FP+ Capacity per Park Summary of Work so far 2/9/2013

[mom2rtk]

I believe "appointment riding" would be that all rides (or nearly all) would be by appointment - where essentially everything is done by fastpass, "appointment" with guests effectively standing in "virtual line" at nearest gift shop/restaurant (ie, spending money) waiting for their next ride appointment, with standby line becoming more like airline standby, where just a few riders to fill in any "gaps" in cars due to temporary unexpected drop in fastpass for one particular trip of the ride. And they could conceivably even eliminate that limited standby due to locator function of magic bands and spontaneously offer extra fastpass to any guests within vicinity of ride if there are spaces. As far as i know, appt riding is not a "real" word, just a clever phrase created by users on this board.

It just seems like a lot of the talk lately has been about Disney maximizing the FP slots. And the more heavily the system goes toward FP, the less ability there will be to ride by standby. And the more they do that, the longer those standby lines will be. And honestly, once the standby line reaches a certain point, I won't even consider it an option. So riding with a FP (by appointment) would be the only option left.

Just "discussion" on my part. But heck, we haven't had anything new to discuss on this in a long time. So why not......

 

[bcrook]

You know, although we can speculate and guess, and anticipate, we really just don't know how this is all going to play out. I AM a little pesimisstic that the educated user is going to end up with the short end of the stick, BUT really I am going to see this thing roll out before I get my nickers in a twist about it.

We have painted a fairly ugly picture, and yet, I cant help but think - Disney has to make it pallatable, otherwise, it aint going to fly. They just have too.

I am actually off to the big D in a couple of weeks, just for a day or two before a cruise (lucky me, trying out the fantasy!) so if there is any chance to participate in this beast, I will do my best to report back to y'all.

And, forgive my ignorance, what is appointment riding? I dont get that reference, but maybe because I am not American?

I can't wait to hear your reports. Some true on the scene observations. In a few weeks, I will be in Little Rock, Arkansas! Not quite the same I might add!

 

[mom2rtk]

In a few weeks, I will be in Little Rock, Arkansas! Not quite the same I might add!

Scoping out building sites for Disney-Arkansas? Being a fellow Missouri resident, I have to say I'd be thrilled!

 

[bcrook]

Scoping out building sites for Disney-Arkansas? Being a fellow Missouri resident, I have to say I'd be thrilled!

Maybe that is the Walmart/Disney Merger PeterPirate2 keeps talking about! I will see what I can find.

 

[mom2rtk]

Maybe that is the Walmart/Disney Merger PeterPirate2 keeps talking about! I will see what I can find.

LOL, I clearly need to hang out on the rumor board more often!

 

[mikegood2]

You know, although we can speculate and guess, and anticipate, we really just don't know how this is all going to play out. I AM a little pesimisstic that the educated user is going to end up with the short end of the stick, BUT really I am going to see this thing roll out before I get my nickers in a twist about it.

We have painted a fairly ugly picture, and yet, I cant help but think - Disney has to make it pallatable, otherwise, it aint going to fly. They just have too.

I am actually off to the big D in a couple of weeks, just for a day or two before a cruise (lucky me, trying out the fantasy!) so if there is any chance to participate in this beast, I will do my best to report back to y'all.

And, forgive my ignorance, what is appointment riding? I dont get that reference, but maybe because I am not American?

Thank you! To many people on these threads, this one much less so, treat their opinion as fact, which is silly because only my opinions are fact. I share your pessimism about the education user ending up on the short end of the stick, but we won't know until it rolls out and I don't think we will even know then. I think this is going to be something that will be tweaking for a very long time. I think it's the not knowing is bothering us more than FP+ itself. The one thing about he current system that I like is the fact that a lot of visitors never use it because they didn't understand it. I have a feeling that Disney is going to be pushing this much more, probably with easy pre-selected itineraries, people can choose from.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Rileygirl]

lol, I hear you Mikegood2 (but pst, its my opinion that is right silly :>) And yes, I agree 100% that Disney will put EVERY effort into educating and wooing the average vacation goer, because it nets them a huge profit called data.

Barry, I happen to be staying at Kidani Village, and there was a rumour a few weeks ago that we get the test rather then Boardwalk, but whether or not that has changed I dont know. We are taking ME, so it could work out. I am hoping to be in the right place at the right time (this was purely accidental though).

Also, I have no idea what value there is to be 'testing' the system, but allowing those who get FP+ to also get FP regular (as has happened in the past) - how is any data they gather there to be helpful when the system goes live when this situation will not exist? What guest wouldnt love three extra priority fp's, and then all the other ones you can score through the regular set up. What kinda feedback is disney expecting to get? Of course that is going to be positive. But helpful? I dont get it. I have several analogies for this type of data gathering, but I think they would not be appropriate for a public board.

(I will, however be innocently grilling cm's on stuff, everything from OHRC's to reliability of standby times posted with the new system, ect. ect. )

Cheers
~A

 

[bcrook]

lol, I hear you Mikegood2 (but pst, its my opinion that is right silly :>) And yes, I agree 100% that Disney will put EVERY effort into educating and wooing the average vacation goer, because it nets them a huge profit called data.

Barry, I happen to be staying at Kidani Village, and there was a rumour a few weeks ago that we get the test rather then Boardwalk, but whether or not that has changed I dont know. We are taking ME, so it could work out. I am hoping to be in the right place at the right time (this was purely accidental though).

Also, I have no idea what value there is to be 'testing' the system, but allowing those who get FP+ to also get FP regular (as has happened in the past) - how is any data they gather there to be helpful when the system goes live when this situation will not exist? What guest wouldnt love three extra priority fp's, and then all the other ones you can score through the regular set up. What kinda feedback is disney expecting to get? Of course that is going to be positive. But helpful? I dont get it. I have several analogies for this type of data gathering, but I think they would not be appropriate for a public board.

(I will, however be innocently grilling cm's on stuff, everything from OHRC's to reliability of standby times posted with the new system, ect. ect. )

Cheers
~A

I can't wait to read about this. I am really curious to see what attractions have the RFID FP+ connected to them. I am secretly hoping that Hall of Presidents and the Riverboat are included (but I have been chastised for this before). If they are included, it makes for a much better story!!!

But, I still haven't seen a complete list of which attractions will be available for fastpass +.

 

[Rileygirl]

You want them to be fast passed Barry? I have been thinking I am glad Pirates (and gasp tiki birds, which we always take in) is maybe not being fp+, because any attraction that will not be fp+ will maybe be super easy to do via standby line. Thats just a pet theory of mine. Anything that is off the grid, Disney wont be educating the average guest to go to it.....

We do plan to do the MK, so I will snoop around Liberty square and try and find out the deal for you regarding these two attractions....

I tend to just hang out in a couple of threads, I dont read all the stuff ongoing with the FP+ or Magic Plus, so I missed your chastisment. Was it entertaining? Do tell

 

[mom2rtk]

You want them to be fast passed Barry? I have been thinking I am glad Pirates (and gasp tiki birds, which we always take in) is maybe not being fp+, because any attraction that will not be fp+ will maybe be super easy to do via standby line. Thats just a pet theory of mine. Anything that is off the grid, Disney wont be educating the average guest to go to it.....

Also, the ones without FP+ won't have a standby line slowed by even one FP+ person coming through. So logic should dictate that I hope for no FP+ on as many attractions as possible. But I'm with Barry. The story is so much better with those included!

 

[bcrook]

When guessing how many people a day would use a FP+ to order a lunch, we just have no idea. We guessed 1000 on the first page for MK. But of course this is where FP+ is making its return - for food ordering.

If Disney could persuade people to use their precious FP+ for dining that would loosen up quite a bit of FP+ availability.

Here is the Be Our Guest teaser.

 

[mom2rtk]

When guessing how many people a day would use a FP+ to order a lunch, we just have no idea. We guessed 1000 on the first page for MK. But of course this is where FP+ is making its return - for food ordering.

If Disney could persuade people to use their precious FP+ for dining that would loosen up quite a bit of FP+ availability.

Here is the Be Our Guest teaser.

If they really are expecting people to use an honest to goodness FP+ slot for a CS meal, then the only place I see that having any traction is at Be Our Guest. Beyond that? Only on a rare occasion on a day when parks are expected to close to capacity.

So I suppose that would only serve as a "consolation prize" so that people who book after all the good FP slots are gone have somthing to choose at all. But honestly, it would probably tick me off more to have them think I want my FP slot for lunch. I think I'd rather see "sorry, too late".

 

[bcrook]

If they really are expecting people to use an honest to goodness FP+ slot for a CS meal, then the only place I see that having any traction is at Be Our Guest. Beyond that? Only on a rare occasion on a day when parks are expected to close to capacity.

So I suppose that would only serve as a "consolation prize" so that people who book after all the good FP slots are gone have somthing to choose at all. But honestly, it would probably tick me off more to have them think I want my FP slot for lunch. I think I'd rather see "sorry, too late".

I guess this fits in with the sales pitch. If people are flush with their 3 FP+ a day for 7 days - maybe they will just not know what to do with them and try ordering a CS meal from a restaurant. For my family of four - I would have use 4 though, one from each one of our accounts. How I would manage that - I have no idea. Right now I can't even link up guests for a simple little breakfast at the GF Cafe.

 

[mom2rtk]

I guess this fits in with the sales pitch. If people are flush with their 3 FP+ a day for 7 days - maybe they will just not know what to do with them and try ordering a CS meal from a restaurant. For my family of four - I would have use 4 though, one from each one of our accounts. How I would manage that - I have no idea. Right now I can't even link up guests for a simple little breakfast at the GF Cafe.

Interesting question. Would you need to use 4 slots? How do they know you're not just REALLY hungry?

 

[Rileygirl]

There are just too many darn parameters to consider regarding the FP+ for counter service. I would be worried about cold food - some of the counter service stuff is questionable at best, imagine your fried food on the pale side of cold, hanging around limply under a heat lamp waiting for you to collect it. bleck. I dont even want to try and get inside Disney's head regarding how this will all work.

And, you are right Mom2rtk, how would they know that? They must have considered this very thing, a loophole. How would they prevent this abuse? Perhaps this is Disney's unintentional "extra value" meal if you would. Heehee.

Edited to add: I really think EMH is going. I dont think it will go until this new system is in place and operating correctly, Disney will certainly not take away this perk and not have something that would be 'attractive' to the masses to put in its place. I dont know if they will just start to 'sell' MK extra fp+s at first, but I dont know how there will be any extra to 'sell' in AK until there are a few new attractions online, and that is years away.

 

[mom2rtk]

I would be worried about cold food

I would be too.

And, you are right Mom2rtk, how would they know that? They must have considered this very thing, a loophole. How would they prevent this abuse? Perhaps this is Disney's unintentional "extra value" meal if you would. Heehee.

This has me wondering if they possibly would only really require one FP slot per group, instead of per person. Which might balance out some of the perceived lack of value in using a FP this way.

 

[bcrook]

There are just too many darn parameters to consider regarding the FP+ for counter service. I would be worried about cold food - some of the counter service stuff is questionable at best, imagine your fried food on the pale side of cold, hanging around limply under a heat lamp waiting for you to collect it. bleck. I dont even want to try and get inside Disney's head regarding how this will all work.

And, you are right Mom2rtk, how would they know that? They must have considered this very thing, a loophole. How would they prevent this abuse? Perhaps this is Disney's unintentional "extra value" meal if you would. Heehee.

Interesting question. Would you need to use 4 slots? How do they know you're not just REALLY hungry?

I am guessing because the app doesn't work. But supposedly, I can log into my My Disney Experience app, order food and connect one order to each of the people in my friends list. According to the terms, I can even do this for my friends connected to me. Wouldn't that be a horrible prank on someone, burn their FP+ on some cold fish and chips in Great Britain at Epcot.

People have tested this feature already - BUT not in conjunction with using up a limited number of FP+. So once again, the test run will not be a good test. People will rave about how convenient it is --- assuming the food is not cold.

 

[Rileygirl]

I suppose the test runs are just to test the actual workings of the system, they cannot be gathering any realistic data about how consumers are going to react to this model in the proposed 'real life' mode.

You know, I have been thinking, they cannot wait until AK and or Epcot has a surplus of FP+ before they use FP+ as the incentive for staying on site, and getting rid of EMH. I am guessing MK will be the first to be 'sold' as the incentive.

 

[bcrook]

I suppose the test runs are just to test the actual workings of the system, they cannot be gathering any realistic data about how consumers are going to react to this model in the proposed 'real life' mode.

You know, I have been thinking, they cannot wait until AK and or Epcot has a surplus of FP+ before they use FP+ as the incentive for staying on site, and getting rid of EMH. I am guessing MK will be the first to be 'sold' as the incentive.

I think you are right. The Mine Train will add a significant number of FP+ to the pile. Also, I think we might be underestimating the numbers of FP+ that will be used for Parades, Meet and Greets, and Fireworks in the MK. There will be a rather large surplus, and I don't think they will just give them away nilly-willy.

And it is going to take years before the other parks have new attractions.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think you are right. The Mine Train will add a significant number of FP+ to the pile. Also, I think we might be underestimating the numbers of FP+

Unfortunately I think it's also going to add a significant number of bodies to the park.