I went there with family last month. While the anticipation was to stand in queue for hours, we had the darshan within 10 minutes ( through the VIP line) . After having the 6: 45 am darshan slot booked online, we reached shirdi previous evening.
The hotel staff said, you would have the darshan in an hour. Next morning after getting ready, we reached the mandir at 6 am, presented the print-out at Gate no. 3. There wasn't much crowd there at that point of time and in 10 minutes we were out of the building after having the darshan. We got lucky, I think!
People aren't allowed to stand there. They have to keep moving the queue. Management was good, there was no rush there. Even with so many people coming every day, the place was kept clean.
As we were leaving Shirdi at 9 am, saw the queue building up and so was the number of agents who were promising to get you a visit in an hour, if you buy prasad for the offering from them. But remember, you can't carry anything inside except the flowers, to be offered inside.
