FP enforcement really sucks

[k3chantal]

Oh you are talking about US/Orlando!

I assumed you were talking about Hollywood as we are talking about DL/DCA!

Yes I have stayed many times at both Portofino Bay and Hard Rock. We especially love HRH and the ease of just walking right over to US/IOA!

Anyway, yes, the way US/Orlando does those FOL passes is great BUT a few things ...... #1) California residents (such as me) who are in driving distance to DL would have to stay 'on campus' in order to take advantage of that option but seeing as I live close by that would never happen for me when I can easily drive home after a full day at the Parks. And #2) In case you have never been to US/Hollywood, they have no hotels 'on campus'. We always stay at the Hilton but with that stay comes no perks.

I'm a California resident too. I was just giving reasons why fast passes will never go away. I agree that the California resorts both Disney and Universal are different from their East Coast relatives. But I do love to stay on site at Disneyland when I can since I am a Bay Area girl who can't just drive home after being in the happiest place on Earth. Lucky you that you can.

 

[dnamertz]

I do not understand what the fuss is about the fastpass enforcement. All it takes a little pre planning and thought. Fastpass enforecement makes the whole system run smoother and also makes the fastpass lines shorter as people aren't jumping in lines with fastpasses obtained at 10am just before the park closes. Wait times are also more easily predicted. Really, its a win win for everyone.

I haven't experienced the new system yet, but it seems it will only make the night-time FP lines shorter, but will make the day-time FP lines longer because the people who used to save them to use them at night will now have to use them at the specific time on the ticket.

 

[Freesia123]

If you want a souvenir, maybe ask a cm? I'm not positive but I imagine they'd give you used fast passes for your scrapbook. At the end of the night I always ask for a bunch of that days schedules (that are useless at midnight) for reading comprehension for my ESL students.

I'd love to see two or three fast pass line tickets given to everyone upon entry. You want to go in the fast lane? Scan your card and hop in line! After the set number, you can't do it anymore for the day. You can decide by the wait times which line and when you want to do.

 

[tdhickey]

If you want a souvenir, maybe ask a cm? I'm not positive but I imagine they'd give you used fast passes for your scrapbook. At the end of the night I always ask for a bunch of that days schedules (that are useless at midnight) for reading comprehension for my ESL students.

I'd love to see two or three fast pass line tickets given to everyone upon entry. You want to go in the fast lane? Scan your card and hop in line! After the set number, you can't do it anymore for the day. You can decide by the wait times which line and when you want to do.

This is how they launched it (you could use three a day), trust me the current method is way better!

 

[dnamertz]

I'd love to see two or three fast pass line tickets given to everyone upon entry. You want to go in the fast lane? Scan your card and hop in line! After the set number, you can't do it anymore for the day. You can decide by the wait times which line and when you want to do.

While this sounds nice from the user's standpoint, I don't think it would work because Disney would not be able to regulate/plan the lines...there would be too much unkown for them if they have not idea when or on what ride people might use the FP. Which is probably why they started enforcing the return time window, because they had no idea what time those people would return to use the FP.

 

[thealfi]

I used to be against the enforcement of Fastpass return windows. Then over the past few trips (during peak seasons; summer, christmas) I noticed that I never really used the Fastpass system anymore. Sure, I'd use FP for World of Color and Radiator Springs Racers (any maybe Indiana Jones Adventure), but that was about it.

Even during the busiest times in the busiest of seasons, my parents and I were able to hit all the major attractions and even some of the more minor attractions on the side; we usually only spend two days at DLR—one day for DLP and another for DCA. I should note that we're three adults and not the typical family with more than one child so that probably accounts for why we're able to smoothly see nearly all of the parks in so little time.

Anyways, we haven't been back to the parks since Disneyland management really started to enforce return times, so we hope to see some wait time improvements when we go on July 4th.

I can see why people (and I was one of those people) would be very upset that Disney is enforcing the return times, but what made me not mind the change was that there was once a time when FP didn't exist. A time when constantly checking the time to use your FP wasn't a factor in visiting Disneyland. The days before FP didn't feel so rushed, and we were able to better appreciate the attraction queues while standing in line (we could listen to the queue music at Luigi's Flying Tires all day!).

So we just don't go around getting FPs anymore, although Fastpass-running at park opening in DCA sure is a nice little exercise

 

[DarthMole]

The days before FP didn't feel so rushed...

The crowd levels during the days before FP were nothing like today.

You make some good points. For us, FP allows us to ride some of our favorites multiple times a day. If all you care about is riding something once during your 2-day trip, then I can see where you don't need to get many FPs, especially if you get to the park early.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Hi everyone,

I spent some time going through the thread and took out the non-productive posts, so if some of the continuity seems out of sync - that's why. I didn't take the time to weed out partial posts. If people were rude, or quoted a rude comment, then the whole post was deleted. I am leaving the thread for those of you who would like to continue to discuss, but please remember that on the DIS you must be courteous/respectful in your written responses regardless of what you think about the person you are replying to. Rudeness will not be tolerated. And with that, I'll reopen the thread.

 

[Joluru]

I'd really prefer a 2 hour window.

We just got back and with 4 kids on this trip, found it challenging to always make it back on time. Within about 20 minutes after the expiration, most would let us go still, which was nice. We did end up with quite a few unused fastpasses, because naps went long, dinner took longer than expected, a fire alarm shut down the whole Adventureland/New Orleans Square/Critter Country corridor and we couldn't use our Splash Mountain pass, etc. We still used a lot of them, and picked them up even if we weren't sure we would make it back, because with those 4 kids, standing in a 50 minute line just to get a rider swap is not an effective use of time! It didn't occur to me that it would upset someone that our Indy passes expired while the kids took an unexpected, blissfully long nap in the room.

I did hand out quite a few passes we couldn't use, too. One morning, we got Tower of Terror FPs right after Radiator Springs and the times overlapped. Well, the kids were too enthralled with Carsland to move over to TOT (where 2 of 4 wouldn't be riding) so I gave those away and we rode later.

 

[rramstad]

Last time we visited, in 2009, I paid $140 a night for pph. This trip, I'm paying $315. Not to mention the increase in ticket prices! Our touring with the fp enforcement will not be as good, there's no doubt, so there's the feeling of a diminished experience for triple the price.

Random aside (and keep in mind that I personally really liked the old FP system with wider latitude for return times, and I haven't experienced the new FP system, so I'm not really commenting on that at all)... In 2009 your stay at PPH did not include EMH, and now it does. I don't know if you can justify the extra cost for the one hour each day, probably depends somewhat on the size of your party staying in that room, but it is a pretty seriously major perk.

Major enough that people on this board are planning around it if they aren't staying on site, and specifically choosing on site lodging just to get EMH...

I personally can't justify the cost, but my situation is perhaps a bit odd in that my party has six people, so we need two rooms, and the cost jumps exponentially. My party also likes being at DLR late at night, so it would be hard to string together a bunch of EMH and still be able to be in the park at 11 or midnight (July 2013, in fact, leaving in six days!)

I guess the question would be... given the old FP system vs new FP system plus EMH, I think you could argue that you likely would get more rides in with the latter as opposed to the former. Hard to say, depends on if you are a morning person and use the EMH or not.

 

[AndyLL]

I'd really prefer a 2 hour window.

I agree. It was more challenging then I thought it would be last week when we were there.

It wasn't just trying to get back during the hour.... it was trying to get fastpasses with a return time that worked. The various phone Apps were unreliable for return times so you might have to make multiple trips to the ride before you get a return time you thing you can make.

Morning return times were too quick and afternoon return times were wildly unpredictable.

Forget running over to DCA in the morning to get FP for a ride to use in the afternoon. It's unlikely you would get return times that would fit into your schedule.

It didn't help that the posted standby wait times were horribly inaccurate this trip. More then once we couldn't use FP or had to half run to make a FP time because it took longer then expected in another line.

The funny thing was... the changes did not fix the 'problems' it was supposed to.

The stand-by lines were no better. In fact in the mornings they were noticeably worst.

The FP lines still had backups at times... especially after parades and other entertainment.

We are very experienced Disney visitors ( 3-4 times a year for the past decade) and I'm not quite sure what the best touring plan is now.

I would guess the plan now would be to have day(s) dedicated to just riding rides and get FPs every 2 hours and pick and choose what ride to do next based on return times. And then day(s) when you are going do have scheduled shows and meals and the rides are just fit in when you have free time.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think people have reported rides like Space have FP available later in the day than normal, meaning people are mindful of the return times and only pull them if they will use them. It would be ineresting to know if more or less are actually being used.

........ or it could mean they are now doing at DLR what many CMs reported on the WDW forum happened after enforcement began. They started adding more capacity to the FP system in an attempt to test out what the upper capacity of that system is. So they can take it back out in the form of pre-bookings for fastpass+.

While this sounds nice from the user's standpoint, I don't think it would work because Disney would not be able to regulate/plan the lines...there would be too much unkown for them if they have not idea when or on what ride people might use the FP. Which is probably why they started enforcing the return time window, because they had no idea what time those people would return to use the FP.

I do think much of the coming FP+ program has to do with Disney wanting more information on what to expect in the parks on a given day ahead of time so they can staff more accurately. Details are just starting to filter out on the WDW FP+ program. They will open windows for FP booking 60 days in advance. Nobody knows how much of a given ride's capacity will be available for booking that far out, and whether some will be held back for same day passes. Likewise, nobody knows if the DLR system when rolled out will be any different to reflect their larger base of APs.

The crowd levels during the days before FP were nothing like today.

You make some good points. For us, FP allows us to ride some of our favorites multiple times a day. If all you care about is riding something once during your 2-day trip, then I can see where you don't need to get many FPs, especially if you get to the park early.

Do be aware that what is coming at WDW does not allow booking the same ride FP more than once. Don't know if same day FPs will still exist and whether you will be able to book multiples of the same ride same day. But you definitely cannot do that with the pre-booking.

And yes, so many are so quick to wish for the good old days. But Disney is pretty happy with attendance where it is no as opposed to where it was then. So there's no going back. And it affects every piece of what goes on in those parks.

 

[aan1701]

The thing I don't get is why people will wait 30+ min to get a FP when you can just go right to the ride and most likely be onion the sometime Crome. So youwait30+ min, th enhance to wait for the window to open. To each their own I guess.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[mom2rtk]

The thing I don't get is why people will wait 30+ min to get a FP when you can just go right to the ride and most likely be onion the sometime Crome. So youwait30+ min, th enhance to wait for the window to open. To each their own I guess.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Fastpass takes priority. I don't care how long the line is. If I can fastpass it I will. Too many stories about 20 minute standby lines turning into hour long standby lines. Too many reports from CMs saying they are taking an 8:1 ratio of fastpass to standby.

 

[DLR29]

The thing I don't get is why people will wait 30+ min to get a FP when you can just go right to the ride and most likely be onion the sometime Crome. So youwait30+ min, th enhance to wait for the window to open. To each their own I guess.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Easy. It's because I can do other things instead of standing in the line.

Let's say I get a FP for Space Mountain at 10:00AM and the return time is for 11:00-12:00. Let's also just say that the stand-by line is 40 min at this point. We'll assume a 20 min Buzz line and a 30 min Star Tours line too, and a 5 min riding time for all attractions, for simplicity sake.

I could...
a) Get in line for Space at 10, get off at 10:45 and then go ride Buzz and get off at 11:10.
OR
b) Get a FP at 10, ride Star Tours and get off at 10:35, go ride buzz and get off at 11:00, go ride Space and get off at 11:15.

I've basically added an extra ride by using the FP option. Granted, these are hypothetical numbers. It doesn't have to be another ride either. It could be an extra show I watch. It could allow me some down time for a meal or a snack.

 

[aan1701]

Easy. It's because I can do other things instead of standing in the line.

Let's say I get a FP for Space Mountain at 10:00AM and the return time is for 11:00-12:00. Let's also just say that the stand-by line is 40 min at this point. We'll assume a 20 min Buzz line and a 30 min Star Tours line too, and a 5 min riding time for all attractions, for simplicity sake.

I could...
a) Get in line for Space at 10, get off at 10:45 and then go ride Buzz and get off at 11:10.
OR
b) Get a FP at 10, ride Star Tours and get off at 10:35, go ride buzz and get off at 11:00, go ride Space and get off at 11:15.

I've basically added an extra ride by using the FP option. Granted, these are hypothetical numbers. It doesn't have to be another ride either. It could be an extra show I watch. It could allow me some down time for a meal or a snack.

You did not understand my question. I am asking why wait 30+ min just to obtain the FP as in that 30+ min time you are waiting to obtain said FP you could have just gone on the ride and maybe have waited 30 min? That's my question.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

 

[OregonMinnie]

You did not understand my question. I am asking why wait 30+ min just to obtain the FP as in that 30+ min time you are waiting to obtain said FP you could have just gone on the ride and maybe have waited 30 min? That's my question.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

The 30 minute wait for a FP is only for RSR. And compared to a 60-90 minute standby time, 30 minutes looks pretty good. The other rides don't have long lines just to get a FP.

 

[k3chantal]

You did not understand my question. I am asking why wait 30+ min just to obtain the FP as in that 30+ min time you are waiting to obtain said FP you could have just gone on the ride and maybe have waited 30 min? That's my question.

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I'm with you; if there is a wait for a fast pass, I am not going to get it. We saw an over an hour wait to get a fast pass for RSR. Decided (and this is where park hopper passes are a must since we went back to DL) to get to California park first thing to get on the ride. We arrived at 8:30 the next morning; the park officially opened at 9. By the time I got positioned for the rope drop, the line for RSR's fast passes were around the building , rope dropped, we followed the crowd and immediately got in line. The line took 20 minutes to get in a car and we were off. Much better than standing in a fast pass line for an hour, then arriving back at the appointed time, and STILL waiting in line for the ride. Our waiting was under an hour.

 

[ArchOwl]

There is only one ride right now that has any wait for FP, and that is RSR. And people are vastly overstating wait times from last summer, when admittedly it was a wait for FPs. But it must also be understood that last summer, standby was easily over two hours.

On my last three visits since May, I have never once stood in line for an RSR FP. There is no line about an hour after park opening for the RSR FPs, you can walk up to them. So there is no wait for them if you know when to go. And the line for them isn't an hour long.

It all depends on what you like to do with your time. I don't like waiting in line, so I choose to use FP to maximize rides with as little waiting as possible. So I would rather do something else than wait in standby, ride another ride, go shopping, etc. Other people don't mind waiting in standby and that is great for them. No one is wrong, it is a matter of preference.

 

[k3chantal]

There is only one ride right now that has any wait for FP, and that is RSR. And people are vastly overstating wait times from last summer, when admittedly it was a wait for FPs. But it must also be understood that last summer, standby was easily over two hours.

On my last three visits since May, I have never once stood in line for an RSR FP. There is no line about an hour after park opening for the RSR FPs, you can walk up to them. So there is no wait for them if you know when to go. And the line for them isn't an hour long.

It all depends on what you like to do with your time. I don't like waiting in line, so I choose to use FP to maximize rides with as little waiting as possible. So I would rather do something else than wait in standby, ride another ride, go shopping, etc. Other people don't mind waiting in standby and that is great for them. No one is wrong, it is a matter of preference.

I was not vastly overstating the wait time for fast passes in February; I saw it with my own eyes and read the sign that said "hour wait from here".

Sure, how busy a ride is changes each month and as it loses it's newness but don't imply people are lying or "overstating" the facts.

My point is that if there is any wait for any fast pass line, I don't think it's the wisest way to achieve getting on the ride, generally speaking. We also don't wait longer than 30-40 minutes for any ride no matter what time of year so we do use fast passes to our advantage. Standing in line for a fast pass, is, in my opinion, not a good use of my time when I could be on a different ride or having lunch, etc...... We are willing to walk away and do something else and plan our trips during non peak times to achieve our goals of not waiting for extended periods.....