4th fast pass coming??

[LaidBackDad]

....... and if it results in a less appealing overall experience, I likely just won't be back. Even if I were staying at a deluxe and getting 5 FP's in this scenario, that's not enough to keep me happy over the course of the day. If all the standby waits are too long to be realistically done, then I'm done. The sad part is that I probably WOULD like to shop more. But the merchandise is all the same trip after trip so there's really no point in investing much time with it.

... and this is where we agree completely. The problem is, I don't think the corporate suits agree. I can absolutely see MDE being expanded to include more FP's (maybe even up to 10). They want us to plan out our entire vacation down to every ride. As I have previously read somewhere on these pages, some survey supposedly said the average family is happy with 10 experiences a day. My guess that this 4th FP "test" is just part of the roll out. They will evaluate the data and if they like what they see they will try a test with 5 FP's and so on. They will still have standby; but, they will try to shift guest behavior away from a reliance on standby lines to more predictable FP+ use.

 

[LaidBackDad]

But all other things being equal (same number of guests in park, individual touring intentions unchanged), where do those other Standby riders come from? A guest can only be in one location at a time.

I suspect most people would see little change with the additional FastPass added. They'd see their wait time reduced for one additional FP experience, with the trade-off being a modest increase in standby wait time at others. As you yourself said, this wouldn't change attraction capacities. Really all it's doing is shuffling the proverbial deck...changing the way guests are distributed throughout the park.

No ride in any of the parks (that I'm aware of) has the capacity to give a ride to every person in the park even on a slow day, let alone give multiple rides to people. The other standby riders come from riders who wouldn't have waited in a long line (as you said the line would be shorter), or re-riders or any number of other reasons. Again, I see what you are saying and we are basically in agreement except for it would likely add considerable wait to standby lines.

 

[mom2rtk]

I must be doing a horrible job of explaining this (sigh). More FP+'s issued means more people in line; but, if you let more FP+ people on each ride cycle and less standby, the FP+ line stays the same but the standby line moves slower as less standby riders ride during each cycle.

I assume that people will continue to fill the standby line.

As I said, we'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[mom2rtk]

... and this is where we agree completely. The problem is, I don't think the corporate suits agree. I can absolutely see MDE being expanded to include more FP's (maybe even up to 10). They want us to plan out our entire vacation down to every ride. As I have previously read somewhere on these pages, some survey supposedly said the average family is happy with 10 experiences a day. My guess that this 4th FP "test" is just part of the roll out. They will evaluate the data and if they like what they see they will try a test with 5 FP's and so on. They will still have standby; but, they will try to shift guest behavior away from a reliance on standby lines to more predictable FP+ use.

Then I hope that works out better for them than those FP+ only tests last year.

 

[Cormoran]

Then I hope that works out better for them than those FP+ only tests last year.

Are you referring to the tests where they didn't have SB lines? Boy that would've been a real treat, going to a theme park and wanting to ride Soarin' or TSSM and being turned away. The only way to imprvoe the current situation is to limit park attendance or to build more attractions. But since Disney is all about making money to the detriment of the guest experience, things will remain as they are.

 

[mom2rtk]

Are you referring to the tests where they didn't have SB lines? Boy that would've been a real treat, going to a theme park and wanting to ride Soarin' or TSSM and being turned away. The only way to imprvoe the current situation is to limit park attendance or to build more attractions. But since Disney is all about making money to the detriment of the guest experience, things will remain as they are.

Yes, that's it. I felt so bad for people buying tickets then showing up to find out they can't ride, no matter how long they were willing to wait.

I actually saw that in action at DL. The Anna/Elsa meet and greet is FP only. It's completely scheduled by FP. It worked out great for us...... because we knew about it. We got there at rope drop, got our tickets then waited in line no more than 3 or 4 minutes. But then every time we walked through Fantasyland that day we saw the CM's explaining to disappointed group after disappointed group that there was no way for them to meet A/E that day, no matter how long they were willing to wait. If you have an AP and can come back next week it's not a big deal. But those are the people most likely to know the system inside and out. The poor unsuspecting newbie is the one most likely to not have a return day available.

Anyway, that's the sort of system I see them inching toward if they were to flood the system with more FPs, representing more of the total daily ride capacity.

 

[JanaDee]

Are you referring to the tests where they didn't have SB lines? Boy that would've been a real treat, going to a theme park and wanting to ride Soarin' or TSSM and being turned away. The only way to imprvoe the current situation is to limit park attendance or to build more attractions. But since Disney is all about making money to the detriment of the guest experience, things will remain as they are.

They abandoned the Soarin' FP+ only test after a few hours, because people were becoming too angry.

 

[Alfalfa]

They abandoned the Soarin' FP+ only test after a few hours, because people were becoming too angry.

Which took those corporate suits totally by surprise........

 

[JanaDee]

Which took those corporate suits totally by surprise........

Which was quite amusing, since any peon could have told them that was going to happen. Their lack of connection with visitors and lack of self-awareness about how people actually visit/tour the parks would be laughable if it weren't so head-shaking sad.

 

[HeatherGomez143]

Anyone one have success adding a 4th fast pass I am going mid april and was not able to do it.. this was based off this article I read today.


http://www.****************/is-disney-adding-a-fourth-fastpass/

How didnthe test run go?

 

[HeatherGomez143]

When the parks are insanely crowded as they are this time of year, I would imagine the kiosks are busier as well.



In HS and Epcot, this may certainly be true, but the MK usually has a decent selection for a 4th, especially before evening. Even now at this hour, you can still get several decent attractions on a 4th FP+ for 4- HM, JC, POC, even a couple of the Mountains if you're only looking for 2...none of these are or ever were, walk on rides except perhaps the slowest times of year.

I hope we can book for the bigger rides

 

[Cormoran]

How didnthe test run go?

Are you talking about the Soarin' with no SB line? If so, it was an abysmal failure. Same with the TSMM FP+ only test.

 

[rteetz]

Are you talking about the Soarin' with no SB line? If so, it was an abysmal failure. Same with the TSMM FP+ only test.

I think it was such a failure because it was just random there was no advance notice and lots of walk up guests who were upset. The TSMM lasted a week, Soarin a couple days and usually by 7pm they reopened the standby line.

 

[cakebaker]

How didnthe test run go?

I'm assuming you're talking about the subject of this thread- the 4th fp added? I haven't heard of any massive increase in standby lines or surprising lack of availability due to adding an additional fp+.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I'm assuming you're talking about the subject of this thread- the 4th fp added? I haven't heard of any massive increase in standby lines or surprising lack of availability due to adding an additional fp+.

No. They were referring to the abysmal FP+ only tests they did.