How to "fix" FP+

[Robo]

Oh, I'm with you on totally scrapping the whole "advance reservations", but I don't think WDW is, or ever will be.

I'm not ready to concede that.

Judging from the unsatisfactory responses of the core Disneyphiles,
the very real likelihood of NON-Disneyphiles not understanding the whole bailiwick of FP+ advance reservations,
and the bad results from the recent on-site visit of the Powers That Be:

I can see shades of Disneyland's "Light Magic" shimmering on the horizon.

Off... like a light switch (a Light Magic switch) awaiting re-imagining for "future enjoyment."

Then, that whole Disney department gets "re-imagined" entirely.

 

[ArwenMarie]

For me, the only way to make it work is to fix Epcot and DHS. I realize that I'm perfectly happy going to MK and riding old favorites, enjoying the parades and Wishes, etc. I will always go to MK, but IoA is looking so much more appealing than DHS these days. And I personally love Epcot, but I have a hard time justifying the cost for a day. I feel the same about AK.

I totally agree with this. Even look at that silly ticket price thing they did...$95 for a one-day ticket at MK and $90 at the other 3 parks...Why would they bother with that? Assuming $95 is the baseline for MK, the other three parks should cost half, or $50. Not sure how many people buy one-day tickets, but it's a good example of stupidity, denial, or both.

Epcot is another good example. FutureWorld is broken. They have two rides that people want, and now they are forced to ration them. On the other hand, I love World Showcase. But as you said, using a full-day ticket there is hard to justify. I would love some "ride-free" option to hang out in WS, but it would have to be way cheaper.

At the end of the day, they have three broken parks, they are charging all-access prices....and their answer is FP+.

 

[KatieCharlotte]

I'm not ready to concede that.

Judging from the unsatisfactory responses of the core Disneyphiles,
the very real likelihood of NON-Disneyphiles not understanding the whole bailiwick of FP+ advance reservations,
and the bad results from the recent on-site visit of the Powers That Be:

I can see shades of Disneyland's "Light Magic" shimmering on the horizon.

Off... like a light switch (a Light Magic switch) awaiting re-imagining for "future enjoyment."

Then, that whole Disney department gets "re-imagined" entirely.

I don't know if this is too big an investment for Disney to admit failure and redesign, maybe with the bracelet "tracking" minus the prebooking. But the only way that could happen is if the average guests hate it.

The only "trip of a lifetime" family that I know who've been to Disney since FP+ loved prebooking, but that was when you really had to be selected for the test and it made you feel special. I don't think Disney lived up to the family's expectations, but I think that was mostly due to summer heat/humidity.

Most people who haven't experienced FP- may think this system is better than the parks without any free front-of-the-line perk. But if Disney marketing does its job, when lots of those people try to book a week before their trips and Soarin' and TSMM aren't available, their opinions may quickly change. I hope Disney remembers that part of the tech age is the speed with which negative and positive experiences are "shared" with large numbers of future customers. Clearly, they were already getting plenty of negative reviews over the length of lines and fastpasses being gone by noon, but this isn't going to fix that, just shift a few late-rising advance planners to the happy column while shifting some early rising families to the irritated column.

 

[rebbyparker]

I think with the new system, there is plenty of potential for this scenario. Imagine thousands of people walking around the park with their phones out trying to check/rebook FP's , while at the same time thousands are in the hotel rooms, on the bus, at DTD, wherever trying to book FP's,while at the exact same time thousands are going through FP scanners all over the property executing their FP. Regardless of how they repackage and redistribute FP, the system I used while I was there a few weeks ago left very little confidence that it would be able to handle the load. Now on top of that add thousands of teenagers walking around the parks this summer with their iPhones and MB's trying to figure out how to exploit the mobile app and latency issues in the back end reservation system to get extra FP. Houston we have a problem...

Seems pretty obvious the bulk of the project was focused on the "Analytics" (data mining) and not so much on the reservation "infrastructure". Translation = somebody's consulting company made out like a bandit setting up the "business intelligence" pieces while the customer focused pieces were done on a shoestring budget. *shocker* Sure they will eventually fix the technical issues after pouring in tons of cash but now you have massive cost overruns that have to be offset somewhere else.... Wonder what will go?

At the end of the day what was the real potential of the program even if they rolled it out with no hitches whatsoever? We stand in a lot of lines at Disney (not complaining). I am not so sure how getting me through 3 of them faster is suddenly going to free up all this time for shopping . Also I am a planner but planning FP isn't going to stop me from going to US, I will just plan around it. The one thing that did stop us from going to US this year was cost. However next year we won't buy PH because it no longer fits our traveling style with all the advanced booking. Hey!!! I just found $200+ to use for US tickets....

I guess I am just not in the "target demographic" which is why it doesn't make sense to me. I'm cool with that as long as we can still have great vacations. If something happens to change that we can always go do something else. There's a big world outside of Orlando.......

Wow, this will give me nightmares.

 

[momof2n2]

Wouldn't it be nice if the MB could be used in such a way that they worked like the previous FP system did? Instead of putting your card in and getting a paper fastpass, you swipe your MB and get a time for return. No preplanning, just on the day of, like old FP. The only problem I see is how to keep up with the time to return and when you can get another using a MB (and no smartphone app).

Yes! Yes! Yes!

This is my contention!!!
If these MBs are all their cracked up to be (when their not interfering with parades ) then the old FP system could have gone paperless, but still functioned the same way. You know, the way that worked well all these years!

 

[FlipHipster]

Wow, this will give me nightmares.

I hope not Sorry, its my job to think about crap like that and sometimes I don't know when to stop working. I'm sure they'll call in the exterminators and have all those annoying little bugs squashed before you know it.

I feel sorry for those 4 teenagers, sitting around the Xmas Tree at DHS, waiting for the park to open, playing World of Warcraft - when the Disney Bandwidth SWAT Team comes screaming up in the armored vehicle because they just cratered the wifi....

So that's where you have to stand to get wifi!

 

[rebbyparker]

I hope not Sorry, its my job to think about crap like that and sometimes I don't know when to stop working. I'm sure they'll call in the exterminators and have all those annoying little bugs squashed before you know it.



So that's where you have to stand to get wifi!

Why am I not feeling so very reassured?