FastPass+ Most Certainly Not Coming Back As It Was

[jt04]

My only qualms about no fast pass is I'm slightly worried about the supposed large crowds coming in October and no "guaranteed" 3 rides a day.

I have absolutely no idea how to plan our attack of the parks/rides and it's hard to plan because you can't base it on crowd levels now because they will most certainly be increased by October. I can handle 45 minute waits or less, but if rides are all going to be over an hour - I need a plan.

I guess have to go back to rope-drop, but I don't want to do that every morning - with everyone else!

I think more people who haven't purchased tickets will realize the practicality of mixing regular daily tickets with hard ticket events.

We are reaching 4D chess levels of planning. All the more fun.

My strategy would be a basic AP with several after hour events now and again.

 

[dreday3]

I think more people who haven't purchased tickets will realize the practicality of mixing regular daily tickets with hard ticket events.

We are reaching 4D chess levels of planning. All the more fun.

My strategy would be a basic AP with several after hour events now and again.

We do plan to do as many after hours that are offered, but so far it's just MK...
APs won't work for us, we don't go often enough.

Bonus is we have 9 full days, so more chance to get on rides.

I know it's first world problems, but I'm getting nervous. I think I will relax about it as I watch the summer go on and see crowd levels/wait times, start to formulate a plan.

 

[FantasiaMickey2000]

I don’t really understand a lot of arguments in this thread. Fastpass is coming back in some capacity. Essentially every other theme park in this country has a fastpass system. Disney can’t rewind the clock to 1985 and pretend not having fastpass is better when they themselves had it for decades. Every attraction will in some fashion be available for fastpass except for attractions which just opened. Arguing against any of this makes zero sense.

At this point I think the only questions really remaining are will it still be free, what specific advantages will they give to hotel guests, and will it still be tiered and required to book in advance? And I don’t think anyone has the answers to those yet. I’m not even sure Disney does.

 

[GaBoy]

We do plan to do as many after hours that are offered, but so far it's just MK...
APs won't work for us, we don't go often enough.

Bonus is we have 9 full days, so more chance to get on rides.

I know it's first world problems, but I'm getting nervous. I think I will relax about it as I watch the summer go on and see crowd levels/wait times, start to formulate a plan.

Good lord. So the answer to actually riding anything is shell out the extra $100 a head for a 3 hour "bonus". Maybe I have figured out where that "not so magical" feeling is coming from at trips end.

 

[jt04]

We do plan to do as many after hours that are offered, but so far it's just MK...
APs won't work for us, we don't go often enough.

Bonus is we have 9 full days, so more chance to get on rides.

I know it's first world problems, but I'm getting nervous. I think I will relax about it as I watch the summer go on and see crowd levels/wait times, start to formulate a plan.

I'm sure you will be fine. They should have most attractions open and recently refurbished which will help. And there is always the CoP.

 

[dreday3]

Good lord. So the answer to actually riding anything is shell out the extra $100 a head for a 3 hour "bonus". Maybe I have figured out where that no so magical feeling is coming from at trips end.

Of course that's not the answer. The answer is to just wait in line with everyone else!
But if it's an option - it's one that we choose to use. We always like the late nights.

 

[dreday3]

I'm sure you will be fine. They should have most attractions open and recently refurbished which will help. And there is always the CoP.

Oh yeah, we'll be good. If I get on Small World, Peter Pan, HM and the People Mover, I'll consider the day a success.

 

[marni1971]

Oh yeah, we'll be good. If I get on Small World, Peter Pan, HM and the People Mover, I'll consider the day a success.

They would.

Then they’ll get you back again another day to ride some others.

 

[dreday3]

They would.

Then they’ll get you back again another day to ride some others.

Well, we do have 2 full days scheduled at each park

 

[marni1971]

Well, we do have 2 full days scheduled at each park

The Bobs thank you.

 

[dreday3]

The Bobs thank you.

They are welcome. I do what I can.

 

[CosmicRays]

People who have never visited DW will never know the true suffering of planning the trip.

 

[dreday3]

People who have never visited DW will never know the true suffering of planning the trip.

But it's true! The last two trips I had to try and coordinate fast passes for people arriving on 3 different dates. Let alone all of them asking for different restaurants, some wanted to eat dinner at 5, some didn't want to eat dinner before 7. People wouldn't answer what rides were "important", so I just chose the rides and of course people complained the day we were there...
It was a pain in the butt and I got no thanks I tell ya!

Maybe no fast pass is a blessing in disguise...

(yes I know these aren't "real" problems and I'm not really that worried)

 

[mikejs78]

1. If it’s cheap, everyone buys it...lines clog...people are livid because they’re paying more for it.
2. Too expensive? Few buy it and you’re left with an extreme version of “have and have nots” where the standby lines don’t work. The attraction slate hasn’t been increased in enough volume since dak opened to maintain comfortable stand by lines.

but Bob was “so great”

there has to be some kind of hybrid system...and the “genie” or whatever people leaked about better not have been misdirection/crap. They need maxpass at a minimum and probably a free option for some as well.

My guess is (pure speculation) that we will end up with something where non paid get one or two FPs for free - possibly only second tier rides or only one tier-1 ride. Paid will be more expensive than MaxPass but not so orict whereas no one is buying it. Maybe $25/person/day, and maybe discounted a little for multiday tickets? And finally maybe there will be a pricy unlimited option (or maybe one FP/ride/day) for something a lot more expensive. Just speculation.

yeah this 'park pass has gutted FP+ to where there is nothing left to turn back on' makes no sense from a software perspective.

Now, from a REQUIREMENTS perspective and saying "we rewrote all the rules of the game..." - yes, I can see that. And making the two concepts work together would take a good run through of how the world should be, and would take time to re-implement so the two would co-exist... but this notion of 'robbed peter to pay paul...' doesn't really make much sense. Not from the software aspect... now, there could be other things like... the actual development budget, time to implement, desire, how to transistion, etc... yes all things that make it non-trivial or even possible a 'one but not both' - but not the idea that that FP+ itself is 'nothing to turn back on...'

As a Software Engineer, I agree that this is the way it should be with competent engineers. Key word being competent.

 

[pwnbeaver]

Some of the takes in this thread are wild.

Are we really okay with the idea that you pay hundreds of dollars per day knowing that you can't ride everything? Reservations for food six months out was bad enough, but that's an upcharge privilege you can ignore. The entire point of paying the entry fee is to go on rides; if they make that even more difficult to do, why pay for the ticket?

Boarding groups are horrible. Let people wait in line six hours and know they can get on instead of getting gatekept out of a ride twenty minutes after opening.

Fastpass has always been an issue, but at least it used to be an open strategy day-of instead of some sort of excel sheet battle plan.

Better yet, just build more rides to distribute wait times and make people happier. Spending two billion on five to six high quality rides will do a lot more for a park in every single way instead of spending two billion on online infrastructure that turns a vacation into a job.

 

[mikejs78]

I just thought of an even more awful thought - the use of the genie app. What if what they're planning is that you tell the app which attractions you want to go on for the day, and then the genie app creates your itinerary with a combination of virtual queues, fast passes, and standby lines. And paid options may include more virtual queues and fastpasses. But the idea will be that your entire day is planned out for you. No more spontaneity. This will make people wish for the old FP+ system...

 

[YorkshireT]

Given the lack of any hard rumours on this, just hints here and there, it seems no Disney insider really has any more information than anyone else? Sorry to sound sceptical but we have had very little now in the very long time since this started. In fact the only things really interesting are the Disney Genie App which Disney itself announced with screen shots, and the recent job advert.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Given the lack of any hard rumours on this, just hints here and there, it seems no Disney insider really has any more information than anyone else?

With regard to a situation in which Disney is mulling several options? You're right, no insider knows which option Disney will chose because Disney hasn't made the choice yet.

With regard to FP+ not coming back as it was? You're wrong, all insiders are pointing to that being the case.

 

[MurphyJoe]

I just thought of an even more awful thought - the use of the genie app. What if what they're planning is that you tell the app which attractions you want to go on for the day, and then the genie app creates your itinerary with a combination of virtual queues, fast passes, and standby lines. And paid options may include more virtual queues and fastpasses. But the idea will be that your entire day is planned out for you. No more spontaneity. This will make people wish for the old FP+ system...

Possibly include restaurant reservations and upcharge experiences in there as well. Wouldn't be surprising if guests want to dine at a hot dining location during peak hours that they have to purchase a Genie itinerary which includes it.

 

[Jrb1979]

IMO I would love if they completely dropped having to schedule FP. Make it like every other park but price it high enough that many don't buy it. I'm still amazed at how many actually like planning out their vacation down to the minute.