Disney does not want or need FastPass+ Haters business!

[skater]

The playing field was always even. Just because some didn't know enough to play the game doesn't make it unfair. Every guest had the equal opportunity to get fast passes, now that certainly isn't the case. I mean if one is going to bring up fairness lets be fair and admit the truth.

You're beating your head against the wall .

 

[EMode]

You're beating your head against the wall .

That is what I get for starting to read the thread on the last page lol.

 

[mchouse]

It seems that I have read that the tour groups have overwhelmed fast pass machines in the past doesn't the FP+ marginalize their impact ? To me it will make it much harder for them to take over an entire attraction like they tend to do.. I'm sure they will adapt in time but it seems to me it might help level the playing field between regular guests and the tour groups..

 

[lovesdumbo]

It means that only 20% of customers provide 80% of all profits. Inversely, it means 20% of customers suck up and devour an astonishing 80% of all resources, direct consumer costs, time w/customer service-- and wreak the most havoc. Disney wants to increase the 20% group and decrease the 80% group.

FastPass+ may be weeding tool to cull those customers who Disney considers to be the least desirable and least profitable customers----which will free up all the resources to better address the needs of their best customers. All businesses know that the best customers are not always the ones who spend the most. Disney has now established terms or services that will only appeal to their most ideal customers. Those who don't like it will feel left out in the cold... for sure.

Your math doesn't work.

I don't think Disney is looking to get rid of repeat AP holders. I think they think us loyal repeat guests will adjust to these changes and continue to come. If they didn't want repeat guests why keep building more DVC resorts?

Disney has always tried to get more folks unsite and to spend more of their money onsite. They built the water parks to keep folks at Disney for more days, built the family suites to keep families onsite, offered Magic Express to keep folks on Disney property and all their spending on property.

I'm not a fan of FP+ but I don't think Disney is out to push me out. I'm sure I'll learn to make FP+ work for me and I'll keep going just as Disney thinks I will.

 

[Mkrop]

This "even" stuff is just crap. It didn't get much more even then giving the availablability to every paying park guest to stick their tix in a fastpass machine. All were able to enter the park at the same time (obviously except for off-site guests on EMH mornings) and all were able to gain a fastpass with little effort.

I also find it ironic that ppl. that justify the new system as a way to even the playing field, which again is ridiculous, and to keep things fair seem to completely overlook how the new system is designed. Obviously those without technology skills are at a disadvantage, those without a smartphone, those who don't want to think about what rides they want to go on and when 60 days before they even leave town and of course those not staying onsite are all at a disadvantage with the new system. The new system has nothing to do with being fair...it had to do with money plain and simple and anyone who actually believes that a business is concerned with evening things out or making things fair for their customers are just fooling themselves. The motivator is only money and profit, in which any business would be dumb to not be solely motivated by. Whether or not it is a smart decision is still yet to be seen.

The people using the fair card are the ones who have now moved into the group that can get FP+ sooner, like for example those who dont like ropedrop. They think it is fair bc they moved into the group who can now get the coveted FP+. But they forget about the people you mention bc they dont care about them. There is a limited capcity, someone is going to be shut out. Not everyone can ride TSMM through the FP line. They dont want fair which is what the old system was, they just want their FP+.

So, are you saying that it is not magical because you have to wait in lines now? Pretty sure they had to wait in lines before Fastpass was invented. Were those vacation memories not as magical? "Disney lost me - do they care?" "not getting my vacation dollars", over FASTPASSES changing? Disney's "loyal" customers sound more like Disney's "entitled" customers.

Frankly for us they were not...they stunk and we almost decided to never go back. But we did after research and bc we had a 4 yrold. We loved FP- and how it helped tour the park, I would never stand in a 2 hour Splash line like I did prior to FP-.


If WDW only wants the new once in a lifetime customer, than why are they building all the DVC rooms

 

[Viva Las Disney]

On the DL AP website the most common request I see is "can we register online?"

Every time they have a special event for locals and AP holders that requires showing up to get a pass 75% of the comments are how it's not fair that you have to arrive at the park early to get a pass because people have to work, get kids to school, are in school themselves, etc and the passes are gone by the time people can get to the parks.

Based on this my theory is WDW was getting a lot of feedback from customers asking for a way to get passes without having to wake up early on vacation.

I'm a rope drop tourer, I happily sacrifice sleep because I love touring in an empty park, that being said the fact the parks are relatively empty in the morning shows that I'm in the minority and that's not how most people vacation.

I don't think Disney is trying to alienate anyone, I think it's as simple as Disney is listening to their guests and trying to make changes that benefit the majority, unfortunately in this case the changes that are good for the majority are bad for the minority.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I certainly gave it my full 20% effort to collect 80% of the resources during my trip to DL this past week. And that is what I brought home from day 1 and 2 of the trip.

It was a real Mad T Party the entire week...

But yeah....good times.

 

[clsteve]

I'm not following your math. If 20% account for most of the profits, then why are they targeting the "masses" (80%)?

Because there is no math- maybe tooexcitedcantsleep has a Business 301 mid-term on Tuesday. I'm guessing that's what's causing so much angst that they have to call people haters...

Pareto Principle, hmmm....I hope they don't call it a Philosophy on the exam....

 

[mom2rtk]

I certainly gave it my full 20% effort to collect 80% of the resources during my trip to DL this past week. And that is what I brought home from day 1 and 2 of the trip.

It was a real Mad T Party the entire week...

But yeah....good times.

I would have expected nothing less!

Can't wait to hear more details!

 

[Escape Artist]

I don't think Disney is trying to alienate the AP crowd - they can manage that with their pricing levels for annual passes. It's a problem resolves itself over the course of a year as people choose whether to renew their APs or not at current prices.

And I don't think they're trying to alienate the DVC crowd - current DVC owners buy lots of points in the new resorts, frequently eat in Disney restaurants and fill the resorts during slower seasons. I think that's one of the reasons they offer AP discounts to DVC members. They WANT the DVCers coming back.

Like the original poster said, I think this is about Disney having more options to draw in the "big fish" - the people with lots of discretionary income who won't think twice about paying whatever Disney is asking for rooms at the Grand Floridian/Poly/Contemporary, and make them happy. Notice where the last three DVC's are being/have been built? They're not at Pop or the All-Stars. And the restaurants that get refurbed - they go higher end than ever.

Of course it's all about the money. This gives Disney the ability to draw in high spender folks with expensive accommodations, give them passes to ride the top tier rides, and not have the lines all clogged up with people who have mastered the old system and already ridden the rides dozens of times before. If these customers can book a room on short notice at a high end resort, have the hotel concierge line up their dining and FP+'s and just whip out their credit card to cover it all so they can buy a low-hassle Disney experience, there are people--lots of them--who will pay big bucks for that. But they won't be happy if their kids are complaining that they couldn't even get on the headliner rides because the lines were too long and there were no passes for them. Disney will happily make boatloads of profit from these high rollers, with fewer headaches from dealing the unwashed masses.

It's a business model. And it works.

When times get tough, they can offer discounts that will bring in people who always wanted to go to Disney, but didn't quite think they could afford it. This strategy will carry them thru both thick and thin economic times.

It's the free market economy in action - responding to the decline of the middle class in the US and the growing discretionary income levels of the wealthy. Disney is responding to the current economic climate and cashing in.

 

[TLSnell1981]

The people using the fair card are the ones who have now moved into the group that can get FP+ sooner, like for example those who dont like ropedrop. They think it is fair bc they moved into the group who can now get the coveted FP+. But they forget about the people you mention bc they dont care about them. There is a limited capcity, someone is going to be shut out. Not everyone can ride TSMM through the FP line. They dont want fair which is what the old system was, they just want their FP+.



Frankly for us they were not...they stunk and we almost decided to never go back. But we did after research and bc we had a 4 yrold. We loved FP- and how it helped tour the park, I would never stand in a 2 hour Splash line like I did prior to FP-.


If WDW only wants the new once in a lifetime customer, than why are they building all the DVC rooms

We don't fit the mold. We have APs, always stay onsite AND...not rope droppers.

I don't like FP+ rotfl:..so not a plus) because there are several rides, that I can't experience. We also like to park hop. Now, there are no FP options for "repeats" or additional parks. So, it's definitely a minus for us.

BTW..not just the FP situation, but the totality of undesirable changes in the last few years. Although, this is a BIGGIE!

 

[disney1990]

Fact -- Disney cannot survive with just Guests that stay on property.

More and more people that stay off property are upset.

More and more people that have Annual Passes are upset.

More and more people that have DVC are upset.

We have been Annual Pass holders since 1990. After our trip this summer, when our passes expire, we will not be renewing them - for the time being. We are already making plans to vacation someplace else next year -- for the first time in 24 years, we have no plans to go to Disney. We are telling our friends, that usually stay off property, that they are not going to be happy and we suggest that they vacation someplace else for now. Disney, like it or not, upsetting all these people is going to be a problem in the future.

If we do this and other people do this too, there will eventually be repercussions. I don't care what percent you lump us into, we count and without us, eventually, Disney will have major problems.

 

[wdwlver]

I'd really like to think Disney would want to keep my family as customers. We own DVC, in addition to that stay deluxe CL a couple of times a year, eat only onsite, don't ever leave property and spend frankly a lot of money by any standard.

It seems odd to me that they'd want to lose us, but it seems to be the direction they're going with the new restrictions that negatively impact our trips.

I know we're just a tiny drop in a very large bucket, but still....

 

[Shaden]

I'm not following your math. If 20% account for most of the profits, then why are they targeting the "masses" 80%

You won this thread, 4th post, destroyed the premise of the OPs long rant in such few words

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm not following your math. If 20% account for most of the profits, then why are they targeting the "masses" (80%)?

You haven't heard? You must be new here. It's about "fairness".

 

[North of Mouse]

It seems odd to me that they'd want to lose us, but it seems to be the direction they're going with the new restrictions that negatively impact our trips.

I know we're just a tiny drop in a very large bucket, but still....

Yes, but with a lot of us 'little tiny drops' we can eventually fill a large bucket!

No AP's for us this year - we've already made vacation plans elsewhere!

 

[kittyab]

On our 3 previous trips, the worst paper FP hoarders were the tour guides for the HUGE groups. Can't count the times I would see them at the FP machines with a giant stack of theme park passes grabbing every available FP. We even on several occasions approached a FP line at an attraction only to be behind a tour guide and part of his group, and then the rest of the group would show up and push past us and others to get to where said guide was holding the stack of FP. If the FP+ system puts a halt to that! then I say "Hooray"!

I think the abuse of the paper fast pass is part of the reason of the creation of the fp+.

We used the fp+ and were quite happy. That was our first trip and we just loved the magic bands. But I can see how someone who has gone to WDW a dozen times how a big change like this can upset them.

 

[scooter7487]

We are DVC owners and had a family vacation dec.25th-jan1st. 4 of us were on grounds and 6 family members were off grounds. At the time only ak was full time fp+ the other parks still had the fp machines. It was great and I am sure some will give me a hard time but we double dipped fp+ on bands and were told by a cm to take our ap cards as they were still able to be used in machines. It was great. Ak was fp+ only and as we know if you were not staying on property then you had to wait in line to get to kiosk to sign up for fp. Lines were very long so I waited while rest of the family enjoyed the shops. A cm must have noticed that I did not have my disney face on and asked what I thought of the new system. Well she opened the door so I walked through. After telling her I felt this was the dumbest thing disney has done she opened the door again after introducing herself as the supervisor in charge of attractions at ak. I apologized for being rude but that we love disney so much and are having a hard time telling friends and family to come because they are taking the magic away. I asked her if Disney wasn't concerned about park hopper money as why would you do it if you can only get 3 fp at one park. She said thst has been a huge complaint and they were looking at that. She said it would streamline waits and was "green" as they were saving paper and I laughed because they hand out a paper for you to record you fp+ times . Anyway after waiting in line for 30 min to get to the kiosk to sign my family up my family said we will just stand in standby. So I excused myself and again apologized to the supervisor for being upset and she laughed and said no no you were mild compared to others and thanks for the feedback. She asked where I was going and said just to stand by and she said no come with me and took us to the front of the line. I told her thanks but that was not why I complained she said no she appreciated my honesty and being respectful and to enjoy Everest. So there is definitely magic left they just need to figure out how to get it back in the fp area.

For those that say I am being selfish for wanting all those fast passes if you don't have older kids you probably dont understand that as they get older you lose the "kid" mentality and if you have older kids you understand the joy of a parent as the "kid" returns when you walk into the parks. My "kids" loved mapping out a plan to get fast passes and it became a fun competition. I fear watching their excitement of "I'll get the fast pass you and mom relax". Is now gone.

 

[tecdavidt]

If Disney did not want the AP's they would not sell them. We have the AP and we have Tables in wonderland, again a product Disney sells. They sell them because they want the profit and they want us to use it. We are DVC people, they sell DVC because they make a profit. Apparently the OP has no clue that DVC owners buy their points and pay a yearly fee. Disney came up with this we did not, they are making money. We have 800 points, the first 320 came at $94 at point, the second was over a $100 a point and then we bought after market at $94 at point--do the math we are not cheap.

Why does the OP think AP people are cheap? We do not bring our lunch in a cooler, we do not stay off sight. We stay at a Deluxe at high demand time which at NYE is over $1,000 a night and this next NYE is higher than that at the Poly Hawaii BLDG where we stay. We always eat at sit down restaurants with ADR's because that is what we want. We never do counter service and we never do a dining package. We never book discount rooms yet the OP labeled AP and DVE owners as cheap. This person thinks we are cost cutting all the time, no we are not.

We are DVC because those rooms are nicer! Do we cook, no. It is rare that we walk back to our room or leave our room and smell food cooking. We have Disney chefs cook for us in their restaurants. Is it cheap, NO. We do love the in room laundry. We never stay at the studio DVC, we always stay at a one bedroom.

We have bought a home close to Disney. It is decorated with many art items from the Disney Art stores. Is this low cost? NO. I have Disney diamond jewelry, is this low cost, no. Most of our many trips to FL include split stays, we are at our house (15 min. from Property) and one property. To enjoy Disney we stay on property. This is not what the OP thinks is happening.

Disney has sent me 4 surveys since FP+ has been tested. My responses have not changed. Do I like FP+ -- NO. It restricts my vacations. I do not like the down time between rides because attractions that did not have FP have FP+. That is the issue. Those rides did not have old FP had waits but they were not bad even during the busy times like NYE. Now that has changed. The lines have increased since FP+ has started. Pirates and Haunted Mansion lines moved fast, no FP was needed. Now FP+ has created congestion. Lines are now where lines were not. If you have not been in the past two months do not compare. It has changed. It was the attractions lacking FP that we did in between FP rides. That is not an option now. You could miss your next FP+ time due to the long waits in the standby lines which equal the down time. Why risk missing your FP+? Only during the slow times is that an option and we have seen the longer wait times during slow times. It is crazy. To Disney, they even came out in the beginning and stated that FP+ would give guests time to experience other park offerings including shopping. No it does not.

We spend a lot of cash every year at WDW. The OP stated AP and DVC people don't spend money and Disney does not want them. We go to Disney every 6 to 8 weeks and we live in Iowa. If Disney didn't want people to use the product they would not sell it.

As far as Magic Bands, hate them, period. RFID cards, love those. I do not do plastic on my wrist and we just finished trip 3 with them, opening the room door, problems and we had to get a card. We thought we would write on the wrist bands the date of the trip, we did and when we went to record on our wrist band this trip, the other two trips had the ink disappear! That was odd so they will go to the landfill. Not green in our eyes. We still have our room cards from previous trips dating back to 1999. We even have our old AP's. These magic bands, they will end up in the trash.

My magic band this last trip ended up being in my purse. FYI, we had one day in the 80's and I had take it off, my wrist had sweat under it so no, can't stand them. The cards, no issue. I you can do plastic on your body you will be OK but not me, it was hot.

I am sure I will get another survey. Each one gets more detailed in questions. The OP thinks Disney wants first timers only but if first timers have the experience we are having why would they come back?

Kathy

 

[tazadd0420]

My reasons why US is better: their deluxe rooms at their on-site hotels are cheaper than Disney's, their tickets are cheaper than Disney, and they offer the Express Pass to their on-site guests which Disney does not. To each his own.

That is my only point for some posters. They are upset that Disney not provide off site FP+ 60 day in advance, but no prob paying extra or having to stay on site at US. Not arguing just wondering why posters find US more fair? At Disney at least a chance of FP+ when arrive without paying more.