Should Fast Pass be a two hour window or longer?

[AWHOFAN]

Should Fast Pass be a two hour window or longer? Why are Fast Pass one hour with a fifteen minutes pre grace period. With the new Magic Bands giving guest a pre time to set up months in advance and day guest less choices per visit, Fast Pass might be limiting your experience. Thinking about meals, where you are in the park, wait times in other lines. Are the Fast Pass system guest friendly as they could be?

 

[Golf4283]

Should Fast Pass be a two hour window or longer? Why are Fast Pass one hour with a fifteen minutes pre grace period. With the new Magic Bands giving guest a pre time to set up months in advance and day guest less choices per visit, Fast Pass might be limiting your experience. Thinking about meals, where you are in the park, wait times in other lines. Are the Fast Pass system guest friendly as they could be?

The short answer is no.

The flexibility of the system is in the fact that if you can't make your windowed time you can re-schedule. If the window is 2 hours per fastpass you risk flooding the turnstyle at any given point in that window. The hour window spreads it out more.

 

[3Gsandme]

Should Fast Pass be a two hour window or longer? Why are Fast Pass one hour with a fifteen minutes pre grace period. With the new Magic Bands giving guest a pre time to set up months in advance and day guest less choices per visit, Fast Pass might be limiting your experience. Thinking about meals, where you are in the park, wait times in other lines. Are the Fast Pass system guest friendly as they could be?

I dont think FP+ is as guest friendly as it could be, but I don't think that extending the return times will fix any problems.

 

[ajfd]

Quite the opposite ... the window should be less, maybe 20 min with a 5 min grace on each side. Not that I am saying this is what I want, it is that this is the only viable way to shorten what appear to be frequent FP+ line backups.

Consider the following:

Theoretically, FP+ could link you to a specific seat on a specific run of an attraction months in advance.... "You are seat 2 of car 3 on Space Mountain, left track, leaving at 10:30:40a on X/Y/Z". In this scenario, everyone would literally walk onto their rides. Even SB would be "walk on" because when you showed up they would tell you the exact minute you would need to return to walk on. You are "stand by" but you wouldn't need to wait in line.

Reality is a bit different, though. It would be near impossible for an adult trained in such a process to hold that schedule, much less a family on vacation. To allow for flexibility and unforeseen issues (breakdown, etc), FP is implemented as a "window". The problem is that it is theoretically possible for everyone whose window contains a specific moment to show up at that exact moment, generating a huge backup in the "express" line.

Let's say you had 12 hour long windows offset by 5 minutes, each with 10 people:

1 - 2
1:05 - 2:05
1:10 - 2:10
...

It is possible that 120 people will show up at 2 pm, all with valid FPs and all expecting to get on the ride with little wait.

The only way to lessen the impact of these waves is to make them smaller. To do that, Disney can:

* hand out fewer FP (5 people per window in the above example = max of 60 people in a wave)
* shorten the window (6 overlapping windows instead of 12 = max of 60 people in a wave)
* increase ride capacity (eg, can handle 240 FP riders in an hour)

FP- worked really well because, in essence, fewer people were using them. With Disney pushing FP+, more people are being funneled to the FP line, increasing the incidence of "waves". Since "fewer FP" is out, and little chance of Disney doing anything to increase capacity of individual rides, that leaves shortening the return window as the only option.

 

[2Tiggies]

No. That would just give less control to a system which as it stands, I don't believe Disney has a handle on. This is their runaway train and I'm curious to see how they are going to regain control of it.

 

[LilyWDW]

No.

Part of the use of FP, from Disney's side of things, it to help control traffic flows. The one hour window does this a lot better then a two hour window. You know you have X number of FP "reserved" for that one hour so you can expect that many in that hour (or less). When you move to a two hour window, you add another hour variable.

Plus, do you then release the same number of FP you would have released for two one hour windows or only the amount you would have released for a single one hour window? If you release the same amount as you would have for two one hour windows, then you risk having a much larger influx of guests at any given point then the attraction can handle. If you only release the same amount as you would have for a single one hour window, then you have less FP available for all guests (which guests would then complain about).

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

The short answer is no.

The flexibility of the system is in the fact that if you can't make your windowed time you can re-schedule. If the window is 2 hours per fastpass you risk flooding the turnstyle at any given point in that window. The hour window spreads it out more.

I agree with your overall statement but I think the bolded part should be "theoretically you can reschedule". If you have a FP for Soarin' and miss your window (or can't make it) - it is IMO highly unlikely you can reschedule it - chances are you'll be given the options of Figment or Captain EO.....

 

[seashoreCM]

There is an indirect side effect, time fragmentation, which Disney probably intended, with the one hour window. The effect is increased with a shorter window and diminished with a longer window. It's advantageous to Disney in that guests will tend to spend more time in gift shops or at food stands.

Now, even the one hour window can cause bunching problems with extended waits to enter the Fastpass queue. Guests whose time window nears its end after the parade ends will tend to arrive at the ride at said end to their window. At the same time guests whose time windows begin when the parade ends may also head for that ride. So most of the guests whose FPs were issued during a time block nearly 2 hours long will be heading for the ride during a 15 minute interval. Some methods of combatting that problem:
1. Issue fewer FPs during that nearly 2 hour time period,
2. Issuing some FPs that would expire just after the parade ends to instead have a time window that starts earlier,
3. Shorten the time window.

 

[AWHOFAN]

I found your answer interesting. Sounds like something from Len Testa of Touring Plans would have come up with. That is a good thing. PS I really miss saving Fast Pass for the end of the night and using when I want to.

 

[ThisIsMyName]

No . .because you can't overlap ride times. You'd need a 6 hour window just to book 3 rides. There would be way less flexibility to change things too.

I didn't realize there was a 15 minute grace period! One time we had to run super fast through the downpouring rain to try and make our FP+ time.

 

[mumumouse]

I have a 7:40 to 8:40 fastpass for Jungle Cruise and an 8:40 to 10:40 pass for Pirates and 10:40 to 10:55 for Wishes.

Why is the Pirates time frame so large/two hours??

I am concerned about moving toward the Wishes area from Adventureland this time of evening. Should I be?

Should we allow more time to get over to the Wishes area? Will it be all clogged up as we try to head our way over?????

I can just imagine Disney folks with those light up sticks directing traffic and big congestion and us not making it to the viewing area.

I have never gotten the fp for Wishes before and felt no need for it, but this year we are heading to MK the first evening of our trip, so thought I would give it a shot. Since we get there fairly late, I figured it will not be tying anything up.

The park will close at midnight that night, so thought it would work. This is a Sat. night. Should I move one of my fastpasses to after Wishes???

 

[siskaren]

I have a 7:40 to 8:40 fastpass for Jungle Cruise and an 8:40 to 10:40 pass for Pirates and 10:40 to 10:55 for Wishes.

Why is the Pirates time frame so large/two hours??

I am concerned about moving toward the Wishes area from Adventureland this time of evening. Should I be?

Should we allow more time to get over to the Wishes area? Will it be all clogged up as we try to head our way over?????

I can just imagine Disney folks with those light up sticks directing traffic and big congestion and us not making it to the viewing area.

I have never gotten the fp for Wishes before and felt no need for it, but this year we are heading to MK the first evening of our trip, so thought I would give it a shot. Since we get there fairly late, I figured it will not be tying anything up.

The park will close at midnight that night, so thought it would work. This is a Sat. night. Should I move one of my fastpasses to after Wishes???

First of all, how did you find a 2 year old thread?

Second, are you sure the window for Pirates is 2 hours? Because I've never heard of a FP window being that long.

Most people who are still on the park are going to be headed for Main Street to watch Wishes (as well as Celebrate the Magic), so yes, the closer you get to when Wishes starts, the more congested it will be. I'm assuming Wishes is at 11:00, so if you ride Pirates near the beginning of the window, you shouldn't have any trouble getting to the FP viewing area in time.

 

[OKW Lover]

Should Fast Pass be a two hour window or longer? Why are Fast Pass one hour with a fifteen minutes pre grace period. With the new Magic Bands giving guest a pre time to set up months in advance and day guest less choices per visit, Fast Pass might be limiting your experience. Thinking about meals, where you are in the park, wait times in other lines. Are the Fast Pass system guest friendly as they could be?

The short answer is no.

The flexibility of the system is in the fact that if you can't make your windowed time you can re-schedule. If the window is 2 hours per fastpass you risk flooding the turnstyle at any given point in that window. The hour window spreads it out more.

I'd agree with @Golf4283 that extending the FP window would make things worse. In fact, maybe the FP window should be shortened. A 30 minute window (with perhaps a 10 minute grace period) could work out better for crowd flow.

 

[mumumouse]

First of all, how did you find a 2 year old thread?

Second, are you sure the window for Pirates is 2 hours? Because I've never heard of a FP window being that long.

Most people who are still on the park are going to be headed for Main Street to watch Wishes (as well as Celebrate the Magic), so yes, the closer you get to when Wishes starts, the more congested it will be. I'm assuming Wishes is at 11:00, so if you ride Pirates near the beginning of the window, you shouldn't have any trouble getting to the FP viewing area in time.

Sorry I never know how to navigate this site properly and I can never for the life of me figure out where to post a new question. I think this is worth posting about! Sorry I could only do it when I searched two hour fastpass and came up with this old thread.

I have a glitch in My Disney Experience and would love to start a new post about it.

I do have a two hour window on my Pirates fastpass!!!!!!

I chatted with an online Disney chat person on the site and she shows something different.

The other odd thing is that the fireworks are at 10 that night and I have a viewing time, to show up at 10:40???

I called and spoke to someone at Disney and he was able to see what I see on my screen. He said although I have that info, I should go to viewing at 9:40.

He said for my peace of mind I could speak with an IT person and have them fix this!!!!!!!

He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that if I followed the info I have I would be 1 hour late to the viewing area.

He was a little vague and brainy if you ask me.

He said I should not have a problem and should show up at 9:40 despite what MDE says.

I wondered if they would possibly have two Wishes that night. He said no.

I am not convinced. We go every spring break and it is very common that they show Wishes twice.

And no explanation whatsoever as to why I have a 2 hour window on Pirates.

Where the heck do I go on this site to "POST A NEW QUESTION?" Thanks for any help!!!!!

 

[siskaren]

You can show up to the Wishes viewing area up to 2 hours before the show.

I've never heard of Wishes running twice a night, even during Spring break. MSEP, yes, but not Wishes.

I don't know why it's not labeled (it should say something like Start New Thread), but the blue box underneath the search bar on the right is where you click to start a new thread: