Paid FP options coming soon to WDW?

[SaharanTea]

Depending on how it's rolled out, if DH and I could pay for more FPs while staying in an offsite resort, we'd be extra happy planning our next trip - if they could be anytime FPs we'd pay even more, as we aren't early people (especially DH and the kids), and don't rush anywhere on vacation. If they tie it to onsite stays we'll have to decide if we'll make some unwanted concessions for WDW's crap hotels. Either instance, WDW is getting more money from our family. In the first instance we will be happily spending more money. In the second, there would be a lot of grumbling but it could change the way we travel now.

So, there are people who think it could be great. I don't want them to take away from the current offering, but if we could buy say 3 more a day, we would. In MK we'd buy a lot more, in DHS we wouldn't need any. I'd love it even more if they would let you buy extra fps for the same ride.

I'm sure everyone has different thresholds for acceptance, but how much would that increase your vacation? The one example was something like $50 per person per day, and you might not even get back to the level of access you had before. That was for maybe 2 rides that you could easily access before the change. $200 for two rides (party of four), and you aren't even on the same playing field before the change? Nightmare fuel.

Obviously we're getting into the minutiae, and that's exceptionally hard for something that's only a rumor at this point. As a ride-loving, budget-conscious family, all these discussed options sound like horrible ideas to me.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Best case scenario:

This is an expansion of current club level program open to all resort guests (but maybe 75 days as that seems to be on par with glitch).

Question is how high price will be and if they will be limited or not. It could be priced high enough and/ or limited enough to not have much of an impact on resort guests (SDD and 7D will lose availability a day or two sooner, maybe).

Maybe this is just wishful thinking

 

[FSU Girl]

I'll be really sad if they start charging for the fast passes. When I talk up Disney to people who don't go often I always mention how these are free. For Universal I don't buy the express pass, either I don't have it or I stay at one of the hotels that includes the unlimited. I just feel like Disney won't be doing anything similar to that. My Annual Pass expires in May and I'm not sure when I'll be going back.

 

[OSUZorba]

My point was that they haven’t reached that tipping point yet. And this likely won’t get them there either, since they’ll roll the change out slowly and charging for line skipping is an industry standard. They are still a very well regarded company. To the general public they are not greedy. In order for them to actually feel something here, that perception would have to change but they still haven’t found the edge.

Look at the companies that have earned that reputation and you’ll see it’s hard to shake (EA, Exxon, Sears, Filenes, etc.)

It is industry standard, but I can hey a skip the line pass and admission to Cedar Point for less than admission to WDW. Further, they limit the number of passes sold so the impact is controlled, so it is more like 5% skip the line vs 80-90% at Disney.

I'm not sure if this is still true, but they also used to make those people take the worst seats on the coasters.

 

[OSUZorba]

Theory:

They roll this out with 2020 packages. Now that we know there won't be FP for GE rides at first it kind of makes sense for them to do that.

Selfish Opinion:

It wouldn't affect my trips, so I hope my theory is correct.

This is what I was thinking, since no packages or tickets have been sold for 2020 yet, you get out of the ticket contract issues (or perceived issues). My last planned trip is at the end of August and then my AP expires, if this comes to pass I'm pretty sure I'll be taking a few years off.

 

[Roxyfire]

One thing that I think gets lost in all this is system reliability and ride uptime. Right now, yes if the ride goes down there is a mechanic to get a new anytime FP but it isn't always obvious to some users that it's there. So there would need to be some guest education and possibly recovery if someone didn't understand just exactly what to do if that paid FP wasn't used properly. A second is the FP reservation system (and frankly MDE as a whole) is incredibly buggy as we all know. The entire system would have to be a lot more reliable or you're talking a lot of problems and guest recovery there too. That's not to say they would care about these factors but it certainly would give me a great deal of pause before spending the extra money on top of tickets or AP.

I'm hoping they find the risk is not worth the reward here but I'm concerned people will throw down the money anyway.

 

[Scoobie]

I see people bring up Maxpass at DL, only been there a few times. So how does that work if a ride is down? I doubt they are getting a refund, do they just suck it up and go about their day with other rides, hoping the down ride gets fixed? Just wondering how DL makes it up to people who paid for Maxpass, since giving them an extra "free" FP would be mute.

 

[Patches Lee]

It is industry standard, but I can hey a skip the line pass and admission to Cedar Point for less than admission to WDW. Further, they limit the number of passes sold so the impact is controlled, so it is more like 5% skip the line vs 80-90% at Disney.

I'm not sure if this is still true, but they also used to make those people take the worst seats on the coasters.

I use to use this when DD wasn't tall enough for coasters and her dad hate coasters. It was nice to still get a few rides in without my family waiting an hour for me to ride something. I never got front or back, but being single rider may have been part of that. I do know now it doesn't matter if you are skip the line or standby, most popular rides you still don't get to pick your seat.

 

[ljmiii]

I've hesitated to post since I don't have any actual new information on a topic that at least for now is pure speculation. But I do offer the following thoughts...

I don't think Disney's FP motives are purely profit based. They want their guests - all of their guests - to have as good a time as possible. FPs started out as a way to allow guests to enjoy other low demand rides while 'waiting' for their high demand FP ride to be available. The current WDW FP system is a nightmare.

As it stands 'newbies' can't compete. Disney doesn't want FP 'pros' to get 10 FPs a day while others have to wait in ever lengthening standby lines. And Disney has succeeded in more or less killing off most of the FP cheats that TAs could pass on to their clients. Since FP lines get priority over standby that leaves newcomers to WDW very unhappy with their experience. "I'll never go back to Disney - the lines are impossible" is a lot worse PR than "I had to pay more."

Disneyland's MaxPass system comes a lot closer to the original FP ideal and at around %15 above the 'base' ticket price is not unreasonably priced. I'd be perfectly happy with 1 FP at 60/30 days if once I'm in the park I got MaxPass. Depending on price I might buy 2 more 60/30 day passes...or I might not. But nothing so far 'announced' has led me to panic in any way.

 

[Mome Rath]

I would love to be able to know what precisely precipitated all of this, meaning why now; if it is one main thing and a bunch of little things, or just a big confluence of a bunch of things. We know that trying to control crowds, as far as time spent in line, has been a big issue (that's the number one issue I see discussed here on the Dis). Then you throw in the recent 6 hour wait for FoP (and the loooonngg wait times for it overall), and the upcoming E ticket rides in all the different parks besides AK. You have people gaming the FP system with reservations and such, and you have the tiering in parks, the extra days you could by for a CL stay, the 30/60 day difference between on-site and off-site and the changes for that. We also have already had them add the parking fees; so there is a move to mainstream customs. When the details of all of this comes out, I'm sure there'll be more clues in exactly what they are aiming for (besides more revenue obviously)...

 

[rteetz]

I would love to be able to know what precisely precipitated all of this, meaning why now; if it is one main thing and a bunch of little things, or just a big confluence of a bunch of things. We know that trying to control crowds, as far as time spent in line, has been a big issue (that's the number one issue I see discussed here on the Dis). Then you throw in the recent 6 hour wait for FoP (and the loooonngg wait times for it overall), and the upcoming E ticket rides in all the different parks besides AK. You have people gaming the FP system with reservations and such, and you have the tiering in parks, the extra days you could by for a CL stay, the 30/60 day difference between on-site and off-site and the changes for that. We also have already had them add the parking fees; so there is a move to mainstream customs. When the details of all of this comes out, I'm sure there'll be more clues in exactly what they are aiming for (besides more revenue obviously)...

I don’t know for sure but my assumption is several things including crowds, SWGE, willingness to spend, and more.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Best case scenario:

This is an expansion of current club level program open to all resort guests (but maybe 75 days as that seems to be on par with glitch).

Question is how high price will be and if they will be limited or not. It could be priced high enough and/ or limited enough to not have much of an impact on resort guests (SDD and 7D will lose availability a day or two sooner, maybe).

Maybe this is just wishful thinking

To add to the above:

What if, instead of taking from the existing FP pool for the pay for PFs, they take from the stand by capacity? This would fit with the apparent increase in FP availability in May, and start of pay for FP in May.

Net result:

1. No change in the FP system, availability (including same day), or FP waits
2. Longer waits for those doing stand by resulting from the higher FP/stand by ratio. How much longer? I have no clue whether it'll be a significant amount, or not.

 

[Mike White]

Wait, so if they are going to start making big profits on the 'fix' to long standby wait times on popular attractions.....do they still have incentives to figure out ways to get those lines shorter for the rest of us who aren't paying?

If long standby wait times equaled increased Disney profits, wouldn't they have a fiscal responsibility to their shareholders to keep wait times long? Why try to fix a problem you are now making a ton of money off of?

This is a very slippery slope ethically.

 

[crvetter]

I see people bring up Maxpass at DL, only been there a few times. So how does that work if a ride is down? I doubt they are getting a refund, do they just suck it up and go about their day with other rides, hoping the down ride gets fixed? Just wondering how DL makes it up to people who paid for Maxpass, since giving them an extra "free" FP would be mute.

People are miss-comparing MaxPass as a paid FastPass service. It really isn't a paid FastPass service but a paid add-on allowing you to grab FastPass from your phone and gives DLR version of Memory Maker. It has exactly the same FastPass windows as the Paper FastPass that they use at DLR. So when a ride breaks, just like the paper, you can claim it later on the ride when operational or on another ride.

DLR FastPass is significantly behind technology wise compared to FastPass+, more specifically it doesn't give FastPass out based on crowd demands. It simply gives out X% per ride per hour. Once those are gone they are gone, no matter what the given lines are at the ride (or people not showing up to their FastPass). Now that being said, IMO, why MaxPass is better has huge benefits for those staying on-site (you can start getting FastPasses during EMH by park open those on-site will have 2 FastPasses for top tier rides if they act fast because of when your next window opens, stacking). FastPass at DLR in general is also better in some features is because it requires 0 planning before arrival, lack of tiering, and ability to stack (based on timing) because the longest you have to wait to grab another FastPass is 1.5 hours to minimum time of 30 mins.

With this being said DLR has significantly less people than WDW, so FastPass+ is much better for parks with multiples more people and I think a DLR set-up would be worse than FastPass+ simply because while it removes the pre-planning you might consistently get stuck with top tier rides in the evening only, less FastPasses per day because they don't actively monitor, and discourage Park Hopping because it isn't simply walking across a 100 foot piece of land to hop like DLR.

 

[dina444444]

People are miss-comparing MaxPass as a paid FastPass service. It really isn't a paid FastPass service but a paid add-on allowing you to grab FastPass from your phone and gives DLR version of Memory Maker. It has exactly the same FastPass windows as the Paper FastPass that they use at DLR. So when a ride breaks, just like the paper, you can claim it later on the ride when operational or on another ride.

DLR FastPass is significantly behind technology wise compared to FastPass+, more specifically it doesn't give FastPass out based on crowd demands. It simply gives out X% per ride per hour. Once those are gone they are gone, no matter what the given lines are at the ride (or people not showing up to their FastPass). Now that being said, IMO, why MaxPass is better has huge benefits for those staying on-site (you can start getting FastPasses during EMH by park open those on-site will have 2 FastPasses for top tier rides if they act fast). FastPass at DLR in general is better in some features is because it requires 0 planning before arrival and lack of tiering, and ability to stack (based on timing) because the longest you have to wait to grab another FastPass is 1.5 hours to minimum time of 30 mins.

They actually do give out based on guest demand via maxpass.

 

[mom2rtk]

I see people bring up Maxpass at DL, only been there a few times. So how does that work if a ride is down? I doubt they are getting a refund, do they just suck it up and go about their day with other rides, hoping the down ride gets fixed? Just wondering how DL makes it up to people who paid for Maxpass, since giving them an extra "free" FP would be mute.

If it goes down, it converts to a multiple attraction FP. And you aren't paying for one specific FP (or 2 or 3) you're paying for the ability to use the electronic FP system which is almost identical to the free system.

 

[crvetter]

They actually do give out based on guest demand via maxpass.

If they do it is no where near the level of WDW. Every time I see Paper sold out (such as RSR) I'll refresh and have never seen a FastPass open for it. Though refreshing in the middle of the day easily has gotten me FOP, TT, ToT, RnR, TSM, SDD, Alien Saucer, Frozen (often these multiple times a day) and they were at convenient times.

But my point was really that MaxPass isn't paid FastPass it is an add-on service.

 

[dina444444]

If they do it is no where near the level of WDW. Every time I see Paper sold out (such as RSR) I'll refresh and have never seen a FastPass open for it. Though refreshing in the middle of the day easily has gotten me FOP, TT, ToT, RnR, TSM, SDD, Alien Saucer, Frozen (often these multiple times a day) and they were at convenient times.

But my point was really that MaxPass isn't paid FastPass it is an add-on service.

The app won’t show the maxpass availability unless you are actually looking to book via maxpass. When you click on the ride on the map that FP time reflects the paper distribution.

 

[rteetz]

Wait, so if they are going to start making big profits on the 'fix' to long standby wait times on popular attractions.....do they still have incentives to figure out ways to get those lines shorter for the rest of us who aren't paying?

If long standby wait times equaled increased Disney profits, wouldn't they have a fiscal responsibility to their shareholders to keep wait times long? Why try to fix a problem you are now making a ton of money off of?

This is a very slippery slope ethically.

If there are less people in FP the standby lines will move more efficiently.

 

[crvetter]

The app won’t show the maxpass availability unless you are actually looking to book via maxpass. When you click on the ride on the map that FP time reflects the paper distribution.

I'm aware of how it works to see availability via MaxPass just they align with Paper Distribution times in my experience. I should say 1 time out of many a ride showed up that was sold out for me (Incredicoaster) but it was late in the evening and the ride was broken for most of the day. But my main points were to say MaxPass is pretty much identical as paper distribution and inferior technology wise to FastPass+. Another major difference is the lack of selecting available times at DLR compared to WDW. You get what is given there not a list of choices, so if I wanted to ride GotG in the evening I had to keep an eye on distribution until the evening times showed up, just like the paper.

With that being said at DLR I'm generally able to ride more top tier rides multiple times but that is more because of stacking, lack of ahead planning, and lack of tier in my opinion. I just don't see it working at WDW anymore without putting limitations on current experience; however, it could be better than whatever their current plans are.