More updated Fastpass+ information

[mom2rtk]

It's a bit different, though, innit? Cause no ADR mean you can't eat there AT ALL. One could still ride even if they're not online when FP opens.

If the wait is over an hour, then it's the same as telling me I can't do it at all. Cuz I'm not waiting in any standby line that long.

Plus...wouldn't this be a GOOD thing as we'll know hours, days, MONTHS before just how many people will be on select ride at select time? Or so that we can even it out a bit in order to not have the wait be 239847239847 minutes 2 minutes after park opening for those of us who missed our chance?

No. Because if I can't get a FP for the rides I plan to ride, I'm not going to be excited about my trip. At least with the current system, I know I can ride a given ride with a relatively short wait. That is never in question heading up to our trip. Never. I can see many ways that could end up being in question under the new system.

 

[JustAKid]

If the wait is over an hour, then it's the same as telling me I can't do it at all. Cuz I'm not waiting in any standby line that long.



No. Because if I can't get a FP for the rides I plan to ride, I'm not going to be excited about my trip. At least with the current system, I know I can ride a given ride with a relatively short wait. That is never in question heading up to our trip. Never. I can see many ways that could end up being in question under the new system.

I'm not understanding. How will you be unable to ride the rides you plan to ride? I *cannot* figure out a better way to say that.

Meaning, your plan will have to change to accomedate the new system, but you're still able to make one in order to ride the planned rides before you go. Right...?

I'm new to all this hoopla, so again, it might be me misunderstanding how everything is rumored to work.

 

[Robo]

Who knew THAT was going to happen?

 

[notnothin]

Who knew THAT was going to happen?

Can we get another countdown please? Please reset the timer.

 

[JustAKid]

Can we get another countdown please? Please reset the timer.

Ooooh, oooh, that's me!!!

10...9...8...7...6...

 

[2Tiggies]

Ooooh, oooh, that's me!!!

10...9...8...7...6...

Uh oh .... cue more spitting!

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm not understanding. How will you be unable to ride the rides you plan to ride? I *cannot* figure out a better way to say that.

Meaning, your plan will have to change to accomedate the new system, but you're still able to make one in order to ride the planned rides before you go. Right...?

I'm new to all this hoopla, so again, it might be me misunderstanding how everything is rumored to work.

Because I won't ride something with a long standby wait. And what I have seen from this system so far indicates a very real possibility that Fp will be limited to 3 per day, and quite possibly that being limited further to only 1 or 2 headliners.

 

[JustAKid]

Uh oh .... cue more spitting!

 

[LaurenT]

I'm not understanding. How will you be unable to ride the rides you plan to ride? I *cannot* figure out a better way to say that.

Meaning, your plan will have to change to accomedate the new system, but you're still able to make one in order to ride the planned rides before you go. Right...?

I'm new to all this hoopla, so again, it might be me misunderstanding how everything is rumored to work.

I think her point is that if she doesn't wake up at 6 am when the 120 day window opens up for FP+ reservations, all the later day slots for TSM will be gone, much as BOG ADRs are gone if you're not one of the first people to call in/go online....
She could be right...we'll have to see. I think there'll be a lot more TSM slots available then there are tables at BOG, and not enough uber-planners like us around to snap them all up too quickly, so I think we'll be ok...but who knows?!

 

[fflmaster]

I know the people who DON'T like to plan are just not going to like this new system.

I don't think disney cares about you. That is not a great thing and you may decide to go elsewhere, but that is the case.

Disney is looking to make money on this, and to better plan the dispersion of its' customers. They want it to be evenly distributed throughout all their parks. Have 75,000 at epcot during EMH and only have 25,000 at Animal Kingdom is not going to make them money. They make a TON more if there is 50,000 at each park. Plus, as an added bonus you may feel like the park is not as busy during those hot afternoons in the summer.

I think this will help send many more customers to other parks when advance rides are scheduled. Being an EXTREME planner for my family this isn't going to hurt us at all. The only issue I will have is the limited ability to get more then 3 FP+ tickets. Plus, my guess is they will only allow ONE e-ticket attraction per guest. That may suck as well. But we will find out sometime in the future.

This will allow disney to apply the correct resources at each park, thus lowering their overall costs.

Plus, the money they make on top with the bands and such.

This is all about money and EVERYONE knows it. Disney can say anything they want about enhancing the customer's experience, but its all about the money.

Now it will be OUR job to find a way we can exploit the new system and plan accordingly. For every system there is a way to make it work for you. Just have to find it.


PLEASE DISNEY START THIS FP+ ALREADY!!! I NEED TO PLAN MY TRIP.

Not knowing how to plan my trip in the fall is killing me. How do I plan my ADRs when I don't even know if I can get a FP for that park. This sucks royally!

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

I am going to cover both sides of the aisle here.

I agree with many, it simply is too early to tell what this system is going to turn into. We won't know for sure until Disney starts making details public.

Until then, there are basically two main theories:

1) We get FP+, and only 3 FP's per day. In my book, that would be total suckage, and would lead to horrible wait times in standby lines, though those lines would likely move faster since there wouldn't be the constant flow of people entering from the FP line getting priority.

2) The new FP+ system integrates with the current system. You can choose the times of 3 attractions ahead of time, and change those times as you see fit. The remainder of your passes, you get what ever time is available, and they work
like the current system, where you can draw only one at a time, and not get your next for two hours, or until the start of the return window for your current pass. This system would work fine for me, and is what I am hoping that FP+ turns into.

Only time will tell what we really get though!

I think finally I'll but in. I keep thinking.....

I don't think anyone dislikes the current fastpass system. So, how in the World could Disney possible make it 'better'. It certainly is not allowing guests to reserve a whopping 3 fastpass+ and that be it. They keep saying they do NOt want people to wait in line. They want people eating, shopping, renting boats, having spa treatments etc. and a guest can not do that in line. So my logic points to a
combination of the two above theories......

Keeping in mind Disney itself has stated the reason behind this whole next gen thing is to appeal to just that...our next generation of guests; those born between 1989-2000 (or somewhere thereabouts). Those are the tech savy, can't live without constant outside world attachment.

Perhaps, just perhaps Disney want ALL guests to reserve their 3 fastpass+
BEFORE they leave home, ideally.

Disney then KNOWS who will be in which parks on which day. They can then sku additional fastpass+ by sending you/your family a notification saying something like "a fastpass+ is now available for "this ride". Click here to
accept." Perhaps guests will receive those type of notifications throughout their day to keep you happy, riding the rides you have indicated as your 'favorites' on the app. Perhaps since a disney knows you/your family are in MK (for example), Disney wants guests to stay in that park, dine in that park and shop in that park and NOT leave, NOT park hop.

Perhaps something like this is the reason why virtually every ride, show, parade are becoming fastplus+ ready? Disney keeps saying they do not want guests waiting in line and perhaps this actually may work.

Those guests who do not embrace the technology..... the lines will always be there, perhaps.

NOTE: Please don't pick apart this logic and state all that is wrong with it. This theory, and it is just that, came from a mom and her teenage son having a very nice 7 minute conversation on the way to school one day. After all, Disney is applying to his generation so they will have a reason to return when they no longer are 'kids'

 

[JustAKid]

Because I won't ride something with a long standby wait. And what I have seen from this system so far indicates a very real possibility that Fp will be limited to 3 per day, and quite possibly that being limited further to only 1 or 2 headliners.

Aye, I agree with what you're saying...I am just not understanding the logic that one would not beable to ride according to their plan.

 

[mesaboy2]

I know the people who DON'T like to plan are just not going to like this new system.

I don't think disney cares about you. That is not a great thing and you may decide to go elsewhere, but that is the case.

Disney is looking to make money on this, and to better plan the dispersion of its' customers.

This will allow disney to apply the correct resources at each park, thus lowering their overall costs.

Plus, the money they make on top with the bands and such.

This is all about money and EVERYONE knows it. Disney can say anything they want about enhancing the customer's experience, but its all about the money.

Now it will be OUR job to find a way we can exploit the new system and plan accordingly. For every system there is a way to make it work for you. Just have to find it.

I think the people that LIKE to plan their rides 60 days in advance are very few and extremely far between.

 

[JustAKid]

I think her point is that if she doesn't wake up at 6 am when the 120 day window opens up for FP+ reservations, all the later day slots for TSM will be gone, much as BOG ADRs are gone if you're not one of the first people to call in/go online....
She could be right...we'll have to see. I think there'll be a lot more TSM slots available then there are tables at BOG, and not enough uber-planners like us around to snap them all up too quickly, so I think we'll be ok...but who knows?!

*face palm* I get the analogy now. Thanks! See? These boards constantly remind me that I'm NOT near as smart as I'd like to think. I wish there was a "eating humble pie" smiley!

 

[LaurenT]

I think finally I'll but in. I keep thinking.....

I don't think anyone dislikes the current fastpass system. So, how in the World could Disney possible make it 'better'. It certainly is not allowing guests to reserve a whopping 3 fastpass+ and that be it. They keep saying they do NOt want people to wait in line. They want people eating, shopping, renting boats, having spa treatments etc. and a guest can not do that in line. So my logic points to a combination of the two above theories......

Keeping in mind Disney itself has stated the reason behind this whole next gen thing is to appeal to just that...our next generation of guests; those born between 1989-2000 (or somewhere thereabouts). Those are the tech savy, can't live without constant outside world attachment.

Perhaps, just perhaps Disney want ALL guests to reserve their 3 fastpass+
BEFORE they leave home, ideally.

Disney then KNOWS who will be in which parks on which day. They can then sku additional fastpass+ by sending you/your family a notification saying something like "a fastpass+ is now available for "this ride". Click here to
accept." Perhaps guests will receive those type of notifications throughout their day. Perhaps since a disney knows you/your family are in MK (for example), Disney wants guests to stay in that park, dine in that park and shop in that park and NOT leave, NOT park hop.

Perhaps something like this is the reason why virtually every ride, show, parade are becoming fastplus+ ready? Disney keeps saying they do not want guests waiting in line and perhaps this actually may work.

Those guests who do not embrace the technology..... the lines will always be there, perhaps.

NOTE: Please don't pick apart this logic and state all that is wrong with it. This theory, and it is just that, came from a mom and her teenage son having a very nice 7 minute conversation on the way to school one day. After all, Disney is applying to his generation so they will have a reason to return when they no longer are 'kids'

People born between 1989 and 2000 are all teens or 20 something's....I can't believe Disney would target them to the exclusion of 40 something's (read older people with more financial resources - in general). But, being a 40 something, I can tell you, I am relatively tech savvy and can probably handle anything Disney throws at me.

 

[hgeisler]

Honestly, I'm not a hard core planner, so I'm a neutral party on the fastpass thing. I do have a couple of thoughts though.
Wouldn't it be impossible to use fastpass + in conjunction with the regular fastpass due to the magic band? You need a ticket to get a traditional fastpass. I doubt they are going to shell out more money to change all the current machines.
It would be a much greener method of distributing fastpasses. Paperless and inkless. I guess in that aspect, they will be saving some money, and we won't have to worry about looking for the little slips of paper

 

[mesaboy2]

Honestly, I'm not a hard core planner, so I'm a neutral party on the fastpass thing. I do have a couple of thoughts though.
Wouldn't it be impossible to use fastpass + in conjunction with the regular fastpass due to the magic band? You need a ticket to get a traditional fastpass. I doubt they are going to shell out more money to change all the current machines.
It would be a much greener method of distributing fastpasses. Paperless and inkless. I guess in that aspect, they will be saving some money, and we won't have to worry about looking for the little slips of paper

The Terms and Conditions state they are mutually exclusive, yes.

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

We are a family of 5 who has visited WDW many times. Our last trip was in June of 2011. Our next trip is booked for June of 2013.

After reading about the Fastpass + I am a little nervous about how it works. I really hope it makes our vacation more fun. I wonder if Disney will make it possible for guests to schedule different Fastpasses for different members of our family. DH and DD like to ride Splash Mountain but DS and I don't and our youngest is too small.

Also, I wonder how it would affect the rides we want to use Babyswap for. Will the end the Babyswap ? How time consuming will it be to schedule the attractions we want to see? Especially for The Magic Kingdom, there is so much to do there.

No one really knows the answers, but I hope Disney has tried to think of all the possible situations.

 

[2Tiggies]

I think the people that LIKE to plan their rides 60 days in advance are very few and extremely far between.

I do agree with this. Let's take a hypothetical situation for example:

You do Epcot first and book your FP's for MK for later in the day. You've planned carefully and booked 60 days out. You get on the monorail to hop over to MK so you are there in good time to ride Splash Mountain. Monorail breaks down and you sit on the beam for an hour. (Yes I know this doesnt' happen every day but it has happened to us more than once). Stuff like this happens. You get on your smart phone but you don't have data and you can't pick up the Epcot wifi signal to reschedule. You miss your FP return time.

OR you DO have your own network data and use that to get onto DME to reschedule. But there is nothing available for Splash Mountain at all for the rest of the day because they've all been allocated. So there goes your MK day and you have 2 options:

1. Get into a long standby line and kill a stupid amount of wasted time despite your careful planning

OR

2. You don't get to ride it at all because you can't justify spending that amount of time in line

I know this is not an every day example but it only has to happen to YOU once to leave a bad taste in your mouth of the new system.

I am at this stage neither for nor against the system. But I do see some potential problems that may just be in the 'stuff happens' category for Disney, but can actually have a very negative impact on a family's day.

 

[mom2rtk]

Honestly, I'm not a hard core planner, so I'm a neutral party on the fastpass thing. I do have a couple of thoughts though.
Wouldn't it be impossible to use fastpass + in conjunction with the regular fastpass due to the magic band? You need a ticket to get a traditional fastpass. I doubt they are going to shell out more money to change all the current machines.
It would be a much greener method of distributing fastpasses. Paperless and inkless. I guess in that aspect, they will be saving some money, and we won't have to worry about looking for the little slips of paper

Yes, but you will have to worry about remembering those times since the band won't have a display to remind you of your times. Many will have a smart phone to consult to remind them of their times. Many won't.

Since the tickets with the magnetic strips will be going away then they will have to get rid of those machines. I imagine they will be replaced with kiosks. I don't want to be behind them in a line while their group "discusses" what time to choose, then digs for a piece of paper to write it down on. Although I imagine if you forget your time, you can just get in line at yet another kiosk to check. Maybe there will be FP for those lines?

My own guess is that everyone will be able to schedule 3 rides in advance. And then Disney will evaluate how many slots are available as the date approaches, and decide how many slots they want to keep for "surprise and delight" purposes and whether there are enough slots to allow additional spots to be scheduled same day. I really think this will be all over the board, and you won't know when scheduling a trip whether there will be additional fps available or not. Pure speculation on my part though.