TSM standby-less test Oct. 6-9

Status
Not open for further replies.
We had dinner with four other families last night (here for a family wedding) and compared notes on our experiences this past week.

1. PP is entirely correct, the churros are better and easier to find at DL. I suspect DW knows that their churros are inferior, and that is why they hide them so well. Another family reported that they received free popcorn at EPCOT one afternoon, in the same way (answer a trivia question correctly, get free item). Maybe it's a new thing?

2. I'm comfortable with asking the CM to explain the TSMM mess to my kids. I'm the bad guy with them all the time, but this one wasn't on me. I spent a TON of time, like an embarrassing amount of time, planning this vacation. I read Mesaboy's threads from beginning to end. I stalked cancellation threads here. I read blog post after blog post. I'm NOT going to take the fall with my kids for something DISNEY messed up. If a CM can apologize to me for the inconvenience, he can for darn sure apologize and explain things to my kids. They are his customers as well. And they aren't preschoolers. Mine are 6, 8, and 9 (now 10, birthday girl!). They are more than capable of hearing his explanation and accepting his apology (or refusing to accept it) without throwing a tantrum at him. Being SAD about something is not the same as screaming and behaving badly. These kids are one of Disney's target markets. My kids saved their very stingy allowance for more than two months to have extra Mickey Money for this trip. If they are going to pull this crap, they should be prepared to explain themselves to many different demographic groups, not just put up a sign and shrug their shoulders while yelling at people to move along.

3. I didn't expect to ride TSMM 3 times SB. I expected to ride it ONCE SB, maybe twice if we got lucky. Then to use a FP later that day. I think that's a reasonable expectation. I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise. If the ride breaks down, that's a different thing. This was a planned outage by Disney. They probably knew about it for weeks ahead of time. If they had announced it, I would have changed my touring plans. It comes down to them treating ME like I'm lucky to be there and should take whatever they give me. Like I should thank them for taking my money. Not like a customer that THEY are lucky to have. It's customer service turned on it's head, it's arrogant. And absolutely not fair.

4. My children will be attending Cal like their Mama, or perhaps talking their grandfather into paying for Notre Dame, so your hypothetical Princeton admissions officer is safe from my wrath. But it wouldn't surprise me if one of them wanted to go to UCLA, for easy access to those wonderful, warm churros in DL. I will of course disown them if they choose Stanford or USC.

5. FP+ worked pretty well in MK for everyone in our large group. We had all done our homework, and stayed onsite, though. There are enough FP attractions to spread out the demand. I am cautiously optimistic that once they allow you to book additional FP from your phone, and perhaps more than one at a time, it will work. The kiosks are so clunky, I just don't believe they intend to keep them there for long. It has to be temporary. That's why they aren't on the map. (think positively, dreams do come true)
In addition to the Rider Switch passes we were given, a few of our families saw CMs at SDMT writing out paper tickets for people. We think they were for other rides, not SDMT? Some kind of ride ticket? It happened often enough that several different groups saw it. Not sure what that was about, replacing a FP, maybe?

6. FP for the parade was a bit odd for me. We used a FP for MSEP on Saturday, Oct 4. CROWDED day, which I expected. There was a ton of open space around us in the FP area. It was less than 30% full. I felt weird sitting there and watching this press of people up against the ropes. I also felt it put the CMs in a bad position to constantly 'bounce' people who came under the ropes. It was a great place to view the parade, though.

7. FP+ does not work well in any other park. Legacy FP was much much much better at EPCOT. I think it's a wash (stupid TSMM test aside) at DHS. The rush at rope drop can be avoided now, if you book FP later in the day, so that's a positive. But the line for Star Tours was longer than I've seen it (this was on the test day). It definitely pushed the crowd over there. Now, it was never longer than a 15-20 minute line, but for a ride that's normally under 10, it was noticeable. They need a few more attractions to make it work better.

8. LOTs of training everywhere. We encountered a trainee group on the tea cups one morning (which resulted in a lot of empty cups each go-round). Part of our family also stayed at FW and there were trainee bus drivers. One of them blew through an intersection, had to throw the bus in reverse and back up down the road to make his left turn. There were trainees in almost every restaurant we went into in MK.

9. Much more crowded than we expected. I knew Saturday the 4th would be packed, but we were caught off guard by how crowded MK was on the 5th. I expected it to be a down day because of the party. I'm glad Disney extended hours in the MK for the week, it was crazy packed. I don't think I've ever seen it like that, even in the summer. It was difficult getting around with the kids. October is definitely not a slow month anymore. If it ever was.

10. Liked the Magic Bands. Easier than the cards, IMO. They do make it frighteningly easy to spend money, which I think is the point. The younger kids did not like them, though. Too sweaty.

11. Food and Wine really IS that crowded on weekend nights. Holy cow. But Starship was worth it. :)

Sorry for the novel. Just wanting to share our experience because you all helped me SO MUCH with this trip. Off to watch a wedding for a few days. :flower3:

Thank-you for taking the time to write this post. :goodvibes
 
We had dinner with four other families last night (here for a family wedding) and compared notes on our experiences this past week.

<snipping for brevity>

Sorry for the novel. Just wanting to share our experience because you all helped me SO MUCH with this trip. Off to watch a wedding for a few days. :flower3:

I think this is terrific, first-hand perspective. Thanks for sharing. :goodvibes
 

We had dinner with four other families last night (here for a family wedding) and compared notes on our experiences this past week. 1. PP is entirely correct, the churros are better and easier to find at DL. I suspect DW knows that their churros are inferior, and that is why they hide them so well. Another family reported that they received free popcorn at EPCOT one afternoon, in the same way (answer a trivia question correctly, get free item). Maybe it's a new thing? 2. I'm comfortable with asking the CM to explain the TSMM mess to my kids. I'm the bad guy with them all the time, but this one wasn't on me. I spent a TON of time, like an embarrassing amount of time, planning this vacation. I read Mesaboy's threads from beginning to end. I stalked cancellation threads here. I read blog post after blog post. I'm NOT going to take the fall with my kids for something DISNEY messed up. If a CM can apologize to me for the inconvenience, he can for darn sure apologize and explain things to my kids. They are his customers as well. And they aren't preschoolers. Mine are 6, 8, and 9 (now 10, birthday girl!). They are more than capable of hearing his explanation and accepting his apology (or refusing to accept it) without throwing a tantrum at him. Being SAD about something is not the same as screaming and behaving badly. These kids are one of Disney's target markets. My kids saved their very stingy allowance for more than two months to have extra Mickey Money for this trip. If they are going to pull this crap, they should be prepared to explain themselves to many different demographic groups, not just put up a sign and shrug their shoulders while yelling at people to move along. 3. I didn't expect to ride TSMM 3 times SB. I expected to ride it ONCE SB, maybe twice if we got lucky. Then to use a FP later that day. I think that's a reasonable expectation. I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise. If the ride breaks down, that's a different thing. This was a planned outage by Disney. They probably knew about it for weeks ahead of time. If they had announced it, I would have changed my touring plans. It comes down to them treating ME like I'm lucky to be there and should take whatever they give me. Like I should thank them for taking my money. Not like a customer that THEY are lucky to have. It's customer service turned on it's head, it's arrogant. And absolutely not fair. 4. My children will be attending Cal like their Mama, or perhaps talking their grandfather into paying for Notre Dame, so your hypothetical Princeton admissions officer is safe from my wrath. But it wouldn't surprise me if one of them wanted to go to UCLA, for easy access to those wonderful, warm churros in DL. I will of course disown them if they choose Stanford or USC. 5. FP+ worked pretty well in MK for everyone in our large group. We had all done our homework, and stayed onsite, though. There are enough FP attractions to spread out the demand. I am cautiously optimistic that once they allow you to book additional FP from your phone, and perhaps more than one at a time, it will work. The kiosks are so clunky, I just don't believe they intend to keep them there for long. It has to be temporary. That's why they aren't on the map. (think positively, dreams do come true) In addition to the Rider Switch passes we were given, a few of our families saw CMs at SDMT writing out paper tickets for people. We think they were for other rides, not SDMT? Some kind of ride ticket? It happened often enough that several different groups saw it. Not sure what that was about, replacing a FP, maybe? 6. FP for the parade was a bit odd for me. We used a FP for MSEP on Saturday, Oct 4. CROWDED day, which I expected. There was a ton of open space around us in the FP area. It was less than 30% full. I felt weird sitting there and watching this press of people up against the ropes. I also felt it put the CMs in a bad position to constantly 'bounce' people who came under the ropes. It was a great place to view the parade, though. 7. FP+ does not work well in any other park. Legacy FP was much much much better at EPCOT. I think it's a wash (stupid TSMM test aside) at DHS. The rush at rope drop can be avoided now, if you book FP later in the day, so that's a positive. But the line for Star Tours was longer than I've seen it (this was on the test day). It definitely pushed the crowd over there. Now, it was never longer than a 15-20 minute line, but for a ride that's normally under 10, it was noticeable. They need a few more attractions to make it work better. 8. LOTs of training everywhere. We encountered a trainee group on the tea cups one morning (which resulted in a lot of empty cups each go-round). Part of our family also stayed at FW and there were trainee bus drivers. One of them blew through an intersection, had to throw the bus in reverse and back up down the road to make his left turn. There were trainees in almost every restaurant we went into in MK. 9. Much more crowded than we expected. I knew Saturday the 4th would be packed, but we were caught off guard by how crowded MK was on the 5th. I expected it to be a down day because of the party. I'm glad Disney extended hours in the MK for the week, it was crazy packed. I don't think I've ever seen it like that, even in the summer. It was difficult getting around with the kids. October is definitely not a slow month anymore. If it ever was. 10. Liked the Magic Bands. Easier than the cards, IMO. They do make it frighteningly easy to spend money, which I think is the point. The younger kids did not like them, though. Too sweaty. 11. Food and Wine really IS that crowded on weekend nights. Holy cow. But Starship was worth it. :) Sorry for the novel. Just wanting to share our experience because you all helped me SO MUCH with this trip. Off to watch a wedding for a few days. :flower3:

I imagine the 5th was packed with runners. We were there the 3-5th for the Tower of Terror run and had lots if friends who were staying until the 6th or 7th. It may be one of the smaller events but a runDisney event sure can boost the numbers if it is during a "slow" season.
 
wilkeliza said:
I imagine the 5th was packed with runners. We were there the 3-5th for the Tower of Terror run and had lots if friends who were staying until the 6th or 7th. It may be one of the smaller events but a runDisney event sure can boost the numbers if it is during a "slow" season.

I would agree with this. We were there for the TOT run.last year, and the parks were not very crowded in the tues-sat leading up to the race. Crowds increased pretty dramatically on the Sunday/Monday after the race.
 
Not sure that Disney is going to make enough
If they do as I suggested that would be what they would do. They would be replacing offsite guests with onsite guests by increasing how full the hotels are by making the onsite guest experience more valuable.

I really think we are a long way away from Disney not wanting or NEEDING the money from off-site and local guest.
You're correct. This would just be one small step in that direction.

We save for a long time to pay for these vacations, and they aren't cheap, so it's not my fault someone didn't do the research on their trip before they go there.
Of course but evening up the playing field between Disney experts and a first time guest is probably one reason why Disney makes changes like this.
 
/
I am SO not reading 1145 previous replies. Quick question - are they just doing this at rides where the rumor is an additional addition is coming (3rd track for TSMM, 3rd screen for Soarin)? Just wondering if they are seeing how many FP are actually getting through and if they should make those new additions be FP only??

Anyway...
 
I am SO not reading 1145 previous replies. Quick question - are they just doing this at rides where the rumor is an additional addition is coming (3rd track for TSMM, 3rd screen for Soarin)? Just wondering if they are seeing how many FP are actually getting through and if they should make those new additions be FP only??

Anyway...

They did this sort of test at A& E, so no.

Otherwise, you're asking a question no one knows the answer to- even after 1146 posts.
 
Starting discounts was a terrible decision for long term. Once you start, it's very difficult to take away. I remember back in the day- you called, you made your reservations and if you were lucky you got a AAA discount or a discount from your ---ack!! ***what was the name of that club you could join???*** The memory sucks...

At any rate- there were virtually no discounts. I understand why they started it, but pretty sure they'd love to do away with them now. Honestly, I liked it better.

They either reduce rates or they increase incentives at least for the high $$$ resorts. They want more on site guests, they're going to have to give more. I don't think prices are going to get cut, I think they're going to increase incentives.

They could increase emh- an hour in the morning is pitiful. They could include anytime fp+- wouldn't have to give many- 1 from each park is decent enough. There are lots of things they could give that wouldn't take away from off site guests. It would probably still tick some off site guests off, but you get what you pay for. Off site gets a home for $1500 a week, on site gets a single room for 3 times that or more. It's not balanced.

I simply disagree that everyone's park experience is guaranteed to be, or should be, the same. You get what you pay for.

Unfortunately, they increased room rates so much that they have to offer a discount to fill their rooms. Maybe if they held of on increases for a while.....
Oh wait, that's crazy talk.

Instead, looks like they're picking Option C - converting a measurable portion of deluxe rooms to DVC units for sale.

Decrease inventory in order to keep rates up while (corporately) reaping the short term benefits of cash up front, lower inventory for occ rate, the reduction in expense, etc.

Much more in line with their corporate M.O., unfortunately.....

Converting rooms to DVC, lets corporate manipulate the numbers to make it look like per room spending has increased. Unfortunatley, I think that too much emphasis has been placed on Disney stock prices and short term gains.

If they do as I suggested that would be what they would do. They would be replacing offsite guests with onsite guests by increasing how full the hotels are by making the onsite guest experience more valuable.

You're correct. This would just be one small step in that direction.

Of course but evening up the playing field between Disney experts and a first time guest is probably one reason why Disney makes changes like this.

Disney will never be able to rely only on onsite guests,. I don't think the capacity is there even if every room is full. And if everyone was staying onsite, wouldn't that dilute the value of EMH hours or any other perks that Disney offers since everyone would be using them?
 
Originally Posted by indimom3 View Post
We were at DHS yesterday.
We had gone to EMH there on Sunday evening, expecting to ride TSM a few times. It was broken down basically all of EMH, every time we checked. I don't know why.
So I told the kids, if we get up early today and make rope drop, we will be able to ride TSMM at least once, probably twice, and then we have FP for around noon....

We did miss rope drop thanks to missing a bus, but still got there well before ten. The park was not crowded and we were denied SB, of course. But told we could come back during our FP time. Or, cancel ALL of our FP to try for an earlier one. I was speaking with one of the manager types and trying to wrap my head around this.

I did all of my homework. I spent HOURS trying to understand the FP system, booking my rides sixty days out, staying on property for seven nights to make sure we could get it all done. What in the wide world of sports have you done? My kids think I lied to them, that I tricked them into waking up at the crack of dawn to come over here and now the one stupid ride they want to ride in your whole stupid park, we can't ride it?

I made the cast member talk to my kids. No way will I be the bad guy when this is not my decision. My nine year old called him out when he started to explain this was a test. "You didn't tell us you were testing anyone. It's like you're changing the rules in the middle of the game. That's not fair."

And that's the bottom line. IT IS NOT FAIR. Yeah, I'm whining like a nine year old. If you don't want people waiting in line, plan that out ahead of time. Warn us that we are spending thousands of dollars on a vacation to play guinea pig for you.

I was punished because I played by their rules. I scheduled FP, and would have had to release them and risk the rest of my day there to ride that one stupid ride.

Did it ruin our whole vacation? No. Of course not. We are having lots of fun.

But, man, I love Disney world. It should be more than fun. When I was a little kid in Jacksonville, before Epcot was born, I wanted to be Cinderella in the MSEP when I grew up. It's one of those places that sings to me. And you made my kids sad, and they don't trust you anymore. All afternoon yesterday and this morning, when were on our way to ohana. "Is Mickey still at ohana? What if he's not? What if that changed and they didn't tell you? What if they do another test tonight and we don't see Belle?"

I'm not sure this place will sing to them like it sings to me. And that is sad.

The worst part is they did nothing. The cast member said he couldn't help us, or he'd just have to give extra FP to everyone. To which I replied, yeah, or you could just let us WAIT IN LINE which is what we were expecting to do. They did offer to put the day back on our tickets if we wanted to leave. Which meant nothing because we have park hoppers. It was a really bad experience. And when our window did open, walking back through their cadre of CMS shouting, "fast pass only!" Did not help. We got to ride once, then the FP were (allegedly) done for the day.

We spent eight total hours in DHS. Between the EMH and yesterday. Rode TSMM once. ONCE. That stinks. We were supposed to do another half day at DHS before we go, and the kids have already said they won't go back. They love Star Tours but we've ridden it nine times already. What else is there for them? RNRC and ToT are too much for them, they are too old for the Disney Jr junk. You have a barn full of snow. We live in COLORADO. Not interested.

I hate that we got stuck here during this time. We will absolutely not come back until they figure out how to make this system work for their guests, and not just their pocket books.



I understand the frustration with this "test" however the PP DID have a FP for noon for this ride. She was upset that her kids couldn't ride TSMM 3 times. My problem in reading this is:
1. How about the kid that wants to get on it just once?
2. She didn't want to be the "bad guy" so gave that job to the CM. Unfortunately being the bad guy comes with the job. Wait about 5 more years.
3. Yeah, it isn't fair. However that's life and sometimes life isn't fair.
We spend months, years planning for the perfect Disney trip and when its finally time, SURPRISE, Disney pulls a fast one. Yes, complain, voice your opinions because I really don't think this "fastpass only" thing is going to fly.

Oh, and to the PP, are you going to yell at the admissions officer explain to your kid why he/she didn't get in to Princeton? Because they will.

Wow. Just wow. She did everything she was supposed to do and they changed it on her. You have to start a new account just to respond in a nasty condescending way. How long have you worked for disney. Are the other kids who want to ride tsmm paying for her vacation. Disney is not an altruistic place where people let the person ahead of them get on ride before them. It's a dog eat dog and will be until they get new attractions. Why don't you post under your real name and not make up an account to browbeat someone you don't agree with. Princeton? Admissions? Really? Wow.
 
I figured I would post my first hand experience.

I had a FP+ on Sunday for TSMM, as I was waiting in my line to board the ride, the CM was talking to me and asking us about if we played before, etc. We said we did and it was one of our favorite rides. He said, just to let you know, we're doing FP+ only for this ride starting tomorrow for a week, it won't go well, but if you don't have FP+ for it, you won't be able to ride it. So after riding it on Sunday, I went to the app, and found an available FP+ for Monday at 4pm.

Monday, we walk into DHS and notice that the "TSMM has reached capacity" signs at the front of the park and along Pixar Place. Pixar Place was much less crowded. There wasn't a log jam at near the strollers and there wasn't a bunch of people crowded in front of the FP+ entrance and there weren't angry adults arguing with the CM how only 2 people in their party of 5 had FP+ and it doesn't make sense. The FP+ line did have more people, but really it only took a few minutes more than on a "normal" day. I liked it and if it really is going to be a 3rd Track FP+ only, I think that would be great. Pixar Place is much less crowded and noisy, Toy Story queue is quieter and quicker for FP+ riders.

I agree that, it is not too cool for those who were only here at DHS for this week and couldn't do TSMM, but it is a slow period for Disney to test. And I was able to secure a FP+ for it just about 24 hours before, so it wasn't that bad.

Lines for other attractions did seem longer.
 
I figured I would post my first hand experience.

I had a FP+ on Sunday for TSMM, as I was waiting in my line to board the ride, the CM was talking to me and asking us about if we played before, etc. We said we did and it was one of our favorite rides. He said, just to let you know, we're doing FP+ only for this ride starting tomorrow for a week, it won't go well, but if you don't have FP+ for it, you won't be able to ride it. So after riding it on Sunday, I went to the app, and found an available FP+ for Monday at 4pm.

Monday, we walk into DHS and notice that the "TSMM has reached capacity" signs at the front of the park and along Pixar Place. Pixar Place was much less crowded. There wasn't a log jam at near the strollers and there wasn't a bunch of people crowded in front of the FP+ entrance and there weren't angry adults arguing with the CM how only 2 people in their party of 5 had FP+ and it doesn't make sense. The FP+ line did have more people, but really it only took a few minutes more than on a "normal" day. I liked it and if it really is going to be a 3rd Track FP+ only, I think that would be great. Pixar Place is much less crowded and noisy, Toy Story queue is quieter and quicker for FP+ riders.

I agree that, it is not too cool for those who were only here at DHS for this week and couldn't do TSMM, but it is a slow period for Disney to test. And I was able to secure a FP+ for it just about 24 hours before, so it wasn't that bad.

Lines for other attractions did seem longer.

Thanks for the first hand report. Seems there's a lot of different perspectives on exactly what was going on.
 
Wow. Just wow. She did everything she was supposed to do and they changed it on her. You have to start a new account just to respond in a nasty condescending way. How long have you worked for disney. Are the other kids who want to ride tsmm paying for her vacation. Disney is not an altruistic place where people let the person ahead of them get on ride before them. It's a dog eat dog and will be until they get new attractions. Why don't you post under your real name and not make up an account to browbeat someone you don't agree with. Princeton? Admissions? Really? Wow.

People would do well to remember this with all things at Disney, including Disney themselves. It's a business, they're out to make the biggest profit they can and that's not a bad thing.

They got to ride the ride with no problems. The big issue was they wanted to ride it multiple times. They didn't get to. They did get offered a one day pass to the parks- a pretty generous offer for missing multiple rides on a single ride. I just don't see the crisis here with this particular guest.
 
Yep, 100% ride reservation system, here it comes...

I'm curious about what you envision when you refer to a "100% ride reservation system".

Do you mean that a couple of the most popular attractions in the parks that don't have that many right now (DHS and Epcot in particular) would be FP only, or that you think EVERY ride in every park will be FP only?

There is obviously a huge gap between those two concepts, and (although I like to avoid saying "never") it's hard to picture how reservation only at a park like MK would even work unless everyone got quite a few FPs. Despite the hyperbole that some people like to use on these boards. there are very few people who are going to be willing to come to WDW knowing in advance that they can do 3 and only 3 rides in a day.

Although I hope the FP only approach doesn't come to ANY attraction, it would really become a game changer for me if there were 2 or more of them in any park, especially if they would be tiered so that you could only get a FP for one of them. As it is now, tiering doesn't bother me because we have never had a problem arriving at opening and doing the major attractions at DHS (TSMM, RNRC, and TOT), Epcot (TT, Soarin, and MS), and DAK (KS, EE, and Dinosaur) in about an hour or a little more without a FP. Because we rarely do anything more than once in a day, after that we don't care if no FPs are available or how long the standby line is. But, if you would tell me before I enter that I can only do one of those attractions, it would really reduce my enthusiasm.

No standby line only makes sense at all for an attraction that has such a consistently high demand that the ride would operate all day without wasted capacity. Even the most popular attractions like TSMM would have trouble doing that in the first 30-60 minutes after opening. I suspect that if you give a large group of people FPs with return times between 9 AM and 10 AM, a lot more of them are going to arrive closer to 10 than 9.

For a lesser attraction like POC I doubt if there would ever be enough FP flow to keep the right operating at close to capacity unless everyone gets a lot more than 3 FPs.
 
4. My children will be attending Cal like their Mama, or perhaps talking their grandfather into paying for Notre Dame, so your hypothetical Princeton admissions officer is safe from my wrath. But it wouldn't surprise me if one of them wanted to go to UCLA, for easy access to those wonderful, warm churros in DL. I will of course disown them if they choose Stanford or USC. :flower3:

Loved this bit! :goodvibes
 
Wow. Just wow. She did everything she was supposed to do and they changed it on her. You have to start a new account just to respond in a nasty condescending way. How long have you worked for disney. Are the other kids who want to ride tsmm paying for her vacation. Disney is not an altruistic place where people let the person ahead of them get on ride before them. It's a dog eat dog and will be until they get new attractions. Why don't you post under your real name and not make up an account to browbeat someone you don't agree with. Princeton? Admissions? Really? Wow.

I had read the post your referring to, and I did think it was a harsh reply. But it never entered my mind someone would make a fake account.:confused3
That would be taking Brand loyalty to whole new level.

I did like her follow up post.
 
It's a business, they're out to make the biggest profit they can and that's not a bad thing.

But it's a magical business, filled with pixie dust and fairies and unicorns and dole whip and.........

:)

But yeah, it's a business and like any business they are going to do what they have to in order to maximize yield, revenue, and ultimately profit.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.













Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE








New Posts







DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter

Back
Top