FP+ Details Are Out!

[jtowntoflorida]

I think Disney's current primary focus is how to make more money off the people currently in the parks, not how to dramatically increase attendance levels.

ITA with this. They don't need to increase attendance. It's not their goal. When you look at their annual reports and their investor presentations, it's all about getting the people who are already going to come spending even more money. One of the reports in the last year talked about how there was "even more room" in theme park ticket pricing...and this year we saw a pretty big increase in ticket prices. They are going to push us until we stop coming...and will we ever really stop coming? I think Disney guests are like the hydra...you cut off one head, two more pop up in its place.

 

[Robo]

I feel like I'm the only one sitting here thinking..."I don't care about all these details, just give me my purple (my fav color) magic band and let me pick my rides!!"

I bet you say that now, but wait until you log in to pick your rides, and you can't get either the ride or the times that you want. Or when you are at the park and one day doesn't go as planned, and you have missed your favourite attraction and can't book it again because they were all booked up 60 days out

Consider that just within this week at DHS, Toy Story Mania was not operating for several days... either for the bulk of the day, or at least part of each day.

If FP+ had been in operation, thousands of guests who had pre-booked that popular attraction (to the exclusion of other rides in the park) would have been out of luck.

Would last-minute "adjustments" salve the feelings of those who proudly thought that they had "gotten the prize" up to 60 days previous?

Yes, "Stuff Happens," but when it comes to far-in-advance promises, it's a really tough thing to manage for consistent follow-through.

 

[jade1]

My point was, it isn't for the same items. Wal-Mart isn't tell folks that are at the back of a line for a Nook, TV, Game system or whatever it is, that they are going to stop selling that item at 20 and after another 8 hours will sell the other 20 they have in stock. That is the point I am making about Disney holding FP+s for those late planner, no planners or day guest. I believe Disney could very well offend both those that want to pre-book by not having enough of the headliners to book at the desired times of day (because they are holding some back) and those that don't want to pre-book (day guest or just not wanting to be tied down) by limiting what they have to choose from on that day.

The thing is-you may never know, or even need to know.

If everything (under the guidelines) is available for you each day at 60 days out-you will likely be happy (happy within the guidelines). OR you may need to take an eve TSM, or instead take Soarin and EPCOT FP+'s on a day you were thinking MK, but lets just in general its looking good to you (yes within the guidelines).

But now you are at DHS, and you do have an evening FP+ for TSM. Maybe you spent the AM at MK and lets hope that went well. But dang-you really wish you could have gotten an afternoon TSM because you want to shop at DTD and have dinner there.

1) You check your app, or a kiosk and find under your ressie-you can swap for an afternoon TSM. Great.

2) You find RNR is available to swap (you didn't have that one) so you decide that would be better in this case.

3) No change is available-but what you cant see under your ressie-another person may be able to grab an afternoon TSM. But you will never know unless you are standing next to them when the scream hooray.

4) Its May-and you can grab multiple TSM because the system just has them available.

 

[momof2n2]

How does the creation of new e-ticket attractions increase profits and revenues when the parks are setting attendance records now with the current attractions?

I think Disney's current primary focus is how to make more money off the people currently in the parks, not how to dramatically increase attendance levels.

New attractions might keep folks in the park, rather than finding them ducking out a few hours. New attractions means new t-shirts, post-ride photo sales, and other sellable tie-ins.

Heh. If it's good enough you can even make a movie franchise off it!

 

[momof2n2]

Weird, ours were at 10PM (hmm no getting up early-wonder why that changed after all these years.

Walmart has unwrapped the details on its Black Friday specials early, and theres a lot of loot for mobile technology lovers on the hunt for a deal especially if you dont mind shopping on Thanksgiving day. Some of the biggest bargains include a Nook Color for just $99 and an Acer Ultrabook for a shockingly low $499.

Walmarts deals kick off before the final NFL game of the day, with the first of three low-cost price waves (wonder why they would want different waves/times of deals-maybe its to get more guests spread throughout the day, less stampedes, and that some guests have different shcedules they like ) starting at 8 P.M on Turkey Day. You can grab the LeapPad 1.0 Learning Tablet at $65, down $14 off its normal price, as well as movies and video game consoles marked down at steep discounts, but consider the 8 P.M. offers to be the appetizer for the main course.

At 10 P.M., Walmart plans to roll out price cuts for numerous brand-name electronics, highlighted by a One-hour guarantee that locks certain Black Friday deals in stone if youre waiting in line for, amongst other things, a 16GB iPad 2. The tablets being sold if its usual $399 cost, but Walmarts sweetening the pot by tossing in a $75 Walmart gift certificate, and if your store runs out of stock before 11 P.M., theyll give you a rain check for a pre-Christmas pick-up.
Notable 10 P.M. offerings include an unnamed 15.6-inch HP laptop with 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive for $279, several discounted cameras, the 8GB Nook Color for $99 ($50 off its normal price), and a Virgin Mobile MiFi hotspot for $39.88.

Shoppers who decide to wait until Black Friday proper will be greeted by a third and final wave of deals at 5 A.M. The specials here skew more towards the everyday crowd, but mobile mavens may be excited by the $100 gift card Walmarts offering when you buy select phones, including the Galaxy S III, HTC One X and Droid Razr M.

Yup. Black Friday will never be the same again. And neither will WDW after rolling out FP+.

 

[jade1]

I bet you say that now, but wait until you log in to pick your rides, and you can't get either the ride or the times that you want. Or when you are at the park and one day doesn't go as planned, and you have missed your favourite attraction and can't book it again because they were all booked up 60 days out

If one attraction makes your entire trip, just book it every day you will be at WDW. Or at least a couple times. And you can always do rope drop if you had to.

 

[momof2n2]

There are lots of good places you can watch the fireworks from. Disney can rope off many large areas and give you a tiered selection of locations. They could add bleachers eve. I am not sure how many, and opinions would very on what is good or not, but I bet Disney could decide to set aside room for many hundreds if not thousands for fast pass.

Sure...
AND they can block off, say, ALL viewing locations we've enjoyed for decades and reserve them for FP+ holders.

 

[d1gitman]

Consider that just within this week at DHS, Toy Story Mania was not operating for several days... either for the bulk of the day, or at least part of each day.

If FP+ had been in operation, thousands of guests who had pre-booked that popular attraction (to the exclusion of other rides in the park) would have been out of luck.

Would last-minute "adjustments" salve the feelings of those who proudly thought that they had "gotten the prize" up to 60 days previous?

Yes, "Stuff Happens," but when it comes to far-in-advance promises, it's a really tough thing to manage for consistent follow-through.

except everyone at the park the day the attraction goes down is in the same boat. i would hope they have a paper "anytime" pass for prebookings that are foiled by downed attractions. it seems reasonable to expect that since they have that in place for various other issues, including RFID card not working at the current FP machine (at least they did in March)

 

[momof2n2]

If one attraction makes your entire trip, just book it every day you will be at WDW. Or at least a couple times. And you can always do rope drop if you had to.

Booking it everyday only works if you drop $ on hoppers. And while RD is our norm, it may only get you on, say, TSMM twice & RnR once before SB gets ugly. You still haven't gotten to ToT and you have the rest of the day for B stuff with no opportunity to hit headlines again b/c all they had FP+ for when us off-siters got online were GMR, Muppets & parade. Wait. No parade anymore... It set off bands??????

 

[Robo]

except everyone at the park the day the attraction goes down is in the same boat. i would hope they have a paper "anytime" pass for prebookings that are foiled by downed attractions. it seems reasonable to expect that since they have that in place for various other issues, including RFID card not working at the current FP machine (at least they did in March)

NOW, with regular FP, they are in the same boat.

With FP+ (the Great Leveler)
with hundreds (up to thousands) of pre-arranged FP,
at specific Return Times,
and the guest-decided pre-arranged exclusion of FP reservations for other popular attractions,
the boat gets pretty leaky for a specific group.

They can send everyone over to Lights, Motors, ACTION! Stunt Spectacular!

 

[doconeill]

except everyone at the park the day the attraction goes down is in the same boat. i would hope they have a paper "anytime" pass for prebookings that are foiled by downed attractions. it seems reasonable to expect that since they have that in place for various other issues, including RFID card not working at the current FP machine (at least they did in March)

I think they will still have "Attraction Re-Entry" passes just like they do now. The question is how they plan to handle it. Technology-wise, they could simply turn your FP+ into a limitless one.

According to the T&C, however, they are free to transfer your FP+ to another attraction if there are issues...so goodbye Spash, hello CoP...

 

[Suzanne74]

Sure...
AND they can block off, say, ALL viewing locations we've enjoyed for decades and reserve them for FP+ holders.

That is what I am thinking!

 

[jade1]

Booking it everyday only works if you drop $ on hoppers. And while RD is our norm, it may only get you on, say, TSMM twice & RnR once before SB gets ugly. You still haven't gotten to ToT and you have the rest of the day for B stuff with no opportunity to hit headlines again b/c all they had FP+ for when us off-siters got online were GMR, Muppets & parade. Wait. No parade anymore... It set off bands??????

How is this even close to answering Shaden's scenario of not getting on your "favourite attraction" while on your WDW trip?

 

[jade1]

Sure...
AND they can block off, say, ALL viewing locations we've enjoyed for decades and reserve them for FP+ holders.

So you think they will shut down the entire World Showcase during Illuminations unless you have a FP+?

 

[doconeill]

Increasing attendance would be a diminishing return, in a sense...the parks can only handle so much, and during peak periods they are often stretched to the limits, complaints of crowds are on the rise, and could in fact result in loss of attendance instead.

If they really wanted to increase attendance, they'd have to be looking at the fabled Fifth Gate (sounds like a horror movie...) in order to disperse the crowds...and despite the rumors and insistence, there appears to be nothing of the sort going on...

This is all about getting more revenue per guest - Iger has actually stated that. Increasing revenue WITHOUT increasing attendance.

 

[surferdave]

I feel like I'm the only one sitting here thinking..."I don't care about all these details, just give me my purple (my fav color) magic band and let me pick my rides!!"

 

[Shaden]

How is this even close to answering Shaden's scenario of not getting on your "favourite attraction" while on your WDW trip?

To be fair, you really didn't answer it either, there is more then just one MUST do attraction at Disney World, you don't pay Disney prices to do the same stuff you can do other places.

I am not going to book an entire week of FPs all in MK just so I can be sure I get to ride space, or 7DMT, especially since if I book in MK, that means I can't in the other 3 parks.

The point that I was trying to make, and many have made here, is that this system locks you into it, there is very little room for flexibility. This becomes even more problematic if you are doing a shorter trip ...

So, I book my FP for 7DMT for Monday, morning, have DHS booked, Tues, Epcot Weds, AK Thursday, heading home Friday. Monday is a crap day, lightning storms, or my kid is sick, etc ... No way I am getting a 7DMT FP on the day of (unless they reserve some for same day, but then there is a whole other host of problems they will get themselves into) ... So now I either get to TRY and get on 7DMT, stand by, but of course this might completely conflict with my FPs booked that day in the other parks, which will be equally difficult to change since other people have been on booking 60 days prior ...

 

[Shaden]

So you think they will shut down the entire World Showcase during Illuminations unless you have a FP+?

I could see the entire "front row" if you would, being blocked off for FP+ ... yes.

 

[jade1]

Yup. Black Friday will never be the same again. And neither will WDW after rolling out FP+.

It will be missed.

Wkipedia:

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.[4][5] Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".[4][6]
Black Friday shopping is known for attracting aggressive crowds, with annual reports of assaults, shootings, and throngs of people trampling on other shoppers in an attempt to get the best deal on a product before supplies run out.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

This really makes no sense. Its true that being able to book Parades, Fireworks, etc, will probably spread the FPs to other "attractions", they have stated MULTIPLE times, including in what digitman pointed to above, they want to limit the use of FPs in order to "allow more people to experience the attraction". Their entire purpose seems to be to shorten stand-by lines, and limit the use of FPs, which means it makes total sense to restrict you to 3FP+s per day, with no extra FPs.

There is no reason to think that just because people who are now testing FP+, while the FP system is in place, can also pull FPs, that once FP is replaced by FP+ that will continue. Again, there have been many comments that would seem to contradict such an assumption.

And why in the heck wouldn't they be able to advertise it, if that was the case, NOW !?!?! There is NO reason for that. They could say things like this system will allow guests to experience AT LEAST three of their most desired attractions. But even in the flyers we have see, screen captures what have you, no mention of this. Just the number 3.

I don't believe they were saying limit use to three, but control use so more people can use it.

Well have to agree to disagree. I see a huge increase in FP availability so no reason to so strictly reduce them and make so many people unhappy. Not only parades and fireworks which can use lots of FP's but DOUBLE the rides. And depending upon how people book parades and fireworks in advance can determine how much space they set aside! AND all unused FP's because someone went to a different park or left the park can now be reused! By allowing everyone the opportunity to do 3 in advance and then allow some same day FP's, this will achieve both. The 6 hour people will be ensured the few favorites and the 17 hour people will be there long enough to get several more FP's. There are so many other ways the new Magic Band data can be used to customize FP allocation on the fly to better serve customers.

The difference in our opposite views are based on certain unknowns about which we make opposite assumptions. So we will have to wait and see. I trust that the statistical people have figured out how to keep the majority happy and increase that 17 million attendance at MK to 20 Million. THEN they can add some new rides.

I think they have no idea how many people will book in advance or how many FP+ slots might be available for same day reservations. On either end of that they have to make sure they have enough. That's why we aren't hearing specifics. I don't think they know until they start manipulating the numbers in an actual usage scenario.

3 per day is probably a "safe" number based on the number of FPs they give out now.

EXACTLY, EXACTLY, EXACTLY!!! Did I mention I agree. Wait and see, this won't be the end of the FP world as everybody thinks.

Sure...
AND they can block off, say, ALL viewing locations we've enjoyed for decades and reserve them for FP+ holders.

While I don't think they will block off all, they can adjust the areas blocked off according to how many people request FP's in advance for these things. I think the "6 hour visit - first time people will use them for parades and fireworks in droves.

I am still convinced this is going to be a very good thing in the long run. The only negative will be during the time any adjustments need to be made.

I know, I know, Mr. Polyanna here. Hey, somebody hand me a big glass of that koolaid. Gotta decide what color Magic Band I want. Let's see...