line" you were actually walking from station to station.
We also had people "sign up" for 30 minute time slots. This helped to keep the crowds thinned at any one time, but more importantly the parents thought the process would take 30 minutes. It ended up taking about 10, so people just thought things went really well.
We also did a "fast pass" lane. Instead of going the long loop of user agreement and payment, you could have paid online and brought your signed user agreement. Those people immediately went left, handed over their User Agreement and someone would check their Student ID# for payment in our records. Those people then go down the hall and enter the cafeteria to pick up their device. These people were in and out within 5 minutes.
So:
1. Keep people moving
2. Don't let people see the whole line
3. Have interactive pieces in the line
4. Oversell how long the process should take
I was real hyped when I got to design the Covid Vaccine events.
