A Crowded Weekend, FP+, And An Offsite Stay-Reporting Back (Very Long)

[JimmyV]

This makes me so nervous for our upcoming Spring Break trip.

Don't get nervous. I can't emphasize this enough. The wait times were no different, so your overall experience won't change. (Except for the whole tiering situation.) What changed is where people were doing their waiting. It definitely impacted the aesthetics of the park, but not the overall wait times. So you shouldn't be nervous about that. And if you are staying off site, make sure you use RD. Being nervous about being an offsite guest and having to wait in a one hour line to use a kiosk or see a CM with an i-Pad is a real issue. But not if you arrive early.

 

[ucfknight]

True, but.....the people manning the microphnes don't always say it the way you printed it, (not that their error makes the hotels any more or less possessive.)

True. Bugs the heck out of me every time I hear a tram/bus/ferry/monorail cast member incorrectly say I'm arriving at the "Ticket and Transportation Center".

It's the Transportation and Ticket Center.
Always has been.
It's printed on all of the signs.
It's engraved in bricks.
It's on trash cans.
It's your job! Get it right!

Sorry for the aside... it is a pet peeve of mine.

 

[disneyprmommy]

We were there Wed. 2/12-yestersday 2/24. It had buggy moments. I was actually at Magic Kingdom on Wednesday later in the day and didn't find it that bad at all. What I did notice is that a lot of people were very confused, not paying attention to their fastpass times, and when we did encounter bugs, Disney Cast Members were adjusting and fixing the situation. It isn't perfect, but I found it easy to use and it seemed to make the crowds more manageable. This was eight WDW trip with fastpass access.

 

[disneyprmommy]

If you need to use a Kiosk, don't use the ones in the front of the park, go into the park and go back, they are all over -- you will get fastpasses.

 

[estherhead]

Thank you so much for this report! A few years ago we went to Disneyland and one of the things I disliked about it was that so many of the queues were on the sidewalk. It did take away a bit of the magic for me. We are staying onsite and on paper I'm very excited about FP+. I was always the FP collector and am quite happy to have a more relaxed trip. But if 50% of the people there (the offsite half) are suddenly unhappy with their experience and the lines are blocking all the sidewalks I'll lose some of my enthusiasm for sure.

I've been confident that Disney will allow offsite guests to book in advance once the onsite test is done. Even their commercials on tv seem to indicate this. If that happens at least the kiosks lines will vanish. I'm willing to give them a year of growing pains and trust that they will work it out. But by 2015 I'd like to see it being an improvement. And if they are turning WDW into DL with tons of sidewalk lines and then being rushed through the themed areas, I'll not feel that way.

 

[ucfknight]

...then headed to TT. The sign (and the MDE APP and Touring Plans Wait times all said 30 minutes, so we hopped in the SB line. I set my timer. Total wait…..75 minutes. Why? Because so many geniuses had booked 9:00-10:00 FP+ return times that they were the only ones being let on the ride. It was a disaster.

This seems to be a consistent problem in the mornings at Test Track. I was there last week and had a FP+ time of 11:00 to Noon. We arrived right at 11:00 for our return window and noticed the standby line was listed at 100 minutes. We got into a design room within 3 minutes with our FP+. The large family behind us had come from the standby line. They had gotten in line just after 9:30 with a posted wait time of 45 minutes. It was now 11:05 and they were just getting to the design room. They were livid.

They should probably start the posted wait time for Test Track at a default of 60 minutes at park open these days and then quickly increase it from there, much like I've noticed the Journey of the Little Mermaid at MK seems to always have a 20 minute posted wait time shortly after park open even though it is actually a walk-on at that point. They do that since the line can be so variable and can also build quickly. It is better to under-promise (long posted wait) and over-deliver (shorter actual wait) than the opposite way.

BTW, that day the FP+ kiosk at the pin station right past Spaceship Earth wrapped back and forth through a long queue line and then stretched out past the pin station and along the big central fountain. The line in the breezeway outside MouseGear stretched half way to Mission Space. People were probably waiting 45 minutes in that line to save 30 total minutes in ride lines (since both Soarin' and Test Track were sure to be gone by the time they actually got to make their selections).
Even if Disney would unlock the ability for offsite guests to use the My Disney Experience app or website simply to book day-of FP+ it would take a huge burden off the ridiculous lines at the FP+ distribution kiosks.

 

[clsteve]

If you need to use a Kiosk, don't use the ones in the front of the park, go into the park and go back, they are all over -- you will get fastpasses.

Very good advice for everyone on here- but what about those who aren't? It would seem it's the first-timers and casual guests will be the ones crushing the 1st ones they see...

 

[TooExcitedCantSleep]

Thank you for the report. Sad to hear how the rides keep breaking down......it has to be the guests. Now that the parks are more crowded than ever we can expect a lot more breakdowns.

It's not a choice- Disney can build rides today if they want to.......but they don't.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Thanks for writing this up and posting it, a very interesting read. I didn't think about the visual issue. That is a really good point. I guess they will have to reconfigure the queues at some point?

"And if that is the case, it will come to the point that the entire ride’s capacity will be taken up by the volume of FP+ people, leaving nothing left for the SB people."

This is very interesting. It seems that it's possible there won't be a limit as to how many FPs they allow for prebooking from day 60 on, other than the ride's capacity. Then you will be dealing with a system that is essentially all reservations (like ADRs).

The real test of this is going to be the Mine Train.

 

[JimmyV]

I've been confident that Disney will allow offsite guests to book in advance once the onsite test is done. Even their commercials on tv seem to indicate this. If that happens at least the kiosks lines will vanish.

Call it "guessing" or call it deductive reasoning. But I think the change is coming soon. Why? Because there were so many CMs with i-Pads and so few actual kiosks. I was expcting to see kiosks everywhere, especially where old FP machines had been. But there has been no effort to install rows and rows of machines, and instead they are paying CMs money to stand around with tablets. That tells me that booking at kiosks is seen as a very short term option and that kiosks will be used in the future mainly for making changes.

The large family behind us had come from the standby line. They had gotten in line just after 9:30 with a posted wait time of 45 minutes. It was now 11:05 and they were just getting to the design room. They were livid.

The two families in line ahead of us were conspiring to figure out what cause of action they could bring against Disney in a law suit! Half in jest, of course, but only half.

BTW, that day the FP+ kiosk at the pin station right past Spaceship Earth wrapped back and forth through a long queue line and then stretched out past the pin station and along the big central fountain. Even if Disney would unlock the ability for offsite guests to use the My Disney Experience to book day-of FP+ it would take a huge burden off the ridiculous lines at the FP+ distribution kiosks.

Thanks for backing me up here. The lines that we witnessed of people waiting just to get to kiosks/CMs really had to be seen to be believed. The lines under the hat at DHS were so long that you would have thought that the Frozen Princesses were having tea with Rapunzel and Mickey himself and people were lined up for a photo op!

 

[ArwenMarie]

If Disney starts outright selling additional FP+ reservations, I'd be stunned.
I could certainly see Deluxe guests getting one or two more per day at some point, but I doubt they will sell front-of-the-line access like Universal or SeaWorld do.

I do agree either way capacity is a problem. They need to add ride capacity at AK and DHS especially to make the whole system work like they want it to work.

If anything, I think this is what they will do. They probably don't even have enough to do that from the sound of things.

 

[JimmyV]

Thanks for writing this up and posting it, a very interesting read. I didn't think about the visual issue. That is a really good point. I guess they will have to reconfigure the queues at some point?



This is very interesting. It seems that it's possible there won't be a limit as to how many FPs they allow for prebooking from day 60 on, other than the ride's capacity. Then you will be dealing with a system that is essentially all reservations (like ADRs).

The real test of this is going to be the Mine Train.

We all know that this system is in the "testing phase". But I don't think that they are testing things that we would like to see changed, like adding a 4th FP, or eliminating tiering. Instead, I suspect that they are testing the system's capacity to withstand the total number of FP+s given out. As my daughter pointed out, there have always been FPs available for BTMRR. But the FP line NEVER looked like this before. So they are clearly giving out too many. What does that mean? Obviously fewer FP+s available, and that will put a premium on early booking, just like ADRs.

 

[summerskye]

To the OP -

Thanks for taking the time to report. Yes, it was long but it was worth the time to read.

I love the comment about showing your daughter the right way to work with people...

 

[clsteve]

We all know that this system is in the "testing phase". But I don't think that they are testing things that we would like to see changed, like adding a 4th FP, or eliminating tiering. Instead, I suspect that they are testing the system's capacity to withstand the total number of FP+s given out. As my daughter pointed out, there have always been FPs available for BTMRR. But the FP line NEVER looked like this before. So they are clearly giving out too many. What does that mean? Obviously fewer FP+s available, and that will put a premium on early booking, just like ADRs.

Someone had posted in another thread that Josh at EasyWDW was told they're distributing FP's at 75% capacity for some rides. That would change the whole dynamic, quite a bit. You're spot on about needing to give offsite advance ressie capability asap. It's gonna get hot soon- standing at a kiosk line or a FP+line out in the sun is going to get old really quickly....

 

[JimmyV]

Someone had posted in another thread that Josh at EasyWDW was told they're distributing FP's at 75% capacity for some rides. That would change the whole dynamic, quite a bit. You're spot on about needing to give offsite advance ressie capability asap. It's gonna get hot soon- standing at a kiosk line or a FP+line out in the sun is going to get old really quickly....

My wife made that exact same observation. Many of the lines (both to get FP+s and to return to ride the rides) were in places not designed to have people wait. Like the Space Mountain line that was out in the open clear back under the Peoplemover to the Astro Orbiter. On a sunny 90 degree day, that would/will be awful.

 

[teachermommy78]

Thank you so much for doing all that work to report about your trip! It was a well written critique! I thought that the FP+ lines were unique to Christmas. It bums me out that you experienced it during President's Day as well. When we were there during the week of New Year's, the FP+ lines were super long, and unfortunately VERY confusing. When one enters a long line, they assume they are in stand by. Many, many guests were getting in the FP+ line and waiting only to find out that they were in the wrong line. Also, finding the end of the line is demanding and a bit intimidating, honestly! I almost felt like I was doing a "walk of shame" at times trying to find the end. Guests just stare at people looking for the end, almost daring them to try to cut in line. And then you have the inevitable groups of people just hanging out, as they should in a theme park, and it is so crowded that you end up waiting in line behind them only to find out they aren't in line! As you mentioned, the lines did go pretty quickly, but it is still not a very nice experience. As we experienced this, I specifically thought about the first time visitors. Guests that will likely be completely shocked and turned off by just this experience alone. You are right...it is very six flags esque. I never thought about that before. The details are completely lost by the enormous crowds and overshadowed by frustrated emotions to just "get through this area." I will hold onto my faith that Disney is learning from this new system and will eventually work it out. They may, however, be losing potential return visitors in those first timers who couldn't wrap their minds around the way it's supposed to be.

 

[Liz Z]

Hi Everyone,

We just booked a spur of the moment trip and have not used the FP+ system at all. Know nothing about it.

We have very old paper tickets and plastic ones( Will they combine the 2 ?)

We stay off site and have no clue how to use the FP+ Kiosks. Would anyone care to brief me on the process.

I appreciate the help
Liz

 

[JimmyV]

When we were there during the week of New Year's, the FP+ lines were super long, and unfortunately VERY confusing. When one enters a long line, they assume they are in stand by. Many, many guests were getting in the FP+ line and waiting only to find out that they were in the wrong line. Also, finding the end of the line is demanding and a bit intimidating, honestly! I almost felt like I was doing a "walk of shame" at times trying to find the end. Guests just stare at people looking for the end, almost daring them to try to cut in line.

The common refrain, (almost universal, to be honest) was when people actually got in the end of the FP+ line was to say: "Is this really the Fast Pass line? You've got to be kidding me! While the lines did move relatively quickly, the optics were definitely working against Disney. And then you have rides like the Great Movie Ride that work in reverse. No one gets a FP for that ride, yet half of the zig-zag queue in the theater area is reserved for those non-existent FP returnees. So instead of using the entie theater for SB people, they now use half of it, making the SB line extend way outside of the building.

 

[Love Tink]

Even if Disney would unlock the ability for offsite guests to use the My Disney Experience app or website simply to book day-of FP+ it would take a huge burden off the ridiculous lines at the FP+ distribution kiosks.

I don't understand why they haven't done this. I'm not a programmer, but it doesn't seem difficult to set the system so it could be accessed by anyone at exactly 9:00am. Or it might be more difficult, but maybe they could fix it to be accessible once your tickets have been activated for the day.

If off-siters could use smart phones to make reservations once in the park, it would eliminate at least 50% of the people in these kiosk/iPad lines. (And as we all know, you can't spend money when you're waiting in line.)

 

[ptted]

Really great post. I totally agree with all of the extra lines taking away from the look of the parks. I was at EPCOT on Saturday and I could see the lines around Norway all the way from Morocco. The lines at the 2 FP+ station in the center of the entrance just past SE completely crowd the walkways to get to the rest of the park. Good to know that your experience with the long FP+ lines was that they actually moved very quickly.