Just got back and IMHO there are too many fast passes!!!

[momto2]

The last time we were in Disney was 3 years ago and fast pass was relatively new at that time. It seems to me that there are way too many being given out for a wide range of time. Many times offered were a range of one hour. Now if most of those people came near the same time - guess what - the people waiting in the LONG lines waited for a long line of fast pass people to go. We used them ourselves and now that they can work out. Yet when we got on Peter Pan with a fast pass the regular line was at 75+ minutes. There were about 20+ people in the fast pass line and the regular line waited for all 20+ to go on. It seems that when so many fast pass people choose to come at the same time, they should be filtered in between regular line people.

This happened to us from the other prospective with the Buzz Lightyear ride when a fireworks show ended, the line for fast pass users literally went through the ride and outside the ride. There were easily well over 90 people in the fast pass line. The CM at some point did let some of the standby line go through a little at a time.

I don't remember this happening 3 years ago. I do remember that the time frame opening to come back with a fast pass seemed to be shorter than one hour though.

 

[WDWAurora]

I agree. It definitely seems like too many are given out. At RnRC, one morning I really thought we were never going to get on due to the fast pass line (we had FPs for ToT, so couldn't get them for both) never having to stop...If they came, the regular line stopped. Until we got inside, we moved like a foot every five minutes. I wonder if they've changed the number they give out, because I don't remember it being like this except for the past couple visits. hmm....

 

[kda]

I believe FPs have had a one hour range for at least the last 2-3 years. (I'd say it's been since the beginning, but just don't remember). What you're describing is how I thought fast passses were supposed to work, especially when it's busy. That's the benefit of the FP. Disney has said that if you get a FP you will have less than 10 minute wait, and they try to make that happen. It's the 'draw' for getting a FP.

Many times, we've walked through the FP lines for the safari at AK and Test Track in less than 10 minutes while the regular line was over an hour. My guess is that it has something to do with the crowds, and the crowds sound like they're increased from the past 2 years. When it's not crowded, and the regular line is 5-10 minutes, there's really not an advantage to getting a FP. So it may seem like there's not as many people in the FP line and the two lines merge more evenly.

 

[anne60]

What nobody seems to get is the Fastpasses basically limit the number of times people ride the big rides. I think they keep the standby lines long (and even inflate the standby times on the "wait" boards) to discourage you from going on a "big" attraction without a Fastpass. I was standing in front of Tower of Terror one time when the board changed from"13 minutes" to "70 minutes". We had already schlepped down there, could not get another FP for like 45 minutes so we said what the heck and got in line. We were walking into the preshow less than 20 minutes later.

Don't get me wrong, I like the system, but it does limit the number of times you can visit the "big" attractions over the course of the day. I think that it particularly impacts rides like Peter Pan, that don't load and unload that many people to begin with. I always feel bad for the poor family that showed up at Fantasyland a 3 pm, with all the FPs gone, and now has to stand in the God-Awful line with little kids.

 

[goofyernmost]

I do not wish to get into another discussion about Fastpass so I will just say that it is the most rage inducing, discriminatory and unnecessary thing ever introduced in any theme park.

Bring back the good old days when it was first come first served and everyone had an equal wait for the same attraction. We all paid basically the same price for admission, no one should have special treatment under those circumstances.

Perhaps you can tell I don't like it. I've heard all the arguments in favor and I will never be convinced. Use them if you must, but I hate them.

 

[DisneyDiver]

Ask the CM at the entrance to the ride... about wait times, the posted ones at the main park board and even on the board at the ride itself are very frequently nonsense.

Example this year at ToT:

MGM Chalkboard = 120 minutes
ToT Board = 120 minutes
Castmember = "It's more like 90 really"
Actual Time = 75 minutes

So that's a 45 minute discrepancy between the official time and the actual time...

They have this thing at new rides with white plastic cards that they give out to riders entering the queue. They're swiped at the ride quene entrance, and passed to someone queuing for that ride. When the rider reaches the front of the queue, the card is swiped again, and the time difference is recorded and published as the official queue time. Seems like a simple solution, but bear in mind that the wait time is out of date by roughly the same amount as the recorded queue length, as soon as it's posted... It's a tricky problem to solve.

Nice to see WDW adressing the issue though.

 

[Synonymous]

Originally posted by goofyernmost
Bring back the good old days when it was first come first served and everyone had an equal wait for the same attraction. We all paid basically the same price for admission, no one should have special treatment under those circumstances.

No one gets special treatment- everybody has the same chance to get a fastpass.

In all of the trips we've taken in the last few years, we have NEVER waited in a line more than about a half hour, and this is largely due to our using fastpass extensively. I can't imagine trying to do the parks without it.

 

[KathyFP]

WE love fastpass. It works great and I believe that we get to ride many more rides with it than we would if we did not have it.

 

[Jillpie]

Goofyernmost...discriminatory? How do you mean when you say this? FP is open to everyone, it is their choice to take it or leave it.

Fastpass is the BEST thing Disney ever came up with, without a doubt.

 

[Tank]

I agree with Jillpie, FP was the best. The parks were packed and we never waited more than 15 Min for any ride. I loved these boards for all the great ideas I got on the tips and tricks to get the most out of a WDW vacation. By knowing about FP beforehand I was able to take advantage of them and avoid all the lines. We used 5 or 6 a day and figure I saved at least four hours of standing in line. This time could be used for the small things that always get missed when you run from ride to ride.

 

[DJBounce]

IMHO......
Fast Pass works rather well and it is a free accomodation that Disney extends to anyone who pays the price of admission to their parks (unlike other theme parks who charge for similar "perks" on top of admission). Love it or hate it....Fast Pass does work and is as fair as fair can be.

 

[DisneyDiver]

I think fastpasses are fair and a great idea. They don't show favour to certain guest groups, and are a great way of getting into a ride without the nastiness of queueing.

However...

I do think the way that Universal operate "Express" is unfair - they give total priority to their hotel guests by allowing them to repeatedly queue jump with no limit on the number or frequnency of the times they can nip to the front of the line.

The fact is, however, that any time I've been to IoA, the only ride with a queue in double figures has been Spiderman. This year, all the fastpass machines and single rider queues were closed up.... Makes you wonder how well IoA is actually doing these days.

Worrying stuff... I love IoA!

 

[Cinderella37]

I must agree with posters who are against Fastpass. I went to WDW for years before Fastpass and never had a problem, even during the first two weeks in July. To me, you end up running across the park a million times - once to get the FP, then to a location where you wait to use the FP, then back to the FP attraction, then start the whole process over for the next attraction. Add that to hot weather and priority seating times and a vacation becomes work.

The stand-by lines are often out of control, and we must remember, not that it wasn't a brilliant sales strategy, WDW introduced Fastpass to increase the amount of time guests spent in restaurants and in shops. So while WDW is reinforcing its bottom line (something I'm all for), stand by lines are crazy and families with small children without FPs are potentially missing attractions (especially true for Peter Pan's Flight). Though FPs are available to everyone, after waiting in line for RnRC in the heat, I do get a little ruffled when the FP holders walk snidely by...

 

[DisneyDiver]

Ooooh... has anyone noticed the new feature?

IF you get a fastpass time that's ages away (maybe 3 hours or something), then you sometimes get a bonus pass printed out for another attraction at the same time!

I had this happen to me at Mission Space where we were told to come back at half past 2 (this was at 10am), and it gave us a ticket for Honey I Shrunk the Audience too...

Anyone else had this?

 

[PKS44]

Originally posted by goofyernmost
I do not wish to get into another discussion about Fastpass so I will just say that it is the most rage inducing, discriminatory and unnecessary thing ever introduced in any theme park.

Bring back the good old days when it was first come first served and everyone had an equal wait for the same attraction. We all paid basically the same price for admission, no one should have special treatment under those circumstances.

Perhaps you can tell I don't like it. I've heard all the arguments in favor and I will never be convinced. Use them if you must, but I hate them.

yes why "get into another discussion" which might actually include some facts instead of the distorted nonsense you would rather just lay out there with no foundation whatsoever?

Fastpass is first come first serve so it is no different from "the good old days" in that way.

Everyone still pays the same price for admission and no one is given special treatment so the fact that you have "heard" all the arguments and "will never be convinced" has more to do with your own prejudices than the shortcomings of the Fastpass program. Your comments demonstrate that you do not understand the program or the arguments in its favor--you made up your mind and are not interested in actually learning the facts...

but thanks for not using fastpass---the more people like you that don't understand Fastpass- the more Fastpasses will be available for those who do-- and thus the more liberating the system is for those who choose to use it...I have heard people stewing in lines while my family and I walked right past in the Fastpass lines,,heard them saying things like "how much did they have to pay for those?!" ..and "hey how do they get to go first?" and all I can think is how smart and wonderful Fastpass is for those who know. I am not claiming that I am smarter than anyone--on the contrary I think the Fastpass is so simple any child can use it--only willfully ignoring the information could leave anyone so ill informed.
Paul

 

[DisneyDiver]

To me, it seems a matter of the ignorance of the many, as opposed to the knowledge of the few... There are massive adverts, signs and explainations of what it is all over every park.

It's a good thing for those that want to use it. Don't use it if you don't like it, it doesn't increase standby times by a noticable margin.

 

[mathboy]

I can't believe someone would complain about FastPass. Are you kidding me? It must be a joke. FastPass is the best thing to ever happen at WDW. The good news is that people who don't like it don't have to use it.

 

[docsnort]

We used fastpass frequently last week and loved it! Yes it took a little extra legwork but we found it to be a real time saver.

Something we overheard at Splash Mountain makes me think that a lot of people still don't understand the FastPass concept. We were walking down to use our FastPass when a little girl in the standby line asked her mother why they couldn't use that faster line. The mother answered her that they weren't going to waste their money on those Fastpass tickets!

 

[Joyciemc]

I can almost understand why some people don't realize that Fastpass is available to eneryone- it seems too good to be true! At Six Flags this summer, people were paying $20 for their ride reservation system, which isn't nearly as efficient as the free Fastpass. If this is what people are used to seeing at local parks, when they go to Disney (notorious for being expensive), they assume Fastpass costs extra. Granted, they could read their park map or ask a CM, but some people don't.

I also see the point some people have about FP causing a lot of backtracking. We didn't really have this problem because there were only two of us. Also, if the return time was soon, we stayed in the area. If it was a ways off, we had time to move on and come back without feeling like we were just zig-zagging around. Fastpass worked great for us, and after visiting Cedar Point (their Fastlane or whatever is the most inefficient thing I could imagine) and Six Flags, I think Disney did a great job with FP.

 

[w8ting4pooh]

We planned our itinerary around FP. If it wasn't available, we would NEVER have planned a trip during the summer.

We rode Haunted Mansion twice in a row (15 minute standby and then a FP), Splash Mountain at 1:30 and BTMR at 2
on a Saturday in July!!!

We all spend tons of money to go to Disney! Why not try to get the most for your money?! Fastpass is a great perk!