Effects of FastPass Removal @ DL

[Sarangel]

Also from MiceAge:

Out in the Parks, the sudden removal of Fastpass from several E Ticket attractions is going incredibly well. The case has already been opened and shut in regards to the Haunted Mansion, as wait times there without Fastpass have been averaging less than ten minutes the past few weeks. And the removal of the ridiculous Fastpass setup for Winnie the Pooh has also gained steam, and they will hopefully be able to move the Splash Mountain machines (shown below clogging up the foot traffic from Mansion's exit) back to their original location down in Critter Country.

The almost complete lack of demand for the Pooh Fastpass, as well as wait times that average only five minutes long, are seen by the current TDA executive team as proof that the Pooh ride was almost a complete failure. The old TDA spent north of 70 Million on the construction, opening and marketing of Pooh last year, and the return on investment has been almost impossible to prove.

The plans for Pirates FastPass-less future are also now being worked out, and they are going to attempt to reclaim the old queue space that ran alongside the Pirates building until a cumbersome wheelchair ramp for Tarzan's Treehouse was added in 1999. When Fastpass was added the next year, even more of the Pirates queue was removed for the installation of the machines. But now TDA is drafting plans to restore the entire queue for Pirates back to its original state, before Fastpass or Tarzan ever showed up. A small lift will be installed so that people in wheelchairs can visit the interactive play area at the base of the treehouse, and sanity will once again reign at one of Disneyland's most popular attractions.

Do you get the sense that these "Back to Basics" and "Return to the Good Old Days" concepts coming out of TDA now are a definite trend?

A lot of people around Anaheim sure think that.

Can this be anything but a good thing?

Sarangel

 

[BRERALEX]

Less crowded streets, better overall ambiance yeah its a good thing.

 

[KNWVIKING]

You do remember which board this is, right ?

 

[OhMari]

I love Fast Pass when I use it, but I hate it when I don't.
They let way to many people in for Fast Pass and this is why the stand-by line gets so long.

 

[Peter Pirate]

It appears my fears were wrong as the HM wait times seem INCREDIBLE and as I always admit when I'm wrong, here goes: I love FP and I understand it and how it works at WDW, but I totally did not understand the lay of the land at DL and appear to have been totally wrong in my original assumtion.

 

[Mooobooks]

It hasn't made any difference at The Haunted Mansion. Waits during some very busy days recently were only 10 minutes or so.
It's a completely different story at Pirates of the Caribbean, where waits have been as long as 40 minutes. Personally, I would much rather have FastPass on the Pirates and not have to wait 40 minutes.
They've also put the kabosh on the single rider line at Indy, which is a fat pain in the neck. The ONLY way we were able to ride Splash Mountain was by single rider, since the FastPasses for reasonable hours go way too quickly.
I don't have much sympathy for people who are in the standby line: plan your days and get with the program!

 

[manning]

I don't have much sympathy for people who are in the standby line: plan your days and get with the program!

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[LeftCoaster]

Miceage's picture of the Haunted Mansion Exit / Splash Mountain Fastpass didn't do justice to how tight that area really is. The picture makes it seem like tere's more room than there really is. I kinda paced it off and if you're facing the exit, it's about 12 - 15 feet from the Haunted Mansion Fence to the Splash Mountain Entrances.

 

[Bork]

I think the big problem was that HM, Splash, and Pooh are the only rides in that dead-end corridor. So you get a FP for one, and have to backtrack all the way out to find another ride to go on(without waiting in a long Standby line).

With no FP for HM, PoC, and Pooh, that gives you a few rides to go on in that area while you wait for your Splash FP time.

If they do all these changes, there is basically one FP ride in each area to spread out the crowds.