A change in the Fastpass system?

[blestmom]

I have some friends who cannot ever afford to visit WDW at all.

So? What does that have to do with what I said? Disney's onsite options for large families are limited...either 2 rooms, a cabin or a new suite. Better deals can be found off-site. Of course Disney would prefer that I stay onsite. I just said I wouldn't like it if they took away something they had given to all guests previously.

 

[bicker]

What does that have to do with what I said?

A lot, actually. The fact is that an economic system is deemed fair by the parity provided by what is offered for a price is offered for that price to everyone.

Disney's onsite options for large families are limited.

That is your issue, though -- not that of all the companies that offer you service. To the extent there is a mutually-beneficial arrangement that can be made between you and those companies, then great. Barring that, companies shouldn't be penalizing their owners by sub-optimizing the utilization of their assets.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

At the risk of getting flamed, I would love for more FP's to be available for WDW-resort guest than offsite guests. The "benefit" of EMH doesn't seem like a benefit at all to me - it usually results in higher crowds which encourage people to spend extra $$$ for park hopping privledges. Furthermore, having to get up before 7AM or stay at a park after 10PM doesn't fit too well into the relaxation part of a vacation.

I really like the Universal system - FP available to all, but more available to those who are spending more $$$ directly to Disney.

 

[bopper]

This is what Universal does, sort of. If you stay at a Universal Hotel, you get the equivelant of your room key being an automatic fast pass to every ride.
If you are not at a Universal Hotel, you can get free one at a time fast passes (like Disney), or you can pay for book of one fastpass per ride.

 

[Disneynut25]

But people who are staying offsite aren't paying alot of money to Disney. Like it or not, Disney is in the theme park business to make some money.

Disney continues to have to work hard to fill rooms at WDW resorts, with increasing competition from Universal and themed offsite resorts. Free Dining is a great example of this. Enhancing the FastPass system for WDW Resort guests would be a great to add value to staying onsite, thus helping Disney to fill those rooms year round, without resorting to giving away things like Free Dining.

It's not all bad...like I said, it adds value, making the Disney onsite resorts seem a little less overpriced.

What have you been smoking??? People staying offsite spend thousands of dollars to Disney for tickets, food, souv, ect. The bulk of the money that we spend on our Disney vacation is not for our room.....A family of four staying for 5 days at a value or mod spends more money on their tickets alone than they do on their room.

 

[bicker]

People staying offsite spend thousands of dollars to Disney for tickets, food, souv, ect.

harumph's point is that so are the people staying on-site. PLUS, the on-site guests are also paying Disney a hefty premium for the privilege of staying at one of their hotels. That premium is justified by Disney providing extra perqs to their on-site guests. Those perqs are things that Disney can control and decide what combination of perqs best serves the objectives of their owners.

 

[wilma-bride]

This is what Universal does, sort of. If you stay at a Universal Hotel, you get the equivelant of your room key being an automatic fast pass to every ride.
If you are not at a Universal Hotel, you can get free one at a time fast passes (like Disney), or you can pay for book of one fastpass per ride.

That is incorrect. Universal no longer offers free Fastpasses - only FOTL for staying on-site or Express Pass tickets, for a price, valid once on each ride throughout the day.

 

[Disneynut25]

harumph's point is that so are the people staying on-site. PLUS, the on-site guests are also paying Disney a hefty premium for the privilege of staying at one of their hotels. That premium is justified by Disney providing extra perqs to their on-site guests. Those perqs are things that Disney can control and decide what combination of perqs best serves the objectives of their owners.

And my point is so are the people staying off-site!!!!!! I have no problems with the perks that Disney currently provides for their on-site guests...You can have them....Actually our next trip will be a split stay (on and offsite) and you better believe that I will be nowhere near the parks that have EMH's on the days that I am staying onsite..I'll let all the other "onsite" guest wait in the 1 hour lines....The fact of the matter is I'm not going to waist any more time debating a perk that currently everyone has the right to partake in and until Disney decides to change it to onsite only then I will enjoy it just as everyone else get the opp to

 

[blestmom]

That is your issue, though

Exactly, bicker, that IS my issue. That is why I sometimes stay onsite when we can afford it, and sometimes stay offsite when that is what we can afford. I never said Disney owed it to me to provide me with the room(s) I need at the price I can afford. I understand how the economy works. I understand why Disney offers perks to onsite guests. I just said "I wouldn't like it" if Fastpasses were no longer available to offsite guests. I stated an opinion. Sometimes Disney does things I like, sometimes they don't. I'm still going to go there and have fun with my family!

 

[bicker]

the on-site guests are also paying Disney a hefty premium for the privilege of staying at one of their hotels

And my point is so are the people staying off-site!!!!!!

No, sorry, I disagree. The folks staying off-site are not paying Disney anything for the privilege of staying at one of their hotels. That's the whole difference.

I just said "I wouldn't like it"

Actually, you said, "What have you been smoking???" You haven't really explained what you mean by that, but it was in response to a point that harumph made that folks who stay at Disney's hotels are paying a lot more money to Disney than folks who stay off-site, so I assumed that you were questioning that assertion. Glad that that's not the case.

While off-site folks have the luxury of not having such a large amount of their vacation budget allocated for hotel expenses, for many on-site guests it is a significant portion. I was chatting with someone this morning who is paying $400 per night for a room at the Polynesian with her husband. That's far more than they'll pay for airfare, admission, even food. It's the single largest expense of their vacation.

 

[lillygator]

and actually we are all not paying the same price to get into the parks....think of all the different ticket prices....Florida Play Pass, AP passes, etc....so we are not paying "equal" to get in to the park....
but I would love to have FP's be for WDW resort guests only....do I think this will ever happen? nope!

 

[blestmom]

Actually, you said, "What have you been smoking???"

Actually, bicker, that was Disneynut25 who said that, not me. Please don't mis-quote me.

 

[bicker]

Sorry... it's sure hard to keep different members' comments straight once what they said scrolls off the page.

 

[freediverdude]

I kind of like the idea of a kiosk (probably would need more than one) in each of the resorts where people could go and get say 5 fastpasses for the day. They could pick attractions and times from an assortment of times, not just the first times of the day, to distribute the fastpasses more evenly, and also it would let the families stay and eat breakfast at the resort, or even stay at the resort half the day, and not feel like they had to rush to the park to get their fastpasses first thing or miss out. This sounds like a very nice perk for onsite guests, that might not even inconvenience the offsite guests if done right. And, it might be cheaper for Disney than running the parks for extra magic hours, and people might like it more, because they didn't have to be there first thing in the morning or drag their kids out late at night for the evening extra magic hours (although it would be nice if they kept the extra magic hours too, but i could see this replacing it).

 

[Disneynut25]

No, sorry, I disagree. The folks staying off-site are not paying Disney anything for the privilege of staying at one of their hotels. That's the whole difference.

Actually, you said, "What have you been smoking???" You haven't really explained what you mean by that, but it was in response to a point that harumph made that folks who stay at Disney's hotels are paying a lot more money to Disney than folks who stay off-site, so I assumed that you were questioning that assertion. Glad that that's not the case.

While off-site folks have the luxury of not having such a large amount of their vacation budget allocated for hotel expenses, for many on-site guests it is a significant portion. I was chatting with someone this morning who is paying $400 per night for a room at the Polynesian with her husband. That's far more than they'll pay for airfare, admission, even food. It's the single largest expense of their vacation.

Sorry your wrong...if you are going to quote...Quote correctly....In my reply to harumph's post re: offsite people not paying alot of money for their Disney vacations, I stated that yes they do spend thousand of dollars directly to Disney...I never said that they are paying for "the priviledge of staying at one of their parks" when their staying off-site (that's kind of common sence isnt it?)
As for the comment of "What are you smoking"... after reading some of your replies and the way that you are mis-quoting people...I think that question needs to be directly to you!!!

 

[harumph]

The fact of the matter is I'm not going to waist any more time debating a perk that currently everyone has the right to partake in

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but you don't have a "right" to FastPasses; it's not mandated by the Disney Constitution or anything. It is Disney that has the "right" to change the FastPass system in any way they choose, including eliminating it, or providing FastPasses only to guests at their Deluxe resorts, or anything in between.

I've seen several DISers complain that it would not be "fair" for Disney to take away FastPass for offsite guests, but Disney runs a business, and business isn't always fair. As I said previously, Disney has had trouble filling their hotel rooms, and they are going to continue to look as ways to get people into their resorts, not just their parks.

I don't think Disney will ever do something as extreme as Universal has done by eliminating free FastPasses entirely for offsite guests. As someone already said, WDW has many more hotels than Universal or Disneyland, and therefore more guests. So, even though there are more WDW parks, the FastPass lines would probably become too long to be seen as a perk. But you can be sure that Disney marketing and crowd control experts are looking at how they can change the FastPass system to Disney's advantage.

 

[DOOM1001]

Disney would be burning so many people if they were to offer FP's only to resort guests, Disney may have 20 or so hotels but how many hundreds or thousands of hotels are there in Orlando and most of them are there for people going to Disney.Even if they would also give FP's to people with Annual or Seasonal passes, which I do have, I wouldn't agree with off-site guests without annual passes not having an option of getting a FP, It just wouldn't be right!!!

 

[bicker]

Disneynut: I've already apologized for confusing you and blestmom. My point, though, was that Disney resort guests do pay a lot more money directly to Disney, because they pay all the money that off-site guests pay (for admission, food, souvenirs, etc.) PLUS the large amount of money they give to Disney for their hotel rooms. Hopefully, we can all agree on the fact that they are paying a lot more to Disney than off-site guests... especially those paying $400 per night for a room at the Polynesian!

DOOM: I agree. I doubt they'll ever offer FastPasses only to their own resort guests, it does seem like a good idea to give their own resort guests more direct and convenient access to the FastPasses that are available to everyone.

 

[KimberlyC]

While off-site folks have the luxury of not having such a large amount of their vacation budget allocated for hotel expenses, for many on-site guests it is a significant portion. I was chatting with someone this morning who is paying $400 per night for a room at the Polynesian with her husband. That's far more than they'll pay for airfare, admission, even food. It's the single largest expense of their vacation.

And you neglected to mention that $400 is for the CHEAPEST category of hotel room at the Poly without a discount of some kind.

I've stayed off-site and on-site. This June, I'm staying at the Poly for a short trip. Like others I do what I can afford and also what I have time for. Selfish though it may be, I'd like some increased fast pass perk. I can't speculate what the perk should be because its a number crunching game. They would need to be distributed in a way that made FP still reasonably fast. EMH hours do nothing for me. My kid is too young and I'm getting too old to stay out until 2am, especially since there is no longer such a thing as sleeping in. I rent a car so ME isn't a perk and everyone is allowed to use the monorail so I receive nothing by paying a premium to stay at a monorail resort. Extra FP or FOTL privileges on each ride, one time (or however, Universal does it) is a perk I'd use and it would keep me returning. I'm not loyal and will stay on-site or off-site depending on my needs at the time but a FP perk would really influence me to stay on-site.

 

[bicker]

And you neglected to mention that $400 is for the CHEAPEST category of hotel room at the Poly without a discount of some kind.

Indeed! .