Will It Come To This??

[JimmyV]

Right now, guests who wish to ride Dumbo can opt for the "Play Area" and get a restaurant style beeper that will alert them when it is time to head to the boarding area. Could Disney employ a similar system park-wide whereby up to 60 days in advance of your arrival, you could go to a computer and pick your "Top 10 Attractions", (no tiering, and no repeats), and a computer algorithm could plot out an entire day's worth of "return times" and you would receive what is essentially a FP+ (with a much tighter return window) for each of those rides? And if so, would you do it? So, if you put in that you wanted to do Space Mountain, Buzz, Under The Sea, Peter Pan, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Small World and Pooh, the computer would give you 10 return times, each spread out over the course of, say, 9:00-7:00 (which is one per hour) and each return time would have a window of, say, 15 minutes. You would, of course, be free to do any other rides in the "down time", as well as eat, shop, rest, or whatever. Is FP+ really just a first step toward plotting out a full day (for people who wish to do so, not on a mandatory basis) that would make lines as we know them, obsolete? If people can "kill time" for half an hour waiting to ride Dumbo, why wouldn't Disney want them to kill time for most of their rides to put them in shops and Dole Whip lines while waiting for their turn to come up? A simple text would remind you of your time, with no need for "beepers". Is this what WDW will be like in 2025? I have long been an advocate of more "Deli Counter" style lines where you show up at a ride, pull a number, and are free to do whatever you want until your number is "served". This doesn't seem to be too far from that idea, only, in a digital sense.

 

[Autumnslight]

That sounds very promising, and I'd definitely try it out, with a couple of caveats. If something comes up, and you miss your "number", or time slot, or whatever, you should be able to go back and get a new one, assuming they're still available. Legacy FP allowed this, but FP+ doesn't, which is ridiculous. Also, you should be able to put in any scheduled ADRs, shows, breaks, etc., so that you don't get a ride return time during that time period.

 

[Golf4283]

Right now, guests who wish to ride Dumbo can opt for the "Play Area" and get a restaurant style beeper that will alert them when it is time to head to the boarding area. Could Disney employ a similar system park-wide whereby up to 60 days in advance of your arrival, you could go to a computer and pick your "Top 10 Attractions", (no tiering, and no repeats), and a computer algorithm could plot out an entire day's worth of "return times" and you would receive what is essentially a FP+ (with a much tighter return window) for each of those rides? And if so, would you do it? So, if you put in that you wanted to do Space Mountain, Buzz, Under The Sea, Peter Pan, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Small World and Pooh, the computer would give you 10 return times, each spread out over the course of, say, 9:00-7:00 (which is one per hour) and each return time would have a window of, say, 15 minutes. You would, of course, be free to do any other rides in the "down time", as well as eat, shop, rest, or whatever. Is FP+ really just a first step toward plotting out a full day (for people who wish to do so, not on a mandatory basis) that would make lines as we know them, obsolete? If people can "kill time" for half an hour waiting to ride Dumbo, why wouldn't Disney want them to kill time for most of their rides to put them in shops and Dole Whip lines while waiting for their turn to come up? A simple text would remind you of your time, with no need for "beepers". Is this what WDW will be like in 2025? I have long been an advocate of more "Deli Counter" style lines where you show up at a ride, pull a number, and are free to do whatever you want until your number is "served". This doesn't seem to be too far from that idea, only, in a digital sense.

I understand your logic but honestly this would be a terrible idea.

Let's use some estimates. (all made up by me right now)

-Say Magic Kingdom can hold 10,000 patrons at any one point.
-Let's say that the rides/lines can hold a total of 6,000 at any given time. (note these are estimates just made up by me).
-This leaves 4,000 people wandering/shopping.

Now if we were to do the "deli" style of things you would have all 10,000 wandering less the people actually on the rides. It would be utter chaos.

The bottom line is Disney, like any other theme park, needs people waiting in the standby lines. What they're trying to do with FP+ is streamline the entire process so when you go to the park you are free to do whatever. You don't have to run to get FP for "X" ride then go do something else.

You'll just be able to go do something else and already have the FP for "X" ride.

 

[Robo]

That sounds very promising, and I'd definitely try it out, with a couple of caveats. If something comes up, and you miss your "number", or time slot, or whatever, you should be able to go back and get a new one, assuming they're still available.

Legacy FP allowed this, but FP+ doesn't, which is ridiculous.

FP+ DOES allow you to reschedule a missed FP+ reservation.

 

[damo]

Right now, guests who wish to ride Dumbo can opt for the "Play Area" and get a restaurant style beeper that will alert them when it is time to head to the boarding area. Could Disney employ a similar system park-wide whereby up to 60 days in advance of your arrival, you could go to a computer and pick your "Top 10 Attractions", (no tiering, and no repeats), and a computer algorithm could plot out an entire day's worth of "return times" and you would receive what is essentially a FP+ (with a much tighter return window) for each of those rides? And if so, would you do it? So, if you put in that you wanted to do Space Mountain, Buzz, Under The Sea, Peter Pan, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Small World and Pooh, the computer would give you 10 return times, each spread out over the course of, say, 9:00-7:00 (which is one per hour) and each return time would have a window of, say, 15 minutes. You would, of course, be free to do any other rides in the "down time", as well as eat, shop, rest, or whatever. Is FP+ really just a first step toward plotting out a full day (for people who wish to do so, not on a mandatory basis) that would make lines as we know them, obsolete? If people can "kill time" for half an hour waiting to ride Dumbo, why wouldn't Disney want them to kill time for most of their rides to put them in shops and Dole Whip lines while waiting for their turn to come up? A simple text would remind you of your time, with no need for "beepers". Is this what WDW will be like in 2025? I have long been an advocate of more "Deli Counter" style lines where you show up at a ride, pull a number, and are free to do whatever you want until your number is "served". This doesn't seem to be too far from that idea, only, in a digital sense.

Sounds like the Q-bot system to me.

 

[ConvenientTruth]

I don't know if it will go as far as the number of attractions you mentioned, but I do think that the system is going to evolve into more then just the 3 everyone is getting right now. A lot of the issues are the logistics and as this is a new system, a live test (what they are currently going through) is going to give the powers to be a better understand of the direction they want to take the MDE and FP+. In the end I think this could prove to be much better then the old system as the "kinks" are worked out.

 

[Autumnslight]

FP+ DOES allow you to reschedule a missed FP+ reservation.

Really? It didn't when we were there in December. Yay for constantly changing "tests". How does one do this? Does the system just "know" and let you just rebook another FP+ with the app?

 

[JimmyV]

Now if we were to do the "deli" style of things you would have all 10,000 wandering less the people actually on the rides. It would be utter chaos.

I guess it would incentivize Disney to build more shops! I understand your math and the logistics. The people have to go somewhere. When I am at a grocery store and the deli number that I pull is a good 10 minutes from being served, I go shopping in a few nearby aisles. Some people just hang out at the counter. So even if the "Top 10 Attractions" concept might fail for the reasons stated, how about 6 rides with half hour return windows? Same as FP+ now, only you would get twice as many with half the time to return. Space Mountain=9:30-10:00; Buzz=10:20-10:50; Under The Sea=11:10-11:40 and so on. The one hour window is really way too big if your touring plan has you visiting attractions in an orderly fashion, (which is what the computer would do for you if you couldn't figure it out yourself.)

 

[MichiganDVC]

Really? It didn't when we were there in December. Yay for constantly changing "tests". How does one do this? Does the system just "know" and let you just rebook another FP+ with the app?

You select your "experience" on the app and choose "change time" or "change experience." Then you change it, based on availability.

 

[wiigirl]

FP+ DOES allow you to reschedule a missed FP+ reservation.

Nice! I didn't know that!

 

[kittyab]

I personally loved the set up they have at dumbo. Parents can sit in A/C while the kids play. We get a break and the kids are not bored.

I would love to see this set up at other attractions.

Of course there would be a gift shop there too LOL!

 

[Iowajes]

It will be interesting to see if they do more playground style queues. But I kind of agree with the idea, that lines are necessary to keep control of chaos of thousands of people wandering while waiting.