HIgh operating costs will kill FP+

[Andrea 55]

Picture this:
A software company approaches an entertainment giant with a program that will increase theme park revenue by reducing the time people spend in line. Additionally, the software was supposed to automate a lot of systems thereby reducing personnel. The company buys the software.
Once the software is implemented and guests are starting to make their ride reservations 60 days out, it is discovered that the system is full of glitches so the company is required to hire additional IT support for their reservation system. Then once the guests arrive at the theme park there are more problems, so additional IT support is hired to work with guests in the theme parks.
The majority of the guests who visit this theme park are first timers, and the ride reservation system is pretty complicated. So if the company wants to continue using the ride reservation system, they must continue to provide a lot of IT support personnel which is very expensive. So far, this company has spent at least 1 billion dollars on the new system. Overall, theme park attendance is up, but this is because the country’s economy is improving, not because of this new ride reservation system. The company is also experiencing increased attendance at their West Coast theme parks.
Overall the new ride reservation system has cost a lot of money, and it will continue to be a money pit because of the IT support required to help guests with the system. IMO this ride reservation system that is FP+ will be scrapped, because there is no way Disney can make it user friendly enough for their first time guests without the additional IT support. A lot of people say FP+ is here to stay because Disney has invested too much money in the project. But there does come a time when a company has to cut their losses. I would be very surprised if the FP+ portion of MM+ was still around in 5 years.

 

[ParentsOf4]

You suggest an interesting possibility but ...

MyMagic+ (MM+) badly overran budgets in 2013 but Parks & Resorts (P&R) Sales, General, and Administrative expenses (SG&A) were down in 2014 "primarily due to the absence of development costs for MyMagic+”. It appears Disney has delayed several aspects of MM+ (e.g. interactive ride elements) in order to cut costs.

If Disney management knew 5 years ago what they know today, then MM+ probably never would have been approved. However, most of the R&D money already has been spent. The incremental cost of operating the FastPass+ (FP+) portion of MM+ isn't much different that the old FASTPASS (FP) system.

In addition, both Iger and Rasulo have tied their business reputations to MM+. For 2 years now, they've been telling Wall Street how wonderful MM+ is. If for no other reason, MM+ (including the FP+ portion of it) will stay with until both Iger and Rasulo leave.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Overall, theme park attendance is up, but this is because the country’s economy is improving, not because of this new ride reservation system. The company is also experiencing increased attendance at their West Coast theme parks.

Attendance is up for several reasons. With Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (SDMT) open, the New Fantasyland is complete. Guests want to see the completed land.

There's a lot of anti-Frozen sentiment on these threads but guests also want to see the 'Frozen' WDW. That's also driving attendance gains.

Perhaps most importantly, Universal's Diagon Alley drew a lot of vacationers to Orlando this summer. Universal still is not more than a 3-day vacation for most families, meaning those families need to fill their remaining vacation days with something else. Besides Universal itself, WDW clearly was the biggest benefactor of Diagon Alley this summer.

As you note, the U.S. economy is better than it was 12 months ago, although gains have not evenly distributed, with most of the new wealth distributed among a very small segment of the population.

MyMagic+ probably was not a major reason for this summer's attendance gains.

 

[Andrea 55]

You suggest an interesting possibility but ...

MyMagic+ (MM+) badly overran budgets in 2013 but Parks & Resorts (P&) Sales, General, and Administrative expenses (SG&A) were down in 2014 "primarily due to the absence of development costs for MyMagic+”. It appears Disney has delayed several aspects of MM+ (e.g. interactive ride elements) in order to cut costs.

If Disney management knew 5 years ago what they know today, then MM+ probably never would have been approved. However, most of the R&D money already has been spent. The incremental cost of operating the FastPass+ (FP+) portion of MM+ isn't much different that the old FASTPASS (FP) system.

In addition, both Iger and Rasulo have tied their business reputations to MM+. For 2 years now, they've been telling Wall Street how wonderful MM+ is. If for no other reason, MM+ (including the FP+ portion of it) will stay with until both Iger and Rasulo leave.

I disagree with the premise that FP+ costs the same as Legacy FP. With FP+ people make reservations before arriving at the parks. They run into computer glitches and are on the phone with IT trying to get it straightened out. With legacy, you pulled a same day ticket with a return time.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

This was after I was metaphorically tarred and feathered by several posters! At the time, I didn't know about this site. Another poster on the Dis mentioned that people were able criticize Disney on this site without being castigated.

So you've come here because you were shot down in flames ?
Who are you ?
Who do you work for ?
What is the source of the information which you post ?

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Um, perhaps you should include the emoticon with your post?

Why ?

 

[marni1971]

The running costs are a large problem and the company is trying to reduce them. Some elements as they stand are unsustainable.

 

[GoofGoof]

I think this is most likely wishful thinking at this point. It looked bad for a while, but the bleeding appears to have stopped. I don't see them walking away from it now. Too much is riding on it. The project as a whole includes the magic bands, door locks, cash register scanners, front gate scanners and FP+. There is no way they walk away from the bands or any of the hardware installed. FP+ itself could be tweaked or adjusted to attempt to both enhance guest's experience and/or save money. Although there will be ongoing costs to maintain and upgrade the software there are also going to be some gains from the system too. More time spent at the parks and more money spent.

One way to fully capitalize on MyMagic would be to make it more beneficial for onsite guests. Giving them a little extra time to book isn't moving the needle on hotel occupancy, but allowing onsite guests more reservations or preferred reservations could drive people towards staying onsite. If they took that approach the extra money spent on IT would be more than recouped by hotel profits.

 

[Andrea 55]

I'm not speaking about dumping all of MDE, I 'm just talking about FP+. I think Disney continues to spend a lot of money to support FP+ and I don't think they will ever be able to reduce their support staff. FP+ is too complicated and it requires a lot of tribal knowledge. If most guests are first timers, they will not be able to navigate the system without the support Disney currently provides.
Magic bands for park entrance, hotel room access, and charging privileges are not in question. I'm sure these pieces of MDE will remain.

 

[Jae99]

I'm not speaking about dumping all of MDE, I 'm just talking about FP+. I think Disney continues to spend a lot of money to support FP+ and I don't think they will ever be able to reduce their support staff. FP+ is too complicated and it requires a lot of tribal knowledge. If most guests are first timers, they will not be able to navigate the system without the support Disney currently provides.
Magic bands for park entrance, hotel room access, and charging privileges are not in question. I'm sure these pieces of MDE will remain.

I am not sure that I fully agree. I haven't been to WDW in 25 years. Yes I did do some research when planning and booking our trip, but all parts of the MDE including the FP+ booking were very easy to use and follow. I was able to book all my FP for our trip that is occurring during the Christmas week without any problems. I have even been able to go back in and change times with ease.

 

[GoofGoof]

I'm not speaking about dumping all of MDE, I 'm just talking about FP+. I think Disney continues to spend a lot of money to support FP+ and I don't think they will ever be able to reduce their support staff. FP+ is too complicated and it requires a lot of tribal knowledge. If most guests are first timers, they will not be able to navigate the system without the support Disney currently provides.
Magic bands for park entrance, hotel room access, and charging privileges are not in question. I'm sure these pieces of MDE will remain.

What about FP+ makes it expensive? You say you think Disney spends a lot to support it. Is that actual knowledge or a guess?

 

[Andrea 55]

What about FP+ makes it expensive? You say you think Disney spends a lot to support it. Is that actual knowledge or a guess?

A guess. Based on the amount of times that I had called IT with problems: FP+ reservations disappeared from my account on 2 separate occasions. I was on the phone with IT once for 1 hour and the second time 45 minutes. Additionally, I 've seen other posts from people with the same experiences. Everything happened for my trip in April 2014.
When I arrived to the parks , in addition to the CM's manning the mickey heads there were additional CM's at the entrance with ipads for MB's that didn't work for entry. When I couldn't pull up the app
and the website wasn't working, I had to stand in line for an additional 45 minutes at GS so that CM's could restore my FP's. At the FP+ Kiosks, there was 1 cm posted at each Kiosk and other CM's were busy trying to explain how FP + worked to guests who were trying to use the Kiosks, so this wasn't just assisting guests with obtaining FP, it was also teaching them about the system in general. I don't think guests will "learn" or "catch on" to the system, since most are first time visitors who have done little or no research prior to their visits. My goodness, some guests can't figure out how QS works, but they're expected to understand FP+?
One of the purposes of MDE was to cut back on personnel, per Jay Rasulo. Personnel has been cut at their resorts. MDE allows guests to bypass front desk check-in and go straight to their rooms. So this was a win for Disney.
But FP+ is so complicated and glitchy that I don't think they will ever be able to cut back on support staff. Unless, of course, they overhaul the software programs. Even if they did a software overhaul, it would probably take several years before FP+ substantially improved.
My friend and her family are at WDW right now and the app and website are not working, despite many different attempts to restore the service. So, I wonder if the whole FP+ system has really improved since my last visit and after hearing from her, I think NOT!

 

[GoofGoof]

A guess. Based on the amount of times that I had called IT with problems: FP+ reservations disappeared from my account on 2 separate occasions. I was on the phone with IT once for 1 hour and the second time 45 minutes. Additionally, I 've seen other posts from people with the same experiences. Everything happened for my trip in April 2014.
When I arrived to the parks , in addition to the CM's manning the mickey heads there were additional CM's at the entrance with ipads for MB's that didn't work for entry. When I couldn't pull up the app
and the website wasn't working, I had to stand in line for an additional 45 minutes at GS so that CM's could restore my FP's. At the FP+ Kiosks, there was 1 cm posted at each Kiosk and other CM's were busy trying to explain how FP + worked to guests who were trying to use the Kiosks, so this wasn't just assisting guests with obtaining FP, it was also teaching them about the system in general. I don't think guests will "learn" or "catch on" to the system, since most are first time visitors who have done little or no research prior to their visits. My goodness, some guests can't figure out how QS works, but they're expected to understand FP+?
One of the purposes of MDE was to cut back on personnel, per Jay Rasulo. Personnel has been cut at their resorts. MDE allows guests to bypass front desk check-in and go straight to their rooms. So this was a win for Disney.
But FP+ is so complicated and glitchy that I don't think they will ever be able to cut back on support staff. Unless, of course, they overhaul the software programs. Even if they did a software overhaul, it would probably take several years before FP+ substantially improved.
My friend and her family are at WDW right now and the app and website are not working, despite many different attempts to restore the service. So, I wonder if the whole FP+ system has really improved since my last visit and after hearing from her, I think NOT!

I'm not an apologist for Disney at all and I don't think the whole project was a good use of capital for the company, but the system was still not "fully" rolled out in April. It has gotten better. Are there still problems? Sure. That's not avoidable and I've had plenty of issues with the regular Disney website too. They seem to struggle with user facing websites. Not sure why with a company that big, but it's a fact.

As far as staff goes, there were always CMs at or near the legacy FP machines for each ride so having CMs posted at the kiosks is pretty much a wash. On many occasions I would see someone struggling with what they needed to do at the old FP machines. There was always a CM there to help. During roll out of FP+ they had a lot more CMs posted at various locations monitoring the roll out. Some of that has already been reduced. As @ParentsOf4 posted, Iger and crew reported a decrease is costs related to MyMagic.

One of the reasons they felt this system could reduce costs is that it would allow Disney to know crowd levels at parks in advance due to advance reservations. Then you can add or reduce CMs based on how busy the park is going to be. They have always tried to do this to estimate staff needs, but the advance reservations give them some more accurate information to use when making those estimates. No clue if this is really working or not, but that was one of the "selling features" of the project.

 

[Voxel]

A guess. Based on the amount of times that I had called IT with problems: FP+ reservations disappeared from my account on 2 separate occasions. I was on the phone with IT once for 1 hour and the second time 45 minutes. Additionally, I 've seen other posts from people with the same experiences. Everything happened for my trip in April 2014.
When I arrived to the parks , in addition to the CM's manning the mickey heads there were additional CM's at the entrance with ipads for MB's that didn't work for entry. When I couldn't pull up the app
and the website wasn't working, I had to stand in line for an additional 45 minutes at GS so that CM's could restore my FP's. At the FP+ Kiosks, there was 1 cm posted at each Kiosk and other CM's were busy trying to explain how FP + worked to guests who were trying to use the Kiosks, so this wasn't just assisting guests with obtaining FP, it was also teaching them about the system in general. I don't think guests will "learn" or "catch on" to the system, since most are first time visitors who have done little or no research prior to their visits. My goodness, some guests can't figure out how QS works, but they're expected to understand FP+?
One of the purposes of MDE was to cut back on personnel, per Jay Rasulo. Personnel has been cut at their resorts. MDE allows guests to bypass front desk check-in and go straight to their rooms. So this was a win for Disney.
But FP+ is so complicated and glitchy that I don't think they will ever be able to cut back on support staff. Unless, of course, they overhaul the software programs. Even if they did a software overhaul, it would probably take several years before FP+ substantially improved.
My friend and her family are at WDW right now and the app and website are not working, despite many different attempts to restore the service. So, I wonder if the whole FP+ system has really improved since my last visit and after hearing from her, I think NOT!

It actually as improved since my last FP+ experience last year. I just got back today and had no issues with FP+, I had all the reservations I needed/wanted and had no issue adding extra ones on multiple occasions after I ran out. I got up to 5 or 6 FastPass at the Magic Kingdom the other day. The only thing I had issue with was the app refusing to show wait times on multiple occasions.

 

[Voxel]

Just got back from WDW and over all I didn't have any problems with the MB's. My son did get a bad one but he was given another one. Problem solved.

The real problem I see is people who rarely use computers, if you never use a smart phone or computer this whole thing would just be bewildering I think.

I would agree with that concern and problem. Though I will say I was pleasently surprised by the fp+ and mm kiosks, I have heard a lot of people talk about long lines but every one I saw/waited in took care of customers in 5-10mins

 

[Voxel]

We had smart phones with us so standing in line we could do whatever if need be. We've also been to WDW a few times so not much confusion on our part but someone who has never been to WDW adding someone who doesn't have a smart phone and let the fun begin.

Also I'm wondering if people are getting angry over getting FP's for rides that don't need them??? I saw one guy who had FP's for barnstormer and the wait was like 5 minutes. We went to Dumbo and it was a walk on and I'm sure people got FP's for that. I know which rides to get but I'm thinking the new people picked some rides possibly all their FP's for rides that just didn't have much of a wait which would annoy me for sure. LOL. I can tell the mine train was the FP to have last week. The line just never died down at all. Rain, 11:00 at night with Extra hours kicking in and there was still a 60 minute wait.

Dear lord yes about the mine train... But let me to digress. The system is improving and working well, I also saw a lot of people using fastpass for things they didn't need, I got dumbo for my 6th fast pass because of I already done space mnt and big thunder a half a dozen times (or more). But that is a completely different situation. I saw people using a fast pass at 9am for philhermagic to which I wanted to shout noob

 

[lazyboy97o]

I disagree with the premise that FP+ costs the same as Legacy FP. With FP+ people make reservations before arriving at the parks. They run into computer glitches and are on the phone with IT trying to get it straightened out. With legacy, you pulled a same day ticket with a return time.

Advanced reservations, be it for rides or dining, means Disney knows when and where people are going to be in the parks. Operating savings come not from having people help with FastPass+ but with staffing of everything onstage.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Spoken like an accountant. Problem is a theme park is not a factory there is a point where what happens is what happens and you can't predicted it down to the dime. It will not work, WDW is not a factory they have something that in annoying, it's call customers. I saw they are trying to make be my guest be some sort of a factory operation and it just won't work.

First, my ability to recognize Disney's intentions is not a reflection of my views. Second, as of the present Disney seems to have a lot of people willing to conform. This desire to over plan all aspects of life goes beyond Disney and therefore helps to reinforce the notion not only for Disney but also for other entertainment operators.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I was in the hospitality industry for a while and my wife was a manger at high end hotels for 16 years. I know what works and what doesn't, I have seen in real life so I do know exactly what Disney wants to do but they will fail. Business wise it would be a wonder to have thing to run in a well thought out, way a head a time plan but people simple don't work like that. In the hotel world a General Manger can make all the difference in the world from being a 1 star hotel to being a 5 star hotel. Money being the other big factor. It's not the GM himself it's the whole attitude and training of the mangers below him is what makes the difference. One of the biggest things is what will the people like??? What makes them feel this is the place to be?? Disney is after a factory model and nothing about a factory is welcoming. Disney's whole overall experience is high but it gets colder as time goes by.

I don't think you read a word I said and just repeated yourself in long form.

 

[FrostyNaples]

Picture this:
a program that will increase theme park revenue by reducing the time people spend in line.

Overall, theme park attendance is up, but this is because the country’s economy is improving, not because of this new ride reservation system.

The correlation you made in your OP quoted above does not compute.

The increase of theme park revenue by reducing time spent in line is the point!

Theme park attendance, and people waiting in line are two completely different statistics on revenue topics...