Fastpass Issues

[mountainmaster1]

Fastpass is usually seen as a double-edged sword by most guests. We all love it when we are walking by people who have been waiting a hour to get on the ride, but hate it when other people are walking by us while we're standing in line.
But personally I think it accomplishes what it was made for, and that is to allow people to get more out of their WDW experience.
Universal's however isn't as effective because fewer people have access to them.

 

[Tramp]

Some thoughts from my wee little mind.

I like the fastpass system and use it very efficiently.

The only weakness I see in the system is the inability of late guests to get fastpasses to the major attractions. Many of us visit one park in the morning and another in the evening and, often, all the fastpasses have been distributed, forcing us into the standby line or avoiding the attraction altogether.
This hasn't been a major problem for us cuz we visit the parks for 3+ weeks and have sufficient time to see everything multiple times. But folks who have only a day or two vacation, might split their day up between parks and they're out of fastpass luck in the park they visit later in the day.

I don't know how you can slow down the distribution of fastpasses to accommodate the latecomers without extending the return time on the fastpass. I don't like that idea. I wonder if there are stats showing how many 'unique' guests use the fastpass on a particular ride? Or, are multiple fastpasses being used by the same ticketholder for the ride throughout the day, in which case, limiting fastpasses to two fastpasses, per day, per ticket, per attraction would prolong the distribution?

 

[Rogue71371]

I'm split on the whole fastpass issue.

When we were waiting in line for Soarin' they were letting at least 10 to 1 Fastpass line vs the regular line. This made our wait much longer. If they do away with the fast pass we would have had to wait maybe 30 minutes instead of 70.

Also, I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but while waiting for my wife and son to exit the bathroom, I noticed people (non-CMs) talking about how they were "cheating" the fastpass by turning a dial on the back of the machines to spit out a pass without putting a card in!!! I saw them do it, and heard them say that they were doing it all day. It was at Peter Pans Flight.

Has anyone ever heard about this before?

 

[CoffeeJedi]

Has anyone ever heard about this before?

wouldn't turning the dial back give you an expired fastpass though? i guess if the CM's don't check the time diligently

i know you used to be able to cheat by putting in expired parkhopper passes (they could actually pre-date the fastpass system), enabling you have more than one at a time (provided that you, like me, keep old expired Disney passcards in your wallet)

 

[goofyfan13]

I'm split on the whole fastpass issue.

When we were waiting in line for Soarin' they were letting at least 10 to 1 Fastpass line vs the regular line. This made our wait much longer. If they do away with the fast pass we would have had to wait maybe 30 minutes instead of 70.

Also, I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but while waiting for my wife and son to exit the bathroom, I noticed people (non-CMs) talking about how they were "cheating" the fastpass by turning a dial on the back of the machines to spit out a pass without putting a card in!!! I saw them do it, and heard them say that they were doing it all day. It was at Peter Pans Flight.

Has anyone ever heard about this before?

Sometimes CM's will spit out tickets to speed up the line if there is a large one developing, however, normal guests cannot manually spit out tickets, if I remember correctly the CM's have to put a key or something in to get that to work.

 

[Rogue71371]

I'm not sure how, but these people did get fastpasses without a card at the Peter Pan Ride in MK.

 

[goofyfan13]

I'm not sure how, but these people did get fastpasses without a card at the Peter Pan Ride in MK.

There was probobly a CM handing out pre-printed FP's then, I've had it happen lots of times, especially at TT.

 

[basas]

I'm split on the whole fastpass issue.

When we were waiting in line for Soarin' they were letting at least 10 to 1 Fastpass line vs the regular line. This made our wait much longer. If they do away with the fast pass we would have had to wait maybe 30 minutes instead of 70.

Also, I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but while waiting for my wife and son to exit the bathroom, I noticed people (non-CMs) talking about how they were "cheating" the fastpass by turning a dial on the back of the machines to spit out a pass without putting a card in!!! I saw them do it, and heard them say that they were doing it all day. It was at Peter Pans Flight.

Has anyone ever heard about this before?

Exactly one of the problems that bugs me so much. FP could be run effectively (as i often see it being done) where standby moves fast, but FP obviously does too. But when you have standby standing still for 15 mins, while hundreds and hundreds of FP guests get waved past, then maybe 5-10 standby guests are waved past before its back to FP guests....I think they are giving out WAY too many FP's. (I know there are exceptions when a ride breaks down and such, but many times, they simply give out way too many)

 

[GenerationX]

If they do away with the fast pass we would have had to wait maybe 30 minutes instead of 70.

I have a theory about that, but no actual statistics to back it up. My theory is that even without FastPass, the line would still be 70 minutes long. Without FastPass, the attraction would have more capacity (supply) for the stand-by line. However, if the attraction showed only a 30 minute wait, more people would be willing to jump in the stand-by line (demand) and push the wait back up to 70 minutes. Under my theory, the line reaches a 70 minute wait quicker with FastPass than without FastPass, but either way it would stay pegged at 70 most of the day.

 

[Rogue71371]

Hmmmm,

Interesting thought on the 30 minutes causing a line rush. However I'm not really sure it would work like that. What were those "rushers" going to do if the ride had a 70 minute wait? Maybe go on another ride and increase that line. And wether the wait for O'Canada was 10 minutes or 60 minutes I still wouldn't wait for it. So I'm not sure people would rush up just to get on a ride just because the line is short.

 

[GenerationX]

As I pass by attractions, I look at the wait time. Some rides I'm willing to wait 45 minutes for, others only 15 minutes, still others only if it's a walk-on, and others I pass by no matter what. I believe most people are like me and are "opportunistic" to a good degree when deciding whether or not to enter an attraction's queue.

As of now, many people are willing to wait 70 minutes for Soarin'. If FastPass did not exist, there would stilll be many people willing to wait 70 minutes. Thus, if FastPass did not exist, opportunistic people would see a wait time under 70 minutes and get in line. The line would build until it reached its "natural" wait.

I believe people go by Soarin', see the 70 minute wait, and do something else. Many of those same people, if they saw a 30 or 50 minute wait, would stop at Soarin'.