Hoping to see fastpass come back!

[LPnerd]

that never works for us, things happen and times get messed up and changing them on the fly is more trouble than it's worth IMHO. Plus we rarely eat meals in the parks, if ever. WE do chef mickey's when we stay at BLT, or top of the world. IF we stay at a epcot resort, and we are there for a few days, we might make a reservation for late lunch /early dinner on a day we plan to stay at the resort most of the day, and go to epcot late afternoon? But with ticket prices about to make a huge leap up, we probably will do all day in a park, then resort only and so forth. eat a big breakfast in our room, pick at park junk for lunch and snacks, then dinner back in room . we save around 200-350$ a day doing this, keeping vaca down to tickets, snacks, the end. we spend on groceries what I'd spend at home and I do very simple fast meals, I make them ahead on day one, and we take turns getting it on the table.

 

[sssteele]

Nope. Hour wait is an hour wait. E tickets will have an hour wait regardless. That’s about the limit people place on waiting in a line. I’ll happily take my fp+ to avoid that.

Don't wish to wait in line for an hour. Bring back fp+. I'll do my 3 attractions, and then watch people wait in standby lines.

 

[keishashadow]

TBH, not a huge issue fior us not having FP

Have taken 3 trips since October without FP. One beginning of spring break. Last end of April into first week of May.

TBH when we rope dropped, managed to get a lot done by noon. Especially at MK

now that park admittance numbers are different & our next trip will be over 4th of July, I may be singing a different tune

Another fan of DL max pass but, we are lucky to get out there every 2or 3years It’s a splurge of sort there vs feeling compelled to purchase every single WDW trip

 

[ScarSimone]

Think about it with EMH though, if park reservations are required (and they will be long-term), which parks would people make reservations for? The ones with EMH.

To me this has always kinda been the case anyway. I avoid the park with EMH (unless its late night after things are closed) because the park with EMH park is more crowded than normal. I'm going to miss EMH as a barometer for what park to avoid!

 

[Wandering Oaken]

TBH, not a huge issue fior us not having FP

Have taken 3 trips since October without FP. One beginning of spring break. Last end of April into first week of May.

TBH when we rope dropped, managed to get a lot done by noon. Especially at MK

now that park admittance numbers are different & our next trip will be over 4th of July, I may be singing a different tune

Another fan of DL max pass but, we are lucky to get out there every 2or 3years It’s a splurge of sort there vs feeling compelled to purchase every single WDW trip

That's with the covid restricted crowds.

 

[sssteele]

i'm not sure why anyone who hasn't been there WITHOUT FP would have such strong feelings toward it. Sort of silly. It's like saying "this is the best thing on the menu" when you literally haven't tried anything else out on the menu other then the one item you're touting. Also funny to see people acting like there's some skill to setting a an alarm for a 8 AM or whatever time zone you're in at 60 days out and hitting a button or that people are jealous of people in the FP line. Everyone got 3.

The idea that the line stops once while you wait in a 45-60 minute line is pretty misleading too as everyone else has pointed out. It basically comes down to, do you want to wait 10-15 minutes for 3-4 rides and then wait 45 for everything else or wait 40 minutes for those popular rides at peak times and wait 20-30 for everything else. I remover going to Disneyland for the first time and Pirates and Mansion were 10 minutes and I was thinking, why is this? MaxPass....much better system. A few more attractions helps too. The COVID restrictions part is all fine and well too but I don't think Splash Mountain or Space Mountain is very long during Happily Ever After or some parades.

People also keep conflating capacity to crowd. IF they are 75% capacity, that is NOT 75% of the usual crowd, that is 75% capacity. MK reaches capacity maybe 3x a year os 75% capacity on June 15 is probably close to 85-90% of the normal crowd level with no park reservations etc and not all the restaurants and stores are open or shows.

I don't know anyone that's been there without FP+ who is really yearning it for it back in the old way, which is why it likely won't be based on their surveying etc. The biggest issue now is people abusing the DAS service.

I have been there without FP+, and I hated it. The standby lines were too long for my wife and me to consider. We are 71 years old, and don't enjoy standing on our feet. Fortunately we had APs that hadn't yet expired so that we didn't pay ridiculous park entry prices.

 

[keishashadow]

That's with the covid restricted crowds.

it was indeed. Was surprised tho at the early spring break bump

 

[Sandisw]

The mental hoop jumping here. Its the same amount of time waiting, who cares if its constantly moving vs stop starting, its 45 mins or 1 hour either way in your example?

I loved FP+, hopefully it comes back how it was mostly.

Someone like me who has severe back issues, that makes a world of difference.

I really have enjoyed not having it. I do have DAS but do not like to use if I don’t have to and so far, the past few trips, I did not except for Seven Dwarfs. All other lines were in motion which made it very easy to handle.

 

[DonMacGregor]

That's with the covid restricted crowds.

But is it?

The TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) estimates that daily attendance at MK averaged just over 57,000 guests per day, or 57% of the estimated 100,000 guest maximum capacity of the Park (20,963,000 guests total) in 2019. It should be noted that 100,000 is on the extreme high end of the 85-100k range most often used when estimating MK capacity. I know through personal knowledge what Disneyland's capacity is, and the TEA number for DL is pretty close to spot-on, so there's no reason to doubt their estimate for MK.

Obviously, some days were much higher than that (many SIGNIFICANTLY higher), but conversely a number of days would be much lower. At a reduced operating capacity of 45% of MAXIMUM, (not daily AVERAGE), that means Disney is allowing approximately 45,000 guests into the Park, or around 20% less than a normal operating day pre-covid. Still a reductioon, but there are very likely some busy post-covid days that match or exceed slow pre-covid days.

Now, to be honest, just because they are allowing 45% of capacity, doesn't mean they're getting that many guests visiting on a given day. The numbers could still be lower than the adjusted capacity due to a number of factors including fewer hotels open at the right price points, lingering travel fears, some financial uncertainty, etc. I haven't heard of them turning anyone away at the gates due to maxing out capacity.

 

[sethschroeder]

That to me is pointless and worse than the current system that had them basically open 45 minutes early for everybody.

Hold off site from parking pretty easy. The extra 30 mins is more useful than 1-2 evening hours since you have to wait for the park lines to empty in the longest lines.

Also by having in every park should spread everyone out.

Do want parks open late in general though.

 

[CraigInPA]

we went during spring break on a Sunday for one day before going for 8 days around Memorial Day. The Spring Break day we had a single day park hopper ticket. We started at AK and got in at 7:30 (park open at 8) and was off FOP by 8:05… we then did a safari, Everest multiple times, dinosaur, and some of the minor attractions before eating at Santuii and hopping to MK entering at 1:47 (we waited for 5 minutes) we then did all the Mountians there plus mansion, pirates, a bunch of minor rides (Dumbo, raceway etc) only missing Jungle Cruise.

You went during a period when there was a limit on how many people could enter the park. At that time, it was 25%. Imagine what will happen in October, 50th anniversary, and 100% permitted to enter.

I remember going the first week of December maybe 25 years ago. HS was completely empty. We did a walk-on ToT six times in a row, followed by RRC walk-on three times in a row, no wait on either. I also remember going the year before, immediately after Thanksgiving. The crowds were insane. No FP. An hour long wait everywhere. I think we got on 4 rides in 7 hours. On the other hand, we did a Moonlight Magic in MK. The longest wait was 30 minutes. Most rides were walk-on, or a 5 minute wait. IIRC, this was limited to 20k people, which is well less than 25% of potential capacity, and was less than half of the daytime crowd that particular day in February.

The original fastpass, which was distributed in the park and limited you to only one at a time, was a bit insane because you had to travel to that attraction to get the paper ticket. When they introduced that, there were complaints that if you wanted to do, for example, Buzz Lightyear, but were over by Pirates, you had a 20+ minute walk, and might get over there and find no fastpasses were left for the day and the standby line might be very long, so you walked over to Haunted Mansion to get a fastpass 2+ hours in the future, and then had to figure out what you wanted to do between then. I think, when this was around, I walked twice as far as usual.

Fastpass+, with the plan ahead and no requirement to be in the park, allowed this DVC member and his family to book those rides we wanted to go on for the morning or early afternoon, so we could go to the pool or take a tour or even take an afternoon nap. The requirement of getting at the park at rope drop to race around to get to the rides we really wanted to go on, as was the case before fastpass and with the original fastpass, gets old when you've been to WDW with 250+ days of park visits.

 

[kes601]

Hold off site from parking pretty easy. The extra 30 mins is more useful than 1-2 evening hours since you have to wait for the park lines to empty in the longest lines.

Also by having in every park should spread everyone out.

Do want parks open late in general though.

Oh, I hated EMH in the evening, we are morning people. What I am saying is that since parking lots weren't opening before an hour before park open, and they were letting people who walked / bussed over in at 45 to 50 minutes prior then that was better than 30 minutes for just resort guests as it more or less accomplished the same thing but you got a few extra minutes.

 

[sethschroeder]

Oh, I hated EMH in the evening, we are morning people. What I am saying is that since parking lots weren't opening before an hour before park open, and they were letting people who walked / bussed over in at 45 to 50 minutes prior then that was better than 30 minutes for just resort guests as it more or less accomplished the same thing but you got a few extra minutes.

Issue was that as soon as they opened the gates they opened the parking lot from what we saw and what I read elsewhere. So you only got a singular ride in. If they held the offsite back for the full 30 mins (maybe a touch more since gates will likely still open early for onsite) then you likely would get in 2/3 rides in before the offsite make it to the rides.

So while gates at HS would open at 45 mins prior that is exactly when they would open up the parking lots meaning by 30 mins prior you already have offsite in the park.

Additionally by stating "you will not get in at park opening" you also give a different mindset to offsite guests. Right now they expect to be able to get in and "rope drop" so they get to the parking lot 1hr-1:30 early.

 

[Wedgeout]

I do hope some sort of fastpass option returns. As a California resident, I didn’t enjoy the advance preplanning of fastpasses at WDW but I adapted and it worked fine. I’m so use to the DL Maxpass, grabbing a fastpass on the app after gate entry and getting another each time the app gave me a time to search again. Bit too much time spent with a screen in front of my face haha,, refresh refresh refresh….grab!….repeat.

 

[KK505]

first timer going to WDW in September and trying to learn the ins and outs—“you can hop before 2” caught my eye…can you elaborate?

That’s fine, you think you could ride FOP, Safari, Everest, Splash, BTR, SPACE and Mine train all in the same day using FP+....Again MaxPass is form of fast pass, it just doesn’t require planning your day 60 days out...any system can be exploited if you’re willing to research it at all. People wanting the old way probably haven’t investigated at all how things are operating now because they never planned to go with mask mandates or because they wanted to be cautious, whatever reason. Newbies/non planners wouldn’t know that they were routinely opening the gates early before posted opening times. They wouldn’t know you could hop before 2. The lines at Hollywood were drastically reduced after 2 BTW. I would just say you’re going to have to learn a new system so get use to adapting.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

There was a site (I don't remember which one but a "major.") that reported yesterday that some FP kiosks and stand alones in the MK were being returned to positions and were being powered up. They had pics posted.

 

[Sandisw]

first timer going to WDW in September and trying to learn the ins and outs—“you can hop before 2” caught my eye…can you elaborate?

It is after 2 pm. You go to the park you reserved. This is required. Then you can head to any other park after 2 pm assuming it’s not full.

So far, there have been no reports of anyone not being able to hop to the park of choice.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

There was a site (I don't remember which one but a "major.") that reported yesterday that some FP kiosks and stand alones in the MK were being returned to positions and were being powered up. They had pics posted.

It was posted here on this site as well. It was just one machine and it would not do anything when someone tried using their magic band on it.

 

[SherylLC]

There was a site (I don't remember which one but a "major.") that reported yesterday that some FP kiosks and stand alones in the MK were being returned to positions and were being powered up. They had pics posted.

OMG I am so excited by this!

 

[skshain1020]

The thing is that with MK without fastpass it is manageable, because there are many rides to spread out the crowds between, however at hollywood and epcot right now there just isn't any easing of the crowds so even with no fastpass and the lines "moving constantly" each of the major rides is typically 45-60+ minutes and it's hard to stand in multiple lines that long and keep you in the park. For instance this morning we got boarding group 8 and headed that way for rope drop...Thankfully, they let us back early at 8:30am and we were on Slinky and did Saucers before our boarding group was called at 8:45am. By the time we were off rise the only short wait was star tours. Slinky was 110 when we got off it from one of the first groups. By the time we got off star tours even it had a 65+ minute wait and by the time we left and skylined back to riviera star tours was at 90+ minute along with all other headliners. I was glad to come back and swim and will try again tonight if storms hold off and the crowds die down, because I cannot fathom multiple hour long waits even if I love my hollywood rides.