Fastpass needs an Update bad.

[Faldred]

I agree... We have seen TSM FP is often sold out by late morning. They should close the FP distribution temporarily, then re-open later in the day.

Better still -- they should put more things to do at DHS, then there wouldn't be such long lines for the few noteworthy attractions in the first place.

 

[Figment632]

I agree... We have seen TSM FP is often sold out by late morning. They should close the FP distribution temporarily, then re-open later in the day.

Why not just do away with FP at TSM?

 

[Virtucomp]

How about this.. If you arrive at the park after 1PM you get one FP upon entry for any attraction. Just one so it can't be abused and the system knows your KTTK so you can't leave and come back to get another one.

This would reduce the TSM morning mayhem. You would not have to be there at RD just to get a FP. You would only ride it once so it is not adding to the standby line by much.

 

[TisBit]

I agree... We have seen TSM FP is often sold out by late morning. They should close the FP distribution temporarily, then re-open later in the day.

Why not just do away with FP at TSM?

I think that punishing the whole in order to appease the few is the wrong idea. Yes, TSM is a crazy busy attraction and the fastpasses run out early, but as already mentioned, this is the exception, not the rule. Even Soarin does not run out near as quick as TSM.

Under the first come, first served basis, why would you change an entire system to appease someone that chose to do something else in the morning (sleeping in or another park). These guests still have an option, to ride standby and fastpass something else....forcing people that woke up for rope drop to wait standby, just so someone else in the afternoon can get a fastpasses doesn't make sense to me and would likely generate a TON more complaints than the current system.

 

[Faldred]

How about this.. If you arrive at the park after 1PM you get one FP upon entry for any attraction. Just one so it can't be abused and the system knows your KTTK so you can't leave and come back to get another one.

This would reduce the TSM morning mayhem. You would not have to be there at RD just to get a FP. You would only ride it once so it is not adding to the standby line by much.

I think this basically ties into the "reserve ride times from home" concept. Essentially, the idea being that you know that if you go to park X on day Y, you will get to ride some limited number of attractions of your choice, barring unplanned ride closures. By scheduling these in advance, the system could compensate by reducing the number of FPs available for those attractions, to keep the relative numbers stable.

 

[Figment632]

TSM is so overrated I prefer BUZZ!! TSM has a great queue however the attraction itself is a bunch of screens and the only time you move is from screen to screen. Best shooting ride is still MIB!

Also TSM screws everything up for me we used to FP RNRC the ride TOT but now you have to FP TSM or wait 145.

 

[dismichael]

I love FastPass, especially for rides like TSM or PPF that we would in no way be able to wait on the line for in the heat of the summer with 6 of us in the family. However, I agree, it kinda stinks that if you don't get there at the crack of dawn for those fastpasses when it's crowded, you will not get to see the ride- especially TSM where i've seen 3+ hour waits last summer. I would like something to be done, but Fastpass is a free, convenient service and for the most part, works well. Going to a place like Universal, you do not get the leisure unless you pay. With that said, I guess I'll make due....

 

[sweetdana]

I assume coming changes including getting in line from home, will have 1 FP assigned to a ticket #. IE you cannot get a FP for Soarin for 10 AM -11 AM then head over to Test track and get a FP at 10:05 AM before riding Soarin with your 10- 11 AM ticket at 10:45 (or 2:30 PM for that matter). I believe it will only allow 1 FP out per park ticket "out" at a time. I believe They will "exit" the FP you originally had when you get a new one, before or ignoring the other FP. Basically expiring it without using. This is how it was set up, but never really worked out, as someone could get a FP as soon as the window starts. I also agree a larger window will happen with a max stop time. No come back when ever you want and turn it in.

I also think they will stop the very wasteful printed FP tickets. This is not green at all, and there will be a way for your park ticket to have a reader with your time. Maybe even a recycle/reuse item you take and turn in. Maybe the option to text it to you, or something like that. Maybe ticket time will be assigned based on your ticket, and readers over the park, in case you forgot your time. Check it at any ride. I believe they will not continue printing and wasting all the extra paper, once it is up and running. If they do this, they can put them all in the front of the park, and no runners for them, as you can only have one. If you leave and go to another park it is opened up for someone else.

Also with the new Pooh kids area .. my dd6 begs to go in the side wit the honey. She won't let me have a FP any more. Please if your listening Disney .. do that with TSM and kill the FP line.. 35 mins in a play yard, instead of 60 mins of a line.

 

[Metsoskil]

I could see something that works something like this:

You enter on-line which park you are going to and what rides you want to go on in a priority order.

Example:

Before you go to WDW, you enter that on August 1st you want to go to Epcot and ride Soarin', Test Track, and Maelstrom. No times are assigned at that time.

On August 1st you go to Epcot. When you enter the park, the ticket reader accesses your requests and gives you FP for the rides you entered based on your entries and availability left.

Those who don't enter their info ahead of time can still get FP, but availability will be reduced depending on how many FP were requested on-line.

Disney would have to account for no-shows, but they're pretty good at predicting that sort of thing.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Just leave it alone.

 

[doconeill]

I actually believe that late FP use as only minor effects on the FP line, and on average makes the standby line faster...you do have to get away from the concept that the wait time clock represents any sort of reality however, and go on the time of day you'd actually get onto the attraction based on when you entered the line.

I've gone into the technical details many times - it is all here, but it is deserving a rewrite:

Why using a late FASTPASS doesn't matter!

It doubles the wait in DL where TSM has no FP on the busiest of days TsZm gets a 35 minutes wail at the most.

The rid loads fast and doesn't need it IMO.

I think that's the first time anyone has ever claimed that TSM is a fast loader...it certainly isn't fast enough for its popularity at WDW. I wonder if the differences in wait times at DL vs. WDW have as much to do with crowd as it does to Fastpass - more on that in a second.

The situation even seemed to be exacerbated several months ago when they apparently slowed down the load rate somewhat (I heard it was due to new "exit gates", but I didn't notice any difference), and then lowered the number of FPs to keep the ratio the same.

Personally I would like for Disney to do away with Fastpasses entirely.

First of all, the parks was designed with the expectation that a certain percentage of Guests would be in lines for attractions; having FPs changed this.

True - but it has actually freed up a lot of room. Room they haven't done anything with...

Second, the FP actually is a failure from what was expected; Disney had thought that if people were not in lines for an attraction they would be spending more money on food and merchandise, but there was no uptick in sales other than price increases. It just drove people to other lines.

Also true, although I still have to believe there was SOME uptick - certainly nothing representative of what they would have liked. I definitely CANNOT spend money in a line. I MIGHT spend money if I'm not.

And third, without Fastpasses the lines will actually move faster.

I've mentioned this before...yes, the line would technically move faster, velocity-wise, and more constantly. But it would also be longer. It's essentially a wash - Fastpass does not and cannot increase or decrease the load rate or capacity of an attraction.

What it really changes is the perceptions of that wait. Waiting in a long line for 60 minutes but where you are moving frequently certainly seems a lot different than waiting in a short line for 60 minutes where it seems like you rarely move.

I think some of the nextgen additions are actually to specifically offset that "stagnancy"..."Man, this wait is sooooo booooooooring...ooo, shiny!"

 

[MAYNARDS99]

I still believe Universal has it figured out. Their "Universal Express" provides front of line access to their on-site hotel guests.

Disney should do the same for their Deluxe and Villa level hotel guests. This would truly make staying at these hotels worth every dollar. All at no cost to Disney. Flash your KTTW and step right up.

Keep the Fastpass system for day guests and lower level hotels, but only allow your lower level hotel guests to book their Fastpasses online.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

I still believe Universal has it figured out. Their "Universal Express" provides front of line access to their on-site hotel guests.

Disney should do the same for their Deluxe and Villa level hotel guests. This would truly make staying at these hotels worth every dollar. All at no cost to Disney. Flash your KTTW and step right up.

Keep the Fastpass system for day guests and lower level hotels, but only allow your lower level hotel guests to book their Fastpasses online.

Nope, still too many people. They could tie it to concierge level guest and be fine though.

 

[TisBit]

I still believe Universal has it figured out. Their "Universal Express" provides front of line access to their on-site hotel guests.

Disney should do the same for their Deluxe and Villa level hotel guests. This would truly make staying at these hotels worth every dollar. All at no cost to Disney. Flash your KTTW and step right up.

Keep the Fastpass system for day guests and lower level hotels, but only allow your lower level hotel guests to book their Fastpasses online.

Nope, still too many people. They could tie it to concierge level guest and be fine though.

Yep, if you look at the total number of rooms at each location, there is a HUGE difference. And Disney has historically not wanted to segregate their guest based on the room rates they pay. If you are on site, you get all the benefits of a deluxe guests (EMH's, etc)....the deluxe guests only get certain resort amnenities.

The more I think about it, if any real modification to the fastpass system, which would be easy to make and really makes sense, is to limit the number of fastpasses you can get at each ride during peak times/rides. This would work similar to how they declare peak seasons, etc....when they anticipate heavy crowds (spring break, christmas, certain summer dates, etc) or extremely busy rides (really only TSM at this point), make a policy where you can only receive one fastpass per day for that ride. Many people, myself included have arrived at rope drop, got a fastpass that allows a return time at say 1005 am, then grab another TSM fastpass at 1005 for later in the day. This would free up more passes for different guests and the ride not run out quite so quickly. Even Soarin does not run out of fastpasses withing a couple of hours, so the only ride that needs this all year is TSM, but during peak times institute the policy for all "E ticket" attractions. Guests will still be able to ride the ride with fastpass, they just won't be able to do it multiple times a day.

During non-peak times, I think you would have the system set as it is now for most attractions, because they are not prone to running out of fastpasses until very late in the day. Simple signs warning guests that they are limited at that ride will be easy to set up on the mornings that the policy is instituted and you could differentiate rides that need it and not.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I still believe Universal has it figured out. Their "Universal Express" provides front of line access to their on-site hotel guests.

Disney should do the same for their Deluxe and Villa level hotel guests. This would truly make staying at these hotels worth every dollar. All at no cost to Disney. Flash your KTTW and step right up.

Keep the Fastpass system for day guests and lower level hotels, but only allow your lower level hotel guests to book their Fastpasses online.

Disney has wayyyyy too much room inventory for that. you're talking about something like 150,000 people who then would have "exclusive" access on a busy day where the rooms were at capacity.

 

[doconeill]

Disney is supposed to have designs and/or patents that would grant resort guests some limited number of "instant fastpasses" (think similar to the Birthday/GAD cards) or advanced-scheduled FPs per day, with deluxe getting more than moderate, etc. Something like 3-2-1 was rumored.

The Birthday/GAD FP could have even been there way of judging impact.

Whether anything comes of this, or is part of the whole nextgen thing, remains to be seen - it could just be another idea that they decided should be shelved.

 

[umichigan10]

Just leave it alone.

I agree, the system seems good the way it is. The bottom line I guess is that, if you want a fastpass so bad for TSM, then get there at rope drop and fight through the masses for your piece of paper with a time printed on it.

 

[tiggspring]

First off, I don't think the issue is as big as you think. I think most people don't know enough to use the FPs late, my guess would be less than 20 % know this trick. Heck, I would guess a third of all the people going to Disney don't even understand the FP system enough to use it. The only time I have run into really bad FP lines are on Space Mountain, and that was when it had broken down several times during the day, and immediately after the fireworks.

That said, I think your idea has merit. A longer FP window (say three hours) and enforcing the timeframe would be more effective at spreading out the crowds. However, I think Disney has in a way dug its own grave here. The reason that they started allowing the late FP in the first place was to avoid conflict with guests and keep them happy. While it's easy to say to a guest "Oh no, you have to come back later to use that FP", it's a lot harder to say "No, you can't use it at all." With so many people knowing that they can use FP late, they would come into a change system and still want to use their passes late, and Disney would likely still feel that they have to back down and let them.

I don't know how the rest of the Disney-going public feels - but the current system works very well for ME...so I am fine with them keeping it as is.

SkierPete

Me too

 

[ASteelersMidget]

I'm not sure how this "Book your ride times from home" thing will interfere with the fastpass system.

 

[anthony2k7]

Disney is supposed to have designs and/or patents that would grant resort guests some limited number of "instant fastpasses" (think similar to the Birthday/GAD cards) or advanced-scheduled FPs per day, with deluxe getting more than moderate, etc. Something like 3-2-1 was rumored.

The Birthday/GAD FP could have even been there way of judging impact.

Whether anything comes of this, or is part of the whole nextgen thing, remains to be seen - it could just be another idea that they decided should be shelved.

DLRP already do this I believe (or at least they used to, i think they still do). Guests staying at Disneyland Hotel get limited use "disney hotel fastpass" tickets.

Guests staying in the castle club (concierge level) at disneyland hotel get unlimited "VIP fastpass".