Anyone else miss the challenge of the old fast passes?

[finedice]

I loved the old system, but look forward to less running. EPCOT always winded me at RD. It remains to be seen if I cannot still be as successful as before...

 

[DLBDS]

One of my favorite parts of going to Disney was seeing how to work the fast pass system. I used to run straight to tower of terror grab a fast pass while going on standby. Then as my window time opened up I would grab a fast pass from rockin roller coaster. Then use my fast passes on both while getting new ones. It was such a challenge but I loved it. Last night as I booked my fp+ I realized part of my thrill of my Disney vacation was gone. Now I just have to stress about going from test track, to Germany for dinner to the seas to see nemo. Lol. Just wondering if anyone else misses this.

I also have no clue how someone who doesn't know anything about Disney can book fp+. Am I the only one that considers locations in the park for my itinerary? (Granted in traveling with a 4 and 1 yr old so I can't be going all over the place).

Yessss! We had a lot of fun getting them. It was hard work but once they were in hand, we were all excited and giddy. I thought my DD and I were the only ones missing this. It was a pretty good system but I think only folks 'in the know' really benefited from it. Now, everyone knows about FP+. I just wish there was more flexibility in return times with FP+.

 

[lauradis]

No shenanigans here. I'm honest about the fact that we used crowd calendars and chose parks per day. That was, then, mostly due to booking ADRs. We did not, however, do any kind of "these rides in this order" type of plan like those Touring Plans/Unofficial Guide has. We did not decide what direction to go in a park until we were in the park.

So when you showed up at epcot you didnt first go to tt or soaring to pull fast passes?

So when you showed up at HS you didntn first go to TSM to pull fast passes?

So when you showed up at Mk you didnt first go to your favorite headliner to pull fast passes?

So when you showed up at AK you didnt first go to animal truck ride or yetti to pull fast passes?

The only difference I see now between the two systems is

1. less fp easily
2. No more rd unless I want to get up and I still get to ride TSM or Soaring.
3. Less walking, no more criss crossing the park every hour or so

 

[mom2rtk]

The only difference I see now between the two systems is

1. less fp easily
2. No more rd unless I want to get up and I still get to ride TSM or Soaring.
3. Less walking, no more criss crossing the park every hour or so

4. No ride repeats by FP unless you luck into a headliner open as a 4th.
5) Tiering?
6) Commitment to which park on which day before you know what the weather will be like or if kids will be sick.
7) Slower moving standby lines on things that previously did not have FP.

 

[wisblue]

Yet those supposed motives have been and continue to be used to defend various opinions and theories and that motive was to make FP more fair or evenly distributed because guests took advantage of loopholes.

As far as the rabbit hole, maybe you should at least explore it a little. What you find might change your mind about a few things.

.

Don't get me wrong, I have my opinions on this, you have yours, and I know that I will never change your mind and you won't change mine unless you have some more tangible evidence than what I have seen so far.

I don't think you are disagreeing with me that a result of FP+ is a more even distribution of FPs, especially for the most popular attractions. Where we seem to disagree is whether that is something Disney wanted to accomplish or is just an unintended result or one that Disney is totally indifferent about. I just have a hard time accepting that Disney (or any successful company) would so indifferent about its guests' experiences that it wouldn't take that into account when making decisions like this.

At the end of the day, when it comes down to Disney vacations , I am much more interested in focusing on the current system and how to work with it than worrying about what motives Disney might have for putting it in place.

 

[mesaboy2]

So, still gonna go with calling me dishonest?

 

[lauradis]

So, still gonna go with calling me dishonest?

Im sorry.

You are the exception to the rule. Most of the people I see planning on here do plan which park which day, way in advance of the 60 day fp+ mark.

 

[lauradis]

4. No ride repeats by FP unless you luck into a headliner open as a 4th. - normally go in off season and still did rp, so tsm and soaring where the only have to have fast pass - rides
5) Tiering? - yep kinda sucks
6) Commitment to which park on which day before you know what the weather will be like or if kids will be sick. weather never impacted my days, lucky no one has never been sick at Disney
7) Slower moving standby lines on things that previously did not have FP - this is wonky.

FP+ impact has really hit the high season people more. SO I have no comment for high season impact because unless the trip was free, Im not going when the crowds are over 4/5 level.

 

[Laketravis]

I don't think you are disagreeing with me that a result of FP+ is a more even distribution of FPs, especially for the most popular attractions....

Regrettably, I suppose I am disagreeing. I don't agree that FP's are distributed more evenly to the benefit of guests because I believe that FP's are distributed more strategically to the benefit of Disney.

Where we seem to disagree is whether that is something Disney wanted to accomplish or is just an unintended result or one that Disney is totally indifferent about. I just have a hard time accepting that Disney (or any successful company) would so indifferent about its guests' experiences that it wouldn't take that into account when making decisions like this...

I don't think they are indifferent at all and I'm sure they take them into account. But we do seem to disagree as to how that process works at any successful company - the objective to increase revenue, reduce costs, and increase profits is how any initiative starts. How it impacts guest experience is certainly taken into account so that those experiences can be managed but they don't drive the objective.

For evidence of this look no further than Disney's own quarterly reports - the presentation is not how they embarked on a mission to enhance the guest experience and wow, what do you know we actually realized some benefits for the company as well. No, the presentation is all about the benefits to the company and oh, by the way, it's been met with a positive reception by most guests. Because they wouldn't stop what they are doing based on unhappy guests - that's not how the squeeze/break/fix operational style works. They keep squeezing until enough guests cry uncle, tweak it a little, and then start squeezing again.

For the sake of not turning it into a rabbit hole I won't go into how the same philosophy is being applied to the resorts, DVC, transportation, merchandising, employee medical and pension costs, and training even though there are plenty of examples there to support my opinion of what they are doing with the parks.


.

 

[mesaboy2]

Im sorry.

You are the exception to the rule. Most of the people I see planning on here do plan which park which day, way in advance of the 60 day fp+ mark.

I will grant you I have a luxury that many here do not have--convenience. That means I can wake up one morning and not know where I'm going. I can come back pretty easily another time. Just five days ago at Universal I did exactly that...asked the family which park first while on the bus there. Done similar at Disney in the past, too. Is that the norm? No, probably not. My last run to Disney was six months ago, I've been to Universal 3 times in the interim. Is FP+ the reason for that? No again. Is it a reason? Very possibly.

 

[Angel Ariel]

So when you showed up at epcot you didnt first go to tt or soaring to pull fast passes?

So when you showed up at HS you didntn first go to TSM to pull fast passes?

So when you showed up at Mk you didnt first go to your favorite headliner to pull fast passes?

So when you showed up at AK you didnt first go to animal truck ride or yetti to pull fast passes?

I didn't say we didn't pull fastpasses when we entered a park. I said we didn't have a ride to ride touring plan like the Unofficial Guide has in the back of its book. We did not decide *what order* we were riding things in until we got to the park.

So yes, we got a fp for soarin or rt when we entered epcot, bit we didn't decide *which one* we were heading to first until we were at the park. At MK we toured by land, and didn't decide whether we were starting with adventureland or tomorrowland until we were in the park. Yes, we picked up a fp for whatever headliner was in that area, but that wasn't decided until we were in the park.

Is it really so strange that one could be a DISer and *not* tour the parks using a detailed ride to ride touring plan?

 

[Disneylover99]

FP+ impact has really hit the high season people more. SO I have no comment for high season impact because unless the trip was free, Im not going when the crowds are over 4/5 level.

I disagree. I've used FP+ for high, medium and low season crowds. High crowds were the only time FP+ was a benefit for us.

 

[Disneylover99]

Most of the people I see planning on here do plan which park which day, way in advance of the 60 day fp+ mark.

Yeah, lots of people on these boards look at park hours and crowd calendars once they're out to get a rough idea where they might want to go. But lots of people are also looking at when EMH are scheduled, times for Wishes or MSEP schedules, etc....It doesn't mean they are making decisions that far out as to the exact park they want to go to on the exact day. That's why there are a lot of people who purposely avoid making ADR's and stick with counter service so they can go with the flow.

 

[DisneyFive]

Crowd level had no impact on how I used the old FP system. The strategy was the same.

Dan

 

[wisblue]

Regrettably, I suppose I am disagreeing. I don't agree that FP's are distributed more evenly to the benefit of guests because I believe that FP's are distributed more strategically to the benefit of Disney.
.

You're taking that a step further than I did. I am saying that the FPs are more evenly (again, I'm not going to get into "fairly") distributed than they were before.

Maybe that benefits guests or maybe it is just for the strategic benefits of Disney, but it is very possible that providing benefits to more customers is part of Disney's strategy to increase its profitability. Again, I don't think those are mutually exclusive goals.

From there, to the extent we disagree, we'll just have to leave it at that.

 

[JimmyV]

CMs told is not to worry....


ETA: and to be clear, there was no deception with the CMs. They saw the times on the pass and would admit anyone after the start time. It was a permitted loophole--just to make that clear.

This does not jibe with any understanding of the word "loophole" with which I am familiar. The CMs knew that people were returning after the stated time, told them they could do so, and even suggested that they do so. It takes a very broad definition "loophole" to lasso this into it. This "loophole" debate has raged for 4 pages and I still haven't seen a single example of any FP- user here actually exploiting one and doing something that Disney did not allow.

This is where FP- lovers aren't being honest.. Most of us use crowd calendars to avoid parks with larger crowds so we where always picking which park which day in advance. Most of the time we where picking which park which day when the disney released the times schedule.

So im calling shenanigans on not deciding what park before rolling out of bed.

Seriously? Tell me. What crowd calendar app or website was I using in conjunction with my FP usage in 2001?

 

[Cormoran]

This is where FP- lovers aren't being honest.. Most of us use crowd calendars to avoid parks with larger crowds so we where always picking which park which day in advance. Most of the time we where picking which park which day when the disney released the times schedule.

So im calling shenanigans on not deciding what park before rolling out of bed.

Oh yes, I had the park of the day selected way before our trip started, but if we rolled out of bed and for some reason decided to go someplace else we could. We didn't lose our FP's for the day. Now that's not so easy if you want headliner attractions.

 

[lauradis]

This does not jibe with any understanding of the word "loophole" with which I am familiar. The CMs knew that people were returning after the stated time, told them they could do so, and even suggested that they do so. It takes a very broad definition "loophole" to lasso this into it. This "loophole" debate has raged for 4 pages and I still haven't seen a single example of any FP- user here actually exploiting one and doing something that Disney did not allow.


Seriously? Tell me. What crowd calendar app or website was I using in conjunction with my FP usage in 2001?

You mean the year of death for travel as a whole. You cant compare years of travel being at a new low to be the norm.

Most people in the know. never to go to MK on Mondays or Saturdays higher levels.
Mondays because most people use Sunday to travel. first full day Monday. Still true.
Saturday because local people and last day before travel. Still true.

Epcot weekends, More Saturday, Friday date night, less for sundays. more so when they started special time of the year events. still true.

MGM any day that had fantasmic. still true.

 

[lauradis]

You dont have to like FP+, but its here to stay for while.

I still would prefer to sell front of the line passes just like the dark side to onsite guest, DVC and AP only.

 

[mom2rtk]

Yeah, lots of people on these boards look at park hours and crowd calendars once they're out to get a rough idea where they might want to go. But lots of people are also looking at when EMH are scheduled, times for Wishes or MSEP schedules, etc....It doesn't mean they are making decisions that far out as to the exact park they want to go to on the exact day. That's why there are a lot of people who purposely avoid making ADR's and stick with counter service so they can go with the flow.

Agreed. And while many make loose plans, they like to be able to make changes on the fly. I think it's being married to the plan that makes FP+ different.