How is MK with no Legacy FP?

[lugnut33]

I don't know about anyone else, but I've certainly seen legacy Fast Pass lines stretching back far into the park, mostly on rides like Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Star Tours.

In my experience from attending MK yesterday, most of the bottlenecking at the first check point was because of "user error." I.e. people who don't have their bands/passes ready to go and scan. This same issue happened with legacy Fast Pass, too, both at the ride and at the kiosks.

I'm sorry, I have been at Christmas, summer, spring break, etc, and have not seen that before and was a Fastpass uber-user. Not saying it didn't happen, but I never experienced it even at the highest crowd levels.

 

[xie]

I posted this video after our Thanksgiving trip, it will give you a very good idea of the problems with scanning:
http://youtu.be/gnutHcc8tbk

Of course there will be one poster who will be along shortly to tell you the line moves quickly and you shouldn't care about another line to get into line..

This is a fair representation of the length of FP entrance lines when we were there 3 weeks ago.

However, this FP entrance is staffed better than what we experienced. When we were there, most FP entrances only had 1 CM, who was trying to watch both scanners. The results were what you would expect. If anyone's scan turned blue, the CM would have to focus on them for a moment. While their attention was on that person, other people would flow through the other side, including people whose bands also turned blue, but the people didn't get stopped by the CM who didn't see the blue. Also, blue scans would flow through when the CM was distracted by people not in the line (as shown in this video, when a guest pushing a stroller walked up to the CM and started talking to her - you can see the CM trying to be courteous to this guest, but struggling to watch the scans and her iPad at the same time). Anytime the (usually lone) CM was distracted like this, floods of people went down the line with either blue scans or no paper passes or not the right time on their paper passes. The paper ones usually got booted by the inside CM. The blue scans would talk their way past the inside CM by saying the scan worked outside.

So I guess if they have made any improvements in the last month, it's that there were 2 CMs at that FP entrance in the video. When the guy CM walked off, he was instantly replaced by another person. Hopefully there are 2 everywhere now.

And yes, there were always, always line cutters, especially in the "spontaneous lines" outside the FP entrance. Inside was just as bad sometimes. One night at POTC, after we had passed the first scanner, some people actually climbed over the ROPE switchbacks outside the front door of the building and jammed their way in between me and my family. I had to shout to my husband to get him to turn around and make them let me through. (My bad for leaving 1 foot of space between our bodies, I guess.) It was nuts. I don't even know if they had fast passes - for my sanity I ignored what happened to them after we got our family together again.

Also, we found the design of the FP turnstiles to be kind of bad. Yes, two people are supposed to go through at once. In practice, though, the following is true: Some people are not space aware and take up the whole area; some people are Pooh sized and take up the whole area; some people have their bands on in such a way that they practically pretzel up like a Cirque performer and take up the whole area. It was only perhaps 50% of the time that both scanners were in use. I suppose it's still a "win" if you consider that with only 1 scanner, only 100 people get through in a given space of time; with 2 scanners, 150 can get through (instead of the ideal 200). The only way I can see them fixing this problem is to put the scanners a little further apart, and install a small bar between them so guests understand "this half is your space".

We found the design of the scanners at the front of the park similarly bad. Yes, they are usually in a V shaped formation with four scanners available in the V. Most guests are sadly oblivious to what's going on and stop at the outer scanner, preventing anyone from using the inner scanner (thus slowly the whole line down), even when a CM is trying to get them to move up. Other guests are too hesitant to walk around someone stuck on the outer scanner to get to the available inner scanner, even with a CM waving them in. A LOT of guests have "personal space" issues and hesitate to go stand beside a stranger, and will wait even though a CM is gesturing them in. It took us longer to get into the park at rope drop (i.e. a crowd) than it used to at rope drop. When we entered later, after rope drop, when there were no lines, it was easier than old tickets because there were plenty of open scanners and CMs standing around. People weren't having "personal space" issues when it was empty.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

KatieCharlotte, I think they just basically said there is something wrong with your child.

BTW, just because a child knows what they are suppose to do doesn't mean they will be able to do it and/or do it with speed.

This 36 year old child had a hard time getting it exactly right. Maybe b/c I had on my left arm....idk.....but I touched the darn mickey to mickey several times and I also found the sweet spot to not be as large as I thought. I found it easier to take it off my wrist and hold it up.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I don't know about anyone else, but I've certainly seen legacy Fast Pass lines stretching back far into the park, mostly on rides like Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Star Tours.

In my experience from attending MK yesterday, most of the bottlenecking at the first check point was because of "user error." I.e. people who don't have their bands/passes ready to go and scan. This same issue happened with legacy Fast Pass, too, both at the ride and at the kiosks.

My personal experience with legacy FP is that we never had to wait "outside" the ride to hand over our paper. BUT, we often had to wait in a bottleneck inside the ride queue. This generally was true when the standby lines were over an hour; it was pretty common for us to be in the FP line for about 15-20 min. whe using FP at the busiest times of day. This was particularly true at Space, BTMRR, Soarin and Safari. The only times I've walked onto these rides with FP is when we happen to be the right sized group. For example, we passed well over 100 people in the Soarin FP line because there were apparently no other parties of 3 in the line.

So, my question now is: Does the bottleneck outside the line have any bearing on the overall wait time when using FP? Or have we just shifted some of where we wait?

 

[bcrook]

This 36 year old child had a hard time getting it exactly right. Maybe b/c I had on my left arm....idk.....but I touched the darn mickey to mickey several times and I also found the sweet spot to not be as large as I thought. I found it easier to take it off my wrist and hold it up.

I found the same thing to be true. I started carrying my magicband in my pocket with my ID, my DVC card, the TIW card, and my photopass ride card. Because apparently those items can't be linked to the magic bracelet.

 

[SmallWorld71]

This 36 year old child had a hard time getting it exactly right. Maybe b/c I had on my left arm....idk.....but I touched the darn mickey to mickey several times and I also found the sweet spot to not be as large as I thought. I found it easier to take it off my wrist and hold it up.

I have always been the one in my family to never be able to use the darn finger scanners right. My kids never have any problems with technology - it's always me! They had to open the door at Pop with the key cards, LOL. I apologize in advance to everyone as I'll be the one who won't be able to use these darn things right and will be holding up the line.

 

[xie]

I'm sorry, I have been at Christmas, summer, spring break, etc, and have not seen that before and was a Fastpass uber-user. Not saying it didn't happen, but I never experienced it even at the highest crowd levels.

Same here. I've been at all times of year, including the busiest of busy days, and prior to FP+ there were never line backups like that to enter the FP line.

To PRINT fast passes, sometimes, sure - especially at Soarin or TSMM just after rope drop.

But never a line like that to enter the FP line.

 

[Laketravis]

Also, we found the design of the FP turnstiles to be kind of bad. Yes, two people are supposed to go through at once. In practice, though, the following is true: Some people are not space aware and take up the whole area; some people are Pooh sized and take up the whole area; some people have their bands on in such a way that they practically pretzel up like a Cirque performer and take up the whole area. It was only perhaps 50% of the time that both scanners were in use. I suppose it's still a "win" if you consider that with only 1 scanner, only 100 people get through in a given space of time; with 2 scanners, 150 can get through (instead of the ideal 200). The only way I can see them fixing this problem is to put the scanners a little further apart, and install a small bar between them so guests understand "this half is your space".

We found the design of the scanners at the front of the park similarly bad. Yes, they are usually in a V shaped formation with four scanners available in the V. Most guests are sadly oblivious to what's going on and stop at the outer scanner, preventing anyone from using the inner scanner (thus slowly the whole line down), even when a CM is trying to get them to move up. Other guests are too hesitant to walk around someone stuck on the outer scanner to get to the available inner scanner, even with a CM waving them in. A LOT of guests have "personal space" issues and hesitate to go stand beside a stranger, and will wait even though a CM is gesturing them in. It took us longer to get into the park at rope drop (i.e. a crowd) than it used to at rope drop. When we entered later, after rope drop, when there were no lines, it was easier than old tickets because there were plenty of open scanners and CMs standing around. People weren't having "personal space" issues when it was empty.

Exactly my observations as well. Exactly.

 

[pilferk]

My personal experience with legacy FP is that we never had to wait "outside" the ride to hand over our paper. BUT, we often had to wait in a bottleneck inside the ride queue. This generally was true when the standby lines were over an hour; it was pretty common for us to be in the FP line for about 15-20 min. whe using FP at the busiest times of day. This was particularly true at Space, BTMRR, Soarin and Safari. The only times I've walked onto these rides with FP is when we happen to be the right sized group. For example, we passed well over 100 people in the Soarin FP line because there were apparently no other parties of 3 in the line.

So, my question now is: Does the bottleneck outside the line have any bearing on the overall wait time when using FP? Or have we just shifted some of where we wait?

Hard to tell, right now, I think...because while it seemed "busier" last week...it wasn't BUSY. Not like summer/spring break/christmas busy.

For us, for the rides mentioned, there was little bottleneck anywhere but at the check points. The line, itself, moved through the "que" areas pretty much continuously. Wait time, including the line outside, the move through the que, the wait at the checkpoint, and then (for BTMRR specifically) the time to get loaded was maybe 15 min, tops.

But, compared to previous trips, that was longer than we remembered having previously waited in FP lines.

Again, I want to be clear: I'm not laying that at the feet of FP+. I don't know if that was the entirety of the cause or not. There could very well have been other factors at play. So take my anecdotal report as just one...and wait to see if we have enough similar reports, as time goes on, to see if it's an accurate reflection of what's going on, day to day.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

I have always been the one in my family to never be able to use the darn finger scanners right. My kids never have any problems with technology - it's always me! They had to open the door at Pop with the key cards, LOL. I apologize in advance to everyone as I'll be the one who won't be able to use these darn things right and will be holding up the line.

I found getting into the room was the hardest...just not enough room to twist my arm around. I wore on my left arm and did find that entering then park or a FP line was easier if the scanner was on the left. But honestly easiest if I just took it off.

 

[xie]

This 36 year old child had a hard time getting it exactly right. Maybe b/c I had on my left arm....idk.....but I touched the darn mickey to mickey several times and I also found the sweet spot to not be as large as I thought. I found it easier to take it off my wrist and hold it up.

The band doesn't fit me right. I have very small wrists. They aren't small enough for the child size, but I first used the smallest holes on the Adult size. This meant the band was twisted at a funny angle because of the "stiffness" of the angled RFID area. I could not, in other words, make it fit like my watch, with the RFID Mickey head facing upwards from the flat top of my wrist. So then I gave up and started wearing it as a loose bangle bracelet, which meant Mickey could be facing any direction at any time.

(Husband has, well, man-sized wrists, and his band fit perfectly with Mickey facing up like a watch all the time.)

As strange as this is going to sound, the thing that made it easy for me is this. I painted my MagicBand before we went. When I painted it, I glued some crystals onto the Mickey head. Having the "raised" surface on the Mickey head made all the difference for me - even at night, in the relative dark, I could finger that spot on my "bangle" band using the crystals and put it on the scanner exactly right.

I think if the bands were redesigned with a raised Mickey head it would actually be easier for people.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

This 36 year old child had a hard time getting it exactly right. Maybe b/c I had on my left arm....idk.....but I touched the darn mickey to mickey several times and I also found the sweet spot to not be as large as I thought. I found it easier to take it off my wrist and hold it up.

I found the same thing to be true. I started carrying my magicband in my pocket with my ID, my DVC card, the TIW card, and my photopass ride card. Because apparently those items can't be linked to the magic bracelet.

I have always been the one in my family to never be able to use the darn finger scanners right. My kids never have any problems with technology - it's always me! They had to open the door at Pop with the key cards, LOL. I apologize in advance to everyone as I'll be the one who won't be able to use these darn things right and will be holding up the line.

Then there surely must be something wrong with all of you too!

 

[lugnut33]

I would sometimes walk up to scan only to find my band had twisted to the bottom side of my wrist.

 

[pilferk]

I would sometimes walk up to scan only to find my band had twisted to the bottom side of my wrist.

Yup, ditto. In fact, ditto x 5 (5 members of my family).

It was either that, or wear it so tight that it was uncomfortable (because of the rigid "rectangle" area under mickey's head.

We wore it probably one notch looser than it would have been necessary to keep Mickey oriented right, and it would spin (comfortably) and flip all the time. So you'd have to take a sec to reorient.

Now, we were savy enough to this, after the first couple hours, that we'd just check it and reorient it before heading to the FP scanners.....maybe others will be, too, after they get used to the system.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

The band doesn't fit me right. I have very small wrists. They aren't small enough for the child size, but I first used the smallest holes on the Adult size. This meant the band was twisted at a funny angle because of the "stiffness" of the angled RFID area. I could not, in other words, make it fit like my watch, with the RFID Mickey head facing upwards from the flat top of my wrist. So then I gave up and started wearing it as a loose bangle bracelet, which meant Mickey could be facing any direction at any time.

(Husband has, well, man-sized wrists, and his band fit perfectly with Mickey facing up like a watch all the time.)

As strange as this is going to sound, the thing that made it easy for me is this. I painted my MagicBand before we went. When I painted it, I glued some crystals onto the Mickey head. Having the "raised" surface on the Mickey head made all the difference for me - even at night, in the relative dark, I could finger that spot on my "bangle" band using the crystals and put it on the scanner exactly right.

I think if the bands were redesigned with a raised Mickey head it would actually be easier for people.

Small wrists here too. I had one notch I'm the green and one on the gray so I couldn't just take the gray off either. The idea of having it loose kind of gives me shivers....I don't like things that dangle like that....no bracelets for me!

Back on the subject of the thread....has anyone heard if offsiters are getting on headliners? I'm wishful thinking about off site being able to prebook b/c a FP+ for Stitch is not my idea of a good use of FP. Do the CMs at the kiosks let you pick times or you just get what you get?

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Then there surely must be something wrong with all of you too!

There is def something wrong with me! MBs not fitting is the least of my worries!

 

[pilferk]

Back on the subject of the thread....has anyone heard if offsiters are getting on headliners? I'm wishful thinking about off site being able to prebook b/c a FP+ for Stitch is not my idea of a good use of FP. Do the CMs at the kiosks let you pick times or you just get what you get?

They were last Friday, when we were there. We saw lots of folks scanning green tickets and not MBs in lines for BTMRR, Space Mountain, Pan, and even Belle.

Now, that was before lunch...because after lunch we were playing Sorcerers of MK til around 4 PM, and not in lines (and standbys looked long).

 

[nancipants]

Back on the subject of the thread....has anyone heard if offsiters are getting on headliners? I'm wishful thinking about off site being able to prebook b/c a FP+ for Stitch is not my idea of a good use of FP. Do the CMs at the kiosks let you pick times or you just get what you get?

Arrived at the kiosks between 11:30 am and Noon, received FP+ for Space Mountain (12:20 pm) and Big Thunder (4:35 pm).

ETA: We told the CM which three rides we wanted, she plugged them in and the computer spit out 3 or 4 different sets of options for return times. We chose the option with the earliest times.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Arrived at the kiosks between 11:30 am and Noon, received FP+ for Space Mountain (12:20 pm) and Big Thunder (4:35 pm).

ETA: We told the CM which three rides we wanted, she plugged them in and the computer spit out 3 or 4 different sets of options for return times. We chose the option with the earliest times.

Were you able to pick those times or just took what you got?

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Arrived at the kiosks between 11:30 am and Noon, received FP+ for Space Mountain (12:20 pm) and Big Thunder (4:35 pm).

ETA: We told the CM which three rides we wanted, she plugged them in and the computer spit out 3 or 4 different sets of options for return times. We chose the option with the earliest times.

I see...so similar to how it worked picking in advance. They give options and then you pick one. only I hated their options so then spent a few hours tweaking. wasn't sure if that tweaking would be available for offsite. I assume it would be just standing in a line and having them switched again.