Disney just called me!!

[ciera321]

Disney is so much more than just rides!! I cant stand reading all of the "Im never going back to Disney because I can't ride Space Mountain 9 times in a row!" threads.

But why shouldn't a person do what they want to do on their vacation? If someone wants to ride a favorite ride several times because they love it, then why shouldn't they? Yes, Disney is a lot more than rides, but if I pay $7,000 to go to Disney World for the 23rd time (like I am in May), and now I have a very restrictive set of rules that alters what I've been doing and enjoying for many years, I think I have a right to be unhappy about it! And I know that many of us are complaining about FP+ before trying it! But it doesn't take a genius to realize that this will affect the quality of vacation we've been going on for many years. And, yes, I know I can wait in the SB line for 120 minutes if I want to ride Soarin a second time......

 

[3happydancers]

If I am Disney and a bunch of people who haven't even tried the system out yet are complaining about how their vacation won't be the same as it has been for the last umpteen years, then no, I'm not taking that seriously.

I would also like to know if we have numbers on how many FP- were issued per day and taken advantage of vs how many FP+ are scheduled AND used at this time. I've been the parks with FP+ and quite frankly, it was a much more pleasant experience than with FP- for my family. We did not notice any appreciable differences in the FP line.

I am genuinely very happy for you and those who have had positive experiences with the new system but just because it works for you does not mean it is the best way and that it must work for others. And while I appreciate your thoughts, I sense a the lack of tolerance for other family's feelings and have to respectfully disagree with 2 things.

First, while you might not understand how some, who have not tried the new system, can judge whether or not they will like the new FP system. Those who are regular visitors know what they had and how well the legacy system worked for them. No matter how you slice it, to them, 3 FP's, tiered riding, and no hopping, will negatively affect their vacation compared to being able to pull passes throughout the day, having no limitations on headliners, and could hop from park to park with the capability of accessing additional fast passes. So, if I were Disney, I would NOT disregard their comments or feedback because just like some argue that the legacy system had flaws, the FP+ system has many problems of its own. Disney may very well benefit from listening to all feedback, both positive and negative, because most offer suggestions from which one great idea may transpire!

And the second thing is while you state that the legacy fast pass system was taken advantage of, I am not sure what makes you think this. The legacy system was created by Disney with certain rules in place. Legacy passes were available for all onsite and offsite guests possessing a park ticket. Fast passes were available from park opening until either they were exhausted or until the park closed. A guest simply chose a ride that offered a fast pass, inserted their KTTW card and received a fast pass. The fast pass provided a return time AND it also provided the time when another fast pass was available for that guest. The next pass could NOT be distributed until the designated time or there after. The guest then had a choice; get another fast pass or not. Simple. If one had park hoppers, they were granted access to fast passes in each park they chose to hop to following the same rules. Disney designed this system for guests to use throughout the day at timed intervals and without restrictions regarding the amount of fast passes or how many times a family enjoyed their favorite attraction. This worked great for my family as it did for many, many other people.

So, when you say the system was taken advantage of, I need to ask what exactly you mean?

FTR, I am not arguing which system is better; just responding to your post.

 

[3happydancers]

I was at MK last weekend, if I had paid $100 to ride three rides I would have been . Luckily I am a local and I have passes for now. 3 FP+ for MK is not enough, period. The old system was so great, why can't they just use the technology the same way, allow one FP+ reservation per park, then reserve as you go like the old system.

I agree; makes perfect sense.

 

[tlady]

I sent an email to guest communications telling them of my disappointment about the new FP+ and that I cancelled my Dec. trip and might not even return in August like I was planning until hopefully things will get better. I told her that I was sad to see FP- go. She asked me my opinion and I gladly gave it. I told her that there should be more FPs, 6 at least, no tiering and be able to use FPs at both parks if park hopping. Explained everything to her about not getting the experience I'm used to for the money we'll be spending. FP was so easy for us. I told her I feel like I'll be waiting in lines, being unable to spend as much money shopping or eating a leisurely lunch in their restaurants. We never waited in lines before. I told her a lot of the magic was gone for me and was sad to see this change. Also, I've been going since 1972 and seen a lot of changes and this one is not for the better. Also, told her that the MBs sound ok, but could've spent some of that 1.5 billion on new attractions. That something new would've brought more people into the parks, rather than telling them, look you get 3 FPs to use. Which one would bring more people to DW? 3 FPs or a new attraction!! I explained a lot more to her how I feel, and she was very nice and said she was taking notes and didn't want to lose a loyal customer. She would pass the notes to her higher ups. She even agreed with me on quite a few things and said that she probably shouldn't be saying that. Also, that they will be making changes but didn't know what they would be or when. She did say that one of the major complaints was the tiering. She was very nice and we spent about 10 minutes on the phone. I was surprised that she called, and I hope it will help some of the problems that I know a lot of us see with this program. She said that DW wants to keep its customers happy. We shall see!! I know people on the Dis will respond with all kinds of opposite opinions which is fine. This is how I feel and even though I haven't experienced it, as I know some of you will bring up, I have read quite extensively about the program and am educated enough to form an opinion.

But the problem is - even if they can and do make the changes you recommended, the problem won't go away. In fact, it will probably worsen if they give out more FPs per day and eliminate tiering. Why? Because, simply put, their park infrastructure simply cannot handle the increased usage of FP that the new FP system is encouraging. There just aren't enough attractions to soak up the crowds. This is especially obvious during a busy time such as the recent President's Day weekend. Until and unless Disney builds a lot more attractions at each park, the long ride waits will continue and possibly get a lot worse. In a nutshell, Disney has created a monster with this new system that basically pushes every customer into getting 3 FPs a day.

Even if Disney is willing to put LOTS of $$ into more rides, it will be years before you see any benefits as a park goer. Heck, it will be years before Disney can even build the extra rides that are truly needed to mitigate the long waits that FP+ has created.

In the meantime, expect your park experience to continue to deteriorate as more and more patrons start using the wonderful, magical FP+ system! I forsee more and more people opting not to return, as you have indicated. And, sadly, Disney has no one to blame but themselves. They took a system that worked, and worked well, and somehow managed to totally botch it up.

 

[tlady]

Spoke with a Disney rep today. Had questions about PAPs. I also asked about FP+ specifically limitations 3/day, tiering and single park use. I was told the testing is going thru August. They have had alot of feedback about the same issues. Obviously would not say anything that would be changed but dangled a possible change to tiering - exclaiming they were trying to find balance of what changes could be made. Of course this doesn't mean anything but it is obvious they are hearing the concerns and are contemplating what can be changed. Will it result in any changes who knows!

WDW.Guest.Communications@disneyworld.com

All you can do is voice your concerns. Maybe It will help make a difference. Just remember to be to the point and respectful, they are experts at de-escalating guest and tirades will go to the round file! My opinion!!!

Almost forgot he mentioned they have been giving 4 FPs at MK at various times. Part of testing??

People had better open their eyes to the reality that allowing more FPs per day, eliminating tiering, etc., etc. will not improve things at all. In fact, it will probably make wait times even worse than they are now.

Disney's real problem here is quite simple - with the big push to get everyone using the new FP system (and Disney is REALLY pushing it big time), they've created a nightmare situation for which there is no quick nor easy solution. A far greater percentage of park goers are now using FPs (even if only 3 a day) and THIS is what is causing the long wait times in both FP and standby lines. And it will continue to do so because - Disney does not have the ride infrastructure to handle the increased numbers of people now using FP. They very unwisely chose to put billions of $$ into this new MDE system, without any increase in the number of attractions and rides. So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict that ride wait times will (and have) increase exponentially.

It's nice that Disney is listening, but any "solution" they come up with will be like a drop of water in the ocean. And allowing for even more FPs per day, per person will worsen the already absurd wait times on nearly every ride in every park.

It will be years before Disney can address the real problem which is the lack of enough rides/attractions to handle the increased ride usage generated by the new FP system that Disney is wildly promoting. And, at this point, we aren't even sure Disney intends to do this. But, mark my words, until they do, you can expect your park experience to consist of a lot of waiting in increasingly long lines, both FP and standby.

What will be really interesting will be to see how many people continue to pay big bucks to WDW for a park experience that is but a shadow of what it used to be. I, for one, won't be doing so much longer.

 

[disnut1149]

People had better open their eyes to the reality that allowing more FPs per day, eliminating tiering, etc., etc. will not improve things at all. In fact, it will probably make wait times even worse than they are now.

Disney's real problem here is quite simple - with the big push to get everyone using the new FP system (and Disney is REALLY pushing it big time), they've created a nightmare situation for which there is no quick nor easy solution. A far greater percentage of park goers are now using FPs (even if only 3 a day) and THIS is what is causing the long wait times in both FP and standby lines. And it will continue to do so because - Disney does not have the ride infrastructure to handle the increased numbers of people now using FP. They very unwisely chose to put billions of $$ into this new MDE system, without any increase in the number of attractions and rides. So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict that ride wait times will (and have) increase exponentially.

It's nice that Disney is listening, but any "solution" they come up with will be like a drop of water in the ocean. And allowing for even more FPs per day, per person will worsen the already absurd wait times on nearly every ride in every park.

It will be years before Disney can address the real problem which is the lack of enough rides/attractions to handle the increased ride usage generated by the new FP system that Disney is wildly promoting. And, at this point, we aren't even sure Disney intends to do this. But, mark my words, until they do, you can expect your park experience to consist of a lot of waiting in increasingly long lines, both FP and standby.

What will be really interesting will be to see how many people continue to pay big bucks to WDW for a park experience that is but a shadow of what it used to be. I, for one, won't be doing so much longer.

I completely agree this, but was hoping they could do something to change the crummy FP+ situation. My DGD who is 11 still wants to go this summer, and since I already have credit for plane tickets, we'll probably still go. My DD is a teacher so this is the only time she can go, but feel like we'll be getting a lot less fun for our money. We are going to Universal for two days also. My DGD has never been there.

 

[fairy8i8]

I'll just add my two cents about on property versus off property. I don't understand why FP is offered to everyone. Personally I feel another thing that would help is if you limited who could get FP. Annual pass holders, DVC's, and staying on Disney World qualifying hotels should be the only one to get FP in my opinion. That cuts down on who can get it so now not every guest in every park has access to it. Throw a charge on top of that and that will free up all this log jam. Then limit one FP at a time. Problem solved. Of course you just peeved everyone that doesn't stay on property or a DVC and who isn't a annual pass holder but they are also in most cases paying less overall for their vacation. Just some food for thought....

A lot of these posts seem to assume that off property guests are NOT ever going to receive pre-booking abilities of FP+. They are. In fact, reports here show that they are already testing the feature.

FP+ is NOT a perk for onsite guests. That is not the intention of it. According to Disney shareholder reports, the point of FP+ is to get as many people as possible to pre-book their rides so that they have plans to go to Disney World and their tickets before they ever get to Orlando. People staying onsite already are pretty invested in Disney. It's really the offsite guests or the DVC members who are not visiting the parks but just using their resort and then doing other attractions in Orlando that Disney wants committed to coming to the theme parks.

They are testing with onsite guests first because they are basically a captive audience and Disney knows if they have reservations and tickets to the theme parks. Disney is now in phase 2 of testing -- getting offsite Disney visitors a chance to book FP+ for the rest of their vacation.

With Magicbands, Disney can track every move in the huge resort complex - from the time you enter to the time you leave and all your habits. The point of this is to eventually see how they can influence behavior to get you to stay on property longer if you leave a bunch, or to get you to spend money, or to influence crowd flow so that people have a great experience and want to come back for another trip to Disney.

When Disney first introduced the Magicbands about a year ago, the shareholder reports said that the hope was to attract the new generation of tech savvy consumers. It's the 20 somethings now that are going to have kids in the next 10-20 years that Disney is trying to attract and prepare for, and they don't want to be viewed as an outdated theme park. Also, many families only visit Disney World once. The hope that Disney execs reported is that the extra "magic" afforded by the magicband system (reserving lunches while in line and then just having your food brought to you when you go to the restaurant/ interactive queues) would turn those one-time visitors into repeat visitors.

Of course, a part of their current base of loyal customers is not happy with the FP+ feature. Apparently, from the phone calls, it seems that Disney is realizing that this portion of the Magicband system is not working for their existing customer base who are used to riding multiple headliners with Fastpasses and not wasting a lot of time in lines.

I think it's a difficult balance. During the regular/off peak times, only a few attractions see long waits. People who travel then are used to just picking up Fastpasses for those rides and doing other things with short waits. Sometimes they even get multiple rides on the headliners with Fastpasses, and they are very happy. However, during peak times like holidays, summer, and especially Christmas and Easter, the lines are long. I actually used to think that it was normal to wait in 2 hour lines for a major attraction because as a child, we would go over Christmas. You can imagine the outrage of guests who go during the holidays if Disney allowed 6 Fastpasses during slow periods and only 2 during Christmas when everything, including food, is more expensive. It just wouldn't fly. So instead, Disney has taken a blanket approach of 3 Fastpasses for all, that way they appear more fair.

Probably the best thing they could do is offer Fastpass perks for booking during slower periods. Like Free Dining (which a lot of people would be very sad to lose), they could use Fastpass perks as incentive for booking on property. So during September, if you book a room on property, you get an extra 3 untiered Fastpasses. During average attendance, they could give an extra 1 or 2, depending on expected crowds.

However, I think right now they are just trying to fix the bugs with the basic system and get off site guests online with pre-booking privileges, so any tweaks like these probably won't come for a while. Also, they might try to use them in place of other promotions like Free Dining. Disney really wants to get rid of it because it is so expensive, but for months like September, I don't know if even the promise of 3 Fastpasses would be enough to bring people onsite. Maybe for Food and Wine Festival, though...

 

[jon18uk]

I really don't think FP+ will cause lines to be longer than FP- used to, if there are still the same number of guests in the park you can't have longer lines. The split between FP and standby may be different but not the overall lengths.
Also I think the major reason that FP+ lines are backed up is that it takes longer to scan than it did to check the old paper tickets. If there were 4x scanners per entrance rather than 2 that might help as a whole group can scan at once.

 

[buzz2400]

I have been going to disney one, sometimes two, times every year. We are planning on going late sept, early oct if free dining is offered. Yes I am upset that I can no longer do exactly what I do every single time I have been there, go at rope drop, get my fast pass, ride a ride, get my second fp when time allows, go on another ride, etc. Now I will have to refigure what I do which to me is a pain since I had my routine down pat to get the most out of my vacation. But I will try this new fp system.

One thing I am not reading is the comparison to universal. They once had a fp system for every single person who entered their parks. They took this away to people who were not staying on site at their hotels. Yes, at first I hated it but I found the trick to get the most of out it. So I have accustomed to that.

I think every one needs to at least try it out or wait a year before visiting again so that you can read what people suggest (i.e. get fp for soaring in the afternoon but ride it on standby at rope drop.)

I don't have much hope that disney will get rid of this new system but I will go one more time. If I don't like it I will tour other places of the united states that I haven't been able to do because I go to disney every year.

 

[Disneypubgal]

Received a call from the Disney folks today and took a lot of the comments posted to heart when speaking with them. We were there president's week and our park experience was not quite up to par due to implementation of FP+.

Explained that we are DVC members and are "luke warm" about our three upcoming trips for March/April/August. The rep understood my concerns. I explained that we come down from NY several times per year and that the FP+ system does not provide the same customer experience as we have had in the past and that we spent less time in the parks, hence less time dining and shopping.

She said that probably for my March trip I would not see any improvement and generally most of the feedback has come from regular park guests (like DVC members and A/P Holders) and that most of it has not been positive.

But that by April some changes may come into to play and definitely for my late summer trip.

I hope so! The current system does not provide a good experience especially if you are park hopping.... keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[mill4023]

The comments on the Dis (not this thread) about how people "love everything about FP+ except the tiering and the limit of 3" are so bizarre to me. Of course, we would all love a system without limits. But the removal of those limits is impossible! The whole thing would implode. Those limitations aren't going anywhere.

Comments like yours are bizarre to me.
Of course they could have a system without tiering and without a limit of 3.
In fact, they had one not long ago and nothing imploded and it worked just fine.
It was called Fastpass.

Nothing imploded because they had other types of limits. Like only having a certain number of FP's available for each time slot. I'm pretty sure they still have that limitation with FP+.

So it would certainly be possible to remove tiering and the limit of 3. If the concern was that all the FP's would be pre-booked and nothing would be available on the day of, they could simply hold back a certain number of slots.

For example:
At 60 days out, 20% of the FP slots are available to pre-book
At 30 days out, 40% of the FP slots are available to pre-book
At 10 days out, 60% of the FP slots are available to pre-book
Then on the day of, they could release the remaining slots so those who didn't pre-book could still have another chance.

Now I'm not saying that is the best system. I'm just pointing out that it is absolutely possible to have a system without tiers and without limiting to 3 FP+.

 

[Disneypubgal]

now i'm not saying that is the best system. I'm just pointing out that it is absolutely possible to have a system without tiers and without limiting to 3 fp+.

amen!