Confessions of a FP+ Kiosk Newbie

[JimmyV]

Rather than walking around to all the machines, not knowing when your return time was until you got there to obtain it created its own level of frustration.

The TP website (and later the app) solved this problem. You could see what times the FP machines were spitting out before you walked over there. Looking for a 4:00-5:00 return time at Space Mountain? A quick glance at your phone would tell you what times were currently being distributed and you could walk over when the time was right. The new system of picking your time is better, no doubt. But the old system was not as arcane or frustrating as some let on. The whole notion of running around the park to pick up FPs in some random fashion is overstated. TP was very useful.

 

[mesaboy2]

Okay, so lets break this down. If you spent 2 minutes obtaining a single fast pass in the past, plus the time walking to the machine, and now you are spending 10 minutes obtaining three passes, plus the ability to select your time (based on availability) can you not concede that fast pass + does have some advantage over legacy fast pass? I personally save more than the four minutes in travel alone.

Rather than walking around to all the machines, not knowing when your return time was until you got there to obtain it created its own level of frustration. You then had to stay in the area or return later. I'd much rather spend my time doing other things as opposed to chasing those elusive little slips of paper. Just my opinion.

As long as say, two people aren't in front of me using kiosks. Otherwise my wait to get those FPs just became 30 minutes.

 

[jon18uk]

It may have taken that long to gather 3 fp-, but who wants to stand in line in a kiosk line and wait 10 minutes per person? I don't know anyone that is ok with waiting behind 5 people (for example) in front of them at the grocery store all writing checks, when they could have just slid a debit card through a machine and been in and out a lot quicker. It may be a stretch of a comparison, but it's ridiculous of Disney to think guests are ok with this.

Re-open FP machines at the individual rides (to be used with MB) and keep the kiosks open for convenience for FP's across the park. They need as many FP disbursement areas possible if they are expecting it to take that long.

It would take quite a lot of walking around the park to gather three FP- previously. Also several times we walked across the park only to discover that FP distribution had ended for the day, at least with the FP+ kiosks you don't have to hike across the park to find out what return time you are getting.

 

[mom2rtk]

I spent probably 10 minutes at a FP+ Kiosk in City Hall yesterday afternoon drilling down to my ultimate, less-than-ideal, choices of It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Under the Sea. I could not help but think the people behind me were mumbling "newbie" to themselves. (Yes, I am aware of how my choices were limited due to the time of day.)

But my point is that this process is far more cumbersome than I expected it to be. My career is in IT, and I think I'm pretty sharp at it if I humbly do say so myself. I also studied a priority list that some DISer posted to speed the process. And it still took me 10 minutes, using the actual kiosk.

I noticed a line 30 people deep at about 7:30p in the Adventureland/Frontierland breezeway waiting for FP kiosk access (or CMs with iPads). That is not something I would ever have seen before the advent of FP+.

My bottom line advice: avoid this method of scheduling FPs if at all possible for you.

Well, that's ALMOST as quick as walking, inserting your ticket, and taking what it spits out, right?

I always pick the wrong lane at the grocery store and bank. I have the feeling I wouldn't fare well at a kiosk. Hopefully they'll get the 4th FP access moved to MDE sooner rather than later.

It would take quite a lot of walking around the park to gather three FP- previously. Also several times we walked across the park only to discover that FP distribution had ended for the day, at least with the FP+ kiosks you don't have to hike across the park to find out what return time you are getting.

Did people really not know you could see the current FP distribution time on their phones?

And I keep hearing about people criss-crossing the parks for their FPs. They must have toured differently than I did. We generally worked in the area we were in. Did a couple other things with shorter waits (which apparently aren't short any longer) then used the FP and moved on to the next area. No criss-crossing needed.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Wait...

You don't go to the specific ride and get a FastPass for that specific ride? You have to go to centralized kiosks and use a screen to drill down to the ride you want?

That's stupid. Beyond stupid. Very stupid.

 

[bjscheel]

So when people are saying take the first thing that comes up on the kiosk, get out, and change it on MDE, I wonder if MDE is giving as many options as the kiosk does. When pre-scheduling at home, it sounds like doing it on the website gives more options than the app. Curious whether the kiosk choices are different than on the app.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

It would take quite a lot of walking around the park to gather three FP- previously.

Well, you couldn't carry three at once. You'd have to wait 2 hours or until your window opens. Unless you worked the system and got FastPasses for things "off the system".

Personally, we never toured that way. For example, at the Magic Kingdom, we would get FastPasses for one ride and then go through all of FantasyLand, then hit Haunted Mansion and/or Pirates before lunch.

 

[rapunzels]

Personally, we never toured that way. For example, at the Magic Kingdom, we would get FastPasses for one ride and then go through all of FantasyLand, then hit Haunted Mansion and/or Pirates before lunch.

We do a similar tour. We work approximately left to right of MK. We start in Frontier/Adventure/Fantasyland, each lunch then move to the other side of the park..We never zig zag. For those that think it was so time consuming to be getting FP-, must have been zig-zaggers.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wait...

You don't go to the specific ride and get a FastPass for that specific ride? You have to go to centralized kiosks and use a screen to drill down to the ride you want?

That's stupid. Beyond stupid. Very stupid.

More than likely though it's some sort of issue related to what their system can handle at this point. Fingers crossed they figure out how to accommodate this on MDE.

 

[jon18uk]

Did people really not know you could see the current FP distribution time on their phones?

And I keep hearing about people criss-crossing the parks for their FPs. They must have toured differently than I did. We generally worked in the area we were in. Did a couple other things with shorter waits (which apparently aren't short any longer) then used the FP and moved on to the next area. No criss-crossing needed.

Being a Brit the cost of using data to access the wait times on my phone would of been stupidly high. Last time I visited WDW was about 4 years ago and I don't think they had wi-fi yet then either.

We rarely criss-crossed but at some parks you just ended up crossing the park especially at MGM Studios. Most of the time we would just work on the
area we are in though. E.g. hold a fastpass to RnR while riding ToT or a FP to Space Mountain while riding Buzz.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Being a Brit the cost of using data to access the wait times on my phone would of been stupidly high. Last time I visited WDW was about 4 years ago and I don't think they had wi-fi yet then either.

They do have wi-fi know because of this new system.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I am now wondering why they couldn't convert the old FP machines into kiosks for FP+ at all the original FP rides. You could walk up, scan your wrist band, see what was available, pick one that worked, scan your bad again and then walk away knowing what time to be back. If you need a FP+ for anything else, then you go to the kiosks or see a CM with an iPad.

It may have taken that long to gather 3 fp-, but who wants to stand in line in a kiosk line and wait 10 minutes per person? I don't know anyone that is ok with waiting behind 5 people (for example) in front of them at the grocery store all writing checks, when they could have just slid a debit card through a machine and been in and out a lot quicker. It may be a stretch of a comparison, but it's ridiculous of Disney to think guests are ok with this.

Re-open FP machines at the individual rides (to be used with MB) and keep the kiosks open for convenience for FP's across the park. They need as many FP disbursement areas possible if they are expecting it to take that long.

I was also wondering why they aren't using the old fp machines...and for the people that don't want to criss cross to the attraction itself, they could just keep the kiosks and go to the nearest one. Having the old fp machines available could help with any long lines at the kiosks. The kiosk lines build up because multiple attractions are available to get a fp for at the same location. I don't see how an individual attraction could have long lines at the attraction itself if that's the only fp they offer there. Unless its a brand new attraction and everyone is on line for that fp in particular.

Okay, so lets break this down. If you spent 2 minutes obtaining a single fast pass in the past, plus the time walking to the machine, and now you are spending 10 minutes obtaining three passes, plus the ability to select your time (based on availability) can you not concede that fast pass + does have some advantage over legacy fast pass? I personally save more than the four minutes in travel alone.

Rather than walking around to all the machines, not knowing when your return time was until you got there to obtain it created its own level of frustration. You then had to stay in the area or return later. I'd much rather spend my time doing other things as opposed to chasing those elusive little slips of paper. Just my opinion.

What you say makes sense. It does save time criss crossing the park, but in the end, the attractions that you have to wait standby for are longer so I don't really think you are saving a lot of time in any particular day.
When I toured the parks (especially MK), I would stay in the area/land that I obtained fp for until I used my fp. This helped avoiding moving around the park a lot and going back n forth. When I first got to a land, i'd get the fp, then go on rides that didn't have long waits, then use my fp and then proceed to a new area of the park. It was difficult to use this approach in DHS, but then again, I barely used fp in DHS at all because most attractions there are shows with a lot of capacity.

 

[avalanche1977]

So when people are saying take the first thing that comes up on the kiosk, get out, and change it on MDE, I wonder if MDE is giving as many options as the kiosk does. When pre-scheduling at home, it sounds like doing it on the website gives more options than the app. Curious whether the kiosk choices are different than on the app.

Slots open up all the time. I booked a fourth FP for Star Tours on Sunday for 7:00 and checked back a few times after and was able to move it to 1:50. Same thing in the MK. Just grab whatever as your fourth and change it "on the go."