Soarin' SB+ test...Fail

[surferdave]

It'll take some time to train guests to take advantage of it, though.

I think that's a failed path to success for pretty much any endeavor. Too many of the guests at the park are either first time visitors, infrequent visitors who will not retain any learning from their previous trip or people with cultural or language barriers that would interfere with the learning. Whatever Disney implements for crowd and queue control has to be simple to convey and understand on the spot.

 

[aribelle]

Maybe Disney is finally finding the limits of how structured the average guest wants their vacation to be.

Ok, where is the LIKE button, lol. Yep....I don't like having to plan my day by the hour during work, why would I want to do it on vacation?

 

[Missyrose]

Walt must be spinning.

Nope. Walt was all for making as much money as possible. He would much rather have guests eating and shopping than standing in line for hours.

I'm curious to see what they do this morning. Disney made an important tweak on Day 2 of the A&E standby-less experiment: It only gave out return times that went to 8 p.m., then at 8 p.m., Disney re-opened the standby line for the rest of the evening. I could see a tweak like that making all the difference when testing this on Soarin'.

 

[aribelle]

Knowing them they won't give up on it. Maybe next they will move to having 3 lines. The FP+ line which gets you onto the ride in less than 5 minutes, SB+ which gets you into the ride in about 30 minutes, and then a regular standby with no time guarantees (enter at your own risk).

Mods, please erase this response! We do NOT want to be giving Disney any ideas on how to "improve" the system. Oh heavens no!

 

[AmyB2006]

How on earth could someone think this would be a good idea. Let's shut a ride down altogether by 5 pm, during the summer, for the one of the most popular rides there.

Uh huh....

I skipped the A&E thread as well because I just refuse to join that nonsense unless I can get a FP+ for it. But they've done this already with A&E?

 

[LaurenT]

Quick question - can anyone tak a stab at what the difference in cost would be between implementing the MDE system and doubling capacity on the most popular rides?

 

[magicbob]

Seems like a good idea on the face of it---the same number of guests get to ride standby, and get the added benefit of not having to queue for an hour to do so. It'll take some time to train guests to take advantage of it, though.

How on earth could someone think this would be a good idea. Let's shut a ride down altogether by 5 pm, during the summer, for the one of the most popular rides there.

Uh huh....

I skipped the A&E thread as well because I just refuse to join that nonsense unless I can get a FP+ for it. But they've done this already with A&E?

As a longtime FP uber-abuser, I have to agree that it's preferable to get that slip of paper and do something else until your return time.

What I think Disney miscalculated is that people would understand and accept that there was already a 4-hour "virtual" SB line that accounted for the ride's total capacity until closing. It's one thing to saunter up to WWoHP and see that the place is bursting at the gills with people and no more can get in right now or even to see that there is a 4-hour line for Soarin' that extends to the Canada pavilion and the line is "capped." But these guests only saw that there was not a long line and yet they were being denied entrance to the ride. Not a hard outcome to predict given the decades of disapproving looks and nasty comments made by many in SB as people with FPs breezed by them.

P.S. How would you like to be one of the people who was told "Sorry, the line is 2 hours long. You need to come back at 8pm for a 30-minute wait" and when you show up, the line is 3 hours long because they let more people in anyway?

 

[wn01aa]

How would the CM's ever coordinate that? Plus would the regular standby actually ever move?

That would be a good question. I'm sure they would think of something like sending on FP with priority, then SB+, then a few from the regular line. As I mentioned, enter the regular line at your own risk (but still gives people the option of a line in case they sell out of SB+ tickets).

 

[lovethattink]

For the A&E SB+, they were very careful not to say how long the return wait would be. I'm sure that's the case with Soarin' too. I can't stop by today, but may try tomorrow.

 

[Jennasis]

Sweet baby Jesus in the manger! What a disaster. I hope they give up on this ASAP.

I'll give Disney this...they've got determination...

 

[wn01aa]

Remember those second and third order effects that I referenced in the A&E thread? This is exactly the kind of thing that I was referring to. As I said, I didn't have time to really ponder the details, but my gut told me there would be issues when they turned people away altogether, as well as issues when people with SB+ cards returned and the line was still long.

Could you imagine the expression on the peoples faces who were turned away earlier from the standby line and were given a Ticket to come back later with a promise of a 30 minute line only to fun out Disney said to the heck with it and made it a free for all again at 5:30. If you had a 6:30 ticket and now facing a 3 hour wait, I will be pretty ticked off.

 

[magicbob]

For the A&E SB+, they were very careful not to say how long the return wait would be. I'm sure that's the case with Soarin' too. I can't stop by today, but may try tomorrow.

Granted. But someone mentioned 30-minutes (perhaps speculation). Even if they don't give an estimated wait for when you return, it defies logic that they would say the line is too long now so you can't get in it, come back later, and then later the line is even longer! That means (as was reported) that they had to have let more people in without telling them to come back later (I guess they also could have told too many people to come back for the window before yours).

 

[River Country]

I don't know the answer to this but are all the Fp's gone every day for Soarin. I am planning my trip in August and I have changed it 3 times already and there is still Soarin Available. No Anna and Elsa available but there is Soarin. Are we sure that all FP's have been distributed every day?

 

[kmb584]

I don't know the answer to this but are all the Fp's gone every day for Soarin. I am planning my trip in August and I have changed it 3 times already and there is still Soarin Available. No Anna and Elsa available but there is Soarin. Are we sure that all FP's have been distributed every day?

It doesn't have anything to do with FP+. This is their new test, SB+, where they eliminate the SB queue and issue return time tickets instead.

 

[clsteve]

As a longtime FP uber-abuser, I have to agree that it's preferable to get that slip of paper and do something else until your return time.

What I think Disney miscalculated is that people would understand and accept that there was already a 4-hour "virtual" SB line that accounted for the ride's total capacity until closing. It's one thing to saunter up to WWoHP and see that the place is bursting at the gills with people and no more can get in right now or even to see that there is a 4-hour line for Soarin' that extends to the Canada pavilion and the line is "capped." But these guests only saw that there was not a long line and yet they were being denied entrance to the ride. Not a hard outcome to predict given the decades of disapproving looks and nasty comments made by many in SB as people with FPs breezed by them.

P.S. How would you like to be one of the people who was told "Sorry, the line is 2 hours long. You need to come back at 8pm for a 30-minute wait" and when you show up, the line is 3 hours long because they let more people in anyway?

Spot on.

Their biggest miscalculation in all of this mess was that the posted SB Wait Time was it's own natural deterrent to guests. When they could see as they walked up that the posted time was more than they wanted to experience, they moved on.

Now, all they see is that they can't ride at all. But others can. Of course they'd be furious and I'm shocked Disney was shocked by the outcome.

 

[Seeker615]

This is starting to get insane.

I wish they would just scrap the whole thing and go back to the original fastpass. It was so easy to understand and things seemed to move great.

Now it seems everything is getting more and more complicated.

 

[Jennasis]

Where are the firings of the execs who even suggested this hogwash?

 

[lovethattink]

Granted. But someone mentioned 30-minutes (perhaps speculation). Even if they don't give an estimated wait for when you return, it defies logic that they would say the line is too long now so you can't get in it, come back later, and then later the line is even longer! That means (as was reported) that they had to have let more people in without telling them to come back later (I guess they also could have told too many people to come back for the window before yours).

When we went to the MK to check out the A&E SB+, the cm told us upon return there will be a moderate wait. It was also posted on the return card as "moderate wait".

There was no estimate given by cm. The 30 minutes came as reports came in from people using SB+ for A&E. Their waits were approximately 30 minutes.

 

[Nettester]

So now we have Disney thinking they should run a FP+ and legacy FP system simultaneously? No surprise an epic fail. Geez, just pick ONE system and stick with it already! Stand by should ALWAYS be an option, crowd levels ebb and flow. Having both FP+ and a FP- running would bring the level of complication to an insane level and make a relaxing vacation impossible.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Now I'm really wondering what is the point. I don't think they care about reducing the SB waits, at least not for Soarin. Maybe A&E because of the location and how high those waits can go.

I sense that they are considering moving more slots into FPP and this is a way to keep the SB line from spiking out of control when they do that. If so, why do they want to put more slots into FPP? It seems like Soarin isn't even one of those rides that has been running out during prebooking, like A&E and 7DMT.

Makes me wonder if they are getting (more) greedy and do want to start selling some FPs for headliners...