How is MK with no Legacy FP?

[mom2rtk]

If you avoided rides and FP lines for a half hour you wouldn't have seen or waited in those lines. At a busy time, after a half hour your FP return time for TSMM would have been well into the afternoon and your next FP opportunity wouldn't be until almost noon.

This does highlight how and why different approaches result in different opinions about and uses of FPs.

We would rather use that first half hour doing a couple of major attractions, and that eliminates the need to get FPs for them because we are satisfied doing them once. And once you do the most popular attractions first, you can move on to the next tier while a lot of other guests are still heading for the big things we have already done. At DHS in a half hour we can ride TSMM and TOT and be on our way to the single rider line at RNRC.

I have also done TSMM stand-by at rope drop and seen the FP distribution lines. Not my preference, but when my husband is along her prefers it that way. Still far better than spending rope drop in a line for an appointment to get into another line.

And having my return time be late afternoon never bothered me. Neither did waiting until noon to start pulling RnR or ToT FP's. Beyond that, there isn't anything else in that park even worth pulling a FP for.

 

[larryz]

From 1 PM to 10 PM we only managed 7 rides. We rode Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, it's a small world, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, People Mover and saw the Laugh Floor. We didn't have time to eat or shop, just stand in lines. We were in line for Pirates for about 20 minutes, but then had to leave as 3 year old needed to use the bathroom. Usually in a 9 hour visit we also would have been on Under the Sea, Barnstormer, Dumbo and Space Ranger Spin.

It will change our strategy for the parks. Now it becomes imperative to make it at rope drop and one member of the party probably needs to immediately get into a fast pass + line while the rest of the party rides. Probably ideal would be to book most rides for around noon- 1 PM when lines start to get long and use as much of the morning just running around to rides. Though, after the fast passes are gone for the day, there's little reason to stay into the afternoon. I guess we'll just be leaving for the day at lunch time now instead of parkhopping or eating lunch at the park.

And these are key points that, I believe, will get someone fired over this system. The point of FP to start with was to get people out of line precisely so they COULD eat and shop...

I wonder who will be the first suit to get to "explore other opportunities in the leisure/entertainment field"?

 

[Laketravis]

I wonder who will be the first suit to get to "explore other opportunities in the leisure/entertainment field"?

Probably the one who convinced the rest of the suits that people go to a theme park primarily to eat and shop.

THAT guy.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I don't think they care if you leave the park after your FPs are done. Of course, feel free to go eat, enjoy a parade, soak in the atmosphere. That is exactly the point IMO. The more people who stop riding rides, the more room there is for other people, and the less overcrowding there is, and the less they need to build more attractions. To me this seems like a system to get people to spend LESS time in the parks, or at least on the rides. They don't want you there from rope drop to closing. Spend more time golfing and swimming and bowling and yada yada yada all of the other great offerings at their resorts!

 

[Momtomouselover]

I don't think they care if you leave the park after your FPs are done. Of course, feel free to go eat, enjoy a parade, soak in the atmosphere. That is exactly the point IMO. The more people who stop riding rides, the more room there is for other people, and the less overcrowding there is, and the less they need to build more attractions. To me this seems like a system to get people to spend LESS time in the parks, or at least on the rides. They don't want you there from rope drop to closing. Spend more time golfing and swimming and bowling and yada yada yada all of the other great offerings at their resorts!

Exactly! That is why I think they want to fill the parks with people staying in the resorts. Thus, advertise and incentivize you to stay on site. Not necessarily to ride rides but for the atmosphere, the extracurricular activities...like someone said (I don't recall the poster) but the comment about 10 days at the parks is first day $100 to Disney and 10th day $10 but the room rate is $300 everyday. A change in paradigm and pushed by FP+.

 

[ms.yt]

We were there on Saturday, we weren't there for rope drop as we weren't aware of the changes until we arrived and saw the fastpass kiosks at Peter Pan were covered. A cast member I asked told me that only those with magic bands could get fast passes, so it was 3 pm before we tried to get fast passes because I noticed other people without magic bands had them.

This is infuriating! How are people supposed to understand how the system works if the CMs they have WORKING THE KIOSKS don't even know what they're talking about!

We're arriving in 3 weeks for an offsite stay with a large family group. I love WDW, and this will be my 11th trip. However, with all these changes that are clearly designed to deter people from staying offsite, I'm not even looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to going to Universal much more than WDW this time. I'm just disgusted by the whole thing!

 

[Itinkso]

And these are key points that, I believe, will get someone fired over this system. The point of FP to start with was to get people out of line precisely so they COULD eat and shop...

I wonder who will be the first suit to get to "explore other opportunities in the leisure/entertainment field"?

Others have already reported the top two IT execs were let go almost two months ago. They each had over 20 years with the company. A very knowledgeable CM posted this happened after Iger tested the MagicBands and he wasn't able to access his room!

 

[bcrook]

And these are key points that, I believe, will get someone fired over this system. The point of FP to start with was to get people out of line precisely so they COULD eat and shop...

I wonder who will be the first suit to get to "explore other opportunities in the leisure/entertainment field"?

Unless of course the goal is your other idea and end game is to have most of the guests staying on site, and eliminate off site mostly. If that is the goal, they are well on there way!

 

[bcrook]

I don't think they care if you leave the park after your FPs are done. Of course, feel free to go eat, enjoy a parade, soak in the atmosphere. That is exactly the point IMO. The more people who stop riding rides, the more room there is for other people, and the less overcrowding there is, and the less they need to build more attractions. To me this seems like a system to get people to spend LESS time in the parks, or at least on the rides. They don't want you there from rope drop to closing. Spend more time golfing and swimming and bowling and yada yada yada all of the other great offerings at their resorts!

I agree that has to be part of this. Give everybody six good hours in the park and get them out.

 

[wisblue]

I have also done TSMM stand-by at rope drop and seen the FP distribution lines. Not my preference, but when my husband is along her prefers it that way. Still far better than spending rope drop in a line for an appointment to get into another line.

And having my return time be late afternoon never bothered me. Neither did waiting until noon to start pulling RnR or ToT FP's. Beyond that, there isn't anything else in that park even worth pulling a FP for.

As with everything, these things are very heavily dependent on overall park crowds. At the busiest holiday times, if you waited until noon to start getting FPs for RNRC and TOT you wouldn't be getting many. And the FPs for TSMM would have been long gone.

I am guessing that when you were using paper FPs to get 5 or 6 rides on RNRC and TOT, that wasn't on busy days either.

 

[bcrook]

As with everything, these things are very heavily dependent on overall park crowds. At the busiest holiday times, if you waited until noon to start getting FPs for RNRC and TOT you wouldn't be getting many. And the FPs for TSMM would have been long gone.

I am guessing that when you were using paper FPs to get 5 or 6 rides on RNRC and TOT, that wasn't on busy days either.

Traveling nearly always in peak times, I always went directly to the standby line for TSMM, and the casually picked up my FP after the ride with no wait. The rush was over and my return times were not that late. Plus it was super fast. Waiting until noon to grab a FP would be silly for TSMM, but not necessarily for any other ride in any park.

 

[Peanut Giggleface]

Was this a half hour wait at a kiosk?

I don't get this offsite situation. To the best of my knowledge, "Offsite" consists primarily of these groups:

• People who buy their tickets at the gate, which we've been told is not that many
  
• People with AP's who don't have a prior resort stay
  
• People who already have tickets but are not staying on site

Let's assume the last two groups are the majority of people in line at kiosks trying to obtain their FP's for the day.

If it was Disney's intention at some point to give them the ability to pre-book their FP's using the MDE app, why put them thru this day-of-wait-in-line now?

I don't see any compelling reason why they couldn't link their tickets to FP+ using MDE ahead of time rather than wait until they got to the park and have them stand in line at a kiosk, with beefed up manpower and costs to assist.

If the thought is these groups need to be educated well enough to be able to use the system that they need to be educated in person on the day of their visit, why wouldn't that be true of people staying onsite as well?

If this is a "test" prior to giving them that capability, what data could they possibly be collecting that they could not collect by letting them use the app before they were actually in the park?

As a local AP holder, this is my opinion on the bolded section. I believe it is simply a matter of money. Disney has told us that we will be issued MBs as part of the benefit of being pass holders. But they have never told us when that would be. Now if you make it difficult enough and inconvenient enough for the locals, while they are witnessing hordes of other guests using MBs, they will eventually break down and book a room. Now instead of issuing something for free, the pass holders have now purchased them. Voila!! Pure profit!!

 

[wisblue]

Good question.

Here's what I *think* will happen, though it is entirely a guess. The company has said that Passholders will eventually be given Bands. I suspect at that point they will also access to pre-book FP+, because Passholders who have Bands from a prior resort stay can do that now.

The "offsite test" that is reportedly happening now will include "...most of the MyMagic+ elements, including My Disney Experience, FastPass+ at all four parks and the use of MagicBands." I used to think that these guests would eventually be able to book FP+ in advance as well, but now I am not so sure.

I agree with you. I think the current at the park, same day booking of FP+ is just a stopgap step on the way to allowing those guests to link tickets and make FP+ reservations through MDE. They will get rid of all paper FPs and then start allowing offsite guests to prebook, maybe starting with annual passholders who have not had a resort stay.

 

[wisblue]

Traveling nearly always in peak times, I always went directly to the standby line for TSMM, and the casually picked up my FP after the ride with no wait. The rush was over and my return times were not that late. Plus it was super fast. Waiting until noon to grab a FP would be silly for TSMM, but not necessarily for any other ride in any park.

That's what we always did too if we wanted two rides on TSMM. We then moved on to TOT and RNRC and were able to do those pretty quickly, especially with single rider at RNRC.

Because we would usually be leaving the park by early afternoon for a break, we didn't get more than that one FP. At those times, I am more than happy to exchange that one FP for a second ride on TSMM for 3 in the late afternoon or evening that I wouldn't be able to get on arriving at or returning to a park.

Again, that's why all of this is so dependent on time of year and touring style. If you're planning on being in one park all day, you don't mind getting a FP with a return that is 5 or 6 hours out. Otherwise, those FPs are useless.

 

[Pooksie]

I don't think they care if you leave the park after your FPs are done. Of course, feel free to go eat, enjoy a parade, soak in the atmosphere. That is exactly the point IMO. The more people who stop riding rides, the more room there is for other people, and the less overcrowding there is, and the less they need to build more attractions. To me this seems like a system to get people to spend LESS time in the parks, or at least on the rides. They don't want you there from rope drop to closing. Spend more time golfing and swimming and bowling and yada yada yada all of the other great offerings at their resorts!

Bingo.

I said the same thing in another post. Disney has decided that they can make more money from three families in a park in one day than they can from one family staying all day in one park. It's all about volume. Disney wants to get as many people in and out of the parks per day as possible. One family staying at the park all day and buying breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and shopping will not generate as much revenue as three families (combined) who each come to the park, eat one meal, shop and then leave. The three families will generate more income from park admissions, and will spend more on souvenirs (combined) than one family will. Plus, as people rotate in and out, Disney provides them with multiple ways to spend more money at their resorts, the water parks, mini golf, etc.

If anything, someone will be promoted as a result of this. Remember that for every person who complains about the new system, there's another person who it suits perfectly and who loves it. Disney will focus on and extoll the positive reports and absorb the negative reports internally.

 

[pilferk]

Exactly. If so many guests are not aware of how the system works, they need additional staff on hand to deal with that problem instead of backing up the FP+ line.

From talking to some of the cms on the ground on Friday..."we" know more than they do.

They don't just need more staff, they need more "expert" staff...and not just in the fp+ kiosk lines. Their attraction cms manning the fp lines need more and better training, too. Heard attraction cms telling guests that only those with mbs could book fp+ at least a half dozen times. I would try to interject...but sometimes they just weren't getting it.

As an aside.(sort of)..craziest conversation during our stay? Talking to a couple n line, waiting to see Tink and Peri at mk last Sunday (the 12th)the dad said he was really glad they had not sprung for the extra $100 to use the fast pass system( they were resort guests). I spent the rest of our 10 min wait explaining how the system really worked, explaining fp+, and, since they has kttw cards, how they could use those instead. I also explained the fp+ only a ak, and the changes coming to mk on the 14th. He completely "got it" in that short time, and was very thankful for the explanation and very confused as to why he didn't get similar info from Disney.

The point of all this: if disney is this bad at educating their guests on a system that's been around for a LONG time...I shudder to see the mess that fp+ is for awhile.

 

[wisblue]

If Disney's goal is to get people in and out the parks as quickly as possible, and to dissuade them from park hopping, they sure are doing some strange things to hide it.

Like offering FP+ options with return times scattered through the day. And expanding the bus station at the MK to accommodate direct buses between MK and DHS and DAK.

 

[ArwenMarie]

As a local AP holder, this is my opinion on the bolded section. I believe it is simply a matter of money. Disney has told us that we will be issued MBs as part of the benefit of being pass holders. But they have never told us when that would be. Now if you make it difficult enough and inconvenient enough for the locals, while they are witnessing hordes of other guests using MBs, they will eventually break down and book a room. Now instead of issuing something for free, the pass holders have now purchased them. Voila!! Pure profit!!

Interesting theory. I called Disney about buying and AP an where they were with the FP+ situation and the CM basically told me outright that if you book a room, you get the bands. Maybe this isn't a loophole...

 

[Jennyvelaz]

Such a BIG change of things! Always changing something.

 

[wisblue]

Interesting theory. I called Disney about buying and AP and where they were with the FP+ situation and the CM basically told me outright that if you book a room, you get the bands. Maybe this isn't a loophole...

Isn't that true right now? If you book a room you get a MB, if you don't book a room you don't get a MB.

I wouldn't expect a CM on the phone to know or be able to say when that might change.

My guess is that, once paper FPs are gone from all of the parks, the next step will be some offsite guests getting MBs and being able to prevook FP+. Annual pass holders or guests at the Swan and Dolphin would seem to be the most logical candidates for the first phase of this. Just like Swan and Dolphin guests were (I think) the first offsite guests to be able to make FP+ reservations at Epcot.