FYI - prepare to wait a LONG time to enter parks!

[doconeill]

The mornings will always be busier at the entrance.

It appears to be that the touch-point entrances are faster - when they are working (which means everything needs to be working - the card is valid, it is being read, the communications to the server work, etc.), and when the people know how to use them - and I think there is still a learning curve for a lot of people (I myself didn't realize I didn't have to wait to put my finger on the scanner to get it read). I think this gets aggravated in the mornings before and just after rope drop when they are at the busiest, and the problems at the touch-point entrances take longer to deal with (and they probably want to deal with them to work the issues out, rather than just "turn them off" like with the old turnstiles...)

We did rope drop at DHS during Star Wars Weekends, and didn't have any issue, but we were there early so we weren't far back in the line. Then and the other days (we only did four entrances total so far), we had no problems and didn't really see much in the way of problems. But I did not that when we entered Epcot late morning from the front entrance, the lines were still quite long - but there were only a few entrances actually open, and it actually looked like there aren't many to begin with...it was two or three touch-point lines, and one turnstile line (a line being for two turnstiles or 4 touch-points). I didn't see more that didn't seem to be in use...

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

We just got back and didn't have any problems with the RFID scanners. What I did notice though was that people crowded up to all the turnstiles and then way on the far right or left you'd see empty ones, that you almost couldn't see for the crowds at the other ones...

I noticed that every time I entered MK in May, and it's always the case at Disneyland. There's almost always a short (or almost nonexistent) line somewhere--often hiding right behind the longest line or set of lines that no one wants to walk beyond. I've never stood in a long line to enter either park because of it.

I also wonder if the there's an art to the RFID turnstiles. We converted our Premiers to RFID in May and I had a heck of a time getting the RFID turnstiles to work until I started simultaneously tapping and putting my finger on the scanner. I noticed other people were trying to do it in succession (card first, then finger) like I had been, and having trouble. From then on, I had no problems breezing through them.

 

[Magpie]

I noticed that every time I entered MK in May, and it's always the case at Disneyland. There's almost always a short (or almost nonexistent) line somewhere--often hiding right behind the longest line or set of lines that no one wants to walk beyond. I've never stood in a long line to enter either park because of it.

I also wonder if the there's an art to the RFID turnstiles. We converted our Premiers to RFID in May and I had a heck of a time getting the RFID turnstiles to work until I started simultaneously tapping and putting my finger on the scanner. I noticed other people were trying to do it in succession (card first, then finger) like I had been, and having trouble. From then on, I had no problems breezing through them.

That's what we did, too! And we didn't have a single problem the entire week.

 

[11290]

**

 

[E-P-C-O-T]

We had issues too, at least my DH did, he had to exchange his RFID AP twice. For some reason it would work at Epcot and not work at MK, then it would work at AK and not work at HS . We had no idea what was going on, I keep all of our APs together, he hands it to me as soon as he goes thru the turnstile, DDs and my AP work just fine. He was getting very frustrated, we were told his AP was getting disassociated

 

[pmaurer74]

I agree with OP. We have gone to the recommended parks as well. We did great at EPCOT but we were going to things the main crowd was not. AK was a real nightmare on Tuesday and it rained most of the afternoon and evening so we left early. On Wednesday we went to MK and were there 30 minutes before park opening and we could not get into the holding area so we hear the morning show but did not see it. Despite that we did great. We did ETWB, Under the Sea with LM, Dumbo, Barnstormer, PP, WtP, and IASM all by 1pm. We did go to the TB M&G because it looked like it may storm at 8pm and were in there for 1 hour!

What annoyed me most about the day was we went to catch our resort bus before wishes and they had them all lined up ad would not fill the buses until after wishes was over so we waited 30 minutes for a bus to come.

 

[pmaurer74]

so far we have had no problems with the RFID cards but I have heard the cast members say they have had a lot of problems. Our DDP credits did not work yesterday at one point and they said the system had been down most of the day. I liked the fact that several people could scan cards at the same time and I too noticed the non-existant lines at the far ends at bag check and this got us in faster so far.

 

[Incus]

Good morning. We leave tomorrow for Disney for 15 days with our legacy annual passes. Should I,or rather can I, convert them to the new RFID?
We will be joined by my sister and her family for the first week who will be purchasing new hopper tickets so I assume hers will be RFID. Hate the end up in two different turnstiles. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,
Incus

 

[Magpie]

Good morning. We leave tomorrow for Disney for 15 days with our legacy annual passes. Should I,or rather can I, convert them to the new RFID?
We will be joined by my sister and her family for the first week who will be purchasing new hopper tickets so I assume hers will be RFID. Hate the end up in two different turnstiles. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,
Incus

We purchased new APs last month, and never had a single issue with them.

That said, there's also mag strip on the new RFID tickets, so if your sister really wants to, she can go through the old turnstiles with you, regardless of whether you choose to upgrade your tickets or not.

 

[doconeill]

Good morning. We leave tomorrow for Disney for 15 days with our legacy annual passes. Should I,or rather can I, convert them to the new RFID?
We will be joined by my sister and her family for the first week who will be purchasing new hopper tickets so I assume hers will be RFID. Hate the end up in two different turnstiles. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,
Incus

It is up to you. You don't HAVE to get an RFID pass yet.

If you don't want to be separated at the entrance, they can still use their tickets in the old turnstiles. However, if CMs see them they will direct them to the new ones. If you convert yours, then you can use the new entrances as well.

Also, if you have to replace your AP for any reason, you'll get an RFID one anyways.

 

[BenKling]

Just got back from a 9 day trip. Used the new turnstiles almost every time, and never had an issue. With two people being able to go at once, those lines were moving faster than the legacy gates.

The issues I did see usually had to do with operator error. Not holding your card close enough, not scanning your finger, etc.

If your able to, tap and scan your finger at the same time. You'll be good to go!

We also used tap to pay for all our meals and that worked as well.

 

[AngiTN]

Also what does this mean for fast pass

We encountered a couple of issues with the pulling of fast passes too. When our KTTW cards wouldn't work on the gates and had to be scanned by the hand held device I guess they didn't register right a few times and we were not able to pull fast passes with them either. The CM's near the machines directed us to Guest Services to get the ticket issue corrected. We'd get a single use any ride fast pass for the trouble but that didn't get us our time back. We were there for 8 park days and had ticket for fast pass issues on 4 days.

Just got back from a 9 day trip. Used the new turnstiles almost every time, and never had an issue. With two people being able to go at once, those lines were moving faster than the legacy gates.

The issues I did see usually had to do with operator error. Not holding your card close enough, not scanning your finger, etc.

If your able to, tap and scan your finger at the same time. You'll be good to go!

We also used tap to pay for all our meals and that worked as well.

I should say that while our KTTW would not work with the RFID turnstiles ever we did have no problems with paying for merchandise or for meals using the tap to pay method. But every time we put them against the machine we got a blue color (if memory serves). As soon as they saw the blue, the pointed to the CM with the hand held device, we never even got a chance to put our finger on the scanner.

 

[pigletto]

Good morning. We leave tomorrow for Disney for 15 days with our legacy annual passes. Should I,or rather can I, convert them to the new RFID?
We will be joined by my sister and her family for the first week who will be purchasing new hopper tickets so I assume hers will be RFID. Hate the end up in two different turnstiles. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,
Incus

In February there was one dedicated turnstile for the old tickets and it was not clearly marked at all. What usually ended up happening was you had to go through a regular line and there were managers there will handheld scanners for your AP's. Several times we had to show I.D. as well, so thank goodness I had forgotten to put our passports in the safe. I think that was a large reason the entrance procedure was so bad on our trip. Nothing was working properly.
From reading this however it would seem we just hit it all when it was new (they hadn't started changing over the AP's yet) and that it is much better now.

 

[Bullseye]

We just got back Tuesday from a 10 day trip and I thought the new cards worked great both at the entrances and for purchases.

 

[bobcat]

We used both the old entrance and then the new RFID for our last few days after we updated our tickets. I think they took roughly the same amount of time to scan and enter but the benefit is not having to use the turnstile. This made it much faster when there were strollers or wheelchairs ahead of us in line.

I LOVE the tap to pay feature. It was so fast and easy! I paid for something with cash on our last day and it seemed to take forever compared to using the room charge.

 

[2boysmom1998]

We were there last week and it was crazy to get in. It took about 40-50 minutes to get in from when we got in line.

Get up and get there early - plan to wait, it's not fun. The crowds are crazy right now too - worse than usual June crowds people have said.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[capegirl]

We were there last week and it was crazy to get in. It took about 40-50 minutes to get in from when we got in line.

Get up and get there early - plan to wait, it's not fun. The crowds are crazy right now too - worse than usual June crowds people have said.

Good luck to everyone!

So how early would we have to be there to avoid the potential July nightmare? If a park opens at 9am should we be there by 8am, or (UGH) earlier?

 

[doconeill]

I think it would be helpful to know what park, day, time of arrival, time of park opening and entry method (RFID, turnstile) to better get a sense of these entrance waits. It's one thing for a 45-50 minute wait to get in on a close to rope drop arrival on a busy park day, vs. getting there at 11am...

 

[palmtreegirl]

We were there last week and it was crazy to get in. It took about 40-50 minutes to get in from when we got in line.

Get up and get there early - plan to wait, it's not fun. The crowds are crazy right now too - worse than usual June crowds people have said.

Good luck to everyone!

We went to the opening of Epcot one morning and the line was passed the ticket booths, almost to the security check and when Epcot opened it took us 10 minutes to enter the park.

 

[Alice Sr.]

Just a warning for all of those coming this summer. Park entrance this week has been a nightmare. We have been at each park prior to opening every day for the last 7 days and the lines have been ridiculous. We have gone to the "recommended" parks each day - I can't imagine how bad the lines may have been on other days. It's been taking routinely 30 minutes just to get into each park. The "scanner" turnstiles are basically a disaster and a big reason why things are taking so long. I'm so irritated I'm to the point where I'm actually contemplating selling my DVC membership - yes, it's been that bad. I've never seen it like this and we've been here all times of the year including the hyper-busy times.

I was in March and can't remember ever being as frustrated and disappointed in the way things were being handled as I was during that trip. I have sold 3of my 4 DVC's, so I feel your pain. Going back in December hopefully will not be my last trip.