FastPass+ Chaos at MK today

[Andrew C]

Thats the rub though. To get both Soarin and TT done without waiting in line for one of them, you MUST be there at rope drop. So if your gonna be there at rope drop, it essentially eliminates the need and purpose of FP+.

Look at it this way. Lets say your using FP+ and your gonna arrive at rope drop to get Soarin and TT knocked out quickly. You use a FP+ selection for Soarin, that means you have two selections left. Your choices in tier 2 are basically Nemo, SSE, Imagination, Mission Space, Turtle Talk with Crush, UOE and M&G. All of those are basically a walk on anytime of day, especially if your there early at rope drop. So you hit TT first and then go use your FP+ for Soarin'. Your other tier 2 selections are going to be spaced an hour apart each so now you have to get on MDE and change the time for your next FP+ selection. Lets say your next selection was SSE. Its almost guaranteed to be a walk on early in the morning so your basically changing your FP+ time for no reason other than to be able to change your next FP+ time when you exit SSE. FP+ becomes useless at this point and actually MORE time consuming due to having to get on MDE each time to up your ride time and you cant even make another tier 1 selection until ALL 3 of your original FP+ selections have been used.

With legacy you could make another tier 1 selection right after getting off Soarin and while you wait for return time you could hit almost every ride in the park with no wait and you DIDNT have to get on MDE for anything. The only way to get more than one tier 1 attraction before lunch with FP+ is to utilize the same strategy that people used with legacy FP.

Then don't go during rope drop and ride Test Track in the single riders line. Geez, heaven forbid you have to wait in line for an attraction. The system is not designed for you to have perfectly aligned fast passes throughout the day so you do not have to wait for any attractions, nor should it be. You want to best chance to not wait at all? Get there at rope drop. If you don't, get FP for what you can and expect to wait in what would be a long line for 1 attraction.

Really, is it a big deal having to wait for 1 ride on stand by?

I get you are upset about not having the legacy system. Others would be mad if we went back to this system where you had to cross over from one attraction to the next to grab a fast pass. Nothing is perfect.

 

[sjhym333]

Not to mention when I posted my last post I said Test Track had a 40 min wait. That isn't very long

 

[wdisney9000]

Then don't go during rope drop and ride Test Track in the single riders line. Geez, heaven forbid you have to wait in line for an attraction. The system is not designed for you to have perfectly aligned fast passes throughout the day so you do not have to wait for any attractions, nor should it be. You want to best chance to not wait at all? Get there at rope drop. If you don't, get FP for what you can and expect to wait in what would be a long line for 1 attraction.

Really, is it a big deal having to wait for 1 ride on stand by?

I get you are upset about not having the legacy system. Others would be mad if we went back to this system where you had to cross over from one attraction to the next to grab a fast pass. Nothing is perfect.

I think you missed my point. Im not upset about legacy. Its gone, FP+ is here. I have no problems with that. I was only making an example of the fact you and @sjhym333 have to utilize the "older" method in order maximize FP+ because FP+ does not allow for the efficiency that legacy did. So I was only asking where the benefit lies with FP+ for you if you,or anyone, if they have to be here at rope drop?

In the end, no matter how you or anyone else wants to look at it, FP+ was not designed to make your vacation better. They just needed to redistribute crowds due to the fact that they dont have the attraction capacity to handle all the people, and they wrap up in a pretty little package and tell you its good for you. They are relying on the customers ignorance to not know that they didnt need a FP for NEmo or Imagination. If you were wise enough or had visited often enough to know better, your penalized in the sense that you are forced to choose the rides in a tiered category selection that hinders you. If you think they designed with your happiness in mind, you are wrong.

 

[Cesar R M]

Anyone who owns a business knows that unhappy customers are the most vocal customers. It is just human nature. Just look at Facebook...people post happy pictures at a place with a couple of lines, but have a bad experience and you will see paragraphs of the injustice. Now add in fiercely loyal Disney fans and fan pages and of course you hear about a lot of the bad but the reality is the MK sees 30,000 to 50,000 people on an average day and the majority of those people will walk away with a great experience. How do I know? Because the WDW resort is busy and I look at these boards and see lots of posts about people returning to the resort over and over.

What I find interesting about conversations like this are two things. One is people who speak as experts but either haven't been there at all (someone on a thread went on and on about the unfairness of FP tiers in the MK) or those who make blanket statements as facts. Whenever I talk about my experience with FP+ I am always careful to say that it is MY experience and I understand others have had a different experience. I don't disregard their experience and I don't make blanket statements about mine. I have struck up conversations while on line in the parks with guests because I am always curious about their experience with FP+. I know as a local that my experiences are shaded by my ability to go any time I want. I have had many guests tell me that they love the new system...not all but the positive responses have far outweighed the negative responses. Out of the 40 or 50 experiences with FP+ I have only had two bad experiences where my FP's were no where to be seen in the system. The first time the CM's were helpful and respectful and tried to sort out the problem. It did not prevent me from entering the attraction. A CM told me to make sure in the future to screenshot my FP's, so now I do that. The second time the CM stopped me and told me I had no FP's left according to the system. I showed him my screenshot and he then had me scan my MagicBand and added the FP. I got to the next FP scan station and passed without problem. Both times the CM's did a great job of dealing with the issue. I also use the kiosks for additional passes. The past several times I have done that I have waited less then 5 mins to use a kiosk and get another FP. That is MY experience from weekly visits. The way some people talk you would think that there are 90 minute waits at the kiosks.

As for Disney spending the money it has on My Magic+. As a company Disney can do as it pleases with it's money. As a business owner myself I always weigh out the cost of something versus the return. I am sure Disney has done the same many times over. My guess is Disney is happy with MM+. Why? Because Tom Staggs just got promoted within the company and one of the factors in that has been the performance of the Parks division. If MM+ was a debacle then I expect you would see heads roll. Also, while I agree Disney should be building more attractions on a regular basis, if you look at what is currently going on in the parks it seems they are. Major additions coming to the AK, the probability of a Star Wars and/or Pixar additions to the Studios, the redo of Maelstrom at EPCOT. The one positive I see from FP+ is that Disney has realized that they need to up their capacity in attractions to open up more Fastpasses in the park. Even in the MK I think one of the reasons you are seeing alot of work in the hub is so they can add additional FP's for parades and fireworks, which in turn will relieve some of the pressure on FP's for other attractions.

Lastly, as I read about the 'horror' stories of FP, I can't help but think...that is such a first world problem.

funny part you mention people who never been in the parks..
the majority who never did that (there were some very funny threads) were DEFENDING walt disney world.

 

[Cesar R M]

Ugh time warp thread. Unwatch

yeah I noticed we went back in time and repeating THE SAME conversation that was before..
I think it was exactly a year ago since a random dude started to say, how MyMagic is the best thing since sliced bread.

 

[Cesar R M]

And yet tens of thousands use it everyday and are happy about it. I have on more than one occasion been at Walmart when their systems go down. It happens. The other day I was at a chain restaurant and their POS System went down. The brought paper checks but couldn't take credit cards. They comp'd our food. It happens. Sounds like your experience is a nightmare. I wonder if you close your MDE account then use a different email to open a new account and add your tickets/reservations on the new account. Whenever I have talked to tech support at Disney they have been courteous and helpful. I am sorry that hasn't been the same for you.

using that excuse of "but..but.. thousands use it every day and are happy about it!"
you're happy and dandy until THE SYSTEM CRASHES ON YOU and it ruins your vacations... just sayin'..

people who never had any problem happen to them.. will always go this defensively.
It still doesn't magically solve that:
a) there are still people having problems. Doesn't matter of "thousands" are getting serviced.
b) just because "thousands" are getting serviced, it doesn't mean one of these thousands will never get a vacation ruining glitch (glitch that cms will be powerless to resolve on the spot).

 

[Cesar R M]

Why do people keep repeating that you reserve rides 5 or 6 months out when that's not true?

60 days is not 6 months.

hmm, isnt it 180 days?
60 days for non disney hotels?

Will get the correct dates, this illness aint fun.

*edit* nevermind. I read all the others answers.

 

[Cesar R M]

Part of it is I do large scale IT for a living and some errors just can't be fixed without damaging system integrity, When my family loses interest I'll stop going but right now we enjoy the time in the parks together and that's really more valuable by far than the ability to pre-schedule a ride.

database poisoning isnt fun in any way.
I wonder if the database used for DVC is so rigid it doesn't allow for deleting or swapping full entries.

 

[Cesar R M]

Nailed it.

when the parks are busy and the average waiting time is more than 40 mins to every ride.. it definitively goes into "problem" not just "first world problems"

 

[lazyboy97o]

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)

Plenty of people did not understand FastPass either. The whole reason the rest of the industry has moved more to the Express Pass Plus model, besides the additional revenue, is that it is far easier to explain a [near] front of the line pass than it is a reservation/return time system. Reservation/return time systems also work against the notion of a genuine land. It's a whole extra level of planning to schedule in time for smaller attractions around the marquee attractions, if those times can be had. Then add in coordinating the time with dining reservations. The focus becomes not on experiencing a land but moving from attraction to attraction, back and forth across the park. With more people doing this back-and-forth travel, more room is needed for traffic, thus walkways expanded, planters and benches removed.

 

[Andrew C]

I think you missed my point. Im not upset about legacy. Its gone, FP+ is here. I have no problems with that. I was only making an example of the fact you and @sjhym333 have to utilize the "older" method in order maximize FP+ because FP+ does not allow for the efficiency that legacy did. So I was only asking where the benefit lies with FP+ for you if you,or anyone, if they have to be here at rope drop?

In the end, no matter how you or anyone else wants to look at it, FP+ was not designed to make your vacation better. They just needed to redistribute crowds due to the fact that they dont have the attraction capacity to handle all the people, and they wrap up in a pretty little package and tell you its good for you. They are relying on the customers ignorance to not know that they didnt need a FP for NEmo or Imagination. If you were wise enough or had visited often enough to know better, your penalized in the sense that you are forced to choose the rides in a tiered category selection that hinders you. If you think they designed with your happiness in mind, you are wrong.

Point taken, thank you.

 

[WedwayPM]

People citing that MM+ is not as efficient as some make it out to be is not "first world problems". Can a person not have an opinion of something unless they live in a war torn, third world country? While I agree that a theme park IT system is hardly something to get worked up about, that does not mean if you dont like it you have to be silent simply because you dont live in poverty and you should just be thankful that TWDC spent billions on it.

Why aren't you directing this at the poster who said it? I was only agreeing with him. That's so weird.
I'm just baffled by how worked up people get over this ..day after day, thread after thread..around and around the argument goes. So please allow me the courtesy to disagree with you.....these ARE first world problems.

It's all good. I'm done in this thread, it's boring.

 

[Tom Morrow]

"It's okay that it throws off the logistics and crowd flow of the parks."
"It's okay that it requires me to do even more work to experience the same amount of attractions as before."
"It's okay that the money spent on this could have rounded out every park with new experiences, upgrades, needed refurbishments, bought a new monorail fleet, etc... with money to spare."
"It's okay that this multi-billion dollar industry-leading company couldn't make a system reliable after ~6 years of planning, development, installation, and testing."
"It's okay because, you know, it's Disney!"

... no other company or location would ever get away with this.

 

[tirian]

Guys and gals, let's just cut to the chase.

Disney sold investors on MyMagic+ by claiming it would increase revenue. Rasulo recently made a convoluted statement that basically meant MyMagic+ is no longer losing money. That means the system isn't increasing revenue.

The system's biggest selling point internally—the benefit Disney promoted to CMs—was that with increasing attendance, FP+ would redistribute crowds and reduce the need to keep building attractions. "No matter how much we build," they said, "Guests will just fill it up. So this will help us redirect crowds across the park."

Now that DAK is getting an expansion, DHS is getting a massive rebrand and expansion, and Epcot is slowly seeing improvements, somebody somewhere (cough*Staggs*cough) realized that MyMagic+ didn't work like it was supposed to.

But the money is spent and the damage is done.

 

[tirian]

"It's okay that it throws off the logistics and crowd flow of the parks."
"It's okay that it requires me to do even more work to experience the same amount of attractions as before."
"It's okay that the money spent on this could have rounded out every park with new experiences, upgrades, needed refurbishments, bought a new monorail fleet, etc... with money to spare."
"It's okay that this multi-billion dollar industry-leading company couldn't make a system reliable after 5 years of planning, development, installation, and testing."
"It's okay because, you know, it's Disney!"

... no other company or location would ever get away with this.

Quoted for truth. When you have someone vehemently defending Rapid Fill cups and Disney's need to control soda, you have to question the person's sanity. I understand food cost, but what has the enormous, faceless Walt Disney Company done for you that you would waste hours defending its soda decisions?

 

[Andrew C]

Guys and gals, let's just cut to the chase.

Disney sold investors on MyMagic+ by claiming it would increase revenue. Rasulo recently made a convoluted statement that basically meant MyMagic+ is no longer losing money. That means the system isn't increasing revenue.

The system's biggest selling point internally—the benefit Disney promoted to CMs—was that with increasing attendance, FP+ would redistribute crowds and reduce the need to keep building attractions. "No matter how much we build," they said, "Guests will just fill it up. So this will help us redirect crowds across the park."

Now that DAK is getting an expansion, DHS is getting a massive rebrand and expansion, and Epcot is slowly seeing improvements, somebody somewhere (cough*Staggs*cough) realized that MyMagic+ didn't work like it was supposed to.

But the money is spent and the damage is done.

I don't necessarily disagree with this but FP+ and new attractions do not have to be exclusive of one another. They can do both and it seems they are. Just because they budgeted (and went over budget) on FP+ doesn't mean they would have allocated that same amount to new attractions if they never did FP+

 

[tirian]

I don't necessarily disagree with this but FP+ and new attractions do not have to be exclusive of one another. They can do both and it seems they are. Just because they budgeted (and went over budget) on FP+ doesn't mean they would have allocated that same amount to new attractions if they never did FP+

You're right. The two systems aren't exclusive of one another. It was Disney that tried using FP+ to avoid adding attractions.

Increased crowds, Harry Potter's competition, the LucasFilm purchase, and public pressure for Star Wars all forced expansions in spite of FP+.

And FWIW, Ops and WDW park management told Rasulo and Iger that FP+ wasn't going to work during the early planning stages. People who are in the parks every day knew FP+ wouldn't be enough to redistribute crowds.

 

[Mike S]

using that excuse of "but..but.. thousands use it every day and are happy about it!"
you're happy and dandy until THE SYSTEM CRASHES ON YOU and it ruins your vacations... just sayin'..

people who never had any problem happen to them.. will always go this defensively.
It still doesn't magically solve that:
a) there are still people having problems. Doesn't matter of "thousands" are getting serviced.
b) just because "thousands" are getting serviced, it doesn't mean one of these thousands will never get a vacation ruining glitch (glitch that cms will be powerless to resolve on the spot).

I haven't personally had problems with MM+/- but I still see the stories of how frequently it goes down and the stories you guys haves shared of your personal experiences. Imo, there is no defending it.

when the parks are busy and the average waiting time is more than 40 mins to every ride.. it definitively goes into "problem" not just "first world problems"

More like "Disney World problems"

 

[danv3]

And FWIW, Ops and WDW park management told Rasulo and Iger that FP+ wasn't going to work during the early planning stages. People who are in the parks every day knew FP+ wouldn't be enough to redistribute crowds.

People who are on WDWMagic every day also knew that...!

 

[wdisney9000]

It's all good. I'm done in this thread, it's boring.

Such a hipster. I'll stick around. I enjoy reading others people's viewpoints. They're not boring to me.