Are there people that would prefer no fastpasses?

[jpittore1]

Universal in March

Universal has a system like the fast pass but it is not valid for Harry Potter..which was insane.. I went in January and less than one hour after it opened the entile "harry potter world was closed" people were given tickets to come back hours latter to just get in...then had to wait in lines for the 3 attractions...the main one with a 3-4 hour wait. .

We were at Universal in March 2012, if you stay on property you get in an hour early and can ride all the HP rides you wanted without any wait.

 

[SMS55]

As someone that goes to Disney quite often I like the system because I know how to use it to my advantage. For the average family who goes one or twice it's bad. They spend most of their time with their head buried in a map trying to figure out where they are and stuck in lines because they don't understand the system.

 

[ShookieJones]

I voted Yes.

I love fast pass.

I would never wait any longer than a half hour for any ride.
If you use the fast pass properly you can ride all the best (most popular) rides and you'll utilize your valuable vacation time.

I don't know there may a better way of doing things: pay for this ability like Six Flags...Universal offers it only to their on site resort guests (I like this idea) but Fast pass or similar system has to be part of every successful modern day amusement park.

 

[Clever Name]

As someone that goes to Disney quite often I like the system because I know how to use it to my advantage. For the average family who goes one or twice it's bad. They spend most of their time with their head buried in a map trying to figure out where they are and stuck in lines because they don't understand the system.

That’s an excellent point. At one time or another we are all new to WDW and we have to learn the lay of the land and how things work. I vividly recall the days when I first visited WDW and I too had my head buried in the map while trying to plan on the fly to see all the attractions and avoid all the long lines. Like most WDW neophytes, I became frustrated but I had a lot of stamina and forged ahead. Like you, I was a regular visitor so I was able to develop a plan to make visitation more pleasurable and less time consuming.

Most frequent WDW guests know that there are certain days, and/or times of day that you just shouldn’t visit certain parks or certain attractions. As you point out, the FP system is great if you know how to use it to your best advantage. It takes a lot of first hand experience to learn how to use the FP system and new guests seldom figure out the system until their last day (if at all).

Of course I still see guests with their heads buried in a park map and I will offer some help if needed. I increasingly see guests with their heads buried in their cell phones looking for attraction wait times. I always chuckle when someone located at Splash Mountain announces to their friends that the wait time at Space Mountain is only 30 minutes as they rush off to encounter total disappointment. I’ve actually seen people standing in front of Soarin” (with a posted standby time of 90 minutes) look at their cell phone and exclaim, “The wait time for Soarin” is supposed to be 20 minutes”. :wave:

 

[AEfx]

FP is the answer to the ever-shortening attention span and patience of the WDW visitors.

I don't think anyone ever had an attention span where waiting 1-3 hours to board a 3-5 minute theme park ride was considered pleasant.

Sure, talking with your family or others in line is great - but when you pay thousands of bucks to go on vacation, standing for that long for such a brief ride feels like a monumental waste.

I'd be willing to bet that overall guest satisfaction has gone up considerably since FP came into play.

 

[mergatroid]

There are people who think things were better before fastpasses, but I am not one of them. I have been going to Disney since the mid 70's and I remember days in the 80's during peak season where you were thrilled that the wait for Space Mountain was only 2 hours. I would never want to return to a time before fastpass.

I'm in the same boat my friend. In summer I used to get to the MK for opening time and head straight for Space Mountain and ride maybe twice before dashing over to Thunder or Splash to fight the crowds there. This was the only realistic way you had of doing 'the mountains' wirhout losing a ridiculous chunk of the day, even then by the time you hit Thunder and Splash you'd have a considerable wait for one if not both. Fast pass has allowed you to do these rides throughout the day with reasonable waits rather than have the order you do the attractions pretty much dictated by queue sizes meaning the best attractions often couldn't be revisited or saved till last as they now can with fast pass.

I've also discovered that finding a partner who doesn't like coasters and fast rides has doubled my time on these attractions with the invention of the fast pass

 

[Susan Savia]

We only use FP's with Buzz and Toy Story. We were able to ride Toy Story 3 times in a day using it.

 

[flynnibus]

The Anti-FP movement is stronger in the DL locals community.. because

1) DL did such a horrible job integrating FP into their queues and entrance areas
2) Putting your ride off for a few hours as the FP model does is not compatible with the 'hit and run' visiting style of many Disney Lifestylers..
3) The idea people get to go in front of you.. because they showed up early and you only showed up later in the day is also a rub for the lifestyler visiting pattern
4) lifestylers feel 'their' line moves slower because of FP and have no interest in the overall net gain FP gives you over a day because they don't ride so many rides in a day
5) lifestyler's have little interest in cutting 'major lines' in duration because they can just come back another day

 

[Tom Morrow]

The standby lines DO move slower, though. 80% slower, if the FP demand is high, in fact.

 

[flynnibus]

The standby lines DO move slower, though. 80% slower, if the FP demand is high, in fact.

Moving slower is irrelevant if overall you get more done. That's what the system is about.. and why if you only come and want to do a very few specific things without leveraging the benefit of FP.. FP will look like a hindrance to you.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I can't fault someone for being upset with Fastpass for restricting them from doing the parks the way they want to. Because that is really what Fastpass is - crowd management, a way to get you to stay in the parks longer, in the shops longer, and eating in the restaurants. Does it allow you to do more of this? Yes. Rides? No. Didn't Disney recently release a statement that, using Fastpass, guests experience something like 1.2 more attractions in a day? And that's coming from a source that is obviously going to spin the data to get people to be all gung-ho for Fastpass, because they want that. They want to keep up the illusion alive that guests are riding more rides and "cheating the system" by using Fastpass.

That's what I wish more people on here would understand. You aren't really actually riding more with Fastpass. You do, however, have the ability to spend the time you're not actually on rides in more pleasant ways.

 

[Clever Name]

That's what I wish more people on here would understand. You aren't really actually riding more with Fastpass. You do, however, have the ability to spend the time you're not actually on rides in more pleasant ways.

To the contrary, just the opposite is true. As an example, Peter Pan is always a FP ride. After you get a FP for Peter Pan, you then go to IASW, HM, HoP, PhilharMagic and ride the river boat. By the time you’re done with those attractions your FP is good at Peter Pan.

A similar scenario can be formulated for every other FP attraction. While waiting for your FP ride window to open, you ride some of the less busy attractions. It’s just common sense.

You can use the time to ride more rides if you wish. If you desire not to ride the attractions, that's your right. If you use FP to your advantage, you can get a lot more ride time. :wave:

 

[flynnibus]

I can't fault someone for being upset with Fastpass for restricting them from doing the parks the way they want to. Because that is really what Fastpass is - crowd management, a way to get you to stay in the parks longer, in the shops longer, and eating in the restaurants. Does it allow you to do more of this? Yes. Rides? No

Yes you do - back in the day you couldn't ride all the major attractions in a day.. you'd be spending 1-2hrs per line to do so. Now you can manage to hit all those majors and more. You no longer have to skip Space or Splash because 'the line is too long' you simply come back later. A perk you really didn't have in the past. Any '5 minutes longer in line' is far outweighed by saving 60+ minutes on the majors.

Didn't Disney recently release a statement that, using Fastpass, guests experience something like 1.2 more attractions in a day? And that's coming from a source that is obviously going to spin the data to get people to be all gung-ho for Fastpass, because they want that

I didn't see that - and what other insiders have said is quite the contrary to that.

That's what I wish more people on here would understand. You aren't really actually riding more with Fastpass. You do, however, have the ability to spend the time you're not actually on rides in more pleasant ways.

I can say categorically that I get more rides in the attractions now than I did in the 80s.. bar none.

 

[AEfx]

The Anti-FP movement is stronger in the DL locals community.. because

1) DL did such a horrible job integrating FP into their queues and entrance areas

This is true - it's a problem that plagues Disneyland in many ways. That to me was the most shocking thing when I first visited - the queues are largely just outdoor, rope/chain deals like you'd find at any theme park as space is such an issue there. Not to mention that many of the rides/queues were designed far before the queue ruled the roost, when the actual ride was the focus.

That's what I wish more people on here would understand. You aren't really actually riding more with Fastpass. You do, however, have the ability to spend the time you're not actually on rides in more pleasant ways.

Patently untrue.

Using FP, I am able to ride far more rides than I would without. While I am in between passes, I hit the "lower tier" rides, when before I'd be spending all that time in line for the "big" rides.

That said, even if it was true (which again, I believe it is not), FP would still be a success because even just spending time in more pleasant ways than standing in line is better than standing in line all day.