At the park now, FP+ lines are snaking through the park

[larryz]

I really need one of those signs.

No, you don't, because sarcasm not allowed.

IRONY, on the other hand...

 

[ChrisFL]

At least I can be on Facebook Plus instead of shoveling snow, right?

 

[Love Tink]

Well if whether or not you can post on Facebook is your worst problem, then you should just be happy to have such a "first world problem" and no other problems in your life.

Edited to add: Besides, the true point of Facebook isn't getting to comment, it is just being there, being a part of Facebook and enjoying the *MAGIC*.

 

[Davey Jones II]

I'm not counting many smiles in those pictures........ must be the FP+ Hater's Line.......

They're just being miserable and frustrated on purpose. They WANT to hate the wonderful new FP+ system...

 

[EasternShoreGal]

I have read through this whole thread. I wanted to start by saying I am an AP holder and DVC member. I have been to the world at least 30 times, most since 2004. My family tends to be the early park people who try to take advantage of the cooler morning temps and do as much as we can first thing in the morning so we can enjoy pool time in the afternoon when the parks are more crowded and the temps unbearable. When we first received an invitation to test the system, we were curious.

To address a couple,of comments and questions from earlier in the thread, I have never seen queues to get into FP lines as long as those posted on Twitter with the exception of first thing in the morning at TSMM-by the time you would get to the machine, FP were being distributed for 1 or 2 in the afternoon and yes, we arrived for rope drop. We have waited in bottlenecks before with people who don't really understand the system or are waiting for the last minute to tick down and also as a ride previously closed opens back up. We have been there Christmas week, Thanksgiving week, Easter week, MLK weekend, busy Food and Wine weekends and during busy summer months. We have however waited in pretty long fast pass lines-45 mins or so but always during peak times and usually as a ride re-opened.

Our initial thoughts were that it would take the spontaneity out of our trip. We really don't like to plan ahead. But we wanted to be open minded. We were just concerned that all our favorite attractions would be scooped up at the 60 day mark and none would be left for us. It wasn't until I looked closer that I realized we were limited to just 3 all in the same park each day. This I wasn't thrilled with.

That being said, we have used them twice, once during October and Christmas week. The Parks closed their doors Christmas Day so I think it is fair to say that the parks were busier and we didn't see those kinds of lines. I don't believe it fully rolled out until after that and might account for the difference. Since we have been so many times and experienced all the attractions many times, we don't make ourselves crazy and don't stay in the parks all day. Our philosophy is that we can do it another day/time so we do the parks pretty leisurely these days.

Our biggest complaint...being limited to one park on a day. We are frequent hoppers and would like the ability to schedule at multiple parks even if we have to abide by a limit per day. My guess is they don't want to do that because I am betting they may have issues keeping people from selecting headliners in each park based on the current programming.

We also didn't like the tiers but I am guessing those are here to stay.

We also ended up booking things that we didn't use because it forced is to fill all three passes. If they insist on tiers, then the programming should allow us to choose less attractions.

Our biggest plus of the system-we liked the fact that we could change things on the fly, even at the very last minute. Not something you could do under the old system. We were also able to book fast passes the morning of from the comfort of our room after we decided which park we wanted to explore for the day. I read from a PP that they attempted and kept getting a message saying no attractions were available. We too experienced that same message a couple of different times but since I had just minutes previously booked our initial choices with much availability I assumed that there was just an issue with the system. I kept trying and eventually choices showed up again.

DD's favorite thing was being able to sleep in and get to the parks a little later, while still being able to easily experience an attraction without waiting 5 or 6 hoirs for the time window to open up.

Overall, we found we experienced less attractions. In all fairness, both of those trips were not designed to be about the attractions- we were soaking up the atmosphere at F&W in October and the special Christmas activities during our Christmas week trip. We are planning another trip in April and will see how that works for us. Our summer trip has me concerned. Waiting outside in midsummer, midday heat in a line to get into the fast pass line is not very appealing to me.

My concern is now that they have created such awareness of FP that the demand has increased exponentially they will use this as a way to convert their system to one like Universal's where you pay for your fast passes. Unlike Universal, however, they can't and won't be able to offer the same perk for on property front of the line access.

 

[Davey Jones II]

This is the sort of thing that has worried me all along. We're not newbies to Disney or to FP (legacy) or to doing the parks sensibly. We've been going to DIsney since 1982. Used very few of the original fast passes. Never needed to.
We can't remember the last time we stood in line for attractions that now have LONG fast pass plus lines. Seriously.
Our trip isn't til early May, but I read these posts with dread. And we never needed fast pass for these attractions.
Talk bout fixing (?) the system.
Are you kidding me?????

Why did they spend a fortune on the so-called Magic Bands? To fix a system that wasn't broken? No. They did it because they believe this new system will help sell more merch in the parks. You don't even have to reach for your wallet in order to buy something; you just wave your MB.

The other benefit for Disney is that the RFID helps them keep track of us in the parks, track our preferences and market more specifically to individuals. Notice that this is all about padding the company's bottom line; it has nothing whatsoever to do with improving the guest experience.

Why did that have to result in a change to the Fast Pass system? Not sure. I guess the MBs are incompatible with the old (already lamented) Fast Pass machines. After $1.5 billion, I know they won't give up on their beloved MBs, but they need to change the crappy FP+ system fast.

Unfortunately, there is another, hidden cost to all this --besides the current chaos in the parks. That $1.5 billion (and counting) is money not going into new attractions (and plussing of old ones). A few months ago, there were reports that Disney was putting exciting new projects coughstarwarscough on hold because of cost overruns from this high tech boondoggle. I am still hoping that these were only rumors, but so far, I've seen no sign that they were. Disney hasn't announced or broken ground on anything new since Avatar. So does that mean we get nothing else new for the rest of the decade?

If so, they really are Magic Bands. They magically made lots of great new stuff disappear!

 

[jeneric997]

Why did they spend a fortune on the so-called Magic Bands? To fix a system that wasn't broken? No. They did it because they believe this new system will help sell more merch in the parks. You don't even have to reach for your wallet in order to buy something; you just wave your MB.

The other benefit for Disney is that the RFID helps them keep track of us in the parks, track our preferences and market more specifically to individuals. Notice that this is all about padding the company's bottom line; it has nothing whatsoever to do with improving the guest experience.

Why did that have to result in a change to the Fast Pass system? Not sure. I guess the MBs are incompatible with the old (already lamented) Fast Pass machines. After $1.5 billion, I know they won't give up on their beloved MBs, but they need to change the crappy FP+ system fast.

Unfortunately, there is another, hidden cost to all this --besides the current chaos in the parks. That $1.5 billion (and counting) is money not going into new attractions (and plussing of old ones). A few months ago, there were reports that Disney was putting exciting new projects coughstarwarscough on hold because of cost overruns from this high tech boondoggle. I am still hoping that these were only rumors, but so far, I've seen no sign that they were. Disney hasn't announced or broken ground on anything new since Avatar. So does that mean we get nothing else new for the rest of the decade?

If so, they really are Magic Bands. They magically made lots of great new stuff disappear!

People's satisfaction with FP+ had nothing to do with why they came up with this system. Tracking, collecting data and trying to sell you things based on their data is the plan. The one thing I don't understand is a lot of people's satisfaction is tied into how long they stand in lines. This system doesn't seem to have improved this and for many, has made it worse. We didn't want to spend time in lines so we spent less time in the parks and less money- not sure that was part of the plan!

 

[erddig]

It really wasn't much work at all. For example, at EP yesterday, we had a FP+ for Mission Space, got there and saw the standby line was 5 minutes. They actually didn't even have the FP+ system on there because the line was so short, so I immediately went on my phone, switched the FP+ to Nemo and rode Mission Space standby. It was super easy and that meant we had zero wait for Nemo as well. It was great! So, my suggestion, if you choose a FP+ and find you don't need it when you get to the ride, switch it out for something else before that FP+ window closes! Took me about 15 seconds to switch them out and never wasted an FP+

Not for those offsiters, that meant a FP + kiosk line-----

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[erddig]

The most interesting thing I heard from a CM was" if you're unhappy, and not spending the $1000's you normally spend because you're messing with FP+ and long lines, I care, I'm a stockholder, we need to HEAR from you, you are our bread and butter!" And he came around the counter and walked me over to guest relations....... Disney Magic!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[kappyfamily]

Here now. Loving FP. Yes I wish there was no tiers but love everything else about them. By the way no such long FP lines that we saw today at HS....

 

[Shaden]

Here now. Loving FP. Yes I wish there was no tiers but love everything else about them. By the way no such long FP lines that we saw today at HS....

BUt you booked yours without tiers didn't you !?!?!?

I'd love that too... or at least, I wouldn't hate it as much.

 

[Davey Jones II]

The crazy thing is... There are no solutions. This whole problem is shortage of rides. By increasing the percentage of people using the system to 90%, they can now only further ration rides. There simply isn't enough capacity.

On top of that, they are taking their sweet time in creating more interactive standby lines.

This is quite a mess for peak season.

That's right. And they keep spending on crap like this instead of spending it on new rides. When will they ever get their priorities straight?? A theme park is all about show. Use cutting edge technology to create a better show (like Universal is doing) and soak up the crowds, not to redistribute them yet again with an overpriced, glorified reservation system!

 

[kappyfamily]

BUt you booked yours without tiers didn't you !?!?!?

I'd love that too... or at least, I wouldn't hate it as much.

Stalker! Yikes! I did get in without tiers, yeah me!...but...that's not what my post was about. It was about there not having long lines in Fp lines, since this is what this thread was started for. Hoping for the same today! Have a good day everyone!

 

[gina2000]

How many stores can you walk into and spend money if most stores have the exact same merchandise? How many restaurants will you visit with similar menus?

If the goal of Magic Bands is to build a data base about customer preferences, WDW needs to entice visitors into other activities to determine these preferences. I don't walk into stores anymore because they all offer the exact same shopping opportunities. Food offerings are overpriced and homogenized ....so we go offsite when we can. I can play miniature golf at home for a fraction of the cost.

I just don't see the goal of Magic Bands in the here and now. I realize it may be a long term play, but it seems to be a painful transition. The great food and merchandising of the late 90s was transitioned into a low cost, high profit mishmash. Are they headed back to great merchandising and exciting food? Seems like a very expensive way to do it......

 

[madatmama]

I have seen long lines at the FP+ kiosks this week but the FP return lines haven't seemed to take any longer. I would be upset standing in a line for 30-45 minutes just to reserve three rides (one or more of which I might not even want to do thanks to tiering.)

 

[going/again]

Yep, it'd be great if you only had to tap it, but they've too much going on on the back-end (which takes time). So, way too many variables in the whole process.

What would happen if someone went with a RFID blocker, some smart kid will figure it out.

 

[going/again]

It really wasn't much work at all. For example, at EP yesterday, we had a FP+ for Mission Space, got there and saw the standby line was 5 minutes. They actually didn't even have the FP+ system on there because the line was so short, so I immediately went on my phone, switched the FP+ to Nemo and rode Mission Space standby. It was super easy and that meant we had zero wait for Nemo as well. It was great! So, my suggestion, if you choose a FP+ and find you don't need it when you get to the ride, switch it out for something else before that FP+ window closes! Took me about 15 seconds to switch them out and never wasted an FP+

What about those without a smart phone, how do they do it in 15 seconds.

 

[housetomouse]

For proper comparison between FP+ and -, what were FP return wait times like during a busy time with FP-? I know my own experience in a slow time was that the waits were longer, but not excessively so, maybe 5-10 minutes. How much worse is a crowded day?

We used to go during Easter week and I'd say maybe 20 minutes in the Fast Pass lines (as of Easter week 2013).

 

[ougrad86]

Why did that have to result in a change to the Fast Pass system? Not sure. I guess the MBs are incompatible with the old (already lamented) Fast Pass machines. After $1.5 billion, I know they won't give up on their beloved MBs, but they need to change the crappy FP+ system fast.

Unfortunately, there is another, hidden cost to all this --besides the current chaos in the parks. That $1.5 billion (and counting) is money not going into new attractions (and plussing of old ones). A few months ago, there were reports that Disney was putting exciting new projects coughstarwarscough on hold because of cost overruns from this high tech boondoggle. I am still hoping that these were only rumors, but so far, I've seen no sign that they were. Disney hasn't announced or broken ground on anything new since Avatar. So does that mean we get nothing else new for the rest of the decade?

I have been following along with all this, made our reservations a couple of weeks ago, and since we are going during Spring Break, painstakingly scheduled our day. We are lucky since after an unfortunate incident on our last trip, our group was given three priority FP's for use anywhere, and we were lucky enough to hit that tiers glitch that occurred the day after we made our reservations, so we are actually pretty lucky in terms of the choices we will be able to make.

That being said, it is annoying to schedule our day to the nth degree to make sure we get on the rides we want to. Before our first trip, I read guidebooks and discovered the Dis boards and planned and we had a wonderful time and I understood the FP system perfectly, and have had no problems using it. The planning this time has been twice as much, and not as much fun. I am just glad I have been there before and understand the lay of the land. So far not a fan of FP+, those aspects that I have dealt with. And I haven't had major problems with the technology like many have had.

I mentioned to the friends we travel with that the main problem is that WDW has been neglecting the park infrastructure and spending money on this mess and DVC properties as many other posters have noted. They want everyone to stay on property, but unless they improve the park experience and give us more to do in each park (or build a new park), they won't be able to spread out those people staying there - if they stay. The number of rooms still available for Spring Break is staggering. We used to stay at AKL - this year they priced us out, and we are staying at Coronado. I just browsed the hotel listings and there are still a huge number open for spring break - that was not the case this time last year.

Our DS is going on to college and not a huge Disney fan (although his girlfriend is - or was - she is beginning to lose her enthusiasm as she follows along). So future trips might be me and DH or my friend. I have some ticket stock I purchased that needs to be used up, and I can't see cutting it out of my life entirely, but without worrying about school schedules I can plan to go at quieter times. After I use up those tickets...remains to be seen. We are doing split stays with Universal and really enjoy it.

 

[clsteve]

What would happen if someone went with a RFID blocker, some smart kid will figure it out.

Now, you've got to stop putting bad ideas in teenagers heads!

That's the prob with boosting scan strength, definitely - a lot more opportunity for interference. Plus, you would have Mom or Dad holding the kids MB up with their's also on their arm......