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

[mesaboy2]

Or choice c.) The blog post is mistaken. What makes this blogger any more reliable than personal experiences related here?

Because it agrees with the OP's preconception.

 

[Mad Hattered]

Because it agrees with the OP's preconception.

And I think they wanted to do a little of this as well. I see it didn't work out so well for them.

 

[SuperRob]

so how is that cramming "more" people into the park? if those 3,000 guests leave and 3,000 more enter there are still only 3,000 in the park to buy food and souvenirs, no? Think about it.

Revenue was also up 8%. You're splitting hairs now. People spend when they're in the parks, and they'll spend an average amount irrespective of how long they're there. Disney already knows this. Getting more people into the parks (even if that means people hopping or going back to a resort or just plain leaving) increases their revenue. The data they've already shared about how the program is working backs it up.

 

[dayvewc]

yea but when those 3,000 leave and 3,000 new people enter they are still only serving 50,000 average attendees per day. I'm talking actual entrants to the park at any given moment can't exceed the 50,000 number you gave. They can't physically serve the additional 3,000 without first 3,000 leaving.

The only benefit to Disney here is the ticket purchases. They're not selling any more merch. or food because of this.

They aren't exceeding their maximum number of people in the parks at any one time, but over the course of the day they are serving more people. That means more tickets sold (+ ticket revenue), more people coming through that "need" that MK souvenir (+ merchandise sales), more people coming in that didn't bring a drink (+ more snack sales), more people that decide that since they are in the park they'll go ahead and eat at QS instead of leaving (+ more food sales). Will all 3000 people do all of this? Other than the ticket, no. But if they weren't there they definitely couldn't. More people coming through is more chances for the mouse to pick their pocket. If pre-FP+ MK only averaged the 50,000 people per day passing through, and now they are averaging 53,000 people that IS an increase of 3000 people.

Revenue was also up 8%. You're splitting hairs now. People spend when they're in the parks, and they'll spend an average amount irrespective of how long they're there. Disney already knows this. Getting more people into the parks (even if that means people hopping or going back to a resort or just plain leaving) increases their revenue. The data they've already shared about how the program is working backs it up.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So wait - Disney was always expecting FP+ was going to increase the wait times across the parks? How had I missed that before? And how nice of Disney to design a new system that they expected to increase wait times.

per the blog: "The results indicate FastPass+ is not causing significant changes to standby wait times:

Wait times are increasing less than 1 minute, on average, across all attractions at all parks
Super-headliner attractions have seen a small drop (under 1 minute) in standby waits

This indicates FastPass+’s impact on wait times is at the low end of Disney’s original estimates."

Overall I see nothing positive - only negative about this blog.

When I read he article all it made me think was lose-lose. Disney kept the SB wait the same and they have limited FP availability. Great we have gotten less than nothing out of this "big improvement". I'm thrilled.....

That's exactly what I was thinking as I read this. So at MK we can use our FP for the "super" headliners. Then, if we move on to the other attractions we'll have longer waits than we ever did before. Yay.

They really can't "cram" more people in the parks. There is a maximum capacity regardless of what fastpass system is used. This is why during the summer the entrance gates shut down occasionally. The parks can only hold so many people.

so how is that cramming "more" people into the park? if those 3,000 guests leave and 3,000 more enter there are still only 3,000 in the park to buy food and souvenirs, no? Think about it.

I tried to do some research a few weeks ago on capacity at MK. From what I can tell Disney has never officially confirmed any fixed number and some of the most credible resources indicated it was based less on a fixed number of people in the park at one time and more on the distribution, ride waits and guest comfort in the parks. So if Disney is now affecting where guests go by encouraging COP, Stitch, POTC or other non-headlienrs then they could potentially be adding people in the park at one time. Nothing is really known and I doubt it would ever be confirmed how it's working.

Revenue was also up 8%. You're splitting hairs now. People spend when they're in the parks, and they'll spend an average amount irrespective of how long they're there. Disney already knows this. Getting more people into the parks (even if that means people hopping or going back to a resort or just plain leaving) increases their revenue. The data they've already shared about how the program is working backs it up.

Prices have been increasing at a steady clip. That 8% is probably more attributable to that.

 

[Disney/Universal Fan]

You also reaslize that ANY comparison of previous years Jan to this years Jan or even from week to week or day to day is meaningless without actual admitance numbers which Disney won't provide us, right?

For example - there is a higher number of visitors from South America this year. Apparently Jan has become the popular time for them since it's their summer time, Disney is growing in popularity, and the middle class is growing in numbers and influance.

If Disney does not provide actual admittance numbers, and I have no reason to doubt that, how do you know that there is a higher number of visitors from South America this year?

 

[yeahhhhh7]

The statistics from this blog would be useful if they were actually relevant. If they're only tracking posted wait times, thats not the actual wait time for the ride usually. Think of when you see Pirates as a 15 minute wait. 90% of the time its less than fifteen. Going by the posted time for the attraction won't tell you the exact wait time.


The Ops centers for the attractions don't post the exact wait time to the minute, so how could you measure if times were dropping by one minute?

Fastpass+ has lowered the wait times for attractions, and its more than just one minute for the big ones.

 

[mesaboy2]

The statistics from this blog would be useful if they were actually relevant. If they're only tracking posted wait times, thats not the actual wait time for the ride usually. Think of when you see Pirates as a 15 minute wait. 90% of the time its less than fifteen. Going by the posted time for the attraction won't tell you the exact wait time.


The Ops centers for the attractions don't post the exact wait time to the minute, so how could you measure if times were dropping by one minute?

Fastpass+ has lowered the wait times for attractions, and its more than just one minute for the big ones.

Source?

 

[Shaden]

The statistics from this blog would be useful if they were actually relevant. If they're only tracking posted wait times, thats not the actual wait time for the ride usually. Think of when you see Pirates as a 15 minute wait. 90% of the time its less than fifteen. Going by the posted time for the attraction won't tell you the exact wait time.


The Ops centers for the attractions don't post the exact wait time to the minute, so how could you measure if times were dropping by one minute?

Fastpass+ has lowered the wait times for attractions, and its more than just one minute for the big ones.

Of course, the opposite could very well be true.

hrm, 7 posts, I am calling a troll .... ???

Yea and its all FP+ flames and some comments on the Splash downtime oddly .... I am guessing someone who is under ban, or someone who intends to be. Always fun.

 

[Angel Ariel]

The statistics from this blog would be useful if they were actually relevant. If they're only tracking posted wait times, thats not the actual wait time for the ride usually. Think of when you see Pirates as a 15 minute wait. 90% of the time its less than fifteen. Going by the posted time for the attraction won't tell you the exact wait time.


The Ops centers for the attractions don't post the exact wait time to the minute, so how could you measure if times were dropping by one minute?

Fastpass+ has lowered the wait times for attractions, and its more than just one minute for the big ones.

So the 100 min wait I saw on MDE for Star Tours on Monday...an attraction I've never seen posted at longer than 20-30mins even during peak seasons (usually more like 10 or walk on) is a decrease in the wait time?

Does ST even hit 100 mins on Star Wars Weekends?

 

[poeticdiabetic]

Those who haven't been (like me) will have to experience it ourselves and draw our own opinions. We have heard both sides and it's devolving into an endless discussion. Personally, I think that it's becoming a moot point.

But I am going on March 30-April 4. That's actually when I will decide if FP+ works or not.

BTW, my kids were out of school and could have went during the Presidents Day weekend. We decided to stay home because they forecasted extremely high attendance. I anticipated long lines everywhere and decided not to chance the money spent waiting in long lines.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We have been to WDW three times in the past year, Feb 2013 - before fp+, the first week of Dec - when fp+ and fp- coexisted, and late Jan 2014 - when it was fp+ only. We didn't see any significant difference in stand by times in any of those three periods. Standby seemed to be unaffected by the fp system in place during the times we were there. But we did notice a big difference in the fp+ wait time - it was significantly shorter for us. We tended to schedule the fp+ for later in the day and by the time we got in the fp+ line, we usually walked right through the line and unto the ride without more than a five minute wait. The exception was Soarin', which has a slow load time anyway.

There were a few times when we encountered a long fp+ line at the first touch post, but most of the congestion was caused by either people who didn't belong in the line and were confused, or people who had trouble with their MB or RFID ticket. The MB people often got through the fp+ line faster than the RFID ticket people because the ticket people didn't always have their tickets ready and had to dig through their pockets or bags for them.

I think as guests get educated, something Disney needs to do a better job of doing, the fp+ return lines will get manageable again.

We will be returning in March, during the very crowded spring break period, so we'll see how the new system affects the busiest times of year.

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

We just got back last night from a Seven day visit to the World, onsite. Our observation of the lines was that the occasional backups of the FP+ line was nearly always due to people just not understanding the system and how it works yet. People on the Disboards are staying pretty current on the vagaries of the system, so when we arrived, I understood exactly how the band readers worked, etc. My DH had a hard time using his band the first couple of times because he hadn't been reading up on it like I had. But we saw people who would move the band away before the Mickey went green, so they had to re-scan, or they thought the band was a "magic ticket" to every ride, and had to have it explained by the CM, or a party of 6 would go thru one at a time instead of using both scanners, even with the CMs trying to get them to use both. You would see a backup of FP+ guests waiting to be scanned, but then there would be no line inside the attraction.

We saw the worst backups outside Star Tours, but we finally figured out that a huge part of it was that the line backed way up during Jedi shows, because people in line would get caught up watching it and not pay attention to moving along in line.

Standby line times seemed pretty consistent with what we have seen before at similar crowd levels.

The lines that shocked me were the Day-Guest lines for getting FP+ reservations. At Epcot, the rope-drop crowd was considerably thinner for the first hour just because the FP+ Kioskd lines were sucking up so many people.

We never waited in a FP+ line, either inside or outside an attraction, for longer than 5-10 minutes total, which was also pretty standard for legacy FP.

Agree with most of these comments. I was there this past week. We never waited outside of the attraction for legacy FP. I was surprised by some of the backup with FP+. I think it was a bit more complicated to have every person scan (including my very independent 3 year old) rather than one person hand over some paper FPs. However, I really didn't see any problems with backups or crazy standby lines. As a non-RD person, the ONLY ride I wanted to do but didn't was Maelstrom because I didn't feel like waiting 25 minutes for it and couldn't get an FP+ due to tiering.

 

[d-r]

Since when were character FP not intended to be part of the network? I know the FP I pulled for the princesses right after I pulled Mickey was part of the network.

Only the fast pass for Mickey was not part of the system. A fast pass for Mickey didn't count against you and if you had a fast pass for something else you could get another for Mickey. At the time it was explained that this was because they wanted everyone to have a chance to meet Mickey. I guess they don't still feel that way because now you can only have three fast passes all day and Mickey counts as one of those.

 

[knewton64]

I am hearing that meeting Mickey counts as a FP.........
and

DISney officials using a Tiered park attraction system..........
this is just for starters.



Hmmmmmmm.......and to think how the Disney Corporation was when they threw out Ron Miller, etc and got rid of the E - ticket system.......


My oh my -
the more things change, the more they stay the same.



Looks like the Disney Corporate Brass owes the estate of Diane Disney and Company one big ol apoligy for how things were handled in the early 1980's. For almost 30 yrs, he - WALT -/his company had a good thing going......
BUT NO!!!!!


DISney exec just had to go in behind him once he was deceased.....
kicked out the one person he chose to run his company.......


CHANGED the ticketing system.......



Just sayin'




Ok......rant over.
(good luck to all cuz this looks like one HUGE MESS)




Me? I am a Rope Dropper & luv every minute of it
and
have no issue with this new system -


BUT.........
IMHO,
I just feel & believe that DISney is taking the fun outta attending HIS park
with all this fantasizing / obsessing over park revenue at the expense of feeling literally forced into creating a vacation computer data spreadsheet detailing every nano-second of park attendance -

(even when we go to the bathroom there shud be a FP+....thus ensuring no LONG LINES.....SERIOUSLY)


- such that we the avid Park Fan therefore do not feel financially sheared in the process of attending what is supposed to be "The Happiest Place of Earth."





P.S. I really do hope that this kind of zaniness DOES NOT permiate DL - THE HOUSE THAT WALT & FRIENDS BUILT.



T.T.F.N.
&
Cheers Y'all