FP+ Details Are Out!

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

In regards to the 3 passes per day...MAYBE it will stay 3, and MAYBE it won't. Helpful right?

In regards to whether we will be able to pick up same day fastpasses. They haven't decided yet. Maybe we will and maybe we won't.

Again, shouldn't they have figured these things out BEFORE spending $1billion?

 

[doggydoc]

Thanks for the insight!

I also got the same feedback from the moderator at the focus group I was a part of last week. Well...it was supposed to be a focus GROUP but only my husband and I showed up. He said that things are extremely fluid right now and nothing is set in stone yet. So if anyone has concerns, suggestions, ideas, etc that they should feel free to contact Disney since they are eager for feedback.

This is hilarious. No wonder things have been delayed so much. Either Disney has set up their IT dept. for disaster by not giving properly outlined parameters desired for the system OR they totally underestimated the backlash associated with limiting the number of FP's.

As for option 1 how could the system designers be expected to design a system that allows ANY possible use scenario? I can see the first planning meetings:

Designer: "OK this system sounds cool how many FP+'s should we prepare to be available?"

Disney Suit: "We don't know"

Designer: "Umm OK. Are we going to have to prepare for same day FP availability?"

Disney Suit: "We don't know"

Designer: "Hmmm. Exactly what do you want us to design the system to do?"

Disney Suit: "We don't know, other than make us more money of course."

 

[Jennasis]

I also expressed my extreme lack of faith in Disney's IT. He understood and acknowledged the "spotty" record and said they are aware of the shortcomings and are working to address it (evs). He said there would be multiple spots in the park with multiple CM's staffing it to allow you to access your account and that they were looking into how to deal with the problem of mass cell phone charging.

 

[cigar95]

I have this situation this summer. We pick up our tickets on the day we arrive. We would be left out of FP+ early booking, if that were an option. I'm glad right now that it's not fully implemented yet. We were able to get our 180+10 ADRs, and I can't see that changing, but if we would have had to have tickets in hand to get 60 day advance fastpasses, we'd have been out of luck.

Your question points out something that's easy to forget - so far, all we have heard are very general descriptions of the system. (And even those are quite vague and unspecific for now.) But just because we haven't heard about specialized situations such as convention guests, or AP vouchers, or various others we can think of doesn't mean that those situations aren't going to be addressed by the system.

Put me squarely in the camp of "what we don't yet know is so big that I can't yet begin to assume I know what the pluses and minuses are, and just because something hasn't been part of the leaked rumors doesn't mean it won't be part of the system."

 

[mom2rtk]

I can see how it happened now. Tom Staggs visited the MK with his kids and was surprised with how busy the park was, how congested the walkways, how long the standby waits. It must have been horrible walking through the crowded huddled masses as they ducked into back door entrances to one mountain after another. He decided it MUST BE FIXED. So he called a big meeting. "Allright people. We MUST make this better. We need to keep increasing attendance so I can get next year's bonus, but we need better crowd control in the parks. I will dedicate all resources to fixing this problem. Everything is at your disposal. Oh yeah. Everything except the option of building more attractions.......now..........GO! See what you can come up with!"

 

[Silock]

It was a long and pleasant conversation. At the end of which the CM told me how to contact him again so he could personally address any additional questions.

The crux of the discussion and what I can pass on to you all is CALL/WRITE to Disney and express your concerns. They are listening and taking everything people are talking/worried about into account. Things are still very fluid as they figure out the best way to go.

In regards to the 3 passes per day...MAYBE it will stay 3, and MAYBE it won't. Helpful right?

In regards to whether we will be able to pick up same day fastpasses. They haven't decided yet. Maybe we will and maybe we won't.

The whole idea of FP+ is NOT to make sure everybody can get FP to stuff. It's to alleviate congestion and length of STANDBY. He said there would be fewer FP overall.

As to what you can get FP for...you WILL be able to pick 3 attractions...not a set of 3 attractions. So if you want to pick 3 headliners, go for it. Not sure about picking the same thing multiple times.

They eventually want to hook it up to Magical Express so that you get scanned at the airport upon arrival and then the resort knows you've arrived.

I didn't ask about AP's (sorry...doesn't affect me so I didn't ask). Didn't ask about off-property or +10.

Like I said, he says they ARE listening. So if you have a beef with the program like I do NOW is the time to voice it...not after its rolled out.

So what's the best way to contact them so they listen?

 

[cigar95]

Designer: "OK this system sounds cool how many FP+'s should we prepare to be available?"

Disney Suit: "We don't know"

Designer: "Umm OK. Are we going to have to prepare for same day FP availability?"

Disney Suit: "We don't know"

If the decision hasn't yet been made, it implies that the system has been designed with the capability to handle these different possibilities.

They don't yet know what will happen because the system still allows them the flexibility to choose options that can be decided later.

 

[WillAustin]

I can see this potentially helping there, since it will at least make the standby line move more - but if there are less FPs it would generally mean an increase in standby guests.

And less FPs mean they are harder to get...

 

[doconeill]

For cryin' out loud...congestion may have been a poor choice of words on my part.

He said The idea of the whole system is to make the standby waits shorter. To make the rides more accessible to those without FP. We specifically joked that Disney didn't spend all that money to make interactive queues for nothing. They EXPECT you to wait in line. Preferably a more manageable line.

Frankly I was very surprised to hear that.

PLEASE don't take it the wrong way...that particular line stood out to me, and it seems contradictory to what they want the customer MyMagic+ experience to be, so I'm trying to digest it and have it make sense...

 

[ArwenMarie]

I can see how it happened now. Tom Staggs visited the MK with his kids and was surprised with how busy the park was, how congested the walkways, how long the standby waits. It must have been horrible walking through the crowded huddled masses as they ducked into back door entrances to one mountain after another. He decided it MUST BE FIXED. So he called a big meeting. "Allright people. We MUST make this better. We need to keep increasing attendance so I can get next year's bonus, but we need better crowd control in the parks. I will dedicate all resources to fixing this problem. Everything is at your disposal. Oh yeah. Everything except the option of building more attractions.......now..........GO! See what you can come up with!"

When will someone think of the poor Chairman and his children?

 

[mom2rtk]

When will someone think of the poor Chairman and his children?

I'd be happy to, but Mr. Staggs has been the one out front on this sharing the "real world" experiences of his family.

 

[SRUAlmn]

So I might be late to the party with this but I'm not sure I realized that you'd have to have a package to use this. So that means if we choose to save money and get our tickets from UT or we book room only and stay at the Swan and Dolphin then we can't use this? And, if they are doing away with regular FP then our only other option is standby? No bueno, Mickey!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

It was a long and pleasant conversation. At the end of which the CM told me how to contact him again so he could personally address any additional questions.

The crux of the discussion and what I can pass on to you all is CALL/WRITE to Disney and express your concerns. They are listening and taking everything people are talking/worried about into account. Things are still very fluid as they figure out the best way to go.

In regards to the 3 passes per day...MAYBE it will stay 3, and MAYBE it won't. Helpful right?

In regards to whether we will be able to pick up same day fastpasses. They haven't decided yet. Maybe we will and maybe we won't.

The whole idea of FP+ is NOT to make sure everybody can get FP to stuff. It's to alleviate congestion and length of STANDBY. He said there would be fewer FP overall.

As to what you can get FP for...you WILL be able to pick 3 attractions...not a set of 3 attractions. So if you want to pick 3 headliners, go for it. Not sure about picking the same thing multiple times.

They eventually want to hook it up to Magical Express so that you get scanned at the airport upon arrival and then the resort knows you've arrived.

I didn't ask about AP's (sorry...doesn't affect me so I didn't ask). Didn't ask about off-property or +10.

Like I said, he says they ARE listening. So if you have a beef with the program like I do NOW is the time to voice it...not after its rolled out.

I also expressed my extreme lack of faith in Disney's IT. He understood and acknowledged the "spotty" record and said they are aware of the shortcomings and are working to address it (evs). He said there would be multiple spots in the park with multiple CM's staffing it to allow you to access your account and that they were looking into how to deal with the problem of mass cell phone charging.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us!!

He said The idea of the whole system is to make the standby waits shorter.
...
Frankly I was very surprised to hear that.

This doesn't strike me as surprising at all. Adding FP to attractions that didn't have it, having a mechanism now to try to direct / spread out crowds more effectively and in real time, etc. Will be interesting to see how it ends up working out, though.

 

[doconeill]

So I might be late to the party with this but I'm not sure I realized that you'd have to have a package to use this. So that means if we choose to save money and get our tickets from UT or we book room only and stay at the Swan and Dolphin then we can't use this? And, if they are doing away with regular FP then our only other option is standby? No bueno, Mickey!

No, no, no.

You do NOT have to have any package.

 

[Jennasis]

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us!!

This doesn't strike me as surprising. Adding FP to attractions that didn't have it, having a mechanism now to try to direct / spread out crowds more effectively, etc. Will be interesting to see how it ends up working out, though.

I was surprised he admitted it.

 

[TheSilverTherapist]

So I might be late to the party with this but I'm not sure I realized that you'd have to have a package to use this. So that means if we choose to save money and get our tickets from UT or we book room only and stay at the Swan and Dolphin then we can't use this? And, if they are doing away with regular FP then our only other option is standby? No bueno, Mickey!

That got confusing in there, but the opposite is true. It doesn't have to be a package to count.

 

[SRUAlmn]

No, no, no.

You do NOT have to have any package.

Oh!!! Ok! I thought I read a PP's post that stated that, but I should've realized that there are so many rumors running around! Thanks!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I was surprised he admitted it.

Ahhh!! Gotcha!!

 

[wishing4PA]

Oh!!! Ok! I thought I read a PP's post that stated that, but I should've realized that there are so many rumors running around! Thanks!

I apologize if it was my comment that mislead you. I only posted because I had read (from previous posts) that one way WDW might handle non-package guests being able to schedule fastpasses would be by having the guests link their tickets into MDE. Which caused me to think, what about those of us with no tickets in hand yet, and for whom Disney doesn't have the ticket info, as in my case this summer, when the Disney Meetings CM asked if I wanted to purchase from them. I don't, because mine already were purchased indirectly via the conference. I suppose they could streamline the way this is done so that Disney would have my ressie linked to my conference tickets, or they could let convention guests book FP+ regardless of whether they had any linked tickets at all. But that would be speculation on my part. As of now, I don't know how they will handle that. Again, I'm just as glad to let someone else be the guinea pig.

 

[Redcon1]

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us!!


This doesn't strike me as surprising at all. Adding FP to attractions that didn't have it, having a mechanism now to try to direct / spread out crowds more effectively and in real time, etc. Will be interesting to see how it ends up working out, though.

So basically, attractions that were previously walk-on or with very little waiting time will now increase to have an actual wait in a standby-line. Just so guests in a E-ticket attractions standby-line can maybe wait a few minutes less? All for crowd control?

To me, that's a benefit for Disney and not a good trade off for guests.