Too Many Fast Passes? Is there such a thing?

[Scooter]

My wife and I were attempting to go on the Kilimonjaro Safaris attraction in May. It was early in the morning about 9:30 or 10:00 AM and there was a 30 minute wait time posted in the stand by line. My wife and I ended up waiting for a little less than an hour(55 minutes) before we got on this attraction. We noticed that at one point there were about 30 fast pass guests admitted in front of us for every 5 stand by guest. Is this normal or am I right in assuming that they are over booking the fast pass guests ? While I know we should have gotten a fast pass I guess I assumed that the 9:30-10:00 Time slot and the 30 minute posted wait time should have gotten us on this attraction sooner. Does anyone else think that maybe Disney to being too generous with all the fast pass times?

 

[MagicHappens1971]

My wife and I were attempting to go on the Kilimonjaro Safaris attraction in May. It was early in the morning about 9:30 or 10:00 AM and there was a 30 minute wait time posted in the stand by line. My wife and I ended up waiting for a little less than an hour(55 minutes) before we got on this attraction. We noticed that at one point there were about 30 fast pass guests admitted in front of us for every 5 stand by guest. Is this normal or am I right in assuming that they are over booking the fast pass guests ? While I know we should have gotten a fast pass I guess I assumed that the 9:30-10:00 Time slot and the 30 minute posted wait time should have gotten us on this attraction sooner. Does anyone else think that maybe Disney to being too generous with the all the fast pass times?

Sometimes, the ride breaks down, or FP+ breaks down, which enables guests to cheat the system. Basically what happens is, even if you don't have a fastpass as long as you scan a ticket or a magicband asociated to a ticket, it will let you in to the attraction, which in theory is overbooking. I'm not sure if that's what happened when you were there.

 

[sxeensweet]

Booking a FP+ gives you and advantage/perk to people waiting in standby. So that is not uncommon to see more FP+ line guests get to go each time as compared to the standby lines. I don't really think it has to do with overbooking the FP+ side. If it was not quicker to do your FP+ than standby no one would want to use the FP+, as there would be no point if they treated each line evenly. Also for that attraction morning and late afternoon are the most popular times people book/want to ride due to more chances of seeing the animals all out before/after the midday heat.

 

[Tuvalu]

Another possibility is there was "animal stoppage" (where an animal is in the way and the jeeps cannot move) which backed up the entire attraction. New jeeps will not load until the ones already on the course can move freely. So when you joined the standby line at a 30 minute wait, that time was likely accurate with everything running smoothly. But if you were stopped for an extended period, it probably wasn't just for an excess of FP guests, but something else going on.

Ride breakdowns can wreak havoc with wait times. We joined Space Mountain standby once at 25 minutes only to watch the sign change to 45 a few moments later.

 

[JIMINYCR]

It seems like whenever I'm in a loooong queue and have been waiting forever, just when its my turn to step up theres 500 FP guests passing in front of me. Funny how it works... when I have had a FP and get in with very little waiting time, walking past the guests glaring at me like I'm cheating them... I think, hey this is great. But when I'm the one standing forever, waiting for my turn to ride and the CM holds me up so all those FP holders go streaming by.... boy how unfair is that.

 

[Goofyernmost]

It seems like whenever I'm in a loooong queue and have been waiting forever, just when its my turn to step up theres 500 FP guests passing in front of me. Funny how it works... when I have had a FP and get in with very little waiting time, walking past the guests glaring at me like I'm cheating them... I think, hey this is great. But when I'm the one standing forever, waiting for my turn to ride and the CM holds me up so all those FP holders go streaming by.... boy how unfair is that.

Which is why I have always been so against FP. That feeling of frustration and anger was never there before FP arrived. Yes, there was always someone with not much patience, groaning about how long we were in line, but, unless there was a breakdown, it was always moving and when you got to the front of the line You.Were.Next! No groups charging up the other line and "legally" cutting in. There is a difference between line fatigue and anger. Line fatigue goes away just as soon as you get to the front of the line. Anger does not.

Shortly after FP was established is when I first noticed that frustration/anger syndrome. I wrote to WDW about it and they called me to ask me about it. They spent close to an hour asking me about my letter and specifically what I would do different (other then abolish FP). I suggested that if they insisted on having that joy killer that they operate separate non-visible queues and entrances for FP so stand-by people, at least, didn't have to witness it. Obviously, they listened, but, didn't write it all down, because we still have that psychological mess existing today.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Eh. There wasn't such a thing as "too many fast passes" with the old paper system TBH. Heck, not nearly as many people even used the system as much as they do now.. I want the old version back. The new version is too glitchy, confusing and frustrating on both sides of the problem.

 

[copcarguyp71]

If you think the safari is bad try Peter Pan....FP absolutely crushes the load rate on that ride!

 

[sxeensweet]

Another possibility is there was "animal stoppage" (where an animal is in the way and the jeeps cannot move) which backed up the entire attraction. New jeeps will not load until the ones already on the course can move freely. So when you joined the standby line at a 30 minute wait, that time was likely accurate with everything running smoothly. But if you were stopped for an extended period, it probably wasn't just for an excess of FP guests, but something else going on.

Ride breakdowns can wreak havoc with wait times. We joined Space Mountain standby once at 25 minutes only to watch the sign change to 45 a few moments later.

Yes totally agree this has happened to us many times and they usually tell you if that's the case to the wait though. Last trip Nov 14 we had a FP but waited a while and they had one of the animals blocking the road over an hour!! Lol They do what they want even if one of the animal trainers go out there to try to move them nicely.

 

[raven]

I did the safari last Wednesday morning with a FP and it still took 45 minutes to board the vehicle.

If you think the safari is bad try Peter Pan....FP absolutely crushes the load rate on that ride!

Yep. And I've said over and over again how if they ride could make a 2-row vehicle instead of the current 1-row vehicle like they have now the lines would move twice as fast. And yes, the system can handle the load but if they were to do that they'd might as well rehab the entire ride anyway.

 

[midnightsun]

We just had a similar experience at Rockin' Roller coaster. The line said it was a 30 minute wait, we had 50 minutes until dinner so we thought okay we'll jump in line. 40 minutes later we had just made it to the door inside (ultimately we had to jump ship to make our reservation). We saw that they were loading the rooms full of all FP and single rider, then letting in ONE group of standby. So if that meant the next group had 2 people, only 2 people went in for standby.

How is that fair? FP is designed so you have a shorter wait time, not "walk right on to the ride". I know that the ride was shut down a little bit earlier before we got in line. Even still if they are having to make up for all the FP from that time frame, they should still be reasonable for ALL guests. Load the room half and half. You will still have a shorter wait time for FP.

I don't know what happened with the safari, all the things people said could have but to answer the original question, I don't think they overbooked the FP but other circumstances can make it back up.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

My worst experience with this was at Peter Pan. It was late at night. I don't remember what the wait time sign said, but I could see that there were only 10-15 people in the standby queue before the merge. It was literally five minutes between every standby group that they let in; it was awful.

In the OP's case, it also may have simply been the time of day that was an issue. The park is filling up at that time of day; I'd bet the wait time for the Safari regularly rises during that time. The way Disney does things, the wait times are a lagging indicator; they take some time to catch up to what is actually happening on the ground.

 

[Goofyernmost]

My worst was Soarin. Wait time posted as 20 minutes (early morning). Actual it turned out to be almost 90 minutes. To make matters worse when I finally did get to the front of the stand-by line, I got pretty excited because there was a good chance that I would going to get a front row spot (no dangling feet). As we moved up a couple of people ahead of me told the CM that they had some friends back further in the SB line. It was about 50 feet back. The CM motioned them up front and in front of me. I am a person that doesn't get upset by most things, but, that really ticked me off. No fastpass just plain old line cutting allowed and promoted by a CM.

I was polite, but, I made my feelings known to the CM. I just held on until the next cycle and got to be in the front row, thus adding even more time to the experience. I had never seen anything like that happen before in all my years of going to WDW. I didn't report it to Guest Services, because I don't "tattle" on people, but, I do hope that she understood that in trying to make Magic for a few, they need to be careful not to take that Magic from others.

 

[ryguy]

I have been to the MK three times since the mine train opened and have yet to go on because I couldn't get a fastpass or the standby line was crazy. Wish new rides didn't allow fast passes for the first year so people can experience it.

 

[lincolnryan]

Posted wait times are not accurate, particularly during rides that have big time fast pass usage. As long as the FP+ users are coming, they just keep letting them go.

And then there is the other thing that will happen is if the posted wait time drops below average, everyone rushes to the ride. I remembered on our last trip they adjusted the wait time to 5 minutes on POTC and everyone rushed into the doors and one guy said "It says 5 minutes, but it's not 5 minutes any more"

 

[dreamfinder]

And keep in mind, the data for the wait for a ride was from that long ago. The FLIC cards they use to help update them can really only update when someone uses it. So the guest who turned it in just before you got in line took 30 mins to get through the line. But they got in line 30 mins ago. And during that 30 mins a train full of guests from Rafikis Planet Watch could have all gotten in line for the safari, a showing of Lion King all got in line, etc. So your wait is now going to take longer, but it hasn't updated sine no one else has gotten to the front with a FLIC card.