Spontaneity at WDW Gone

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Apparently even the elite are not immune to Disney's "value adjustments":

Some of Mickey's High Rollers have their tails in a twist

First they went for the concierge lounges...


Interesting development, but I don't see now 4 APs is "more value".

What value is an $11K membership cannot be showed off to your friends?
(And this is snark to the company, not to the members because anybody can walk into a park.)

 

[Laketravis]

First they went for the concierge lounges...


Interesting development, but I don't see now 4 APs is "more value".

What value is an $11K membership cannot be showed off to your friends?
(And this is snark to the company, not to the members because anybody can walk into a park.)

Now $12K for platinum level...per year.

 

[Suvadoo]

Now $12K for platinum level...per year.

I wonder how many guests will give up their Club 33 memberships in protest. Probably not enough to make a difference. And even if they did it, there is a waiting list for new members.
I can't believe Disney is taking away perks for these people. Don't they realize the amount of resentment they are creating in their most loyal fans? I know someone is going to say, Disney is a business and they're out to make a profit and I know that. Isn't $12,000 dollars per year and leaving the current benefits intact enough?

 

[MrInfinity]

Only if spontaneous = being able to ride 7dmt any time you want the precise moment you demand it
Or spontaneous = I want a hamburger and ice cream NOW and Beaches and cream is the ONLY place that I can get exactly that.

That sounds more synonymous with the demands of a 2 year old rather than the definition of spontaneous.

Shoot, what if you wanted Starbucks but the like was 10 minutes long? There goes the spontaneity because you cannot have it this instant. *stompy feet*

Hehe... Love this post. Yep spontaneity is not getting whatever you want when you want it but being able to choose what you want to do. You cannot walk into a reservation-only restaurant anywhere and expect to be seated.

But, Disney does offer walk-up service as well as reservation-service to have something for everyone. One can choose to make a reservation if you think B&C might be on your list of things to do, or you can chance it, knowing they will most likely not have room, if you'd be ok w/ not doing it.

Maybe you don't know, now, that you'll want to eat at a reservation-only place in 6 months... but that is the nature of demand. Enough other people do know this, now, so they'll book it if you don't. It is not Disney is requiring you to be less spontaneous, it's that you want something that a bunch of other people planned for. And aside from high-demand restaurants, you can find availability in a month, not 6 months. For example, I just now searched for B&C for early-Jan, and find plenty of lunch times for a fam of 4. There is no trouble. Next week? Nothing. But 3 weeks out there is plenty.

 

[MrInfinity]

FP+ serves a purpose and can be useful. However, nothing is perfect. And where FP+ fails is in the spontaneity of touring. Anyone who can't admit that is biased and I believe has a secret agenda as it's an obvious flaw of the system that shouldn't require 17 pages of threads to hash out.

Anyone who doesn't agree with me is biased and has an agenda.



The extensive threads on this are not because it's complicated, but because FP+ is the hot news at Disney World. It is different, revolutionizing theme parks, and pioneering technology. It will be talked about heatedly for years not because it's hard to understand but because it's so different.

I still don't see the connection failing in the spontaneity of touring.

* We travel spontaneously.

* We used FP+ with great success.

Having some rides locked in ahead of time via FP+ creates opportunities to be spontaneous because you have your rides set up ahead of time. Thus, you are not waiting in SB for 3 or 4 rides, you have guaranteed quick access, which frees you up to do other things. This is exactly how it works in practice for us. One day we just spent our morning doing Pirate quests. We had never done them before! We weren't worried about getting to the next FP- kiosk because we had our tickets (3 of them in fact) already pulled. So we just had fun doing whatever.

I believe FP+ does require 30 min of planning well in advance of a trip (and most people already spend way more than this in just reserving their room, picking dates, booking flights, etc), and once done, provides for a better experience in the park!

 

[mom2rtk]

At WDW, yes. There hasn't been a no-standby test since the TSMM one in October (thankfully).

Just for the sake of discussion, I do believe that A&E at DL did actually implement the "allow A&E line to fill up to an hour (or whatever the time is), close the SB line, then hand out paper cards w/return times for later. When the cards are gone, the line is closed" procedure that they had originally tested on A&E in WDW over the summer.

I have not yet heard that they discontinued that there.

Like I said, just putting that into the discussion. Disney is clearly OK with implementing said procedure. They haven't done so at WDW yet, and I hope they never do, but it isn't out of the question. Not trying to be argumentative at all, just putting it out there as a discussion point.

We are just back from Disneyland and they have indeed implemented the "reservation only" system for meeting Anna and Elsa. They allow the first 10 or 20 people in line then return times begin, I believe 30 minutes after park open.

We keep up to date here on the DIS so knew we had to go straight there at rope drop to get our return time. Return times start being distributed at park open, even if it is an early entry day. Return tickets only lasted until about 20 minutes into general park open. Throughout the time we were in Fantasyland that morning I saw person after person go up and ask the attendant about meeting them, only to be turned away. So while we benefited from having the inside information, and it was nice and convenient to return and have a very short wait, I'm still not in favor of the arrangement. I still think that the length of the line should be the limiting factor and allow people to wait as long as they are willing to wait.

 

[DISNEYD14]

We went in October and we felt FP+ gave us more spontaneity.
EP, DHS and AK are always short days for use so it allowed us to decide when we woke up what we wanted to do for the morning and make last minute ADRs for later. We split EP up into 2 half days so the little ones are not exhausted.

MK we did everything we wanted to do with FP+ on day 1 except meet A&E.

Maybe it's having little kids and not doing the mid day breaks (too much travel time) but we enjoyed this year more than any other year we've gone.
Having those 3 FP+ ahead of time was perfect for us without having to rush to park at RD