Big changes coming to FASTPASS in March

[RSoxNo1]

Yeah, it does suck when you are in the SB line watching all these people just blow by you. Hopefully it can get to more of a 50/50 split all day long with the change. It all depends on how many FP's get distributed.


Does anyone know what TSMM is doing in the guest per hour #'s? I remember number being tossed around when it first opened and they were slowly getting better and then they changed the load area.

I know it's relatively low - especially since the air gates have been installed. I've been told the range is between 1000-1200 per hour.

 

[Rowdy]

I don't either.

Nor do I. Because it seems like everybody except one in this thread who use to "abuse" the fastpass are ok with the changes. So, hopefully those who took advantage of it feel the same way.

Although, I'm sure there will be a few bad apples, and I do feel for the CM's who will be unlucky enough to catch them.

 

[Disneycoog]

Well then.....

If Disney is going to enforce the timeline on fast passes when will the.tstar making people have a medical type of note to access the all day fast pass they. Give??? I havea friend that says when they go they tell guest service their daughter has ADHD!! No questions asked they give them a fast pass good to skip any line and go straight to the fastass line!!!!!! Now that's more crap then coming late to your fast pass time!!!!!

 

[Pioneer Hall]

If Disney is going to enforce the timeline on fast passes when will the.tstar making people have a medical type of note to access the all day fast pass they. Give??? I havea friend that says when they go they tell guest service their daughter has ADHD!! No questions asked they give them a fast pass good to skip any line and go straight to the fastass line!!!!!! Now that's more crap then coming late to your fast pass time!!!!!

It's a completely different situation, and you should be careful as to how you address it. Unfortunately, like many things in the world, people do abuse the Guest Assistance system that Disney has in place. There are some people that don't have a regard for those who truly need it and simply lie to get a pass to skip lines. Disney doesn't have the ability to ask for medical notes, so they have to go by someone's word. However, the GAC and Fastpass have nothing to do with one another.

 

[draybook]

It's pretty sad if there are actually people who yell at the CM's for any reason. Unless they're physically touching someone in my party I would never treat a CM badly. There's just no reason for it. Low paid employees aren't the ones making policies, it's the people in the offices making the decisions. If there's one thing I've learned from being around leadership, it's that most people with a degree aren't very smart or logical. Those are the people you need to direct your disappointment towards.

 

[PhilharMagician]

I know it's relatively low - especially since the air gates have been installed. I've been told the range is between 1000-1200 per hour.

Not good! Didn't they get to the 1600 - 1800 range prior to the gates being added?

 

[Fractal514]

If Disney is going to enforce the timeline on fast passes when will the.tstar making people have a medical type of note to access the all day fast pass they. Give??? I havea friend that says when they go they tell guest service their daughter has ADHD!! No questions asked they give them a fast pass good to skip any line and go straight to the fastass line!!!!!! Now that's more crap then coming late to your fast pass time!!!!!

When I do snack in my After-School Program, I sometimes do categories like, "Everyone whose favorite color is green, may line up for snack." Sometimes kids complain that they know so and so's favorite color is blue, not green, or whatever, and I have to remind them that I have to trust; if a student wants to break my trust in them and sell out their own integrity for an apple or a few cookies, then so be it.

I feel the same about these guest assistance frauds. Some folks really need it, some folks are gaming the system. At some point, that kind of bad juju catches up with you.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Not good! Didn't they get to the 1600 - 1800 range prior to the gates being added?

I doubt it. I was there right after the day after they re-opened after the air gates and was told by a cast member that they used to get 1200-1300, but on that particular day they were only getting 800 per hour.

I also had another potential huge issue with xPass. What's to stop people with the xPass system from scheduling rides at all 4 parks, or at the very least 2 or 3. I would assume those people willing to pay for the premium service of xPass will also be very efficient in touring. As such, park hopping has to be included as an xPass option. But the question becomes will guests be able to schedule out their attractions in a way that they overlap? Even just using 2 parks it can be pretty easy to have reservations at attractions in a park that the xPass guest won't even visit.

I would also hope that a way around the return times should be the presenting of a table service receipt. This will especially be an issue at Toy Story Mania where often times the return window can be 8-12 hours away. A Fastpass acquired at 10 AM at Toy Story could have a return time of 7 PM. It's conceivable that 6 months prior to your visit, you could also have made a dining reservation at Brown Derby. I can see a situation where people could skip their Brown Derby reservation and then be charged $10 per person, just so that they could make their Fastpass return time. This is going to be a bloodbath at Guest Services.

 

[flynnibus]

My father was in WDW this week. He reported CMs were sharing with guests the change in return time enforcement in casual conversation at FP distribution machines. My father wasn't aware of this pending change so news is already starting to spread amoung non-fans too.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

My father was in WDW this week. He reported CMs were sharing with guests the change in return time enforcement in casual conversation at FP distribution machines. My father wasn't aware of this pending change so news is already starting to spread amoung non-fans too.

Thank you for sharing - that's good to hear, and it should help minimize the number of guests who are caught off guard and completely angry.

 

[Tom]

Thank you for sharing - that's good to hear, and it should help minimize the number of guests who are caught off guard and completely angry.

That's good. They should be as pro-active as possible on this. Bringing it up casually to guests for the next few weeks is the best things CMs could do. Word of mouth is the fastest way information travels...and these days, word of mouth includes the use of the internet.

Hopefully they put up warning signs at all of the FP distro points at least a week ahead of time.

Then, once it goes live, they need to have a CM, if not two, at every single distro point, all day, every day, explaining the policy to guests even BEFORE they get their FP.

This trifecta of warnings will significantly reduce the results of the disappointment, and will hopefully reduce or eliminate the harassment of the CM at the queue.

You're still going to have jerks who read the signs, hear the spiel, and STILL cause a stink at the return queue....but those bottom-feeders will hopefully be few and far between.

 

[carlosaguiar]

Ugh, yuck. There are just too many variables to always ensure you get back EXACTLY on time! Between longer-than-expected wait times on another attraction, a meal taking longer than expected, "comfort and necessity" breaks (you know what I mean), kid meltdowns, getting distracted in a shop, getting tied up in a long line, getting waylaid by crowds and parade routes (sometimes making navigation a challenge), etc., etc., etc. there are so many reasons you might not make it back on time.

Seriously unhappy people ahead. Myself included.

Completely agree with this. 95% of the time that I use FP I do it within the FP return time, but the other 5% because some of the reasons mentioned above I arrive late.

On those 5% sometimes it’s because of Disney: Parades stopping the regular flow of people, restaurants running late, rides malfunctions, that you lose your fastpass window and sometimes it´s the only opportunity you had to ride the attraction. And when I visit the kingdom I came for afar. I live in Portugal.

For example: how would I explain to my children, that in the morning of the day they are returning home (Just an 18 hour journey), they cannot say farewell to the Magic Kingdom by ridding “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” because we arrived 18m later than our fastpass window due to a meal in the Plaza Restaurant taking longer than expected.

 

[grunter]

Ok. I'm not reading through all 50 pages right now.

I just want to know whether this FastPass policy change is a Florida only change, or whether I'll have to deal with this asinine revision when I visit Disneyland this coming July.

 

[Brian Noble]

MousePlanet reported today that DLR Cast have also "gotten the memo." Whether they follow it or not remains to be seen...

http://www.mouseplanet.com/9882/Disneyland_Resort_Update#news3

 

[Fractal514]

Completely agree with this. 95% of the time that I use FP I do it within the FP return time, but the other 5% because some of the reasons mentioned above I arrive late.

On those 5% sometimes it’s because of Disney: Parades stopping the regular flow of people, restaurants running late, rides malfunctions, that you lose your fastpass window and sometimes it´s the only opportunity you had to ride the attraction. And when I visit the kingdom I came for afar. I live in Portugal.

For example: how would I explain to my children, that in the morning of the day they are returning home (Just an 18 hour journey), they cannot say farewell to the Magic Kingdom by ridding “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” because we arrived 18m later than our fastpass window due to a meal in the Plaza Restaurant taking longer than expected.

I believe it would go like this...
Children, I'm sorry, but Daddy didn't pay close enough attention to the FastPass return time and failed to notice that it was too close to our reservation for lunch. Lunch ran a little longer than we'd hoped and because of that, we can't use our fastpasses. This is a good opportunity for us to remember that we need to pay close attention to things like this. Now, would you like to get in the stand-by line or go ride something else?

 

[Tom]

I believe it would go like this...
Children, I'm sorry, but Daddy didn't pay close enough attention to the FastPass return time and failed to notice that it was too close to our reservation for lunch. Lunch ran a little longer than we'd hoped and because of that, we can't use our fastpasses. This is a good opportunity for us to remember that we need to pay close attention to things like this. Now, would you like to get in the stand-by line or go ride something else?

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Followed with, "Pooh happens."

 

[draybook]

Or perhaps it could go something more like this, "Kids, Disney has taken all of the fun out of vacationing and you now have to have a reservation just to go tinkle. They are wasting money on stupid things like interactive queues while rides with major malfunctions get a turned eye to them. They also fail to do anything about unruly guests, such as tour groups and cheer/football squads, while they turn the other eye because it's good for financial business. Did I mention that although they consider you a child, they want to charge you as an adult? Well kids, it was a good talk, sorry that you had to learn the cold, harsh reality about the Most Magical Place on Earth. I love you guys!"



Ok, maybe a bit extreme, but I'm in a goofy mood and I'm at work, so I decided to have a good laugh. And before I get the usual folks worked up, I won't be getting FP's for a time that won't work for us. Not because it's the moral thing to do, but because we won't be on property next month, so we won't have ADR's or anything else to disrupt our FP usage. I hate to say it, but after having a family talk, WDW will be seeing much less of our money and time, and we'll focus more on Universal and other offerings, or we'll jsut head out west.

 

[Rasvar]

Completely agree with this. 95% of the time that I use FP I do it within the FP return time, but the other 5% because some of the reasons mentioned above I arrive late.

On those 5% sometimes it’s because of Disney: Parades stopping the regular flow of people, restaurants running late, rides malfunctions, that you lose your fastpass window and sometimes it´s the only opportunity you had to ride the attraction. And when I visit the kingdom I came for afar. I live in Portugal.

For example: how would I explain to my children, that in the morning of the day they are returning home (Just an 18 hour journey), they cannot say farewell to the Magic Kingdom by ridding “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” because we arrived 18m later than our fastpass window due to a meal in the Plaza Restaurant taking longer than expected.

Based on what I read, if you mention this to the cast member, this would be one of the exceptions. Now if you are two hours late, that would be a different story.

 

[Fractal514]

Or perhaps it could go something more like this, "Kids, Disney has taken all of the fun out of vacationing and you now have to have a reservation just to go tinkle. They are wasting money on stupid things like interactive queues while rides with major malfunctions get a turned eye to them. They also fail to do anything about unruly guests, such as tour groups and cheer/football squads, while they turn the other eye because it's good for financial business. Did I mention that although they consider you a child, they want to charge you as an adult? Well kids, it was a good talk, sorry that you had to learn the cold, harsh reality about the Most Magical Place on Earth. I love you guys!"

Ok, maybe a bit extreme, but I'm in a goofy mood and I'm at work, so I decided to have a good laugh. And before I get the usual folks worked up, I won't be getting FP's for a time that won't work for us. Not because it's the moral thing to do, but because we won't be on property next month, so we won't have ADR's or anything else to disrupt our FP usage. I hate to say it, but after having a family talk, WDW will be seeing much less of our money and time, and we'll focus more on Universal and other offerings, or we'll jsut head out west.

Ok, first off, you don't NEED fastpass to ride anything, so you don't HAVE to schedule it way out in advance. Ya know, the biggest problem I have with folks who dislike the rumored next gen stuff, is that, YOU DON'T NEED TO PARTAKE OF IT. You can still do stand-by, use the FP as they now have it set up, or schedule ahead of time. In fact, it sounds like the reason they are enforcing the end times is so they can add more ways to tour, not take away.

Secondly, you're complaining about Disney's FP system changes and you're going to head over to Universal?

 

[Tom]

Ok, first off, you don't NEED fastpass to ride anything, so you don't HAVE to schedule it way out in advance. Ya know, the biggest problem I have with folks who dislike the rumored next gen stuff, is that, YOU DON'T NEED TO PARTAKE OF IT. You can still do stand-by, use the FP as they now have it set up, or schedule ahead of time. In fact, it sounds like the reason they are enforcing the end times is so they can add more ways to tour, not take away.

Secondly, you're complaining about Disney's FP system changes and you're going to head over to Universal?

:lol: Exactly!