Disappointed with FastPass+ Was I doing something wrong?

[babaganoosh]

hadn't been to WDW in a bunch of years. I remember the fastpass machines located at the rides.

Was just there for a couple days last week. Wehad to wait till we got there the night before to upgrade old mag stripe tix before we could do fastpass+ on the phone app. The first day, we kept trying selections and the options, but weren't offered fastpass for any rides we wanted. We did get into Indiana Jones and Fantasmic on fastpass. It was interesting at Indiana, we walked in via fastpass and the arena was easily 1/2 full and it was still 20 minutes before showtime. Yeah, I guess that makes sense - there's going to be more than 2 people with fastpass to a show : ) So at fantasmic, rather than wait, we got there 1/2 hour before, loads of fastpass people were already there and we were off to the sides.

Next day we were at 1 park with intentions of park hopping. We chose / got forced into 3 fastpass items. Used 1 at that park, didn't want the other 2. Can't delete them / exchange for another park's fastpass.

Hoping we'd get fastpasses at the next park, we went there, got sent around trying to find how / someone to release those 2 fastpasses. A CM said to go to the kiosk. the kiosk CM said to go to magic+ desk. They released the 2 unused fastpasses (1 was for a 7:30PM ride). Then that mymagic CM said I can't book what would be my 4th FP from my phone AND can't do it at the MyMagic+ desk with all the tablets waiting for you to log in. Have to do it at a kiosk. Go to kiosk and there's nothing of value to us. we try to get back the 7:30 ride and get no where. we wind up going back to the first park and have a lengthy discussion with a CM at that 7:30 ride who looks us up in his pad, sees just the FP we used, but we would have had to get 3, can't see that and winds up letting us in the FP line.

Should park hopping and trying to use fast pass be so hard?
And releasing the 2 unused FP and then being forced to find a kiosk - is there logic in that?
Those first 3 FP always seemed to carry into the evening, so getting a 4th FP would likely never happen anyway. Yes, we were booking the same day. Would advanced booking get you 3 FP in the AM? Or is that just a way they regulate how many FP any one person gets? You spend more time looking for / waiting to use a kiosk than if you just stand on line.

and being forced to choose 3 items - that's the same at the kiosk and phone app?

Big Disney fan, just disappointed how frustrating fastpass has become.

Universal's pay for express pass / free with hotel sounds real tempting : (

 

[mesaboy2]

hadn't been to WDW in a bunch of years. I remember the fastpass machines located at the rides.

Was just there for a couple days last week. Wehad to wait till we got there the night before to upgrade old mag stripe tix before we could do fastpass+ on the phone app. The first day, we kept trying selections and the options, but weren't offered fastpass for any rides we wanted. We did get into Indiana Jones and Fantasmic on fastpass. It was interesting at Indiana, we walked in via fastpass and the arena was easily 1/2 full and it was still 20 minutes before showtime. Yeah, I guess that makes sense - there's going to be more than 2 people with fastpass to a show : ) So at fantasmic, rather than wait, we got there 1/2 hour before, loads of fastpass people were already there and we were off to the sides.

Next day we were at 1 park with intentions of park hopping. We chose / got forced into 3 fastpass items. Used 1 at that park, didn't want the other 2. Can't delete them / exchange for another park's fastpass.

Hoping we'd get fastpasses at the next park, we went there, got sent around trying to find how / someone to release those 2 fastpasses. A CM said to go to the kiosk. the kiosk CM said to go to magic+ desk. They released the 2 unused fastpasses (1 was for a 7:30PM ride). Then that mymagic CM said I can't book what would be my 4th FP from my phone AND can't do it at the MyMagic+ desk with all the tablets waiting for you to log in. Have to do it at a kiosk. Go to kiosk and there's nothing of value to us. we try to get back the 7:30 ride and get no where. we wind up going back to the first park and have a lengthy discussion with a CM at that 7:30 ride who looks us up in his pad, sees just the FP we used, but we would have had to get 3, can't see that and winds up letting us in the FP line.

Should park hopping and trying to use fast pass be so hard?
And releasing the 2 unused FP and then being forced to find a kiosk - is there logic in that?
Those first 3 FP always seemed to carry into the evening, so getting a 4th FP would likely never happen anyway. Yes, we were booking the same day. Would advanced booking get you 3 FP in the AM? Or is that just a way they regulate how many FP any one person gets? You spend more time looking for / waiting to use a kiosk than if you just stand on line.

and being forced to choose 3 items - that's the same at the kiosk and phone app?

Big Disney fan, just disappointed how frustrating fastpass has become.

Universal's pay for express pass / free with hotel sounds real tempting : (

Last minute FP planning can limit your choices for sure. All you can do is work with it and learn ways to maximize your experience.

 

[prudence64]

Yes, advance booking would get you what you wanted usually.

I imagine that same day only works with very low crowd levels.

There's no way Disney can give front of the line with a resort stay - too many people involved.

 

[Eastern]

I had mixed results with FP+ this past week. I was able to book at 60 days and got the times I wanted.

However, when you get to the park, your FP item may have little to no wait so you may want to switch for another time/experience. I found that it was very hard to switch once the parks started to fill. I guess too many people are trying to use it? Very often I would wait for the app to refresh, only to be told to 'try again later'. Very frustrating.

Also, once you use your 3 FP, you need to be in the park you want to pick the 4th one. And you must use a kiosk, you cannot do it on your phone. By the time we used our passes, or got to the other park, nothing 'good' would be left.

In MK I highly recommend passes for Peter Pan, A&E meet and greet and 7DMT. These rides always had long lines, very quickly. Most of the other rides were accessible if you arrived early, or stayed late.

 

[hydrotony]

You picked probably the worst park, DHS, to go to for your first FP+ adventure since it has few rides and 2 of them, Toy Story Mania and RnR coaster are both Tier 1 and you can pick only one ahead of time. Also, even though you had only half a day head start, you should have gotten one of either of them. Did you go back to MDE the morning before you left for DHS? The parks seem like they release 'day of' FP+ not available ahead of time. Also, you can always adjust the times of the rides at all times using MDE app, did you try that? Did you search for the other rides while you were at the park? Even if there were available FP+ for the rides you wanted, if their times conflicted with your existing FP+ then they would not show up on MDE.

Basically, everything you knew about the old FP system is useless and actually makes it harder to negotiate the new FP+ system. Disboards has numerous threads on how to use the new FP+ system, find them and learn from them for the next time.

 

[Laketravis]

There's no way Disney can give front of the line with a resort stay - too many people involved.

Nope, they sure couldn't. And neither can Universal, because Express Pass isn't a "front of the line" system. It's just a (greatly) reduced wait over the SB lines.

A lot of people seem to think it works pretty good, and maybe something like that would work well at WDW if people were okay waiting just a few minutes in the FP line rather than expect an absolute zero wait time. It would only take a little tweaking of the SB/FP ratios. That's all Express Pass does, really. They just let more of the SB line in before letting more EP in.

 

[wisblue]

Nope, they sure couldn't. And neither can Universal, because Express Pass isn't a "front of the line" system. It's just a (greatly) reduced wait over the SB lines.

A lot of people seem to think it works pretty good, and maybe something like that would work well at WDW if people were okay waiting just a few minutes in the FP line rather than expect an absolute zero wait time. It would only take a little tweaking of the SB/FP ratios. That's all Express Pass does, really. They just let more of the SB line in before letting more EP in.

That begs the question of what the SB/FB ratio is now. If it's 80-90% FP as some have said, there isn't a lot of room for tweaking without eliminating standby completely. And we know people don't want that.

 

[Laketravis]

That begs the question of what the SB/FB ratio is now. If it's 80-90% FP as some have said, there isn't a lot of room for tweaking without eliminating standby completely. And we know people don't want that.

I don't know if you are thinking of that correctly. It's not how many FP's are given out as a ratio of capacity, it's how many FP guests are allowed onto the attraction before they are stopped and more guests are allowed from the SB line.

As it stands now, the FP queue is essentially allowed to be free-moving with little interruption. So let's say they let 20 FP guests thru and then 10 SB.

If they tweaked that to, let's say 15 FP guests and then 15 SB guests, the FP queue might incur a minute or two wait time but the SB line wait time would be reduced.

Under the right conditions, the more they moved away from absolute zero wait for FP to still-acceptable 2, 3, or even 4 minute waits, they could have a tremendous impact on reducing SB wait times and permit additional FP's across the park. In other words - there is tons of room for tweaking as long as the current FP wait time is close to zero.

I think the biggest challenge, though, is that they've already gotten people used to no-wait-at-all FP queues.

 

[wisblue]

I don't know if you are thinking of that correctly. It's not how many FP's are given out as a ratio of capacity, it's how many FP guests are allowed onto the attraction before they are stopped and more guests are allowed from the SB line. Either or both of those factors could be adjusted.

As it stands now, the FP queue is essentially allowed to be free-moving with little interruption. So let's say they let 20 FP guests thru and then 10 SB.

If they tweaked that to, let's say 15 FP guests and then 15 SB guests, the FP queue might incur a minute or two wait time but the SB line wait time would be reduced.

Under the right conditions, the more they moved away from absolute zero wait for FP to still-acceptable 2, 3, or even 4 minute waits, they could have a tremendous impact on reducing SB wait times and permit additional FP's across the park. In other words - there is tons of room for tweaking as long as the current FP wait time is close to zero.

I think the biggest challenge, though, is that they've already gotten people used to no-wait-at-all FP queues.

Yes, that's why I say it begs the question. I don't know what percentage of a ride's capacity is allocated to FPs or how many FP guests are allowed to enter for every standby guest allowed in.

I suspect that WDW is watching and tweaking this constantly, like when they suddenly released batches of 7DMT FPs last fall.

It can be a delicate balance especially because, as you say, people have gotten used to FP being virtually no wait, at least to the merge point. One of the hot topics on these boards a year ago was the outrage over FP lines getting longer because there were 2 minute long lines at the first touch point and jokes about FP being Slow Pass.

It wouldn't bother me, but I would bet that if you surveyed people about routine 15-20 minute waits with FPs in exchange for getting one or two more per person, there would be some strong differences of opinion. It would make coordinating FPs with other plans like ADRs more difficult because the FP wait time would be less predictable. I also don't think it would sit well with people who already object to being too heavily scheduled.

 

[disney world dreamer]

you really needed to do some research before going as to how to use the new system vs the old fastpass system.

trying to get fastpasses the day before is the first problem as i'm sure you were trying for the headliners.
if you want the most popular headliners you need to get them 30-60 days out. (i understand it was not possible in your case but for next time you'll know).

you get 3 initial fastpasses and have to use them at ONE park.
you have to either use all 3 of them or let their time window expire before getting a 4th and beyond which must be selected at a kiosk.
when park hopping you can either make all 3 for the first park you will visit and use them or let them expire and then go to the second park and make a 4th fastpass selection at a kiosk.
or you can make your 3 initial fastpasses for the second park you will be visiting and just wait in lines at the first park.

btw i've easily gotten a 4th fastpass.
for a headliner? no but for a still popular ride.

i'll admit i'm not a fan of some of limitations of fastpass+ but overall i've learned how to use it to my advantage by researching the new system before i went.

i've had 2 successful trips with fastpass+ and i will be going again in april.

 

[Laketravis]

It can be a delicate balance especially because, as you say, people have gotten used to FP being virtually no wait, at least to the merge point. One of the hot topics on these boards a year ago was the outrage over FP lines getting longer because there were 2 minute long lines at the first touch point and jokes about FP being Slow Pass.

Yeah, I remember the outrage but I don't recall it being about a 2 minute line, I think the perception was it was taking a lot longer than that.

But regardless, I think WDW has room in the math to tweak even further. What USO did wasn't a technological triumph by any stretch of the imagination, they just use different ratios. We were never front of the line with EP, nor can I even remember a zero wait time. What I do remember is "only" having to wait (for example) 10 minutes when the SB line was 60, and that worked for me. Apparently it works for others as well, to the extent they will even pay a lot extra for it if they aren't staying on site.

If they were letting EP's thru with virtually no wait, my bet is that SB wait time would have been double and there is no way they could allow EP access to most every attraction on an unlimited basis.

So while it's noble that WDW strived to maintain an almost absolute wait time for FP thru complicated algorithms and procedural restrictions, it might have been overkill.

 

[wisblue]

Of course, the other, and probably most important, variable in the equation is how many people are eligible for those express passes. At US it is only the resort guests (who I would think represent a much smaller percentage of overall park attendance than WDW resort guests) and those willing to pay a pretty hefty sum for the privilege (and even those are limited).

As long as Disney offers FPs in some form to everyone who enters a park they will be dealing with a completely different challenge than US.

I think you would agree that it is an interesting challenge with no simple answer when crowds in the parks are high.

 

[Laketravis]

I think you would agree that it is an interesting challenge with no simple answer when crowds in the parks are high.

I agree it's a challenge, one I would expect a $50 Billion company to be able to figure out.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Last minute FP planning can limit your choices for sure. All you can do is work with it and learn ways to maximize your experience.

Or spend your vacation dollars someplace that doesn't treat guests this way


My last minute vacation get aways no longer include Disney

 

[DavidNYC]

The FP ratios are highly tweaked and change often (even during the day) based on many factors. Always surprised when people assume that Disney spent very little time figuring out the numbers.

And no way does the universal system work at Disney. Not even close in terms of numbers of on site guests.

 

[Laketravis]

Always surprised when people assume that Disney spent very little time figuring out the numbers....

Quite the contrary, I'm certain they have and continue to devote a large amount of resources involved in figuring out the numbers. And as long as any FP holder can walk thru the queue and pass thru the merge point with a zero wait, there is plenty of room for adjustment.

 

[disneyseniors]

I don't know if you are thinking of that correctly. It's not how many FP's are given out as a ratio of capacity, it's how many FP guests are allowed onto the attraction before they are stopped and more guests are allowed from the SB line.

As it stands now, the FP queue is essentially allowed to be free-moving with little interruption. So let's say they let 20 FP guests thru and then 10 SB.

If they tweaked that to, let's say 15 FP guests and then 15 SB guests, the FP queue might incur a minute or two wait time but the SB line wait time would be reduced.

Under the right conditions, the more they moved away from absolute zero wait for FP to still-acceptable 2, 3, or even 4 minute waits, they could have a tremendous impact on reducing SB wait times and permit additional FP's across the park. In other words - there is tons of room for tweaking as long as the current FP wait time is close to zero.

I think the biggest challenge, though, is that they've already gotten people used to no-wait-at-all FP queues.

Yes, Laketravis, you've hit the nail on the head with that last statement! We were in the fast pass line waiting for turtle talk with crush with our grandkids and we were 2nd in line to enter. There was a family of 4 in front of us, poised to enter first. The lady was agitated and started yelling that "what is the use of a fast pass if we have to wait.? We are first in line in the fp lane and we shouldn't have to wait if it is a fp lane!!!! She sputtered some more, yelling, and dragged the rest of her family out of line leaving in a huff. I can't believe that she thought she would just barge right in on the talk with crush group in with crush at the time. I guess she thought they should stop the show, move all the people out, and let her enter just because she had a fast pass!!! I couldn't believe it! Just had to put my 2 cents in.

 

[J and R's mom]

...Should park hopping and trying to use fast pass be so hard?...

No. It shouldn't.

Sadly, it is.

As long as you research ahead of time and get up bright and early (or stay up very late) to secure your FPs a couple of months out, FP+ is a "breeze". (Sarcasm mixed in here).

Some helpful hints for you for next time (besides the 60 day advance booking advice):

1) The system will force you into 3 choices (all in the same park). If you don't pick three, it will pick them for you. To complicate it for you, they've added in tiering.

2) If you do not like the times (or attractions) assigned, you can go in and change them using the phone app (or computer...or kiosk). If I only want one particular attraction (Soarin') in one particular park (EPCOT), I select that attraction and time I want, then I change the other times for the other assigned experiences to expire as early as possible so that when I park-hop later in the day, I will be eligible for the 4th FP.

I still find it silly that I cannot schedule the 4th FP using my phone app. I find it frustrating that I can't schedule my first 3 FPs across different parks (their system is aware that I had a valid ticket so it can also decipher whether or not I have park-hopping tickets or APs).

So it bears repeating...

...Should park hopping and trying to use fast pass be so hard?...

No. It shouldn't.

Sadly, it is.

 

[subtchr]

hadn't been to WDW in a bunch of years. I remember the fastpass machines located at the rides.

Was just there for a couple days last week. Wehad to wait till we got there the night before to upgrade old mag stripe tix before we could do fastpass+ on the phone app.
(

I thought that old but valid ticket media could still be entered into MDE ahead of time, is that right? Even though you had to exchange them for RFID cards to use at the entry and FP touchpoints, you should have been able to enter the numbers and make advance FP+ reservations, I think.

As for how things worked in the parks (no hopping, using your first 3 before being eligible for the 4th, etc.), that would have taken some further research before your trip. It's a lot of info, and a lot of changes, to be sure!

 

[Steph D]

First let me start by saying i'm fairly tech savvy. The FP+ needs some major work. I experienced difficulties with the system so I can only imagine what older guests may be experiencing. I loved the old system where you walked up to a kiosk, put your ticket in and out popped a fast pass. My Mom and Dad, who are in their 70's, were with us on the last vacation. They own I-phones and both are fairy adept at using them. That being said, I don't think they could have figured out the system without some research and learning pains.

DIS needs to figure this system out pronto. There are obviously issues with it given the number of posts on the discussion boards.