All FP machines to be removed from Animal Kingdom by next week and....

[rebbyparker]

Disney's plan to take keep guests planning and spending just took a hit with this decision. Our family was on the fenced about burning a day on our unexpiring 10 day tickets on the 12/23. We will just avoid any parks and have a wonderful lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

What Disney is doing is beyond deceitful.

Agreed. But, cheesecake factory! Yum!

 

[wisblue]

I'll grant you that you aren't tied up in knots like some of us are (I'm definitely knotted), but you have like 100 posts in this thread. I think you care a little more than you are admitting here

I care about it from the standpoint of discussing it, but not to the point that I am anxious about how it will affect my future visits.

I think a lot of people are stating as facts things that may not happen or that may create changes that are more imperceptible than significant.

Like your statement that the rope drop experience will "no doubt" be affected. As far as I'm concerned, there is a doubt. If all of the FPs are sold out in advance, some people who might otherwise have come to the park later may come earlier to take advantage of shorter standby lines. But others, like people who got a FP+ schedule from their travel agents, may not feel compelled to get to the parks until the first of those FP times comes up.

Because I have never booked a WDW trip through a travel agent, I don't know how active those agents will be in actually making FP+ reservations for their clients. It is one thing to make airline and room reservations for their clients and to provide information about attractions and reminders about timelines for making dining and FP+ reservations. But, it's something else to actually create MDE accounts and log on to them on their client's behalf to make those reservations.

If this practice will become as prevalent as the crowd now seems to think, that tilts me all the more toward thinking that Disney will not allow offsite guests to make FP+ reservations as early as onsite guests. And that more than anything else would dramatically increase the availability of FP+ reservations for onsite guests who are willing to plan in advance.

As I said earlier in the thread, the math about ride capacity is a fact. How Disney's policies and guest behavior will be affected as this plays out is not.

 

[mom2rtk]

Agreed. But, cheesecake factory! Yum!

Cheesecake Factory? I'm in!

 

[KatieCharlotte]

When you add in the TA's, the Reservation CM's, Disney's autoselect feature for FP+ reservations (and they seem to make it hard NOT to select what they want you to select), on top of the fact every bonus in Disney Marketing will be tied to the the success of advance FP reservations ('cause, that's just how it works with new campaigns) people are going to reserve these things.....

It appears that everyone who books a Disney package or room in advance is receiving FP+ promotional material in very nice packaging w/ the infamous Mickey zip drive. Ours included a fridge magnet with the sole purpose of reminding us what date we can start booking FP+. I wouldn't hazard a guess at how many will book right at 60 days, but the human tendency to procrastinate has been overcome before -- Yellowstone hotels booking up one year ahead, to cite a non-ADR example.

Groups also make me nervous. I've been at DHS when several very large groups of RD-arriving Brazilian teens took nearly every FP for ToT and RnR before noon in the slow season. Their groups will be booking FP+ at sixty days out.

 

[baileybrad]

I totally understand testing a small number of off-site families who can opt out, but this.

I honestly didn't think it could be true. Imagine showing up at AK in the morning, having read a guidebook, visited before, talked to friends, gone on the official Disney site, or even gone on the message boards two days before your Saturday a.m.flight]. You arrive with a good knowledge of legacy fastpass, happy you can still use it, and have your day roughly mapped out and then...all the regular fastpass machines are covered and you are being told that you have to use this new system that isn't user friendly at central kiosks where people are lining up by the droves...

At least they showed a small measure of sanity by starting at AK.

Depends entirely on what one's measure of sanity is?

A big change like this should have occurred over weekly periods, say 1/7 - 1/13 and 1/22 - 1/29. They could have covered the FP machines and seen what happened when this many folks tried to access such a user friendly system at once. AK would have been a fine park to try it excuse me er I mean TEST it.

This is going to get really ugly..........fast.

 

[baileybrad]

For this test, it makes sense that they have to pick families in the park because how else will Disney know when an offsite person will be taking a trip? That's what I have never been able to guess about the future of this system: Without a resort reservation, how will the Disney system know you're allowed to make FP+ reservations? I guess it could be like ADRs where offsite guests are allowed to make those reservations 60 days out from each day they want reservations.

Didn't you hear about the chip that they are implanting?

 

[Disney_Princess83]

Whatever the percentage is, whether its 2% or 15%, that is a percentage that will take away from what was traditionally available when the parks opened.

I believe the math would heavily favor the chance that foreign tourists use a TA more than in the US. The foreign attendance was up 7% last year. Math.

Personally, I have never found a travel agent in Sydney, Australia that knew anything about Disney World. When we planned a trip last year for 3 weeks, our TA thought we would need 3 10 Day Park Hoppers, rather then suggesting an AP. They knew nothing about EMH, that there were four parks, they knew nothing. And this was from a major travel agency company. This obviously wouldn't be everyones experience. However they would have had absolutely no idea about Magic Bands.

 

[wisblue]

Disney's plan to take keep guests planning and spending just took a hit with this decision. Our family was on the fenced about burning a day on our unexpiring 10 day tickets on the 12/23. We will just avoid any parks and have a wonderful lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

What Disney is doing is beyond deceitful.

Just out of curiosity, what does this latest development do that would cause you to change your plans for a day of your trip?

What did you intend to do that you can't do now?

 

[baileybrad]

"Just to clarify" (I'll also use that expression because I am actually clarifying, although you were not- maybe you should look up what "clarify" means?) it wasn't a hateful comment. It was a response to an obnoxious comment.

The poster may not have said "my attitude at home is [blank]" but her attitude at home can be easily inferred by making an assumption that she was posting on the Disboards from home. And when posting (assumedly) from home the poster didn't just say "I'll be happy no matter what!" No, what the poster said was that she didn't need to ride "every ride 10 times without waiting" and she wouldn't be "hating the world" and "letting my attitude ruin my trip." All of which are rude, not-so-thinly veiled jabs at people who don't share her exact way of thinking.

Personally, I just get sick and tired of coming on here and seeing condescending, rude comments from people who obviously think they have the market on the "true" way to enjoy Disney, and who pretend to be uplifting and joyful when actually making a bunch of passive aggressive insults. If you can read what the poster wrote and not see the obnoxious undertone then bully for you - but I, at least, come right out and say what I mean instead of pretending to say something else.

Your post is priceless and correct on every level and point. Some should just come with a button on their foreheads that when pushed just says "Thank you, Disney, can I have another".

 

[wisblue]

For the record, I was kidding. Not being a jerk. I really think we need to see how things shake out before we make dismal predictions, but I do appreciate the fact that people are skeptical of the changes. Change is hard enough, but WDW's roll-out hasn't been super suave. Count me among the (minority) who thinks things will be okay in the long run, though.

This could be an interesting discussion all by itself.

Putting aside the pros and cons of the change to FP+, what SHOULD Disney do or have done to get from the paper FP system to one in which FP+ is the only way to get FPs?

I don't see how you could get there without causing major headaches (yes, much worse than what people think is going on now) without going in small steps, first to introduce the new system, and then to withdraw the old one.

I know one of the complaints is about giving more advance notice of changes, but that doesn't seem practical either unless you want the transition to take several years. Announcing things way in advance would remove the flexibility to make adjustments based on how previous steps go.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Totally off-topic, but whoever (I forget who it was because I deleted the message and then put them on my ignore list) private messaged me to call me a clueless twit, I think that's uncalled for. I don't work for Disney, but I see no problem in playing devil's advocate about FP+.

 

[lugnut33]

Totally off-topic, but whoever (I forget who it was because I deleted the message and then put them on my ignore list) private messaged me to call me a clueless twit, I think that's uncalled for. I don't work for Disney, but I see no problem in playing devil's advocate about FP+.

Agreed, that is totally uncalled for. Like I told WisBlue, it's a difference of opinion that makes the world go around.

I just hope somebody is at AK this Wednesday to report back to us how the testing went. I'd also really like to know how it goes starting this Saturday when the Christmas crowds start to descend on the parks.

 

[btk2333]

It appears that everyone who books a Disney package or room in advance is receiving FP+ promotional material in very nice packaging w/ the infamous Mickey zip drive. Ours included a fridge magnet with the sole purpose of reminding us what date we can start booking FP+. I wouldn't hazard a guess at how many will book right at 60 days, but the human tendency to procrastinate has been overcome before -- Yellowstone hotels booking up one year ahead, to cite a non-ADR example.

Groups also make me nervous. I've been at DHS when several very large groups of RD-arriving Brazilian teens took nearly every FP for ToT and RnR before noon in the slow season. Their groups will be booking FP+ at sixty days out.

Just to clarify not everyone is getting that promotional material. I've done three Magic Bands trips since the testing started earlier this year, each time booking three separate room reservations (due to other couples/families traveling with us.) None of us have ever gotten a flash drive or fridge magnet. Only time will tell if people change their habits or not.

Tour groups also generally practice the worst park touring strategies. They show up late and go to the headliners at the busiest times of day. I would be surprised if they make best use of FP+, maybe they will though, who knows

I'm just excited the system is finally moving towards its final product. It's an exciting time to be visiting WDW in our opinion.

 

[pilferk]

This is an important element:


Some kind of "multiple grouping" would have to come into play at the FP+ kiosks, so that all of the members of a group could get the same FP+ attraction reservations,
and all (each) of the RFID tickets of that group would turn the Mickey head scanner GREEN at the FP entrance.

This could be done in various ways at the kiosks, but it will be a somewhat (!) more complex thing to do... especially with the (anticipated) long lines of guests at each of the FP+ kiosk locations.

Super late to the party, but my guess is sort of like they handle people at "Be our Guest" Lunch in MK....you just "add guests" to your table/FP+ at the kiosk, scanning their tickets as you go.

But we'll see.

 

[Mad Hattered]

Totally off-topic, but whoever (I forget who it was because I deleted the message and then put them on my ignore list) private messaged me to call me a clueless twit, I think that's uncalled for.

That's the worst you've been called? If you knew half the things that got sent to me! I think some people take things too personally. I know I don't let it get to me. I'm pretty sure most of us could go out and have a drink together and laugh about most of this. And then if people didn't drink we could make fun of that!

 

[wordwitt]

This could be an interesting discussion all by itself.

Putting aside the pros and cons of the change to FP+, what SHOULD Disney do or have done to get from the paper FP system to one in which FP+ is the only way to get FPs?

I don't see how you could get there without causing major headaches (yes, much worse than what people think is going on now) without going in small steps, first to introduce the new system, and then to withdraw the old one.

I know one of the complaints is about giving more advance notice of changes, but that doesn't seem practical either unless you want the transition to take several years. Announcing things way in advance would remove the flexibility to make adjustments based on how previous steps go.

I think people may have been less upset in general if there was more transparency with the process, as well as a peek into the vision for the final concept. In other words something like, "We're testing, and that can mean there will be glitches, and if there are, we want to make them right. We don't know exactly what the final FP+ will look like-- again, testing-- but our hope is to give on-site guests the ability to pre-book at 60 days and then give all guests the ability to do same day FP+ bookings. And this is how you'll do that . . " and then with the FAQ, perhaps addressing some of the actual concerns that people are having. But there's no central voice for FP+ except Disney's marketing department,and I don't think that works well because then people just feel manipulated.

 

[delmar411]

Super late to the party, but my guess is sort of like they handle people at "Be our Guest" Lunch in MK....you just "add guests" to your table/FP+ at the kiosk, scanning their tickets as you go.

But we'll see.

You do make the selections for your whole party at the kiosks. The iPads access your actual account just like at home and the kiosks have the option to add more people to your party (they have to be in your list already) and then you make selections.

 

[Laketravis]

Putting aside the pros and cons of the change to FP+, what SHOULD Disney do or have done to get from the paper FP system to one in which FP+ is the only way to get FPs?

I know you posed that question to someone else, but the first thought I had when I read it was they could have done a much better job securing the buy-in of their own employees.

Our personal experience was that many CM's were not thrilled at all with FP+. I was even surprised on occasion to hear some of them use words like "crap" when discussing it. One even used the word "Sh!t" (I waited for what I thought would be an embarrassed apology but one never came).

Anecdotal, but it seemed like the ones with the negative opinions were "more mature" and had been at WDW longer. The ones with positive opinions were operationally closer to IT and younger.

Emotions about FP+ run deep no matter who you are, and I don't think Disney prepared their staff as well as they could have.

 

[pampam]

I will be very curious to see how many parks, if any, still have paper FP machines on January 7th.

Let me guess. Your vacation starts on January 7th.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Let me guess. Your vacation starts on January 7th.

It does. We are on-site, though, and since I'm running the Dopey Challenge I don't plan to spend any more time in the parks than to use my FP+ rides and get out.