When was legacy Paper Fastpass introduced and what were the reactions like?

[Liberator]

Now since FP+ and MDE is in charge for over a year and replaced FP-, people seem to get used to it. There are less threads about FP+ and the high demand for help with FP+ is weakening because people help themselves by reading guidelines, trip reports and other general threads. A rather high amount of visitors, regardless of whether FP+ or FP-, still do not use the system because they think there is an extra charge, it is too complicated or they are just too lazy to inform about it.

BUT, what was it like when paper fastpasses were introduced? And when was this at Disney World?

If there would have been a message board like this during this time, I guess the questions would have been similar like the ones today.

What were the first days or months with Paper Fastpass like? Did people already have strategies? Were people angry about others using the shorter FP-line?

 

[lllGurulll]

I'm sure it was something like this...

Oh look, there go the rich people that pay more money to make us wait longer.

 

[Gracie09]

The world is going to end. Walt is spinning in his grave. It's only a matter of time before they start charging. The standby lines are going to be sooo much longer.

Did I miss anything?

 

[Jennasis]

I certainly can't speak for the masses, but our reaction to original-recipe FP was quite positive. At the time, we found it was supremely easy to grab a FP for 45 min-hour from now and then kill the wait time by waiting in standby for a nearby ride. Thus we got two rides for one "wait".

Simpler times.

FP+ can take a long walk off a short pier AFAIC LOL.

 

[Alesia]

It was introduced in 1999. Reaction was basically what happens anytime Disney changes anything.

 

[GillianP1301]

I remember the first trip I made after they were introduced and I was clueless that they even existed and I was one of those people who thought it was something extra people were paying for until some nice person told DH & I how it actually worked. It was like Christmas morning, I was so excited! We got pretty good at fastpass pulling after that.

 

[nilla]

I'm sure it was something like this...

Oh look, there go the rich people that pay more money to make us wait longer.

LOL - our son had a kid say something similar to that a few years ago as we walked past him in line for Space Mountain

I was in the elevator for the Astro Orbiter that same year, telling our son that we had FPs for Splash Mountain later in the day. Another guest said, "excuse me, but what is this FastPass thing you're talking about?" I don't think anyone else in the elevator knew about it, either. This was probably 2010, so it wasn't exactly new!

 

[DemonLlama]

It had started the year before our first trip and I'd been reading on the DIS for the months leading up, so we loved it. It wasn't available at nearly as many rides in 2000, but we enjoyed even the odd stares of people in the queue as we skipped on by. Do your research people!

Those looks were still around when we returned in 2002!

That trip there were more FP opportunities and it seemed like more people were catching on. But at one point as we had walked right up to the CM at Space Mountain to hand over the FPs, a man in the standby line, who'd clearly had quite enough of all of us "line cutters" noticed us wearing our name tags (they say "Guest of Honor" above our names) and loudly asked, in a very offended voice, "What makes YOU guests of honor?"

I guess he assumed all these upstarts flying through the right hand line were given special privileges, but only we were bold enough to wear a sign proclaiming it!

 

[Mikie]

I remember the first trip I made after they were introduced and I was clueless that they even existed and I was one of those people who thought it was something extra people were paying for until some nice person told DH & I how it actually worked. It was like Christmas morning, I was so excited! We got pretty good at fastpass pulling after that.

Similar for me. Many people here are stunned that anyone could have NOT known what it was or how to use it. But, let's face it, what other amusement park offered such a thing for free? What else did Disney offer free? You pretty much expect to open your wallet and let the dollars flow, so when you saw something like that, it's not like you assume you should investigate whether there's some cool free thing for you. It was at least halfway through our trip that we figured it out and of course really liked it for a couple rides a day after that.

I wasn't on any Disney boards then (did they exist yet?) but I'd guess it would have been positive since the people talking about it would be the ones who had figured it out. The ones who didn't know and thought they were being bypassed by VIPs were not conversing on Disney discussion sites!

 

[rajak73]

I would say probably about the same thing that's being said about FP+. We had people we talked to after a Disney vacation at the time and told us they just didn't want to pay for the FP thing. I remember the uproar on here when they started to enforce the return times for old FP. Man that was funny! If they are going to enforce the return time, I'm just not going anymore. LOL

 

[Alesia]

Similar for me. Many people here are stunned that anyone could have NOT known what it was or how to use it. But, let's face it, what other amusement park offered such a thing for free? What else did Disney offer free? You pretty much expect to open your wallet and let the dollars flow, so when you saw something like that, it's not like you assume you should investigate whether there's some cool free thing for you. It was at least halfway through our trip that we figured it out and of course really liked it for a couple rides a day after that.

I wasn't on any Disney boards then (did they exist yet?) but I'd guess it would have been positive since the people talking about it would be the ones who had figured it out. The ones who didn't know and thought they were being bypassed by VIPs were not conversing on Disney discussion sites!

You would think, but it was actually closer to how people feel about FP+, but with less drama (everything was less dramatic then.)

 

[erionm]

Up until Legacy FP ended, there were many people that didn't realize it was included in the price of admission. Those people thought it cost extra or was only available to Disney Resort Guests.

 

[mikana876]

My first trip with FP- was in 2003. I don't remember how I found out about it. But I do know that I never thought it cost money..? I don't get how people thought that. We loved it and thought it was the greatest thing!

 

[Shmily01]

We went in Sept 2013 when they were testing the MB and the FP+. We were able to do both FP+ and FP-. We were doing SB at TT and struck up a conversation with someone in line. Not only had they not heard about the MB and FP+ but they had no idea about FP-. I was amazed that people didn't plan and research like my family did. But...to each his own!

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

My first trip as an adult I did zero planning (I always went with my mom! She was In Charge!) and hadn't been since well before FP- had started, and I was clueless. I think I actually found the BTMRR kiosk by accident and once we figured it out (sorry, people who might have been standing behind us) I thought it was way freaking cool.

Then I didn't go again until after FP+ and thought that was pretty cool, too, for the most part.

 

[grecorj]

I'm not surprised that legacy FP was a mystery to many people for so long. I mean, how many times have I seen someone walk up to Crystal Palace in June w/o an ADR and get turned away? Some people think either 1) we don't need to research our vacation, or 2) we don't want to research our vacation. Hey, it's your $$, do what you want.

I think at this point most guests are aware of FP as a concept but I'd wager a majority have no idea how FP+ really works. And I'd bet even a smaller minority use it effectively (i.e. Booking at 60 or 30 day marks).

I'm ok with that because I'm in that small minority that knows the value of FP+ and how to maximize that value. The fewer guests I have to "compete" with, the better.

I'm not saying you can't have a great WDW vacation w/o FP+. Clearly you can. And FP+ is definitely more valuable during peak seasons than off-peak. But using FP+ can make your touring more efficient thus getting MORE out of your vacation $$.

I do think FP+ will "catch on" faster b/c it is configurable via a smartphone. Plus there are more online resources available to figure it out -- that is, if people put in the time to research it!

 

[rajak73]

Some people think either 1) we don't need to research our vacation, or 2) we don't want to research our vacation. Hey, it's your $$, do what you want.
I do think FP+ will "catch on" faster b/c it is configurable via a smartphone. Plus there are more online resources available to figure it out -- that is, if people put in the time to research it!

But I don't want to have to plan a vacation, I want to go and then complain because the lines are long, there's no place to eat and there's no place to stay!

 

[JESSketeer]

My first trip with FP- was in 2003. I don't remember how I found out about it. But I do know that I never thought it cost money..? I don't get how people thought that. We loved it and thought it was the greatest thing!

I think a lot of people who think FP costs extra assume so because of theme parks like Six Flags and Universal Studios having express passes at an extra cost separate than admission. At least that's what we thought our first year!

My first trip as an adult I did zero planning (I always went with my mom! She was In Charge!) and hadn't been since well before FP- had started, and I was clueless. I think I actually found the BTMRR kiosk by accident and once we figured it out (sorry, people who might have been standing behind us) I thought it was way freaking cool.

Then I didn't go again until after FP+ and thought that was pretty cool, too, for the most part.

This is what happened to us! I've been to Disney plenty of times as a child with my family, pre FP, and my mom did all the planning and research. When I went my first time as an adult in 2011 with DF we didnt realize how much research and planning needed to be done. The only planning we did was which parks we would go on each day, no ADRs...nothing. On our last park day of our vacation we said, lets splurge and buy FP! When we went to ask a CM where we would go to buy it, that's when we found out it was FREE and we could have been using it the whole time!! Needless to say, now we research and plan everything!

 

[Planogirl]

I always loved legacy from the moment it started. I never understood why people thought there was a cost involved. Every guidebook explained it and the legacy fastpass kiosks were in plain sight.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

I always loved legacy from the moment it started. I never understood why people thought there was a cost involved. Every guidebook explained it and the legacy fastpass kiosks were in plain sight.

I've always been baffled by this as well. We've had numerous comments about "rich people" and such over the years, and I've even heard people who have been to WDW more than once tell their friends to think about buying Fastpass. I don't get it. The snarky side of me wants to say that Fastpass is a benefit for the literate, because information about it is posted everywhere. But that would not be nice. So I won't say that.