Soarin' SB+ test...Fail

[mom2rtk]

It's easy to jump on the Disney basing bandwagon but I've personally read countless threads on people NOT wanting to wait on lines which was the sole purpose of the thousand FP+ threads that have been created.

They probably surveyed people if they wanted to wait on standby for over 60 minutes. The answer was no. Now they issue cards so you don't have to wait and people are saying "but I want to wait!". Just playing devils advocate but it's pretty close to accurate from most of the posts on this board.

I'm all for avoiding lines. But waiting in line when you pay admission to a theme park should still be an option. Or at least that's how I feel. YMMV.

This isn't about lines. This is about ride capacity. Disney hoped tinkering around with the lines would help mask the issues they have with capacity, but instead it seems that every step they take highlights the problem more.

 

[1stvisit0909]

Anyone remember the old game rollercoaster tycoon? How you built your theme park and then spent hours trying to find the balance of stress and happy to keep packing in the guests?

I think that the current round of Execs must have played that game.

I think they often failed.

I feel like we are those little people wandering around looking for attractions and bathrooms with the little angry emoticons over our heads.

 

[lovethattink]

There were a few storms yesterday afternoon and evening. I'm sure TT was closed periodically.

 

[MikeP22]

With the reported $2 billion spent on My Magic Plus...

Sounds like a disproportionately large amount of money to spend on something that equates to a new IT system.

 

[magicbob]

See? LOTS of options to make this thing work.

Of course, deviation for purposes of shopping will have to be worked into the equation.

Wrong, the shopping times are part of the mandatory itinerary. The majority of it, in fact. Each guest will be assigned three rides of WDW's choosing (assigned based on a logrhythm designed to maintain acceptable queue lengths at the gift shop registers). Sample itinerary follows:

9-11am: Shopping
11-11:55am: Wait in line for Stitch
11:55-12 noon: Experience the magic of Stitch
12 noon - 1pm: Lunch
1-3pm: Shopping
3-3:55pm: Wait in line for Hall of Presidents
3:55-4pm: Experience the ALL NEW Hall of Presidents (Show abbreviated... now features only George Washington since the old format was taking too much time away from shopping).
4-6pm: Shopping
6-7pm: Dinner
7-7:55pm: Wait in line for your Tier 1 Experience (Carousel of Progress)
7:55-8pm: Experience the ALL NEW Carousel of Progress (Carousel no longer moves. Guests enter each of the auditoriums to watch a 5-minute trailer for an upcoming Disney film).
8-10pm: Shopping
10pm: Exit park. Please note that off-site guests must now walk/swim to the Transportation & Ticket Center because monorails and ferries are FP+ only (bonus FP+ for on-site guests).

 

[wn01aa]

Eventually there will be 4 lines. A FPSuper+ which you pay for but let's you on the ride in less than 5 minutes, FP+ which let's you on in 15 minutes or less but is included with admission, SB+ which is a ticket and lets you ride between 30-60 minutes, and then regular Standby (chump line) which is a scary and dangerous unpredictable line to enter for wait time.

 

[bjs1228]

What's going on at WDW? We are all big boys and girls. If we want to wait 90 min to ride Soarin, why can't we? Are they really that concerned about us standing in line all that time or is it that if we are in a line we aren't out spending even more money in the park? Ugh We will be there 2 weeks from today! They better get this all lined out and quickly or they may lose us to that other park. (We love it there too!)

 

[thornton0511]

Disney needs to just stop! Everything was just fine the way it was. The more ideas they come up with to "fix" how a person waits for a ride the more awful the entire experience gets. Disney needs to stop listening to whoever is pitching all of these ideas

 

[wareagle57]

It makes the Qbot at that other place look genius. If only one could wear it on their wrist.

I know I'm like 5 pages behind, but the Qbot to me has always been the best and most fair solution. And Six Flags had that 10 years ago at least. Virtually wait in 1 line at a time, as much as you want all day. As soon as you ride, virtually get in line for another ride and ride something else on standby. It would cause the SB lines to go up everywhere, which would also make the virtual lines longer, but it wouldn't matter. For the rides you want to do most, you would never actually have to wait in line for them. 3 hours for Soarin? Ok, I'll go ride MS, Spaceship Earth, and eat dinner and come back. Want to ride it again? 2 hour wait? OK, I'll go ride Maelstrom and walk around the World Showcase. For the headliners it would probably lower the wait times, because no one would be willing to wait that long SB when they could pull a reservation.

 

[surferdave]

It's easy to jump on the Disney basing bandwagon but I've personally read countless threads on people NOT wanting to wait on lines which was the sole purpose of the thousand FP+ threads that have been created.

They probably surveyed people if they wanted to wait on standby for over 60 minutes. The answer was no. Now they issue cards so you don't have to wait and people are saying "but I want to wait!". Just playing devils advocate but it's pretty close to accurate from most of the posts on this board.

Do they ask in surveys if people would like to go to a 100% reservation system? I'm sure it's not generally the people who are getting the cards that are complaining, it's the people that show up after all the cards are gone and find out that they can't wait or get a card.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I'm all for avoiding lines. But waiting in line when you pay admission to a theme park should still be an option. Or at least that's how I feel. YMMV.

This isn't about lines. This is about ride capacity. Disney hoped tinkering around with the lines would help mask the issues they have with capacity, but instead it seems that every step they take highlights the problem more.

That's the thing, they want to have it both ways.

Since they have no interest in ever adding rides to Epcot, I think it's time for them to give up on Epcot and just make it an open-air mall/festival site. I would say no admission fee, but maybe some sort of spectator fee of ten bucks a person or something.

Then if people want to ride a ride, go and buy a paper ticket and go ride it. When the tickets run out for the day, oh well, at least you didn't pay for it.

I love that they thought that they could do a test like this and people wouldn't get ticked. So arrogant.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

I wonder what the fallout was like when Mission:Space flopped. That was an extremely expensive and hyped attraction and it never took off. It could have helped bolster EPCOT but turned out to be a costly misstep.

 

[FlipHipster]

It's easy to jump on the Disney basing bandwagon but I've personally read countless threads on people NOT wanting to wait on lines which was the sole purpose of the thousand FP+ threads that have been created.

They probably surveyed people if they wanted to wait on standby for over 60 minutes. The answer was no. Now they issue cards so you don't have to wait and people are saying "but I want to wait!". Just playing devils advocate but it's pretty close to accurate from most of the posts on this board.

Count me as one of those that doesn't want to stand in line. However, they haven't gotten rid of the lines, they are just shuffling them around. I still blame most of the issues on adv. booking. They are queuing up guests 60 days before the park even opens. The virtual line is still a line even if you can't see it.

 

[mom2rtk]

Eventually there will be 4 lines. A FPSuper+ which you pay for but let's you on the ride in less than 5 minutes, FP+ which let's you on in 15 minutes or less but is included with admission, SB+ which is a ticket and lets you ride between 30-60 minutes, and then regular Standby (chump line) which is a scary and dangerous unpredictable line to enter for wait time.

And standby would be more like standby on a flight and you only get on if someone doesn't show up.

Disney needs to just stop! Everything was just fine the way it was. The more ideas they come up with to "fix" how a person waits for a ride the more awful the entire experience gets. Disney needs to stop listening to whoever is pitching all of these ideas

Robo isn't here. So I'll say it:

FIXES! WE NEED MORE FIXES!

 

[KittyKitty]

Haven"t read this whole thread, but if you get one of these FP++ for Soarin' with a 30minute window, do you go into the FP line when you come back?

I personally like the idea. It's like the old FP system, where you got the time that is available. And you didn't have to wait in line.

And then you could ride Soarin'(FP++) and Test Track(FP+) at a specific time in the same day.

Or am I not understanding???

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

It makes the Qbot at that other place look genius. If only one could wear it on their wrist.

2 posts into a thread. Might be a record for you.

 

[wareagle57]

With the reported $2 billion spent on My Magic Plus, Disney could have built five $100 million e-tickets at each of their 4 Walt Disney World theme parks.

What would most guests have been more happy with?
Which would have "increased park capacity" more?
Which would have prompted more potential guests to book more WDW vacations?

Can you imagine what 2 new E ticket attractions at either Epcot or DHS would do? At Epcot it would DOUBLE the amount of must do rides, and spread the 2 hour lines at TT and Soarin down to under an hour and eliminate the need for tiers. The same would happen at DHS. It would also great so much more goodwill for Disney.

But no, they are only looking at the numbers. The red and the black. Yes, for now they have a large enough following that they can do what they want and enough of us will come back and it will create enough hype to keep new people coming. But when the next generation grows up and their memories of WDW are not as fond as ours were, then they will really hurt. But guess what? That's never going to affect the big wigs because they will be long gone by now. All they care about is covering their own ***** and maximizing revenue. It's short sighted and stupid.

I like the FP+. I don't think it's as "fair" as the old system as I am a comando and loved to maximize my FPs. But overall it is an improvement. But spending the money on attractions would have been a much bigger improvement.

 

[wareagle57]

Haven"t read this whole thread, but if you get one of these FP++ for Soarin' with a 30minute window, do you go into the FP line when you come back?

I personally like the idea. It's like the old FP system, where you got the time that is available. And you didn't have to wait in line.

And then you could ride Soarin'(FP++) and Test Track(FP+) at a specific time in the same day.

Or am I not understanding???

No, you go in the standby line. And only people with those return tickets are allowed in the standby line. It's like the old FP, except no one without them is allowed to ride at all.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Everything looks good when you draw it out on a whiteboard, then put the model in a spreadsheet, then into a pretty PowerPoint presentation showing how you can move guests around like pieces on a chessboard.

It's only when you implement it and then those pesky humans with all their wants, needs and silly emotions suddenly don't do what you expect them to, does it fail. It's not the plan - that's perfect - it's those darned guests who make it fail......

Sportswriter Bill Simmons has said for a while that sports organizations need a VP of Common Sense to look at proposed player deals and point out the problems with them. Seems like Disney would do well to appoint one, too.

 

[magicbob]

Are they really that concerned about us standing in line all that time or is it that if we are in a line we aren't out spending even more money in the park?

Introducing... MagicBand 2.0! Scan your MB at the kiosk near the ride entrance to reserve your return time. While waiting for your return time, your MB will not permit getting in line for other attractions. Be sure to spend the minimum required amount by swiping your MB at the gift shop before your return time or your MB will not validate entry to ride.