FastPass+ Chaos at MK today

[betty rose]

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.

Oh, no...not my bench's. lol

 

[betty rose]

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.

It has redirected me. I'm staying out of the parks, and spending my money on a rental car, and going elsewhere.

 

[bhg469]

It has redirected me. I'm staying out of the parks, and spending my money on a rental car, and going elsewhere.

In exactly a week I'll be leaving universal and ioa. My only day off will be spent where they've earned my business, not where they've gotten bye on nostalgia of things which no longer exist.

 

[erasure fan1]

To be fair, I was doing this even before FP+ came online. And to declare, it was just something I liked to do in my spare time, in anticipation of my trip, not because I'm a down to the minute planner. I used to, when I had spare time (like during my lunch break at work, or at night while watching TV or a movie), plan which park on which day, and then pick out my ADRs based on that. I would actually write out a few different schedules/itineraries and discuss with my traveling partner which plan was better. And we'd go from there with some changes.

Don't get me wrong, we love to plan as well. But it really feels like more of a chore now with MM+/FP+. What I loved about the old way we planned, was in the end, none of it really mattered and if we wanted to change things we could, now there isn't really any wiggle room. (unless you are very lucky I guess) I think most people here like to plan, just not to the miniscule detail that is now required.

 

[Cesar R M]

In exactly a week I'll be leaving universal and ioa. My only day off will be spent where they've earned my business, not where they've gotten bye on nostalgia of things which no longer exist.

I wonder how long when a pixieduster comes and says the famous line of "good, someone will happily use the spot you left and replace you" or something like that.

 

[erasure fan1]

I wonder how long when a pixieduster comes and says the famous line of "good, someone will happily use the spot you left and replace you" or something like that.

Uh, sorry, you have it wrong. It's "great, one less person in front of me in line!"

 

[bhg469]

I wonder how long when a pixieduster comes and says the famous line of "good, someone will happily use the spot you left and replace you" or something like that.

Funny thing is both parks close at 7 that day. I could stay at Disney world until midnight. Last time I went there for a trip I discovered I don't like going unless I'm with my wife. There may be a change in plans but I highly doubt it.

 

[RSoxNo1]

"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.

Very well said.

 

[RSoxNo1]

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.

Fastpass+ was the culmination of a decade long problem by the Iger/Rasulo/Staggs trio. They were the person that will do anything to lose weight, except diet and exercise. The trio was willing to do anything to increase revenue, except build rides.

 

[wogwog]

Some of you are saying @ford91exploder is an exception at having issues with FP. He is having unique issues because he has a unique situation. He is not the exception of having issues. Disney must fix it period.

Presidents weekend had over 70,000 each of the three days. I don't know if the crash was for all days but I think it was. So do we say those 210,000 folks just had a unique issue by being in the park a certain day so Disney should not have to fix their issue? That does not even take in to consideration the poor folks at the other parks. I would guess they were probably impacted as well Disney must fix it period.

Let us not forget Disney laid off 500 +/- IT folks not too many days before the Presidents Day weekend embarrassment. They also recently shut down FP kiosks and reduced the help staff at the kiosks.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Some of you are saying @ford91exploder is an exception at having issues with FP. He is having unique issues because he has a unique situation. He is not the exception of having issues. Disney must fix it period.

Presidents weekend had over 70,000 each of the three days. I don't know if the crash was for all days but I think it was. So do we say those 210,000 folks just had a unique issue by being in the park a certain day so Disney should not have to fix their issue? That does not even take in to consideration the poor folks at the other parks. I would guess they were probably impacted as well Disney must fix it period.

Let us not forget Disney laid off 500 +/- IT folks not too many days before the Presidents Day weekend embarrassment. They also recently shut down FP kiosks and reduced the help staff at the kiosks.

The fact that they are closing kiosks without putting 4th FP+ reservations on smart phones is beyond irresponsible. This was public sold as a guest convenience, and we all know it is nothing even remotely close to a guest convenience.

 

[tirian]

The system goes down frequently. This was hardly a catastrophic event that's never happened before now. The entire MyMagic+ system is overwhelmed at least twice a week.

For that matter, try logging into My Disney Experience or My Disney Photopass in the evening; you'll be lucky if the web pages load.

 

[pax_65]

It has redirected me. I'm staying out of the parks, and spending my money on a rental car, and going elsewhere.

It has redirected me out of Orlando for all of 2015. First year since maybe 1999 that my family hasn't visited WDW at least once.

 

[Fractal514]

The fact that they are closing kiosks without putting 4th FP+ reservations on smart phones is beyond irresponsible. This was public sold as a guest convenience, and we all know it is nothing even remotely close to a guest convenience.

I would be careful about making blanket statements like this. For some people it is a convenience, it just depends on your personality and the way you like to plan/tour. Making broad assumptions is what got Disney into trouble here in the first place, let's not repeat their mistake.

 

[melflip8]

Was at Animal Kingdom on Saturday and the Castmembers said there's been issues with Annual Passholder's FP+...none of mine worked that day, the Mickey head would just turn blue and they would waive me forward. :/

 

[wdisney9000]

Some of you are saying @ford91exploder is an exception at having issues with FP. He is having unique issues because he has a unique situation. He is not the exception of having issues. Disney must fix it period.

Those who have never had to experience the headache that MM+ can cause dont see anything that needs to be fixed though. Most also refuse to believe that MM+ was created for anything other than to enhance their vacation experience.

And people really need to stop with the "your just upset because you could abuse legacy FP and now Disney has leveled the playing field", garbage. They say that as if Disney really cared about the "playing field" The playing field was inadvertently leveled when Disney decided it would be easier to bank on guest ignorance to book FP+ for attractions that never needed it, rather than build more attractions, and the kicker is, they spent more money to bank on said ignorance than it would have cost to actually alleviate attraction capacity. Yet it is heralded as a magical stroke of genius simply because a magic band is delivered in a bright shiny box with characters on it.

 

[Wrangler-Rick]

Those who have never had to experience the headache that MM+ can cause dont see anything that needs to be fixed though. Most also refuse to believe that MM+ was created for anything other than to enhance their vacation experience.

And people really need to stop with the "your just upset because you could abuse legacy FP and now Disney has leveled the playing field", garbage. They say that as if Disney really cared about the "playing field" The playing field was inadvertently leveled when Disney decided it would be easier to bank on guest ignorance to book FP+ for attractions that never needed it, rather than build more attractions, and the kicker is, they spent more money to bank on said ignorance than it would have cost to actually alleviate attraction capacity. Yet it is heralded as a magical stroke of genius simply because a magic band is delivered in a bright shiny box with characters on it.

And a multitude of costly accessories to customize your magic band into something totally amazing and magical!!!

 

[backinaction]

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.

This is the exact situation now and we don't like getting to the park during rope drop. It's cramped, claustrophobic, and we dont want to be trampled to get to test track before everybody else. We usually get to the park 1 hour after open and by that time you cant ride any of the big rides anymore.

 

[backinaction]

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.

couldn't have said it better myself. I remember a time when you didn't need a fastpass to ride POTC or finding nemo. They added many unnecessary fastpasses. The tiering system is garbage !!!! WE were there feb-8-16 and the fast pass system crashed twice for the ENTIRE DAY. The CM's at he fastpass station looked completely drained. People were very upset that their entire days worth of fastpasses were no longer good. All the CM's could do was give out 1 fastpass for the second tier. That is Unacceptable!

 

[JediMasterMatt]

My $10,000 idea: create a WDW fansite called "FP+: Up or Down" and charge people to find out the answer so if the system is down during their visits, they can just walk up to the FP+ entrance and lie about having a reservation and be waved in.

I'm off to pitch this to the Weatherman as a way to recoup money. I hear there's $800 million that he's looking for.