Not to reopen that can of worms but...

[Thundarr]

Thanks. We did not have a typical FP+ experience, but we were there to have fun and maximize our time, not to prove a point one way or another.

I am headed to MK two weeks from today. How did you maximize FP+? Did you get a throwaway room? Use Multiple Magic Bands per person in your party? I am just trying to plan out my one day in WDW at MK

 

[TheDisGuy]

When you have your FP+ reservations, in some sense you're committing to being in that WDW park (and spending money there) on that day. Disney maybe thinks that having your FP+ booked makes you less likely to wake up one day in the middle of your trip and say "let's go to Sea World/Universal today instead".

I read another article somewhere about Magicbands and the "abstraction of money". For me, paying $25 cash for some chicken fingers and a cheeseburger and some drinks for lunch will normally elicit a very negative reaction. You can feel the money leaving your hands, and see how much is left in the wallet. Paying with a credit card is a level removed. Charging it to the room is another level removed, you don't even need to pull out your credit card. Having a Magicband on your wrist, is even further removed, making it theoretically the easiest way for park guests to spend money without thinking about it. Then there's the psychology of a really positive experience/feeling (such as entering the Magic Kingdom, or using a FP at a ride) using the same Magicband touch/swipe/chime/Mickey head lighting up, as the payment system. So buying something with Magicband feels good too.

Iger expressed your first point almost exactly in a couple investor calls. One of the key purposes of MM+ and FP+ was to get people to "Lock in" to wdw. They basically wanted to ensure that WDW was getting a bigger slice of the Orlando Tourism spending. And it was exactly what you mentioned, that this would prevent people from just deciding to hit Sea World or USO one morning if they were already scheduled to be in WDW.

The second point has also been raised a couple times, though not quite as openly as you just did, the idea that people spend more freely when using a card (or a magic band) than if they were using cash.

The ability to save on staffing was also mentioned a few times.

These were two of the main purposes of MM+ and FP+, repeated several times over several investor calls and press releases and interviews, anyone who does a little work on google can find this stuff. Now, maybe it was the audience, people who were most interested in the financials of this investment, but what struck me over and over again is that there was very little mention of guest experience improvement in the lead up to MM+ and FP+, it was all very much about how it was going to benefit Disney's bottom line, but I guess thats what companies are supposed to do.

 

[TheDisGuy]

I am headed to MK two weeks from today. How did you maximize FP+? Did you get a throwaway room? Use Multiple Magic Bands per person in your party? I am just trying to plan out my one day in WDW at MK

Dang the $100/day ticket price doesn't scare you off ? Well, you are headed in 2 weeks so no need for a throwaway room, if you have old magic bands you can use them to get more FPs right when you enter the park, do you have your tickets yet ? IF so log into MDE, link them to your account and book FPs for either Mid day or evening, make sure you are there at Rope Drop, thats really about it.

 

[TheDisGuy]

Which is specifically why we never attached our CC to KTTW cards, didn't attach it to our MBs last trip either. I highly doubt we ever will. We always carry ID with us wherever we go..throwing a CC in there with the ID doesn't add any bulk to our traveling.

We discovered this on our last trip as well, thought everything was good and stuff until we went to purchase an alcoholic drink, and got ID'd (I have been able to drink legally for almost 20 years). Of course we had no ID with us, it was back in the resort room. So from then on we carried ID with us anyway, Magic Bands really accomplish nothing at that point.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We discovered this on our last trip as well, thought everything was good and stuff until we went to purchase an alcoholic drink, and got ID'd (I have been able to drink legally for almost 20 years). Of course we had no ID with us, it was back in the resort room. So from then on we carried ID with us anyway, Magic Bands really accomplish nothing at that point.

If you have an AP and want to take advantage of the discounts, you need to have that with you, plus identification. If you have TIW you need that card as well. Thanks to our APs, we're carrying more with us now than we did when we had KTTW cards. First world problem, I know.

 

[WillAustin]

Disney maybe thinks that having your FP+ booked makes you less likely to wake up one day in the middle of your trip and say "let's go to Sea World/Universal today instead".

They definitely do think that. It's been said in conference calls and interviews.

 

[Barnabe]

Iger expressed your first point almost exactly in a couple investor calls. One of the key purposes of MM+ and FP+ was to get people to "Lock in" to wdw. They basically wanted to ensure that WDW was getting a bigger slice of the Orlando Tourism spending. And it was exactly what you mentioned, that this would prevent people from just deciding to hit Sea World or USO one morning if they were already scheduled to be in WDW.

The second point has also been raised a couple times, though not quite as openly as you just did, the idea that people spend more freely when using a card (or a magic band) than if they were using cash.

The ability to save on staffing was also mentioned a few times.

These were two of the main purposes of MM+ and FP+, repeated several times over several investor calls and press releases and interviews, anyone who does a little work on google can find this stuff. Now, maybe it was the audience, people who were most interested in the financials of this investment, but what struck me over and over again is that there was very little mention of guest experience improvement in the lead up to MM+ and FP+, it was all very much about how it was going to benefit Disney's bottom line, but I guess thats what companies are supposed to do.

Totally agree, but do you think it's benefited Disney's bottom line?

 

[WillAustin]

If you have an AP and want to take advantage of the discounts, you need to have that with you, plus identification. If you have TIW you need that card as well. Thanks to our APs, we're carrying more with us now than we did when we had KTTW cards. First world problem, I know.

I really wonder if they'll ever add AP discounts and TIW to the bands. I think they purposely have a level of inconvenience so some people forget or don't bother. If it were all on the band, they'd lose quite a bit of money.

 

[Barnabe]

Dang the $100/day ticket price doesn't scare you off ? Well, you are headed in 2 weeks so no need for a throwaway room, if you have old magic bands you can use them to get more FPs right when you enter the park, do you have your tickets yet ? IF so log into MDE, link them to your account and book FPs for either Mid day or evening, make sure you are there at Rope Drop, thats really about it.

Use a new MDE account for your new Magic bands., that will allow you to use your old MB's at the kiosks

 

[mom2rtk]

Which is specifically why we never attached our CC to KTTW cards, didn't attach it to our MBs last trip either. I highly doubt we ever will. We always carry ID with us wherever we go..throwing a CC in there with the ID doesn't add any bulk to our traveling.

Same here. Never attached one to our KTTW cards, and didn't attach one to our magic bands.

 

[TheDisGuy]

Totally agree, but do you think it's benefited Disney's bottom line?

Good question, and I don't know Lots of research shows people spend more money when using cash alternatives, so even moving people over to MBs would increase their spending, if only slightly.

We have seen a mixed bag on what FP+ has done to the parks. Some people have reported being in the parks for shorter periods of time, Disney said they were able to accommodate several thousand more people on Christmas per day than before FP+ (I guess from cycling people through the park faster) ... its really difficult to know how that pans out. Sure that sounds great for Christmas, assuming people still spend cash while they are in the park, more people in and out, potentially more cash spent. But the rest of the year, if you aren't getting any -more- people through the park, but they -are- spending less time in the park, they might be spending less money in the parks as well. This is not a good thing.

Disney has said their per person spending has risen over the last couple years, but it has risen on rising prices, including tickets, resort rooms, merch and food and bev, all those prices have increased, which makes it very difficult to isolate the impact of MM+ and FP+ on revenue, which I honestly think might have been the point of the presentations we have seen to investors. No one wants to say ... we spent over a billion on this thing and aren't really getting any returns from it ...

I do wonder what they have done cast side as a result of FP+, again we have seen mixed reports of under staffing, terrible wash rooms, etc. We of course have no real way to know if there is any correlation there, are they trying to cut staffing based on the number of people reserving FPs in a give park, on a given day, even over given times of day as a predictor of crowd levels ? Maybe they are, maybe that's saving them some money.

I am hopeful for what MM+ offers for the future and next gen rides, although I read somewhere that basically not much of that is going to materialize, at least not in the next half decade or so, that imagineers were all gung ho about the possibilities but that basically their wildest (and most awesome) ideas have been quashed by management. What we are really going to see is very light and superficial uses of MM+ on attractions, but who knows, the potential is there, just a matter of it being taken advantage of.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I also think talent is a bigger must!

Exactly!

My mom's husband loved photography. He could do things with a disposable camera (how??????) that put what I do when any real camera to shame.

Mom2rtk has a great eye for a shot.

 

[Disney Ella]

I went to WDW in early May after being away for three years. FP+ made the experience less enjoyable, particularly on our MK day. We always hit MK at opening in the past and were able to do many rides before 11 a.m. under the old system. That's no longer possible. Since most rides have fast passes now, almost every ride has a line. If one of the objectives was to get us to spend more in the stores, it failed. Because we used to get so much done, we had the time to visit stores in several areas of the park. This time, we stood in so many lines for attractions that previously only had short wait times and had less time to visit stores. We only visited the big, interconnected store on Main Street on our way out.

Our day at Universal was much more relaxing. We didn't have to choose which rides we wanted to ride 60 days in advance, some rides were walk ons and we ate at Finnegan's with no reservation.

 

[Barnabe]

Good question, and I don't know Lots of research shows people spend more money when using cash alternatives, so even moving people over to MBs would increase their spending, if only slightly.

We have seen a mixed bag on what FP+ has done to the parks. Some people have reported being in the parks for shorter periods of time, Disney said they were able to accommodate several thousand more people on Christmas per day than before FP+ (I guess from cycling people through the park faster) ... its really difficult to know how that pans out. Sure that sounds great for Christmas, assuming people still spend cash while they are in the park, more people in and out, potentially more cash spent. But the rest of the year, if you aren't getting any -more- people through the park, but they -are- spending less time in the park, they might be spending less money in the parks as well. This is not a good thing.

Disney has said their per person spending has risen over the last couple years, but it has risen on rising prices, including tickets, resort rooms, merch and food and bev, all those prices have increased, which makes it very difficult to isolate the impact of MM+ and FP+ on revenue, which I honestly think might have been the point of the presentations we have seen to investors. No one wants to say ... we spent over a billion on this thing and aren't really getting any returns from it ...

I do wonder what they have done cast side as a result of FP+, again we have seen mixed reports of under staffing, terrible wash rooms, etc. We of course have no real way to know if there is any correlation there, are they trying to cut staffing based on the number of people reserving FPs in a give park, on a given day, even over given times of day as a predictor of crowd levels ? Maybe they are, maybe that's saving them some money.

I am hopeful for what MM+ offers for the future and next gen rides, although I read somewhere that basically not much of that is going to materialize, at least not in the next half decade or so, that imagineers were all gung ho about the possibilities but that basically their wildest (and most awesome) ideas have been quashed by management. What we are really going to see is very light and superficial uses of MM+ on attractions, but who knows, the potential is there, just a matter of it being taken advantage of.

I don't think we'll see the guest experience enhancements that were originally mentioned. It reminds me of having your home remodeled: every new upgrade costs a few dollars more, but it all adds up to a hefty bill.

 

[Rags]

Would you book fp+ the same way we book popular adrs? Book the last day of trip and work your way back to first? Or is there a better way? We are heading there the week of Labor Day. Tia

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Good question, and I don't know Lots of research shows people spend more money when using cash alternatives, so even moving people over to MBs would increase their spending, if only slightly.

We have seen a mixed bag on what FP+ has done to the parks. Some people have reported being in the parks for shorter periods of time, Disney said they were able to accommodate several thousand more people on Christmas per day than before FP+ (I guess from cycling people through the park faster) ... its really difficult to know how that pans out. Sure that sounds great for Christmas, assuming people still spend cash while they are in the park, more people in and out, potentially more cash spent. But the rest of the year, if you aren't getting any -more- people through the park, but they -are- spending less time in the park, they might be spending less money in the parks as well. This is not a good thing.

Disney has said their per person spending has risen over the last couple years, but it has risen on rising prices, including tickets, resort rooms, merch and food and bev, all those prices have increased, which makes it very difficult to isolate the impact of MM+ and FP+ on revenue, which I honestly think might have been the point of the presentations we have seen to investors. No one wants to say ... we spent over a billion on this thing and aren't really getting any returns from it ...

I do wonder what they have done cast side as a result of FP+, again we have seen mixed reports of under staffing, terrible wash rooms, etc. We of course have no real way to know if there is any correlation there, are they trying to cut staffing based on the number of people reserving FPs in a give park, on a given day, even over given times of day as a predictor of crowd levels ? Maybe they are, maybe that's saving them some money.

I am hopeful for what MM+ offers for the future and next gen rides, although I read somewhere that basically not much of that is going to materialize, at least not in the next half decade or so, that imagineers were all gung ho about the possibilities but that basically their wildest (and most awesome) ideas have been quashed by management. What we are really going to see is very light and superficial uses of MM+ on attractions, but who knows, the potential is there, just a matter of it being taken advantage of.

The guest experience concerns disappeared long ago. The real question is are people cying out faster because they are able to do what they want or because they are giving up out of frustration. Trying to take every cent of a "vacation of a lifetime" is great but your long term benefit is encouraging people to come back. One bad experience can wipe out 20 positive ones.

 

[Mikie]

Would you book fp+ the same way we book popular adrs? Book the last day of trip and work your way back to first? Or is there a better way? We are heading there the week of Labor Day. Tia

Many people do suggest this for the very most popular attractions: Ana and Elsa meet, Wishes, Parades, to some extent 7 dwarfs and Toy Story. If you want A&E, fireworks or parades, I'd be online at midnight and try late in the trip first. Then, if there's an earlier date where you'd really prefer to use those FP's, look for those next. Then move on to 7 dwarfs and Toy Story. Depending how much of a night owl you are, you can either stay up and finish out your whole trip, or I'd go to bed and resume the next day. Just one humble opinion.

 

[mom2rtk]

Exactly!

My mom's husband loved photography. He could do things with a disposable camera (how??????) that put what I do when any real camera to shame.

Mom2rtk has a great eye for a shot.

Thanks Lisa.

 

[tvandervelden]

Would you book fp+ the same way we book popular adrs? Book the last day of trip and work your way back to first? Or is there a better way? We are heading there the week of Labor Day. Tia

This is also the way we did it. Leaving for WDW in 2 days. We got every fast pass we wanted using this method. It seems FP+ really suits our touring style. Will have to give a report when we get back.

 

[js]

Yes, go to kiosk, select FP, ride the ride, repeat, go to kiosk, select FP, ride the ride, repeat. On that particular day, which was not busy, the return times were mostly 5 minutes away. We would go straight to the ride (which had 20-30 minute posted standby wait) and walk in immediately with FP. That was not the norm the rest of the week we were there.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/fastpass.htm

Thank you so much!

Is MK the only park we can get more than three FP?