Buying multiple tickets for more fastpasses

[Love Tink]

I have seen so many people lament that the DP's aren't a good deal for them because they come with way more food than they would ever eat. Why on earth would someone want more credits when the credits that come with a DP is enough to give an elephant a gut ache anyway?

Firstly, because some of the nicest restaurants and special experiences (like show reservations or character meals) cost two credits per meal. So if you had extra credits, you could do more of those.

Secondly, because you can use meal credits to buy snacks and drinks - candy to bring home, bottled water, etc. It wouldn't be a good use of the credits normally, but it would save you some money if you had lots of credits to burn and could buy everything with free credits.

 

[kenshinelite]

I have seen so many people lament that the DP's aren't a good deal for them because they come with way more food than they would ever eat. Why on earth would someone want more credits when the credits that come with a DP is enough to give an elephant a gut ache anyway?

It depends on the experience you want not the amount of food. It's sometimes the quality and uniqueness of the food that draws people to the DxDP not the amount of food.

 

[Turn the Page]

It depends on the experience you want not the amount of food. It's sometimes the quality and uniqueness of the food that draws people to the DxDP not the amount of food.

Are people realistically eating at signature restaurants requiring 2 TS credits every single day plus two QS meals and 4 snacks a day? Really? I can understand the appeal eating at signature restaurants every evening holds for some people but I would almost think paying out of pocked for a couple of those would be cheaper, and less trouble, than making up fictitious people to add to your resort reservation for the sake of a few extra TS credits and FP+'s.

I posit that if you're going to this much trouble to avoid waiting in a couple extra lines with the rabble you may want to reflect long and hard on the reason why.

 

[TDC Nala]

I could go to a signature restaurant every night...but I know that I would not be ordering an appetizer, entree plus dessert every time. but then some figure if it's "free" they don't have to order everything.

 

[jcemom]

Are people realistically eating at signature restaurants requiring 2 TS credits every single day plus two QS meals and 4 snacks a day? Really? I can understand the appeal eating at signature restaurants every evening holds for some people but I would almost think paying out of pocked for a couple of those would be cheaper, and less trouble, than making up fictitious people to add to your resort reservation for the sake of a few extra TS credits and FP+'s.

I posit that if you're going to this much trouble to avoid waiting in a couple extra lines with the rabble you may want to reflect long and hard on the reason why.

But if I had double the credits and it didn't cost me anything (other than two tickets that I could use on a future trip) why wouldn't I want to eat at 2 TS credit meals every day? And why would I want to pay OOP for anything? Even if I threw away a few credits at the end of the trip, they wouldn't have cost me anything anyway, so who cares? Over a 7 night trip for two people, that would mean: HDDR, CRT, Le Cellier, Flying Fish, Cali Grill, etc. Plus, we don't normally use all our snack credits anyway, so with an additional 14 of them, that would be 15-20 "souvenir" snacks to bring home and hand out to family members. We usually eat breakfast in our room and CS lunches. With extra CS credits we could eat a fast food breakfast AND lunch each day.

I've never added phantom people to my reservation, because in general I'm not a rule breaker lol. I read about a good many people here on the DIS who did though, and I can totally see how it would appeal to someone, especially when only one day base tickets were required.

We've had the free dining promo several times, and we were never asked to present all party members at check in, not even back when it was only a one day base ticket required and everyone was creating phantom family members.

 

[Turn the Page]

I could go to a signature restaurant every night...but I know that I would not be ordering an appetizer, entree plus dessert every time. but then some figure if it's "free" they don't have to order everything.

True, but if you turn down a 30% room discount in order to get free dining for fictitious people in order to get more fastpasses well.....the mental gymnastics required to follow that thought process are just not my forte.

 

[jcemom]

True, but if you turn down a 30% room discount in order to get free dining for fictitious people in order to get more fastpasses well.....the mental gymnastics required to follow that thought process are just not my forte.

Well, IMO, now, with the free dining plan changed to only the QS plan at Value resorts, and two day tickets required, it isn't worth it. Of course, I would not buy double tickets for double FP either though. A 30% room discount at a mod is only worth about $60/night. So the free dining promo is probably still a good deal for anyone staying at a mod, phantom guests and FP+ aside lol.

 

[morethananyonex]

True, but if you turn down a 30% room discount in order to get free dining for fictitious people in order to get more fastpasses well.....the mental gymnastics required to follow that thought process are just not my forte.

It hardly takes mental gymnastics to figure it out. Got excel? It would take about 5 minutes maybe less to set it up so you can throw any resort cost in there and break it down to see what's the better deal.

I don't really follow the idea that someone who considers this should reflect long and hard as to why either. It's not like it's any more trouble than setting up the original 3 FP+ per day that can take hours because of MDE. Maybe we all should reflect long and hard why we put so much effort into dealing with MDE in order to skip a few lines.

 

[Turn the Page]

It hardly takes mental gymnastics to figure it out. Got excel? It would take about 5 minutes maybe less to set it up so you can throw any resort cost in there and break it down to see what's the better deal.

I don't really follow the idea that someone who considers this should reflect long and hard as to why either. It's not like it's any more trouble than setting up the original 3 FP+ per day that can take hours because of MDE. Maybe we all should reflect long and hard why we put so much effort into dealing with MDE in order to skip a few lines.

It's not that I can't figure out the math it's that I can't figure out why anyone thinks they are entitled to find and exploit any and all loopholes they can find to make sure they have a better experience than those who don't have the extra money to exploit those same loopholes.

In short, I do not understand what makes people think they are too good to follow the same rules everybody else has to follow.

 

[RnbwSktles]

And I don't see them linking this to resorts at all. Disney has never linked park experience with resort levels. Just as Hopper Passes and No Expire Passes and Private Tour Guides and Keys to the Kingdom Tours and EMH are not allocated only to Deluxe guests, if WDW introduces an Uber-FP+ Pass, it will be available for purchase to all (on site guests). Off site? Who knows.

Isn't there 1 or 2 AK tours that only AKL guests (only club level guests even??) can book? I think this would be more common if there were more hotels "linked" to something like that.

Also, I don't think it's too far off from the same idea that DVC members and AP holders get certain benefits.

 

[DisneyDaddy-O]

I don't see this happening at all. Disney may decide to let Deluxe hotel guests PURCHASE 5 addition FPs, Moderate 4, Value 3. But just GIVE them away when many people are happy to pay deluxe prices with just 3 FPs? Not gonna happen.

Jim

And I don't see them linking this to resorts at all. Disney has never linked park experience with resort levels. Just as Hopper Passes and No Expire Passes and Private Tour Guides and Keys to the Kingdom Tours and EMH are not allocated only to Deluxe guests, if WDW introduces an Uber-FP+ Pass, it will be available for purchase to all (on site guests). Off site? Who knows.

I agree with the fact that Disney will never GIVE anything away but incorporating that into a package pricing structure would not surprise me.

The tiered "free Dining" promo does not seem too different to me.

 

[glamdring269]

It's not that I can't figure out the math it's that I can't figure out why anyone thinks they are entitled to find and exploit any and all loopholes they can find to make sure they have a better experience than those who don't have the extra money to exploit those same loopholes.

In short, I do not understand what makes people think they are too good to follow the same rules everybody else has to follow.

Would you complain the same way if Disney directly offered a $45/day option to add 3 additional FP+ to your day?

 

[glamdring269]

Are people realistically eating at signature restaurants requiring 2 TS credits every single day plus two QS meals and 4 snacks a day? Really?

Come on... this is America! Have you looked at the people around you lately?

Since this is a Disney forum and the first google result returned for 'us obesity' was about kids I guess that's the link I'll share...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...children-is-already-obese-by-kindergarten-age

 

[mesaboy2]

Oh, I'm sure it would count as "working the system" or "abuse" to some.

To wit:

It's not that I can't figure out the math it's that I can't figure out why anyone thinks they are entitled to find and exploit any and all loopholes they can find to make sure they have a better experience than those who don't have the extra money to exploit those same loopholes. In short, I do not understand what makes people think they are too good to follow the same rules everybody else has to follow.

 

[mom2rtk]

To wit:

So do you have a line on Sunday's game?

 

[mesaboy2]

So do you have a line on Sunday's game?

It took a while, but I knew we'd get there eventually.

 

[JimmyV]

I agree with the fact that Disney will never GIVE anything away but incorporating that into a package pricing structure would not surprise me.

The tiered "free Dining" promo does not seem too different to me.

It's only "tiered" at the baseline. Anyone can bubble up for an extra fee. So perhaps people in Deluxe hotels might get a 5 FP+ experience for "free" (cough, cough), but people in other resorts would be able to buy into that level of experience for an upgraded fee. That is how "Free" Dining works. Disney won't provide a park experience to one set of on-site guests that other on-site guests cannot get for a fee. First and foremost, Disney wants you to stay on site. Sure, they would prefer that you stay in a suite at the GF, but they want you on site even if that means staying at the All Stars. They aren't going to relegate the vast majority of their guests to second class status and place them in the same manure pile as they place off site guests.

 

[glevan]

I can see the value for folks that want to spend the extra money. However, I'd have to think about two issues.

The first has already been expressed...finger scans...but, I'll look at it differently. "If" the finger scan is of enough quality, then entry "could" be blocked simply because the same finger scan occurred on two passes. There are two reason why this might not be an issue though...1) if someone used different fingers per pass. During my last visit, I was told I could us any finger. In the past, I was always told to use my right index finger. 2) Disney's IT system may not be designed to capture this issue. Since I've been in IT for 20 years, I can guess that it would take a lot of investment (network, servers, etc) to have the processing power to catch this type of occurrence. Therefore, I doubt it's a real priority for Disney.

The second issue is logistics. With one person holding two bands, they would need to schedule/manage 6 FP+'s online (mobile phone, kiosk, etc). This is a lot of waiting in line, recording information, logging in/out of different MDE accounts (possibly), etc. If you add in more family members, the challenge becomes harder, especially if folks ride different rides. With FY-, you (I) simply had the physical tickets to keep track of.

I'd really be interested if someone tried this as an experiment to really understand if/how it works.

Also, FYI, based on the estimated pricing, I agree that Disney will, at some point, offer to let folks buy more FP+'s. Other parks offer this already (Universal, SixFlags, etc) and they are tiered...pay more, get more benefits. If Disney gives 3 FP+'s for "free", then they are doing what other parks don't do (from my experience).

 

[themommy]

I have been thinking about the free dining scenario - consider the costs/savings for a couple staying in a moderate resort.

The cost to upgrade a meal plan from DDP to DxDP = $46.28/night/person

Now, having twice the number of DDP credits isn't exactly the same as having the DxDP, but it is pretty close. A party of two, with 4xDDP would have 4 snacks, 4 QS and 4 TS meals/day to share. They could easily meet their dining needs with that many credits - even if they like to splurge a few times/trip. And each member of the couple would also have 6 FP+ each day instead of 3. All for about $36/day/person.

So, eat anywhere that you want and double your FP+ reservations for the cost of an extra ticket per person. Pretty sweet deal.

This should go in the FP+ planning thread.

LOL here! What would you do with all of that food?! I feel like a sausage on the regular dining plan and still bring a bunch of the snacks home!

 

[DisneyDaddy-O]

It's only "tiered" at the baseline. Anyone can bubble up for an extra fee. So perhaps people in Deluxe hotels might get a 5 FP+ experience for "free" (cough, cough), but people in other resorts would be able to buy into that level of experience for an upgraded fee. That is how "Free" Dining works. Disney won't provide a park experience to one set of on-site guests that other on-site guests cannot get for a fee. First and foremost, Disney wants you to stay on site. Sure, they would prefer that you stay in a suite at the GF, but they want you on site even if that means staying at the All Stars. They aren't going to relegate the vast majority of their guests to second class status and place them in the same manure pile as they place off site guests.

I guess the specifics of how it could be put together only Disney really knows what they are thinking of doing with all of this.

My thinking is there has to be a way to monetize the entire system other than freeing up people's time to buy more souvenirs.

For me if they offered a package that included 5-6 FP+ per day plus dining, to stay at a deluxe I would be interested.
I guess the how, if, when and where are questions that will be answered in time.