No more Stanby line for A&E?

[Aurora0427]

Are people mad about not getting to stand in line? I guess I don't understand what all the fuss is about. This sounds like a sweet deal.

I thought it was a good idea until someone posted that they were handing out return times of 4pm at 9:15am.

 

[disxlovee]

They only started this three-day test yesterday morning. And I'm guessing Disney picked this specific three days because there WASN'T evening EMH at MK during that span. There's morning EMH this morning, so I'm curious to see if that means the return tickets run out faster. But we won't know how this will work for evening EMH until (if) Disney implements this system as a permanent solution after the testing period ends.

Thanks for the info!!! I've got a few Frozen fanatics traveling with me this trip.

 

[PlutoMars]

I didn't think you were a big fan of deflection. I guess it depends on your narrative/agenda, huh?

I thought park comparisons was modus operandi around here and I just wanted to be like the cool kids.

And I see your feigned outrage depends on your narrative as well

As far as A&E is concerned, I want to see how this all plays out over the next few days to see whether the test becomes permanent.

 

[LoverDisney]

Yesterday I had a Fastpass for 10:30am and got a return ticket to return between 2:30 and 3:00. The CM passing out the tickets said that I was lucky because many people had much later return times. I was glad because we were scheduled to leave at 3:30 in order to make our Magical Express departure time. The wait was about 30 minutes. Afterwards I was approached by a CM to complete a survey. She told me that I will also receive something at my email address to write additional comments on how they can improve the wait times for Anna and Elsa. When we left I saw a sign stating that Anna and Elsa was closed for the day.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

The EMH is an interesting topic. When we go, there are 2 EMHs till 2am. Imagine being a Dad of 2 young kids and being handed a slip saying to return at 1am when you're in line at 10am?

Even not to that extreme, what about a normal Midnight closing? It's 10:30am, come back at 11pm.

Anyone know what the latest return times were yesterday?

 

[princeprincess]

We were there yesterday and I stopped by to see what was going on. At 1:00 I was directed to the CM's handing out the tickets, only had to wait a couple of minutes before being offered 4 tickets with a return time of 11:30pm -12:00am. I declined because my kids are 2 & 5 and we wouldn't be in the park at that time, plus I do have fp for them. So to answer a couple of questions, my whole party was not in line with me and I was able to receive 4 and no they do not scan your magic band,

 

[Mad Hattered]

I thought park comparisons was modus operandi around here and I just wanted to be like the cool kids.

And I see your feigned outrage depends on your narrative as well

As far as A&E is concerned, I want to see how this all plays out over the next few days to see whether the test becomes permanent.

You are welcome to come spread your feigned outrage about Gringotts over on the Universal side if you like. There are a couple of threads over there that might get your jolly's off. Come on over.

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30

Besides...this thread is about converting back to "paper fastpasses".

 

[Mommymarie]

We were there yesterday and I stopped by to see what was going on. At 1:00 I was directed to the CM's handing out the tickets, only had to wait a couple of minutes before being offered 4 tickets with a return time of 11:30pm -12:00am. I declined because my kids are 2 & 5 and we wouldn't be in the park at that time, plus I do have fp for them. So to answer a couple of questions, my whole party was not in line with me and I was able to receive 4 and no they do not scan your magic band,

thanks for the updates! I am a little sad that they are giving out paper return tickets even if you have a FP+....it would really stink for someone to be shut out of A&E when there are people who got to see them twice in one day.....sorry if i offend anyone by this thought

 

[isaboo]

Personally, I don't understand how people can spend hundreds of dollars on themepark tickets, and not research the place that they are visiting. Granted things change from day to day, but knowledge is a good thing. Going in blind, is not something that I would ever do.

Not everybody has time to do that, or wants to do that. A few years ago (long before FP+, we added two days at MK after a 7 day cruise. I was mostly excited about the cruise so Disney World was really kind of an afterthought. I didn't plan a single thing for those two park things...just showed up at the gate. Fortunately those were the days of the old FP system, and I was able to get away with that. If we tried to do that now we would miss out on a ton.

 

[disxlovee]

We were there yesterday and I stopped by to see what was going on. At 1:00 I was directed to the CM's handing out the tickets, only had to wait a couple of minutes before being offered 4 tickets with a return time of 11:30pm -12:00am. I declined because my kids are 2 & 5 and we wouldn't be in the park at that time, plus I do have fp for them. So to answer a couple of questions, my whole party was not in line with me and I was able to receive 4 and no they do not scan your magic band,

This is quite helpful. Thanks!!

 

[AndreaA]

We were there yesterday and I stopped by to see what was going on. At 1:00 I was directed to the CM's handing out the tickets, only had to wait a couple of minutes before being offered 4 tickets with a return time of 11:30pm -12:00am. I declined because my kids are 2 & 5 and we wouldn't be in the park at that time, plus I do have fp for them. So to answer a couple of questions, my whole party was not in line with me and I was able to receive 4 and no they do not scan your magic band,

I have a feeling that the only reason that they still had tickets to give out at 1pm is because a lot of people have small children and were turning down those late hour returns.

I agree with the poster who said it's quite unfair if people are allowed to have FP+ AND get these return tickets. For a ride, I suppose it's every man for himself because people may want to ride more than once, but for a M&G, one visit should be plenty, especially when there are so many people who want to meet and so many who will no doubt leave disappointed even if no one with FP+ takes a return ticket. If someone has a late return FP+ and wants an earlier time return ticket then they should have to cancel their FP+ when they receive that ticket.

 

[mom2rtk]

Nothing other than the site that posted this was about to happen. But then again, not one other site saw this one coming.

You can take it for it's worth, but I did see mention of another ride in MK taking this approach and CMS had been trained on how to handle it. It's pretty obvious what that is. If all these people aren't in line for A & E, and taken out of the pool, what will that do to the other attractions (not necessarily headliners)? Surely people don't pay admission to shop...do they?

Snorin' and TT would be the icing on the cake.

So my question is this...... if everyone is out of the ride lines, won't the park just seem more crowded?

And if everyone is out of the A/E line in particular, won't that make the ride line at 7DMT that much worse?

That sounds just like TSMM back in the day.

Except you always had the option then or riding during Fantasmic. Or stepping in line right before the park closed. Those back-up plans would just be gone under this arrangement. A person could be purchasing a ticket a couple hours after park opening only to find out when they walk into the park that the ticket effectively did not include admission to the hottest attraction. It's different to say "you can't" than it is to say "you can, but you'll have to wait in this really long line". Obviously people WERE willing to wait in really long lines, or those really long lines would never have existed.

Keep in mind...those are subject to change at any given time without any notice whatsoever.

I tell you, keeping up with this stuff really has become a full-time job for people wanting to get the most out of the parks. I enjoy reading here and getting the inside information. But even I'm getting weary of it. I can see a decent number of people just deciding it's too much work.

They only started this three-day test yesterday morning. And I'm guessing Disney picked this specific three days because there WASN'T evening EMH at MK during that span. There's morning EMH this morning, so I'm curious to see if that means the return tickets run out faster. But we won't know how this will work for evening EMH until (if) Disney implements this system as a permanent solution after the testing period ends.

Isn't today AM EMH? I'd be curious to hear how that goes. I don't know how they could NOT do this for the first hour, then start later because the line would be too backed up otherwise. And if they do this for real, and word starts getting around, I wonder if it's possible all of the day's capacity could go to just onsite guests in that first hour.

Yesterday I had a Fastpass for 10:30am and got a return ticket to return between 2:30 and 3:00. The CM passing out the tickets said that I was lucky because many people had much later return times. I was glad because we were scheduled to leave at 3:30 in order to make our Magical Express departure time. The wait was about 30 minutes. Afterwards I was approached by a CM to complete a survey. She told me that I will also receive something at my email address to write additional comments on how they can improve the wait times for Anna and Elsa. When we left I saw a sign stating that Anna and Elsa was closed for the day.

Hmmm...... I wonder if they'll survey the people who DIDN'T get a ticket yesterday. Why would anyone who GOT a ticket have anything bad to say about it?

And I wonder if "add more A/E access in the parks" will be one of the survey choices!

 

[AngiTN]

I I know you didn't but I think we forget that we who stay onsite are only a percentage of guests. People who show up at the gate and pay premium prices to get in are at a disadvantage how are they to know about pre selection of fastpasses which they cant select anyway.

Other than commercials on TV I'm not sure what can be done to spread the word to those walk up guests. Complaining about FP+ isn't going to make it go away, I think we've all figured that out by now. At this point I'm thinking their changes are trying to make it better, not harder.

Right now herds of people arrive at MK and head to A&E to stand in line. Instead herds of people will arrive to MK to be given a return time for later. Why can that method work for Jedi Training and not for A&E? Those that arrive late at HS are shut out and we haven't seen wailing and gnashing of teeth over at HS. Kids have survived the disappointment. At least with A&E you can send just 1 to get passes while the rest to ride something. You can't do that at JTA since the kids have to go too

 

[aldeanarmyangel]

Yesterday I had a Fastpass for 10:30am and got a return ticket to return between 2:30 and 3:00. The CM passing out the tickets said that I was lucky because many people had much later return times. I was glad because we were scheduled to leave at 3:30 in order to make our Magical Express departure time. The wait was about 30 minutes. Afterwards I was approached by a CM to complete a survey. She told me that I will also receive something at my email address to write additional comments on how they can improve the wait times for Anna and Elsa. When we left I saw a sign stating that Anna and Elsa was closed for the day.

I thought that if you had a FP+ you were not affected by the paper FP being handed out, can someone confirm this? Thank you!

 

[wn01aa]

We were there yesterday and I stopped by to see what was going on. At 1:00 I was directed to the CM's handing out the tickets, only had to wait a couple of minutes before being offered 4 tickets with a return time of 11:30pm -12:00am. I declined because my kids are 2 & 5 and we wouldn't be in the park at that time, plus I do have fp for them. So to answer a couple of questions, my whole party was not in line with me and I was able to receive 4 and no they do not scan your magic band,

Did the CM just ask how many tickets you want? I have a party of 6 and am doubtful they would give me 6 passes if I was the only one who approached (unless they scanned my band to see my party size which they aren't doing right now).

 

[mom2rtk]

Right now herds of people arrive at MK and head to A&E to stand in line. Instead herds of people will arrive to MK to be given a return time for later. Why can that method work for Jedi Training and not for A&E?

Because the 2 things are in entirely different classifications in terms of expectation of getting to participate. Jedi Academy is not a meet and greet.

 

[mom2rtk]

I thought that if you had a FP+ you were not affected by the paper FP being handed out, can someone confirm this? Thank you!

You aren't. The PP had FP+ but also picked up standby tickets.

 

[AngiTN]

Because the 2 things are in entirely different classifications in terms of expectation of getting to participate. Jedi Academy is not a meet and greet.

How is the difference between one being a M&G and one being an experience alter expectations? Other than we (the collective public we) are just used to M&G working a given way. Yes it is a shock to learn something new now. However, I think new methods can be learned in regards to a M&G.

Do people who are not prepared by researching WDW in advance know they need to arrive early to get JTA passes? I'm trying to compare those that want to do JTA and find they arrive too late to those that want to do A&E and find they arrive too late. In those cases, is it different?

 

[jco_direwolf]

Because the 2 things are in entirely different classifications in terms of expectation of getting to participate. Jedi Academy is not a meet and greet.

That is what I've been saying about people drawing the parallel between JTA or the frozen sing-a-long or jack sparrow.

M&G in people's mind are not the same as a show. Shows have start/end times. JTA which I think is the closest you have to show up ahead of time to "prepare" (get your cloak). If A&E was like JTA where there was a performance people would get it.

 

[mom2rtk]

How is the difference between one being a M&G and one being an experience alter expectations?

Capacity.