FP+ is Live! Magic Bands in the park!

[mesaboy2]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .DAI - SY

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Daaaaaai-

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ssssssssseeeeeeeyyy

Like.

 

[Robo]

Just because Disney to increase profits and that it might improve the guest experience doesn't mean it does. Not every idea is a good one.

Let's take a relatively recent example.
The problem: Disney buses were dedicated to a park/resort(s) loop. This resulted in many times where a bus would be running almost empty because there just wasn't anyone at those resorts at that time who wanted to go to that park but there would be some waiting for another park.
The solution: Put Disney buses on an open schedule so they would be redirected before each dropoff where they were to head next.
The intended result: People would be waiting less, buses would run fuller, and they wouldn't need as many buses.

Why this fails: The function they are optimizing just tries to minimize the total amount of wait time across all people. So if 99 people wait 1 minute less and 1 person waits 89 minutes longer, they have saved 10 wait-minutes. Sounds great unless you are that one person.

Before you could be assured that a bus would be along within 15 minutes (20 if you just missed it). With the new system, if your family was the only one wanting to go to MK while groups of 4-5 families kept coming out for AK every 10 minutes, your family would be sacrificed to keep waiting while each new bus arriving would be heading for AK since five families is greater than one. Eventually they would send an MK bus regardless but that is not what people expect or want. Now this isn't exactly how it works but that was the idea and the actual implementation didn't result in the theoretical optimal solution anyway so the new system is worse for guests. Maybe someone should have run the math that said "Even if we add more buses, the incremental cost of the bus is more than made up for the guests spending their time and money in the park rather than waiting for the bus."

FP+ has all the earmarks of unintended consequences that mathematically look good but guests' emotional human judgement rates it poor.

Oh, come on...

This is the most technologically advanced theme park resort in the world.
There's nothing to worry about.

What could possibly go THAT wrong?

 

[Napria]

Oh, come on...

This is the most technologically advanced theme park resort in the world.
There's nothing to worry about.

What could possibly go THAT wrong?

Love it. I wonder how many people remember Westworld?

 

[mesaboy2]

Love it. I wonder how many people remember Westworld?

I'm geeking out on the mapmeister's classic scifi references.

 

[rainynight]

I REALLY wish they would just fix their WEBSITE first!!! They are spending millions of dollars on FP+, and I can't even get on the website to MAKE a reservation for dining (again!!). The website is a real mess and it seems that if they can't get that right, how are they going to get FP+ right??? I am not for or against FP+, just an observation about things they should clean up first in order for FP+ to work properly.

Exactly. I'm having better luck with the new website but it still has issues. Surely Disney reads all the complaints on here about the website so why can't they get it right?

As far as fast pass + goes it seems silly. Even 60 days out is too far in advance to schedule rides. With time it will be pushed earlier and earlier like dining reservations have been.

It may or it may not work out in the long run. But big businesses do make bad investments at times so its not impossible for this to be a huge financial loss to them. Only time will tell though. No skin off my back. We like Disney World but its just one of the many places in this world we enjoy so if worse comes to worse it will be one less vacation destination to us.

 

[monorailrabbit]

My personal opinion on My Disney Experience is pretty low right now, but I'll reserve final judgement until the app is fully rolled out.

I've been able to login no problem, link with DH's profile, add all my reservations (DVC and dining) and I'm able to view everything on Mac, iPad, and iPhone while I'm home.

The problem starts when in the park. Most of the time we were in WDW this past weekend we could not login to the system to view anything. When we couldn't remember a specific dining time, we thought no problem, we'll just login to My Disney Experience and double check the time. Wrong! The app on the iPhone was unavailable and there is no 'offline' version, you can only view your info while you are logged in.

We tried both the Disney wifi and our carrier, neither could connect to the app. Thankfully I use Tripit so I had all the info there.

Here's a screen capture of the error:


Untitled by tsciolla, on Flickr

So right now I'm not feeling the love for Disney IT

Coming from a couple that are both IT geeks for a living.

That bold sentence really worries me!

Well, in all fairness.

It's only an issue if you want to do rides in the parks.

Oh, well what's there to worry about then!

 

[seashoreCM]

Let's take a relatively recent example.
The problem: Disney buses were dedicated to a park/resort(s) loop. This resulted in many times where a bus would be running almost empty because there just wasn't anyone at those resorts at that time who wanted to go to that park but there would be some waiting for another park.
The solution: Put Disney buses on an open schedule so they would be redirected before each dropoff where they were to head next.
The intended result: People would be waiting less, buses would run fuller, and they wouldn't need as many buses.

Why this fails: The function they are optimizing just tries to minimize the total amount of wait time across all people. So if 99 people wait 1 minute less and 1 person waits 89 minutes longer, they have saved 10 wait-minutes. Sounds great unless you are that one person..

What you describe is the wrong way to do things.

If there are no people waiting to go to a particular park then bus trips to that park can be omitted. But as soon as even one person arrives at the platform to go to that park then a bus for that destination should be dispatched to arrive within 20 minutes or whatever the normal non-rush hour interval is.

The system still saves bus runs, here instead of having a bus every 20 minutes, there will be some longer intervals without bus runs when nobody shows up. And it still looks to the guest as if buses ran every 20 minutes.

Now let's say that running the bus for the one person cut his wait from 89 minutes to 20 minutes (saving him 69 minutes) but at the same time 70 people going to the peak load park had to wait for another bus 10 minutes later (costing them cumulatively 700 minutes). That would still be fair and proper.

 

[bwang123]

Like I stated in the original post, we are currently in Phase 1 of the roll out.

I'll list what I have been told the phases will be. This is only what I have been told, will probably change as it happens, so bear with me.

Phase 1: 100 FP+ Guests throughtout all four parks, resort guests only.
Phase 2: Increase number of Resort only guests, no estimate at this time.
Phase 3: Increase Resort guest number again, start allowing some AP.
Phase 4: All resort guests, all AP.
Phase 5: All guests.

No estimated dates for any of the phases as of this time. Probably depends how phase 1 and 2 work out.

were these 100 people in Animal Kingdom only? We are here now and all of the FP+ readers were covered in MK, HS and Epcot. Animal Kingdom, i noticed Expedition Everest was not.

 

[Planogirl]

Maybe these guys should comment after this has been in place for a while ....

I don't get some of the posts here. One person said that part of the plan was to make standby lines shorter and also make it less likely that people will go to other parks. One person even said that standby lines could disappear! If people spend less time in lines won't that actually give them more time to go to other parks? Also, how could standby disappear? Measuring ride capacity versus attendance pretty much guarantees that that will never happen.

 

[iheartjuppy]

I should clarify that my issues were only while ON Disney property as well (resort - AKL, and all four parks). The app works fine from home both before and after the trip. The error screen capped is one of several I experienced.

 

[bwang123]

Maybe these guys should comment after this has been in place for a while ....

I don't get some of the posts here. One person said that part of the plan was to make standby lines shorter and also make it less likely that people will go to other parks. One person even said that standby lines could disappear! If people spend less time in lines won't that actually give them more time to go to other parks? Also, how could standby disappear? Measuring ride capacity versus attendance pretty much guarantees that that will never happen.

arent they building a new bus loop at MK that is supposed to accomodate better park to park transportation? seems like that means they arent trying to keep people in one park.

 

[mesaboy2]

arent they building a new bus loop at MK that is supposed to accomodate better park to park transportation? seems like that means they arent trying to keep people in one park.

Yes--that is one of the presumed reasons.

 

[andyman8]

Well, I'm going to get a lot of popcorn and just watch this all unfold like a Hollywood motion picture. I think the climax could be coming soon except with this it's going to be much longer than 10 minutes until the resolution!

 

[doconeill]

arent they building a new bus loop at MK that is supposed to accomodate better park to park transportation? seems like that means they arent trying to keep people in one park.

Actually, I believe the loop was to better accommodate the new articulated buses they will be using for POP (and presumably AoA), and as an added plus they will move the park to park buses from TTC to the bus loops as well (either to new stalls or the vacated ones).

 

[doconeill]

I've seen a couple of posts in this thread that seemed to reference FP+ will eventually replace fast passes completely. My initial understanding was that regular fp's would stay and FP+ would just supplement them since it's only for 3 attractions per day. Was I wrong about this? Is it going to be just FP+ in the future, with only the ability to reserve for a few rides per day? Sorry if I missed the answer in any of the previous posts in the thread.

We haven't been informed by anyone official as to how this will work exactly yet. All we know so far is that we will be able to book three in advance. Beyond that is pretty much speculation right now, but there is indication that the FP+ system will also work like the existing FP system, although there might be some added restrictions (perhaps only one per attraction, etc.)

The old FP system will also stay until everyone is RFID enabled and the system is fully operational. What I'm not sure about right now is how guests with MagicBands will utilize the old system, unless they've already enabled it for them to get additional FP+s via the MagicBand somehow.

 

[preemiemama]

Has anyone noticed a change in the DME site? I am 59 days out from my trip and now have an option to create a "wish list" of attractions that I can "bookmark them to add to my itinerary when booking windows become available". The list includes character meet and greets, restaurants, rides, and shows.

 

[doconeill]

Has anyone noticed a change in the DME site? I am 59 days out from my trip and now have an option to create a "wish list" of attractions that I can "bookmark them to add to my itinerary when booking windows become available". The list includes character meet and greets, restaurants, rides, and shows.

I actually wonder if having/using the app can boost your chances of being
"selected", as long as you are at the correct resort. It might make it easier if they pick people already familiar with the app and perhaps already have some favorites picked out.

 

[preemiemama]

I was wondering about that as well. I had not seen anyone else post about it and thought that was odd!

 

[lillykat]

Or you can be like me and stump the cast members at both the park guest services and the resort by being the only person in the reservation to be listed in the computer as having a band but they aren't doing it at our hotel, so much fun having an invisible band, so I couldn't get into the parks without help, couldn't get fastpasses and pin never works. Oh and somehow had 2 sets of tickets on my pass. Can't be good when the resort manager said um, I have only seen this once before...

 

[doconeill]

Or you can be like me and stump the cast members at both the park guest services and the resort by being the only person in the reservation to be listed in the computer as having a band but they aren't doing it at our hotel, so much fun having an invisible band, so I couldn't get into the parks without help, couldn't get fastpasses and pin never works. Oh and somehow had 2 sets of tickets on my pass. Can't be good when the resort manager said um, I have only seen this once before...

Ah...must have been the "Didn't anyone check to see if we had the MagicBands first?" test.