Fastpass+ testing starts May1st

[granmanh603]

Well this does not appeal to me... DVC member so stay on site always(3weeks at a time) do not like to make plans and have to be somewhere at a specific time...rode every thing 100's of times, if it is like the old FP and holding to the time slot fine but making plans days before no way...and one of the reason I don't like the Dinning Plan is just that reason....making plans. I want a stress free experience... we have AP also so we often go to park a few hour in AM leave come back later that day or not.
oh edit and I do not have a smart phone to get any app,

 

[PrincessCastMember]

I was actually just talking with one of my Cast Member friends about this the other day. It is indeed true, but it is in its VERY early testing phase. I was informed that Cast Members are catching guests at that the airports that are traveling on the Magical Express and having them plan out their fast passes for that day and the next! It's basically going to be an online reservation system for reserving your fastpasses for the day.

So for those of you lucky DISers utilizing ME, be on the look out!

 

[mco65]

Great... something else to PLAN..

 

[Melissa34746]

I am a CM working at Tower and Space. I worked during some of the testing at Space and didn't have any major issues with the system. It was really neat to work with the ipad device and know specific information about the guest in front of me, like if it was their birthday/anniversary. The new system may or may not be used in the form it is in now.

Melissa

 

[Melissa34746]

I was actually just talking with one of my Cast Member friends about this the other day. It is indeed true, but it is in its VERY early testing phase. I was informed that Cast Members are catching guests at that the airports that are traveling on the Magical Express and having them plan out their fast passes for that day and the next! It's basically going to be an online reservation system for reserving your fastpasses for the day.

So for those of you lucky DISers utilizing ME, be on the look out!

Your friend is correct. Guests were getting asked at MCO before arrival if they wanted to use the system. Very cool.

Melissa (A CM, too)

 

[McKinneyMouse]

I like the App idea because I don't like the idea of finding a kiosk everytime I forget my fastpass times in the chaos that is travelling with 3 kids.

If disney wants to do this thing right they should allow you to actually get the fast pass with your online sign on the morning of so I can have a leisurely breakfast and get to the park when I get to the park.

Or at least let me get a FP+ with my mobile app for the next available time after I get to the park and scan something on the way in that checks me in.

I can wish upon a star...

 

[dsnygrl21]

This website has a bunch of pictures for the new fastpass plus:

X-PASS Fastpass Plus

Interesting to check out.

 

[skier_pete]

I'm sure that they will find some way to streamline the process. One way would be to let the guest scan their own cards rather than having the CM do it.


So after digesting all the info I've read about xPass (or whatever they are going to call it), I'm ready to make my prediction.

1) RFID key cards/wristbands will replace the current KTTK and park tickets.

2) xPass, once fully implemented will completely replace the paper fast pass system. Just like FastPasses, there will be a limited number of xPasses available for each "return" time window.

3) xPass will use RFID chips in either key cards or wristbands (possibly a choice)

4) xPass (formally fastpass) will be extended to virtually every attraction in every park, rather than just the top 4-8 in each park.

5) There will be two "stages" of xPass. The first will be for resort guest only. The 2nd will be for everyone.

5a) Resort Guest only: For this stage the attractions will be broken down into 4 "levels", (i.e. E-ticket, D-Ticket, C-Ticket, and A/B-Ticket). Every resort guest will be able to "book" one xPass in each level, each day of their stay. In addition to selecting your attraction, you will also be able to select your time "window" as xPasses are available. All resort guest will be on equal footing. I.e. Value Resort guests will get the exact same benefit as Deluxe Resort guests. The time frame for being able to reserve these xPasses is a little murky. I would guess somewhere between 24 hours and 1 week prior to park opening.​

5b) For everyone including resort guests: The current Fast Pass machines will be replaced by xPass kiosks. These will be used to "collect" xPasses using the RFIDs in the same manner that Fast Passes are currently collected. Resort guests pre-selected xPasses will not count against them for collecting more xPasses in-park, however all xPasses collected in park will have similar rules as the Fast Pass does today (i.e. can get your next xPass in 2 hours or at the start of the return window of your current xPass)​

6) There will also be various kiosks around the park where one can check the current return times encoded on their xPass.

I believe that DVC will be considered "Resort Guest" however Annual Passholders (unless they are staying onsite) will not get the "Resort Guest" benefit.

I suspect that guests of Shades of Green, The Dolphin, The Swan, and the Downtown Disney Hilton, will also be considered "Resort Guests".

So, this is a pretty good summary of all that I have seen as well. However, the one thing I've seen mentioned is there may be a benefit to the # of x-passes you get per day based on how early you book your trip. If you book your trip > 60 days in advance, you get 4 x-passes per day. If you book it last minute, that number may only be 2.

Caveat: I think that came from Jim Hill, so should be considered speculation. Actually, generally EVERYTHING about x-pass should be considered speculation at this point.

 

[PrincessCastMember]

Caveat: I think that came from Jim Hill, so should be considered speculation. Actually, generally EVERYTHING about x-pass should be considered speculation at this point.

I absolutely agree. Coming directly from Cast Members that are working on the project themselves, I have been told that the x-pass is in its VERY early stages and right now they've rolled it out to guests because they want the guest feedback on how to make the system better. Everything right now is just ideas and such and nothing has been finalized.

 

[jar]

Are they still testing? Going next weekend.

 

[PrincessCastMember]

Are they still testing? Going next weekend.

They sure are! Good luck!!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Maybe I missed it but can someone please tell me the point of FP plus?

My only theories are:

1. Fastpass is a mechanically troublesome system...and they need to replace it anyway...so the next evolution is this

2. And this is the one i dread/suspect: That their goal is to - yet again - attempt to book every second of everyday of every traveler's time (a la disney dining plan) to attempt to save/redistribute employees and increase giftshop time.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

^^

Thanks I guess the only good thing I see is not having to run and knock over little kids and old ladies to get a TSMM FP.

I will never abandon the "Costanza" maneuver...

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Well this does not appeal to me... DVC member so stay on site always(3weeks at a time) do not like to make plans and have to be somewhere at a specific time...rode every thing 100's of times, if it is like the old FP and holding to the time slot fine but making plans days before no way...and one of the reason I don't like the Dinning Plan is just that reason....making plans. I want a stress free experience... we have AP also so we often go to park a few hour in AM leave come back later that day or not.
oh edit and I do not have a smart phone to get any app,

You just hit that one into the seats....

I'm with you 1000% (except for the smartphone...i have a high quality apple phone that gives an economic opportunity to the chinese "youths" that assemble them 18 hours a day - probably next to the Shanghai Disney site)...and i'm in my 30's.

DVC/ recurring travelers are the core of the disney world clientele...and more "systems" like just drive home the fact of how little valued they are. These systems have already shown how they turn the day to day park experience into a rat race (no pun intended)

the first five years of dining hell caused by the DDP is enought for me...i don't want to go online and book a seating on the 40 year old space mountain 4 months in advance. It's just too much. But i know why this is: people plan and they have more "free" time = giftshops
People don't plan and they want to "salvage" their day = giftshops.

The classic Dutch Door


(As an addendum on the dining plan...i always blamed the dining plan as a whole in all forms for why they have killed the dining experience at WDW...but after my last two trips without the free dining in play on property...i have to say: maybe it WAS free dining's fault after all. Much different/ better experiences when nobody was walking around with it)

 

[granmanh603]

You just hit that one into the seats....

I'm with you 1000% (except for the smartphone...i have a high quality apple phone that gives an economic opportunity to the chinese "youths" that assemble them 18 hours a day - probably next to the Shanghai Disney site)...and i'm in my 30's.

DVC/ recurring travelers are the core of the disney world clientele...and more "systems" like just drive home the fact of how little valued they are. These systems have already shown how they turn the day to day park experience into a rat race (no pun intended)

the first five years of dining hell caused by the DDP is enought for me...i don't want to go online and book a seating on the 40 year old space mountain 4 months in advance. It's just too much. But i know why this is: people plan and they have more "free" time = giftshops
People don't plan and they want to "salvage" their day = giftshops.

The classic Dutch Door


(As an addendum on the dining plan...i always blamed the dining plan as a whole in all forms for why they have killed the dining experience at WDW...but after my last two trips without the free dining in play on property...i have to say: maybe it WAS free dining's fault after all. Much different/ better experiences when nobody was walking around with it)

Wow I can't believe someone agrees with me, I thought for sure I would get flamed...I am so disappointed in Disney with the changes in the last 6 or so years since Iger took over...and the last 3 have been the worst...I come home from the vacation very agrivated instead of relaxed and happy as before, maybe it is because we go too much and see too much.. It used to be my happy place... we are already booked for Oct and bringing family but thinking of cutting out or shortening the March trip next year, find someplace else to spend my money...this fast pass thing just seems like it is going to be a giant headache but I bet like the dining plans it will thrill the masses...guess I am just not one of the masses... but that you for relying and least I feel I am not alone and you description of Apple was very funny,(even though I own Apple stock and it is the only thing that has saved my butt in this awful market and I can at least eat and go to Disney). Here's hoping this fast pass thing fails or gets greatly modified...

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Wow I can't believe someone agrees with me, I thought for sure I would get flamed...I am so disappointed in Disney with the changes in the last 6 or so years since Iger took over...and the last 3 have been the worst...I come home from the vacation very agrivated instead of relaxed and happy as before, maybe it is because we go too much and see too much.. It used to be my happy place... we are already booked for Oct and bringing family but thinking of cutting out or shortening the March trip next year, find someplace else to spend my money...this fast pass thing just seems like it is going to be a giant headache but I bet like the dining plans it will thrill the masses...guess I am just not one of the masses... but that you for relying and least I feel I am not alone and you description of Apple was very funny,(even though I own Apple stock and it is the only thing that has saved my butt in this awful market and I can at least eat and go to Disney). Here's hoping this fast pass thing fails or gets greatly modified...

sadly...this thing is not going to go away...and is the wave of the disney future.

there are many good reasons to do this from disney's perspective....the main one setting up a property where they can effectively control/ redistribute the need for staffing to require less labor force and possibly leading to more resources for further expansion....

but there are wholeheartedly money-grubbing evil ones as well....ironically the same thing i just printed above.

If disney had their way - there would be NO further construction within the parks...most things would be automated...and the giftshops would be packed to the gills at all times...

I'm not exaggerating - WDW is by their own admission a cash cow that generates money to boon the stock and provide operating capital for other things - either directly or indirectly. Disney's vision looks alot like an Orwellian post human society.

So micromangement initiatives will not only continue...they will be expanded. This goes back to the "Destination Disney" ideas from the eisner 90's. The ideas haven't changed...but the technology has taken longer than they imagined.

Fully pre-planned, pre paid (except for shopping...which is where they can manipulate the consumer to increase their spending) trips that require less human control.

I saw the resort concept at D U (or Team D...whatever) about ten years ago: Electronic smart sensors that a person walks through as they enter their resort reception or a specific sensor point that activate your predistributed room access and charging device (wristbands seem to be the rage)...thereby eliminating the need for service staff.

In fact...only a handfull of people will be able to run the whole operation by just trying to keep the nerve center active and deal with issues.


It was not that farfetched then...and is even less so now.


The "relaxing" days of WDW are going to become fewer and fewer - by design.

And that is the brilliance of DVC...it doesn't matter what we think - they've got us...as most of us knew full well when we bought it.

But then they had to go and change what everybody esle was gonna do. the jerks...so now casual is going buy buy (intentional)

And in the not too distant future, you and I will be hoping for a good old economic disaster so that travel will tank, low occupancy will set in, and we can get a 8:30 walk up at Liberty Tree Tavern.

MDWW

 

[granmanh603]

sadly...this thing is not going to go away...and is the wave of the disney future.

there are many good reasons to do this from disney's perspective....the main one setting up a property where they can effectively control/ redistribute the need for staffing to require less labor force and possibly leading to more resources for further expansion....

but there are wholeheartedly money-grubbing evil ones as well....ironically the same thing i just printed above.

If disney had their way - there would be NO further construction within the parks...most things would be automated...and the giftshops would be packed to the gills at all times...

I'm not exaggerating - WDW is by their own admission a cash cow that generates money to boon the stock and provide operating capital for other things - either directly or indirectly. Disney's vision looks alot like an Orwellian post human society.

So micromangement initiatives will not only continue...they will be expanded. This goes back to the "Destination Disney" ideas from the eisner 90's. The ideas haven't changed...but the technology has taken longer than they imagined.

Fully pre-planned, pre paid (except for shopping...which is where they can manipulate the consumer to increase their spending) trips that require less human control.

I saw the resort concept at D U (or Team D...whatever) about ten years ago: Electronic smart sensors that a person walks through as they enter their resort reception or a specific sensor point that activate your predistributed room access and charging device (wristbands seem to be the rage)...thereby eliminating the need for service staff.

In fact...only a handfull of people will be able to run the whole operation by just trying to keep the nerve center active and deal with issues.


It was not that farfetched then...and is even less so now.


The "relaxing" days of WDW are going to become fewer and fewer - by design.

And that is the brilliance of DVC...it doesn't matter what we think - they've got us...as most of us knew full well when we bought it.

But then they had to go and change what everybody esle was gonna do. the jerks...so now casual is going buy buy (intentional)

And in the not too distant future, you and I will be hoping for a good old economic disaster so that travel will tank, low occupancy will set in, and we can get a 8:30 walk up at Liberty Tree Tavern.

MDWW

You know this whole thing sounds scarry, the post about the ipad and the CM knowing everything about the person in front of them,your birthday , anniversary etc, really freaked me out!!!!! this is not how I envisioned my trips to Disney and if they remove all the CM's where is that warm and fuzzy Disney feeling and service.... that was why I bought DVC back in 2000 and go to Disney instead of Universal(went there once never again , because of that who cares about you feeling I got there) Disney is where I go to get away and forget about the world, not be catapulted into the sterile controlled future. Lets hope we are overreacting and this all will not come to pass but I have a bad feeling here.

 

[mbrittb00]

sadly...this thing is not going to go away...and is the wave of the disney future.

Depending on how it works, the new system may not be all that bad.

If disney had their way - there would be NO further construction within the parks...most things would be automated...and the giftshops would be packed to the gills at all times...

I understand what you are saying here, but Disney has to understand that in order to keep up interest in the parks they have to keep adding attractions, etc. If all their return guest decided that Disney had become 'stagnant' may would stop coming (or at least spend fewer days at WDW in favor of US, Seaword, etc) and Disney Parks need that 'return income' to stay profitable.

Don't get me wrong, we aren't the kind of people that need new attractions all the time. We go quite often, and enjoy all the existing attractions as they are. However without continued growth/referbs of the parks Disney parks would quickly start (if they haven't already) falling behind the appeals of other parks (Universal, Bush Gardens, Legoland, etc).


As to the Gift Shops. We spend very little time in the park gift shops (we do about 95% of our gift shopping at Downtown Disney). I don't see how forcing a schedule on me is going to change that.

Fully pre-planned, pre paid (except for shopping...which is where they can manipulate the consumer to increase their spending) trips that require less human control.

Assuming that they can still get people to come. My sister-in-laws family is one of those that don't like to have their vacations scheduled. They are the kind of people that like to sleep in on vacation and not decide on what attraction to visit until they leave the previous one. Those kind of people aren't going to like having the vacations micro-managed.

 

[ThurlFan]

I'm heading that way in 33 days, so I will be interested to see what they have cooked up in the way of beta testing/soft rollout/whatever when we go. I can see plusses and minuses. I do like the enforcement of FP return times, because the FP lines did tend to stack up at the end of the day.

One big plus for us is being able to schedule Toy Story Mania. We spend very little time at DHS usually, but love that one ride. Knowing what time we can go lets us hang out somewhere else til our window opens up, then go in and ride and maybe check out one or two other things, then head back out again to get on with our day. As it is now, we have to start our day EARLY at DHS, rush to the FP machine and then kill time waiting for our return window.

So for us, Disney is going to get the opposite result from that postulated above. Instead of killing time in shops or at eateries while at DHS, we will make a surgical strike and not spend a penny along the way. In general we are NOT park commandos or hyper planners. We generally don't do table service dining because of the 180 day reservations, and don't want to feel locked into the schedule for which park/which day.

I do have a question - are they still dispensing paper return slips with this trial rollout? We have a party of six going, and some rides only three of us are adventurous enough for. In the past we would all six get FP, so that three of us could ride twice via FP line. Since the the standard kiosks are still operational this is still possible via the old system I was just curious about the new system for the future (not that this has necessarily even been decided).

 

[paulh]

looks like were heading towards a westworld type disney
Paul