FP+ is Live! Magic Bands in the park!

[freediverdude]

There is a point, at which, the more complicated they make all this for the average or new visitor, the more people will just say "forget that, we're going somewhere else." I don't pretend to know what that point is, however, lol.

That said, with regard to the phantom fp+ reservations, I assume there will be something in place that only allows a person to reserve the same number of days as are on their ticket media (example- visitor has a 5 day MYW ticket, and they are allowed to book fp's for 5 different days in the system. If they want to book another day, they would have to cancel one of the current ones.)

Yes, they could theoretically keep cancelling old days and making new reservations, although I don't see how that would be such a big deal since they can only hold so many at a time- and I don't see tons of people doing that. I'm not sure if they could really get away with having a penalty on that either- would alienate people more than it does with a dining reservation. Also it doesn't possibly lose Disney money like it might with people not showing for a dinner reservation.

The passholder and castmember ticket situation with this, though, will be interesting to see how that shakes out. Obviously they do have to put some kind of limit on the number of days you can hold fp's for at one time. Otherwise, yes, there would be a few kooks out there who would sit there at the computer every day making sure they have a space mountain fastpass for every single day of the year, lol.

 

[jade1]

Squidgyness, I will try-but really have no great answers, no for sure answers, and actually rarely rope drop so even one FP is great for us. But if 80% of guests are not even getting one FP currently, even 1 to 3 is a huge improvement IMO.

This is my problem.

Can anyone please explain:

1) How standby lines will be made shorter by expanding fastpass to more locations and making more people use fastpass (albeit 3.) Guests who have never used FP will enjoy 3 shorter lines a day, but what about the rest of the day?

They don't get 3 now, the rest of the day will be the same as now.

2) What these newly fastpassing guests are going to feel when they arent using fastpasses.

Exactly like they feel currently.

If standby lines are just the same, or worse,

"IF", what if they are shorter? Why is the same or worse? What if a family has 3 late afternoon or evening FP+'s scheduled? There is a far better chance with this system that they will do a character brunch (yes I said brunch, why hurry for breakfast) swim, then hit the park later than they would with the current system, because there is a chance we may get a FP yet?

That's one family not in lines that would have been.

what is the point of messing with fastpass to enable three a day for more people. These people WILL have to wait standby at some point, and they WILL still complain about it.

Because 80% will go home and report 3 a day with no wait instead of we stood in line 6 hours and got 3 rides in. They will have to wait for more, but that's exactly like they feel currently-only the whole time.

Actually, won't it become even more obvious how bad standby lines are to a lot more people when that 10 minute wait with a FP suddenly becomes a 50 minute wait without one when they get to next ride? Which will they remember better, the 10 minute fastpass they had one morning or the three other rides that morning they had to wait in a loooong standby line for? Especially with the tight limits on FP numbers.

Probably an even split. But you can be sure they will say "thank God we had that/those FPs" and will check the kiosk for more.

I can't think of a satisfactory answer. I'm trying to be positive, but logic dictates that more fastpass locations + more people using it = the same or longer standby lines, even with the limits. And those limits effectively result in people having to wait in a lot of standby times anyway.

But 80% have huge lines all day now, not "a lot"...."every one".

What Disney is effectively doing to the fastpass system is taking away a system that really pleased some people, and replacing it with one that might please the majority very little or not at all. Not to mention annoying all those people who liked using the old system.

Who knows, they may scrap it yet, or they may leave the current FP machines running along with it. But FP+ is better for the majority 80% IMO.

 

[doconeill]

That's not addressing the reason for my reply to the post I quoted.
She was siting potential FP+ "scheduling abuse" as the reason for
(her idea that) Disney would cease issuing NE tickets.

My point was that if FP+ "scheduling abuse" was my PLAN, I wouldn't
be stopped by the lack of NE tickets. I could "abuse the system" using
the (much less expensive) regular MYW tickets.

I addressed that a few times before. *IF* it actually becomes a problem, simple solution. Your ticket allows you to reserve FP+ for one day per day available on your ticket.

If you pre-book, and then allow them to expire - you've burned that day for FP+. Doesn't matter if you entered the park of not. That's one less day you can do it in the future.

 

[Missyrose]

The passholder and castmember ticket situation with this, though, will be interesting to see how that shakes out. Obviously they do have to put some kind of limit on the number of days you can hold fp's for at one time. Otherwise, yes, there would be a few kooks out there who would sit there at the computer every day making sure they have a space mountain fastpass for every single day of the year, lol.

Let's play with this for a second. What feasible way does Disney have to limit the number of days a passholder can make FP+ reservations? Would it go back to the long-ago debunked theory of X number of FP+ reservations per quarter?

Let's say there is a kook who moves to Orlando and decides for his first year of living there he wants to go on Space Mountain every day. Short of limiting the number of days a passholder can use FP+ (and thereby basically limiting how much they use their AP), how can Disney stop this?

 

[doconeill]

Let's play with this for a second. What feasible way does Disney have to limit the number of days a passholder can make FP+ reservations? Would it go back to the long-ago debunked theory of X number of FP+ reservations per quarter?

Was it really "debunked"? We don't know how passholders will be handled at all yet.

Let's say there is a kook who moves to Orlando and decides for his first year of living there he wants to go on Space Mountain every day. Short of limiting the number of days a passholder can use FP+ (and thereby basically limiting how much they use their AP), how can Disney stop this?

Well, there are a variety of ways. Without totally limiting them, then can keep a score of how many times you failed to use them, and send warnings, and if unheeded, reduce the lead time or prevent them entirely.

Only allow X per year at 60 days, Y at 10 days, etc.

All pure conjecture though, since the only thing we know at this point is that passholders will get to use Fastpass+.

 

[Missyrose]

Was it really "debunked"? We don't know how passholders will be handled at all yet.

It was debunked in the sense that the person who "reported" it was shown to be making stuff up.

 

[doconeill]

It was debunked in the sense that the person who "reported" it was shown to be making stuff up.

Yes, although I don't know if that specifically was made up. It is, in theory, a valid approach. One that local passholders will be shining their pitchforks for...

 

[d1gitman]

Quick question. The Fast Pass+ is for 3 prebookings per day. Is that per park per day or just per day in total. I ask because if it is per park per day then it could be used as a mechanism to promote more park hopping. Apologies if this has been addressed already but this thread is a loooong one to read through.


Also. It seems many people are up in arms about this is a tactic to get people to spend more time in shops and spend. Maybe its part of a grander plan to accomodate long term future expansions to all of parks and Walt Disney World as a whole. Maybe Fast Pass+ for the next few years is really meant to be the proving grounds for plans that are 5,10,15 yrs down the road. Maybe Fast Pass as we know it was phase one if Fast Pass+. Just food for thought. After all, disney has made substantial acquisitions in the recent years and have enough material to work with to double what we currently know as Walt Disney World I know disney has switched gears in the past on ideas but a $1b system is a lot if Mickey bars an if we accuse them if pandering to the stockholders on changes we have to give them some benefit if the doubt that the $1b investment is part if something big that will benefit all. Unhappy guests will result in unhappy shareholders

 

[doconeill]

Quick question. The Fast Pass+ is for 3 prebookings per day. Is that per park per day or just per day in total. I ask because if it is per park per day then it could be used as a mechanism to promote more park hopping. Apologies if this has been addressed already but this thread is a loooong one to read through.

One park, per day. You can't pre-book FP+ for a second park in the same day, per the T&C page.

 

[Rileygirl]

deleted

 

[Cinderumbrella]

As always Rileygirl, this latest post raises some interesting ideas...

 

[Missyrose]

I would just like to say that it has been truly lovely getting to discuss all this continually for the past few days without anyone popping in to call us all Disney haters or Debbie Downers. This has been a great discussion, keep it up folks!

 

[Squidgyness]

Exactly like they feel currently.

"IF", what if they are shorter? Why is the same or worse? What if a family has 3 late afternoon or evening FP+'s scheduled? There is a far better chance with this system that they will do a character brunch (yes I said brunch, why hurry for breakfast) swim, then hit the park later than they would with the current system, because there is a chance we may get a FP yet?

Because 80% will go home and report 3 a day with no wait instead of we stood in line 6 hours and got 3 rides in. They will have to wait for more, but that's exactly like they feel currently-only the whole time.

Who knows, they may scrap it yet, or they may leave the current FP machines running along with it. But FP+ is better for the majority 80% IMO.

But how can they stop standby lines from growing even longer by expanding the usage of FP and the places at which you can use FP? So you only get 3 FP in advance to limit impacts on standby lines. If these FP are all booked up, standby will still be the same, surely.

The rest of the time aren't using those 3 lovely afternoon FP's you will be in standby, but everyone using FP when you are stood in standby will increase the wait time, unless Disney can find a solution.

They are not limiting the impact of FP's with this if they are just distributing them more evenly across the population. Unless they reduce the overall amount of FP's available, the impact of them on stanby times will remain the same.

Instead of just late comers and the uninitiated getting screwed, it's still going to be an flawed system, just one whose flaws affect everybody.

And if wait times do get longer I think Disney will be in trouble.

This would all be fine if Disney existed in it's own little perfect world without competition. It doesn't and this policy actually doesn't strengthen disney in regards to it's competition all that much, it could even weaken it.

For those who don't want to use FP+ or plan rides in advance, and those people are out there, Universal and other parks will become a far more attractive proposal, because though their lines are still not short, at least they won't be as bad as Disney will get without using FP+. What is the point of having more attractions and parks available at WDW if you can't get on them without a fastpass booked 60 days in advance?

For those that do decide use FP, they will still wait in really long lines for the rest of the time. If you want to do more than three rides without "insane wait times" as people often say now, good luck. If you don't get the best FP's, good luck getting on a headliner still, that will not change all that much. If you don't get the right times, you'll have to adjust your schedule.

What if people like you who want to sleep in and not rush don't get that afternoon FP time because people have snapped it up, just 60 days in advance? If you can't get a same day FP (and as you say latecomers can't now, so it's unlikely to change) they will have to wait in standby, and I still think standby will be affected by (prebooked) fastpasses just the same if not worse than it is now. They will either have to adjust their touring strategy or accept increased standby times, especially at places like the HM that never had FP.

For those that WANT FP's, they will perhaps look at Universal and it's front of the line pass and see that as a more attractive option. A few might stop going to disney because of the limits they have placed on fastpasses. The rest will game the system to their advantage by formulating a plan to get the best FP's as soon as they become available 60 days out, leaving the naive newcomers logging in an hour after the fastpasses come online just as screwed as they are now in regards to popular rides.

If I were at Universal now I'd be preparing ads that emphasise that unlike Disney, Universal gives you UNLIMITED front of the line access with a pass, which you can get free with an onsite stay.

Yes Disney can't compete on this front because universal only has 3 onsite hotels and an unlimited fastpass system wouldn't be feasible for Disney, but that is why they should fight Universal on traditional ground like theming, attractions and try and change pricing etc. Not try and make rides available for everyone equally, I don't think it's possible.

Someone is always going to get screwed. Will less people get screwed under the new system? I don't know. I don't think so.

 

[darnheather]

I'm crossing my fingers that this will be ready by the time we go. I love the idea of pre-booking parade viewing! We don't do roller coasters or scary rides or park hop so I'm not at all worried about using up our maximum per day. Also the bands seem like such a great alternative to the cards. Would be great if you could put cell phone information onto the little one's bands just in case you get separated so that a cast member could scan and ring you.

 

[mesaboy2]

I'm crossing my fingers that this will be ready by the time we go. I love the idea of pre-booking parade viewing! We don't do roller coasters or scary rides or park hop so I'm not at all worried about using up our maximum per day. Also the bands seem like such a great alternative to the cards. Would be great if you could put cell phone information onto the little one's bands just in case you get separated so that a cast member could scan and ring you.

As currently envisioned, this general capability should already be there without putting any personally identifiable information on the band.

 

[TJBerry]

There is a point, at which, the more complicated they make all this for the average or new visitor, the more people will just say "forget that, we're going somewhere else." I don't pretend to know what that point is, however, lol.

That said, with regard to the phantom fp+ reservations, I assume there will be something in place that only allows a person to reserve the same number of days as are on their ticket media (example- visitor has a 5 day MYW ticket, and they are allowed to book fp's for 5 different days in the system. If they want to book another day, they would have to cancel one of the current ones.)

Yes, they could theoretically keep cancelling old days and making new reservations, although I don't see how that would be such a big deal since they can only hold so many at a time- and I don't see tons of people doing that. I'm not sure if they could really get away with having a penalty on that either- would alienate people more than it does with a dining reservation. Also it doesn't possibly lose Disney money like it might with people not showing for a dinner reservation.

The passholder and castmember ticket situation with this, though, will be interesting to see how that shakes out. Obviously they do have to put some kind of limit on the number of days you can hold fp's for at one time. Otherwise, yes, there would be a few kooks out there who would sit there at the computer every day making sure they have a space mountain fastpass for every single day of the year, lol.

There are many people that visit the parks now that can't be bothered to educate themselves about the current FP system, which is free and available the same day.

How does Disney think they will make people make reservations for rides months in advance when some won't even do it the same day?

 

[Robo]

Would be great if you could put cell phone information onto the little one's bands just in case you get separated so that a cast member could scan and ring you.

It doesn't even have to be as complex as putting that info "on" your child's MagicBand, specifically.

As long as you include your cell number in the info in your Disney file, a CM can find that phone number by accessing your file from ANY of your tickets (or MagicBands.)

 

[mesaboy2]

There are many people that visit the parks now that can't be bothered to educate themselves about the current FP system, which is free and available the same day.

How does Disney think they will make people make reservations for rides months in advance when some won't even do it the same day?

Marketing! Web pages!

Yeah, I don't think so.

 

[darnheather]

As currently envisioned, this general capability should already be there without putting any personally identifiable information on the band.

That is great to know. Thank you.

 

[mesaboy2]

That is great to know. Thank you.

Each band has on it a unique identifier--and only that identifier--that by itself is meaningless. When linked to WDW servers though, that identifier can access most everything about you that WDW has compiled information on: name, address, phone number, date of birth, traveling party, favorite color, whatever.