MK feels different.

[JennaDeeDooDah]

LOL love this.

This is half the point of FP+. To make the system so that all visitors can use it, not just the ones who get up the earliest, or can criss-cross the park 3 times in a day.

Which is why my solution is great. People who arrive at rope drop can still use as many as possible and late arrivers can still get fast passes for their favorite rides. Everyone wins. With the current system, everyone does not win.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

Which is why my solution is great. People who arrive at rope drop can still use as many as possible and late arrivers can still get fast passes for their favorite rides. Everyone wins. With the current system, everyone does not win.

Well the new system just makes it so everyone gets "the same".

Your idea would mean that you're lessening the chance of later-comers from getting FP's for the more popular attractions. (since most savvy visitors who arrive in the morning would know that's it's better to get the headliner FP's for the afternoon when they have the longest wait times)

 

[morethananyonex]

LOL love this.

This is half the point of FP+. To make the system so that all visitors can use it, not just the ones who get up the earliest, or can criss-cross the park 3 times in a day.

The point of FP+ is to make more money, not so all visitors can use it.

All visitors can't use FP+ for the rides that need it most. The capacity for those rides are much lower than the number of guests in the park per day. That's why they ran out in the past, and continue to run out now. I truly don't get the criss crossing argument, as if you spend enough time in one park per day, you're going to be criss crossing at some point. We never ran back and forth simply because of FP-. In fact, I'd make the argument that an un-researched guest who didn't use FP- is going to end of criss crossing the park with FP+ as they don't know the layout of the parks and timing of their days well enough to set up FP+ like experienced guests can. Even experienced guests are reporting they didn't set up their FP+ times to eliminate criss crossing.

The point of FP+ is to encourage guests to lock in their Disney days as early as possible.

Which is why my solution is great. People who arrive at rope drop can still use as many as possible and late arrivers can still get fast passes for their favorite rides. Everyone wins. With the current system, everyone does not win.

Not everyone wins.

With your system Disney doesn't win. Like mom2rtk said, they need the "locking in" aspect of FP+ to reach their goals. FP+ is not about getting everyone FP+ for their favourites, FP+ is about encouraging people to plan their Disney days 60 (or 30) days in advance so Disney can maximize the time and money they get out of each family on their Central Florida vacations. They don't care about little Jimmy and Suzy having to wait in stand by the entire trip for their favourites, unless that means their parents are spending less money.

And really, it Disney doesn't win, it's not happening.

 

[bkoehl]

Equal for everyone is another way of saying that you will no longer be rewarded for your effort.

Yep

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

Well the new system just makes it so everyone gets "the same".

Your idea would mean that you're lessening the chance of later-comers from getting FP's for the more popular attractions. (since most savvy visitors who arrive in the morning would know that's it's better to get the headliner FP's for the afternoon when they have the longest wait times)

And what keeps the late timers from monitoring return times and scooping up a fast pass for their favorite rides in the afternoon? Absolutely nothing. They have the same opportunity to grab a fast pass as everyone already in the park.




Why does Disney care if you are locked into a certain park? It seems if they cared that much, they wouldn't have hoppers. I'm not understanding why they want to know what park you are going to be visiting 60 days out. And if they do, they can use ADRs to give them a good idea.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

With your system Disney doesn't win. Like mom2rtk said, they need the "locking in" aspect of FP+ to reach their goals. FP+ is not about getting everyone FP+ for their favourites, FP+ is about encouraging people to plan their Disney days 60 (or 30) days in advance so Disney can maximize the time and money they get out of each family on their Central Florida vacations. They don't care about little Jimmy and Suzy having to wait in stand by the entire trip for their favourites, unless that means their parents are spending less money.

I really don't think this is the reason. I think it's about crowd management and reducing the negative perception that Disney is all about standing in lines. They will use the technology to make money yes, but I don't think "locking plans in" gains them any additional $$. After all, if you bough a 5 day ticket you're going to be in the parks for 5 days, regardless of which days those are.

 

[morethananyonex]

And what keeps the late timers from monitoring return times and scooping up a fast pass for their favorite rides in the afternoon? Absolutely nothing. They have the same opportunity to grab a fast pass as everyone already in the park.




Why does Disney care if you are locked into a certain park? It seems if they cared that much, they wouldn't have hoppers. I'm not understanding why they want to know what park you are going to be visiting 60 days out. And if they do, they can use ADRs to give them a good idea.

It's not that they want you to be locked into a certain park, they want you to be locked into Disney as opposed to Universal, Sea World, the beach, etc. It's not about getting an idea of who's going where (although that certainly is a benefit), it's about trying to prevent people from being tempted by the other things to do in Orlando once they're down there.

Take an offsite family who buys tickets at the gate. They arrive in Orlando for 5 days with rough plans, few days at Disney, a day at Universal, and a day at the beach. Head to Universal and the beach first, finishing off their trip with 3 days at Disney. Now imagine this family with FP+. They hear about booking FP+ before their trip. They go on to Disney's site and see they need to buy tickets. Looking at the tickets, they realize how much better value it is to buy the 5 day ticket instead of the 3. Bye bye, Universal and the beach, now this family is "saving money" and they can save those activities for another trip. With 5 day tickets in hand, they book FP+ for 5 days instead of roughly planning to spend 3 days at Disney. 2 extra days of food and souvenirs (and tickets). Once that family is in Disney, the Universal stuff at the airport looks really cool, and they are Harry Potter fans, but that's okay because they've got their Disney tickets already and they know they're skipping 3 lines.

Is this going to work for every family? Of course not, but Disney is banking on this kind of scenario happening enough times that they'll notice a difference in spending.

 

[morethananyonex]

I really don't think this is the reason. I think it's about crowd management and reducing the negative perception that Disney is all about standing in lines. They will use the technology to make money yes, but I don't think "locking plans in" gains them any additional $$. After all, if you bough a 5 day ticket you're going to be in the parks for 5 days, regardless of which days those are.

Disney has said that is the reason.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

Disney has said that is the reason.

Where? I'd like to read the article.

 

[morethananyonex]

Where? I'd like to read the article.

I don't have it, it was discussed heavily here a while back, I believe it was said at a conference of some sort? If I come across it I'll post it here or PM you if this thread dies.

 

[smitch425]

Nevermind. Read it wrong.

 

[arrdee11462]

OP were your prior experiences pulling 10 FP- during busy spring break?

We went Memorial Day Week, then Late Aug. and easily did 10 if we stayed all day with the old system.

We will see how the new system works in 36 days!

 

[JeremyGNJ]

Retracted by Smitch LOL

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I have a hard time buying that FP+ is making people buy more tickets than they originally intended. That might have been Disney's intent, but I don't think that is what is happening. I could be wrong, but going off of people I know and various message boards, that doesn't seem to be the case. And if I'm correct, that means Disney is going to start changing how they do FP+. And since they have already sent out multiple surveys to guests about the best way to change it, and it is said that they are allowing you to now adding a FP+, it sounds like they have discovered the negatives of FP+ outweigh the positives. If the opposite were true, there would be no changes. So, since FP+ needs changing and people are unhappy, they need to go back to a way that makes the guests happy. Happy guests means more money for Disney. Disney is in the business of making money, yes, but they also know that they make more money when their guests are happy. They are looking to keep their guests happy. FP+ doesn't appear to be doing that. They need to change it. I think that having it so that everyone can grab fast passes from their smart phone is a great step in that direction. Then, whether you are in the park or not, you can still grab a fast pass for space mountain at 4:00. Maybe they can even set up something in the app where it alerts you when a ride you are hoping to get comes available at the time you are hoping for.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I feel very bad for people who can only go during peak times of the year. I think the only way to handle the parks on these days and not lose your sanity is to approach your trip with dramatically lower expectations. Its the only way to avoid the disappointment of not being able to get everything you want.

I would say this is true no matter when you go. Plan, plan, plan, but still be flexible when the plans fall apart due to circumstances outside of your control.

Nope, you're not even close to being nuts. If you were the only one who felt that way, Disney wouldn't be rationing rides right now.

I'm with you. $100 a day is just too steep a cover charge to go and hang out. If I had an AP and spending just a few dollars a day I might feel differently.

I agree. I've mentioned this before, but I see a lot of pro-FP talk from local bloggers/commentators/randompeople who live in the area or people who get to go often.

I actually believe FP time enforcement was the first step in the implementation of FP+.

I did one trip with time enforcement and it wasn't as laid back and enjoyable. But I will take that over the FP+ with the limits on ride repeats. I know more than 3 is coming, but can't say yet if that will be a marked improvement until I start hearing what sort of spots are left. Regardless, if they don't allow ride repeats, it's going to be markedly less appealing to us than legacy FP even after time enforcement.

I do think that the 4th FP will allow for repeats...if they are available. At that point of the day, there is no reason to ration.

 

[Spork24]

We went for spring break, 2 years ago and had a very similar crowd experience on 1 day of our trip. The rest of our days were fine crowd wise, (considering it was spring break) but for whatever reason MK reached capacity on the Monday of our trip. It was miserable even with the old FP system. I wouldn't place the entire blame of your less than ideal day on FP+.

 

[ArwenMarie]

This is the conference call which talked about the idea of locking people in:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/walt-disneys-management-presents-ubs-203008871.html

You know we have now had MyMagic+ rolled out to all of our resort guests on property. All of our 35,000 hotel and vacation club rooms. The experience has been extremely good for the people using the product. And to breakdown the product, for me there are really two big aspects. First and foremost is the planning vehicle. So it encourages guests to plan from home, allows them to line up their agenda. Most importantly, allows them to line up their FASTPASSes and really arrive on the property with a very strong sense of what that agenda is going to be.

That’s not only something that guests enjoy doing and want to do but from our perspective, we know that the earlier guests plan their trip to Walt Disney World, the more time they spend with us. People have been coming to Central Florida for about an eight day vacation for a very very long time. And once they get into the market, all of you have been down there, you are just bombarded with all of the other things that you can do while in Orlando.

When people plan at home, they tend to plan a lot more of their time at Walt Disney World. They are also exposed in the planning process to a lot of products that they don’t know exist. And a lot of things that when they see and they say, wow, I would really like to do that. Whether it's character meals, whether it's special parts of the resort that they are not even aware of before they start planning. So this is the first and probably, from an economic driver, the most important part of MyMagic+. It links into technology that you experience when you are on property in the form of a wristband that has long range and short range RFID, that keeps that entire itinerary for you. That has all of your FASTPASSes, that’s your entry ticket to the park. That’s your key to your hotel room. And allows us to know where you are along your itinerary and potentially interact with you in terms of both enhancing the experience and of course economically in terms of up-selling. And that’s the second half of the product.

And here is a Disney commercial about "Locking it in"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D-jpc741rw

 

[morethananyonex]

This is the conference call with talked about the idea of locking people in:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/walt-disneys-management-presents-ubs-203008871.html



And here is a Disney commercial about "Locking it in"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D-jpc741rw

Thanks for posting

That's what I was talking about.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

I'm helping some extended family plan and they in fact just purchased tickets so they could pre-book their FP+s. Yes, they pretty much knew how many days they were going to spend at Disney but if they had arrived in Orlando with no tickets, which was the plan to begin with, they could have been swayed by all the cool brochures and road signs while driving in. They were not staying on-site. Once a family had put out the money for tickets, they are probably not going to forego those tickets to buy new tickets to those parks down the road with all the cool new stuff going on.

Has anyone notice that there aren't any commercials highlighting the new mine coaster on TV? I seem to see one talking about FP+ every hour. At times it seems FP+ and MBs are Disney's answer to what the other parks are doing.

 

[Disney Queenie]

We too would pull many fast passes too, starting at RD it was not uncommon to do the mountains each about 3 times. Usually we would split the park for each day, except our last but, not uncommon to use 8-10 a day and yes, we used them or gave them to a family if we decided to leave.

That is another future pixiedust moment lost...not going to be giving our magicbands away. My kids LOOOOVED giving other families of 5 fastpasses it added to the magic of our trip. I guess they can still give away Disney stickers in line to crying kids, and give an occasional pin to a friend made on the bus or in line, but nothing like making a whole family happy.