News Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Hours coming for resort guests

[HauntedPirate]

1.5 hours wait for Test Track immediately after rope drop?? So much for the argument of "No FP+ means shorter wait times" lol.

I could be completely off the rails here but ride times are often artificially inflated at park open so as to encourage guests to not rush to one or two particular attractions, especially at a park like Epcot where there are only 1-2 attractions guests tend to rush to. It used to happen all the time at TSM, and I think MMRR has a similar "opening wait time" philosophy right now. Space Mt. used to have a stream of people flowing to it at rope drop back in the day, from what I remember.

 

[MisterPenguin]

for me the loss of the evening hours is the bigger issue too.

They're coming back!*


*For only $139/night.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I could be completely off the rails here but ride times are often artificially inflated at park open so as to encourage guests to not rush to one or two particular attractions, especially at a park like Epcot where there are only 1-2 attractions guests tend to rush to. It used to happen all the time at TSM, and I think MMRR has a similar "opening wait time" philosophy right now. Space Mt. used to have a stream of people flowing to it at rope drop back in the day, from what I remember.

When people say "they artificially inflate the times," I wonder: Who? Who is artificially inflating the time?

Is there a team of CMs in a control center monitoring wait times shouting at each other, "the Pan line's getting too long, add 40 minutes to the advertised wait time and lower the wait time for Pirates, stat!!!"

Is there some code written based on some algorithm? Did they train an AI to do it? Is there a walkabout manager on a walkie talkie calling in adjustments to wait times? Is the CM staffing the FP line adding to the time when they see standby reach outdoors?

Or, hear me out, I know people will find this totally hard to believe... Disney is bad at estimating wait times, especially once they got rid of the red cards.

 

[G00fyDad]

I could be completely off the rails here but ride times are often artificially inflated at park open so as to encourage guests to not rush to one or two particular attractions, especially at a park like Epcot where there are only 1-2 attractions guests tend to rush to. It used to happen all the time at TSM, and I think MMRR has a similar "opening wait time" philosophy right now. Space Mt. used to have a stream of people flowing to it at rope drop back in the day, from what I remember.

I remember those days. We started going left when we got in the parks. We would regularly walk right onto Jungle cruise, PotC, and BTMRR. I set Splash, Space and HM as FP+ selections for after lunch.

 

[G00fyDad]

When people say "they artificially inflate the times," I wonder: Who? Who is artificially inflating the time?

Is there a team of CMs in a control center monitoring wait times shouting at each other, "the Pan line's getting too long, add 40 minutes to the advertised wait time and lower the wait time for Pirates, stat!!!"

Is there some code written based on some algorithm? Did they train an AI to do it? Is there a walkabout manager on a walkie talkie calling in adjustments to wait times? Is the CM staffing the FP line adding to the time when they see standby reach outdoors?

Or, hear me out, I know people will find this totally hard to believe... Disney is bad at estimating wait times, especially once they got rid of the red cards.

They weren't that good with those red cards either. If the guest forgot to give the card to the CM then it would balloon the wait time when the next red card arrived.

 

[peter11435]

When people say "they artificially inflate the times," I wonder: Who? Who is artificially inflating the time?

Is there a team of CMs in a control center monitoring wait times shouting at each other, "the Pan line's getting too long, add 40 minutes to the advertised wait time and lower the wait time for Pirates, stat!!!"

Is there some code written based on some algorithm? Did they train an AI to do it? Is there a walkabout manager on a walkie talkie calling in adjustments to wait times? Is the CM staffing the FP line adding to the time when they see standby reach outdoors?

There’s actually some measure of truth to every part of this post.

There is a team of cast members in a “control center” that monitor queue lengths and wait times all over WDW.

There is a computer system that takes imputed factors such as queue length, available units, and current operations among other things and calculates an estimated wait time. That team of cast members mentioned earlier monitors this and posts/adjusts as necessary.

“Walkabout” managers and coordinators can change wait times from their company issued phones.

 

[disneyfreak0710]

I could be completely off the rails here but ride times are often artificially inflated at park open so as to encourage guests to not rush to one or two particular attractions, especially at a park like Epcot where there are only 1-2 attractions guests tend to rush to. It used to happen all the time at TSM, and I think MMRR has a similar "opening wait time" philosophy right now. Space Mt. used to have a stream of people flowing to it at rope drop back in the day, from what I remember.

Makes sense. And I must say, seems effective. I sure wouldn't join the line if it had a 90 minute wait, lol.

 

[UNCgolf]

When people say "they artificially inflate the times," I wonder: Who? Who is artificially inflating the time?

Is there a team of CMs in a control center monitoring wait times shouting at each other, "the Pan line's getting too long, add 40 minutes to the advertised wait time and lower the wait time for Pirates, stat!!!"

Is there some code written based on some algorithm? Did they train an AI to do it? Is there a walkabout manager on a walkie talkie calling in adjustments to wait times? Is the CM staffing the FP line adding to the time when they see standby reach outdoors?

Or, hear me out, I know people will find this totally hard to believe... Disney is bad at estimating wait times, especially once they got rid of the red cards.

I would be absolutely shocked if Disney wasn't artificially inflating wait times.

I don't know why anyone would think otherwise; it's smart and is done in numerous industries. Not doing so would be pretty stupid for Disney and they're not a stupid company.

EDIT: Well I should have read the whole thread first and seen @peter11435's post. But yes, it's a relatively easy way for Disney to engage in some crowd control plus it can increase guest satisfaction. It makes people happy to wait 30 minutes when they thought it would be 45, and more importantly, it makes people very angry to wait 60 minutes when they thought it would be 45.

 

[HauntedPirate]

When people say "they artificially inflate the times," I wonder: Who? Who is artificially inflating the time?

Is there a team of CMs in a control center monitoring wait times shouting at each other, "the Pan line's getting too long, add 40 minutes to the advertised wait time and lower the wait time for Pirates, stat!!!"

Is there some code written based on some algorithm? Did they train an AI to do it? Is there a walkabout manager on a walkie talkie calling in adjustments to wait times? Is the CM staffing the FP line adding to the time when they see standby reach outdoors?

Or, hear me out, I know people will find this totally hard to believe... Disney is bad at estimating wait times, especially once they got rid of the red cards.

I know they are bad at estimating wait times, especially without the red cards. My wife (who took several trips over the last 6-8 months) could look at a queue during the pandemic and know if the posted wait time was accurate or not. More often than not, it wasn’t. It was rarely longer than the posted wait time, however. But years ago, there was no way TSM was a 120 minute wait the moment the park opened.

 

[disneyfreak0710]

Didn’t FastPass+ Return times start 30 minutes after park open on non-EMH days? Or am I misremembering?

I *thought* you could get them for park opening time. Was pretty sure I saw some 9:00 slots when we booked last time. But I couldn't swear to it, because we normally didn't book our first FP+ until somewhere between 10-11. We just relied on rope drop before that.

 

[G00fyDad]

I would be absolutely shocked if Disney wasn't artificially inflating wait times.

I don't know why anyone would think otherwise; it's smart and is done in numerous industries. Not doing so would be pretty stupid for Disney and they're not a stupid company.

 

[pdude81]

Didn’t FastPass+ Return times start 30 minutes after park open on non-EMH days? Or am I misremembering?

I *thought* you could get them for park opening time. Was pretty sure I saw some 9:00 slots when we booked last time. But I couldn't swear to it, because we normally didn't book our first FP+ until somewhere between 10-11. We just relied on rope drop before that.

Yes, they were available at park opening, just not EMH time. Most with a first hour FP used them late in the window or tried to update to something else they wanted if it popped up for later.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Yes, they were available at park opening, just not EMH time. Most with a first hour FP used them late in the window or tried to update to something else they wanted if it popped up for later.

We used to do EPCOT with 9am, 10am and 11am FP+. Every time we used one, we'd try and modify the other two to bump them a little earlier, so that by 11am we'd finished all three and had a 4th FP+ made and ready.

Seems strange to think that we used to cover nearly all of Future World by 11am, when the park can't even manage to open by that time now. Times they are a 'changing. Or at least, shrinking.

 

[CastAStone]

Yes, they were available at park opening, just not EMH time. Most with a first hour FP used them late in the window or tried to update to something else they wanted if it popped up for later.

Thank you, what I’m remembering is that FP didn’t matter much at rope drop because only 1/12th of the typical number of people eligible to use FP had eligible FPs for the first 5 minutes of park open (increasing by 1/12th every 5 minutes).

 

[doctornick]

So with everything moving along steadily in terms of allowing crowds to occur, any idea when this will start? It is silly to think Early Entry might actually start during this summer?

 

[pdude81]

So with everything moving along steadily in terms of allowing crowds to occur, any idea when this will start? It is silly to think Early Entry might actually start during this summer?

Not sure if the link came from here or not, but I saw an answer on the moms panel which put it around the start of the 50th celebration. I honestly don't know what to make of that since they're already letting people in that early and increasing capacity. At what point are they going to try to throw a bone to resort guests? That is, besides the very generous week we got to wait on hold to book Boo Bash ahead of the rest of the world.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I remember those days. We started going left when we got in the parks. We would regularly walk right onto Jungle cruise, PotC, and BTMRR. I set Splash, Space and HM as FP+ selections for after lunch.

Really, after 38 years of regular yearly attendance, I have never seen any of those with a walk to line unless it was late in the evening or you got past the rope quickly when it dropped. And I have always gone offseason when that mattered.

 

[Touchdown]

It depends what your definition of walk on is, a lot of people use it for a wait less then 15 min. I don’t, but when I read this stuff that’s what I assume.

 

[G00fyDad]

It depends what your definition of walk on is, a lot of people use it for a wait less then 15 min. I don’t, but when I read this stuff that’s what I assume.

For me a walk-on is anything around 5 minutes or less.

 

[havoc315]

Thank you, what I’m remembering is that FP didn’t matter much at rope drop because only 1/12th of the typical number of people eligible to use FP had eligible FPs for the first 5 minutes of park open (increasing by 1/12th every 5 minutes).

It mattered a lot compared to the old paper FP system. Because with paper FPs, there were no return times in the first 40 minutes.