More updated Fastpass+ information

[bauer1168]

You know, my son turned 18 this weekend. And there is still cake sitting in the other room.

Would anyone be surprised if I went in and had a piece? Or two?

Depends, what kind of cake are we talking about here? If its chocolate I want some!

 

[Rosanne]

Man, wanna trade cakes?

No way. Ate the cake. Now on to cookies. I guess this is a signal I better make lunch.

BTW we are on spring break. First spring break in years we won't be at Disney. Usually it is gorgeous where we live over spring break but not this year. Total yuck. Nothing to do but clean house, do taxes, play games with the kids and eat.

At least we missed that dreadful storm in Orlando yesterday. So thankful it sounds like everyone is okay.

Off to cook lunch.

 

[DorianDonP]

I think having both FP+ and FP going at the same thing will confuse a ton of people, especially the people that are already confused about FP.

Are they going to drop the "plus" part of it? That in itself, I'd imagine would be confusing to a lot of people since "plus" tends to mean premium in the marketing world. Or paid.

 

[Tekneek]

This is true.

But, plenty of evidence exists that selling expedited access to theme park attractions doesn't anger customers to the point that they won't come back. Many many other parks have been doing it for years.

The catch is selling just enough that the average guests aren't angered. It requires careful management to do it effectively. As long as you only encounter a few throughout your day, you're totally ok with it. If there is a long queue of Front-Of-The-Liners at every attraction, this is going to start a revolt (by both groups!).

I think you have to start with a high enough price that not many will buy it, and have the ability to raise the price as more are sold.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

This is true.

But, plenty of evidence exists that selling expedited access to theme park attractions doesn't anger customers to the point that they won't come back. Many many other parks have been doing it for years.

Edited to add: I'm sure that a few might not come back, but evidently the lost revenue from those guests is outweighed by the gains from those who buy in, assuming these operators are competent at running their businesses.

I thought you just linked something that said WDW is not moving to this model?

 

[Tekneek]

I think having both FP+ and FP going at the same thing will confuse a ton of people, especially the people that are already confused about FP.

Are they going to drop the "plus" part of it? That in itself, I'd imagine would be confusing to a lot of people since "plus" tends to mean premium in the marketing world. Or paid.

FP, as it stands today, is eventually going away. Once they get the vast majority of guests onto the paperless tickets, which can't participate in the current FP system, FP will be effectively dead in the water anyway.

 

[Turn the Page]

I agree with you but that wasnt my point. My point was that everyone wasnt operating with the same knowledge base about the usage of FPs and that is why you see people now bristle at the idea of any attempt Disney makes to level the playing field.

The same information was made available to everyone. In large quantities. Over and over again. If some people are just too dumb or oblivious to pay attention to what is around them, or even read the blurb on the park map the group probably has multiple copies of, then that isn't Disney's, or anyone else's, problem. They have access to the information they just refuse to avail themselves of it.

If they can't figure out regular fp how are they going to figure out FP+? You can't fix stupid.

 

[Turn the Page]

I agree they're trying to reach a happy medium for both kinds of guests as you have described.
A concern of mine is that if some guests haven't got a clue how to get a FP or, how it works and that it is free, this whole new experience could overwhelm them. I'm sure Disney will market/advertise this well, like they have with regular FP, but some guests will remain clueless and will be most likely reporting back to surveys with the same feedback as the one posted about guests' 'terrifying experience'.
If there is going to be an 'x amount of days' you can pre book in advance, will the people who like to sleep in be able to get up and be ready to get their desired times? Some will, some won't.

If FP remains operational when FP+ rolls out fully, even if for a short period, would there be anything to stop a family using FP+ to pre book evening times for attractions at DHS, and buy 1 day non park hopper tickets that they could use at RD for DHS to use regular FP?
If the family were staying at say, Beach Club, this could easily be done.
Can Disney prevent that at all? If the 1 day ticket was paid with the same credit card used to buy the RFID tickets/magic bands/package, is it possible the sale couldn't be made to that family?

I think they could very easily prevent it. From what I have read, and i don't know if this is supposition or based in fact, in order to make FP+ reservations in advance you will have to enter your ticket serial number so the FP+ reservations would effectively be tied to that ticket. If a family buys one day passes the serial numbers won't match with the ticket attached to the reservation.

 

[glamdring269]

If you know you will be in MK in the morning until lunch (arriving at RD or for EMH) then you probably won't need any FPs. You will be able to ride your favorites with shorter lines before it gets too crowded. You can then hop over to HS and you will also be able to ride your favorites over there with little to no wait because you reserved your FPs for them already ahead of time...something you can't really do now.

This is what I've been thinking as well based on what we think we might know about the system currently. It really does still benefit the early risers who park hop and are always there for RD, especially if EMH is still in play.

 

[Wood Nymph]

If FP remains operational when FP+ rolls out fully, even if for a short period, would there be anything to stop a family using FP+ to pre book evening times for attractions at DHS, and buy 1 day non park hopper tickets that they could use at RD for DHS to use regular FP?
If the family were staying at say, Beach Club, this could easily be done.
Can Disney prevent that at all? If the 1 day ticket was paid with the same credit card used to buy the RFID tickets/magic bands/package, is it possible the sale couldn't be made to that family?

The thing that would stop it is the turnstyle at the park entrance gate. Right now a person can't walk into a park with a handful of tickets and go to a fast pass machine to pull fast passes for their friends. Everyone has to go through the turnstyle. The system could be set up, or maybe it is now, that there is only one ticket per person, and that person could not enter a park on one ticket, then enter another park the same day on another ticket. It wouldn't be that difficult for Disney to program it that way. They already scan your fingerprint.

And for the plus passes, I speculate that they wouldn't activate until you walked through the gates. The technology is probably already in place, or soon will be.

 

[mom2rtk]

Depends, what kind of cake are we talking about here? If its chocolate I want some!

Best of both worlds. NO, not Hannah Montana. Half chocolate, half white.

No way. Ate the cake. Now on to cookies. I guess this is a signal I better make lunch.

LOL, at least our house is currently cookie free.

 

[Tekneek]

If they can't figure out regular fp how are they going to figure out FP+?

And FP+ is way more difficult. FP was incredibly simple in comparison. I remember seeing it on the map and wondering what FP meant. I read the blurb and immediately figured out how we could use this. I got fastpasses for a ride while my wife and son got food and a table. I came back with the fastpasses we used to bypass a line after we finished our meal.

Now, I was in the "gifted program" back in school, but I didn't find it to be a high level or complicated program to understand. In comparison, FP+/My Magic+/My Disney Experience is way more complicated. People have been going over the available information for months and we're constantly figuring out some new portion of the program. Just read through the Terms of Service sometime. It's a level of complexity that FP never got close to.

 

[Tekneek]

It really does still benefit the early risers who park hop and are always there for RD, especially if EMH is still in play.

That is a big if. I've never felt its death was more imminent than I do now. I hope it doesn't go away, but I won't be surprised if it does.

 

[mom2rtk]

The thing that would stop it is the turnstyle at the park entrance gate. Right now a person can't walk into a park with a handful of tickets and go to a fast pass machine to pull fast passes for their friends. Everyone has to go through the turnstyle. The system could be set up, or maybe it is now, that there is only one ticket per person, and that person could not enter a park on one ticket, then enter another park the same day on another ticket. It wouldn't be that difficult for Disney to program it that way. They already scan your fingerprint.

And for the plus passes, I speculate that they wouldn't activate until you walked through the gates. The technology is probably already in place, or soon will be.

I suppose they could leave and re-enter with the other ticket. But double the price of entry would probably suffice to keep this from being common enough to matter.

 

[Brian Noble]

I thought you just linked something that said WDW is not moving to this model?

The link was just to Nick's corporate profile. There is a video interview with him floating around that has the statement. I was just too lazy to find it.

But, I wasn't using that as evidence that Disney is going to offer a paid (directly or indirectly) form of FP+. Instead, I was using it as evidence that, done properly, it is perfectly possible to sell expedited access without ruining your business.

As Tekneek points out, the trick is finding the right price point---high enough that not too many people use it, but low enough that it is worth offering given the costs of running the program.

We already know Disney's price point for unlimited access to FP return lines: about $300/hour, with a six hour minimum, because you can buy it today. It is apparently not too low, because I've never seen anyone complain about people "abusing" it. It is apparently not too high, because Disney continues to offer it.

What would the right price be for a single extra FP+ reservation? Who knows? But, there almost certainly is one that would improve Disney's profit.

 

[dadddio]

Because "good intentions" won't create a higher number of maximum riders per hour on a popular attraction.

I realize that you are likely just trying to be snarky and don't really want to discuss the issue, but your statement is factually incorrect. By limiting people to one FP per attraction, they will actually increase the number of distinct riders on popular attractions.

 

[Tekneek]

The system could be set up, or maybe it is now, that there is only one ticket per person, and that person could not enter a park on one ticket, then enter another park the same day on another ticket. It wouldn't be that difficult for Disney to program it that way. They already scan your fingerprint.

And for the plus passes, I speculate that they wouldn't activate until you walked through the gates. The technology is probably already in place, or soon will be.

They intend to have the system setup for you to have an "Experience Party" where you can assign FP+ reservations to everyone in the group. This means that one person can make all the arrangements for the entire group ahead of time.

So, what if that Experience Party is really just multiple tickets sold to the same person who enters the park multiple times that day with different RFID bands? I don't see how Disney prevents that (other than having the pricing so high that few would try it), if somebody wanted to spend their money that way. I am certain that Disney doesn't try to match the biometrics to other tickets (the overhead of that would be immense). They just want to verify your biometric matches the one for the ticket you're using.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

Nevermind, found it.

 

[Brian Noble]

It wouldn't be that difficult for Disney to program it that way. They already scan your fingerprint.

This is an aside to the main topic of this thread, but they don't actually collect fingerprints---they compute a function based several points of your fingerprint. The resulting number is not unique to you, and other people probably have the same "answer". But the chances that any two people randomly have the same "answer" are relatively low.

So, they can't prevent one person from using two tickets with just the current biometric scanners. What's more, I don't think it matters---to Disney or anyone else---if someone bought two separate sets of admission media just to double their FP+ counts. It's equivalent to just having an extra person in the park who paid full price. I suppose some people might do it, but probably not too many.

 

[Wood Nymph]

They intend to have the system setup for you to have an "Experience Party" where you can assign FP+ reservations to everyone in the group. This means that one person can make all the arrangements for the entire group ahead of time.

So, what if that Experience Party is really just multiple tickets sold to the same person who enters the park multiple times that day with different RFID bands? I don't see how Disney prevents that (other than having the pricing so high that few would try it), if somebody wanted to spend their money that way. I am certain that Disney doesn't try to match the biometrics to other tickets (the overhead of that would be immense). They just want to verify your biometric matches the one for the ticket you're using.

If that was true, which I'm not sure it would be, then I say, "have at it". There can't be that many guests who would go to such extremes for a few extra rides.