Hands On - FastPass+ for non-resort guests at Disney's Animal Kingdom

[scottb411]

Better be careful with that. What if I planned to go to the MK in the morning and then had a dinner in Epcot. However, I decide if I time things right I can get a quick ride on Test Track in before my dinner. How soon do I have to be in the park to meet your requirement?

There is always that risk but Disney is going to have all of that data in their hands to see what the percentages are for guests that haven't entered the park 60 minutes before FP time, 120 minutes before FP time, and then see the historical percentages of actual guest that use those fast passes and make decisions from there. I'm sure those numbers will be pretty consistent over time. The trade-off is that the standby wait will go up on days that the numbers don't match the percentages.

 

[njDizFan]

Sorry, but FP 1.0 is highly inefficient in the sense you have to walk across the theme park (maybe a 5-10 minute walk) to get a fast pass that you will not be able to use until a later time, so then you are walking 5-10 minutes again to another part of the park to go to another attraction only to return later (another 5-10 minute walk) to use your fast pass. Do this three times a day and you just burned 60-90 minutes of your time that you can accomplish in 5 minutes with FP 2.0. I am an AP and I used my Magic Bands in my most recent trip this weekend staying on property and it was great!

That could have been accomodated by simply having a centralized legacy style fastpass and it would not have costed 1 billion +

 

[flynnibus]

If the kiosk works in the same fashion, it should streamline a majority of user's experience, as they will likely choose their attractions, choose the best plan for them, and move along.

That's part of the intention of the 'suggested plan' - streamlines things. But you can tell even from reports here... almost everyone wants to change from the suggested plan. It doesn't look like the 'suggested' plan is sitting well with people

 

[ParentsOf4]

Does the kiosk work different than the MDE app does?

Great question, but I don't know; the interface has evolved a bit over time. I don't know where it stands today.

When I used My Disney Experience (MDE), it took about 10 minutes for me to set up my FP+ selections, having to move things around a bit because it wouldn't allow for overlapping times. I'm sure it would take me less a second time.

But of course, I also discussed at length with my family, "what are we going to do and when?" "Oops, I can't get a Fast Pass selection for Peter Pan at 11 AM. Is 10 AM OK?"

And so it will go for many standing in front of the FP+ kiosks. It's really something better done at home, not after arriving at a theme park. I just cannot believe Disney intends all offsite guests to have to go through this every day.

I'm glad Disney will have Cast Members at the kiosks; they should really be able to speed up the process.

I do know Disney continues to look for ways to make the interface more efficient. I don't expect the final interface to be the same as it is today.

 

[scottb411]

That could have been accomodated by simply having a centralized legacy style fastpass and it would not have costed 1 billion +

I agree. Why not have a Space Mountain branded FP 1.0 machine in Adventureland or a Space Ranger Spin machine in Fantasyland for the kids. That has been my biggest gripe the last few years.

Stating that, first not getting into the costs of MyMagic+, Disney had to do something with the explosion of mobile devices overtaking our time (how much more time do you spend on your iphone today than you did 5 years ago) or else we would have been criticizing Disney for not keeping up with the times so they had to do something and they went big.

As we see the roll-out of the memory maker initiative, one silver lining to all of this has been the increase in characters all over the place now that I feel like you didn't see before that my kids enjoy. Also, Disney has made over $1.5 billion dollars worldwide on the Avengers movie alone so that has paid for the MyMagic + initiative. If Universal keeps building Harry Potter land, Disney will continue building out princessland, avatarland, star wars land, and restaurant land.

As a local resident of Orlando in the IT industry, this has also created a lot of STEM jobs in Orlando so I am happy for Disney taking these types of risk even if there is a sticker shock behind it. From what I understand, a lot of the rides are developed in California and ported to Orlando but I know that a lot of the MyMagic+ development and implementation is happening in Florida.

 

[ajenks22]

Once I run my ticket to get into AK, can I make FP+ res using the MDE app? Or will I have to physically go to a kiosk? I'm staying offsite.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Once I run my ticket to get into AK, can I make FP+ res using the MDE app? Or will I have to physically go to a kiosk? I'm staying offsite.

As of now, you'll have to use a FP+ kiosk or be assisted by a Cast Member at DAK.

I'm hoping offsite guests eventually get to use MDE to make their selections before arrival. Just seems like it would make the parks less stressful for everyone.

 

[wdisney9000]

It's good there were no reports of malfunctioning equipment for the first day. If the tech works with no problems then Disney should focus more on educating guests of how the systems work. The paper/pamphlet handed out to guests driving in was a great idea. If they can educate people BEFORE they get to the kiosk it will work out great for off site guests even if they can't use MDE.

 

[fillerup]

Our experience today at AK - nothing particularly revelatory but I'll post it nonetheless.

Got to the park at around 2pm and I was able to get past the entry tapstile on only the fourth try. That's actually excellent for me, since my rfid AP works around 30% of the time and has been reset more times than I can begin to count.

On to the FP kiosks to see about a pass for Safari. The manual tipboard still showed fast pass availablility at that point. There were no guests at all at the kiosks, while there were 5 GR ipad warriors waiting to help. And at the time they were in a serious little huddle with about 4 more suit types. They were blocking the kiosks but when they noticed actual guests waiting to try the system, they scattered like a flock of geese on the first day of hunting season.

I tapped my card and was immediately recognized. As my wife was asking if she should wait until I was done, the CM pushed what I guess was the "Add somebody" button and the system recognized her as well. Unfortunately, the CMs were so eager to help and make things go well, that I got almost no feel for how it will be to actually operate the system unaided.

He asked what attraction we wanted and I told him KS. KS is on page two of the attractions screen and required scrolling. Whatever it is about the screens (extra durable I suppose) they aren't exactly sensitive. The guy who was helpinng us was having to really put in a lot of muscle to get the scroll to work. Anyhow, we got KS on the screen and no FP available. This was at around 2:15 with the last Safari going out at 4:45.

He consulted another CM and they informed us that since KS ended at 4:45 that the final fast pass window for the day was 2:45 to 3:45. That turned out to be misinformation as we saw people entering the FP entry between 4 & 4:30. And in talking to another CM at the kisosks at around 3:30 about this, she said that since it was in testing, they had shut down FP for Safari because they weren't sure what was left in inventory. I don't know what that means, but that's what she said. (FP availablity was still showing at 3:30 on the manual tipboard - must have been too difficult to correct since the two locations are at least 15 feet apart.)

Back to the issue of the screens for a second. I wanted to play around with the system since no other guests were there but no matter whether I pushed Next, Back, or Cancel, nothing happened. The CM then informed me that I should use my fingernail because it's not responding well to fingertips. Like I said, extra durable touchscreens (they have to be, I know).

Nothing earth shattering I know, but there it is.

 

[ibaw]

As of now, you'll have to use a FP+ kiosk or be assisted by a Cast Member at DAK.

I'm hoping offsite guests eventually get to use MDE to make their selections before arrival. Just seems like it would make the parks less stressful for everyone.

I think right now the limitations are how to limit the use of the app to only editing DAK reservations for those guests who are physically present day of ... hence why everyone offsite must use the kiosks. Once this is rolled out on a larger scale, this would not be an issue.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Nothing earth shattering I know, but there it is.

Thanks!

At this point, FP+ for offsite guests is brand new so I think there are several of us interested in reading everyone's account.

If you're there next week with higher crowd levels, I'd enjoy reading your experience for that too!

 

[ptaylor]

Back to the issue of the screens for a second. I wanted to play around with the system since no other guests were there but no matter whether I pushed Next, Back, or Cancel, nothing happened. The CM then informed me that I should use my fingernail because it's not responding well to fingertips. Like I said, extra durable touchscreens (they have to be, I know).

Nothing earth shattering I know, but there it is.

I had this issue also. The screen is pressure sensitive, rather than being capacitive like an iPhone. So basically you have to get some pressure onto it for it be recognized. It is very much like one of the payment devices at Target or any other store.

 

[ptaylor]

Thanks!

At this point, FP+ for offsite guests is brand new so I think there are several of us interested in reading everyone's account.

If you're there next week with higher crowd levels, I'd enjoy reading your experience for that too!

I will be there next week - so will report back.

 

[Jeffxz]

There is always that risk but Disney is going to have all of that data in their hands to see what the percentages are for guests that haven't entered the park 60 minutes before FP time, 120 minutes before FP time, and then see the historical percentages of actual guest that use those fast passes and make decisions from there. I'm sure those numbers will be pretty consistent over time. The trade-off is that the standby wait will go up on days that the numbers don't match the percentages.

This just makes the system more complex without much benefit. Not only does a person need to be at a ride during a certain window, now they need to be through the turnstiles 1 or 2 hours before the FP+ window? Not going to work. If someone misses their FP+ time, standby will fill the void. It would be silly to try to predict if a person is or is not coming to the park. Even if they know from tracking your band that are in a different park, they can't predict your intentions and it is possible to get almost anywhere on property within the hour window of FP+.

 

[sshindel]

That's part of the intention of the 'suggested plan' - streamlines things. But you can tell even from reports here... almost everyone wants to change from the suggested plan. It doesn't look like the 'suggested' plan is sitting well with people

True, but those folks who post on here tend (and I am generalizing) to be the kinds of folks who would want a little more control over their plans. The standard guest may not be as inclined to tweak.
I tend towards the hyper planner, typically with ADRs and spreadsheets and the like, and rarely felt the need to mess around with the suggestions on my last trip. It was a lower season though, so I'll admit that I have no idea how it might play out for me in peak season.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I don't thing detractors were predicting bedlam.

This week.

Standby times are a pretty good indication of crowd levels. 25 minutes is pretty tame.

At 25 minutes, I don't even bother with FP.

When I was at WDW Thanksgiving week, Safari wait time was over 2 hours.

That that nothing to do with FP+. That had to do with an animal on the path and then the gates to enter the trucks refusing to open.

Of course, EE worked fine and I think that wait time peaked at around 70 minutes. In my experience, pretty typical for Thanksgiving in recent years. (I haven't missed a Thanksgiving in over 10 years.)

FP+ shouldn't make the lines themselves noticeably better or worse. It just changes who's standing in them.

It will be interesting to see what happens next week at the FP+ kiosks.

Animal Kingdom is the best park to test this in. It has 3 E-tickets, all with high capacity. Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest Fastpasses would regularly get 2+ hours out by midday, but neither were ever at the extremes as Toy Story, Soarin' or Test Track. I'm glad that the test is going well, but Fastpass capacity at Animal Kingdom was never a concern in all of this. We're 3+ years out from the Avatar rides opening up and while Animal Kingdom needs more things to do, the capacity issues there are more about extending the day than distributing crowds.

Even during Christmas week, the wait times at Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest are unlikely to sustain waits of 60+ minutes all day. Sure, it will hit that, but it will really only be midday. The biggest tests of this are going to be Epcot and Hollywood Studios which both have attractions that are outliers in terms of demand. Offsite guests are going to be shut out from Fastpass for this attractions and it's going to upset people. It's what we have all lamented since this was first presented to us.

By insisting on the 3 FP+ reservations per day as the magic number Disney painted themselves into the corner where they had to add Fastpass+ to things that don't need it. Again, this argument is nothing new. The old distribution rules helped govern this concern and Fastpass+ takes the mistakes that were made previously (Adding Fastpass where it doesn't belong) and flat out ignores it.

We know the math doesn't work for Disney to offer an Express Pass like perk for resort guests. The parks would need to have been built out with at least $2 billion more of new attractions (subtle jab). But if Disney wants this to be a perk for resort guests, they should make it a single bonus Fastpass+ and then the legacy rules would apply to everyone day of. This would eliminate the unnecessary need to add it where it doesn't belong, this would help solve the issue of attractions running out of capacity, and it would still exist as a perk. Disney simply doesn't have the capacity to give every guest 3 meaningful Fastpass+ experiences per day.

Stop deceiving guests, stop trying to sell guests something they never needed. Start offering guests something that is a true competitive advantage and start building new attractions to drive attendance. That's what Disney has done for 6 decades - It works, keep doing it.

 

[RSoxNo1]

If the time required were only three times the time required for the old machines.. you might have a point. But the per-user transaction time is significantly longer and isn't idiot proof (1 in, 1 out) like the old system. Hence why Disney is having to resort to gimmicks like having an 'experienced' user drive the system for guests to minimize time.

Ever have to wait behind someone in line at the ticket machine.. when the person doesn't know what they need, can't figure out the machine, can't feed their money, in.. etc and the entire line sits there and boils waiting for the one 'confused user'? Yeah.. not fun.

I wonder if they'll be able to get it to a point where a family of 4 can get 3 Fastpasses in a quicker time then it took that same family to execute those 12 Fastpass "transactions" previously. By combining the family into a single transaction that could be a time saver, I just don't think it's there yet.

 

[RSoxNo1]

When it comes to the FP+ kiosks themselves, being able to pick up to 3 attractions at once makes them even slower.

It would be one thing if I walked up to an "Expedition Everest only" FP+ kiosk and had to pick one time. That wouldn't be so bad.

However, it's not simply a matter of picking a time.

Now, I have to go through that same process 3 times and select which attractions and what times I want through the interface each time.

Times are not allowed to overlap. I could spend an appreciable amount of time shuffling around my schedule for my 3 FP+ selections.

A lot of onsite guests are already are spending a fair amount of time making their 3 FP+ selections, it's just that they are doing it from the comfort of their homes.

That's why the only efficient use of the FP+ kiosks is to allow all guests to make their 3 FP+ selections prior to arrival, allow all guests to change their FP+ selections from their smart phones, and simply use the FP+ kiosks as a back-up only for those without the technology.

That's not what's happening with today's test. All offsite guests are being told they must make or change their FP+ selections only through the kiosks.

WDW has tens of thousands of offsite guests every day.

Forcing them to use the kiosks is highly inefficient.

In fact, it's so inefficient that I doubt Disney intends today's test to be representative of the final implementation of FP+.

I simply think it's a case of them wanting to test the capacity of the distribution and the App isn't ready to distinguish between offsite guests and onsite guests.

 

[flynnibus]

I wonder if they'll be able to get it to a point where a family of 4 can get 3 Fastpasses in a quicker time then it took that same family to execute those 12 Fastpass "transactions" previously. By combining the family into a single transaction that could be a time saver, I just don't think it's there yet.

True - with groups it should be faster overall.. but it may be offset by the number of people failing to get to that point. Overall, having to queue up for this can't be pleasant.

 

[jdmdisney99]

First, make FastPass+ available to everyone. Then make new situations for booking them (not 60 days out). Make it so that resort guests can book all FPs from the time they check into their resort, and off site guests can begin booking day of use. This way it is similar to the legacy FP but allows for easier booking all at one time.