News FastPass+ comes to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney's Hollywood Studios

[natatomic]

Touring Plans did a study comparing wait times for all rides before/after FP+. Spaceship Earth, Pirates, and other rides that got FP like Journey Into Imagination or rides that have more people using FP like DINOSAUR went up significantly.

@mikejs78.120516

Here’s one factor everyone forgets. At the same time they switched over to FP+, they also did away with the GAC and replaced it with DAS. I was working attractions at this time, and months and months leading up to the GAC going away, we were tracking their usage - We had clickers counting the number of guests coming through the FP line every hour. It’s been so long now, I don’t remember the actual percentage, but I remember that number being in the double digits. I want to say it was as much as 20% of the FP line was GACs some hours because back then, they were unlimited usage, and no matter your opinion of GACs, they were most definitely being abused.

Disney knew that if the FP+ was going to work, they had to curtail that abuse, thus they switched to the DAS. They increased the number of FPs given out per day, but they significantly cut down the number of people using the disability service by limiting rerides and making them wait for return times. The waits may not have increased despite the number of FPs increasing, but they would have most definitely had they not simultaneously eliminated a significant amount of abuse that was happening with the GAC. Basically increase of one and the decrease of the other cancelled each other out, hence there not being significant differences. Except in the rides that didn’t before have FPs at all, which mostly all increased, if I remember correctly.

 

[Disone]

Just keep an eye in MFSR which is currently about an hour. See if it remains after FP turns on. It's it stays around and hour..... FP does not slow down the standby line. If it grows..... Then it does. In the meantime someone should document the average waiting time the attraction is currently experiencing. That way we can make a true and real life comparison once Fastpass does come on.

I'm genuinely interested in the results.

 

[TheDuke]

I prefer this new tiering system. The old one was a disaster. Having most rides on tier 1 made no sense.

Well like I said before it was/is super easy to get bonus FP's at HS with the current setup for anything except Slinky. Was just there on Saturday and ended up getting four bonus FP's for ToT, Midway Mania, and RnRC twice. After the change all the popular rides will sell out way in advance like they did before.

 

[trainplane3]

Just keep an eye in MFSR which is currently about an hour. See if it remains after FP turns on. It's it stays around and hour..... FP does not slow down the standby line. If it grows..... Then it does. In the meantime someone should document the average waiting time the attraction is currently experiencing. That way we can make a true and real life comparison once Fastpass does come on.

I'm genuinely interested in the results.

@lentesta already has all of that info covered. There's also that site people are using for RotR, it has other attractions with their current and historical wait times. It's going to be fun to see what happens.

 

[lentesta]

@lentesta already has all of that info covered. There's also that site people are using for RotR, it has other attractions with their current and historical wait times. It's going to be fun to see what happens.

Yeah, we're on it. We've also got actual wait times.

This week, we're trying to model what the standby for MFSR will look like with FastPass. We should have a blurb about it in the next crowd calendar update blog, probably this weekend.

 

[trainplane3]

Yeah, we're on it. We've also got actual wait times.

This week, we're trying to model what the standby for MFSR will look like with FastPass. We should have a blurb about it in the next crowd calendar update blog, probably this weekend.

Awesome. I look forward to your results. Its going to be interesting.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Yeah, we're on it. We've also got actual wait times.

This week, we're trying to model what the standby for MFSR will look like with FastPass. We should have a blurb about it in the next crowd calendar update blog, probably this weekend.

Just want to reiterate how fabulous you guys are!

 

[Doberge]

It'll be difficult to compare because fastpasses will come on online at the beginning of the Mardi Gras crush that will continue straight into spring break. Those numbers will be compared to what's otherwise a low season in late Jan / early Feb. They could push more people through per hour and still see standby times increase significantly.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It'll be difficult to compare because fastpasses will come on online at the beginning of the Mardi Gras crush that will continue straight into spring break. Those numbers will be compared to what's otherwise a low season in late Jan / early Feb. They could push more people through per hour and still see standby times increase significantly.

@lentesta is aware of daily and seasonal differences in attendance and has current and historical data.

 

[nickys]

@lentesta is aware of daily and seasonal differences in attendance and has current and historical data.

Just want to re-emphasise, for those who don’t know about them, that @lentesta and his Touring Plans team are a bunch of statisticians extraordinaire. They do an amazing amount of data analysis, both from wait times posted in real time by “liners” (users of their app) and from their own guys in the parks.

By all means attempt to gather the data yourselves. But really, they have it covered.

 

[flynnibus]

It'll be difficult to compare because fastpasses will come on online at the beginning of the Mardi Gras crush that will continue straight into spring break. Those numbers will be compared to what's otherwise a low season in late Jan / early Feb. They could push more people through per hour and still see standby times increase significantly.

uhh... you are aware of when smugglers run opened aren't you?

 

[Tom Morrow]

Just keep an eye in MFSR which is currently about an hour. See if it remains after FP turns on. It's it stays around and hour..... FP does not slow down the standby line. If it grows..... Then it does. In the meantime someone should document the average waiting time the attraction is currently experiencing. That way we can make a true and real life comparison once Fastpass does come on.

I'm genuinely interested in the results.

This will not work as a way to gauge Fastpass's impact. Since MFSR opened they have been always posting the wait time as double what it actually is. This has been true for each one of the 15-ish times I have ridden it. Once Fastpass+ is added everyone will be waiting the actual posted wait time. Unfortunately most people will not consider this and assume Fastpass had no impact, but every person who has ever worked a Fastpass attraction will tell you that Fastpass drastically inflates the standby wait times.

 

[Jon81uk]

Sure, I don't disagree with anything you said, but when discussing models it's appropriate to focus on singular aspects of those models at any one time in order to have any kind of discussion on them.

But then I think you make my point for me. Millennium Falcon has generally had lines in the 60-90 minute range. Now, there's varience in that but for the sake of argument, let's assume thats the average. Let's say a ride capacity of 1500 (Its a little higher if I recall, but for sake of but let's use 1500 for the sake of simplified Math). So that means at any given time there are 1500-2250 people in line, out of a park that averages 30k people / day. With park hours of 7AM to 8 PM, that's about 20k out of the 30k who will be able to ride. Given height requirements, etc, that seems reasonable.

Now, let's say FP is added to serve 1000 pph leaving 500 pph for standby. Again, the wait time will still be 60-90 min because the number of people going through won't change.

Now you mention tolerance. That's true. But is tolerance suddenly going to change because of FP? If current standby has a tolerance of 60-90 min, is it suddenly going to surge to 120 min because FP is introduced? Or, will the same factors play into tolerance with FP that existed without it?

Again, we will see. We will have a good measure in a month and we can hopefully, finally put this argument to bed once and for all.

Also there is nothing stopping someone having an FP and also getting in the standby line, therefore you need to count some guests twice, further lengthening the standby wait time.