orky8
Well-Known Member
Huh? Universal Express Unlimited Pass for today is $240. For one person. For one day.
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FastPass+ Most Certainly Not Coming Back As It Was
- Thread starter MisterPenguin
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Jedijax719
Well-Known Member
Sorry, I totally messed that up. My apologies. I meant Disneyland Max Pass. That's what I was referring to for the $15.
As for the UEUP, (hadn't heard of it so I just looked it up). VERY expensive but packs in what you can do. Perhaps WDW should move toward offering both a version of Max Pass AND the Universal Express model. Could be a win win. People who really want to spend the mulah can do the unlimited while those who want something closer to the old FP+ system can use the Max model.
Certainly Disney has the hardware to manage multiple systems.
What I think is likely? Possibly a hybrid between the two.
Incomudro
Well-Known Member
There's one perk to staying onsite, and that's is you stay at Boardwalk, Yacht/Beachclubs, or Swalphin.
Oh, Grand Floridian too.
That ability to walk in and out of the parks at will is hard to beat.
Heck, I walked out of Stormalong Bay one day and into England just to get some fish and chips to eat by the pool.
(miss those days...)
Contemporary too.
orky8
Well-Known Member
Ah, no worries. I'd love a version of MaxPass -- I think it's a great system. I'd see them bumping the price up to $25 or $30 p/p, though. But, unfortunately, insiders do not think that's the direction this is heading. Guess we'll see. someday. maybe.
Andrew M
Well-Known Member
Ha yes, love being able to walk into the back of Epcot, and that new GF walkway is fantastic. Unfortunately my clients typically are looking at the Value/Moderate level. Need to up my game I guess.
They don't have to justify anything - people are spoiled now. They operated for 30 years with no FP on most attractions. It did not make the company money like they expected, so now they are going to switch to a system which is guaranteed to make them money.
Also, yes, in your example, Space Mountain line would have been an hour without FP - so maybe you saved 45 minutes. However, the minute you step into any line which you don't have a FP for, you are giving back that time to Disney. It's like sitting down at a blackjack table. You might win five hands in a row, but the longer you stay, the more you'll give back to the house.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
If nothing else, I have to think they roll out Early Entry whenever they increase park capacity to pre-pandemic levels (or near pre-pandemic, say 75%). If they can justify it being safe to have that many people in the parks, they can justify holding people at the gate to allow resort guests in for their allotted time.
StarshipDisney
Well-Known Member
Yes exactly again. Why stay on-site when I get free full breakfast and a much larger 2-room suite for $5K less and no loss in benefits. Maybe you should use that as a selling point.
Disney certainly needs FP+ or some form of on-site advantage if they ever want me back on-site. I think most here would agree that SOMETHING is going to happen. But when?
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Andrew M
Well-Known Member
But when used properly, you barely had to wait in a line with FP+. We had days where we used FP all day, maybe waited in 1-2 20 min or less lines, and knocked out every ride in MK.
Plus wouldn't Disney want you not spending all day in line? Yes it means less people walking around, but it also means less people buying food or merchandise.
FP+ was an operational headache for a variety of reasons. It cost them money to operate and they didn't see the ROI with people spending elsewhere like they expected (people out of lines spending in shops or restaurants was a key driver in creating FP to begin with, but it never proved that fruitful).
And again, if you knew how to game the system right, you could do most of the day with FP+. However, that relied upon people being glued to their phone and accepting whatever FPs happened to be available after the first three. There was no money in that for Disney - you're only going to eat so many meals and buy so many souvenirs, if at all. Plus, on the user end, the minute you step into a standby line, though, you start giving that time back to Disney as it's going to be double what it would be if FP wasn't operating.
At the end of the day, the system was nice to users who gamed the system but to everyone else, including Disney, it was a headache. There was also far too much money left on the table to leave as is forever. COVID gave them a chance to hit reset on many of the things which had become self-created monsters over the years (FP+, DDP, etc).
That was the original intent of Fastpass. And see what happened.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Just as an antidotal story, I was out for a walk with the wife and I brought up some of the rumors floating in this thread. She loves Disney but she's not a Disney nerd. She gets everything from me or whatever floats up to mainstream news alerts.
Her first reaction is "Yuck. I'm already paying $8000 for a trip and I have to pay for this too? F Disney."
I suspect that WDW will get a huge pushback on whatever paid system they implement. They need to ease in to it. Bury it in ticket packages somehow kind of like they do the free dining offers forcing you to buy hoppers.
I suspect onsite guests will get continue to get free fastpasses (or free bundles or whatever they are offering) and no more refreshing. Then it'll degrade like the free dining offer when it became offering the quick service plan and you could upgrade it. Then it'll be tiered based on your resort tier. But you can always upgrade and buy more.
Just my guess or how I would do it. However, knowing Disney now, they'll get greedy and start charging right off the bat and knock people off their feet. Disney demand is high enough that they'll just suffer through the bad PR for a while.
Her first reaction is "Yuck. I'm already paying $8000 for a trip and I have to pay for this too? F Disney."
I suspect that WDW will get a huge pushback on whatever paid system they implement. They need to ease in to it. Bury it in ticket packages somehow kind of like they do the free dining offers forcing you to buy hoppers.
I suspect onsite guests will get continue to get free fastpasses (or free bundles or whatever they are offering) and no more refreshing. Then it'll degrade like the free dining offer when it became offering the quick service plan and you could upgrade it. Then it'll be tiered based on your resort tier. But you can always upgrade and buy more.
Just my guess or how I would do it. However, knowing Disney now, they'll get greedy and start charging right off the bat and knock people off their feet. Disney demand is high enough that they'll just suffer through the bad PR for a while.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
As I have said before, the sly thing is to just make it resort only but included in the price. So, it's bundled in with the rest of the costs of the room. Advertise being on properly as being the "only way to get Fastpass". You can even jack up the (already high) costs of the rooms when it is added to improve the bottom line for the pencil pushers.
This would be something that guests would be more accepting of because being a perk for staying on property makes sense and doesn't seem quite so "greedy" as a blanket charging directly for FP.
They aren't going to officially announce FP+ is dead. They're going to slowly roll out other options.
Disney doesn't owe anyone line skipping privileges. It's a theme park - there are lines.
Hcalvert
Well-Known Member
I was so lucky to go to Cedar Point with my students in May a few years ago. There was no one there and no waiting in line. I am sure that is not the normal experience, especially since I heard last weekend was a mess.I've visited Cedar Point and seen Fastlane in action. I watched a guy and his son ride Millenium force 4 times while I waited in standby to ride it once. Somehow, that didn't feel like a win to me.
yes referring to demand, interest and number of visitors for 50th anniversary starting Oct 1st that will drive WDW planning in terms of how to manage crowds that will again to reach capacity.
RobbinsDad
Well-Known Member
You're correct, it is not the normal experience.
Trips have to be planned a year in advance? perhaps for some folks that is the case or they choose to do so, but for many that's not the case (under 6 months more common-many can do so even closer). I recently booked trip for November, and yes I would like more clarity as to how parks will operate but booked knowing I will likely not get much clarification until this summer or early fall-a few months before trip, due to WDW looking to address operations and crowds with changing and uncertain timeline of pandemic restrictions and issues.
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