Something I don’t quite understand is by introducing FastPass+ you take people out of the standby line and put them in another line. Therefore the Standby line moves slower but you’ve also reduced the demand for the standby line making it shorter. If there are 15000 people that want to ride a ride and the capacity of the ride is 1500 people in an hour and the ride operates 10 hours a day then all people should be able to ride the ride. If people were spaced out appropriately then there would never be a wait for either line. Problems start occurring when a greater majority of people want to ride the ride at the same peak hours. If you could take that group of people and space them out across the 10 hours then you solve the problem. I believe that is what FastPass+ is attempting to do, get people to schedule their ride times during non-peak hours. We don’t really know the math behind FastPass+ but if I had to come up with an algorithm for the distribution of time slots I would certainly allow more for the non-peak times to spread out the crowds. At times when the standby line is nearly empty and the ride is not full to capacity I would allow more FastPass+’s. The even bigger problem comes when the ride capacity for the day is less than the demand. This means the standby line will continue to grow throughout the day and at the end some people will not be able to ride. Since they always allow those waiting in line to ride even after the attraction closes they still get to ride but the deterrent to keep people out of line and having the attraction run to the wee hours of the morning are that the line has become too long and people are not willing to give up their time. Such is the case with Toy Story Mania.
In a perfect utopia theme park with no lines all attractions would have a capacity to handle the demand for the day and people would be spaced out accordingly so that they showed up at the exact time that they should ride it. Think about it like the red spool of tickets at the meat counter or return line. You get a number and you ride when it’s your time and you are free to “Shop around while you wait”. Since we know the throughput of the ride a computer should be able to tell you when it’s close to your turn to ride. A computer should also be able to tell you when you are $&!# out of luck and the ride demand has exceeded the capacity and you will not be able to ride today.
I don’t understand why they don’t allow even more FastPass+’s. If more people are scheduled to ride then they are taken out of the standby line and sent back at a more appropriate time. I guess it just comes down to no one likes a schedule.
They should do away with the standby line completely. Prior to your vacation you plug in your dinning reservations, nap times, start day time, end day time and which parks on which days (can be more than one park in a day), you then plug in all your favorite rides, meet and greets, shows and the things you have no desire to do. The computer then comes up with an logical touring plan through the park in a logical order and gives you time slots for everything you want to do. It will allow you to do things more than once but only if the demand for the attraction does not exceed it’s capacity. And if there are more people that want to experience an attraction than capacity allows it tells you don’t waste your time. This would not happen as often as you think because the system would only allow for you to experience an attraction once if demand is high thus eliminating repeat riders taking more than one spot. This all of course would never happen as the human element that it’s too structured and ridged would deter people from coming. Therefore, the best solution to the problem is to build more damn rides!
