Soarin' SB+ test...Fail

[Squidgyness]

Thank for answering that you really don't know EXACT numbers

Wow. I haven't seen evasive action like that since the millennium falcon fled that star destroyer...

It has been reported everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE at at least 800 to a billion, probably more. If you have evidence to refute it, share. Otherwise, we can only go on what has been said.

See links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/b...ld-loyalty-and-sales.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://skift.com/2013/08/18/disneys...ject-is-most-expensive-in-theme-park-history/
http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201311/3790/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/billion-dollar-bracelet-is-key-to-magical-kingdom.html
http://www.joshuakennon.com/disney-mymagic/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2566859/One-day-tickets-Disney-World-expensive.html

I quote:

"Although Disney won't specify the reasons behind the increase, the Florida parks are home to the company's new high-tech wristband-based ticketing and ride reservation system, called MyMagic+ which cost the company $1.5 billion."

Shall I go on?

 

[Tonyz]

We sat down last night and started going over the parks, one by one and what was 'worth it' in each one. Other than the MK, and somewhat AK, Disney World is a bit thin on things to do in the other parks.

That's an interesting comparison... AK vs. Epcot in terms of major attractions.

Epcot:

1. Soarin'
2. Test Track
3. Spaceship Earth
4. Mission: Space
5. The Seas with Nemo
6. Maelstrom

Animal Kingdom:

1. Expedition Everest
2. DINOSAUR
3. Kilimanjaro Safari
4. Kali River Rapids
5. Primeval Whirl

Plus AK has Finding Nemo, Lion King, Pangani, and Maharajah. And of course Avatar coming some time in the next couple decades.

I mean Epcot is probably my single favorite place on the planet, but you can definitely argue that AK has better attractions.

 

[canoe86]

That's an interesting comparison... AK vs. Epcot in terms of major attractions.

Epcot:

1. Soarin'
2. Test Track
3. Spaceship Earth
4. Mission: Space
5. The Seas with Nemo
6. Maelstrom

Animal Kingdom:

1. Expedition Everest
2. DINOSAUR
3. Kilimanjaro Safari
4. Kali River Rapids
5. Primeval Whirl

Plus AK has Finding Nemo, Lion King, Pangani, and Maharajah. And of course Avatar coming some time in the next couple decades.

I mean Epcot is probably my single favorite place on the planet, but you can definitely argue that AK has better attractions.

From a personal perspective......MY OWN OPINION. ( just being clear on that, so no one thinks I'm disparaging their favorite ride. )

Throw out Test Track, but in Epcot, I like Living with the Land.

In AK, Throw out PW. Not a EE fan....the back portion kills me and on KRR, all i can think of is...."This would be great in a canoe!" BUT, the safari is AWESOME, and counts for 2 or 3.

The shows are great. BUT, even with these lists, bit over half a day? And there are some of those I wouldn't wait for.

Also, Soarin needs major upgrades IMO.

How about Epcot vs HS??? Include the shows.

 

[flicx]

Wow. I haven't seen evasive action like that since the millennium falcon fled that star destroyer...

It has been reported everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE at at least 800 to a billion, probably more. If you have evidence to refute it, share. Otherwise, we can only go on what has been said.

See links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/b...ld-loyalty-and-sales.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://skift.com/2013/08/18/disneys...ject-is-most-expensive-in-theme-park-history/
http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201311/3790/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/billion-dollar-bracelet-is-key-to-magical-kingdom.html
http://www.joshuakennon.com/disney-mymagic/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2566859/One-day-tickets-Disney-World-expensive.html

I quote:

"Although Disney won't specify the reasons behind the increase, the Florida parks are home to the company's new high-tech wristband-based ticketing and ride reservation system, called MyMagic+ which cost the company $1.5 billion."

Shall I go on?

Thank you for the sources. I guess pluto can now grill these people as to how they came about with their figures. Or ask them if they have a resume for upper management. I am still waiting for the answer if he thought if Disney had it to do over again would they spend it on attractions instead.

 

[Planogirl]

That's an interesting comparison... AK vs. Epcot in terms of major attractions.

Epcot:

1. Soarin'
2. Test Track
3. Spaceship Earth
4. Mission: Space
5. The Seas with Nemo
6. Maelstrom

Animal Kingdom:

1. Expedition Everest
2. DINOSAUR
3. Kilimanjaro Safari
4. Kali River Rapids
5. Primeval Whirl

Plus AK has Finding Nemo, Lion King, Pangani, and Maharajah. And of course Avatar coming some time in the next couple decades.

I mean Epcot is probably my single favorite place on the planet, but you can definitely argue that AK has better attractions.

I wouldn't consider the Seas with Nemo or Maelstrom or Spaceship Earth (as much as I love it) major attractions. Plus Mission Space causes some people problems including me.

The Animal Kingdom list is all major rides except maybe Primeval Whirl and you could possible throw It's Tough to be a Bug in there too.

Of course YMMV.

 

[Planogirl]

Thank you for the sources. I guess pluto can now grill these people as to how they came about with their figures. Or ask them if they have a resume for upper management. I am still waiting for the answer if he thought if Disney had it to do over again would they spend it on attractions instead.

I can't speak for Pluto but some have said that adding attractions wouldn't change anything. I'm always blown away by that because simple math would indicate that it could change things very much indeed!

 

[Tonyz]

I wouldn't consider the Seas with Nemo or Maelstrom or Spaceship Earth (as much as I love it) major attractions. Plus Mission Space causes some people problems including me.

The Animal Kingdom list is all major rides except maybe Primeval Whirl and you could possible throw It's Tough to be a Bug in there too.

Of course YMMV.

Yeah good points... but I think basically everyone who goes through Epcot rides Nemo and especially Spaceship Earth.

 

[over50visits]

I think this is not true. Most guests would have been better with the old system and about 15 new attractions.

Did you know an attraction costs about $100 MILLION dollars??? So, your suggestion would mean Disney should have spent $1.5 BILLION dollars on new attractions instead of MDE and FP+. Do you think Disney has that kind of money?

Oh…oh…oops….never mind.

Instead of 15 top of the line, mouthwatering attractions, we got FP+. Yay.

 

[mediadiva]

Just in case you weren't aware, the parade at animal kingdom has ended. There is no longer a parade running there, and there has not been any announced plans to replace it with a new parade.

I had no idea, wow. Thanks for letting me know! I'll have to see how it is this trip and how much has changed from 4 years ago.

 

[flicx]

Did you know an attraction costs about $100 MILLION dollars??? So, your suggestion would mean Disney should have spent $1.5 BILLION dollars on new attractions instead of MDE and FP+. Do you think Disney has that kind of money?

Oh…oh…oops….never mind.

Instead of 15 top of the line, mouthwatering attractions, we got FP+. Yay.

Yes, I guess we could have settled for 30 fifty million dollar attractions instead too, but hey with such an innovative, well thought out my MDE and FP plus system why would anyone want anything else?

 

[g-dad66]

What was interesting about this, was that many of the people who had the little cards did not immediately vacate the area. It was super crowded, and more then a few I think were just hanging around until their time came up. I think this is why the ropes were up, cm's were trying to direct people 'out' of the area.

Another observation, the fast pass line appeared to be packed. There was a line forming right out the entrance area, and very few people I noticed were walking through the 'standby' line. I am not sure why that was. There was some confusion, and it was hard for me to see.

I was sitting there hypothosizing that perhaps Disney cut way back on the fast pass plus tickets for soaring for the test days, (because the standby return time was so good in my opinion) but I cant think they did. #1 reason- would they have planned this test 60 days in advance? I don't think so, therefore people would have had fast pass plus on thier accounts. Seems like a knee jerk reaction, much the same as the whole anna / elsa stuff going on. #2 reason- the fast pass line was packed.

I am trying to wrap my head around this standby plus system. Under the old system, by 1 pm on a regular crowd day, I would expect the standby line at soaring to be 90 to 100 minutes. The standby plus ticket I got reflected that exactly. 90 minutes.

The big concern is if this system 'shuts out' the visitor from a headline attraction part way through the day. I wont be back later this afternoon to see if that happens today or not.

One other note: on the here and now 'ap', soaring did not show any wait times. When I enquired to the soarin staff how long of a wait it was, once I got in line with the standby plus, they said half an hour.

I should have asked people as they were exiting what their wait times were like, both fast pass people and the standby people, but I did not think of this until I was half way back to the hotel.

I am sure Josh will blog about this, if he has not already.

Alison

Don't see any word from Josh yet, so many thanks for your reconaissance and reports!

Fascinating developments, though I feel sorry for those who have been ambushed by them.

 

[blackmamba10000]

I can't even imagine planning your dream vacation only to walk into this mess and find out you can't even get in line without a piece of paper designating a time. If I was a first timer to Disney World and saw this happen at Soarin, I doubt I would ever want to plan a return visit to DW.

 

[Figment Mom]

I don't know how pertinent my experiences are to this conversation at this point but I thought I'd share.

We road Soarin' twice today. We went at rope drop. We didn't run. As a matter of fact we sat down on a bench outside of the Land for a while as ds was upset about something and I made him sit there and watch the people pass us. After a few minutes (and an improved attitude) we went in. Wait was 10-15 minutes until we actually boarded.

I had FP+ with a 10:15-11:15 return time. Returned a little after 10:30 and was on in about 15 minutes.

When we were exiting I went to see when SB+ return times were. There was no line to get a card. At 10:53 we were given a 11:45-12:45 return time.

There were no signs anywhere in the park.

 

[lovethattink]

I don't know how pertinent my experiences are to this conversation at this point but I thought I'd share.

We road Soarin' twice today. We went at rope drop. We didn't run. As a matter of fact we sat down on a bench outside of the Land for a while as ds was upset about something and I made him sit there and watch the people pass us. After a few minutes (and an improved attitude) we went in. Wait was 10-15 minutes until we actually boarded.

I had FP+ with a 10:15-11:15 return time. Returned a little after 10:30 and was on in about 15 minutes.

When we were exiting I went to see when SB+ return times were. There was no line to get a card. At 10:53 we were given a 11:45-12:45 return time.

There were no signs anywhere in the park.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[g-dad66]

I don't know how pertinent my experiences are to this conversation at this point but I thought I'd share.

We road Soarin' twice today. We went at rope drop. We didn't run. As a matter of fact we sat down on a bench outside of the Land for a while as ds was upset about something and I made him sit there and watch the people pass us. After a few minutes (and an improved attitude) we went in. Wait was 10-15 minutes until we actually boarded.

I had FP+ with a 10:15-11:15 return time. Returned a little after 10:30 and was on in about 15 minutes.

When we were exiting I went to see when SB+ return times were. There was no line to get a card. At 10:53 we were given a 11:45-12:45 return time.

There were no signs anywhere in the park.

Super, thanks!

Nothing better than first-hand reports. Much appreciated.

 

[robpa]

Well it was the same argument people used who hated FP+ that it would be a paid service. So far the only time they have same anything like that it was the thrill attraction tour.

All the pro FP plusers seem to think that the program is still going to be tweaked so I would hold off on claiming victory on them not monetizing it yet.

 

[robpa]

Yes, please go on. Show me where Disney has released EXACTLY how much money was spent thus far on MM+. These articles are just speculations. I keep seeing people quote figures on this board that MM+ cost anywhere from 1 billion - 2 billion dollars and it being WAY over budget. I was just merely asking more information from people making that claim.

I guess i will keep waiting for exact figures from people making claims about how much money was spent

You seem to think you know everything so you tell us how much they spent on it.

 

[wn01aa]

Yes, please go on. Show me where Disney has released EXACTLY how much money was spent thus far on MM+. These articles are just speculations. I keep seeing people quote figures on this board that MM+ cost anywhere from 1 billion - 2 billion dollars and it being WAY over budget. I was just merely asking more information from people making that claim.

I guess i will keep waiting for exact figures from people making claims about how much money was spent

Even if it were on budget it is a waste of half a billion that could have gone into making 5 headliners. And that is only the original amount. I doubt you will get an official release from Disney stating "Hey, we had a budget of $500 million but since we had so many problems that it ended up being $1.5 billion". Don't think they want to share that info too much.

 

[robpa]

First hand report on how the test went today at Soarin:

http://themeparkuniversity.com/critical-studies/standby-return-test-continues-soarin/

According to this, standby line was opened at around 7pm

But it also said no one knew it would reopen. If someone tried to get in line while they weren't handing out cards they were told they could not get in line if they didn't have a card. They didn't tell them they could come back later and the line would be open.

 

[wn01aa]

First hand report on how the test went today at Soarin:

http://themeparkuniversity.com/critical-studies/standby-return-test-continues-soarin/

According to this, standby line was opened at around 7pm

Love how that sign shows that the FP+ for the major headliners are all gone. But hey, they is still availability for Nemo and Turtle Talk (Jesus, even Mission Space was sold out).