Fast Pass to become "Pay for Play"?

[Happy Birthday Cat]

According to Jim Hill Media (Link to Story), Disney has asked for a patent that will allow them to change the way fast passes are distributed. It will allow hotel guests to sign up for them in their room and will allow Disney to control your number of Fast Passes based on what hotel you are staying at and how much money you are spending.

HBC

 

[MarylandPizzaman]

This sounds like discrimination.
I hope this dosen't go through.
Next thing you will have to use a cc to pay for a FP at the machine....

 

[BillSears]

One problem I see with this is traveling with multiple families but staying at different hotels. We're having about 25 of us going down at once this year all staying at different hotels/time shares, on and off site. This sort of fastpass arraingement will make it very hard to do anything together.

 

[Mister Disney]

(putting on my flame suit....)There is no one that can say Disney is not an economic venture.

Doesn't it make sense that say...(lets throw some numbers out there....) you are spending 15k on a vacation compared to say $1500 shouldn't there be "perks"?

Disney just like any other business out there is out to "cultivate" more money from the bottom line. That means encouraging people to spend more and more. In order to do that, they have to offer more "perks" for more money. Disney is FAR from the first company to do something like this.

 

[Rozzie]

(putting on my flame suit....)There is no one that can say Disney is not an economic venture.

Doesn't it make sense that say...(lets throw some numbers out there....) you are spending 15k on a vacation compared to say $1500 shouldn't there be "perks"?

Disney just like any other business out there is out to "cultivate" more money from the bottom line. That means encouraging people to spend more and more. In order to do that, they have to offer more "perks" for more money. Disney is FAR from the first company to do something like this.

hang on...let me zip up my flame suit...

absolutely agree with you. there is a great debate going on the CB if anyone really want's to get into this topic more.
Remember Disney is a business, just because they have a fantasyland doesn't mean the exec's live in it. It may not be fair, but who said life is?

But I really don't see disney doing this, it would be bad PR.

 

[smilie]

The reason I disagree with this is:

Fast passes are for use in the parks, and everyone pays the same rate for park tickets.... I don't think it matters what type of resort you stay in.
Maybe make it so if you spend more on resorts you get better transportation to parks. But if I pay the same amount for a park ticket-(staying at a value resort) as someone staying in the Grand Floridian, I expect the same service.

 

[goofy4tink]

I would love to see them change the FP system. But maybe rather than base it on where/how much you spend...they could do a base thing..maybe...
value resorts get 5 per day, per person on reservation
mods get 8 per day
deluxes get 10 per day....basically the more you pay for a resort, the better the perks.

with the ability to pay for more if you wanted each day....kind of like the E-nights. You want a book of 5...that will be $5 please.

I have to say that we don't use FP more then 3-4 times each visit. But, we would use them more if they weren't so time sensitive. I just don't think that someone who is paying $5000 for their trip for 4 people is more deserving to receive FPs than the couple who is spending $3000.

 

[Lewisc]

Disney has too many hotel rooms to have the same FOTL program Universal has. Guests staying at Universal hotels are paying $50-$100 more per night than just a year or two ago.

Disney has too many hotel rooms to duplicate the FOTL program that Universal has but this is a way to fine tune the program for Disney. Guests on site might be able to get some of their FP before the parks even open. Your ticket may allow the FP machine to give you an earlier return time, immediate return time or even allow you to get unlimited FP. It won't be obvious to other guests how the person in front of you got his FP. A little more subtle than guests at Universal flashing their room keys.

I wonder if this is being considered as an alternative to EMH?

 

[zdad]

I say....It's about time !! I'm all for this. I believe that on-property guests deserve a perk like this. They (we) are paying top dollar to immerse ourselves in the Disney experience, and "priority Fast Passes" seem like a natural fit.

Implementation will be a bit tricky, since they'll have to tie the Fast Pass to the guest. Would suspect they'll add it to the "Key to the Kingdom" in some fashion. Also, they'll probably limit the number of fast passes per day or the number of times you can get a FP for a given ride. None of this is a technology challenge, just a process one.

I would say this is likely a repsonse to the FOTL perk at Universal. Better to follow and be right than lead and be wrong !

 

[foxtrotter]

Well, as one of the poor people who likes to go to Disney and make use of the Fastpass system, I do hope it doesn't happen. But if Disney wants to do it they will and there's certainly nothing I can do to stop them.

 

[WDWendy]

I have VERY mixed feelings on this. That is all I will say until we get more info.

 

[goofy4tink]

The reason I disagree with this is:

Fast passes are for use in the parks, and everyone pays the same rate for park tickets.... I don't think it matters what type of resort you stay in.
Maybe make it so if you spend more on resorts you get better transportation to parks. But if I pay the same amount for a park ticket-(staying at a value resort) as someone staying in the Grand Floridian, I expect the same service.

But Universal allows only those staying in their 'few' resorts to use FoTL passes. I don't think it has anything to do with what you pay for your park pass. There are people out there, depending on what pass they get, that are paying $55 for a park pass for one day, $40 a day or some like me, that use an AP that at this point in time is costing me about $19 a day. Maybe they can base the number of FPs you can get ahead of time on the numbers of days you have on your pass. But, still I think that those staying on-site are entitled to more perks than those that stay off-site. We all know that we are paying top dollar for a room that would be 1/2 the cost off-site but we pay it in order to be a part of that 'magic' 24/7. I'm not basically a discriminatory person, but I'll be more than happy to take any perk Disney will give me for staying on-site...even if it means those staying off-site can't have the same thing.

 

[goofy4tink]

Disney has too many hotel rooms to have the same FOTL program Universal has. Guests staying at Universal hotels are paying $50-$100 more per night than just a year or two ago.

Disney has too many hotel rooms to duplicate the FOTL program that Universal has but this is a way to fine tune the program for Disney. Guests on site might be able to get some of their FP before the parks even open. Your ticket may allow the FP machine to give you an earlier return time, immediate return time or even allow you to get unlimited FP. It won't be obvious to other guests how the person in front of you got his FP. A little more subtle than guests at Universal flashing their room keys.

I wonder if this is being considered as an alternative to EMH?

I understand that Disney has way too many rooms to do a FOTL pass. There is no way that would work. I was just making a comparison that those guests do get that little something 'extra' in the way of getting through those lines. I'm sure that Disney could figure out something that would work for all involved. Any little thing would be greatly appreciated I'm sure.

 

[funcinderella]

I really hope this isn't true. I live in NJ, and Great Adventure used to have a Fast-Pass type thing that was free. Then, one year, they decided to start charging for it. I think it's now $20 per person per day (or more? I haven't checked recently because I refuse to buy it.) It's really getting to the point of being ridiculous. I'm all for capitalism, but they are really just trying to squeeze every last penny out of hardworking families. I COULD afford that $20, but on principle I just won't do it. At some point, the lower income families are all just going to get priced out of these parks; why pay all that money for admission, and then have to wait in a line twice as long because you can't afford the "upgrade"? I hope Disney doesn't stoop to this...

 

[mjmcca]

I say....It's about time !! I'm all for this. I believe that on-property guests deserve a perk like this. They (we) are paying top dollar to immerse ourselves in the Disney experience, and "priority Fast Passes" seem like a natural fit.

Implementation will be a bit tricky, since they'll have to tie the Fast Pass to the guest. Would suspect they'll add it to the "Key to the Kingdom" in some fashion. Also, they'll probably limit the number of fast passes per day or the number of times you can get a FP for a given ride. None of this is a technology challenge, just a process one.

I would say this is likely a repsonse to the FOTL perk at Universal. Better to follow and be right than lead and be wrong !

Not everyone staying onsite has a KTK ticket. AP holders don't.

 

[DebbieB]

I was at WDW last week and one thing I would like to see:

A central board near the entrance that lists current standby times and the current fastpass return times, perhaps another one in the back of the park. That way you won't have to walk all through the park to find out what the current status is. It would be neat to if they had it on the TV in your room.

 

[foxtrotter]

The more I think on this the more I guess I would accept it if it was for all onsite guests if they were distributed the same for all resorts. I think perks for staying at the deluxes, etc. should be perks that are at the resort, not the parks.

 

[Lewisc]

I say....It's about time !! I'm all for this. I believe that on-property guests deserve a perk like this. They (we) are paying top dollar to immerse ourselves in the Disney experience, and "priority Fast Passes" seem like a natural fit.

Implementation will be a bit tricky, since they'll have to tie the Fast Pass to the guest. Would suspect they'll add it to the "Key to the Kingdom" in some fashion. Also, they'll probably limit the number of fast passes per day or the number of times you can get a FP for a given ride. None of this is a technology challenge, just a process one.

I would say this is likely a repsonse to the FOTL perk at Universal. Better to follow and be right than lead and be wrong !

I think EMH is fair to both onsite guests and other guests. It really is Disney's answer to the Universal program. Disney has too many hotel rooms to do what Universal is doing. I think POP has almost as many rooms as all 3 Universal hotel combined.

MYW tickets are non-transferable and the finger scan is used to enforce it. It wouldn't be hard to just use MYW tickets, that are linked to your room key, as the method of implementing the system. I can see Disney using this an additional perk to guests who buy a package. You'll get an uproar if AP guests are excluded. If guests staying at DVC resorts on points are excluded. If so many extra FP's are given out that "regular guests" find out that all FP's are gone by noon.

I'd hate to think we may get to a point in which the only way to enjoy the parks to book a package at a deluxe resort.

 

[Fast Pass]

All I can say is Disney will do what it wants regardless if anyone likes it or not.

I always believed though,that Walt Disney wanted the park to be the same for the rich or the poor,the young or the old.

 

[Lewisc]

The more I think on this the more I guess I would accept it if it was for all onsite guests if they were distributed the same for all resorts. I think perks for staying at the deluxes, etc. should be perks that are at the resort, not the parks.

Right now, other than EMH, all guests paying for admission get the same perks and FP privileges. Once you decide to treat different guests differently there isn't any reason not to go further and link the FP perks to the resort you're staying at. More FP's if you're deluxe. More MK FPs if you stay at a monorail resort. More EPCOT and MGM FP perks if you stay at an EPCOT resort. Immediate FP return if you stay concierge.

Disney goes this route it's a slippery slope. There really isn't any justification not to base the perks on what you're paying for your vacation.