people not understanding fastpass

[stargatebarbie]

Could not believe how many people we met last week who did not know or understand the fast pass system. We got stopped lots of times esp as we waltzed pass people on btm who had been waiting ages and we just strolled on.most people asked how much it was others just couldnt grasp how it worked.one family had been there 4 days and where still no wiser .we do find it funny as a few times we got some filthy looks sometimes esp on tot as we just walked on .do you think disney do enough to inform guests asdo you think leaflet s to explain it should be avaible .also saw lots of cm, s trying to explain it at the fast pass ride entranced

 

[stargatebarbie]

Mind you the less people know the quicker we get on

 

[Jules1212]

Mind you the less people know the quicker we get on

Exactly! So, shhh!!!!!!

When we were there two weeks ago, people seemed to be completely au fait with the fastpass system - to the point where the queues for the fastpass ticket machines for BTM were almost as long as for the queue to go on the ride itself!

What I couldn't understand was why the fastpass system was not operational for Indiana Jones at all when the average queue was approx 45+ for our entire visit. And it wasn't going for the two days there were queues for SM of 50 minutes+. Not so bad for us on SM as we went during EMH instead.

We used fastpass to great effect on TOT though, as only DS and I wanted to go on and so we got fastpasses for DH and DD too and just managed to squeeze in two rides in our alloted time.

 

[stargatebarbie]

Must of been lucky last week on indy as it was a 5 or 10 min wait every day how ever the fast passes on tot ran out very early in the day fp was not needed on r&rc

 

[DLPdaft]

It always amazes me too ~ my absolute maximum wait time for regular lines is 30 minutes and i think because of that i, ve only been in the regular line for btm and pp about 6 times in total. i always fastpass them. tot wasnt that busy a lot of the time we were there in feb.
i think its a bit of a ploy by disney, not advertising how easy fastpass is ~ they were even listing it as an extra perk alongside their special discount deals last year, like it was something special that wasnt available to absolutely everyone in the parks.

 

[Ware Bears]

Mind you the less people know the quicker we get on

Exactly! So, shhh!!!!!!

so

 

[Isila]

when we were there people also had no idea of fastpasses and how to use those. They would go to fastpass queue and when asked for "tickets" they would give them park tickets and when CM tried to explain they didn't understand anyway. And they would even get mad.
There is lots of information about tickets - on tv, busses, in hotels. People just don't pay attention. Well, it's their problem, not mine.

 

[Jonjo]

We tend to go off season so hardly ever use the FP system. But i feel that it is well advertised on my last trip I saw it mentioned in the park maps and guides, on the TV channel in our room and I saw them mentioned on the infomercial on the TV on the bus from the hotel to the park.

I do check the FP times, but during our trip in March the longest wait for a ride we had was about 30mins for BTM on a busy Saturday afternoon.

 

[jillrobinson]

Not sure if everyone is aware of this 'glitch' and I can't say I've tried it as we usually go off peak so we hardly every use the FP system apart from Buzz and BTM.

There are apparently 3 independant servers controlling the Fastpass system.
1) Disneyland park (except for Star Tours and Indiana Jones).
2) Indiana Jones and Star Tours
3) WDS

So theoretically you can hold 3 FP's at 1 time, e.g. Peter Pan, Star Tours and Tower of Terror, obviously a bit of park hopping involved there too.

 

[AngelDisney]

Not sure if everyone is aware of this 'glitch' and I can't say I've tried it as we usually go off peak so we hardly every use the FP system apart from Buzz and BTM.

There are apparently 3 independant servers controlling the Fastpass system.
1) Disneyland park (except for Star Tours and Indiana Jones).
2) Indiana Jones and Star Tours
3) WDS

So theoretically you can hold 3 FP's at 1 time, e.g. Peter Pan, Star Tours and Tower of Terror, obviously a bit of park hopping involved there too.

You have made my day jillrobinson! I am going in August. This is great tip!! Thanks a million!

 

[stargatebarbie]

Mind you the less people know the quicker we get on

Don't know abut august but ive not seen the fast pass on star tours in use for ages

 

[Ware Bears]

I knew the two parks were on separate systems but didn't know about Star Tours and Indiana Jones.

Even though we go at the busiest times of year we only tend to use fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain and Tower of Terror. We ride Peter Pan and Buzz in EMH, and DH and DD who are the only two who'll do the upside-down rides also do Space Mountain then and find they can get on Indiana Jones easily enough without having to use fastpass. In fact it was only last summer that we found we were having to use fastpass for ToT.

 

[Aliceacc]

I think that too many people book their resort and get park tickets, then get onto a plane and show up. They think that booking a Disney vacation is similar to booking one to many other places. They're unaware of fastpasses and ADRs and photopass and a number of other things that they could take advantage of.

I'm not sure what Disney could do to better educate the general public. The information is mentioned on the Park Guides that you receive as you enter every park. And every Disney site, tour book and other source of information mentions it. But you can't make people understand that this is a different type of information.

I would think, though, that anyone who books through a travel agent should have the information they need. That travel agents, in addition to making reservations, should inform their clients of at least the basics of a Disney vacation.

If you book on your own, though, I'm not sure just how Disney would inform you.

 

[MinnieVanMom]

I think that they need to do a media approach and put it as a flashing or drop in when you go to the DLP site.

Educate the masses through all ways possible, put it on the buses, at the train station, on the website, buttons that say ask me about FP. Spend 2 months saturating the masses and word will get out.

Then DLP needs to follow up with making sure the FP system is working properly.

 

[sky13]

Looking at a recent park map there is a little box saying "save time with Fastpass" and "Free", but I'm guessing not many people read every little bit of the park maps (I do but that's because I get bored in queues)!

I try to use Fastpass as much as possible, it just saves so much time (especially on BTM)... Have also had to explain how Fastpass works to people too.

jillrobinson - I didn't know about Indiana Jones and Star Tours being on a separate system, thank you!

 

[dlpSteve]

I have never in my life used a Fastpass, mainly because I didn't go on rides that use them. I do think it could be mentioned on check in, though they probably don't want to extend the time it takes to do that. I can understand people missing it - they are probably raring to get on the ride and not interested in reading signs - such irony!