Do You Think Technology Has Made the Parks Smaller?

[Cast85]

Before the days of Fastpass and smartphones, a typical day at Disneyland or Magic Kingdom meant starting on Main Street, then when you got down to the Hub, you'd choose which land to start in and you'd make your way around the park from there. You would hit each attraction no matter what the wait time was (wait times were significantly shorter before Fastpass) and you'd be able to really enjoy the parks and their attractions.

But now, with the Fastpass planning everyone does (and I understand the parks have become more and more busy over years), those same guests now spend much of their day criss-crossing the park multiple times making the parks feel smaller than they were. With Fastpass and wait times being accessible on your smartphones, many guests focus their time on which attraction to do next, how quickly they can get their, and how fast they'll get done with it so they can move on to the next attraction. It's those same guests who will camp out early for fireworks, but also leave five minutes before the show ends just so they can get out of the area or the park first. It's this constant rush rush rush feeling that the typical guest now has and it's kinda sad.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm not sure what the solution would be; even if they got rid of Fastpasses, the Disney apps would still be a thing and guests would still be checking the wait times on a constant basis. I guess I just needed to vent.

 

[B-Ride]

I definitely agree. I fondly remember the days of heading over to Space Mountain at rope drop then walking very quickly over to the other side to grab a FastPass for either Big Thunder or Splash (whichever had the longer queue) and riding the other one. There was definitely more walking but it also seemed a little more spontaneous.

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

I agree. I still remember when MK and Main Street was easy to walk around and lines were short before FP. Now I avoid MK due to the crowds.

 

[gharter]

Personally, I love what technology has brought.
Being able to get my next FP on my phone and not have to walk over to an attraction to hope I can get a decent FP for it.
Being able to order my lunch from a QS, walk over and have the food ready when I get there instead of waiting in a long line.
Have my dining reservations made ahead of time.
Knowing about when a bus will arrive at my resort instead of guessing and hoping I didn't just miss it.
Being able to look at my phone and know (to a certain degree) what the wait times are for every ride in the park.

Like many other times, the "good old days" really weren't really that good. I can say that as I've gone to WDW since 1975.

While not perfect, we've been able to do far more attractions each day using technology than we ever could without it.