FastPass+ Chaos at MK today

[Rutt]

They must be laughing so much up at Universal.

For a similar amount of cash, Universal has two Potter lands, Transformers, Simpsons & Spiderman upgrades and now King Kong.
Disney gets erm.....a ride reservation system, doh!

Even forgetting the capital investment, I dread to think what the ongoing running costs for MM+ are, but certainly will be running at tens of millions $s a year.

Now we all know Disney loves to lower it's running costs. How long before the decide the whole reservation system is a failure and scrap it.

Likely, we can only dream this will one day happen, and return to the purely times of just a standby queue. Perhaps give a small number of Fastpass to on-site guests each day (say 1 for Value, 2 for Moderate and 3 for Deluxe) for use anytime, anywhere.

Disney already has four whole parks, a shopping district, it's own transportation system and about a billion dining options to keep the people there. Maybe Universal should have spent more back in the day? Seems to me they are still playing catch up here.

 

[wdisney9000]

I kind of agree that FP+ keeps you in a park longer then in the past but not fully. I believe that part of FP+ design was to purposely keep people from park hopping quickly. But that is still possible under the new system. Soooo, if you get there at rope drop and head to Test Track, then head to Soarin using your first FP+ you still have 2 remaining FP's. Log onto MDE once you exit Soarin and move your next FP to an earlier time since your Soarin FP has been used. You do that attraction and then you repeat. You could actually be done your 3 FP+ selections by 10:30 or 11. You can then park hop. It really is very similar to the old system but requires understanding and using the new system to your advantage...just the way people did under the old system

All that is theoretically possible, but has absolutely zero advantage over legacy. Its actually worse (IMO) Your essentially just using your phone to change the FP+ times and thats also considering that you would even be able to change your selections on 'day of' without any hassle. The chances of that happening can be very slim on most days. And no matter what, you still have to use all 3 FP+ selections before you can get another tier 1 FP+. I do thank you though for not just assuming that Im bashing FP+ (which Im not) with my examples.

 

[sjhym333]

All that is theoretically possible, but has absolutely zero advantage over legacy. Its actually worse (IMO) Your essentially just using your phone to change the FP+ times and thats also considering that you would even be able to change your selections on 'day of' without any hassle. The chances of that happening can be very slim on most days. And no matter what, you still have to use all 3 FP+ selections before you can get another tier 1 FP+. I do thank you though for not just assuming that Im bashing FP+ (which Im not) with my examples.

You're welcome...though I would disagree with the most days statement. Besides Soarin and Test Track you really can get the other attractions throughout most the day.

 

[wdisney9000]

I disagree entirely. Most people (first timers especially) are made well aware of fast pass and my magic plus when they book now. I don't remember anyone ever telling me in the past that I would have to do a mad dash at park opening if I wanted to ride anything good back in the day.

Did anybody have to to tell you that arriving at the DMV when they open allows you to avoid a long wait? Its common sense. Any adult with half a brain knows that arriving early at a business (or WDW in this case) allows you to avoid a crowd. MM+ absolutely requires you to learn and understand the system or you will miss out on the benefits.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

Disney already has four whole parks, a shopping district, it's own transportation system and about a billion dining options to keep the people there. Maybe Universal should have spent more back in the day? Seems to me they are still playing catch up here.

Oh absolutely, certainly in terms of numbers. The problem is that they don't have the land resources, or until recently the cash.

My point being that right now, Universal has installed more E tickets in the last last 12 months than Disney has in 10 years. They aren't wasting their money on pointless reservation systems, they are just delivering rides that people want to ride.

 

[wdisney9000]

You're welcome...though I would disagree with the most days statement. Besides Soarin and Test Track you really can get the other attractions throughout most the day.

They are all attractions that never needed FP+ though and still have short wait times. You could ride SSE, Imagination, and Nemo more quickly without the spaced out time frames of FP+

 

[lazyboy97o]

I disagree entirely. Most people (first timers especially) are made well aware of fast pass and my magic plus when they book now. I don't remember anyone ever telling me in the past that I would have to do a mad dash at park opening if I wanted to ride anything good back in the day.

A first timer would have to do a good bit of research to know to have everything booked and planned months out.

 

[wdisney9000]

A first timer would have to do a good bit of research to know to have everything booked and planned months out.

Exactly. A first timer using legacy would simply need to understand how to put a ticket in a machine and take the paper slip. Or arrive early. Both are fairly simple concepts to grasp (for most people)

 

[Cesar R M]

Has it been discussed in this thread yet how Fastpass+ has increased standby wait times almost across the board? Despite what Disney's PR statements say ("we've seen a 2% reduction at major attractions!" or whatever), Fastpass+ and advanced booking ensures that the popular attractions will always have a steady flow of Fastpass+ users, regardless of the crowd level for that day.

Attractions like Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Toy Story Mania may not have seen much of an increase, or maybe even a slight decrease, because they were already seeing a constant full demand of returning Fastpass holders. The biggest affected are the attractions that used to be a secondary Fastpass choice. For example, Tower of Terror usually averaged only a 20-30 minute wait, so most people would opt to obtain a Rock 'n' Roller Coaster or Toy Story Mania paper Fastpass and wait in the ToT standby line. While Toy Story Mania and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster would distribute all of their paper Fastpasses early on, Tower of Terror and other "secondary Fastpass" attractions would still be distributing their paper Fastpasses well into the evening, because either it wasn't needed, or they were already blocked out from obtaining one due to having a higher priority one already. With advanced booking, those same guests now have a Rock n Roller Coaster Fastpass and a Tower of Terror Fastpass (again, regardless of how crowded the park actually is), so the same guests that would previously just wait in a quick ToT standby line are now using Fastpass instead, artificially inflating the standby line to the full 80% Fastpass/20% standby minimum merge ratio at all times.

Also I want to state that in the "we're testing!" phases of Fastpass+ I was defending it on here, but now, a year later, seeing the full extent... I take it all back. A year later and the system still has constant issues - and I'm not just referring to this thread but from my own experience, word of mouth, and accounts from CM's - it's constant errors and confusion. And now it's become quite clear just how much this was calculated to keep a steady demand at all attractions, and the end result for the guest is that you have to do even more work to ride the same amount of attractions as before.

tell me it
Fantasmic is now like 90% fastpass/dinner package
the rest remaining is a TINY TINY area on one of the corners.

POTC also as a gigantic line thanks To FP.. and it used to move damn fast.
flight of peter pan too, it moves pretty fast, yet they let 15 people in from the fastpass line for every 5 on the standby queue.

 

[Cesar R M]

Never understood that argument which was frequently touted as one of the benefits of the Magic Band.

Do these people not carry a small wallet with them every day of their lives when they leave the house? A license, credit card, and a little bit of cash? Was this really a problem?

It was more like a psicological move.
they think that by using a wrist band. they would spend more.
because picking up the wallet and getting the card.. would instantly trigger the brain to say "its money!".

which is a pretty dumb excuse imho.

 

[Cesar R M]

The lines for the kiosks are ridiculous. People are fed up. CM's are fed up. The system crashes frequently and/or loses information. The FP system forces lines where they're not needed while the lines for the big stuff haven't really been lowered(not that I've seen).

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck.......

I got a friend who works as CM for fastpass at EPCOT, and he says everyone is VERY ED or even depressed due of the horrible FP+ system.
crashes A LOT, makes bugs A LOT (loses reservations, FPs disappear, switch..etc..)and visitors lash horrible on them.

 

[Cesar R M]

That's just it though. Most people aren't having "disastrous" experiences. It sucks that it happened to you and it'll certainly have an impact on the decision making of those who have had problems, but mots people aren't.


Lol that's just false. An attraction that could handle 1,000 guests per hour before Fastpass+ can now handle EXACTLY 1,000 guests per hour after the implementation of Fastpass+. The parks' ride capacities have not been altered in any way, shape, or form.

now imagine that of those 1,000 guests per hour.. 750 are for fastpass.. those waiting in the standby line, will be waiting 4x times as much as the normal.

 

[Cesar R M]

You've obviously never used FP+ I take it?


3. Look around this forum. There are people planning their "ride strategy" YEARS in advance. I saw a guy yesterday planning out his 2018 trip. People who want to show up and "wing it" are few and far between.

Its not you can just "wing it" anymore.
thanks to the enforced fastpass is.. you get fastpasses or you wait a miserable whole load of time.
trust me, didnt like waiting almost 2 hours for the supposed "10 minute waiting time on standby" at Peter Pan's because there was an insane overflow of FP+'ers.

I gotta say I may not be an expert, but I've done both the paper and mm+ system and have found the new system much more fulfilling.

With the paper passes we never got to ride tsmm, soarin, test track, and even ppf we only got on because another family managed to get a spot at BOG and gave us their papers.

With fp+ we did all of the above, and still managed to ride all the old favourites with minimal waits. And yes, I was able to book almost all (tsmm was the exception) the morning of our visit.
Not having to carry loose change and a room key, etc is also nice. We always carry a card with us just in case.

As someone who generally comes once a year, spends about 5-6000 on hotel, food, and merch, I actually think mm+ is awesome.

I get the feeling I'm not in the minority either as nearly every single person I know who's been under both systems loves it. Mind you we are all crazy Canucks so there's that.

the system can be good.. very good, when IT WORKS.

I honestly had no issue this trip I had (a few days ago on feb 10-15) until the mymagic system started to crash due of heavy load on the last 2 days.
not even the hotels's systems were working properly.

 

[Rutt]

A first timer would have to do a good bit of research to know to have everything booked and planned months out.

Odd, most of the first timers I know had no trouble getting everything they wanted booked just by logging into the site. Don't believe any of them went to MM+ school either.

Guess they're all just super smart people who like to plan months in advance.

 

[Rutt]

Its not you can just "wing it" anymore.
thanks to the enforced fastpass is.. you get fastpasses or you wait a miserable whole load of time.
trust me, didnt like waiting almost 2 hours for the supposed "10 minute waiting time on standby" at Peter Pan's because there was an insane overflow of FP+'ers.


the system can be good.. very good, when IT WORKS.

I honestly had no issue this trip I had (a few days ago on feb 10-15) until the mymagic system started to crash due of heavy load on the last 2 days.
not even the hotels's systems were working properly.

Right, but were those last two days the norm? Or the exception?
Like any system anywhere in the world, it's not 100% perfect, but to hear people on here you'd think it never works at all.

 

[ford91exploder]

Right, but were those last two days the norm? Or the exception?
Like any system anywhere in the world, it's not 100% perfect, but to hear people on here you'd think it never works at all.

For some of us it DOES NOT work at all

 

[Cesar R M]

Right, but were those last two days the norm? Or the exception?
Like any system anywhere in the world, it's not 100% perfect, but to hear people on here you'd think it never works at all.

This is where you are wrong.
A system must be always stable and stay up. or have a backup system in case the first goes down. I dont see any "backup system" for mymagic if it goes down. The cms systems or even the help kiosks also go down when the main mymagic goes down.

and while these "two days" are not the norm, they are the norm of "busy days".
It was the president's day weekend.
and the loads should be a call for what they should expect in a) summer vacations b) December vacations (including Christmas and new years)

At this point you seem to ignore completely every single proof of CMs hating the new system, people reporting the crashes. all under your excuse of "lol no 100% system is perfect!".
still, a system which is down.. as usually a very quick recovery/reboot time. NOT ENTIRE FULL DAYS DOWN.

Also, just FYI..in this case it was BAD.
Because the systems in the hotels were failing (thats what I saw on coronado springs) including check in and concierge (even some magicband readers werent even loading data)

 

[BrerJon]

I got a friend who works as CM for fastpass at EPCOT, and he says everyone is VERY ****ED or even depressed due of the horrible FP+ system.
crashes A LOT, makes bugs A LOT (loses reservations, FPs disappear, switch..etc..)and visitors lash horrible on them.

Cast Members hate MyMagic, this is pretty hard to deny - you only have to spend fifteen minutes at a kiosk and listen to guest comments and the CM's diplomatic replies to tell that.

And yet still all those who love it will deny it, claiming all is roses and there was no better way to spend 2 billion bucks.

I sometimes wonder if some people are being paid by Disney to say how brilliant the system is because the front line experience is anything but, and the internet is full of MyMagic horror stories.

 

[marni1971]

Odd, most of the first timers I know had no trouble getting everything they wanted booked just by logging into the site. Don't believe any of them went to MM+ school either.
.

All the first timers I know don't even know what a Fastpass is. Let alone you have to actually try to book one.

 

[Kman101]

There are valid problems with MyMagic+. But RH isn't wrong on a lot of their points either. You AREN'T forced to book six months out. I too have had MOSTLY no trouble getting anything the day of besides SDMT, so I got there at rope drop, waited, rode, and still managed to get everything done. I'm also the first to know that I go during the week and I also try to go during managable times.

I know it's a hated product but I think people also have to understand there are those that have had no problems with it. That being said, I was totally against this when it was first announced, as someone who won't plan in advance for Disney (I don't have to, I'm close enough to go pretty much every week if I wanted, but I don't, and won't) I was very concerned by this. I don't mind the band at all. I've never had trouble lining it up to the mickey head, I've never had to twist my arm funny ... Sometimes I do think a bit of the complaining against it is just nitpicking and refusal to accept change.

Again, many complaints are valid. I'm not dismissing anyone who has had TRUE problems with it. I'm not dismissing cast members hating it. It sounds like a true ... disaster, to be honest.

I'm sure it will be repeated to me the problems, but I've read this thread, and the many others. I'm just repeating my experiences with it. Do I think the band and other aspects were necessary? Was the money spent on it necessary? LOL. No, it wasn't at all. Tech upgrades, sure, maybe some of the features and some features mentioned around the boards would be nice additions to it (I don't like the tiers either).

I guess instead of hating the system and being upset over it, I adjust myself and work with it. Not much has changed in my personal attending of the parks.

(I have yet to have a hotel reservation under the magic band, so no, I'm not saying this is the most amazing system ever and as prloblematic as it is for many, it also isn't for many).