Visiting 1st time since FP+ implemented....

[Laketravis]

I know Epcot had one in the center in front of the Fountain of Nations, and two as you walked through the breezeways to get to FW West and FW East. DHS had one at that billboard thing by the fountain at the end of the street, but I can't recall where the MK or AK times boards were. I'm sure they had at least one, I just can't remember seeing it.

So why did they stop displaying FP availability for all to see? Wouldn't it still be just as useful to be able to see what FP's are left? Even if it said "All FP's Distributed" like it used to (a lot in some cases) for an attraction that would at least save someone from having to go to a kiosk and stand in line just to find that out.

 

[Cormoran]

Yes but FP- is now "old tech". It's paper tickets. I don't even use a paper ticket to go to the MOVIES. Simple mundane everyday thing.

I'll buy my tix online, text them to myself, pull up the link, they scan it at the movies, and away I go!

First time I tried this, like 2 years ago, it glitched... they tried and tried, but could not scan the plain as day barcode symbol on my phone, till eventually they had to take my phone and manually type in the little numbers.

It's come a long way since then and has worked like a charm every time I've done it since.

Same thing w Disney. Disney is not putting in a phone-based system because they want people to get and learn smartphones. They're putting in a phone-based system because their target demographic has and uses smartphones for everything, and Disney needs to keep meeting the demands of the new era.

Not arguing with you, but I think this is pathetic. I see people sitting in restaurants across from another person but their face is buried in a phone. I see people texting while they're driving. I see people sitting on park benches while their kids are playing on swing sets and their buried in their phone.

I believe one of the attractions of visiting Disney is nostalgia. I feel like I'm more carefree and I leave reality behind. Now, however, not so much. My phone is my conduit to the outside world including work. I don't want to use it in the parks.

 

[Hokie2000]

So why did they stop displaying FP availability for all to see?

I don't know. Just thinking about it for a minute - before it was dynamic yet structured - the passes run out for the time period so you update to the next one. Now availability can be more fluid, as in people can cancel last minute, opening up a few slots for any time period in the future. How would they show all the availability for the entire day, especially in the morning? It would be a pretty complex board.

Or maybe they're trying to hide something! Maniacal laugh...

 

[kaytieeldr]

The CMs do a pretty good job at intercepting the clueless or newbies. But to the point made earlier that using the FP+ machines is pretty much the same as using FP- machines.....well.....did FP- distribution areas have or need CMs at every single machine? Nope. Tells you something right there, doesn't it. CMs are the tangible evidence that guests are more confused and/or slower in their approach than they were before. Hopefully in time this will lessen.

There wss always at least one CM in each FastPass distrbution area - not necessarily each individual dispenser, but always a CM around to assist.

 

[Cormoran]

I don't know. Just thinking about it for a minute - before it was dynamic yet structured - the passes run out for the time period so you update to the next one. Now availability can be more fluid, as in people can cancel last minute, opening up a few slots for any time period in the future. How would they show all the availability for the entire day, especially in the morning? It would be a pretty complex board.

Or maybe they're trying to hide something! Maniacal laugh...

I think this is the reason. The FP boards only showed headliners, now can you imagine looking at a board and discovering the only thing available for your 4th FP+ selection is Figment or EO?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Unless you've got extremely high turnover were you work and an entirely new bunch to train every day, it's not a true comparison.

This "rollout" is perpetual for Disney.

Disney is always there. The learning is perpetual for each new guest due to the nature of the business, but returning guests shouldn't need any educating.

 

[Cormoran]

Disney is always there. The learning is perpetual for each new guest due to the nature of the business, but returning guests shouldn't need any educating.

Yes there are a lot of new visitors daily, but personally if I don't use a software program fairly often I forget a lot. So I wonder if a family who visits the park infrequently will remember how FP+ works.

 

[MrInfinity]

2pm in the afternoon on a "4" day at HS:

You know Lake, you've showed this picture in pretty much every thread that mentions FP+... In this case a thread about someone asking if they can also get FP- or just FP+.

I don't understand why you post it. Are you trying to say lines are long? Or short? There are by my count, 7 or 8 families in line there. This was pretty normal. That line feeds several kiosks and possibly additional CMs with tablets.

That was pretty typical for the lines that had people, and took about 5 minutes. And most were even shorter.

 

[Laketravis]

On our trip, I don't think we waited over 5 min for a kiosk.

(I post a picture of a kiosk line)

You know Lake, you've showed this picture in pretty much every thread that mentions FP+... In this case a thread about someone asking if they can also get FP- or just FP+.

I don't understand why you post it. Are you trying to say lines are long? Or short? There are by my count, 7 or 8 families in line there. This was pretty normal. That line feeds several kiosks and possibly additional CMs with tablets.

That was pretty typical for the lines that had people, and took about 5 minutes, And most were even shorter.

And I'll continue to post it every time you say you only waited in line 5 minutes, because that one took almost 20. Oh, wait - you did it again.

Glad you think that line is normal.

We could turn this into a fun drinking game.

 

[SmithSmith]

You know Lake, you've showed this picture in pretty much every thread that mentions FP+... In this case a thread about someone asking if they can also get FP- or just FP+.

I don't understand why you post it. Are you trying to say lines are long? Or short? There are by my count, 7 or 8 families in line there. This was pretty normal. That line feeds several kiosks and possibly additional CMs with tablets.

That was pretty typical for the lines that had people, and took about 5 minutes. And most were even shorter.

I hear ya! I really wish I had taken photos of the other completely empty FP+ kiosks I saw at DHS on my crowd level 4/5 days. Or the completely empty Philharmagic kiosk or the completely empty innoventions kiosk...

 

[JimmyV]

There wss always at least one CM in each FastPass distrbution area - not necessarily each individual dispenser, but always a CM around to assist.

EXACTLY!! One CM per distribution area vs. one employee per machine, (plus more with i-Pads). So which system requires more tutorials? Which system is confusing people more? Which system is more difficult to use? The questions answer themselves. As I said before, one can debate many things about FP-/FP+, but this point is absolutely not debatable.

 

[Laketravis]

I hear ya! I really wish I had taken photos of the other completely empty FP+ kiosks I saw at DHS on my crowd level 4/5 days. Or the completely empty Philharmagic kiosk or the completely empty innoventions kiosk...

Drink!

 

[DisneyKidds]

I could make the construction of a PB&J seem like rocket science if it fit my agenda!

How many DISers does it take to screw in a light bulb? All of them! One to hold the light bulb and the rest to spin the interweb!

Really, nobody is going to dispute the kiosks have issues at times, and people have encountered lines, and clueless people gum up the works. However, resist the temptation to look silly just to make a point.

On our last trip, peak time, we were at the MK. Jan 1, time to leave at 6:30 to make our dinner reservation. We head to the Kiosk by Jingle Cruise. Wait 2 minutes for a terminal. 3 minutes later we have a 9:15 to 10:15 BTMRR FP reservation. 5 minutes, no fuss, no trouble, done. It was very easy to scan my band and see what was available.

That was quicker and better than one (or all) of us spending 2 to 3 times the amount of time to walk over to BTMRR to get a paper FP before we exited the park. Much like FP-, I secured an additional FP for a ride later in the evening, I just didn't have to go to a machine by the ride to get it. Yes, yes.....the process is different, but the result isn't.

Is everyone going to find it as easy peazy as I did? Maybe not. However, not many are going to find it to be the complicated process some people would make it out to be.

 

[Laketravis]

EXACTLY!! One CM per distribution area vs. one employee per machine, (plus more with i-Pads). So which system requires more tutorials? Which system is confusing people more? Which system is more difficult to use? The questions answer themselves. As I said before, one can debate many things about FP-/FP+, but this point is absolutely not debatable.

And we're not talking handing over a pretzel or sweeping up trash here, this is a skilled position. That's a significant cost that Disney most certainly wants to see recurring if not increase, right?

 

[JimmyV]

I know Epcot had one in the center in front of the Fountain of Nations, and two as you walked through the breezeways to get to FW West and FW East. DHS had one at that billboard thing by the fountain at the end of the street, but I can't recall where the MK or AK times boards were. I'm sure they had at least one, I just can't remember seeing it.

And there you have it! No need to run around the park. See where this discussion goes? First, it was, "you have to run all over the park". Then it is "OK. There were time boards, but not as many as I would have liked." Well? Which is it. None, or some?

And furthermore, how do you know what other people were doing?

The powers of observation are quite powerful, Grasshopper. To snatch the marble from my hand, one must first observe.

There seems to be an effort to put a lot of these things down the memory hole, but they've been well documented on these boards.

Documented? Or stated with hyperbolic screeching. How could I have been a super-user of FP- for over 100+ days during its existence and never run around the park, when it is "documented" that this was the pathway to success? How could my siblings, one of whom worked at WDW for 12 years, have been FP- experts without ever having done this? I am not so full of myself as to think that I am "extra special" and was able to beat the system in a way that no one else was able to accomplish. Running around for Fast Passes? No. Not the norm. At worst it was: "I'll give you my lunch order for Cosmic Ray's, and while you are in line for the food, I will WALK over to Space Mountain and grab some Fast Passes for later today. I will meet you at the table if you beat me, or join you in line if I beat you." I will readily admit to doing this. Daily. But I will not budge an inch on the "run all over the park" hysteria. Never did it. Never witnessed it.

 

[DisneyKidds]

And we're not talking handing over a pretzel or sweeping up trash here, this is a skilled position. That's a significant cost that Disney most certainly wants to see recurring if not increase, right?

Yeah, Disney is snapping up the best and brightest minds from MIT and RPI for those jobs!

 

[JimmyV]

Yeah, Disney is snapping up the best and brightest minds from MIT and RPI for those jobs!

...and thankfully so. The poor saps at Cal Tech can't get a job at DLR because Disney refuses to implement this godsend of a ride allocation system!

 

[Laketravis]

I'm a "CM" at my job and show people regularly how to add two cells in Excel. That does not mean they should sell their computer and use a notepad.

Learning tech takes time. Disney knows this and has done a good job of staffing to make their rollout successful.

After all my company wouldn't need me to help people with tech... if they would just not be technological and use a paper-based system for everything.

James Earl Jones voiceover:

(Meanwhile, the ever-increasing cost of Fuzzy's employment and benefits have caused his employer to scrutinize his activities and search for more cost-effective training methods. Realizing that Fuzzy's productivity has been dropping (What's a DIS board?), his employer discovers several automated self-serve training methods that are 100% productive and eliminate the need to have a full time trainer on board to show employees how to add two cells in Excel. Poor Fuzzy......)


.

 

[SmithSmith]

Drink!

My point being, you're routinely posting the exact same picture of the exact same kiosk. A kiosk that is highly visible, and located inbetween 2 wildly popular attractions. The popularity of this kiosk is not indicative of the lines one will encounter at all the other kiosks. I think you know this, or else you'd be sharing different pictures of long lines at different kiosks. Do you have any of those you'd like to share?

 

[Laketravis]

My point being, you're routinely posting the exact same picture of the exact same kiosk. A kiosk that is highly visible, and located inbetween 2 wildly popular attractions. The popularity of this kiosk is not indicative of the lines one will encounter at all the other kiosks. I think you know this, or else you'd be sharing different pictures of long lines at different kiosks.

And Fuzzy is routinely making the exact same claim that he's never waited more than 5 minutes in a kiosk line.

Drink!

Do you have any of those you'd like to share?

Actually, I was hoping you did, 'cause Fuzzy already confirmed my pic was "normal".



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