Reply from WDW Guest Communications

[Disney_Princess83]

Did you ever use the old FP system? Pulling them and using them "whenever you wanted with no regard to the time on them" was not possible.

You could use them anytime once the time stated on them had started. If the old paper FP stated the return time was 2:15pm - 3:15pm, you could return anytime from 2:15pm until park close (excluding EMH) and use them.

 

[sonofanarchy]

They spent $10K a year and they live within a few hours of WDW...hmmmm...I call BS. But it doesn't matter because Disney has 10 other families who will become Disney lovers to replace the loss of this one....their parks are crowded most every day of the year now (where it used to be certain times like holidays)...look at the crowd calendar on UT and you'll be hard pressed to find a whole lot of 1-3 crowd levels but there are tons of 9s.

Really?

On the WDW portion of our upcoming July trip, I have so far spent over $7,000 on lodging and tickets. We'll be there for 11 days. My guess is we'll come close to about $12K by the end.

 

[Angel Ariel]

IMO the people who are the most upset about FP plus are the people who "gamed" the old FP system and pulled fastpasses and used them when ever they wanted with no regard to the times on them. I would bet a house payment on this.

You'd lose your bet with me.

I have no illusions about them going back to the paper system. I know that ship.has sailed. But just as you said you have changes you want them to make to the parameters (5 FP to use anywhere), I also have changes that I'd like them to make. I don't care if the system is paper or electronic.

 

[Planogirl]

The comment that someone will be replaced by 10 other families seems to infer that those 10 families wouldn't go if the OP kept on going. It's a strange defense.

Why can't the OP and others just voice their opinions without so much negativity? Isn't that what forums are for?

 

[sonofanarchy]

You could use them anytime once the time stated on them had started. If the old paper FP stated the return time was 2:15pm - 3:15pm, you could return anytime from 2:15pm until park close (excluding EMH) and use them.

I think they meant you couldn't use them before the window opened up.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

The comment that someone will be replaced by 10 other families seems to infer that those 10 families wouldn't go if the OP kept on going. It's a strange defense.

Why can't the OP and others just voice their opinions without so much negativity? Isn't that what forums are for?

I always thought so.

 

[JanaDee]

You could use them anytime once the time stated on them had started. If the old paper FP stated the return time was 2:15pm - 3:15pm, you could return anytime from 2:15pm until park close (excluding EMH) and use them.

You could not use them anytime you wanted or pull a FP anytime you wanted (which is what Hannathy is saying).

Even before the one hour window was enforced, you couldn't use them anytime you wanted.

 

[Hannathy]

Did you ever use the old FP system? Pulling them and using them "whenever you wanted with no regard to the time on them" was not possible.

Actually I did many times and we always used them in the correct time

If you read the boards you will know that it was well known that people pulled them and used them whenever they wanted because Disney was not to stop someone for using it AFTER the time just not before.

You may want to do a little checking before saying something was not possible.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

I am not surprised by their response. They don't seem to value their guests as much as they used to.

As this past summer our dining plan stopped working. It was so annoying. We had to pay out of pocket for our snacks. Then were told to go to the front desk at our hotel to get a refund and have our credits taken off. The front desk cast member didn't want to do this for us. He seemed annoyed and bothered by it. Then he assured us our credits would work. But they didn't. And at our dinner it took over a hour for the manager and wait staff to try and fix it. They finally gave up and told us to just go on with our day. We then went to our hotel front desk and the manager was able to fix it. We had 2 snack credits left to use. So she told us to go use them and if we have any additional problems to just have them call her. So we went to the ice cream parlor and got two sundaes and of course the credits wouldn't work. And a huge line was forming while our ice creams were melting. The manager at the front desk helped the cast member to fix the issue after about 20 minutes. The cast member said it had been happening a few times that day. So annoying and so inconvenient. I wrote an email complaining about how inconvenient the dining plan had been for us and how much vacation time we had to spend trying to fix a problem that shouldn't have happened. And all they did was apologize and tell me to go to guest services the next time I am at Disney and they will issue me 2 fast passes.

Then on our Christmas trip, my daughter got food poisoning from the hard boiled eggs at Cape May breakfast buffet. We were late to our reservation and were a big party of 15 people. They told us if we didn't get there that they would charge us $150. However, since the buffet was officially closed they wouldn't put out new food for us. So my daughter and niece ate the hard boiled eggs that were out for God knows how long. In fact they informed us that they don't even make them there and that they get them from another vendor. So no one knows how old these hard boiled eggs are. (Just take notice of this and don't eat the hard boiled eggs.) And this isn't a case of bad parenting as my sister made my daughter's plate while I was making my son's plate. I didn't know my daughter ate the eggs as I would never let her eat hard boiled eggs from a buffet. But my sister does not have any children and didn't know not to let my daughter and my niece eat them. I even made a joke when I saw that there were hard boiled eggs out, that that is food poisoning right there. Ahhh wish I knew that the kids were eating them because the next day was a puke fest. And it just happened to be Christmas. So we spent the whole day taking care of my sick daughter and niece. It ruined our Christmas. We spoke to Cape May's manager and all they did was credit back my daughter's dining table credit and refund my dad's credit card for my niece. And they offered us some fast passes for the time we missed. I was a little annoyed by this because I had spoke to someone who asked me if I needed medical attention for my daughter. It was in the morning and I said not at this time. I thought she would get better. But by nighttime, she was still puking and hadn't kept anything down. So I was worried and left a message for the manager that I would like medical attention. They never called me back until the next morning and offered fast passes!

So I guess they think of fast passes as being gold. And you can't complain to someone about how valuable gold is

 

[flutterby3744]

Most people don't have a problem with change. It's when the change isn't for the better that people get upset.

I've used this analogy before: What would you do at work if your boss said, "We expect you to do the same amount of work, but we're going to cut your pay by 25%. It's all part of an exciting new direction for the company."

Disney is taking away something that they previously offered. How difficult is this to understand?

Sorry, but I have to disagree with the bolded. There are far more people that struggle with change than do not. If there were not there wouldn't be a booming self help book section all about "embracing" change!

You can see many many many examples of this in daily life. Every time there is a change at work, home, shoot, even tv programming, there is a push back from the I-can't-handle-change crowd. This is human nature, my friend.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I think they meant you couldn't use them before the window opened up.

Before, no you couldn't. But I just figured that's what the original person who made that statement meant "late returns" although it wasn't actually late returns because it was allowed but

 

[JanaDee]

Actually I did many times and we always used them in the correct time

If you read the boards you will know that it was well known that people pulled them and used them whenever they wanted because Disney was not to stop someone for using it AFTER the time just not before.

You may want to do a little checking before saying something was not possible.

The hour time limit has been enforced for the last couple years.

 

[Shaden]

It is not necessarily someone filling a vacated spot, but rather the fact that more people attend Disney every year, that the loss of a customer is easily filled new customers.

But it's NOT.

They are still losing the revenue the original customer would have given them. Unless they are at capacity, and stay at capacity due to customer replacement, every single person who decides not to go to Disney because of this is a LOSS to WDW, even if attendance on the whole continues to rise.

IF last year MK had 18 000 000 people in it and If 100 000 people decide not to go to Disney world/MK next year due to FP+ related concerns, but another 100 000 decide to try out WDW for the first time, do you think WDW would rather have 18 000 000 again or 18 100 000 ??? Because the answer is pretty darn obvious. Disney DOES care about this.

Your argument that "there is someone willing to take your spot" is ridiculous.

 

[DVCFan1994]

You could use them anytime once the time stated on them had started. If the old paper FP stated the return time was 2:15pm - 3:15pm, you could return anytime from 2:15pm until park close (excluding EMH) and use them.

While that was true for a period of time, that flexibility ended prior to the start of FP+. Someone else will remember better than me when, but a few years ago Disney started enforcing FP return times. You had to arrive within your window. Some CMs allowed a touch of flexibility, if you were say 15 minutes late due to lunch running over the time you planned, but some CM were hard and fast with their rules. 5 minutes late, and you were not allowed to ride.

 

[kbelle8995]

The comment that someone will be replaced by 10 other families seems to infer that those 10 families wouldn't go if the OP kept on going. It's a strange defense.

Why can't the OP and others just voice their opinions without so much negativity? Isn't that what forums are for?

ITA.

 

[TooExcitedCantSleep]

I thought there might be some interest in reading the email response that I received from Guest Communications after my email to them a week and a half ago.

Here's my email:

To Whom It May Concern,

We are a family of five who have lived within a few hours of Disney World for the past 10 years. We have very frequently visited the parks, restaurants, and resorts, usually multiple times a year, over that time frame. We have had annual passes on and off and estimate that we have spent approximately $100,000 at Disney World over the past 10 years.

I don't wish to type a lengthy email but did want to inform Disney that, because of recent changes, we will not be returning to Disney World and will instead spend our vacation money elsewhere. In short, the FastPass Plus system is driving us and our vacation dollars away. The system too negatively affects our park touring experience. This is in part because we will necessarily be spending more time standing in lines with the new system, but also because we have found that use of Disney's computer technology in terms of the website and apps has been difficult and glitchy. We don't have confidence in a system that places further emphasis on this technology and relies on it for touring the parks.

In the past, we have also visited with family and friends and helped numerous families plan trips to Disney World. We thought you might like to know that we are no longer recommending trips to Disney World to our family and friends.

Sincerely,
****

And here's their reply:

Thank you for contacting us regarding the Walt Disney World® Resort.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your comments about FastPass+ and the use of the My Disney Experience application. Your feedback is valuable to us, especially during this early roll-out period of MyMagic+. We continue to take Guest input into consideration as we test and adjust this new offering.

Ms. ****, we look forward to future opportunities to entertain you and we appreciate your loyalty to the Disney brand.

Best Regards,
*****

Man....that's a real jacked up reply.....even I would tell Disney where to go if they responded to me like that. Okay no....I wouldn't tell Disney where to go----- but Disney wouldn't see or hear from me anymore. I believe that's exactly what they're going for.

 

[Hannathy]

You could not use them anytime you wanted or pull a FP anytime you wanted (which is what Hannathy is saying).

Even before the one hour window was enforced, you couldn't use them anytime you wanted.

Oh Gee I guess I need to carefully review every statement like it is a research paper.

Plus you don't know what I meant.

People were pulling fast passes and disregarding the time on them and coming back anytime they wanted after the stated time.

 

[JanaDee]

Oh Gee I guess I need to carefully review every statement like it is a research paper.

Plus you don't know what I meant.

People were pulling fast passes and disregarding the time on them and coming back anytime they wanted after the stated time.

You really don't have an argument, since Disney allowed it at the time.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

While that was true for a period of time, that flexibility ended prior to the start of FP+. Someone else will remember better than me when, but a few years ago Disney started enforcing FP return times. You had to arrive within your window. Some CMs allowed a touch of flexibility, if you were say 15 minutes late due to lunch running over the time you planned, but some CM were hard and fast with their rules. 5 minutes late, and you were not allowed to ride.

It took effect March 2012 It was true for years and years before that

 

[JanaDee]

While that was true for a period of time, that flexibility ended prior to the start of FP+. Someone else will remember better than me when, but a few years ago Disney started enforcing FP return times. You had to arrive within your window. Some CMs allowed a touch of flexibility, if you were say 15 minutes late due to lunch running over the time you planned, but some CM were hard and fast with their rules. 5 minutes late, and you were not allowed to ride.

Late arrivals were allowed (and encouraged) from the inception of FP in 1999 to March of 2012.