Which was my point. A higher percentage of park guests are getting in rides which would explain longer lines.
This is only your assumption.
Great explanation, jimmy, and definitely spot on.
Yes, ride capacity is constant. But *which line* that capacity comes from is not, and the amount of time (not physical length) of the sb line is greatly affected by the ratio of fp+ guests to sb riders.
Like jimmy said...if, under fp-, 75 SB riders were boarding each hour, to only 25 FP riders, then sb will move very quickly. Flip the ratio to it being 75 FP+ riders per hour, and only 25 Sb riders and the posted SB wait time will be much longer.
In both instances the ride capacity is the same, 100 people, but *where* those people come from is vastly different and *that* is what affects the sb loading rate.
What you cease to realize is that Disney took people out of the SB line and moved them to the FP line.
Old system:
Ride capacity = 100
FP line = 25 people
SB line = 100 people
At the end of the hour, per your example (3SB to 1FP), all of the people above are on or have ridden the ride.
New system:
Disney decides to move more people into the FP line and then space their time of getting into the line so they do not wait as long.
You are going to ride the SB line. When you get there you see 24 people in the line. You become the 25th person.
For the FP line, we will use 10 people in line and we will on more each minute.
At that time, the FP+ line has 10 people in it. As the hour passes, more and more people join the FP+ line (1 per minute).
Per your example (3 PF to 1 SB), at the end of the hour, the 25th SB person gets on the ride. Exactly as they would have in the old system.
In both cases, there are 99 people ahead of SB25 and SB25 gets on the ride after waiting an hour. This was what the SB line wait time said.
Another way to think of it. When SB25 gets in the line, there are 99 people ahead of SB25. Then a CM comes over and offers 75 of those 99 a holding place in line, but sends them on their way. Every one returns just as their holding place is ready to enter the ride. At the end, SB25 rode at an hour, behind all of the people that were head of SB25. Disney just chose to move 75 of them out of the SB line and into a second line (at the time of their window) and hoped that those 75 would buy something with this "free" time.
1. FP+ was not rolled out in its current form until 1/15/14. The fact that resort guests used it in tandem with FP- at Thanksgiving is of no moment. You are eliminating half of all guests when you discount offsite people.
2. The ratios of FP+ to SB people is very different now. If you don't appreciate the new ratios, you cannot appreciate the difference. There are plenty of posts here confirming what I have suggested. We're not making this up.
1. There was FP+ and FP- at that time. As a result, not only did all resort guests get 3 FP+s but they and all the others could get FP-. It is very possible the number of FP+ and FP- at Thanksgiving is the same number distributes as the the number of FP+s being distributed now.. It was very close to what is going on now. The same is true for this past Christmas.
2. See above.
The standby line may have fewer people in it, but adding FP+ to the attraction makes the SB wait time longer, because the FP+ holders get priority and the ratios of FP/SB can be quite drastically skewed in favor of FP line.
Sure, but that does not mean the SB person waited longer. See above.
FP+ or FP- people are not line cutter, like many of you seem to feel (unless you hold the FP
), but people who Disney has in line ahead of you. Their SB return time takes into account the number of people in the FP+ (FP- did this too) and the SB line, when posting the wait at the SB line.
If you get in the SB line, stating a 120 minutes wait, and you got on the ride at 120 minutes, then you got on exactly when you expected to.
How, please explain.
FP+ did not make the lines longer, the number of people did. The standby line should be shorter, if everybody is waiting in those long FP+ line.
