Guest Test of Magic Bands (Official Notice)

[Fivemuggles]

Oh I like the magic band covers! Kind of spendy though- so guess if they are rolled out when we get there (sept) we will stick with the plain ones haha!

 

[erionm]

Oh I like the magic band covers! Kind of spendy though- so guess if they are rolled out when we get there (sept) we will stick with the plain ones haha!

If they come out with Chip 'n Dale accessories for the MagicBands, I'm in. Until then, plain one for me.

 

[doconeill]

Methinks there will be an aftermarket for CoverBands...I can hear the DISigns board churning already...

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, feel free to bid away when they show up on Ebay. I won't be bidding against you. I have no desire to own a piece of plastic worn on someone's wrist for a week in the Florida summer sun.

Oh gosh not used. It might just me wanting our October trip to come sooner.

And now you have me thinking icky thoughts about refurbished heart rate monitors...ew.....

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh gosh not used. It might just me wanting our October trip to come sooner.

And now you have me thinking icky thoughts about refurbished heart rate monitors...ew.....

LOL..... maybe used retainers?

 

[Planogirl]

Seems he contradicts himself:

Maybe he just meant that the rollout hasn't actually happened yet so it's odd that Disney is already offering accessories. If that's what he meant, I agree. It's a little cart before the horse IMO.

 

[doconeill]

Maybe he just meant that the rollout hasn't actually happened yet so it's odd that Disney is already offering accessories. If that's what he meant, I agree. It's a little cart before the horse IMO.

Not if there are plenty of people for the test (and I would think they'd want enough to actually exercise the system at all points) who might want some accessories, and they also want to sure how they can be customized...

 

[Shaden]

So when I first heard about the FastPass+ system, I thought it sounded awesome, but now that I have read up on it a little more, and thought a bit about it, I am VERY worried, so worried in fact I have decided to put off my purchase of DVC which I was considering doing before our next trip to the world in may 2014.

Maybe I don't totally understand how it will work, Maybe the potential downsides can be worked out, maybe Disney will work its magic and balance it all out, but, I can't shake the feeling that ....

This system actually sounds terrible.

Like many here, we are planners, great. We plan our tentative days ahead of time, which days which parks etc. But here is the thing, this is ORLAND FLORIDA ... there is weather, along with the million other things that go wrong, kid not feeling well, parent not feeling well, flights delayed, just having a tired day, missed a couple rides the day before want to go back to that park, etc etc... Schedules always change. So awesome, 60 days out I book Everest, Safari, and Kali at AK ... and then on our actual trip, its pouring rain on that day. Awesome, wasted my FPs. The next day, I want to do AK, because we missed it the day before, but today I have SM, TM, and Mine Train booked for FPs at MK. Well crap, now I am really screwed, can't get my FPs honoured at AK, and if I go to AK I will burn all my FPs at MK.

There are far too many variables day to day on a trip for the FP+ system to work well in actuality, when booking 60 days out.

And its going to turn into ADRs, just like ADRs the popular rides are going to completely book 60 days out ... which means last minute goers, or people who like to play it by ear will be out of luck. Its going to make trips far more confined, restricted, and scheduled. I don't mind some planning, but this system leaves no room for adjustments.

I think one of the biggest dangers with the trials of this system as as a PP noted that they are being rolled out "On an island" where there are such limited numbers of people on FP+, and without having to run the 60 day out gauntlet, etc ... that they downplay all the negatives of the system and make it seem awesome, when this will bear little resemblance to how the system really functions.

 

[Pirate4Ever]

There are far too many variables day to day on a trip for the FP+ system to work well in actuality, when booking 60 days out.

And its going to turn into ADRs, just like ADRs the popular rides are going to completely book 60 days out ... which means last minute goers, or people who like to play it by ear will be out of luck. Its going to make trips far more confined, restricted, and scheduled. I don't mind some planning, but this system leaves no room for adjustments.

I think you hit on two things here:

The first is something I very much agree with. Things happen beyond everyone's control. What happens if one of my FP+ ressies is for Test Track and its pouring rain during my hour? Do I get a regular FP for a later time or am I out of luck? Imagine planning your whole day 2 months out on having Tower of Terror FP+ to show up and it be down all day!

The other is what I consider to be the biggest misconception of the FP+ program. If I don't get an ADR for BOG dinner on Friday night, I know that I'm not having dinner there. But if I don't get a FP+ for Splash Mt, that doesn't mean I won't get to ride it at all. Do I prefer to ride the main attractions by using Fastpasses? You bet. But have I waited 40 minutes to ride Space Mt? Absolutely. Disney is NOT going to "sell out" each hour for each attraction using FP +- there will be a ratio like there is currently.

The program will no doubt change the way many of us tour. And I'm sure during the busy times, we may have trouble riding Soarin' 4 times in a single day. But there is no way that this new system will prevent us from doing all of the things that we've come to love about WDW- we just might have to go about it a little bit differently.

 

[superdisneydork]

I am tentatively excited for FP+, but there are two things that I think are necessary for it to work out, and they're sort of tied together.

1. There needs to be a way to get day of FPs, I fully understand and agree with limiting guests to 3 FP+ pre-books, otherwise you'd end up with the ADR situation where TSM, Soarin' and such are booked 60 days out and that's it. Day trippers from the local area won't stand a chance, neither will people like me who can't actually plan that far ahead most of the time. I'm extremely lucky this year to be planning barely more than 3 months ahead, that's not likely to be the case again for some time.

2. Going with that, they need to make sure they keep a separate pool of FP+ available only to day of reservations. This is mostly to prevent the above mentioned situation of headliners getting booked clean 60 days out. Maybe even stagger the releases of available FP+ slots for prebooking over the 60 day windows so they can't all get wiped in one day, including a selection being released on each day for that day only.

My biggest fear is that I'm going to get blocked out of things because I can't book 2 months ahead!

So that's just my thoughts, I think if they address those in a clever way, it could be a really great system!

Matt

 

[Shaden]

I think you hit on two things here:

The first is something I very much agree with. Things happen beyond everyone's control. What happens if one of my FP+ ressies is for Test Track and its pouring rain during my hour? Do I get a regular FP for a later time or am I out of luck? Imagine planning your whole day 2 months out on having Tower of Terror FP+ to show up and it be down all day!

The other is what I consider to be the biggest misconception of the FP+ program. If I don't get an ADR for BOG dinner on Friday night, I know that I'm not having dinner there. But if I don't get a FP+ for Splash Mt, that doesn't mean I won't get to ride it at all. Do I prefer to ride the main attractions by using Fastpasses? You bet. But have I waited 40 minutes to ride Space Mt? Absolutely. Disney is NOT going to "sell out" each hour for each attraction using FP +- there will be a ratio like there is currently.

The program will no doubt change the way many of us tour. And I'm sure during the busy times, we may have trouble riding Soarin' 4 times in a single day. But there is no way that this new system will prevent us from doing all of the things that we've come to love about WDW- we just might have to go about it a little bit differently.

I can very much understand the comparison between BOG and FP for Splash Mt. BUT, I think for us, that is still a game breaker. Usually, we wont wait more than 30 mins for a ride, I think on our last 2 week trip we waited 45 for Everest, but my wife almost killed me Generally, we go early, we grab a FP, hit another major, without a big wait in stand by, then either head to our FP ride, or hit a second major THEN head to our FP, ... grab another FP for a major, hit some smaller rides, lunch, then back to the resort.

This is where I thought FP+ would be great, we could book 3 majors, sleep in, hit the park in the afternoon and ride FP ... except, all those other things I said after more thought, realizing it would take one bump in the plans and suddenly all those FP+ plans would be thrown off.

Its true that if we don't have FP+ for a major, we COULD wait standby, and 30 mins, doesn't sound TOO bad, still a little bad, but when the lines hit 90 mins, 110 mins, (SM was at 110 last night), we wouldn't do it. And if we don't get to do the rides, we wont enjoy Disney, and if we aren't going to enjoy it, there is no point in going. Waiting 60 or 90 mins for a ride would actually be worse then simply skipping it, which is why we would just skip it.

Like I said, maybe Disney is going to figure this out, and find a balance between FP+ and FP or Stand by. But by the -sounds- of things right now, it doesn't look that way. AND, the people testing it, aren't going to notice these major failures because the trial system does not expose them, it can't.

 

[jce2]

I assume people who stay at a WDW property but buy tix thru UT, SoG, MWR etc wont be able to use the bands or the FP+?

 

[Shaden]

I assume people who stay at a WDW property but buy tix thru UT, SoG, MWR etc wont be able to use the bands or the FP+?

That's what I imagine as well, which is another interesting element.

Although you can book ADRs without even having a reservation I don't think the same would be true for FP+

 

[Robo]

I assume people who stay at a WDW property but buy tix thru UT, SoG, MWR etc wont be able to use the bands or the FP+?

I doubt that's going to be true.

Disney would be cutting the throats of their authorized ticket resellers,
and devalue their "special" tickets.

 

[doconeill]

2. Going with that, they need to make sure they keep a separate pool of FP+ available only to day of reservations. This is mostly to prevent the above mentioned situation of headliners getting booked clean 60 days out. Maybe even stagger the releases of available FP+ slots for prebooking over the 60 day windows so they can't all get wiped in one day, including a selection being released on each day for that day only.

In some ways, this could make the situation worse.

First, it reduces the pool that can be pre-booked. Which makes the "booked clean at 60 days" scenario even more likely, for the pre-bookers. Staggering will just turn it in to a guessing game as to what day you can get them.

Second, it reduces the pool that is available day of (compared to today), which makes the rope drop dash even more important for those that didn't/couldn't pre-book, and does nothing to improve their experience. Although it does at least give them a "sporting" chance...

 

[bcrook]

I am tentatively excited for FP+, but there are two things that I think are necessary for it to work out, and they're sort of tied together.

1. There needs to be a way to get day of FPs, I fully understand and agree with limiting guests to 3 FP+ pre-books, otherwise you'd end up with the ADR situation where TSM, Soarin' and such are booked 60 days out and that's it. Day trippers from the local area won't stand a chance, neither will people like me who can't actually plan that far ahead most of the time. I'm extremely lucky this year to be planning barely more than 3 months ahead, that's not likely to be the case again for some time.

2. Going with that, they need to make sure they keep a separate pool of FP+ available only to day of reservations. This is mostly to prevent the above mentioned situation of headliners getting booked clean 60 days out. Maybe even stagger the releases of available FP+ slots for prebooking over the 60 day windows so they can't all get wiped in one day, including a selection being released on each day for that day only.

My biggest fear is that I'm going to get blocked out of things because I can't book 2 months ahead!

So that's just my thoughts, I think if they address those in a clever way, it could be a really great system!

Matt

I understand your concerns, and your suggestions seem like good ones. I am not looking forward to the advanced ride reservation scramble, but I am sure I will be able to play it well.

I guess my biggest concern though is what could happen with your suggested fixes. I think the worst thing would be for me to go online 30 days in advance to book some rides and all the allotted headliners are book and then I have to log in each day when they release new ones to fight for them. I definitely won't play that game.

So there has to be enough inventory available on line in advance or people will stop using it. I really don't think planners are going to fall for the fastpasses for Small World trick.

No matter how this shakes down, there will be plenty of fastpasses for most rides. The popular rides are going to be a challenge to get with any system.

As others have said the days of getting multiple fastpasses in the same day for the same ride is probably long gone. I think that is a given.

 

[ses1230]

I assume people who stay at a WDW property but buy tix thru UT, SoG, MWR etc wont be able to use the bands or the FP+?

I don't think that can be true. Most DVCers that I know that don't have an AP get their tickets from UT. They can't exclude DVC (at least I hope they don't).

 

[superdisneydork]

In some ways, this could make the situation worse.

First, it reduces the pool that can be pre-booked. Which makes the "booked clean at 60 days" scenario even more likely, for the pre-bookers. Staggering will just turn it in to a guessing game as to what day you can get them.

Second, it reduces the pool that is available day of (compared to today), which makes the rope drop dash even more important for those that didn't/couldn't pre-book, and does nothing to improve their experience. Although it does at least give them a "sporting" chance...

I don't think it reduces the pool, it just spreads it out. Let's say, for arguments sake, for 9/1/13 there are 600 FP+ spots available, for that day, total for Space Mountain. Obviously I've made this number up for the sake of an example, but let's just work with it for a minute.

If, exactly 60 days prior they open up all 600 spots, and over the next 12 hours the Space Mountain fan club books up all the 600 spots. That's it, it's done, those of us arriving on 9/1/13 that aren't booked yet, or live in the area, or just plain couldn't get an FP+ are hosed. There is no recourse. Two months before I'm even in the park I can't do anything to help that. And that's it, the days allotment is spent. There is no more to this sad story.

But, if on each day from 60 days out, they release 8 spots for that day, then it's a much more spread out chance, there is no way for it to be completely booked until the day of, and it leaves 120 slots for day of reservations at the end. I will concede that this can make the process more frustration, since you'll have to keep checking back, but I think that makes it more fair than the early risers on the 60 day mark getting everything. It's not a perfect solution, but frankly I think this is why FPs should be a day of thing, I'm also not a huge fan of ADRs unless it's the day of for the same reason. If everything books up in one day, does it really matter if it's 180 days out, or 60 days out, or that day? It just serves to reduce flexibility and cause headaches. I admit my idea is far from perfect, and I don't present it as a final, polished solution, more of a line of reasoning I think they should consider. If things continue the way they've implied, I don't see that working well


Matt

 

[squirrel4569]

With the release of the accessories I'm thinking this may be closer to full release than many of us thought. I'm less than 60 days out for my trip but I wouldn't be surprised to see more widespread testing and or preliminary rollouts by the time we arrive.

A staggered roll out of features might be more likely than rolling everything out at once. Start with simply replacing the KTTW features. Open your room, enter the park, charging, etc. After that proves successful then roll out the PP & FP+ features and phase out the cards. Somewhere in there switch over the AP holders, etc.

Just have to wait and see I guess.

 

[doconeill]

I assume people who stay at a WDW property but buy tix thru UT, SoG, MWR etc wont be able to use the bands or the FP+?

False assumption. Disney has stated that FP+ is a feature of your ticket, not where you are staying. The only difference stated is that certain classes of tickets (MYW, AP, YES, Sports, Comp, etc.) might have different amounts of time to be able to pre-book FP+.

Also, off-site guests will be able to purchase MagicBands.

However, it is reasonable to assume that resort guests will get it first as they roll it out, as they can control conditions more easily.

I've heard even for the current test, it did not require package tickets. Guests selected for the test got to register their tickets online.