Boarding Groups for all attractions?

[jd12]

Wouldn't boarding groups for all attractions be the best approach for the July reopen?

These virtual queues could be great to control physical distancing.
It could reduce overall wait times and allow more people to do quite much in their day.
The Fastpass reservation system could even be utilized.

 

[wdwmagic]

A park day with no standby would be rough going, it was bad enough before, but to have everyone requiring some type of reservation for every single attraction would be too much in my opinion.

 

[nickys]

Wouldn't boarding groups for all attractions be the best approach for the July reopen?

These virtual queues could be great to control physical distancing.
It could reduce overall wait times and allow more people to do quite much in their day.
The Fastpass reservation system could even be utilized.

The FP system issues fastpasses at fixed times throughout the day.

The point of boarding groups is to be able to react to how well a queue is progressing and summon more people as and when the physical queue allows.

We already know that they will be using the FP line space to facilitate physical distancing in the queues.
We‘ve also heard from @Magic Feather that for popular rides with little queue space we can expect virtual queues.

Expect Rides that bring crowds with small physical queues to adopt Virtual Queues, and the rest to go standby only.

Off the top of my head... Epcot will likely put FEA, TT, and maybe Soarin' on VQ, DHS will probably have RotR, MMRR, and SDD, MK would probably get it on SDMT, Pan, and Space.

Weirdly enough, DAK wouldn't really have to use it as all of its rides have huge, mostly outdoor queues, which little to no FP and reduced park capacity would help too. Funnily enough, the two rides that would come closest to needing it are Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl due to their limited queue space, but the VQ would likely end up going to FoP, NRJ, and maybe Safaris/Everest for symbolic, "Top-Tier Rides" purposes.

 

[FettFan]

Wouldn't boarding groups for all attractions be the best approach for the July reopen?

These virtual queues could be great to control physical distancing.
It could reduce overall wait times and allow more people to do quite much in their day.
The Fastpass reservation system could even be utilized.

I think the most likely thing would be for them to keep Fastpass, but add geofencing so that you have to be IN THE PARK to schedule a fastpass on the mobile app, just as the case for Boarding Pass.

Essentially it will be like regular fastpass, but all electronic; instead of scanning your entry ticket for a paper pass, it's all on MDE.

The good news is that you wouldn't have the same restrictions if you're prone to park hopping, since FP+ only let you schedule 3 FP's per day per park. You could nab that afternoon fastpass for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, but then still get your dinner reservation at Epcot and get a fastpass for Frozen Ever After.

 

[UNCgolf]

A park day with no standby would be rough going, it was bad enough before, but to have everyone requiring some type of reservation for every single attraction would be too much in my opinion.

I've said this repeatedly here, but having no standby would be impossible under normal circumstances. There would be nowhere for all the people to go and the parks would be an absolute nightmare.

It might work briefly during this situation if capacity is extremely limited, but I'm not sure how small it would have to be to not create gigantic bottlenecks throughout the parks while people wait for their next ride. It seems counterproductive for social distancing.

 

[JustAFan]

Standby queues are huge people eaters. Disney has even put quite a bit of money and effort to entertaining us while we wait in standby. Peter Pan's flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train aren't so bad with the entertaining standby queues. Add a pandemic to the discussion, maybe you have a different situation. Under normal circumstances, I can't see how Disney gets away from standby queues.

 

[nickys]

I think the most likely thing would be for them to keep Fastpass, but add geofencing so that you have to be IN THE PARK to schedule a fastpass on the mobile app, just as the case for Boarding Pass.

Essentially it will be like regular fastpass, but all electronic; instead of scanning your entry ticket for a paper pass, it's all on MDE.

The good news is that you wouldn't have the same restrictions if you're prone to park hopping, since FP+ only let you schedule 3 FP's per day per park. You could nab that afternoon fastpass for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, but then still get your dinner reservation at Epcot and get a fastpass for Frozen Ever After.

The bolded statement is very misleading. FP+ only lets you schedule three Fps in advance and they had to be in one park.
But you could get as many as you liked through the day. You could book one in park A and then book another two elsewhere on the day. You were certainly not limited to three per day per park.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I think the best approach would be for guests to plan out each ride for the day so Disney can basically track and limit how many guests are doing a certain attraction at a certain time throughout the day.
So its kinda like FP+ where you select a window but instead of 3 attractions you should be able to choose 1-2 for each hour that the park is open and then you wait in a standby line when your window opens vs being able to have priority as you would with regular FP+.
I think this could work well during the initial limited capacity phases.

 

[FettFan]

The bolded statement is very misleading. FP+ only lets you schedule three Fps in advance and they had to be in one park.
But you could get as many as you liked through the day. You could book one in park A and then book another two elsewhere on the day. You were certainly not limited to three per day per park.

That was definitely not the case when I was there in February. The MDE app only let me schedule 3 FP's for one park for one day, even when I was in the park.
As for multiple parks, the same thing happened both this past February and last July when I visited. It let me schedule a FP for Epcot, but when I tried to do one later for Magic Kingdom, I was greeted with a pop up saying that I couldn't.

 

[nickys]

That was definitely not the case when I was there in February. The MDE app only let me schedule 3 FP's for one park for one day, even when I was in the park.
As for multiple parks, the same thing happened both this past February and last July when I visited. It let me schedule a FP for Epcot, but when I tried to do one later for Magic Kingdom, I was greeted with a pop up saying that I couldn't.

Most likely because one of them didn’t fall off MDE when you tapped in.
You can get as many FPs as you like on the day, once you have used your first three. Sometimes glitches happen, sometimes people try to modify instead of booking a new one, or forgetting the tier rules.
Park hopping FPs are available on the day only.

Moot point now anyway, for now.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

That was definitely not the case when I was there in February. The MDE app only let me schedule 3 FP's for one park for one day, even when I was in the park.
As for multiple parks, the same thing happened both this past February and last July when I visited. It let me schedule a FP for Epcot, but when I tried to do one later for Magic Kingdom, I was greeted with a pop up saying that I couldn't.

How it worked was you'd book 1 for EPCOT and then once you tapped in for it you could then look for and book 2 in MK for later in the day.
After you use all 3 you can get a 4th and use it, then a 5th and use it, then a 6th and use it etc.
Often what I do it book 2 at HS and then once I tap in for the first one I look for one for EPCOT in the afternoon.
After I use the one at EPCOT I look for another at EPCOT and another and an9other...

 

[aliceismad]

Forgive me being so naive, but if Disney's goal for lines is to allow for social distancing, is having FPs even viable? Don't many FP lines wind alongside the standby line, thus negating the ability to physically distance?

 

[nickys]

Forgive me being so naive, but if Disney's goal for lines is to allow for social distancing, is having FPs even viable? Don't many FP lines wind alongside the standby line, thus negating the ability to physically distance?

They are not using FPs when they open. They are using the FP queue space to enable lines to be socially distanced.

 

[aliceismad]

They are not using FPs when they open. They are using the FP queue space to enable lines to be socially distanced.

That makes sense. Thanks. There has been so much discussion in so many threads about FP being canceled and people wanting to go back to paper FPs, etc. Only standby lines makes sense to me in the current situation, but I thought maybe I just didn't understand what Disney was doing or what people were wanting.

 

[WondersOfLife]

A park day with no standby would be rough going, it was bad enough before, but to have everyone requiring some type of reservation for every single attraction would be too much in my opinion.

It’s the route Universal is going though.

correction** virtual queue.

 

[FettFan]

How it worked was you'd book 1 for EPCOT and then once you tapped in for it you could then look for and book 2 in MK for later in the day.
After you use all 3 you can get a 4th and use it, then a 5th and use it, then a 6th and use it etc.
Often what I do it book 2 at HS and then once I tap in for the first one I look for one for EPCOT in the afternoon.
After I use the one at EPCOT I look for another at EPCOT and another and an9other...

As I said before, that's not how it worked for us in February. "We're sorry, but you already have a FastPass+ scheduled for another park".

 

[nickys]

As I said before, that's not how it worked for us in February. "We're sorry, but you already have a FastPass+ scheduled for another park".

Right, so did you have one scheduled for another park? You cannot schedule a 4th until you’ve used all 3 initial ones. Was this in advance or on the day?

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

As I said before, that's not how it worked for us in February. "We're sorry, but you already have a FastPass+ scheduled for another park".

Then there was a glitch or you did not do something right because I have been able to get one for a different park after tapping in for the first one as long as I had only booked 1 or 2 in advance. And on average I get 6-10 fastpasses per day.

 

[FettFan]

Right, so did you have one scheduled for another park? You cannot schedule a 4th until you’ve used all 3 initial ones. Was this in advance or on the day?

Same day. I tried to get one in Epcot and one in Magic Kingdom. But because I had an active one in Epcot it didn't let me set any for any other parks.

 

[Disstevefan1]

If they limit the attendance in the parks like they said they would, it (could) be a better guest experience without fast pass then it ever was with fast pass. We will see. They will never disclose the actual numbers so they are not held to, or judged by a number.

it will be apparent by guests how well their strategy is working.