Fortune Magazine: Disney's tech innovation is my nightmare

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
Have you ever bought airline tickets for a family and have to schedule around school vacations etc? The closest airport to me is Savannah GA and a family of 4 would cost me probably a minimum of $3,000 most likely more and a whole day travel time to get to Disneyland and a full day to get back. Go to Disneyland is not a good plan in my world. Go to Universal instead of WDW is a good plan.

Sheboygan. You'll be able to do anything you want with no waiting, because who the heck wants to go to Sheboygan?
 

anchorman314

Well-Known Member
A quick first-hand account of the various incarnations of FP:
- 1998: Arrive at MK at 9:30am. Walk back to Splash. Wait in line for 2 hours. Move on to next ride.
- 2011: Arrive at DHS at 9:30am. Power walk back to TSMM, get FP for 4:30pm, choose not to wait in 90 minute Standby line.
- 2015 (October): Arrive at MK at 9:30am. Ride Splash, Thunder, and 7DMT before noon, with miscellaneous rides/shops/funnel cakes in between.

I'd consider that an improvement. (For the record, I was also there in 2014, so I've already experienced the MBs.)
 

baymenxpac

Well-Known Member
There's a number of popular museums worldwide where you can buy tickets in advance with specific entry times. Basically the same concept.

not at all the same basic concept. the same basic concept would be if you booked times throughout the day to visit each individual exhibit, spaced out in two-to-three hour increments.

impressionism: 10:15
surrealism: 12:50
contemporary: 2:20
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
Let's say it's not pre-determined 60 days in advance you're going to animal kingdom tomorrow morning. So spontaneously you decide to go there at park opening. The decision to go to the park has some implied choice to be there for longer than 5 minutes.. traditionally half a day.

Getting there at say 8am, and immediately getting a FP to everest for 9-10 is still spontaneous... you had no previous decision to do it, you are in that moment deciding to do it, getting an hour window within the next 2 hours is still spontaneous, especially if you bother considering the context of the point before trying to be condescending. Getting a fp for 2 hours from now for a ride I in this moment am deciding I want to do is lightyears more spontaneous then deciding to ride everest from 9-10 on November 1st....
We'll have to agree to disagree. I can't run fast enough to get to EE for a 9-10 FP, and if I could, the standby line would be short enough to just ride it. The best I ever did was a return time of 3-4 in the afternoon. Completely useless as we had plans in a different park in the afternoon. I'm a slow walker, so running to the top tier attractions does not work for me at all.

And I still say that getting any kind of FP is not spontaneous. You are TIED to that return time, since they stopped allowing you to return whenever you wanted. It's just as regimented as anything else, and for us, more so since we may be in a completely different section of the park when our FP is due, and then we have to hurry to get there. What is spontaneous about that?

And you completely ignored my statement that FP+ is NOT spontaneous either. Way to cherry pick what someone says. ;) I stated that the only truly spontaneous method to touring a park is to get into every stand-by line that you wish. No FP, no FP+.
 

danyoung56

Well-Known Member
I completely agree with you that any type of reservation cuts in to your spontenaity. Dining reservations do the same thing. But in this increasingly crowded situation, being able to book ride and dining ahead of time allows me to experience things without long waits - waits that previously were way too long for me to wait. And that's a good thing for me!

And I've never bought the argument that no one knows what they're in the mood to eat 180 days in advance. I don't approach dinnertime and go "Hmm, what do I feel like eating?" At WDW, as dinnertime nears, I know that I'm going to the Coral Reef, so I'm in the mood for that. I rarely (never?) think "Geez, I wish dinner tonight was at the California Grill".
 

Dukeblue1227

Well-Known Member
We'll have to agree to disagree. I can't run fast enough to get to EE for a 9-10 FP, and if I could, the standby line would be short enough to just ride it. The best I ever did was a return time of 3-4 in the afternoon. Completely useless as we had plans in a different park in the afternoon. I'm a slow walker, so running to the top tier attractions does not work for me at all.

If you get there at Park opening... You could crawl there and get a FP earlier than 3-4... That's just an outrageous statement to make its almost impossible to not get a FP before noon if literally the very first thing you do at Park opening is casually walking to everest and go for a FP.

Unless you're talking about now, with fp+, where there's significantly fewer FP available then you're spot on!
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
If you get there at Park opening... You could crawl there and get a FP earlier than 3-4... That's just an outrageous statement to make its almost impossible to not get a FP before noon if literally the very first thing you do at Park opening is casually walking to everest and go for a FP.

Unless you're talking about now, with fp+, where there's significantly fewer FP available then you're spot on!
We're talking about spontaneity. Ok, fine, I'll get to EE and my FP return time was 11-12. Well, guess what. I have an ADR at Yak & Yeti right at 11. Since they stopped allowing people to come back much later after the end of the hour, what are we supposed to do now? The lunch at Y&Y will more than likely take more time than the 1 hour window I have for my old FP, unless we rush through it.

And how is ANY of that spontaneous? You are just cherry picking a statement that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
 

blueboxdoctor

Well-Known Member
Well, I see you point, but I can get every single type of food offered at Disney here where I live. But I still go to TS restaurants there because the food at most places is very good to outstanding. Some places suck. True everywhere, not just at Disney. Heck, we love Rose & Crown, and eat there every trip. Never had a bad meal, but some here say it sucks and they'll never eat there. To each his/her own.

I guess my only point was that if you are in MK, and in the mood for Italian food, then Tony's is not as bad a choice as some make it out to be, and according to @jakeman you can get an ADR there on very short notice.

Oh true, in that case, yeah, it's not like Tony's is bad (but as I said, I'm from an Italian area, and honestly, I want something not Italian when I'm in WDW, it can be like an overload of pasta and other such food at times). And I agree, Rose and Crown has some pretty good meals.
 

Dukeblue1227

Well-Known Member
We're talking about spontaneity. Ok, fine, I'll get to EE and my FP return time was 11-12. Well, guess what. I have an ADR at Yak & Yeti right at 11. Since they stopped allowing people to come back much later after the end of the hour, what are we supposed to do now? The lunch at Y&Y will more than likely take more time than the 1 hour window I have for my old FP, unless we rush through it.

And how is ANY of that spontaneous? You are just cherry picking a statement that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.

You can keep saying that but I'm not. You extremely unnecessarily mocked someone and was painfully condescending towards them for saying they preferred old fp to fp+ because fp+ took all the spontaneity out of the vacation. That's a valid point, you're making up extreme case arguments to try and refuse to buy it.

The exact discussion at hand is about FP+, so how that compares to the previous iteration of FP is entirely applicable to the discussion. And the previous iteration was more spontaneous. Sure, you can come up with extreme scenarios that take the spontaneity out of it... But now you're cherry picking what works for your argument and what doesn't.

When comparing FP+ to the system in place for previous 15 years, far greater spontaneity in the old than the new.

And if EE is return time of 11-12 and you have an 11 o'clock reservation you simply don't get a fast pass... It's not really that difficult.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
You can keep saying that but I'm not. You extremely unnecessarily mocked someone and was painfully condescending towards them for saying they preferred old fp to fp+ because fp+ took all the spontaneity out of the vacation. That's a valid point, you're making up extreme case arguments to try and refuse to buy it.

The exact discussion at hand is about FP+, so how that compares to the previous iteration of FP is entirely applicable to the discussion. And the previous iteration was more spontaneous. Sure, you can come up with extreme scenarios that take the spontaneity out of it... But now you're cherry picking what works for your argument and what doesn't.

When comparing FP+ to the system in place for previous 15 years, far greater spontaneity in the old than the new.

And if EE is return time of 11-12 and you have an 11 o'clock reservation you simply don't get a fast pass... It's not really that difficult.
So you honestly believe that when you get a paper FP with a return time several hours in to the future, that you are being "spontaneous"?

Here is the dictionary definition of spontaneous:
performed or occurring as a result of a sudden inner impulse or inclination and without premeditation or external stimulus

So now that paper FP has become a premeditated external stimulus as you are now required to go back to that attraction at that time. The very antithesis of spontaneity. You can argue the merits of FP vs FP+ all day, but NEITHER is spontaneous.
 

Dukeblue1227

Well-Known Member
So you honestly believe that when you get a paper FP with a return time several hours in to the future, that you are being "spontaneous"?

Here is the dictionary definition of spontaneous:
performed or occurring as a result of a sudden inner impulse or inclination and without premeditation or external stimulus

So now that paper FP has become a premeditated external stimulus as you are now required to go back to that attraction at that time. The very antithesis of spontaneity. You can argue the merits of FP vs FP+ all day, but NEITHER is spontaneous.

It's getting impressive how badly you need to be right and cannot accept someone else's opinion or point of view.

Must we really break out a dictionary to define the literal translation of something. It'd be like if I said "my kids fly right to toy Story mania when we get to mgm" and you breaking out Websters to tell me my kids don't actually fly. You must be a blast at parties!

As I said before. As is not that difficult a point of view to understand whether you agree or not... If getting up and deciding to go to AK is spontaneous, and deciding when you arrive you want to ride Everest is spontaneous... Then deciding to come back 2 hours from now instead of waiting in line for 30 minutes is legitimately splitting hairs. It's arguing for the sake of arguing. Whether I wait 30 minutes right now to ride or come back in 2 hours... I'm deciding right now in this moment to do it. I am deciding on September 2nd 2015 to ride Everest 3-4 hours from now instead of waiting in the line that exists now. That's a decision I'm making right now in this moment. If you don't get that, move along. Newsflash, you're not always going to be right and that's okay. Just because you're not right doesn't make you wrong... It's a point of view and a perspective.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
As I believe I have already stated - we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. If you have decided that waiting 3-4 hours for your FP time to return to an attraction was being spontaneous, well, then fine, you are being spontaneous. When I see that return time, I see it as a yoke around my neck killing any other spontaneous things I might want to do then, since I have to be back for my FP time. Heck, I wanted to be spontaneous and visit a different park right then, but now I can't because I have a FP return time.

You are absolutely right that this is only my opinion, and it is completely 180 degrees different than yours.
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
No you can't do that so you made it up. In fact last time I went to MK I couldn't get a FP to 7DMT. Foolishly I waited till maybe 40 days out to try and book my FP's.
It is quite possible. All you would need to do that is a FP to Splash. Even if the standby lines for 7DMT and BTMRR were near an hour a piece, you could still do all three in 2.5 hours.
 
D

Deleted member 107043

I read the Forbes article the other day and chuckled to myself thinking I could probably write an equally fascinating piece about how most of my childhood vacations to theme parks at WDW and DLR were spent standing in line. No system is ever going to be perfect, and there is no one size fits all program that Disney can design that will make all guests happy. I'm just happy that someone at Disney finally decided to actually do something to put some structure around the madness that is FP. Keeping my fingers crossed that a West Coast version of FP+ makes it to DLR some day.
 

RoadTrip

Member
As for ADR's... I don't see that WDW has a restaurant capacity problem. If you are hungry there is always someplace you can eat with a minimal wait. Opening additional restaurants will not eliminate the demand at the most popular restaurants... they will STILL be difficult to get in to. The same applies to any really popular restaurant in your hometown. You will not be able to get in on a Friday or Saturday night without reservations made long in advance. On the other hand, there are many places where you will be seated without much of a wait. Why should WDW be any different? Restaurants become "must do" because of social media when there are many options available that offer the same quality dining that are much easier to reserve. For instance, if you can't get a reservation at Le Cellier, try Yachtsman's Steakhouse at the Yacht Club. Quality is at least equal to or better than Le Cellier and it is much easier to reserve.
 

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