I would expect 100% operations as soon as this summer and certainly by Oct 1st 50th anniversary
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FastPass+ Most Certainly Not Coming Back As It Was
- Thread starter MisterPenguin
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ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
Yep. Heaven forbid we should experience more attractions than what corporate thinks should make us happy.
Parker in NYC
Well-Known Member
Oh my God I love you. (Said in a totally not creepy way).
EngineerMom
Active Member
Right but the old fastpass system was open to everyone so even MORE than 90,000
I like the idea of fastpass open to only hotel guests. If you still limited the number of fastpasses everyday it wouldn't be 90,000 people with fastpasses to Space Mtn, etc.
I liked the getting the fastpasses 60 days out but that is just me.
Like others mentioned these days we stay at Universal JUST to get the express pass. The first 2 times we went to Universal we went for 1 day from Disney. NOW we go for 2 days at either the begining or end of our trip. Universal got us hooked BECAUSE of the included express pass.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
StarshipDisney
Well-Known Member
Sorry can't resist. Loved your comment and it really made me laugh. You see, I normally stay on-site and make full use of extensive planning. It is because of the loss of FP+ (and many other perks) that I am planning to stay at the Embassy Suites in September (vice Contemporary) if no perks are back. I have both reservations but one will be cancelled in July.
So...since there are zero on-site perks right now...and unless things change by then...I will be staying at the Embassy without being behind on anything. Now is actually the perfect time to stay there.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
you mean “for the 50th”??....the very scenario we are speculating could have been majorly disrupted due to almost two years of bizarre circumstances?
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
focus groups/polling is never wrong...
minimum tolerable product for maximum tolerable price
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Exactly this. I think what's almost worse than any particular consistent system is a system that could change at any moment. It's one thing to have something in place that is annoying or disliked or flawed. But with how much of a financial commitment it is to go to WDW, it is tough to not be able to plan effectively at this moment since things can change at a drop of the hat. We have a scheduled trip in a few months and I can honestly say it is the most stressed I've ever been regarding a WDW vacation because I have no idea what things will be like when we arrive (and I'm the planner for our group).
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Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
its probably a huge block to their business right now.
they have a “scheduled” system where many of the parameters are undefined.
sure locals
And DVC will show up, pay, tolerate it....but who else is willing to “go with it”?
remember they have lost 15-20% of their customers overseas as well. They lost Brazil season and they’re gonna lose Brit season to a great extent as well.
Jedijax719
Well-Known Member
Considering that trips have to be planned a year in advance, it's impossible to plan. Nobody knows what things are going to be like in a year at WDW. No way to know restaurants, policies, rides, shows, etc. I thought FP+ was AMAZING.
kong1802
Well-Known Member
Sorry can't resist. Loved your comment and it really made me laugh. You see, I normally stay on-site and make full use of extensive planning. It is because of the loss of FP+ (and many other perks) that I am planning to stay at the Embassy Suites in September (vice Contemporary) if no perks are back. I have both reservations but one will be cancelled in July.
So...since there are zero on-site perks right now...and unless things change by then...I will be staying at the Embassy without being behind on anything. Now is actually the perfect time to stay there.
So you are telling me that I could be living my dream right now?! lol
The Embassy at Lake Buena Vista South is the best one.....
DisneyHead123
Well-Known Member
I'm throwing in my own prediction, based on nothing and for amusement's sake only. I like placing my bets and then seeing how things actually shake out. So my bet:
- Disney has to tread carefully from a PR perspective. On the one hand the closures were an obvious time to reorganize, on the other, saying "Hurray, we have survived a horrible trauma as a country and now the world's most beloved landmarks are returning to normal! What a wonderful moment to celebrate! FastPasses are gone unless you pay us a bunch of money! Ok yaaaaaay!!" is a terrible look. Exacerbated by the fact that 1.) People are still mad about Magical Express and 2.) Disney is already on thin PR ice after getting thrown into the current culture wars. There's just no way for a move like that not to look really bad. Using a pandemic as a way to add fees to formerly free services at a beloved children's park? I don't see them jumping right into that.
- Disney still wants to charge for those FastPasses. Like a lot. Would bet dollars to donuts the execs have graphs showing projected profit increases that they get out and stare at longingly sometimes.
- There will be a year or two of thinly disguised transition policies to square this particular circle. I would say nighttime and maybe morning separate ticket events for sure, as those can be presented as providing "more" even though in reality they cut park hours. I can see this moving to an almost daily situation over time, where you can buy a second ticket for an ongoing evening 'party'. (I would actually be ok with that if it curbed future ticket price increases a bit - I go with a bunch of littles, no way we can use all the time allotted on a ticket but we still pay for it. For us paying relatively 'less' - in the form of slower price increases - for a shorter day would be a good option.) There will be some kind of feature on the Genie app that is sold as the replacement for FastPasses, but will be easier to phase out over time. A FastPass is a binary thing - you either have it or you don't. I think they'll replace it with something more vague and fuzzy that they can increase or decrease without it being as noticeable, and they'll slowly start adding more and more paid options to it. For example, they could say you get a SuperHappyFunTime app package as part of your ticket, with "new surprises added all the time!". That keeps them from having to specify exactly what any given customer is going to get with a ticket, unlike the "three FastPasses" system.
- I think that they will try to make this a more spontaneous, in-park system, but will receive massive pushback from high-strung moms like myself who Don't. Like. Surprises. (I know, I know, not my best trait, but I am who I am,) and will have to make this a shifting reward system that can still be planned several months out.
- In the somewhat more longterm picture, I see them trying to do more virtual queues, but this will be down the road as that requires a place to put all the people milling about.
- Disney has to tread carefully from a PR perspective. On the one hand the closures were an obvious time to reorganize, on the other, saying "Hurray, we have survived a horrible trauma as a country and now the world's most beloved landmarks are returning to normal! What a wonderful moment to celebrate! FastPasses are gone unless you pay us a bunch of money! Ok yaaaaaay!!" is a terrible look. Exacerbated by the fact that 1.) People are still mad about Magical Express and 2.) Disney is already on thin PR ice after getting thrown into the current culture wars. There's just no way for a move like that not to look really bad. Using a pandemic as a way to add fees to formerly free services at a beloved children's park? I don't see them jumping right into that.
- Disney still wants to charge for those FastPasses. Like a lot. Would bet dollars to donuts the execs have graphs showing projected profit increases that they get out and stare at longingly sometimes.
- There will be a year or two of thinly disguised transition policies to square this particular circle. I would say nighttime and maybe morning separate ticket events for sure, as those can be presented as providing "more" even though in reality they cut park hours. I can see this moving to an almost daily situation over time, where you can buy a second ticket for an ongoing evening 'party'. (I would actually be ok with that if it curbed future ticket price increases a bit - I go with a bunch of littles, no way we can use all the time allotted on a ticket but we still pay for it. For us paying relatively 'less' - in the form of slower price increases - for a shorter day would be a good option.) There will be some kind of feature on the Genie app that is sold as the replacement for FastPasses, but will be easier to phase out over time. A FastPass is a binary thing - you either have it or you don't. I think they'll replace it with something more vague and fuzzy that they can increase or decrease without it being as noticeable, and they'll slowly start adding more and more paid options to it. For example, they could say you get a SuperHappyFunTime app package as part of your ticket, with "new surprises added all the time!". That keeps them from having to specify exactly what any given customer is going to get with a ticket, unlike the "three FastPasses" system.
- I think that they will try to make this a more spontaneous, in-park system, but will receive massive pushback from high-strung moms like myself who Don't. Like. Surprises. (I know, I know, not my best trait, but I am who I am,) and will have to make this a shifting reward system that can still be planned several months out.
- In the somewhat more longterm picture, I see them trying to do more virtual queues, but this will be down the road as that requires a place to put all the people milling about.
Andrew M
Well-Known Member
I'd expect it to return as some sort of paid option.
Honestly, with 3 kids under 8, I'll gladly pay for it. We went in March, while the lines weren't terrible, we simply couldn't do everything we wanted to because we didn't want to/didn't have enough time to wait 90+ minutes for Tower of Terror, Mine Train, etc. That was also at reduced capacity, a full capacity crowd with no fastpasses seems like torture and a complete waste of money.
If I'm already dropping $6k+ on tickets and hotel, what's another couple hundred to make sure we get the most out of our time there.
Honestly, with 3 kids under 8, I'll gladly pay for it. We went in March, while the lines weren't terrible, we simply couldn't do everything we wanted to because we didn't want to/didn't have enough time to wait 90+ minutes for Tower of Terror, Mine Train, etc. That was also at reduced capacity, a full capacity crowd with no fastpasses seems like torture and a complete waste of money.
If I'm already dropping $6k+ on tickets and hotel, what's another couple hundred to make sure we get the most out of our time there.
Andrew M
Well-Known Member
This exactly. I'm a part time TA, and outside of being able to avoid the Transportation Center, there are zero perks left to staying on site. I had a potential client ask me this for a 2022 trip and I had to be completely honest with them.Sorry can't resist. Loved your comment and it really made me laugh. You see, I normally stay on-site and make full use of extensive planning. It is because of the loss of FP+ (and many other perks) that I am planning to stay at the Embassy Suites in September (vice Contemporary) if no perks are back. I have both reservations but one will be cancelled in July.
So...since there are zero on-site perks right now...and unless things change by then...I will be staying at the Embassy without being behind on anything. Now is actually the perfect time to stay there.
orky8
Well-Known Member
It wouldn't be a couple hundred -- everyone would pay that and defeat the system. It has to be prohibitively expensive. Universal is a couple hundred, per person, per day.
Andrew M
Well-Known Member
Not necessarily. Make it similar the park reservation system so there is a limited amount per day.
orky8
Well-Known Member
One. Why would Disney do that if they can charge more and sell more. Two. How do you decide who gets to buy it?
Jedijax719
Well-Known Member
How is it a couple hundred per person per day?
$15 per person (ticket) per day. That's a far cry from a couple hundred.
Family of 3 for $15 per day for a 7 day visit would be $315 for the entire visit.
Andrew M
Well-Known Member
There's a limit to what people are going to pay.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's based on tiers, so $x gets you 3 A-C Ticket selections, $y gets you 2 A-C ticket and 1 D-E ticket selection, where $x+y gets you 3 E ticket selections to start the day. Then after the 3 are used it opens up and it's a free-for-all on whatever is left for the people who purchased it.
Make it the same as the old system, first come, first serve. Pay for the whatever tier of rides you want with your ticket, Fastpasses open up at 7am 60 days out.
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