Say it isn't so!

[Mickey&Donald]

I was talking to my mom tonight, and she told me that a friend of hers, who visits Disneyland every November, was told that DL has recently done away with FastPasses. I didn't think this could possibly be true... is it? I was there last fall, and there were definitely FPs to be had.

Anyhoo, I told my mom (who is in CA and has occasions to get to DL) I'd do a little research and let her know if she needs to worry about her next trip. Thanks!

 

[Rella Bella]

We were there the end of August and they were still in tact. We did hear that rumor while we were there and asked a cast member. He said they had taken the fast pass of Pirates but he didn't think they would take it off completely. But who knows??

Personally I think DisneyLAND kind of ruined it for themselves. When you get a fastpass there you can use it anytime from the first time on your ticket through the end of the day. Which is nice but... by late evening the fastpass line was LONG!! Very long! I know people have once in a while gotten away with this at The World but it's not a standard practice like at Disneyland.

Just my $.02, don't know if that has anything to do with their decision.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Some rides that used to have fastpass, such as Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Star Tours have done away with fastpass. Those are all large capacity rides that just didn't need it for the most part. Also, Indiana Jones had a brief period this summer when it didn't have fastpass due to the fact that the Pirates Movie premier at Disneyland was wreaking havoc with that part of the park and they wanted people in the line que or somewhere else, not milling about waiting for their fastpass to come up! But that was short lived. So the answer to your question is that yes, some rides that used to have fastpass don't anymore. But its not really a problem since they didn't really need fastpass to begin with. But the big headliners such as Splash, Space Mountain etc. do still have fastpass. There have been rumors that Disneyland will do away with fastpass but they are at this point just that, rumors. Hope it stays that way! But keep checking here on the dis because if God forbid they do away with it, you'll hear about it very quickly on this board! But I wouldn't worry too much. Disney patented fastpass and spent a lot of money implementing it. Brand new rides at WDW have it which tells me its here to stay. If they do away with it, Universal will kill them with their Front of the Line pass or whatever its called.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Personally I think DisneyLAND kind of ruined it for themselves. When you get a fastpass there you can use it anytime from the first time on your ticket through the end of the day. Which is nice but... by late evening the fastpass line was LONG!! Very long! I know people have once in a while gotten away with this at The World but it's not a standard practice like at Disneyland.

Just my $.02, don't know if that has anything to do with their decision.

Actually I do this all the time at WDW and DL and have even heard of people over on the WDW side of disboards who use fastpasses at WDW from previous trips. Now that to me is really pushing it. I think most people think you have to use fastpass at the time allotted, its a very small percentage of people who read boards like this and learn the tricks. I cannot imagine using a fastpass after the window time has expired would affect it too much. But I could be wrong!

 

[dizzyami]

I sure hope this is just a nasty rumour. I realized how much I appreciated the DL FP this summer when we went on a trip to Texas, and spent the day at 6 Flags - you have to pay for their FP service, it cost 3 of us $75 for one day, and then you only have a 10 MINUTE window to get back to your ride, if you miss it, you are out of luck!!! As much as I love DL I have thought some things were, shall we say pricey, but this adventure over the summer gave me one more reason to love Disney even more!!!

 

[TheZue]

I honestly can't see this one as being true. It would have been all over the boards if it were. Either Al Lutz, Jim Hill, or any of the other people who write rumor columns, or cast members who post on the numerous disneyland boards would have said SOMETHING about it. But this is the absolute first I've heard of it. It just seems like somebody heard about one of the rides losing fast pass, and by the time that info got to the person who told you it was morphed into all fastpasses were being taken out.

 

[MateasMom]

I remember reading here that they are being phased out. I think 08 was said? The new DL powers that be are not fans of FP.

 

[mundaremom]

We were in DL las Nov and honestly we didn't need fast passes. We walked past POTC and wow, no line up, we walked right on, Splash Mountain same thing, Indiana Jones was another 5 minute line up. Fast Passes were not an issue and my fingers are crossed that we won't need them in 56 days (Nov) when we go back!

 

[Amy&Dan]

We were in DL las Nov and honestly we didn't need fast passes. We walked past POTC and wow, no line up, we walked right on, Splash Mountain same thing, Indiana Jones was another 5 minute line up. Fast Passes were not an issue and my fingers are crossed that we won't need them in 56 days (Nov) when we go back!

I hope you don't either, but if you do I hope they still have them! When the line for Space Mountain reaches 80 minutes or more and Splash is at 90, believe me you are thanking the wonderful person who invented faspass! November is a very slow time to go (except around Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving). During the busier times, even the fastpass lines can get long and they have been known to run out of fastpasses for Space Mountain by lunchtime. I agree with another poster this is likely a rumor. I too have heard that the powers that be at Disneyland do not care for fastpass, however if they think it will affect profits and attendance levels at Disneyland by doing away with it, they'll learn to love it too.

 

[cats mom]

Actually I do this all the time at WDW and DL and have even heard of people over on the WDW side of disboards who use fastpasses at WDW from previous trips. Now that to me is really pushing it. I think most people think you have to use fastpass at the time allotted, its a very small percentage of people who read boards like this and learn the tricks. I cannot imagine using a fastpass after the window time has expired would affect it too much. But I could be wrong!

Back when FP was new I remember throwing quite a few away because we missed the window and I figured they were no good.
It took awhile for word to get out about the ending time basically meaning nothing (even here on the Dis boards)

I would guess some folks are still tossing FPs if they have missed their window, but Disneyland has a huge # of AP holders and I've got to believe the majority of them are clued into the fact that they can use a FP hours after the stated time.

I also agree with Rella Bella, that especially on very crowded days, it can be an issue. Of course that's easy enough to fix. Just start enforcing the times. People would grumble and complain at first, but they would get used to it.
And this is coming from an AP holder who has used an 11am FP closer to 11pm, somewhat sheepishly, but I did it.

I really hope it's just a rumor and that FP is not going anywhere.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I would guess some folks are still tossing FPs if they have missed their window, but Disneyland has a huge # of AP holders and I've got to believe the majority of them are clued into the fact that they can use a FP hours after the stated time.

I also agree with Rella Bella, that especially on very crowded days, it can be an issue. Of course that's easy enough to fix. Just start enforcing the times. People would grumble and complain at first, but they would get used to it.
And this is coming from an AP holder who has used an 11am FP closer to 11pm, somewhat sheepishly, but I did it.

I really hope it's just a rumor and that FP is not going anywhere.

I too am an AP holder at DL. And I agree that with so many repeat, local visitors many of them do know the tricks of the trade. However, I have many times heard people grumble as I cruise past them in the fastpass line they won't pay extra for a fastpass which leads me to believe a lot of people who visit Disneyland have no idea what fastpass really is, let alone how to use it. Disneyland does generate a lot of first time/only time travel type visitors too, who don't know all the details of Disneyland. In fact one of the reasons I have read for them possilby doing away with fastpass is that not enough people use it in the first place. In my many trips to DL I have rarely seen the fastpass lines go much above a 10-15 minute wait. And thats usually on Splash Mountain. Everywhere else, it usually seems to be a five minute wait or less. But thats just been my experience. I think if the problem with fastpass was that people didn't use it right, they would quickly (and they may very well) start enforcing those times. They do not ever let you return before the window time so if they are comfortable enforcing that and feel its necessary to do it, they will enforce it the other way too.

 

[stampinshauna]

They have cut back on the rides that have fast passes like Amy&Dan said, but they still have some. They will not be installing Fast Passes on the new Nemo Ride, so maybe that is what has started the rumor. I don't know if they will take out any of the current fast passes, but they probably won't add a lot of new ones. Winnie the Pooh had a fast pass machine when it first open and it really wasn't necessary. I've never waited more than 5 minutes to get on that ride. They've since taken out the Fast Passes there.

 

[Amy&Dan]

They have cut back on the rides that have fast passes like Amy&Dan said, but they still have some. They will not be installing Fast Passes on the new Nemo Ride, so maybe that is what has started the rumor. I don't know if they will take out any of the current fast passes, but they aren't adding any new ones.

I think the reason they aren't adding it to Nemo and why they didn't add it to Monsters Inc. is something to do with those specific rides and their ques. Both of those are slow loaders (or will be) and that makes fastpass difficult to implement or something to that affect. I read an article about these two rides not having fastpass and why and remember thinking, "oh that makes sens". Of cours now I can't remember the specifics! I am betting that if they add a new, large, major headliner at DL, it will have fastpass added to it. TOT did and Expedition Everest at AK in WDW did. When I saw that EE had fp, that made me feel a little bit better about the future of fastpass. I can definitely see Disney tweaking fp a bit but I will be really surprised and sad if they do away with it altogether.

 

[dletz]

One of the biggest reasons why lines are longer in the evenings is because of the shows. People watch the fireworks, then run to use their fastpass. So the FP line for the rides get longer, then the standby lines get longer. Take a look at the lines after the parade, Fireworks, or Fantasmic. You will see a rush of people. Even if you ruled out those that had expired, you would still have a long line because you just had a block of time where a huge group of people weren't using their FPs and now they are.

NYE 99/00 we got in line for Haunted mansion right before Fantasmic started. The line was huge, went out the gates and wrapped around the fountain area a few times. As soon as fantasmic started the line started moving quickly. We made it from the end of the line all the way through 3/4 of the way through the line inside the gates (we were over halfway through the graveyard area) when fantasmic and the fireworks ended. We stood there and waited for 2 hours to get through the rest of the line. The problem. They let everyone with FP through without waiting, and let the standby line go when there was no waiting in the FP line. It was awful. We were so pinned in that we couldn't move to get out of line. After that fiasco they have made people in FP lines wait without just passing everyone through. And I definately learned my lesson. Don't get in line for a ride with FP after a major show. The FP line gets long and the standby gets long.

 

[iceskatejen]

They're not phasing it out, but there are times when the crowds are so low, it doesn't warrant even opening them up. Case in point, I was at DL both yesterday and Monday and on both days, they never even opened up the FP machines for Space Mountain. The wait yesterday was only 5 minutes. Splash and Indy had theirs open. Buzz's machines were also open.

 

[HydroGuy]

Ahhh, the venerable "Fastpass is going away" rumor rears its head once again. It is true that FP has been removed from a number of rides. When FP was introduced (in 1999 I believe) DL was trying to figure out how to make it work. So they experimented with different rides and disconnected rides etc. It has been pretty stable now for the last couple years and most of the tweaking is over now IMO.

FP was removed from Star Tours because it no longer needed it (and had not been used for about a year). However, DL did an interesting thing. When they removed the FP machines, they did not remove the FP wiring to the machines. That will make it easier to add FP in the future. Why would they do that? One reasonable speculation which has bounced around is that Star Tours is fading in relevancy pretty fast, but wouldn't it be great if they updated it based on the latest Star Wars trilogy? The only thing that makes sense to me as to why they would leave the Star Tours FP infrastructure in place is that they think they may need it again.

Another credible rumor is that FP will be removed from Indiana Jones. I would be very bummed if that happened, but the reality is not that DLR is down on FP, but that it is so freaking crowded in Adventureland. On busy days it is like running the gauntlet, and I always use Frontierland as a walkway rather than Adventureland for that reason.

One of the things that contributes to Adventureland crowding is the Indy FP distribution area and the standby queue which they have to hold outside. Since Indy was built pre-FP, they have a really cool pre-ride experience (in the queue) that almost no one experiences because they have to hold everyone outside. Then once you get inside, you hoof it thru the long tunnel. On top of that, if you decide to use the standby line, on hot days it is so much nicer to be down in the Indy queue tunnel with its air conditioning, rather than standing outside. At least I think it would be. Since I always use FP on Indy, I never get to experience the standby line.

In any case, I can see the reasoning for removing Indy FP, and it would not be because FP is going away in general but for other reasons.

Other than the Star Tours FP removal, and the Indy FP removal rumor which seems to have some credence, everything is pure rumor and I am very skeptical.

On another note, when compared to MK, DL has less need for FP. DL has 30% more rides, and some of these are high capacity rides (like Indy), as well as more efficient loading rides (like the revamped Space Mtn). So overall there is less need for FP at DL.

In addition, I agree with others that DL visitors are more FP savvy than MK visitors, in part because of the much higher percentage of AP holders/regular local visitors at DL.

 

[raidermatt]

Another issue at DL is the narrow walkways in general. FP puts more people in those walkways as they walk around looking for something else to do.

I doubt FP will go away, but Disney is looking for ways to make the system more profitable. The selling point for the system was not really guest satisfaction, but increased food and merchandise sales. Those sales did not materialize as hoped, mainly because most people use the time to go on other attractions, not buy a t-shirt.

What they might do, and how it will differ between WDW and DL, is anybody's guess right now.

 

[HydroGuy]

I doubt FP will go away, but Disney is looking for ways to make the system more profitable. The selling point for the system was not really guest satisfaction, but increased food and merchandise sales. Those sales did not materialize as hoped, mainly because most people use the time to go on other attractions, not buy a t-shirt.

Not me. Whenever I get a FP, I always feel compelled to head into the nearest store and buy something!