So, FP+ basically not affecting anyone's wait time. Now what?

[mom2rtk]

In theory, however, FP+ lines should never be backed up.

The photos posted from the park on Monday were not theory.

And the length of a FP return line is directly linked to how many FPs they distribute. We have no idea how many they are issuing now in relation to past years. We all have guesses though.

 

[clsteve]

The blog makes it very clear that they are only talking about stand by lines, not addressing the fp+ line lengths.

Yep, have to look at the whole picture before making any assessments

Especially in light of this:

I've skipped a few pages in this thread, so this might have been mentioned already, but, regarding capacity -- and those Star Tours pictures!! -- Josh had an interesting comment on the easyWDW forums yesterday. He said:

"They're supposedly distributing up to 75% of total capacity to FP+ for Star Tours, Test Track, Great Movie Ride and potentially others."

Of course SB waits won't go up if Josh is correct

 

[Angel Ariel]

In theory, however, FP+ lines should never be backed up.

Should is great. In reality it is happening. The blog specifically says they have received many reports, but they have not studied it. You responded earlier in this thread that this blog was proof that long fp+ return lines didn't exist, when in reality the blog itself says it hasn't studied the fp+ return line lengths.

 

[jj1403]

I find it hard to believe it isn't increasing wait times for fast pass returns, the photos that have been posted are quite telling.

I have never seen lineup like that for fast pass returns or standby for that matter.... crazy.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Should is great. In reality it is happening. The blog specifically says they have received many reports, but they have not studied it. You responded earlier in this thread that this blog was proof that long fp+ return lines didn't exist, when in reality the blog itself says it hasn't studied the fp+ return line lengths.

But those lines were on a holiday Monday, during a time where many schools across the country are on vacation the entire week.

 

[LilyWDW]

Here is the issue with both the blog and those we read on here is that the amount of data available is low AND is pretty spread out. So it is nearly impossible to draw a REAL cause and effect. You need a lot more data points so that you lower the error amount.

In other words, take what you read with a grain of salt. It is one snapshot in a specific moment in time. And I mean this in BOTH ways.

 

[Angel Ariel]

But those lines were on a holiday Monday, during a time where many schools across the country are on vacation the entire week.

Show me pictures of the star tours Fastpass line looking like that last year on the same weekend.

And it doesn't change the fact that you stated this blog is proof that long fp+ lines aren't really happening when the blog itself says it hasn't studied that aspect.

 

[Rhiannona]

It does not help that when 1 person has an issue scanning their card/MB they dont move to the side and bicker with the CM. This is truly what causes a long line to start up. They don't move aside so the fp line stops with them. I do believe this is what also causes a dip in the standby line. No one going through the fp+ line allows them to pull more riders from the standby line.

 

[mom2rtk]

It does not help that when 1 person has an issue scanning their card/MB they dont move to the side and bicker with the CM. This is truly what causes a long line to start up. They don't move aside so the fp line stops with them. I do believe this is what also causes a dip in the standby line. No one going through the fp+ line allows them to pull more riders from the standby line.

I think that's a very valid point.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Just wanted to point out that this is based on posted wait time not reported actual wait times. They also theorize that waits for headliners have not changed because there are fewer repeat riders. In the past we usually rode headliners like Soarin, TT, TSMM, EE, BTMRR, and Splash at least twice, if not more.

 

[SuperRob]

Wait times have never been tracked at FP return lines so there's no data to even study.

TP does it's own measuring. It's not relying on Disney's numbers.

Anyway, I find it funny that people are comparing anecdotal reports to TP, who already stated they've collected 330K (!) waits already. These guys know what they're doing. But I guess it doesn't stop people from coming to a fallacious conclusion based on limited information.

We're going to go at a traditionally slow time, and we're prepared for things to be less than smooth. Hopefully we'll be wrong, but the availability of FastPass or not has never really impacted our ability to have a great time and have short waits. The strategies we use never relied on skipping lines, they just relied on lines being short to begin with.

My only concern now is that other people are going to figure this out and start coming in September!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

TP does it's own measuring. It's not relying on Disney's numbers.

But AFAIK, Touring Plans has never tracked the amount of time someone waitied to ride using a FP. Currently, there is no way for someoneto report that using the Lines App. And they stated on their blog that this finding was based on posted wait times, not actual wait times.

Conversely, you could say that for all the money spent on FP+ it provides little benefit, except for the fact that it allows "late sleepers" access to the few rides that would usually run out of legacy FP early in the day, mainly TSMM, Soarin, TT, an mainly RnR. (Althoughh with tiers, they can still can't FP for all of those. )

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Conversely, you could say that for all the money spent on FP+ it provides little benefit, except for the fact that it allows "late sleepers" access to the few rides that would usually run out of legacy FP early in the day, mainly TSMM, Soarin, TT, an mainly RnR. (Althoughh with tiers, they can still can't FP for all of those. )

I'm not a late sleeper, but most of the time I spend at Disney is for marathon weekend, which means I don't get to the parks until the late morning/afternoon, after having run anywhere from 3-26.2 miles. So, to me, that's a HUGE benefit.

 

[robinb]

We were there last month during NYE and the whole first week of January. We didn't see any of those long FP+ lines I'd been reading about. It was the opposite... we zoomed right on with no problems at all. We didn't see any lines like that anywhere all week.

I was there at the same time and like you I found most of the FP lines to be fine. You have to remember that FP- was still in place in 3 out of 4 of the parks and AK had just switched over to all FP+.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Wait times have never been tracked at FP return lines so there's no data to even study.

TP does it's own measuring. It's not relying on Disney's numbers.

And TP themselves said they have not taken any data on FP+ return line waits.

Also, we’ve not yet studied how long the waits are to redeem FastPass+ reservations. Some folks are reporting very long lines here, sometimes exceeding the averages we saw with FASTPASS returns. We’re still working on measuring this.

But I guess it doesn't stop people from coming to a fallacious conclusion based on limited information.

The OP of this thread came to a fallacious conclusion when he stated this blog shows that the long FP+ lines don't "exist as advertised". The blog being used as evidence of that statement specifically says that they have not measured the FP+ return line waits.

 

[JanaDee]

In theory, however, FP+ lines should never be backed up.

Funny how theory and reality are never the same.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Funny how theory and reality are never the same.

Again, those pictures were from one of the busiest days of the year. I'm not going to take that as proof of anything.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Wait times have never been tracked at FP return lines so there's no data to even study.

Maybe not in the past, but, during our trip at the beginning of February, we were given the "wait time scan card" at least 4 times when using the FP+ line. So they are tracking that data now, which lends more credence to the whole idea that they are tinkering with things on the fly.

 

[JanaDee]

Again, those pictures were from one of the busiest days of the year. I'm not going to take that as proof of anything.

We had long FP+ return wait times back in October. There have been numerous threads here over the past months saying how long FP+ return lines are, with pictures.

I prefer to deal with reality, not theory.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

We had long FP+ return wait times back in October. There have been numerous threads here over the past months saying how long FP+ return lines are, with pictures.

I prefer to deal with reality, not theory.

Again, October really isn't helpful because legacy FP was still in play.