FP+ is Live! Magic Bands in the park!

[Planogirl]

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.

I thought that someone said that the new system might keep people from visiting competitor parks as much. I see having more time as giving people more time to do just that.

Is the idea to get people to other Disney parks then?

 

[wilkeliza]

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...

If you don't mind me asking what resort where you at? Maybe a well meaning CM issued you one but your resort was not actually suppose to web apart of the test so your information wasn't set up to be linked and such.

I know they kind if flip a digital switch (over simplifying the process) to make sure your hotel reservation can be linked. If you hadn't been selected and were wrongly given the band then perhaps the proper steps weren't used.

 

[ChuckGA]

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.

I said it was possible for Disney to use FP+ to eliminate all standby lines by not allowing any guests in line that didn't have a reservation through the FP+ system. The key requirements were that people could choose their times and that they had a huge number of kiosks to accommodate all the guests having to make a FP+ reservation. FP+ has the ability to choose time and thanks to a very large number of guests having data phones, they now have a huge number of kiosks. If they understand the data correctly, they could allow the right number of FP+ reservations and window size to keep the line at 5 to 10 minutes all day long without the line ever getting to zero. That way no guest every has to stand "in line" for a ride for more than 10 minutes. Of course they will be standing around waiting between FP+ reservation times to get into that line. I am not suggesting this is a good idea, just that it could be done.

As far as ride capacity vs guests, only the slowest times of year have rides with no one in line at times during the day but then that is true whether you have standby or FP+ reservation system. All other times of year there is a line from open to close. Also Disney lowers ride capacity based upon crowds. BTMRR for example can run 4 trains at once but at the start of the day or during slow seasons they might only be running one, even when the wait time is over 20 minutes and could be reduced by adding another train. It would make the guests happy but it costs money for additional workers. So depending on which end of the shoulder season you are on, you could actually have to wait in line longer during a less crowded time because the crowd to ride capacity ratio is higher.

 

[eeyoresnr]

I said it was possible for Disney to use FP+ to eliminate all standby lines by not allowing any guests in line that didn't have a reservation through the FP+ system. The key requirements were that people could choose their times and that they had a huge number of kiosks to accommodate all the guests having to make a FP+ reservation. FP+ has the ability to choose time and thanks to a very large number of guests having data phones, they now have a huge number of kiosks. If they understand the data correctly, they could allow the right number of FP+ reservations and window size to keep the line at 5 to 10 minutes all day long without the line ever getting to zero. That way no guest every has to stand "in line" for a ride for more than 10 minutes. Of course they will be standing around waiting between FP+ reservation times to get into that line. I am not suggesting this is a good idea, just that it could be done.

As far as ride capacity vs guests, only the slowest times of year have rides with no one in line at times during the day but then that is true whether you have standby or FP+ reservation system. All other times of year there is a line from open to close. Also Disney lowers ride capacity based upon crowds. BTMRR for example can run 4 trains at once but at the start of the day or during slow seasons they might only be running one, even when the wait time is over 20 minutes and could be reduced by adding another train. It would make the guests happy but it costs money for additional workers. So depending on which end of the shoulder season you are on, you could actually have to wait in line longer during a less crowded time because the crowd to ride capacity ratio is higher.

not to be negative, but that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard... not everyone has the ability or know how to reserve their times in advance... and not everyone (myself included) has a smart phone... and many people still go to Disney with no planning ahead... Disney can not charge people $85 a day to enter and then tell them they can't ride anything because they didn't plan ahead... just my opinion

 

[Blytheny]

not to be negative, but that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard... not everyone has the ability or know how to reserve their times in advance... and not everyone (myself included) has a smart phone... and many people still go to Disney with no planning ahead... Disney can not charge people $85 a day to enter and then tell them they can't ride anything because they didn't plan ahead... just my opinion

I have to agree... I am not happy with this new FP+ idea at all. I already hate having to plan my meals/restaurants 6 months ahead... having to plan rides/meet & greets, etc., will totally ruin the spontanaiety of the trip completely. And imagine how disappointing it will be for those that either didn't know how to plan/or that they HAD to plan... or just chose not to... to find they are missing out on everything. Disney will have some VERY upset customers if they don't plan this out very carefully...

 

[WillAustin]

I thought that someone said that the new system might keep people from visiting competitor parks as much. I see having more time as giving people more time to do just that.

Is the idea to get people to other Disney parks then?

There is recent quote from the CFO that basically says their belief is the more they can get customers to schedule in advance, the less likely the customers will leave to visit competitors.

 

[doconeill]

If you don't mind me asking what resort where you at? Maybe a well meaning CM issued you one but your resort was not actually suppose to web apart of the test so your information wasn't set up to be linked and such.

I know they kind if flip a digital switch (over simplifying the process) to make sure your hotel reservation can be linked. If you hadn't been selected and were wrongly given the band then perhaps the proper steps weren't used.

This isn't the first report here about a problem like this.

Apparently someone "flipped a switch" to begin MagicBand testing a few months ago. Guests were randomly selected and marked as to receive a MagicBand instead of the normal KTTW card. The problem was, someone forgot to make sure they even had the MagicBands on hand. There were problems trying to remove the MagicBand from the profile, too...

 

[buzzCMlightyear]

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.

They are spread across the four parks. Some of smaller attractions may not have there touch points uncovered for this at this time, but most do.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

They are spread across the four parks. Some of smaller attractions may not have there touch points uncovered for this at this time, but most do.

Interesting that other folks there now are reporting all except EE... ARE COVERED....

 

[AngiTN]

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...

Depending on where you are staying I may have been the other person. Only I don't know about a magic band.

When I checked in for our trip in early March I went to add a day to our tickets. When they tried to do it they found 2 sets of tickets and had to get that straight before they could add a day
That caused them to reprint our KTTW cards.
Somehow when they did that my PIN got screwed up so back to get that fixed, another KTTW card
Got to the park the next day and first off, none of our tickets would scan in to the park so off to a back up line for that
Then I get in and my KTTW won't pull a FP so off to Guest Services to get that fixed, where they have to print 2 more KTTW cards. The first one they printed said not valid for charging and it took them forever to figure out how to fix that.
The PIN did finally work and pulling FP was hit or miss, sometimes it worked, others didn't. And had trouble with different KTTW each time. And we could never use them to get in the parks. We had to go to a Blue Suit standing near the entrance each time.

So yeah, I can't say I have a lot of faith in much of anything computerized on the Disney site. Maybe they need to get the bugs out of the existing systems before launching yet another, even if it's just 100 people.

 

[fflmaster]

buzz or anyone else that might know, how long will this 100 person beta test be?

I am really hoping they get to a larger test WITH NON FULL roll out by the time we arrive in September.

I would love the option to be part of both if possible. I know the system says one or the other, but during testing it seems they have access to both FP and FP+.

 

[Goofy127]

We will be there August 5th. I would love to be able to test this out

 

[doconeill]

buzz or anyone else that might know, how long will this 100 person beta test be?

I am really hoping they get to a larger test WITH NON FULL roll out by the time we arrive in September.

I would love the option to be part of both if possible. I know the system says one or the other, but during testing it seems they have access to both FP and FP+.

I'm still curious as to how one could use both, since you can't scan a magicband at a regular FP kiosk...waiting for some first-person reports.

 

[bwang123]

They are spread across the four parks. Some of smaller attractions may not have there touch points uncovered for this at this time, but most do.

both splash mountain and BTMRR were covered up throughout the trip until at least yesterday (our last day in MK). you would think they would include at least these. We didnt ride space mountain so i can't confirm this ride but every other attraction in MK that we encountered was covered.

On Saturday, Toy Story, RNRC and TOT were all covered.

The only top attraction I noticed was EE uncovered yesterday. Did not ride safari or kali so I don't have info on that as well.

I didnt see anyone using magic bands but if its 100 people just in AK, then I can see why.

 

[doconeill]

I didnt see anyone using magic bands but if its 100 people just in AK, then I can see why.

I thought 100 people in AK is a sizable fraction of the whole?

 

[linzbear]

both splash mountain and BTMRR were covered up throughout the trip until at least yesterday (our last day in MK). you would think they would include at least these. We didnt ride space mountain so i can't confirm this ride but every other attraction in MK that we encountered was covered.

On Saturday, Toy Story, RNRC and TOT were all covered.

The only top attraction I noticed was EE uncovered yesterday. Did not ride safari or kali so I don't have info on that as well.

I didnt see anyone using magic bands but if its 100 people just in AK, then I can see why.

Soarin' was uncovered yesterday, and Toy Story Mania was uncovered today. (My littles are too small for RNRC and afraid of Test Track & ToT).

 

[MACUSER]

Will be at POR on Sunday I am going to ask about it when we check in, wouldn't mind trying it out if testing is going on while we are there.

 

[msmileyface]

I called Disney. I told them I am travelling in June and asked if I would have to worry about the new FastPass system. The person on the phone was very surprised I was even asking about this. He said, "Oh, no.. that's only JUST being piloted now and it won't really be rolled out until 2014." Just my 2 cents.

Just quoting myself since a lot of people might not have seen this earlier. It's not gospel but it sure made me feel better to hear the CM tell me this on the phone.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Just quoting myself since a lot of people might not have seen this earlier. It's not gospel but it sure made me feel better to hear the CM tell me this on the phone.

I wouldn't put too much weight on this. CMs are notorious for having incorrect information about things like FP+.

 

[Planogirl]

There is recent quote from the CFO that basically says their belief is the more they can get customers to schedule in advance, the less likely the customers will leave to visit competitors.

Interesting because I was thinking just the opposite. We will always visit a certain competitor and I've already been strategizing on how to use fastpasses even more wisely to have more time to spend away from the Disney parks. This isn't just to visit that competitor but to perhaps do more hanging out at the resort and resort hopping and such things. Unless I'm missing something (which is possible since we still only have limited knowledge) this might just free up more time.