Flights of Passage and Disney Officially Suck

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Not everyone can get FP+ for this ride. Locals, people who stay offsite, those who can't plan far in advance and so on will likely have trouble. There seems to be an inference coming from a few that if you don't get fastpasses then you are somehow to blame for any problems. It's not a matter of placing blame but often just people doing what they can.

I also don't blame Disney. The crowds are crazy and these new rides always have issues. It's just the nature of the beast.

Did I miss something what is to stop a local from staying over night at Disney and off sight guest can book 30 days out

 

[oktxregulators]

I remember last year when I was in the park when FEA opened. The line was almost all the way back to Germany and it twisted and turned. We had a FP for it at 3 and got a message on my Disney Experience saying it was down and wanted me to use my FP on something else in Epcot. We decided to go check it out and they were only allowing people with FP's to ride it. We got in line near China an waited over an hour in FP to ride it and still got an extra FP to use on Soarin later.

 

[Polybound]

Did I miss something what is to stop a local from staying over night at Disney and off sight guest can book 30 days out

Friend called last minute with free tickets, free place to stay, we got last minute discount air, we were off. Unfortunately didn't have FP's until we got there, though not for FOP, or should I say FLOP. Flight-Less Off-track Passage.

 

[Planogirl]

Did I miss something what is to stop a local from staying over night at Disney and off sight guest can book 30 days out

You're apparently not likely to get a fastpass for this at 30 days, at least not for a while. Plus locals can certainly stay onsite but I can't imagine that they would very often.

 

[AllieBoo]

Asking for a clarification is snarky? What was the statement supposed to say? They discussed it with someone, but didn't give a response to the result. I asked for the result. And yes, I did miss a word - will go back and fix it, thank you.

The statement was "I am completely discussed with Pandora, AK and Disney." I assumed you were being snarky, because it's pretty easy to see that the OP meant to say disgusted instead of discussed. Maybe it's not as obvious as I thought though....

 

[rteetz]

Flight-Less Off-track Passage.

It's not on a track

 

[lovethattink]

I'm a local. I have been able to book Na'vi River Journey at 30 days, but not FoP. @yulilin3 has been able to book FoP right at 7am at the 30 day mark. It wasn't until my family decided to stay on site over 4th of July weekend that I was able to book FoP at the 60 day mark.

 

[DisneyOma]

The statement was "I am completely discussed with Pandora, AK and Disney." I assumed you were being snarky, because it's pretty easy to see that the OP meant to say disgusted instead of discussed. Maybe it's not as obvious as I thought though....

Didn't see it that way at all - thought the person had discussed the issue with the CMs at the attraction, at AK guest services, etc. Discussed and disgusted are pretty far apart in letters for a typo, although I guess if it's auto-correct on a phone it could happen. That's why I try to proofread before I post (but I do make mistakes, and am happy to correct them).

 

[Miss Frankie J]

I'm a local. I have been able to book Na'vi River Journey at 30 days, but not FoP. @yulilin3 has been able to book FoP right at 7am at the 30 day mark. It wasn't until my family decided to stay on site over 4th of July weekend that I was able to book FoP at the 60 day mark.

I wanted to add that I'm at the 60 day mark and I cannot get a FOP fp yet. I'm not staying onsite the entire time so my window isnt fully open for my entire stay. Hoping I get something later!

 

[lovethattink]

I wanted to add that I'm at the 60 day mark and I cannot get a FOP fp yet. I'm not staying onsite the entire time so my window isnt fully open for my entire stay. Hoping I get something later!

Same here, I just looked at 60 days from now and one FP for Pandora available is Na'vi River Journey.

 

[mort1331]

Maybe they should just change the whole ride to Angry Birds

 

[yulilin3]

Same here, I just looked at 60 days from now and one FP for Pandora available is Na'vi River Journey.

Na'vi has been showing availability for up to 15 days out

 

[Stuarotra]

Funny enough, for people like me, "go with the flow" is far more stressful than having a plan. I grew up in a family where most vacations were "go with the flow" and the lack of planning created so many disasters it was comical. My mom has noted how much nicer it is going on vacation with me because we have at least a rough idea of what we're doing. So it really bouls down to personality. Control freaks like me are far happier with at least a roughed out schedule. But if we have to adjust, I don't melt down either.

This is exactly how I feel. My daughter is a "go with the flow" type person and when she and her husband decided to go to Disney, they didn't make any ADR's or do any planning and the few TS places that they did walk up to were not taking walk ups. She said it wasn't as fun as when she went with me when she was younger. I like to have, at the very least, a rough outline. If we deviate from that, that's fine.

 

[disneydreamer781]

This isn't anything that unusual with new rides, is it? There are bugs that will pop up. I never get into 4 hour line for anything, and I mean ANYTHING! NFW! Also, I never base my WDW trips specifically around any one thing so I wouldn't let something like this ruin my trip and who knows, I may get some additional FP out of it. I've also had some special things happen on my trips.

 

[disneydreamer781]

It sucks for sure. But, honestly, getting into the FOP standby line at this point and time is not something I would have done in the first place. With the type of money one spends on Disney tickets, there is no attraction that is worth a 2-4 hour wait. Even if it's a once in a lifetime trip, a visitor could experience a half dozen or more other attractions in that amount of time. For a frequent visitor, it makes even less sense.

 

[disneydreamer781]

I was at AK on Friday too and FoP came back up around 3:00 pm, not 8:00 pm. We had an FP+ for 12:00-1:00 and went back later in the evening to use it.

I will say though that I was not impressed with how the cast members handled FoP being out of commission. This attraction builds to 2+ hours first thing in the morning, people had been waiting for hours before it went down, and some had formed a line outside of the stand-by entrance in anticipation of it going live again. While a plethora of managers were milling about, one cast member, in particular, did nothing but scream at the people who had formed their own queue, "This is not a line! You need to move! Now!" I was pretty shocked because she was screaming it at those people. That left a sour taste in my mouth.

We've run into that too. Not with a CM but with Security last December at the MK gate front and I thought that was totally inappropriate so I can only wonder at a CM doing the same. Did you get his/her name?

 

[Liljo22]

Star Wars is a completely different beast, and you know it, lol. There will be people camping out for this one. Star Wars Weekends were super popular, so imagine all those people that are currently with visitation plans on hold until the land opens. I mean, the other 3 parks will be great to visit, but like with new things, there will be huge crowds for ONLY DHS and the Star Wars area of the park. So it's a wonder what they're going to do. I'd have to say looking ahead that they're going to need to start working now on plans for that when it happens, not if.

Different beast but its going to be on both coasts and the DL version is going to be open months before the DHS version. Of course its going to be slammed but I would bet most hardcore SW fans that need to be there opening weekend will hit DL for it.

 

[Liljo22]

This isn't anything that unusual with new rides, is it? There are bugs that will pop up. I never get into 4 hour line for anything, and I mean ANYTHING! NFW! Also, I never base my WDW trips specifically around any one thing so I wouldn't let something like this ruin my trip and who knows, I may get some additional FP out of it. I've also had some special things happen on my trips.

Its not unusual for new rides to have issues and FOP has been pretty reliable overall. Looking at Josh's wait times for it, other than the three alarm evacuations, it has not been down completely since opening day.

Also besides opening weekend the 4 hour waits have been rare. Josh's chart has waits in the 2-3 hour range with a couple of outliers hitting 4 hours and also as low as 1 hour.

http://www.easywdw.com/reports14/avatar_flight_passage_wait_times_june_2017.jpg

 

[Baklava]

I am sorry, OP. That can be very frustrating. Our last trip to DLR we finally got a chance to take our autistic daughter to the Frozen show. We probably won't be back for a couple years. Waited over an hour, braved the crowds with an anxiety disorder, got seated, bought popcorn and at the exact minute the show was due to start a voice came over the PA telling us it had been cancelled and to please exit. The entire theater waited a full minute or two before getting up because wee all thought it was some sort of opening joke for the show. Nope! The crowd leaving was even worse. We had to wait it out in our seats for 15 minutes before it died down enough to leave. People were screaming at the poor CMs who of course couldn't even give out FP for the next showing, because they were already at the limit. I felt so bad for them.

Broken attractions suck. A long wait is disappointing. The CMs take the brunt of the frustration even when they have no control over the situation. We try to be kind, they're having a bad day.

 

[disneydreamer781]

I am sorry, OP. That can be very frustrating. Our last trip to DLR we finally got a chance to take our autistic daughter to the Frozen show. We probably won't be back for a couple years. Waited over an hour, braved the crowds with an anxiety disorder, got seated, bought popcorn and at the exact minute the show was due to start a voice came over the PA telling us it had been cancelled and to please exit. The entire theater waited a full minute or two before getting up because wee all thought it was some sort of opening joke for the show. Nope! The crowd leaving was even worse. We had to wait it out in our seats for 15 minutes before it died down enough to leave. People were screaming at the poor CMs who of course couldn't even give out FP for the next showing, because they were already at the limit. I felt so bad for them.

Broken attractions suck. A long wait is disappointing. The CMs take the brunt of the frustration even when they have no control over the situation. We try to be kind, they're having a bad day.

It's unfortunate but it does happen this way. I for one, would never take it out on a CM but would be contacting Disney as soon as I'm able. Not much they can do at this point, but just to let them know. There should be some kind of guidelines for something like this arises, like an anytime FP. This may soften the brunt of the frustration.