Paid FP options coming soon to WDW?

[mercuryvenus]

They can just simply choose to turn off the park reservation system.

Again, not that simple. From looking at the interface of the park reservation system, it looks like they used at least part of the FP technology to make the reservation system.

Databases aren’t like light switches. You don’t just turn them on or off. Disney’s tech has been almost like Frankenstein, adding more things on top of existing capabilities for decades. Making sure everything interacts properly is difficult and you almost never can simply “revert” back to what you had before. At least not easily.

 

[Jrb1979]

They can just simply choose to turn off the park reservation system.

They won't as the reservation system is here to stay.

 

[mercuryvenus]

They won't as the reservation system is here to stay.

Also, like I said above, you can’t just “turn off” a database, especially if you’ve pilfered from another database to make it, as I suspect Disney did with the reservation system.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

Keep in mind how quickly all of this has happened. It’s been roughly 14 months since they had to close everything unexpectedly. Then they didn’t know when they could open back up. They opened back up with a brand new system (park reservations) about 11 months ago and have been dealing with hiring people back, scaling up the systems as they increase capacity, etc.

It’s not as though they’ve been sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Now they have to try to get FP+ to work with the reservation system and everything else. Not exactly simple.

I'd be willing to bet that when they came up with the PRS that they knew they would be bringing FP+ back at some point so they started working on modifying the FP+ system to work with the PRS right then.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

They can just simply choose to turn off the park reservation system.

But they won't. Chapek said as much.

 

[New Mouse]

Also, like I said above, you can’t just “turn off” a database, especially if you’ve pilfered from another database to make it, as I suspect Disney did with the reservation system.

You can very easily revert back to an older backup. The issue is that Disney wants both.

 

[ChipnDale79]

I hope that the standard protocol for both fastpass and dining reservations go back to what they were pre-covid, BUT rolling fastpass out in the standard 30/60 day window would do this summer's guests absolutely no good. This summer is going to be mayhem and if i were going in that timeframe, I'd much rather do the mad dash for fastpasses than have no chance of getting any at all. That said, I think there is some kind of compromise in there. They could make it so that guests could make their fastpasses even just a week out. That way it would still be on a rolling basis instead of a complete free-for-all.

I've said for a long time that a mixture of the old and new fastpass system would be awesome. Maybe make it to where you can get fast passes the day of, but their digital. that would avoid the mad dash all the way across the park to get a fast pass for something.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

You can very easily revert back to an older backup. The issue is that Disney wants both.

 

[mercuryvenus]

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The ease of doing that depends entirely on how they set up the systems.

 

[mercuryvenus]

I'd be willing to bet that when they came up with the PRS that they knew they would be bringing FP+ back at some point so they started working on modifying the FP+ system to work with the PRS right then.

Very possible, but a ton of testing is needed before they can roll out FP in a way that works seamlessly with PRS.

 

[Meglen]

Very possible, but a ton of testing is needed before they can roll out FP in a way that works seamlessly with PRS.

Park reservations make it almost necessary to book as far out as you can. Even with parks never filling up with the increased capacity it makes it feel like capacity is limited and people tend to hate to miss out. Also people like to feel like the "lucky few" who gets everything set up.

This gets Disney money sooner. Unless you book a full package you need to put half down (could be wrong). It's pretty much a promise of money way sooner than the old 180 day dining reservations.

If they add fast passes free or not I'm assuming it will be back to the 60 days onsite 30 off-site and I hope they change dining to 90 days so it's not the same day. All these dates and time and systems take time to work out and test and even do a focus group on how folks feel.

 

[mercuryvenus]

Park reservations make it almost necessary to book as far out as you can. Even with parks never filling up with the increased capacity it makes it feel like capacity is limited and people tend to hate to miss out. Also people like to feel like the "lucky few" who gets everything set up.

This gets Disney money sooner. Unless you book a full package you need to put half down (could be wrong). It's pretty much a promise of money way sooner than the old 180 day dining reservations.

If they add fast passes free or not I'm assuming it will be back to the 60 days onsite 30 off-site and I hope they change dining to 90 days so it's not the same day. All these dates and time and systems take time to work out and test and even do a focus group on how folks feel.

Right! This isn’t as simple as flipping a switch.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

Very possible, but a ton of testing is needed before they can roll out FP in a way that works seamlessly with PRS.

Never said it didn't. I am just saying that Disney was likely smart enough to know when they came up with the PRS that they would need to merge it with FP+ and started working on doing that right away.

 

[mercuryvenus]

Never said it didn't. I am just saying that Disney was likely smart enough to know when they came up with the PRS that they would need to merge it with FP+ and started working on doing that right away.

You’re probably right. My only point is that takes awhile to test out and implement, so I’m not super surprised they haven’t rolled it out yet.

 

[zumfelde]

They could give 3 free fp to deluxe and dvc 2 to moderates and 1 to value resorts then charge money for any over that. No fastpasses for offsite people including what they call good neighbor hotels only disney owned hotels. This would be great perk for onsite and this would reduce the number of fastpasses to help with the standby lines.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

They could give 3 free fp to deluxe and dvc 2 to moderates and 1 to value resorts then charge money for any over that. No fastpasses for offsite people including what they call good neighbor hotels only disney owned hotels. This would be great perk for onsite and this would reduce the number of fastpasses to help with the standby lines.

FP does not increase wait times in standby lines to any real significant amount. It only seems that way because when you get to the end of the standby line you get upset that some of the FP guests are allowed in past you. It triggers your "line cutting" mode of thinking and makes you believe you are waiting a lot longer when in reality it maybe adds another 5 or so minutes to your overall wait time.

 

[ST1TCH]

You can very easily revert back to an older backup. The issue is that Disney wants both.

Yeah.......no. That would mean you take the whole system back to a previous build before PRS was put in. Losing 14+ months of work and data.....no it isn't that easy.

Find it humorous as an IT professional how simple you guys think all this.

I would hope that as Disney has built out all their systems that they have modularized them so that each code set is independent of the rest and will just pull in data from another module or database.....but it's highly possible they haven't either. Really depends on if Disney has made IT budget a priority.

 

[ST1TCH]

FP does not increase wait times in standby lines to any real significant amount. It only seems that way because when you get to the end of the standby line you get upset that some of the FP guests are allowed in past you. It triggers your "line cutting" mode of thinking and makes you believe you are waiting a lot longer when in reality it maybe adds another 5 or so minutes to your overall wait time.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

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I know exactly what it means. It means that you get upset that people are walking past you and you instantly assume that they have just added another 15 - 30 minutes to your wait time.

 

[ST1TCH]

I know exactly what it means. It means that you get upset that people are walking past you and you instantly assume that they have just added another 15 - 30 minutes to your wait time.

This has nothing to do with feelings and I personally never have that idea when in a standby line. This is based on facts. If you provide, let's say just for simplicity sake, 500 FP for a single ride in a 2 hour period. That ride usually has a standby (without FP) of about 45-60min. Those who love FP and refuse to wait in lines, would never get in the standby line for this ride. So now, because of the 500 FP over a 2 hour period, that adds 500 people to the queue who get priority and now that standby line easily becomes 90min. That is a significant amount, whether you want to admit it or not.