FastPass+ must be coming soon

[wilkydelts]

Disney has announced reopening dates for 4 massive resorts over the next couple of months. Plus, the Swan Reserve is opening in July. And many other resorts may soon follow. I don't see how they can open these resorts and rent these hotel rooms without increasing park capacity. As it stands, most of the parks are sold out well in advance. How can you rent a hotel room to someone without letting them into the parks?

Do not discount the number of people who take brief resort only vacations especially during the summer. I have 3 of them planned this summer.

Disney may increase capacity as soon as even tomorrow but they haven't yet and if they do I do not believe it will change that much in terms of experiences from people who went over "Sold Out" spring break times. Again I welcome people to read my detailed objective trip reports.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

Do not discount the number of people who take brief resort only vacations especially during the summer. I have 3 of them planned this summer.

Fair enough. But are there really that many people who do that? What percentage of guests at, say, the Beach Club or the Boardwalk Inn (both of which are reopening soon), do not intend to visit the Disney parks? Maybe it's quite a lot of them. I honestly don't know. But I guess I would be surprised.

 

[tigger2002]

Keep in mind that standby lines right now cannot be correlated in any way to pre or post Covid WDW. Too many things are different...

Limited park capacity
Social distancing
Limited ride capacity (in some cases)
etc...

Those that are thinking back to pre fastpass days with such nostalgia forget that attendance numbers are higher now. FP and FP+ were put in place by Disney for a reason, to provide a better guest experience, distribute crowds, and to make more money.

I don't ever see Disney going back to no FP's and just relying on standby lines like in this Covid time. Plan, and use the FP system whatever it will looks like after covid. I for one don't think they will do away with a "free" option similar to how it exists today.

Dan

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I agree. When fastpass first started it was around the time Animal Kingdom opened and Downtown Disney started, so pre-fastpass was a different world.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Until Disney indicates a capacity change, visitors will experience the same "Sold Out" days and experiences from Spring Break time in the summer except for the heat.

If Disney is running the same ride capacity and resources, then yes that's mostly true. But I watched spring break times (particularly around Easter) and wait times looked manageable. Your report seems to reflect that as well. We went two weeks later and wait times had climbed back up some. People can even be there the same day and have a different experiences depending on crowd habits.

 

[JohnR5101]

Well, just remember the motto "the worst day at Disney is better than a day anywhere else".

 

[Jason2015]

The long and the short of this whole conversation-fast pass as it has been known isn't going to return in the form of the past. The new iteration will be different. As somebody pointed out don't be surprised to see a combination use of AI to help calculate park capacity to the minute and virtual ques to help control wait times. If one park (or area of a park) is experiencing a smaller than expected crowd AI could open up more spots in virtual ques allowing guest to join the line and moving the crowd around for a more even spread across parks. Technology is advancing and how we experience lines can advance as well.

 

[kevgraub]

Disney has announced reopening dates for 4 massive resorts over the next couple of months. Plus, the Swan Reserve is opening in July. And many other resorts may soon follow. I don't see how they can open these resorts and rent these hotel rooms without increasing park capacity. As it stands, most of the parks are sold out well in advance. How can you rent a hotel room to someone without letting them into the parks?

One option Disney has would be to shift more park reservations over to hotel guests and away from the AP bucket.

I'm not saying they will (or necessarily even should) do this, but if Disney wanted to keep capacity about the same as it is now, and still accommodate the increase in hotel guests, they do have ways to make that happen.

My guess is that park capacity will increase at least some when those hotels open. Maybe Disney will do a combination of reservation reallocations and new capacity? My guess is that you will also continue to see increases in ride capacity, shows, and dining that generally offset the increases in park capacity - resulting in wait times very similar to what we have been seeing the last couple of months.

 

[Nabas]

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I agree. When fastpass first started it was around the time Animal Kingdom opened and Downtown Disney started, so pre-fastpass was a different world.

The original FASTPASS (all caps, if I remember) started in 1999.

It was weird at first because the FP return time often was sooner than the Standby wait time. I think Disney eventually did something to correct that.

 

[JakeAZ]

How can you rent a hotel room to someone without letting them into the parks?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they open up DVC properties before the parks re-opened? I'd put nothing past them, if they can make a buck.

We're going Thanksgiving week and 3 of the days already have no spots left for HS (we got ours in months ago, so we're fine). Unless they go up in capacity, people booking at these newly opening resorts are already out of luck for those future dates.

 

[ZellyB]

I'm feeling more and more sure that they will be increasing capacity. Otherwise it makes little sense to open more resorts. I wouldn't expect them to announce it but I think one of these days we'll just see posts here about sudden new availability on the reservation calendar.

 

[goofyernmost]

Keep in mind that standby lines right now cannot be correlated in any way to pre or post Covid WDW. Too many things are different...

Limited park capacity
Social distancing
Limited ride capacity (in some cases)
etc...

Those that are thinking back to pre fastpass days with such nostalgia forget that attendance numbers are higher now. FP and FP+ were put in place by Disney for a reason, to provide a better guest experience, distribute crowds, and to make more money.

I don't ever see Disney going back to no FP's and just relying on standby lines like in this Covid time. Plan, and use the FP system whatever it will looks like after covid. I for one don't think they will do away with a "free" option similar to how it exists today.

Dan

Concerning the attendance numbers, I would have to disagree. In the beginning there was MK and Epcot (brand new) MK was packed. The crowds were quite high compared with the pre-Covid numbers. MK lot was full every time I went. Maybe overall compared to the 4 parks that currently exist overall attendance is going to be higher, but not necessarily at MK.

As for the reasons as highlighted above it was a better experience for a minority of guests, it forced people to use FP on things that weren't really needed and they didn't realize that much increase in individual spending, I'm not even sure why it would. If they have enough money to spend extra on bling, they could have used the same money to buy a FP or two.

Look, I don't know what they are going to do, but people can control their own schedules and as long as they continue to require reserved park days they will still be controlling crowd spread out across all of WDW and the guest will figure out on their own what is the best place to be at any given time in the park.

 

[sandlsmom]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they open up DVC properties before the parks re-opened? I'd put nothing past them, if they can make a buck.

We're going Thanksgiving week and 3 of the days already have no spots left for HS (we got ours in months ago, so we're fine). Unless they go up in capacity, people booking at these newly opening resorts are already out of luck for those future dates.

You really had me freaking out as we are going the week after and haven't bought our tickets yet. I didn't see any unavailable spots though. All green all month.

Still going to go out and get them tomorrow!

 

[JakeAZ]

You really had me freaking out as we are going the week after and haven't bought our tickets yet. I didn't see any unavailable spots though. All green all month.

Still going to go out and get them tomorrow!

I see yellow on November 22, 23, 24 due to no HS.
I’m sure the week after will be much better.

 

[Nabas]

Concerning the attendance numbers, I would have to disagree. In the beginning there was MK and Epcot (brand new) MK was packed. The crowds were quite high compared with the pre-Covid numbers. MK lot was full every time I went. Maybe overall compared to the 4 parks that currently exist overall attendance is going to be higher, but not necessarily at MK.

Disney used to publish theme park attendance. Before Disney-MGM Studios opened in 1989, combined attendance for MK & Epcot peaked at 26.5 million in 1983.

TEA estimated the Magic Kingdom's 2019 attendance to be 20.9 million. Epcot was estimated to be 12.4 million.

Prior to COVID, the theme parks were much more crowded than any previous decade.

If the lots were fuller, it because Disney only had 3 hotels until 1988. Everyone had to drive to get to the parks. Now, WDW has over 26,000 rooms. (And that does not include the Swan, Dolphin, or any of the Disney Springs hotels.)

 

[DisneyFive]

Uh oh, thread was moved to the “Theme Parks Comunity” board to die. RIP thread.

Dan

 

[moesy4]

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I think this is true during the pandemic but during the past "normal" times when ALL of the parks were at full capacity most of the time you don't need crowd manipulation.
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My understanding is that the parks only reached full capacity a couple of times a year...Christmas Week primarily. I thought that was the only time?

 

[scrappinginontario]

My understanding is that the parks only reached full capacity a couple of times a year...Christmas Week primarily. I thought that was the only time?

Now that parks require reservations and capacity is limited, most parks are reaching 100% capacity of their available limit, many days.

This is an example of May's Theme Park Availability calendar for guests with Theme Park Tickets that are not staying in a Disney Resort and are not Disney Annual Pass Holders. Tomorrow for example, there is currently availability at all parks except Epcot for guests holding Theme Park Tickets.

When the boxes are grey for all 3 'buckets' (Theme Park Tickets, Select Resort Hotels and Annual Passes) then there is no availability at any park for any additional guests. This happens quite often right now. At this point it is determined that all parks are at capacity for theme park reservations.

 

[moesy4]

Now that parks require reservations and capacity is limited, most parks are reaching 100% capacity of their available limit, many days.

This is an example of May's Theme Park Availability calendar for guests with Theme Park Tickets that are not staying in a Disney Resort and are not Disney Annual Pass Holders. Tomorrow for example, there is currently availability at all parks except Epcot for guests holding Theme Park Tickets.

When the boxes are grey for all 3 'buckets' (Theme Park Tickets, Select Resort Hotels and Annual Passes) then there is no availability at any park for any additional guests. This happens quite often right now. At this point it is determined that all parks are at capacity for theme park reservations.

View attachment 573168

No, sorry, I was responding to the previous post that stated that a continued park reservation system wouldn't work because pre pandemic, the parks reached capacity every day as well and so the crowds would increase to match all available "slots" each day regardless.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Oops! Thanks for explaining.

 

[Ariel620]

Universal just decreased their social distancing to 3 ft instead of 6. Markers are already adjusted, and the new policy takes effect today (in addition Universal and Disney are no longer doing temp checks, as of a week or two from now).

If Disney decreases the markers from 6 to 3 ft as well, that will increase capacity almost back to pre-covid levels, at least in terms of lines (maybe not shows). 3 ft is just about the normal distance most people stand from each other. If that is the case I would really hope FP (or something like it, virtual que, etc) returns as well because those long lines are going to get much longer!