TSM standby-less test Oct. 6-9

[g-dad66]

What are the on-scene reports like for today's test? I don't have time to wade through all the posts in this thread.

Wish there was a way that those informational posts could be flagged/stripped out for quick reading.

I know what you mean!

Here are the informational posts I have found so far --

I haven't read the whole thread but I thought I would share our experience this morning. we had a FP for the 9:35 slot. We didn't know about the test until we got there. We walked through a completely empty line and boarded immediately. Looked like most of the cars were running empty.

We inquired afterwards about a DAS return time and were told they were not giving out any DAS return times.

Here now. Sorry I don't have time to read all of the post so I hope this info is not repeated. I really feel for anyone who used their tier 1 fastpass on rocking roller coaster with the intent of rope dropping toy story. This is NOT possible duo this test. We were lucky enough to plan a toy story fast pass while rope dropping the coaster. I would not have been a happy camper if I was told I could not ride the ride even though I paid the full price of admission. Honestly, still not totally happy about it. My youngest would have loved to ride it again since she is too short for the coaster. This is our usual park strategy. Dad takes her to toy story while I ride the coaster with the older daughter. Needless to say, this did not happen today:-(

At HS today and they ran one group through of standby at rope drop ( we made it burn they turned people away right after us) and then completely shut down stand by for TSM. A lot of people were unhappy!

We were in studios today as part of a short weekend trip. We checked out today, had a late breakfast and strolled in around noon with fp+ but no TSMM as no availability. We walked in to signs saying the ride was at capacity. I saw pictures on twitter with empty cars and mentioned it to cast members who swore to me that they "were adding fp to keep the line at 45 min". There were none available at the kiosk as expected but I made a 4th fp at star wars and after some persistance, was able to change it on my phone to TSMM at 5pm for 5:40 return time.

When we walked in there was not a single person in line. They were running empty cars and I could be wrong on this, but I think that they were only running 1 track. I took pictures which I posted to twitter. I then took my own pictures to one of the "clipboard people" and they said only that they were testing to make a better experience in the future and that this was a necessary evil. Lots of people unhappy outside the ride from getting turned away.

We were at DHS today. We had FP for TSMM at around 1. It was a 5 min wait and they were only using the FP line. It was really odd to see the SB line completely empty. Also, the ride went down very briefly and you could see Mngt. jump to get it online quickly. I saw a little girl around 2 crying because she couldn't get back in line and several confused families. My son was able to ride twice since my sis gave him her band but I only was able to go once. Sad about missing a second ride which we sometimes did. I am very thankful I had a FP though for it is my sons favorite ride and it is unfair to just spring this on people.

 

[lugnut33]

Would everyone be fine if FP wait time was 30 minutes?

 

[TwoMisfits]

Just stumbled across this after work and I am flabbergasted. I need to go back and read some more of the entries but using unsuspecting guests paying park admission for a park with only 5 remaining rides as guinea pigs to test capacity and standby/fp+ ratios is INSANE.

Welcome to Disney Hollywood Studios. We have 5 rides for your enjoyment today but you may not be able to ride one of them for either time or money. Have a Magical Day!

Amen. This is the most on-point post of the whole thread.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Amen. This is the most on-point post of the whole thread.

Should also add.on to the end.of that, "But we have 20 stores and.you can have a magically fun time spending your time and money shopping".

 

[Davey Jones II]

Honestly. Here's a novel idea. How about building more attractions to spread the masses out over instead of finding new ways to control the mice in the maze.

Perish the thought! How unthinkable

By the way, I am just coming into this thread on page one, and my jaw dropped to the floor when I read about this travesty. Un-freakin'-real. The sheer arrogance, hubris and lack of consideration for guests is beyond the pale. We will be there next week, and if this kind of "test" happens during our visit, I know I will blow a gasket.

 

[disneynewbee]

I just can't imagine how many kiosks they will need if they choose to go with this as a perminant situation. Kiosks where people will be standing in line, kind of defeats the point. Of course they could finally set it up to do the additional fps on our phones but then they would have to actually get their app and computer systems to work properly and with so many people trying to do the same thing at once it probably wouldn't be pretty.

 

[Davey Jones II]

I've been trying for months to get a 7D FP+. no luck. Not taking a vacation day from work to make it happen. I rode it once, it was cute, but not worth a vacation day.

I'm assuming it's all the 60 dayers. I do hope they're cancelling if they decide on a different park.

Which is my problem with FP+. Everyone is having to plan too far out. I have family coming in November. They've never been to Disney. And here I am, booking FP+ for them 30 days out. TSMM has been booked every day so far. FInally got FP+ for a lousy time - middle of the day - on their Epcot day. But it's booked. WHEW.

I don't see the advantage to no SB line. It's only going to make the SB lines on other attractions longer.

...and the kiosk lines horrendous.

 

[Davey Jones II]

But have they truly failed? By OUR standard, they have been abysmal failures of monumental proportions. But that assumes that Disney's desired outcome (i.e., what they are testing) is the same as ours. I submit that they are NOT and that despite the epic disasters that guests are experiencing, the results being reported back to the decision makers are that the tests have all been a smashing success. And depending on what they were trying to accomplish, that could be quite true.

If they're trying to piss off and alienate as many people as possible...then yes, what a smashing success!!

 

[Davey Jones II]

If this is really the case, then I get it. It just sucks for those who were not prepared for the test. If this tests allows Disney to make the line smaller in the future, then it's worth it. No pain, no gain

The only way to reduce the lines for TSMM is to build attractions which will draw people away from TSMM.

But Star Wars Land is still long into the future, in a galaxy (of time) far, far away.

 

[smidgy]

I agree. And most of all, I am strongly disappointed in Disney using people paying full price for a vacation as guinea pigs.

!!!!!!1!!!!! so not fair to those people!!!


it wouldn't be us. but i know of a lot of people it would be.
people who have asked our advice on touring. bad, bad BAD disney!!!

 

[Davey Jones II]

That's on Disney, for not having enough cast to manage lines. Certainly there are ways to handle this, like, for example, having a central location monitor queues by video and dispatch a crew to handle overflow problems ASAP. All it takes is the will and the money to allocate a few cm's that might not be busy 100% of the time.

And some barbed wire fencing to keep out undesirables wishing to get into a SB line...

 

[smidgy]

and you advise friends. and they show up at rope drop, and to no avail??? this is horrible of disney to give no advance warning.


even folks who give a little "heed" to their friends' advice would have had no warning... for pity's sake ... I understand they need to try out new systems, etc.


but if Disney INSISTS you plan out your trip from moment to moment ...


(paranthetical aside here..hubby was always the big planner.. after we started buying annual passes I FINALLY got him to see the reasoning of settling down a bit.. not scheduling out every moment, which park we need to be at at which day. etc.) then!!!!! dum de dumm dum.. FP+_!!! rats.

so, disney wants to know where you are going to be at every moment....so.. you plan around that...

THEN!!! a week or so before your trip... they tell you, oh so sorry, your plan for NOT getting FP+for Toy story Mania at rope drop (because you like the queue anyway) won't work!!!! you are out of luck!

boy 0h boy.. I have always been one of the biggest Disney apologists. we were SO close to buying into DVC. we are thinking about other vacation options after this years APs run out...

 

[disnut1149]

I read a rumor months ago that Disney was going to become an all reservation system for rides. Every ride would need a reservation and they were going to do away with all standby lines. I thought it sounded crazy. But now it sounds like they might be experimenting with the idea. I hope not!

 

[Josh Hendy]

I would REALLY like to know what is going on deep inside WDW theme park management, or corporate HQ, or wherever these brain waves originate.

Someday I hope someone writes a tell-all book describing who proposes these things, who argues against them, who are the yes-men, who are the nodders [*], and who finally rams the idea through and makes it, as they say, "that which is powerful and promotes growth".

Of all rides, I would expect that TSMM is the one which is most attractive to groups which are either ignorant of FP+, or who have not understood the instructions concerning it, or who are walk-up guests or else people with a large extended family or in-laws etc. who would never be able to create and link together a lot of simultaneous FP+'s. That makes me think that either someone is being exceptionally stubborn and pushy in advocating a policy of turning away standby guests from this particular ride ... OR it's someone who's against FP+ and they're trying to sabotage it by giving the FP+ advocates enough rope to hang themsleves - by deliberately getting a lot of paying customers to complain about it.


[*] - “A Nodder is something like a Yes-man, only lower in the social scale. A Yes-Man’s duty is to attend conferences and say “Yes.” A Nodder’s, as the name implies, is to nod. The chief executive throws out some statement of opinion and looks about him expectantly. This is the cue for the senior Yes-Man to say yes. He is followed, in order of precedence, by the second Yes-Man - or Vice-Yesser -, as he sometimes is called- and the junior Yes-Man. Only when all the Yes-Men have yessed, do the Nodders begin to function. They nod.“ (P. G. Wodehouse)

 

[Josh Hendy]

I think the geniuses at WDW are simply trying to figure out what happens when you've reduced the number of rides in a park to 5, those 5 rides only have a daily capacity of X, and N number of people in the park want to ride them.

"Gee, Phil, do ya think this math is right? 40,000 ride opportunities is less than 80,000 requests?"

"Dunno, Bob. Let's use FP+ to control the flow and see if it works out that way".

They came up with a formula predicting that a slight reduction in the number of rides per day would result in a slight increase in spending on souvenirs and snacks. Then one of the poindexters in either IT or accounting realized by plugging different numbers into the forumula, that as the number of rides per day decreases towards zero, the amount spent on souvenirs and snacks approaches infinity!

Hence, get rid of standby lines, severely limit the number of FP+'s and voila ... cha-cha-ching!!!!

It's the same philosophy, but applied in a much more scientific way, as that employed by P. T. Barnum:

"At one point, Barnum noticed that people were lingering too long at his exhibits. He posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress". Not knowing that "Egress" was another word for "Exit", people followed the signs to what they assumed was a fascinating exhibit...and ended up outside."

Welcome to Disney's Hollywood Studios, folks! This way to the Egress!!!

 

[crostorfer]

I read the OS article on the Yahoo home page about this yesterday. The seemed to indicate that they would be holding a certain number of FP slots available for day guests. Ok, great, BUT, (and this is a huge BUT), if you have to have people show up at rope drop and literally run back to a kiosk to make a FP + reservation, with only times that Disney has given you to choose from, aren't we right back to square one? Isn't this the point of FP+, to get rid of that practice?!?!? This is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[crostorfer]

I read a rumor months ago that Disney was going to become an all reservation system for rides. Every ride would need a reservation and they were going to do away with all standby lines. I thought it sounded crazy. But now it sounds like they might be experimenting with the idea. I hope not!

When FP+ started rolling out in full force last winter/early last spring, there was a small camp of us who started screaming about this. We said that the end game of FP+ is to get people into the park, ride their 3 allotted rides, eat a meal, shop, and then leave to make room for the next group of guests and their time slots. People said "no way", and "that is ludicrous", and "that can't possibly be their goal". No one believed us. Well, I hate to say I told you (general you) so, but.......yeah.

 

[mom2rtk]

The only way to reduce the lines for TSMM is to build attractions which will draw people away from TSMM.

But Star Wars Land is still long into the future, in a galaxy (of time) far, far away.

Exhibit A.......... Disney California Adventure.

When FP+ started rolling out in full force last winter/early last spring, there was a small camp of us who started screaming about this. We said that the end game of FP+ is to get people into the park, ride their 3 allotted rides, eat a meal, shop, and then leave to make room for the next group of guests and their time slots. People said "no way", and "that is ludicrous", and "that can't possibly be their goal". No one believed us. Well, I hate to say I told you (general you) so, but.......yeah.

Maybe we'll need to morph the "FP+ Haters Club" into the "I Told You So Club".

 

[Schmeck]

Are they letting in people using the DAS? Since the DAS is for people without FP+ who can't wait in the standby queue, and there is no standby queue, are they letting certain people without a FP+ into the FP+ queue?

 

[crostorfer]

Are they letting in people using the DAS? Since the DAS is for people without FP+ who can't wait in the standby queue, and there is no standby queue, are they letting certain people without a FP+ into the FP+ queue?

A previous poster stated that no, there is no DAS available during this trial.