FastPass+ Most Certainly Not Coming Back As It Was

[MisterPenguin]

Yes, but these things will be coming back as capacity increases.



40 million extra guests? What? According to the Travel Industry Association, MK had 20,963,000 guests in 2019. By comparison in 2009 they had 17.2M. So yes there is an increase in attendance overall, but Chapek has made it clear they don't want the parks maxed out. It doesn't help their bottom line after a certain threshold.

There will be some kind of FP-type product. There won't be FP+ as it existed. They feel comfortable it is not a necessity for them and can make due with a more limited option which will serve their needs and help the bottom line.

Oops... decimal error... 4 million more.

 

[MurphyJoe]

Oops... decimal error... 4 million more.

So about an extra 10,959 people per day. Looking at the estimated hourly capacity of different attractions, over that 10 year period visitor growth has been enough to take up the majority of a single attraction's daily capacity.

It's so unpopular that WDW will almost certainly institute a paid version of it. The only question is how much they will have to charge to prevent so many people from buying it that the system becomes unworkable.

With the paid public tours mentioned earlier in this thread, hitting the thrill rides in each park was/started at $349. I'm anticipating with previous price points that Disney will start the "ride everything using the FP+ lane once" package at $299. And it's not like Disney has to sell an unlimited amount of passes. They can cap the numbers sold to keep the lines flowing as they want.

 

[MisterPenguin]

So about an extra 10,959 people per day. Looking at the estimated hourly capacity of different attractions, over that 10 year period visitor growth has been enough to take up the majority of a single attraction's daily capacity.

Those extra 10 thousand people enter more than one line.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

Disney should be building out the other parks to achieve their revenue growth goals. Epcot and Animal kingdom with 4-6 more attractions each could add millions more people per year. The park pass would enable them to keep each park at the right level of guests. Magic Kingdom without new lands ( sq ft of human space) to comfortably swallow guests is not where they should be adding cap ex.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Disney should be building out the other parks to achieve their revenue growth goals. Epcot and Animal kingdom with 4-6 more attractions each could add millions more people per year. The park pass would enable them to keep each park at the right level of guests. Magic Kingdom without new lands ( sq ft of human space) to comfortably swallow guests is not where they should be adding cap ex.

Well, they are adding Rat and Guardians and we're set to redo SSE, plus with Harmonius and the other updates there should be enough to draw people there once done

AK definitely needs another big draw (probably at some point redo Dinoland). DHS really could
Use something else even though it already had stuff added, but just not enough - even if it is just new shows to replace BatB and Indy

 

[Naplesgolfer]

Well, they are adding Rat and Guardians and we're set to redo SSE, plus with Harmonius and the other updates there should be enough to draw people there once done

AK definitely needs another big draw (probably at some point redo Dinoland). DHS really could
Use something else even though it already had stuff added, but just not enough - even if it is just new shows to replace BatB and Indy

Not arguing . Just want to point out that with Rat and Guardians, Epcot is at the same level of attractions as 1988 when Maelstrom opened. They have just replaced what they closed down. 23 years and more guests and they still aren't at 1988 levels!! If you ever wonder why the lines are so long, this is why. Imagination is a pale shadow of itself and Spaceship earth is really hurting. Epcot , DHS and AK all need many more attractions each.

The Cap ex of the second Galaxies edge ( I know it is spent already) and this new Proposed expansion at Disneyland would be far better spent fleshing out the parks at WDW.

 

[marni1971]

Not arguing . Just want to point out that with Rat and Guardians, Epcot are at the same level of attractions as 1988 when Maelstrom opened.

Still less than its historic maximum. Wonders of Life had a perceived E ticket and a D plus multiple diversionary activities. Communicore could accommodate thousands per hour and had 3 bona fide shows. Imag obviously had a far higher capacity overall, and engaging separate hands on area plus a theatre being properly used. Etc etc

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Still less than its historic maximum. Wonders of Life had a perceived E ticket and a D plus multiple diversionary activities. Communicore could accommodate thousands per hour and had 3 bona fide shows. Imag obviously had a far higher capacity overall, and engaging separate hands on area plus a theatre being properly used. Etc etc

Man, i miss those days when each Future World pavilion had multiple attractions and could take an hour or more to explore.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Sign me up as pro FP+ as it was pre-covid for our situation. I'm an out of state AP'er (not currently) only about 7.5 hours away so we go often enough so nothing feels must do. We like to get 3 FPs for best available and if anything is >20 min wait we'll standby. Outside of that we just walk around because we like being in the parks.

 

[marni1971]

Too funny not to share.

 

[acup313]

Today in My Plans I am getting the glitch telling me to do my Fastpasses that has been floating around. For me it is telling me to book them on Monday which is my 60 day mark. When I refresh the page everything crashes.

 

[MaximumEd]

When I refresh the page everything crashes.

So good to see things getting back to normal!

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

Fun anecdote for the technical folks:

For a year or so (around 2015?) it was crazy. As you'd imagine, the app/website just runs against a REST API. So it's easy enough to trace things out in Fiddler or whatever. One time, I got curious and spent an afternoon playing with it. As it turned out, all you needed to make an FP was a couple of IDs. There wasn't any validation. Literally NONE. As long as you had an active session, you sent your session ID, the attraction ID, the IDs for the rest of your party, and the timeslot ...and it would just transact it. No questions asked.

I scribbled up a clunky little app on my phone that would automatically-ish pull the ID from your session and book immediate FPs for every ride in the park.

Eventually, they patched it up of course. Last I looked at it, they stopped letting you actually request an FP explicitly. Instead, you get a list of options and just send back the ID of the option you want.

They used to not validate 90 day out Fastpass booking too. This was around 2017 or so.

 

[AEfx]

Still less than its historic maximum. Wonders of Life had a perceived E ticket and a D plus multiple diversionary activities. Communicore could accommodate thousands per hour and had 3 bona fide shows. Imag obviously had a far higher capacity overall, and engaging separate hands on area plus a theatre being properly used. Etc etc

And not to mention, attraction length...how many 15-20 minute attractions have been reduced to 5 minute experiences.

 

[marni1971]

And not to mention, attraction length...how many 15-20 minute attractions have been reduced to 5 minute experiences.

Absolutely.

 

[Jrb1979]

And not to mention, attraction length...how many 15-20 minute attractions have been reduced to 5 minute experiences.

As long as they slap IP all over it that's all that matters.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The important number is they had 41,000,000 gateclicks total in 1998 (before fastpass) and 55,000,000 total in 2019...

that’s why you can’t go back. They’ve built nothing to handle that capacity wise

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Absolutely.

like “rise and blink and you’ll miss it”??

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Not arguing . Just want to point out that with Rat and Guardians, Epcot is at the same level of attractions as 1988 when Maelstrom opened. They have just replaced what they closed down. 23 years and more guests and they still aren't at 1988 levels!! If you ever wonder why the lines are so long, this is why. Imagination is a pale shadow of itself and Spaceship earth is really hurting. Epcot , DHS and AK all need many more attractions each.

The Cap ex of the second Galaxies edge ( I know it is spent already) and this new Proposed expansion at Disneyland would be far better spent fleshing out the parks at WDW.

Right and some would be welcome, but at least will have more draws

And a lot of what is being replaced wasn't very popular. Even if something has a high capacity if no one is riding it doesn't really matter .... So demand for the attractions at Epcot will increase a lot which should help shift demand away from the other parks a bit

But yes, more on top of this should happen - but at least it is something

 

[Goofnut1980]

I wonder if they will charge for it.. Disneyland has MaxPass with a fee and Disneyland Paris has the Super FastPass for a fee. Shanghai has an ExpressPass/FastPass for a fee. If people will pay, they will charge.. haha