U Express v. FastPass

[chris mcfly]

Okay, hopefully someone out there can give a little more insight on this topic.

Express and FastPass have the same basic rules. The attractions at Universal and Disney have similar houry capacities. So i ask you:

Why is it that Express consitantly runs out of Passes at Noon or 1PM, while the majority of the time, Disney does not run out? Especially since there are only 1 or 2 major attractions in each disney park.

Now granted, i know Test Track usually runs out early. But isnt it a little extreem that almost all the attractions at IOA have no passes left by 1PM? What is the problem? What is the missing link here? And, Disney even has higher attendance on average compared to IOA. What's going on?

 

[EUROPA]

I don't think that you information is correct. Disney guest constatly report Fastpass attractions as being
"out" by noon as well.

I really don't understand the question. Is running out of passes supposed to be a good thing?

 

[WebmasterBarry]

Test Track runs out of FPs by the afternoon generally. Other E ticket rides like Space Mountain usually runs out of FPs a few hours before closing.

I wonder if Disney does not give out as many FPs. Perhaps that is why they don't run out as fast.

 

[EUROPA]

Originally posted by Barry Hom
I wonder if Disney does not give out as many FPs. Perhaps that is why they don't run out as fast.

That statement makes no sense. If they gave out less fastpass then they would run out faster.

Maybe you ment to say that Disney gives out more fastpasses?

I've heard of fastpass running out for Splash Mt, TOT, RNR, and espically Pooh on a regular basis.

 

[WebmasterBarry]

I meant to say that Disney may not give out as many FPs for each time period. Let's pick a time period of 11:30 to 12:30. Universal may give out 1,000 UE tickets and Disney gives 5000 FP tickets during that time period. When they run out, you get bumped to the next time period.

Maybe Disney does give more FPs, though.

 

[Cindy B]

I would think Universal would have more passes because of the fact that you can do "choices" on the time.....

JAWS was out of passes by 2 pm when we went last Thursday.

 

[MrNonacho]

Perhaps it's the FOTL Factor (coming soon to NBC)? If there is a fixed amount of people that can use the Express line at a time, then a certain percentage of that number has to be set aside for people using the hotel privelege, ticket booklets, Confisco meal, etc. For every person using the Express line with one of those methods, there is one less Express ticket that can be given out.

That's my theory, at least.

 

[johare]

Universal parks have been closing earlier than Disney parks lately too. If you go to get a FastPass for Test Track at 2:00 in the afternoon, your return time might be 8:30. Since Universal has been closing at about 7:00pm they really can't issue return times past 6-6:30.

 

[CoasterFEV]

I will be very quick in stating that Disney relies VERY heavily on Fastpass and hands out MANY more Fastpass tickets than Universal hands out Express tickets. Personally, I feel Disney relies a little TOO much on Fastpass.

A typical ratio for Disney is 10 to 12 Fastpass guests for every 1 standby guest. This ratio is pretty typical and was determined early in Universal's research of Disney. In fact, it was found that some attractions at Disney occassionally accept up to 15 Fastpass guests for every 1 standby guests. To put that in perspective, a family of four will have to watch 60 people walk past before they will be allowed to ride. Just look at how LONG the "standby" waittime is posted for Fastpass attractions and how SHORT the line is physically - Test Track is a great example.

Universal uses the same guest research company that Disney uses and the #1 complaint regarding Fastpass at Disney is all the guests in the standby lines waiting for 90 minutes - all the time watching hundreds and hundreds of Fastpass guests running past them in a parallel lane of the queue - many times being taunted for waiting in the standby line.

Universal's philosophy is to keep standby lines manageable and keep Express lines SEPERATE and close to a walk-on. Only downfall is less tickets are distributed.

Keep in mind, Express is still new and we are still "playing" with the number of tickets distributed each hour/each day. I promise we are doing everything we can to improve!

 

[chris mcfly]

Originally posted by CoasterFEV

Keep in mind, Express is still new and we are still "playing" with the number of tickets distributed each hour/each day. I promise we are doing everything we can to improve!

Who is "we"? Do you work for I.S.?

Still, the question has not been answered. Even a capacity monster like Hulk will still run out of UE by Noon. This just is not fair to the Guests entering the park after around 11:30AM or so. And this is even true when the park is open until 10PM. And the express queues frequently push the 20 minute mark. And many people wait in a rope-and-stanchion queue for 10 minutes just to get an express pass for spiderman!

So why oh why is this the case? Why are there USUALLY not lines to get an express pass at Disney? Why does UE always run out at noon? Its been 7 months of UE... what is the cruicial variable that makes FP mostly successful and UE mostly unsuccessful?

 

[MrNonacho]

Perhaps someone who's good with technical/legal writing could find a clue from here?

 

[CoasterFEV]

It's surprising to hear someone who works for Guest Services at IOA trying to provoke additional hostility towards Universal Express. It really sounds as if you are trying to encourage people to come and yell at you about Express.

Please, Chris, we all know there are still some flaws in the current Express system. But the best way to improve is to use internal communication lines at Universal and through your own position - not by adding fuel to the fire.

 

[chris mcfly]

Originally posted by CoasterFEV
It's surprising to hear someone who works for Guest Services at IOA trying to provoke additional hostility towards Universal Express.

Fev-

On re-reading that post i see that i may have come across as being a little crass or harsh... that wasnt my intention at tall

Trust me, i would not be working in the position that i am in if i didnt love the company and stand behind everything they do. I wasn't trying to provoke hostility at all.

Just put yourself in my shoes: Every day, i listen to people complain about UE (regarding all the things in my past post). And every day, I defend the company and explain the system.

However, The DisBoards gives me a forum so I can go out there and express questions i have to others like me, and see what your personal answers are to issues i hear every day.

And i definetly document every comment or complaint that i hear (while working, of course) and send it through the appropriate channel.

I'm just sayin' that its not often that **I** get to whine and complain to people expecting an answer, so maybe thats what i was doing.

 

[All Aboard]

I also noticed something on a "slow" day at USF. Around mid-day, the Express machines were taken down and the "no further..." message was put up. I can assure you that it was not because the passes ran out, rather because the queues were short enough that Express was no longer required.

Here's an example. I walked up to grab an Express pass for Earthquake, the option was for an immediate boarding. After I got the pass, the employee shut the machines down and covered them. After riding, I noticed the same thing happening at many other Express machines.

 

[UrbanMoon]

There is more than just that reason for shutting down Express. A lengthy ride downtime has also shutdown Express. Since all issued Express passes are valid upon the ride's reopening, imagine how long the Express line can get. After 3 hours of downtime for example, Express could be shutdown for the day.

The bad thing about Express is that each and every attraction runs differently due to capacities and other operational issues. Take Dr. Doom for instance, the Express pass ratio is only based on a single tower operation just in case a tower is lost due to technical difficulties thus not allowing the Express line to be overrun. This holds true for most attractions as Express is based on the worst case scenerio.

And yes, FOTL access is a major drawback for the number of Express passes issued. When you have all these hotel guests running around using the Express entrances mutliple times, it hurts Express as a whole. Just imagine when the new hotel comes on board next year. Hopefully by then, the 1 FOTL access per attraction per day will be in effect!!!

 

[UrbanMoon]

I must agree with Chris here. Just because you work in the park and stand behind the company does not mean that you can't be questionable in these forums. On a day-to-day basis working in the parks, you see many things that are just not understood. These forums are the perfect place to ask those questions...

 

[MIB999999]

If you are a universal employee and all of us that participte in this board know it, we view your input just a bit differently. It has more of a difinitive statement quality than an opinion that may or may not be right.

I suggest one id for venting, but a different id for for fact-backed insider statements.

Now for my thoughts.

i think disney does lean far to heavily on FP. it almost has come to the point that if you are in the regular line people look at you as if an object to be pitied for not having all your oars in the water.

I think Universal is trying to supplement the normal line with EP, not do away with it, which is the direction disney seems to be heading. The only time i have ever used the express line was during the MIB shoot-off day. it was ok for those on a very tight schedule.

I will say one thing with firm conviction: if it took you till 11:00 or 11:30 to show up at the park, then you were not really interested in EP, you were just lazy and none of us want to see you at the front of any line we are in. Go complain to Chris, the rest of us know you are just a whiner.

 

[chris mcfly]

Originally posted by MIB999999

I suggest one id for venting, but a different id for for fact-backed insider statements.

if it took you till 11:00 or 11:30 to show up at the park, then you were not really interested in EPGo complain to Chris.

Well, I'm not going to have multiple identities on here-- theres no reason to have more than one ID. Everyone should know that even if someone identifies themself as an employee, nothing they say should be taken as an official comapny statement, and nothing they say should be received as a reflection of the company. Simply put, you're not an employee outside of when you are working. (well, doctors and policemen are an exception!)

The same holds true for other information. Iv'e seen things posted by employees that shouldnt even be on these boards (entrance counts, etc), but i dont care because ultimately this is unofficial and informal.

But back to express-- Unfortunatly, not every tourist is an early riser. If you look at the entrance counts as standard bell curve, most people arrive after 10:30-11:00. This exludes a lot of people from Express.

 

[WebmasterBarry]

I've been in the RnR regular line. I think they let 10 people in standby go through while letting a bunch of FP people go through. The standby line seemed to move slower than Rhino Rally's!

I've seen the Universal Express line and it seems to come in from a different direction than the regular line. I will have to stand in the regular line one day and see how it compares. I did stand in the Fearfall regular line and the line seemed to move slow, but it wasn't any slower than it was before UE.

 

[UrbanMoon]

You would think that in order to take over the world, the evil Doctor Doom would have created a machine that could maintain a higher hourly capacity than just over 800, but with one of the lowest capacities at IOA, the line never seems to move.