More FastPass+ Testing Coming This Month

[tony609]

If that's all that's what could be considered an "entire day" at MK
(and, remember, the FP's may be for things like small world and teacups,)
I am not amused.

Nor would I.....BUT that is not counting what rides/attractions you could (hopefully) ride standby. The point was even scheduling 4 attractions (?), a meal, perhaps 2 meet and greets, a parade.show time/spot etc etc..is not all that fun for vacation. I don't mind picking what park/meals per day 180 days in advance. I am just not sure about the scheduling of rides/attractions that far. Like I said I am not sure...I may find out that the reality is i LOVE it. I wouldn't know until it becomes a reality.

Wouldn't this new system be really great if you could...let's say schedule 4 attraction ressie at more than 1 park??? Then HOPPERS would really come into play at WDW. So those of us who never hopped..would become hoppers. If you could get all ride times in a certain window..EXAMPLE MK- magic kingdom your 4 rides all between 9am-1:30 (reserved ones) then hit DHS at like 4:00pm-8:00pm for another 4 at this new park. I think I would like something like that and Disney would sell a lot more hoppers I bet. BUT I doubt thats realistic at all just a good dream for the new system..because if people could do that they would sell less days and people wouldn't stay on their vacation as long there.Because you could hit your Disney Greatest hits in a few days that way.

 

[Raenstoirm]

The picture where the posts are covered looks like it's right outside the Haunted Mansion. Is HM going to get an FP now?

When we were there 6/28, the lines for HM and POTC were 40+minutes. Never saw either one that long!

There is a rumor that potc, hm, small world are all getting fp

All 4 of them had the RFID kiosks during the April/May test. And the new HM queue does have two separate entrance paths (grave yard/ no grave yard).

 

[CanadianPaco]

I just can't see FP for IASMW. Really? This is going to be interesting

 

[mom2rtk]

Who's going to waste a FP on Small World you ask? I bet far more of us than you think.

Remember the FP option for "Give a Day, Get a Day"? They had the rides set up in groups and you had to choose one FP from each group. No duplicates either. I think this was research for the new system. When one of your 4 FP options is Small World, Pooh or Philharmagic, you'll have to pick SOMETHING.

I would also expect another group to have at least 2 of the 3 Mountains so you cannot get advance FPs to all of them. That's roughly how I recall that option from the earlier promotion.

 

[KellyNY]

All I can tell, I will not go first few months after they implement XPass, so many variables. Even if they put FP macines on all rides, which rides will be still doable without FP? IASW can be easily filled with first timers who has no clue, same for COP and Hall of Presidents. There is still a lot of unknown however, wonder when will they release any official info.

 

[TLSnell1981]

There have been a lot of us saying that since they first announced this
"enhancement."
Complexity: squared.

Ah, but the pieces continue to fall into place..supporting this "rumor".

So, nothing's changed!

))

Okay, not funny, but true.

First

time

guests.

Just the tip of the iceberg.

They no longer value us old timers. We're just too "high maintenance". I doubt, it bodes well for DVCers either.

They are not spending this amount of money to implement a new system without getting something in return, given that no one had an issue with the current "free" FP system.

Disney's spending a gazillion $$$$$$$$$$ on XPass, so they can "give it away"? No way, never, nope and nada.. The charge may be hidden, but we'll pay for it.

 

[KellyNY]

Pretty sure that Jim Hill's more recent information is that there will NOT be an extra charge for FP+.

I do not think they will charge anything visibly but I think this is a way to bring/keep people onsite. I also think they may introduce new tickets.

 

[BalooLibLady]

We will be there Aug 14 to 20. How do we go about getting these FP+ for the parks? Would love to give this a try.

 

[mesaboy2]

We will be there Aug 14 to 20. How do we go about getting these FP+ for the parks? Would love to give this a try.

Unknown. Disney has not announced how this test will work. I will be there during this time as well--might be interesting.

 

[hivemama]

What is the projected roll out for the new system?

 

[mesaboy2]

What is the projected roll out for the new system?

Also unknown. Disney has released next to nothing regarding info about it.

 

[MermaidMommy]

According to touringplans blog, neither IASW nor POTC are included in this next test period. Haunted Mansion, Barnstormer, Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes are the new FP "attractions." Here's their breakdown:

Group 1 (Choose 2 experiences)

The Barnstormer
Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade
Dumbo
Haunted Mansion
Jungle Cruise
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Town Square Theater: Meet Mickey and Minnie

Group 2 (Chose 2 experiences)

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
Main Street Electrical Parade
Peter Pan’s Flight
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Town Square Theater: Meet the Disney Princesses
Wishes Nighttime Spectacular

(This might have been posted somewhere already -- I glanced through the threads but didn't see it.)

 

[gwmort]

According to touringplans blog, neither IASW nor POTC are included in this next test period. Haunted Mansion, Barnstormer, Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes are the new FP "attractions." Here's their breakdown:

Group 1 (Choose 2 experiences)

The Barnstormer
Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade
Dumbo
Haunted Mansion
Jungle Cruise
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Town Square Theater: Meet Mickey and Minnie

Group 2 (Chose 2 experiences)

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
Main Street Electrical Parade
Peter Pan’s Flight
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Town Square Theater: Meet the Disney Princesses
Wishes Nighttime Spectacular

(This might have been posted somewhere already -- I glanced through the threads but didn't see it.)

I hadn't seen, thanks.

I think this is going to be really convenient. Looking at this list, I could see getting the reservations for frontier/adventure land in the afternoon and starting my day in tomorrowland (where hopefully lines will be short in the morning and fastpasses unnecessary.

Start off w/ Space Mountain, Buzz, then work way through fantasyland, and by the time crowds are picking up have the fp+ for HM, BTMRR, Spalsh Mtn, and Jungle cruise.

Just seems so much less stressful than the plans that have you running back and forth across the park to hit all the headliners before 10:30 am.

 

[Robo]

Start off w/ Space Mountain, Buzz, then work way through fantasyland, and by the time crowds are picking up have the fp+ for HM, BTMRR, Spalsh Mtn, and Jungle cruise.

That's very close to what we do now.

And we don't need FP for HM and seldom get them for Jungle Cruise or even Splash near noontime.
That means (in my feeble example) that only one (maybe two) of your total of 4 FP's
would be really very useful, considering how the MK operates now.

The current hard-to-come-by and "needed" FP's at MK (rough order of importance) are
Space Mountain
Peter Pan
Buzz
Pooh
(below, starting about 2-3 hours, or so, after the park opens)
Big Thunder
Splash
Jungle Cruise

They have added FP for Dumbo, which may or may not need it, depending on if
your child wishes to play in the tent.

They might get a few more guests to ride Astro Orbitor if they add FP to that.
If they added FP to Aladdin's Magic Carpets, that might be a plus
later in the day, too.


The Mickey Mouse FP is usually simply unnecessary.
(The Princess FP is generally much more needed.)

Just some notes from the way I see MK.


.

 

[kerplop]

I am totally on-board with this provided they don't charge more for it. Maybe charge for off-site, but other than that nope. Otherwise bring it on! I love the idea of being able to roughly set up our day so we can sleep in

 

[havoc315]

For someone with a ropedrop strategy, there is limited benefit here. A bit, as you will already have FPs in hand, instead of having to send a runner for them.
But, the really big benefit is for the guest who arrives late morning/early afternoon.
Arriving at noon, on even an average crowd day, you can be looking at 30+ minutes for Jungle Cruise, 50+ minutes for Pooh, 40+ minutes for each mountain, 60 minutes for Pan.

So you can walk in at noon, and already have reserved times for 4 of those rides.

If you walked into the park at noon today and planned to stay until dinner time, how much could you really accomplish?

Lets say we used FP+ for Splash Mountain, BTMRR, Jungle Cruise and Pooh:
Projected waits for noon:
Jungle Cruise: 20
Pooh: 30
Splash: 35
BTMRR: 30

With those lines only to get worse.

So if your goal was to have 4 hours of touring, from 12-4 today..
There would be little hope of doing all 4 of those attractions.

So that's really the biggest beneficiary of the new system --- late arrivals.

On the other hand, this *might* cause even few people to show up for rope drop, giving an even bigger benefit to people who do go out of their way to get there at opening.

 

[hakepb]

What is the projected roll out for the new system?

Glitches with intermittent bumpiness.

 

[hakepb]

I wonder if the motivation for Disney is pre-scheduled rides mean people are more likely to go into a park for every day of their package, vs feeling "done" and doing nothing or going to Sea World?

 

[mjp12831]

I wonder if the motivation for Disney is pre-scheduled rides mean people are more likely to go into a park for every day of their package, vs feeling "done" and doing nothing or going to Sea World?

I think it could make me less likely to purchase park hopper passes though.

It's also going to create wait times at things that generally don't have them (POTC, HM are good examples) - people will book rides that they otherwise might not go on.

I also go back to the problem of "overbooking" to accomodate no shows - like with the current ADR system.

 

[mom2rtk]

That means (in my feeble example) that only one (maybe two) of your total of 4 FP's
would be really very useful, considering how the MK operates now.

Yep. Pretty much. Just like the birthday and "Give a Day" FPs. Except that with those, I think you got them for your entire party. It remains to be seen how this plays out, but I'm guessing one for one ticket redemption. So no chance to double up like you could on the other ones. (Like when more than one in a group did the "Give a Day" promotion). So only a couple FPs that are really needed.

I'd much rather have kept things just the way they were. But then we're early risers, part of the rope drop crowd. I expect that if you took a poll, you'd find that the ones most excited about this are the ones who like to sleep in and tour the parks later in the day. I hope for their sake that they get to choose their own times. But if that's the case, who's taking the 9:30 AM Splash Mountain times in December? Even if I'm up for rope drop, I'm not signing up for those.