The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

Stevek

Well-Known Member
If they introduce that buffoonery here, I will scale back my visits even more. Wish I would pay extra money to get on rides.
My guess is that it comes to WDW first....hopefully after our trip later this year. Assuming $15/ride, that's $60 a ride for a family of 4, 5 rides per day across 6 days...that's $1800 added to the cost of our trip.

I don't have an issue with the virtual queue being used on some rides but no way I'm paying beyond what we already did for MaxPass.
 

Stevek

Well-Known Member
And these “Disney Premiere Accesses” passes are paid, correct? Apparently it’s like an additional $9-17 per person per ride at DLP.

Which seems insane given the current price of admission, but nothing is surprising anymore.
Correct, you pay per person per ride. Can really add up.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Everyone has probably seen the news about standby pass at DLP this morning. 95% sure it will come to DLR at some point.

For reference, the standby pass system has been in operation in Tokyo for several months now. Not sure if what DLP/other parks are doing is different or not, but in Tokyo it's essentially mandatory fastpass for an attraction where they close the standby line, making it impossible to ride an attraction unless you have a pass for it on your phone. Standby passes are limited (attractions can and will run out), only allowed one ride per day (unless the attraction goes out of standby pass mode, which often happens at the beginning and end of the day) and the line isn't any faster when you actually get there, it's often still normal wait times (up to 45 mins).

great. Another thing to plan around
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
My guess is that it comes to WDW first....hopefully after our trip later this year. Assuming $15/ride, that's $60 a ride for a family of 4, 5 rides per day across 6 days...that's $1800 added to the cost of our trip.

I don't have an issue with the virtual queue being used on some rides but no way I'm paying beyond what we already did for MaxPass.
I hope it doesn’t come to Florida either. This is beyond ludicrous. MaxPass has been working here, I see no reason to retire it.

The only way I’d consider this is if they significantly lowered admission prices. Significantly. I’m thinking $20-30. They won’t do that though.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My guess is that it comes to WDW first....hopefully after our trip later this year. Assuming $15/ride, that's $60 a ride for a family of 4, 5 rides per day across 6 days...that's $1800 added to the cost of our trip.

I don't have an issue with the virtual queue being used on some rides but no way I'm paying beyond what we already did for MaxPass.

I think this makes a lot more sense at WDW where someone is on vacation. If I’m spending a lot of money to go on vacation, another $60 for the whole family to ensure we ride FOP or at least ride without waiting 3 hours doesn’t sound too bad. I could see me doing that for a few headliners on a family vacation. Then again that’s what Fast Pass + did right? And that was for free. Only difference I guess is you don’t have to book the time or day you want to ride a particular ride months in advance. So I guess this brings some level of spontaneity back. Assuming you can buy day of. Also if fast pass is gone as an option and Premier Access is priced high enough that would mean standby lines will be moving faster.

This makes less sense at DL but we also don’t know what the future “membership” program looks like.
 

BuzzedPotatoHead89

Well-Known Member
Also if fast pass is gone as an option and Premier Access is priced high enough that would mean standby lines will be moving faster.

The way I’m understanding it Standby would cease to exist. It’s essentially a surge pricing model. Similar to how the boarding groups were working for Indiana Jones but paid.

Once mid-day hits, they “flip the switch” and turn on surge prices for the most popular rides.
 

George Lucas on a Bench

Well-Known Member
I think Ken Potluck is obsessed with making all of DLR a phone reservation system. I also think it's mainly a disaster and with the eateries, you find there are a lot of people that don't care for the online reserving/mobile order and just want to show up and wait to get in, and are turned away. Finding sitdown restaurants in DLR parks with availability has become a chore and I'd rather go to a place at DTD because they are far more efficient. I believe that the poor availability of restaurants in the parks is really propping up the DTD restaurants.
 

BuzzedPotatoHead89

Well-Known Member
Wow. Why get rid of standby?
I imagine it’s a way to “sell” more “premiere access” tickets.

It also will push guest $$ higher since mid day during peak capacity guests will either need to spend $$ on E-ticket attractions, get stuck in the longer standby queues for the non-premiere experiences, or change their daily patterns and do some mid-day shopping/dining.

It’s great from a shareholder perspective, guest experience…. well for guests with money to burn it’s all coming up aces right? 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

Anjin

Well-Known Member
Everyone has probably seen the news about standby pass at DLP this morning. 95% sure it will come to DLR at some point.

For reference, the standby pass system has been in operation in Tokyo for several months now. Not sure if what DLP/other parks are doing is different or not, but in Tokyo it's essentially mandatory fastpass for an attraction where they close the standby line, making it impossible to ride an attraction unless you have a pass for it on your phone. Standby passes are limited (attractions can and will run out), only allowed one ride per day (unless the attraction goes out of standby pass mode, which often happens at the beginning and end of the day) and the line isn't any faster when you actually get there, it's often still normal wait times (up to 45 mins).
Just read the article on this and... What the ing ?!? Disneyland gets away with a lot with me, but this would absolutely murder any desire for me to pay these high prices for admission if there are additional ride charges.
 

Stevek

Well-Known Member
I think this makes a lot more sense at WDW where someone is on vacation. If I’m spending a lot of money to go on vacation, another $60 for the whole family to ensure we ride FOP or at least ride without waiting 3 hours doesn’t sound too bad. I could see me doing that for a few headliners on a family vacation. Then again that’s what Fast Pass + did right? And that was for free. Only difference I guess is you don’t have to book the time or day you want to ride a particular ride months in advance. So I guess this brings some level of spontaneity back. Assuming you can buy day of. Also if fast pass is gone as an option and Premier Access is priced high enough that would mean standby lines will be moving faster.

This makes less sense at DL but we also don’t know what the future “membership” program looks like.
I guess it's fine if it's one or 2 rides but multiple rides, multiple days will definitely add up. It's just a bit troubling that coming out of a pandemic, Disney is looking for more ways to nickel and dime guests. I guess they gotta make up for that lost revenue somehow.

I'm still in the camp of just getting rid of FP altogether. If you want to ride it, wait in line like everyone else.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I imagine it’s a way to “sell” more “premiere access” tickets.

It also will push guest $$ higher since mid day during peak capacity guests will either need to spend $$ on E-ticket attractions, get stuck in the longer standby queues for the non-premiere experiences, or change their daily patterns and do some mid-day shopping/dining.

It’s great from a shareholder perspective, guest experience…. well for guests with money to burn it’s all coming up aces right? 🤷🏻‍♂️


All of this to ride stuff from the 60s. Hmmm maybe Disneyland needs to back to being a one to two time a year thing like when I was a kid.

If we re honest Disneyland hasn’t been that pleasant of an experience for years. Yes, I have my occasional visit where the stars align. But a typical day at Disneyland means lines and crowds everywhere. Now they re adding all this mobile order non sense and making sure our faces are glued to our phone all day. And soon we might have to not only pay more for tickets but have to pay to play and all for a worse experience? Once a year is sounding just right right about now. Especially with the underwhelming new stuff they ve been giving us and dumb changes like removing “ladies and gentlemen” from announcements. Not to mention all of the other virtual signaling inclusion key BS like removing Splash.
 
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Stevek

Well-Known Member
Hmmm maybe Disneyland needs to back to being a one to two time a year thing like when I was a kid.
This x1000. I know this is the path we've headed down and I've been saying this for years. The uber fans profess how special it is to them after their 100th visit in a year...that's more than a bit overboard to me and into "Fanatical" land. Not that it hurts anyone but it's clearly the problem Disney has finally acknowledged.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This x1000. I know this is the path we've headed down and I've been saying this for years. The uber fans profess how special it is to them after their 100th visit in a year...that's more than a bit overboard to me and into "Fanatical" land. Not that it hurts anyone but it's clearly the problem Disney has finally acknowledged.

There is no denying that DL is not as special as it was when I was a kid going once a year. With APs you always found new reasons to go for seasonal offerings or new merch. Or maybe it’s just been a few months since you ve been on the Matterhorn. Of course, it’s DL and it’s always a nice place to walk around and spend the day… as long as it isn’t too crowded. But with no APs, I’m not paying more for a worse experience. I’ll pay more for a much better than experience (even if I go less) but it’s not looking like it’s going to be that way.
 

BuzzedPotatoHead89

Well-Known Member
All of this to ride stuff from the 60s. Hmmm maybe Disneyland needs to back to being a one to two time a year thing like when I was a kid.

If we re honest Disneyland hasn’t been that pleasant of an experience for years. Yes, I have my occasional visit where the stars align. But a typical day at Disneyland means lines and crowds everywhere. Now they re adding all this mobile order non sense and making sure are phones are glued to our phone all day. And soon we might have to not only pay more for tickets but have to pay to play and all for a worse experience? Once a year is sounding just right right about now. Especially with the underwhelming new stuff they ve been giving us and dumb changes like removing “ladies and gentlemen” from announcements.
I’m mostly with you. I truthfully don’t mind the efforts at greater inclusivity and progress if it weren’t for the fact that it’s becoming apparent that much of this is just cover for very problematic anti-consumer decisions to pad the bottom line.

It’s false advertising at some point to market oneself as an “inclusive brand” when decisions like this truly price out most middle- and working- class (and non-tech savvy) folks; or at minimum guarantee a sub-optimal experience.

I’ll always appreciate Disneyland for what it was and I too plan to share it with my kids but some of the decision-making is impossible to justify. This is definitely one of them; if it comes to fruition. I just hope that by the time I have kids the sum of all parts is at least some semblance of the equivalent of what existed in the 90s.
 

George Lucas on a Bench

Well-Known Member
If I didn't have free tickets, I wouldn't have gone back, especially on July 4th weekend. I'm by no means cheap when it comes to enjoying myself. I'll pay if it contributes to that. But I really don't think Disney has a clue what they're doing at this point. You can't even ride their new attractions without trying to snag a reservation on your phone. They're charging more for less of an experience than prior to the pandemic and the park is just as crowded these days. And I know they're reducing alcohol content in their overpriced drinks.
 

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