The Future of Fast Pass Plus

[dkrauss]

i know its not popular idea but magic bands, fastpass plus, should be exclusive perks to on property guest, annual pass holders, dvc members.

I agree with you............that wouldn't be a popular idea. How is that fair Most especially to locals............ From a business perspective I would believe that won't happen...........but stranger things have happened.

Doug

 

[lauradis]

as discussed in other threads. It might work for some attractions. BUt good luck on it working for A&E, 7DMT, Soarin, TestTrack, TSM, or RnRC.

Ours screen shot of time and party from Iphone MDE worked for TSM, TOT, and starwars, the system wasn't just glitching for us. The system didnt come back for half the day.

The Cast member just waved us threw. That was Oct 2013 park level of 4 HS

 

[btk2333]

Ours screen shot of time and party from Iphone MDE worked for TSM, TOT, and starwars, the system wasn't just glitching for us. The system didnt come back for half the day.

The Cast member just waved us threw. That was Oct 2013 park level of 4 HS

Worked for me at PP November 2013 and February 2014

 

[lauradis]

I agree with you............that wouldn't be a popular idea. How is that fair Most especially to locals............ From a business perspective I would believe that won't happen...........but stranger things have happened.

Doug

Just like all the other amusement parks that have a fastpass systems, charge more for it, or only for on property guest, season pass holders option.

I just think Disney is missing a big profit from doing it this way.

 

[jco_direwolf]

Ours screen shot of time and party from Iphone MDE worked for TSM, TOT, and starwars, the system wasn't just glitching for us. The system didnt come back for half the day.

The Cast member just waved us threw. That was Oct 2013 park level of 4 HS

Oct was before the FP was gone, and much earlier in testing. I really don't think your experience with that would be typical today.

 

[Toadlover]

Reading these FP+ threads, I'm really starting to hate FP+ and I haven't gotten magic bands or even sort of tried to set them up yet. The last time I was there, you just got paper printed from a little machine by the ride. Simple.

 

[btk2333]

Reading these FP+ threads, I'm really starting to hate FP+ and I haven't gotten magic bands or even sort of tried to set them up yet. The last time I was there, you just got paper printed from a little machine by the ride. Simple.

FP+ really is simple too, you don't even need to go to the ride to get your return time.

 

[Geoffmakes3]

This is typical of the VAST MAJORITY of Disney guests. And your post is what gives me hope whenever I am on these boards. The FP system IS cool. The website IS cool. The app IS cool. And Magic Bands ARE cool. The [mostly] negative stuff you are reading here comes from people who truly go to WDW too many times. They think they have it down to a science. They are claim to be Disney fans. But many of them simply complain about anything new and different. It's obvious that "change" is not a good thing to many of these people.

And I'm with you on the "rope drop" and "touring" thing. Rope drop makes a sense because it is technically how they used to open most of the parks (by holding guests at a rope, and having an announcement of sorts to open the park). The term "touring" makes me crazy. This is coming from people who have been to these parks multiple times over many years. I don't get it, and it sounds a little crazy. If you are visiting for the first time ever, then I guess you are "touring" the parks. Other than that, it's just strange to refer to your time in the parks as "touring".

Of course this is just my opinion. I will be in the minority, and several people will call me out on this. This is called "flaming". Watch how it works. It's quite amusing.

Welcome to the boards. Use them with a grain of salt. You are going to have a great vacation.

So excited to see someone say what I've been thinking for years I try to take only the positive from this board , but sadly, it has really become a little nasty lately
No flames from me !!

 

[Planogirl]

This is typical of the VAST MAJORITY of Disney guests. And your post is what gives me hope whenever I am on these boards. The FP system IS cool. The website IS cool. The app IS cool. And Magic Bands ARE cool. The [mostly] negative stuff you are reading here comes from people who truly go to WDW too many times. They think they have it down to a science. They are claim to be Disney fans. But many of them simply complain about anything new and different. It's obvious that "change" is not a good thing to many of these people.

And I'm with you on the "rope drop" and "touring" thing. Rope drop makes a sense because it is technically how they used to open most of the parks (by holding guests at a rope, and having an announcement of sorts to open the park). The term "touring" makes me crazy. This is coming from people who have been to these parks multiple times over many years. I don't get it, and it sounds a little crazy. If you are visiting for the first time ever, then I guess you are "touring" the parks. Other than that, it's just strange to refer to your time in the parks as "touring".

Of course this is just my opinion. I will be in the minority, and several people will call me out on this. This is called "flaming". Watch how it works. It's quite amusing.

Welcome to the boards. Use them with a grain of salt. You are going to have a great vacation.

The term "touring" is used regularly in guidebooks and travel websites. It's a normal term even if you don't use it yourself. And why flame people because of a word? I do my best to avoid flaming anyone but that seems like a bit much.

As for the rest, yes many here have been many times. Many don't like change or just don't like this particular change. I think that we all tend to become comfortable with a familiar system and change can be hard. That's not to say that change is bad but whatever happens doesn't necessarily suit everyone in the same way.

One more thing, I don't agree that most of the negativity comes from people who have been a lot and feel uncomfortable with change. Most of the fuss I see comes from those who struggle with Disney's horrible computer system. It's great to have a shiny new whatever but if it doesn't work for someone then it's no fun at all.

 

[Planogirl]

I am new, I've never used the FP system before. I thought the website is very cool. I never heard the word touring or rope drop until I came here so I wasn't even thinking of those.. I just booked times based on what day we wanted to be at which park (I didn't care so I randomly picked based on the day I could find a reservation, and it worked out great.) and mostly the time of day based on my kids and the heat. I couldn't get A&E or BOG when I first tried, and a few weeks later I found them while looking. I think its great. I know about it because my sister told me about it and did it for us on a past trip.

It sounds like you got the times you wanted and that's fabulous! You can throw in rope drop if you can get your group moving that early (not always easy ) but it's far from a requirement. As for touring that is just how you spend your day, nothing complicated.

I hope that you have an amazing trip.

 

[ArwenMarie]

How do you think the average park goer is coping with FP+?
Do you believe FP+ will last?
If so, do you think it will remain as it is, or think it will be modified?
What modifications will be made?

I think it's an improvement for the first-timer/only-timer. Now before they leave home, they will have at least three rides set up a day. If nothing else, it will encourage them to do even the minimal of planning/research.

I think what we see now is pretty much how it's going to stay. I don't see any big modifications. I'm still surprised they didn't give more FPs for onsite or try to sell extras, but I don't think that is happening now…I guess the capacity wasn't there.

So yeah, I think this is it.

 

[jco_direwolf]

yes for the most part people who go a lot hate change. I've seen it before.

For a change that didn't change a single thing about the parks or touring or time in the parks or mickey time, or what ever you want to call it.

For 8 years all people could do is complain about the wand over SE at EPCOT Center. "OMG the wand looks horrible", "why is the wand still up?", "Didn't like the wand when they put it up and I still hate it." etc..

8 years nothing but wand hate.

Then the wand gets taken down, with in two months I started to see "what happened to the wand?" "I loved the wand." "The wand really made Epcot speical." etc..

really people? And that had nothing to do with the functioning of the park. I think the average person likes FP+. People have learned how to use websites, and apps.

 

[Planogirl]

I think it's an improvement for the first-timer/only-timer. Now before they leave home, they will have at least three rides set up a day. If nothing else, it will encourage them to do even the minimal of planning/research.

I think what we see now is pretty much how it's going to stay. I don't see any big modifications. I'm still surprised they didn't give more FPs for onsite or try to sell extras, but I don't think that is happening now…I guess the capacity wasn't there.

So yeah, I think this is it.

I've seen two reactions from people who aren't that experienced and are making plans to go. One thinks that it's cool to have FP+ set ahead of time. The other says that it's a lot of trouble and doesn't really want to bother with it. I guess that it depends on personality and how much someone likes to plan.

The only change I see as possible is the ability to book the fourth FP+ online rather than at a kiosk. I'm not clear on why that isn't already in place now.

 

[jco_direwolf]

I'm still surprised they didn't give more FPs for onsite or try to sell extras, but I don't think that is happening now…I guess the capacity wasn't there.

The resorts lost that battle. The resorts wanted to, but it was decided the market/image wasn't want they wanted.

Rumor is the resorts have some number of FP+ slots. If we see any resort tiering I suspect it will be with those. ie Book today for Free Dining and get 1 extra FP+ slot per night, or something like that. But we will see it as a "Deal sweetener."

 

[JanaDee]

Oh wow that is a horror story! I'm glad that's never happened to us- I would recommend screenshotting everything and/or having hard copies. We once had a FPP drop from the system and when I showed them the screenshot they let me through into the FPP line.

Screenshots are no good, as you can go in and change something right after you screenshot it.

 

[btk2333]

Screenshots are no good, as you can go in and change something right after you screenshot it.

it would be effective with a large scale system failure as others were fearing. additionally the cms at a ride have discretion-if you are reasonable they can override the system and have done so in the past

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

What's a large party for you? We have 9 people and it's been pretty easy, other than staying up late to try to get FPs first. My wife and I enjoy planning trips, it's honestly a good deal of the fun, and no real complaints with the new system.

We are a party of 8. But 4 of the party have never been to Disney at all, don't have a clue about anything and (for the time being) seem content to let me plan things. I can assure you it will all change when we get there. There is no way the stuff I've planned will hold up, the party will want to split for naps, whatever comes up with their kids. That's when the issues will start, at least if they actually want to do anything.

eta: I've been part of a party of 9 at well at Disney under the old system and we had no problems, but nearly everyone was doing something different at the same time. There was no MDE account to access to change stuff up.

 

[ktlm]

We hate FP+. We have done 1 trip with it, and it really hampered us. We knew we didn't like it, but we didn't realize how much we hated it, until we spent 5 days at DL last week.

The only thing I liked about FP+was having that 1st fast pass of the day that I usually made a run for in the morning, especially Soarin and TSM. Other than that, we hated having to plan our day in advance, having to run from area to area to make our times, not being able to look at the wait times for a ride and decide if we even needed a fast pass; not being able to compare a wait time of a ride to when a fast pass would kick in if we pulled one and then possibly pull a fast pass and do everything else in the area while we waited for it to kick in etc. We hated constantly being tied to a phone, the glitchy app, the inability to change our FP+ based on how the day was going and the standby waits are, etc.

We realized how awful it really was when we spent a wonderful 5 days at DL last week without it. We aren't DL newbies, we have been alternating between DL and WDW. After doing FP+ at WDW, DL felt so much more relaxed and happy. We didn't have our day planned in advance other than our meals. We could do what we wanted in the order we decided we wanted to do it ON THAT DAY. We weren't tied to a FP that we had to use or try to switch, if we got there and the ride had a 10 or 15 minute wait. We just got in the line and didn't pull a FP. More than once (like we used to do at WDW), we would walk up to the ride and it would have at 40 minute standby, but fast passes that also kicked in within 40 minutes or an hour, so we would pull the FP, and get other stuff done in the area while we waited for it to kick in. Other than pulling my phone out here and there to check wait times in an area we were thinking of heading to, I kept my phone put away and DD didn't complain I was on it all the time (like she did at WDW with FP+). We didn't run into a bunch of stressed out guests dealing with FP+ or complaining about apps, times etc. like we did at WDW. I didn't get ran into multiple times by guests messing with the MDE app which happened at WDW. The atmosphere was so much more pleasant and relaxed- it felt like WDW before FP+ and we loved it. We are going to give FP+ one more try at WDW, but if things haven't changed and the parks still have the same feel, I think we will be having more non-Disney trips and we will stick to DL, until we miss EPCOT so much that we feel the need to hit WDW again. EPCOT is the only thing we miss when we are at DL.

 

[ArwenMarie]

The resorts lost that battle. The resorts wanted to, but it was decided the market/image wasn't want they wanted. Rumor is the resorts have some number of FP+ slots. If we see any resort tiering I suspect it will be with those. ie Book today for Free Dining and get 1 extra FP+ slot per night, or something like that. But we will see it as a "Deal sweetener."

Very interesting.

 

[Suvadoo]

FP+ isn't a requirement. No one has to use it. It's the process as things stand now. You can always wait in the stand-by line...........
Doug

I really get tired of the argument: it isn't a requirement.

No one ever said it was a requirement!

I said, "It is an awful lot of work."