Anyone there now that can comment on FP enforcement

[A Mickeyfan]

At least in my experiences this past week, Disney overestimates the wait time to get on rides, they don't underestimate it.

And if you get stuck in a line that is longer that listed, or longer than you thought, you can always leave. Not the greatest option, I know, but it is an option.

true, that is an option.. who would want to wait say 60 minutes, see that they aren't getting on then leave... that is a waste of an hour.. but an option like you said.. not a good one but an option I guess.. see, that is why I don't do ADR's if I am on a line for an attraction, I am not getting off unless I have to use the bathroom.. then it that case, I will let the CM know...and that is another thread.... I am going to seriously have to weigh my options on FP's now then again, I normally won't wait on a line longer than say 35 minutes.. I am spoiled.. I get there early in the am and do all I want before the long lines hit... and then stroll around for the rest of the day.. and now play the new game at the MK during peak times....

 

[WDSearcher]

and may I ask, not being nasty that is, how do you apply that principle when you just get off a ride that you were online for say 90 minutes but the wait time said 60. You thought you were going to be on time, now you may not be because you are going to run into parade traffic, and it is jam packed with shoulder to shoulder guests? It isn't like you are leaving your room so that you "can" plan on leaving 30 minutes earlier... you were on another attraction whose time was off... just giving an example of what can and will happen here... can you give us an example of how those guests can handle that situation when they arrive late for their FP return, or do you just propose that they do nothing but stand around waiting for their FP return time to avoid any unexpected situations again, not being nasty, but would like to hear how to handle this????? tia for your response....

You can't apply that principle to your scenario, but then ... I wasn't answering that question.

The response I gave (that you quoted) was in direct response to a question about how it can often take much longer than an hour to get across the park when the park is crowded, and so if someone were to head to their FP'ed ride to use their FP, it could take until the end of the window before they actually got there. Hence the answer of "start earlier".

In the example you give -- being stuck longer at a ride than you expected -- obviously, that's something totally different.

But based on your example ... if you get into a line with a stated wait time of 60 min, and being in the line a half-hour longer (90 min) causes you to totally miss your FP window (including the 15 min grace period), that would mean that you got into a 60 min line for one ride when it was only 15 min before the window opened for your FP'd ride. So even if the 60 min wait time estimate is
bang on, you're still only giving yourself 30 min to get from the ride you exit to the FP line for the ride you hold the FP for. That seems to be cutting it pretty close, particularly if you know that you're going to have to walk across the park any time near parade time.

In that case, if it's only 15 min until the FP window opens on your FP'ed ride, maybe do that one first and the other one after. Take a nice leisurely walk to the FP'd ride, ride the ride, and then hit the other one during the parade, when it's line may even be less than 60 min. Basically, it's just planning differently.

All that said, however, if you were to find yourself in a case where you truly believe you gave yourself enough time and life simply conspired against you to make you late, you would do what you do anywhere you show up late for something, whether it's a ride, a restaurant, an interview or a doctor's appt. You explain what happened and hope that you can still do what you want to do.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Then another option is to skip the missed FastPass window altogether, or get another FastPass for that attraction and try not to set up your party for potentially missing the window a second time.

that is an option.. who would want to wait say 60 minutes, see that they aren't getting on then leave... that is a waste of an hour.. but an option like you said.. not a good one but an option I guess

 

[KellyNY]

Question, How people manage to get to their ADRs on time? Is FP any different?

 

[Don Disney]

What's an X-Pass? I sure hope it isn't like the"Express Pass" like at Universal!!! I think we are paying enough already,without having to pay for"front-of -the-line priveledges"like at US/IOA.I absolutely HATED it!

 

[spideyspence]

Just did Magic Kingdom and Hollywood studio and my plans went off without a hitch. A bit more timing needed to meet the FP times but nothing to complain about.

Take it easy

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

This is where smartphone apps come in handy. You can check the return time being distributed from where you are rather than traipsing across the park only to find out the FPs being distributed don't work for you.

Hopefully, Disney will also put up displays in various locations around the parks to provide this information. That way, ALL guests can benefit and you won't have to be a smartphone owner to get this information.

Sorry if too OT, direct me to the thread if there's one that discusses this, but when playing around with the app at home (haven't had the chance to use at WDW, yet), it sucked my battery charge up how does one manage to use it all day at a park?!

From my experiences in the parks this past week, the new policy is working great! The lines for returning fastpasses are back to being shorter than the lines for standby, instead of just as long. We could pick up fastpasses later into the day, instead of them all being gone early on. All in all, we were able to ride just about everything we wanted to ride, even with the parks being pretty busy.

Thanks for posting your park experience with FP enforcement. I hope we hear more of these kinds of reports when spring break is in full swing the week before Easter

Again I say, it is WAY too early to deduce any patterns from a mere 7 days of strict enforcement. Any meaningful and thoughtful conclusions are months away, if not longer.

I tend to agree but it's still nice to hear the first hand reports. I hope you'll come back to post your on-site impression of the policy when you go this weekend - BTW, hope you have a nice trip

Just did Magic Kingdom and Hollywood studio and my plans went off without a hitch. A bit more timing needed to meet the FP times but nothing to complain about.

Take it easy

Thanks for posting what's going on now in the parks - glad you had a good time

Looking forward to more updates

 

[origin62]

We spent the last three days playing in the parks. Yesterday was MK and it was packed, especially in the usual places. Small World queue extended out of it's building, along the construction wall, past Columbia Harbor House.

Regarding FPs, queues, and wait times, I agree with a previous poster that said these may not be the weeks to judge the impact of enforcement. The parks are packed, and it seemed like there were a lot of first-timers.

At Peter Pan, we noticed that the FP line extended well outside the show building, around to the distribution machines. Meanwhile the SB queue literally looked deserted. We finally found all the guests waiting in that little hidden corridor near the restrooms. The wait time said 65 minutes.

We asked the CM why the posted wait was so long when there were so few people in the SB line. He responded that the FP line always has priority, so the SB line people are sometimes held back with little or no movement in the queue at all, so they adjust the wait time clock accordingly.

Just then, the FP line started to move, and swallowed everyone up at once. The CM said that their goal was to have FP wait no more than 10 minutes.

Finally, another CM confirmed that they can "officially" admit 5 minutes early and up to 15 late, making the actual window 80 minutes long.

 

[maxiesmom]

At Peter Pan, we noticed that the FP line extended well outside the show building, around to the distribution machines. Meanwhile the SB queue literally looked deserted. We finally found all the guests waiting in that little hidden corridor near the restrooms. The wait time said 65 minutes.

We asked the CM why the posted wait was so long when there were so few people in the SB line. He responded that the FP line always has priority, so the SB line people are held back with no movement in the queue at all.

That makes no sense to me at all, even though we experienced the same exact thing at Pooh. The CM would empty the FP line and hold everyone in the SB line back. That line hardly moved! It was painful, and many people left the line very angry. I wonder if it was the same CM running Peter Pan that we had in the Pooh line. That was the only line we had that problem with, other standby lines moved along very smoothly. I honestly think that that CM needed some re-training.

I have never before seen the FP line emptied while everyone in the SB line just stood there. And I never hope to experience it again.

 

[origin62]

That makes no sense to me at all, even though we experienced the same exact thing at Pooh. The CM would empty the FP line and hold everyone in the SB line back. That line hardly moved! It was painful, and many people left the line very angry. I wonder if it was the same CM running Peter Pan that we had in the Pooh line. That was the only line we had that problem with, other standby lines moved along very smoothly. I honestly think that that CM needed some re-training.

I have never before seen the FP line emptied while everyone in the SB line just stood there. And I never hope to experience it again.

I think that certain rides, like Pooh and PP, are just cursed, because they have only one loading point (as opposed to Splash or Small World, that have two parallel queues and two boarding areas.)

The oddest part, really, was how the entire queue area was empty, I mean, actually empty. At first we thought it was closed. The street between SW and PP was a log-jam, so the empty PP line was bizarre to see.

 

[ftballfan7]

That makes no sense to me at all, even though we experienced the same exact thing at Pooh. The CM would empty the FP line and hold everyone in the SB line back. That line hardly moved! It was painful, and many people left the line very angry. I wonder if it was the same CM running Peter Pan that we had in the Pooh line. That was the only line we had that problem with, other standby lines moved along very smoothly. I honestly think that that CM needed some re-training.

I have never before seen the FP line emptied while everyone in the SB line just stood there. And I never hope to experience it again.

It is my understanding that this is the way it is supposed to work. I have read in at least a couple of different books on Disney that when the fp lines get backed up, they become the priority and the sb lines move very slowly if at all until the fp line is back to the target wait. I don't believe that these cms need retraining as they are doing what they are supposed to do.

 

[mom2rtk]

It is my understanding that this is the way it is supposed to work. I have read in at least a couple of different books on Disney that when the fp lines get backed up, they become the priority and the sb lines move very slowly if at all until the fp line is back to the target wait. I don't believe that these cms need retraining as they are doing what they are supposed to do.

Which is gonna make things REALLY interesting if they start messing with the FP capacity trying to squeeze more out of it.

 

[origin62]

It is my understanding that this is the way it is supposed to work. I have read in at least a couple of different books on Disney that when the fp lines get backed up, they become the priority and the sb lines move very slowly if at all until the fp line is back to the target wait. I don't believe that these cms need retraining as they are doing what they are supposed to do.

Maybe that's what we saw, a temporary fix for a long FP line. Like, mm, I hadn't ever seen the FP line move exclusively while the SB line is at a stanstill. But it does make sense that they'd have to do that now and then to keep the FP line short, since it would be the priority.

 

[maxiesmom]

It is my understanding that this is the way it is supposed to work. I have read in at least a couple of different books on Disney that when the fp lines get backed up, they become the priority and the sb lines move very slowly if at all until the fp line is back to the target wait. I don't believe that these cms need retraining as they are doing what they are supposed to do.

The thing is, the Fastpass people were not made to wait at all. They were walked right onto the ride. The standby line was barely moving at all. I waited in other standby lines, and there was not another one where you spent so much time standing in once place. The fastpass line for Splash was pretty long, but still the standby line kept shuffling forward. We never stood in one spot like we did in the Pooh line. I don't believe for one moment the Pooh CM was doing what he was supposed to do. The standby line is still supposed to move a bit, not be frozen in one spot as the fastpass line was continually emptied.

 

[magicbob]

It is my understanding that this is the way it is supposed to work. I have read in at least a couple of different books on Disney that when the fp lines get backed up, they become the priority and the sb lines move very slowly if at all until the fp line is back to the target wait. I don't believe that these cms need retraining as they are doing what they are supposed to do.

So, the underlying question is, what causes the FP line to get backed up like that? Obviously, late FP use is not the reason (as some have maintained for years), because everyone in these backed-up FP lines is now using an "on-time" FP.

Do you think it's just bad timing with everyone showing up at the same time?

Remember: at 3 pm, people with FP return times starting at 2 pm (as long as they're not 1 more minute later), 2:05 pm, 2:10 pm, 2:15 pm, 2:20 pm, 2:25pm, 2:30 pm, 2:35 pm, 2:40 pm, 2:45 pm, 2:50 pm, 2:55 pm, and 3:00 pm could all show up at once. Of course, is not likely that all of those people would wait until 3 pm to show up when they COULD have come before that, but it IS possible.

This could be exacerbated if a lot of people during one hour come later in their window (as described above) and then during the next hour everyone shows up right at the beginning of their windows. That would add more people to the already back-up line every 5 minutes.

 

[origin62]

So, the underlying question is, what causes the FP line to get backed up like that? Obviously, late FP use is not the reason (as some have maintained for years), because everyone in these backed-up FP lines is now using an "on-time" FP.

Do you think it's just bad timing with everyone showing up at the same time?

Remember: at 3 pm, people with FP return times starting at 2 pm (as long as they're not 1 more minute later), 2:05 pm, 2:10 pm, 2:15 pm, 2:20 pm, 2:25pm, 2:30 pm, 2:35 pm, 2:40 pm, 2:45 pm, 2:50 pm, 2:55 pm, and 3:00 pm could all show up at once. Of course, is not likely that all of those people would wait until 3 pm to show up when they COULD have come before that, but it IS possible.

This could be exacerbated if a lot of people during one hour come later in their window (as described above) and then during the next hour everyone shows up right at the beginning of their windows. That would add more people to the already back-up line every 5 minutes.

Oh, you reminded me of one other thing. The CM said that since enforcement began, per hour FP ridership is up in the FP line, indicating that people who pull FPs are using them, and within the window. Maybe that, combined with increased attendance, and, as you said, large numbers arriving at once, caused the FP line to swell.

 

[ftballfan7]

The thing is, the Fastpass people were not made to wait at all. They were walked right onto the ride. The standby line was barely moving at all. I waited in other standby lines, and there was not another one where you spent so much time standing in once place. The fastpass line for Splash was pretty long, but still the standby line kept shuffling forward. We never stood in one spot like we did in the Pooh line. I don't believe for one moment the Pooh CM was doing what he was supposed to do. The standby line is still supposed to move a bit, not be frozen in one spot as the fastpass line was continually emptied.

I have been in a number of lines where the sb line hardly moved while the fp line was catching up. I have been stuck on space ranger spin almost to the end of the standby line a couple of times when the sb line virtually stopped while a ton of fp users were let through and that ride loads pretty quickly. I don't think it is all that rare. It is just more noticeable on some rides than others. For instance in the Space Ranger Spin queue, you can see which line is moving and which is not so you know that it is not an issue with the ride that is slowing you down.

 

[magicbob]

Oh, you reminded me of one other thing. The CM said that since enforcement began, per hour FP ridership is up in the FP line, indicating that people who pull FPs are using them, and within the window. Maybe that, combined with increased attendance, and, as you said, large numbers arriving at once, caused the FP line to swell.

Of course, those FP lines might not be so long if some of those people were allowed to come back later when both the FP and standby lines had died down some.

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh, you reminded me of one other thing. The CM said that since enforcement began, per hour FP ridership is up in the FP line, indicating that people who pull FPs are using them, and within the window. Maybe that, combined with increased attendance, and, as you said, large numbers arriving at once, caused the FP line to swell.

Except that with a poplular attraction that would typically "sell out" of FP's most days, the FP numbers SHOULD still be the same as before 3/7..... meaning that it wouldn't matter if was a busy day or not.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I have read in at least a couple of different books on Disney that when the fp lines get backed up, they become the priority and the sb lines move very slowly if at all until the fp line is back to the target wait.

So, the underlying question is, what causes the FP line to get backed up like that? Obviously, late FP use is not the reason (as some have maintained for years), because everyone in these backed-up FP lines is now using an "on-time" FP.

Considering those books had to have been written and published well before this reversion to adhering to the FP window went into effect - the cause of the backups cited in the guidebooks cannot reasonably be due to the one hour window.

Process of elimination? Backed up FastPass lines were being caused by late FastPass returns.