Why I think Disney will never change fp+ plus to allow use in multiple parks

[ArwenMarie]

Then why did they set up the bus line recentish? I agree with Wisblue that those bus lines are a pretty strong indicator parkhopping will be supported with FP+.

Although I think adding an extra FP with parkhopping would actively encourage it, and I can't think of a reason Disney would want to do that.

Well, the logic could work the other way too...to encourage people to get OUT of MK.

 

[bcrook]

There are some interesting problems with FP+ hopping.

It causes more demand for headliners. If I am Epcot, I would grab soarin' and then pick up splash mountain and Peter Pan.

Same thing at all parks. Now you have heightened competition for the popular rides, and less people "wasting" marginal selections on star tours.

This would drive demand in advance through the roof. Those evening MK slots would go lightening fast.

 

[mom2rtk]

There are some interesting problems with FP+ hopping.

It causes more demand for headliners. If I am Epcot, I would grab soarin' and then pick up splash mountain and Peter Pan.

Same thing at all parks. Now you have heightened competition for the popular rides, and less people "wasting" marginal selections on star tours.

This would drive demand in advance through the roof. Those evening MK slots would go lightening fast.

I agree and have not yet seen a way they can allow hopping while maintaining tiering.

With DHS and Epcot so close together the potential to undo what tiering accomplishes would be too great.

If you did 1 full day at DHS and 1 at Epcot, you would get two headliners and 4 non-headliners.

If they let you hop and you did 2 half days at each park instead, you could swap that out and get 4 headliners and 2 non-headliners.

Or you could just hop around all day picking off headliners. It just seems to defeat what they are trying to do with it.

 

[bcrook]

I agree and have not yet seen a way they can allow hopping while maintaining tiering.

With DHS and Epcot so close together the potential to undo what tiering accomplishes would be too great.

If you did 1 full day at DHS and 1 at Epcot, you would get two headliners and 4 non-headliners.

If they let you hop and you did 2 half days at each park instead, you could swap that out and get 4 headliners and 2 non-headliners.

Or you could just hop around all day picking off headliners. It just seems to defeat what they are trying to do with it.

Good point. Here is another example...

Grab the safari at DAK, and then use two at another park - making the animal kingdom even more of a half day park.

I don't see hopping as a possibility... Until a lot more rides are built.

 

[mom2rtk]

Good point. Here is another example...

Grab the safari at DAK, and then use two at another park - making the animal kingdom even more of a half day park.

I don't see hopping as a possibility... Until a lot more rides are built.

....... and what are the odds?

I just don't see it either.

But when they see revenue from hoppers nosediving, who knows what they might come up with. Maybe the will just raise the price on everyone's tickets enough to make hopping "free". That would be yet another "plus" I have no interest in. We almost never hop.

 

[shalom]

If they let you hop and you did 2 half days at each park instead, you could swap that out and get 4 headliners and 2 non-headliners.

But aren't you assuming 3 FPs per park? I'm not convinced they'd let your double your daily FPs by parkhopping (although since parkhopping's an upcharge, I could see them adding one if they wanted to encourage it for some reason). I was assuming that if they allow parkhopping, the 3 FPs per day would stay, and the tiering (in tiered parks) would stay. Which would either mean all the parks would be tiered before parkhopping is offered, or that parkhoppers would tend to hop from a tiered to a non-tiered park. My money's on the first.

 

[kaytieeldr]

But why make parkhopping easier if Disney wants to discourage parkhopping? ArwenMarie's argument is that Disney doesn't like people hopping to the MK later in the day, so they're not going to add parkhopping to FP+; if that's the case, makes no sense to put the bus lines in.

I don't think Disney cares much about parkhopping much one way or the other, but clearly they're willing to accommodate it. And I would guess they like parkhopping when it means unhappy guest in crowded park A becomes happy guest in less-crowded park B.

Buses between parks have been available for years. The only change is that the MK buses used to drop off/pick up at the TTC.Thus, all MK>other park transportation was equal. Now guests travelling between MK and Epcot are at a disadvantage.

 

[gdrj]

Ok here are some of my theories, they are purely conjecture like most of the posts.

1- I hope FP+ will expand to multiple parks. I may not be happy with current deign and limitations, but I somewhat understand, based on the posts how some people manipulate the systems beyond its intent (not trying to start that here, enough other threads.

2-Since FP+ kiosks are available in the parks, I would be happy to see if they extended the FP+ to a second park. I think one solution would be to offer 1 additional FP (or 4 total) but the FP time for the second park needs to be made at the 2nd park kiosk. This way if you do decide to hop you do have options, granted they may be limited but it is more than you have currently. We tend to hop, leave MK when it gets busy or hop between HS and Epcot.

3-In regards to park hopping, I don't think park hopping price of $59.00 is high (unless you are looking at just a 3 day pass). I see no reason to think Disney doesn't want people to hop.

4-The busses at MK direct park to park IMO are there for a few reasons now. Capacity being a big issue, now they have the capacity with the expanded bus area, also the demand for that has increased. If you can get people to a park quicker, increases customer satisfaction. Also monorail being down for maintenance, it gives more options.

 

[Sammie]

I think it will be allowed in more than one park.

 

[Chuckers]

If I was at Disney planning, my suggestion would be that you can only pre-pick 3 fastpasses in one park, but if you are in another park, you can choose FP's based on what's left for that park.

You just won't be able to choose an FP that comes within one hour of a pre-chosen FP at another park.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

There are more reasons for Disney to want families to stay in a single park than to allow park hopping, but since park hopping has always been allowed (heck, it used to be free), I don't see Disney taking it away. Adding the additional direct busses between parks for hoppers accomplished two things - it got people there faster, and it kept some people from renting cars. Both have a single goal - increase spending of guests within WDW.

The more time that guests spend "in transit", the less time they have to spend money. If guests have a car, they are more likely to spend money outside of WDW property. Folks want to hop, WDW really doesn't want them to, but they aren't willing to take it away, so they compromised. They charge money to hop, and they try to get you there as fast as they reasonably can.

Now, will they extend that compromise to include FP+? Probably. No more guests are likely to hop because of this feature (the time lost traveling is at least as much as any time saved in line for a single ride), and the once they sell the "hopper", it is money in the bank, even if it is never used.

I saw stats once on park hoppers - I can't remember the exact numbers, but they showed that most people who bought hoppers only hopped once or twice during their vacations, and many never hopped at all. $$$

 

[Minniekins]

I think they will add the PH option for the FP+. I think they could give you 4, maybe even 5 FP+(if we're very lucky, lol), but they could still limit you to the tiers that are in place now. They could also limit you to 3 at most in one park in a day, like now, and then the other 1 or 2 would have to be used in a hopped to park, all following the park's tiers. They could even limit that 1 or 2 to only a second hopped to park, so you could hop all you want but only have FP+ in 2 parks, with 3 in one park and the other 1 or 2 in the other park you choose. That would still help limit the headliner grab a little but increase the value of park hopping compared to now with no fp+ for the second park if you hop. Right now, you can get any 3 you want at MK since there are no tiers. If that's the park you use 3 in, you can get still get another headliner when hopping, but will be limited by the particular park's tiers, so it's not wildy using the extras on all headliners - just one more headliner at most if you hop. Might encourage more hopping and getting guests to spend that extra $60, and encourage guests to still stay on Disney property when done with one park for the day. To me, this makes a lot of sense!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I think they will add the PH option for the FP+. I think they could give you 4, maybe even 5 FP+(if we're very lucky, lol), but they could still limit you to the tiers that are in place now. They could also limit you to 3 at most in one park in a day, like now, and then the other 1 or 2 would have to be used in a hopped to park, all following the park's tiers. They could even limit that 1 or 2 to only a second hopped to park, so you could hop all you want but only have FP+ in 2 parks, with 3 in one park and the other 1 or 2 in the other park you choose. That would still help limit the headliner grab a little but increase the value of park hopping compared to now with no fp+ for the second park if you hop. Right now, you can get any 3 you want at MK since there are no tiers. If that's the park you use 3 in, you can get still get another headliner when hopping, but will be limited by the particular park's tiers, so it's not wildy using the extras on all headliners - just one more headliner at most if you hop. Might encourage more hopping and getting guests to spend that extra $60, and encourage guests to still stay on Disney property when done with one park for the day. To me, this makes a lot of sense!

Disney wants you to buy the hopper, but they don't want you to use it. They are willing to accommodate you if you choose to use it, but they would prefer that you spend none of your waking hours in transit. For this reason, I doubt that they would give you extra FP+ if you hop that you would not get if staying in a single park.

 

[mom2rtk]

But aren't you assuming 3 FPs per park? I'm not convinced they'd let your double your daily FPs by parkhopping (although since parkhopping's an upcharge, I could see them adding one if they wanted to encourage it for some reason). I was assuming that if they allow parkhopping, the 3 FPs per day would stay, and the tiering (in tiered parks) would stay. Which would either mean all the parks would be tiered before parkhopping is offered, or that parkhoppers would tend to hop from a tiered to a non-tiered park. My money's on the first.

No, I was assuming 3 per day. I was using a total of what you would get over 2 days of touring DHS and Epcot over 2 days.

I agree that they might consider tiering all of the parks before rolling out parkhopping. But honestly, I'm not sure it's really worth much if you CAN hop, but still only get one headliner over the course of the day.

 

[nfggirl5454]

I had 2 overnight visits to Disney in January, and my sister received a survey on our hotel stay, and the survey did ask something about if she'd like to use FP+ at different parks.

When we were at Epcot, I got asked to do a survey when I returned home. I'm filling out the survey now, and it asked how I would describe the number of FP selections I described with a possible answer of "3 Disney FPs in one theme park per day weren't enough for what I expected," which is what I selected, of course. I think this lends credence to the belief Disney is considering/planning on opening it up to park hopping.

 

[boiledpeanut]

Other thoughts...old fp and ph were kind of spontaneous. Lets hop and see what we can do!

Now if you could have ph with flexible fp+ you could really PLAN out more. Good for the visitor yes, but will you have people condensing their visit? People riding rides and not PH to eat dinner at Epcot? Thus WDW losing extra days w rooms booked and meals eaten?

I'm betting on op suggestion of an increased price on a ph that includes flexible fp+

 

[shalom]

The more time that guests spend "in transit", the less time they have to spend money. If guests have a car, they are more likely to spend money outside of WDW property. Folks want to hop, WDW really doesn't want them to, but they aren't willing to take it away, so they compromised. They charge money to hop, and they try to get you there as fast as they reasonably can.

I've always figured they don't really want people hopping, so they turned hopping into a benefit for Disney by charging for it.

Also agree that they make money on parkhoppers with people who don't hop. I don't know if there are stats, but I've known people who bought parkhoppers for years after they really used them -- and people who'd take long vacations and maybe hop their last day, just so they hadn't "wasted their money" on the hopper!

I agree that they might consider tiering all of the parks before rolling out parkhopping. But honestly, I'm not sure it's really worth much if you CAN hop, but still only get one headliner over the course of the day.

It depends on how they tier the parks. Some parks may need tiering more than others, in the sense that there's a lot of demand for very few rides so Disney has to limit access. With MK, that doesn't seem as necessary, so they could mix it up, putting the old FP rides on multiple tiers. That way, when people complain, "Tier two has nothing," Disney CMs can say, "Oh, but it's got Space Mountain and BTMR -- under old FP, those were the rides that backed up the most" or whatever.

 

[SleepDoctor]

They just retro-fitted a number of the bus stops to fit the new articulated buses. Why would they spend money on the new larger buses, or the new bus stops if they wanted to discourage park hopping by permanently limiting FP+ to only one park?

 

[mom2rtk]

It depends on how they tier the parks. Some parks may need tiering more than others, in the sense that there's a lot of demand for very few rides so Disney has to limit access. With MK, that doesn't seem as necessary, so they could mix it up, putting the old FP rides on multiple tiers. That way, when people complain, "Tier two has nothing," Disney CMs can say, "Oh, but it's got Space Mountain and BTMR -- under old FP, those were the rides that backed up the most" or whatever.

I agree there are a lot of directions they could go with it. I just think they will need to weigh the benefit of allowing hopping with tiers with the risk of making the system too complicated for some visitors.

 

[magicbob]

But aren't you assuming 3 FPs per park? I'm not convinced they'd let your double your daily FPs by parkhopping (although since parkhopping's an upcharge, I could see them adding one if they wanted to encourage it for some reason). I was assuming that if they allow parkhopping, the 3 FPs per day would stay, and the tiering (in tiered parks) would stay. Which would either mean all the parks would be tiered before parkhopping is offered, or that parkhoppers would tend to hop from a tiered to a non-tiered park. My money's on the first.

No, I was assuming 3 per day. I was using a total of what you would get over 2 days of touring DHS and Epcot over 2 days.

I agree that they might consider tiering all of the parks before rolling out parkhopping. But honestly, I'm not sure it's really worth much if you CAN hop, but still only get one headliner over the course of the day.

Correct me I'm wrong, but I think you are saying that someone uses their first FP+ for a headliner at a tiered park, and then hops to an un-tiered park where they can use the other two for headliners instead of being limited to "tier 2" attractions.

Unless all parks do eventually become tiered (which I haven't ruled out), this isn't necessarily a problem. I believe the ONLY reason all parks aren't tiered already is that some of them (theoretically) have enough attractions to allow someone to reserve all three of their FPs for headliners. So, theoretically, it would not be a problem for someone to use two of their slots for headliners at that park, even if they already rode a headliner at another park. They were still limited to only one headliner at the tiered park, where tiering was needed. Does that make sense?