This just in from Disney Parks blog!

[OtherScott]

Yes, but people who can use their smartphone can be people who leave the park and go back to their off-site hotel or out to eat off property.

Making it kiosk-reliant keeps people in the parks.

Perfect.

 

[2Tiggies]

Personally, while the method of getting extra FP+ is better than nothing, I'm pretty disappointed they decided to go with the use 3 instead of use 1 route. Especially disappointed that it has to be done from a kiosk. That really limits the usefulness of the extra FP, especially in tiered parks.

I am intrigued about the park hopping they mentioned though. It would be really nice if you could book Soarin' for the first part of your day in Epcot, and use the other 2 for rides in the MK later at night instead of wasting them on Epcot tier 2 choices.

I feel the same as you do. I am pleased about the proposed changes. It is not going to change our plans as I have them set out as of this last weekend (having redone them countless times!) not because I don't like it, but because I'm just too tired of redoing my itinerary. We have a mix of some days booked for the morning and some for the afternoon and all planned consecutively because we have redone park days to hop into the park to do what we want to do and skip out when we are done. No late FP's are on my list as we never had them before and I'm not worrying about them right now. Also, we have planned a lot more time away from the parks this year to accommodate the system as it stands right now so I think I'm just going to leave our plans as they are.

Nonetheless I think the changes are positive and a move in the right direction. Now it's a case of observing feedback from others as soon as the changes are implemented so don't stop posting folks. Whether good or bad, we want to hear it

 

[jiminyfan]

Wondering when they go into effect and what costs will be associated with the bonus features?

 

[OtherScott]

The only reason Disney implemented MM was to get more money from guests (as has been explicitly stated by Tom Staggs). It has nothing to do with guest satisfaction. It is all about $$$. If they are seeing a drop in revenue, boom, they add in an "extra" FP to keep you sticking around longer and spending more money.

1) Piss off guests
2) ???
3) PROFIT!

 

[BJSforVols]

I'm thinking more people will now be at the park at rope drop since they need to use all 3 fast passes before they can schedule another. And if they don't use their original 3 before early afternoon, chances of getting a good fast pass for a big ride would be slim.

Doubtful. Rope Drop has always offered an advantage for shorter lines. People who do not do rope drop are not going to change. Some do not like the rush for rope drop approach. Other like their beauty sleep. Even others enjoy taking their time to have breakfast or whatever before heading to the parks. I don't see this making people change what they prefer to do in the morning hours.

 

[Shaden]

I can see that as your issue, but that's no different than FP- if you went to pull a Soarin FP at 1pm on some days.

Except with legacy FP you would then be able to pull another FP at 3pm.

Very good point. Heck with the old system if you grabbed an FP for Soarin at 1PM with a return time of 8pm you could hop to another park and pull FPS there for the afternoon and then return to Epcot for your Soarin ...

Ok, so its not QUITE the old system, but its closer.

 

[CinderElsa]

This is going to sound crazy, and tin foil hattie (is that a word ?) ...

But this might make some sense, in 2 ways. Even if people spend 2 mins, or 5 mins, at the kiosk, assuming they add more to deal with the high crowd periods, that is still 2 or 5 mins per person they spend in the parks, not being able to use ride capacity. While that doesn't seem like much, the net effect of 120 million people in the parks each year, is 240 million or 600 million minutes of ride capacity that don't need to be built.

Its also potentially 600 Million minutes more people are in the parks and not in other parks/florida spending their money outside Disney ...

On top of that, people will still -feel- like they are accomplishing something because they will get an FP out of it.

Of course, allowing more FP+s will increase demand on rides, BUT, at least forcing people to use the kiosks would offset this a bit. You could almost imagine, from Disney's perspective that the Kiosk plays the role of an attraction.


***edit - or you could take off the tin foil hat and say its just a tech issue, or a short term thing, and eventually you will be able to book more via the app ??? hahaha, but not a bad theory if I do say so myself.

This is insane in the best way (and entirely feasible).

"No! These are OUR tourists! You can't have them!"

Now if only they can make throwing your own trash away at Cosmic Ray's feel like an attraction.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

I'm thinking more people will now be at the park at rope drop since they need to use all 3 fast passes before they can schedule another. And if they don't use their original 3 before early afternoon, chances of getting a good fast pass for a big ride would be slim.

A plausible concern, but I don't think it will come to this. The option to arrive at rope drop and take advantage of shorter lines has always been there and the majority of guests have opted not to do it. While the FP+ "upgrade" may lure a handful of people earlier in the day, I wouldn't worry about most latecomers dramatically shifting their morning plan.

 

[hultrain]

So, no chance of this going into effect before my trip next week, I suppose

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Do you guys (who didn't like FP+) really think this is good? All this is doing is creating an urgency to burn your 3 FPs right away on the hopes of getting a 4th.

Before you'd take them at 12, 1, and 2, and rope drop from 9-11. Great.

Now, you have every reason to take your FPs at 9, 10, 11, to get a 4th which will be for around 7pm and certainly not for anything really desirable like TSMM.

How is that better? You used 2 FPs during Rope Drop times, and you got one FP for later at night, and you spent the middle of your day with none (and nothing but long lines).

This is the first change to FP+ that I have not been excited about.

It it good? No.

Is it better than it was? Probably.

I would definitely have preferred the option which allowed you to book another FP selection after using one of your 3 advance reservation. Or even after your 2nd. Disney made a big deal aout adding FP+ to MSEP, Wishes, F!, and Illuminations. With this plan, anyone who booked those would be locked out of getting a 4th FP.

However, I could see making my FP+ resrvation at MK for 10, 11, 12 and making then grabbing a few more. It's really the only park that needs more than 3 FP.

Getting rid of the tiers and allowing me to FP a ride twice would make me happy, but I'm not sure either of those will ever happen.

 

[Shaden]

Doubtful. Rope Drop has always offered an advantage for shorter lines. People who do not do rope drop are not going to change. Some do not like the rush for rope drop approach. Other like their beauty sleep. Even others enjoy taking their time to have breakfast or whatever before heading to the parks. I don't see this making people change what they prefer to do in the morning hours.

Well, people have already been reporting a decrease in the RD advantage due to FP+ bookings.

Sure WE know its not the best use of them, but a lot of people don't and a lot of people probably take the times Disney gives them, including first thing in the morning, and a lot of people probably think its a great idea to "knock out" their most wanted rides first thing !!!

Like "I can't wait to ride space mountain !!! I have my fastpass booked for 9:10am !!! I will run right there after opening" And many of those people probably don't even realize when they get there they could have just walked on SB instead, but still "feel like a VIP" by walking in the FP entrance.

That being said, I don't know if this change would encourage anyone to show up earlier to maximize their FPs. I think most people aware of good touring strategies already know to get there early.

 

[OtherScott]

This is going to sound crazy, and tin foil hattie (is that a word ?) ...

But this might make some sense, in 2 ways. Even if people spend 2 mins, or 5 mins, at the kiosk, assuming they add more to deal with the high crowd periods, that is still 2 or 5 mins per person they spend in the parks, not being able to use ride capacity. While that doesn't seem like much, the net effect of 120 million people in the parks each year, is 240 million or 600 million minutes of ride capacity that don't need to be built.

Its also potentially 600 Million minutes more people are in the parks and not in other parks/florida spending their money outside Disney ...

On top of that, people will still -feel- like they are accomplishing something because they will get an FP out of it.

Of course, allowing more FP+s will increase demand on rides, BUT, at least forcing people to use the kiosks would offset this a bit. You could almost imagine, from Disney's perspective that the Kiosk plays the role of an attraction.


***edit - or you could take off the tin foil hat and say its just a tech issue, or a short term thing, and eventually you will be able to book more via the app ??? hahaha, but not a bad theory if I do say so myself.

Why do you think this is crazy? I like it.

 

[surferdave]

In my opinion, this change would give us the benefit of the old system plus the new ability to schedule your first 3 60 or 30 days before arriving. I don't see how anyone can spin this as a bad thing when comparing to the current fast pass+ or the old legacy fast pass system.

Do you mean the change of this additional fastpass or the change of FP-/FP+ in general? I'm pretty indifferent to this new change for the reasons fuzzylogic outlined above (the first time my opinion aligns with his on this matter as far as I remember ). We foresaw this type of change here and went through the possible scenarios and consequences a long time ago anyway. I still dislike FP+ compared to FP- in general because of the ongoing effect on standby lines, the dependence on technology in the parks that I don't want to have to depend on, the required pre-planning, and the lack of flexibility.

It's actually my nature to like and seek change, BTW, I just don't like this change.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

Beggars can't be choosers. This change would make it similar to the old system with a step of improvement.

My next trip is going to cost around $5K. I'm not exactly 'begging' Disney for anything.

 

[Ravenne]

Wondering when they go into effect and what costs will be associated with the bonus features?

I wonder the same thing. I hope soon...before school gets out and before the summer season.

Personally, I like this new change. I like getting 3 first and get more as you use them up. I'm also glad that it seems Disney is listening.

So much for "Just deal with it" and "Disney doesn't care about you, there are 10 people waiting to take your spot" ...

I wish I could say it'll quiet the Negative Nellies for a while, but I doubt it.

 

[Jennasis]

Do you guys (who didn't like FP+) really think this is good? All this is doing is creating an urgency to burn your 3 FPs right away on the hopes of getting a 4th.

Before you'd take them at 12, 1, and 2, and rope drop from 9-11. Great.

Now, you have every reason to take your FPs at 9, 10, 11, to get a 4th which will be for around 7pm and certainly not for anything really desirable like TSMM.

How is that better? You used 2 FPs during Rope Drop times, and you got one FP for later at night, and you spent the middle of your day with none (and nothing but long lines).

This is the first change to FP+ that I have not been excited about.

Rope drop, FP around lunch, pick up 4th or more in evening.

There's the new TP.

 

[glvsav37]

No. This is not the way. The whole idea of getting in line to get additional FP+ is simply hilarious to consider. Use the online technology you supposedly spent millions to develop instead of asking people to stand in yet another line in order to hopefully spend less time standing in yet another line.

What a mess. I have no confidence that this company has any idea how to effectively harness the technology that is readily available to everyone.

I think the biggest thing that people are missing about them making us use the Kiosks is that you physically have to be in the park to make the new FP+ ressie.

It is a way (right now) to stop people from making that extra FP+ for another park before they leave for another park. Once they get the process for hopping up and running then they could start app access.


that said, I have been wondering why—if WDW is so hot on us using our cell phone—that they have not built in some form of geofencing into the app. We use geofencing for targeted advertising at the agency I work at and it is great. Simply define the boundaries of each park and the built in GPS feature in the phone will tell the app when or where you are and what features can be accesses....like making a new FP+ ressie while waiting at bag check.

Likewise, the app could communicate back to you depending on where you are:
• notifying you of a short wait time as you walk past an attraction
• Sending you a coupon for merch while on Main Street
• Give you accurate info on where transportation is—buses, monorails and trains

leveraging the GPS within the phone is the whoel key to making this system amazing

 

[WillAustin]

It it good? No.

Is it better than it was? Probably.

It's definitely better than a hard limit of 3. And it will end up rewarding those who make an effort to acquire more. That's a good thing.

Any ability to possibly get more than 3 is an improvement from the current state.

I wish I could say it'll quiet the Negative Nellies for a while, but I doubt it.

Now we'll hear that the 4 and beyond aren't being fairly distributed...

 

[Shaden]

Do you guys (who didn't like FP+) really think this is good? All this is doing is creating an urgency to burn your 3 FPs right away on the hopes of getting a 4th.

Before you'd take them at 12, 1, and 2, and rope drop from 9-11. Great.

Now, you have every reason to take your FPs at 9, 10, 11, to get a 4th which will be for around 7pm and certainly not for anything really desirable like TSMM.

How is that better? You used 2 FPs during Rope Drop times, and you got one FP for later at night, and you spent the middle of your day with none (and nothing but long lines).

This is the first change to FP+ that I have not been excited about.

What you are describing is only true for about a Third of the year. When there are higher crowd levels.

The rest of the year you could burn your FPs at 10:30, 11:30, and 12:30, and then continue to pull FPs throughout the afternoon and possibly the evening.

I am very excited about this change. It wont really impact the busy times since, the peak season people were lucky to get 3 FPs as it was and you are right, if you burn them early chances are whats left will be slim pickings and late FPs. But the rest of the year, this will be great I think.

Though I do worry about the impact on SB wait times if more people are skipping the lines.

 

[TooExcitedCantSleep]

Yep. It's nice to be right.

Ha ha!!!!!!!!!!! This is kinda silly doncha think?????? The pro FastPass folk did not cancel their trip!!!!!! They were the ones who agreed to "test" FastPass+ and provide feedback to Disney. They believed and said all along that changes will come and this was a "test" and they were patient and did not jump to conclusions. Others "proclaimed" that it wasn't really a test. I'm happy to have listened to the pro FastPass+ people because they were right about that all along!!!!! I hope it gets better too!!!!!!!

Disney will not ever bring back the Legacy FastPass. So- those guests have to adjust to the new normal or they will be out of luck.