Defunctland deep dive on Fastpass

mikejs78

Premium Member
According to the Disney Food Blog, the Peoplemover has a capacity of 4600 guests per hour, which is extremely close. I'm not sure if we're allowed to link other sites though
I have seen PeopleMover at 3400... Not sure which is accurate. @marni1971 - do you happen to know the capacity of PM?
 

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
You do realize that virtual lines has no impact on ride capacity, right?
I realize that that the rides with high demands but that cannot meet the ride capacity have the virtual lines, and that not every guest is equipped to properly get the pass to ride it. Also it is a ride that seems to have lots of lengthy down times.. which effects it's daily capacity.
 

sedati

Well-Known Member
I really feel they need to thoroughly wipe the idea that there's any possible way of getting a from-of-line pass (LL) outside of paying exorbitantly for one. Certainly everyone should be accommodated in a fashion that offers equivalent experience, and true grievances should be worked out, but no guest should feel they can lie or perform their way out of waiting. This is what put the biggest damper on our last trip. What schemes we overheard and what I've heard from other friends and family who have gone down.
Seeing some moneybags pass me by only bothers me as much as being paraded past the Grand Floridian or Contemporary on my way in. I'm constantly shown an experience that I may want, but can't justify the cost of. But I don't like feeling like a sucker just because I'm not willing to swallow my pride and march down to City Hall and raise holy hell over a made up inconvenience to get out of waiting in line.
 

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
The postulate that these were 'needed to make FP+ work' is a misnomer in itself... because we know it didn't save the system. Those kinds of crap FP+ reservations (like parades) weren't used by most... so that capacity went unused and hence didn't really move the needle on customer satisfaction regarding availability.

They were added, not to make FP+ "work", but more to ensure there were always three initial Fastpasses for everyone, which Disney was inexplicably set on forcing during the first few years of FP+. Before they were added, people arriving after noon at Epcot would often have only like, Nemo and Living With the Land to choose from.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
I got through that whole thing, and I'm not even sure how to describe how I feel about it. I'm glad it exists, but did I enjoy it? I suppose if you wanted to get started with learning more about Theme Park operations and had absolutely no experience in the field at all, this would be a good starting place, but then again, why would you want to?

It needed to be as long as it is because he made sure to cover absolutely everything and address every single talking point. Since he did, there isn't really even much to debate. He's completely spot on and covers every base.

Did he though? It took about an hour between "They wanted Fastpass to market as something new" to "Wow the parks are so much busier now." I think maybe he understood that Fastpass had it's defenders and fans, but didn't really touch on the idea that it was driving attendance and guest satisfaction numbers higher. Or at the very least, didn't seem to be hurting attendance at all.

He stated there was no real way to increase attraction capacity, but that isn't entirely true. And in relation to the idea that Fastpass+ was not benefiting the demographic they wanted to appease the most, they DID offer increased attraction capacity through EMH to resort guests. There is a way to increase capacity by just keeping attractions open longer.

He also REALLY glossed over rides per capita increasing, because that's big part of the whole reason people are so much more willing to endure higher average wait times: they are getting more things done.

Which isn't to say that it was a bad video at all... it's just a really complicated topic.
 

Bullseye1967

Is that who I am?
Premium Member
That's a pretty big gap...
Can't trust google :arghh:

Screenshot_20211123-132352.jpg
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
He stated there was no real way to increase attraction capacity, but that isn't entirely true
He was trying to drive the point that you can't just magically add more capacity to an existing ride system -- that its a hard constraint. Getting more capacity would mean having to expand, or add attractions.

Of course unspoken in that same grain is the assumption that Disney runs attractions at their max to start with..
 

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
He was trying to drive the point that you can't just magically add more capacity to an existing ride system -- that its a hard constraint. Getting more capacity would mean having to expand, or add attractions.

Of course unspoken in that same grain is the assumption that Disney runs attractions at their max to start with..

They pretty much do. Disney’s operations are still the gold standard for theme park efficiency. They take it to absurd levels at WDW such as often opting to continue to run ride vehicles with important show elements out.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
Of course unspoken in that same grain is the assumption that Disney runs attractions at their max to start with..

It's a different perspective on what max you're referring to. Yeah they are running their attractions at their max hourly counts, but if the park closes at 8, 9 or 10PM, then the overall daily capacity is shortened. That puts way more pressure on the Fastpass market, since supply is small.

Disney seemed to be OK with capping daily capacity this way, because they kept the WDW parks closing earlier than most other Disney parks around the planet. Glowing reviews for Disneyland's MaxPass failed to include that Disneyland was typically opened 16 hours a day, versus 13 for the MK (and a lot less for the other parks).

That was part of the underlying story of Fastpass that wasn't really touched upon here. It wasn't really a game of capacity as much as it was always a game of managing demand. Which is why Lightning Lane and Genie+ make a little more sense than Fastpass: they will curb demand instead of trying to manage capacity.
 

EeyoreFan#24

Well-Known Member
Haven’t made it all the way to the end yet, but so far i learned the presented scenarios are 99% unwinnable and the only sure bet is to hack the system and reprogram the scenario to a new one.
 

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