FastPass+ Most Certainly Not Coming Back As It Was

[CosmicRays]

FOP right now is 65 minutes, which I admit is less than the 90 minutes that I frequently saw when there was FP+. Yet, how much of the lesser time is due to reduced capacity at the parks. I can only imagine how impossible it will be to get on rides like this when parks are back at 100%. Plus, I don't really think spending an hour in a line is a particularly good use of time.

For me, I'd much rather spend a little time planning if it assures that I'll get to ride some of the bigger rides.

I used to be fine waiting an hr plus in standbys- but at a certain point when you have been on several vacations and ridden the same rides, thinking about waiting in a line for an hr for anything is a hard no. Only if its a new ride and only if its maybe my first/second time on it.

 

[BrianLo]

they are never giving away fastpass with hotels. No matter what the rates are.

why? Your top ends have this ugly little thing called “DVC” attached.

can’t work.

you can try selling it at $100 a head. It could work?

let’s see: average 7 days x 4 peeps x $100...how are we doing on ticket costs now??

...don’t forget tax

Shanghai does give away a FP with hotels. But that's meaningless and amuses me that every resort has entirely different systems. DVC is a problem, but it would be a sort of empty perk to get people to buy direct.

I strongly, strongly vote for Max-Pass. That's the best iteration, in my opinion.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Shanghai does give away a FP with hotels. But that's meaningless and amuses me that every resort has entirely different systems. DVC is a problem, but it would be a sort of empty perk to get people to buy direct.

I strongly, strongly vote for Max-Pass. That's the best iteration, in my opinion.

it would be good to drive sales...but Disney has increasingly had a more “standoffish” attitude with those that they feel “got in cheap”....

which was the ENTIRE point of it in the first place. Go to spending.

blame the bobs for that. They look at DVC as “legacy moochers” when it’s almost the exact opposite.

I love max pass...but how much do you charge?

 

[CosmicRays]

I believe the current “Vip” scenario is about $2500 minimum.

to skip the line for small world

“Brand new Disney after hours event! 2500$ and you get to skip Its a Small World completely!”

 

[BrianLo]

it would be good to drive sales...but Disney has increasingly had a more “standoffish” attitude with those that they feel “got in cheap”....

which was the ENTIRE point of it in the first place. Go to spending.

blame the bobs for that. They look at DVC as “legacy moochers” when it’s almost the exact opposite.

I love max pass...but how much do you charge?

Probably the same as DLR about 10$ a day seems right. Or rolled into the Water Parks and more park ticket option.

To be fair, when I was thinking DVC perks I was thinking strictly like "get a free FP for 5 years when you buy direct".

Time limited, not rolled out to legacy holders. I think it is more telling that they are willing to possibly remove perks from hotels entirely. It makes sense, people are overpaying to stay on property as it is. There is really no reason they need to incentivize it further.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Probably the same as DLR about 10$ a day seems right. Or rolled into the Water Parks and more park ticket option.

To be fair, when I was thinking DVC perks I was thinking strictly like "get a free FP for 5 years when you buy direct".

Time limited, not rolled out to legacy holders. I think it is more telling that they are willing to possibly remove perks from hotels entirely. It makes sense, people are overpaying to stay on property as it is. There is really no reason they need to incentivize it further.

then Everyone would have it...

and the server would crash at 8:10 every morning.

different clientele. One reason maxpass works is Disneyland is half pass holders who don’t buy it because they’re been doing the same
Thing their whole lives

 

[Chomama]

I believe the current “Vip” scenario is about $2500 minimum.

to skip the line for small world

$3500 plus tip

 

[disneygeek90]

An hour for FoP is a bargain. This is WDW, not Six Flags. The crowds come and if you want to ride the biggest ride in the park, how could anyone possibly complain about one hour?

Don’t worry, you’ll still have 7 more hours to fit in Safari, Dinosaur and Everest.

 

[Dreaming of Disney World]

I hope the most recent fast pass system is brought back. I have young kids who can't handle waiting in long lines. They can do 1-2 30 minute lines per day, max. We pretty much only use fast passes to ride rides. We book our first 3 as early as possible and keeping getting more throughout the day. We only wait in very short lines without fast passes. This works for us. I can't see us going to Disney World a lot if it means lots of long wait all day.

 

[CosmicRays]

An hour for FoP is a bargain. This is WDW, not Six Flags. The crowds come and if you want to ride the biggest ride in the park, how could anyone possibly complain about one hour?

Don’t worry, you’ll still have 7 more hours to fit in Safari, Dinosaur and Everest.

Just tough to wait that long once you have ridden it a few times.

 

[CaptinEO]

I just came back from a fastpass free Disneyland and it was such a great time. The lines were always moving so you never felt like you were stuck in line.

They seriously need to do away with the fastpass thing, it just makes everything complicated for the end user.

 

[Jrb1979]

From reading through this thread it seems like the issue people have with FP is how it causes the standby queue to barely move. That to me says too many people have FP. All these ideas of charging little for Maxpass or whatever system they put in place doesn't make it better. The point of any FP system should be that people who have it get lower wait times and are able to ride mode things. The biggest issue is Disney sees as crowd control instead.

The only way to fix FP at all is to price it so it discourages people from getting it.

Remember if everyone has FP nobody has FP.

 

[GaBoy]

it would be good to drive sales...but Disney has increasingly had a more “standoffish” attitude with those that they feel “got in cheap”....

which was the ENTIRE point of it in the first place. Go to spending.

blame the bobs for that. They look at DVC as “legacy moochers” when it’s almost the exact opposite.

I love max pass...but how much do you charge?

Free with ticket gets you one and can renew as its used. $30 get you 3 and can renew after last one used (free now).

 

[WDWTrojan]

The VIP system is probably unaffordable for the average guest. Plus VIP tours cost Disney money since there's a guide involved (even if it's a fraction of the tour cost) and I'm willing to bet there's a limited number of people available who meet the requirements and are willing to work for Disney's wages. The replacement FP system(s) most likely won't require additional staffing per paid option beyond what was the cost of running FP+. Thus Disney can pocket nearly 100% of the upcharge rate with the ability to sell it to more people.

The VIP Tours are priced to a level now that positively disqualifies all but the wealthiest guests. Most days it is $5250 for the minimum of 7 hours of tour service, while Disney pays perhaps $140 in wages for the day for that guide (obviously more with overhead, benefits, etc) but still it's a great ROI for the company.

From a guide perspective, it is a highly coveted job and the gratuity involved absolutely trumps whatever Disney pays. They have literally zero problems staffing for this job I'd imagine.

The real downside for VIP Tour guests is when FP is operational Disney is insistent on the guides using the FP+ queues which can often take 20-30 minutes when preshows are included. Six Flags and Universal, on the other hand, basically gets VIP tours right on the rides. It's their way of trying to make it seem like the tours aren't getting anything too special, while also maximizing profits.

 

[CaptinEO]

From reading through this thread it seems like the issue people have with FP is how it causes the standby queue to barely move. That to me says too many people have FP. All these ideas of charging little for Maxpass or whatever system they put in place doesn't make it better. The point of any FP system should be that people who have it get lower wait times and are able to ride mode things. The biggest issue is Disney sees as crowd control instead.

The only way to fix FP at all is to price it so it discourages people from getting it.

Remember if everyone has FP nobody has FP.

I'm fine with this. Every themepark has a high priced skip the lines pass and if Disney did so and priced it high enough it would have little to no effect on wait times for most people.

Letting every person skip 3 plus lines a day makes for a slow moving line that creates frustration.

 

[Chomama]

The VIP Tours are priced to a level now that positively disqualifies all but the wealthiest guests. Most days it is $5250 for the minimum of 7 hours of tour service, while Disney pays perhaps $140 in wages for the day for that guide (obviously more with overhead, benefits, etc) but still it's a great ROI for the company.

From a guide perspective, it is a highly coveted job and the gratuity involved absolutely trumps whatever Disney pays. They have literally zero problems staffing for this job I'd imagine.

The real downside for VIP Tour guests is when FP is operational Disney is insistent on the guides using the FP+ queues which can often take 20-30 minutes when preshows are included. Six Flags and Universal, on the other hand, basically gets VIP tours right on the rides. It's their way of trying to make it seem like the tours aren't getting anything too special, while also maximizing profits.

I think they pay guides more that $20/hour but could be misinformed. It is definitely a coveted position, especially once you become full time (but that takes quite a while). The ones we know love their job more than most in park CMs as far as I can tell. Of course they can get stuck with a rude group that tips poorly but I would guess that’s not the norm

 

[jinx8402]

Just randomly thinking about how you can maybe appease families and those who are used to/like the previous fp+ program, those who don't want to schedule their days and still be able to charge for parts of the new fp program.

Make it almost like the dining plan, except everyone gets 2 fp per ticket day, but can use them on any day and are unscheduled. Perhaps if they want to keep tier 1 and 2 rides in each park, maybe onsite guests get one of each (think 1 qs and 1 ts per day) whereas off-site gets 2 tier 2 passes. Club level can upgrade to 4 fp, any tier (kind of like how it was previously).

I think this pooling would allow those with long stays to be able do different things on multiple days. Maybe 1 day you go Epcot just to go around the world and take in more at each country, thus saving an extra FP for a different park. I would think in the end, it would mostly balance out.

Then, with the genie it could tell you that you have a fp available, and now would be a good time to use it at avatar fop. Or, when you are out of fp but there is almost no one in the fp line for seven dwarves it tells you for $10 your group can skip the stand-by.

Only thing that might be a issue is AP, but maybe instead of pooling length of ticket they get a set amount per month depending on their level.

Again, just a random brain game of how a similar yet different fp program could work.

 

[djkidkaz]

Scheduling FP+ added value for local APs who could pop in to a park for a couple hours and quickly get on some E-tickets. Assuming that goes away, the AP looks less attractive for locals, but maybe that’s by design.

this. I’m a local and would book my fast passes and then head over for a few hours, get something to eat and leave. I also have two little kids who make waiting in lines very difficult. It was perfect for me to have a guaranteed plan of like “ok I know I can go and ride these three rides with little to no wait, eat, visit a couple shops and head out.” Taking that away would definitely minimize how often I show up and give them money for food and merch. It’s too risky to take two little kids and hope that they behave in long lines.

 

[rreading]

1) Too many FP is not good
2) No FP makes many consumers unhappy (myself included).
Thus, they need to be limited.

It was 3pp+ book more as the day goes on for everyone (in addition to the unlimited VIP tours and those few Club 33 folks - by the way: there’s going to have to be someone manning the FP lines for those folks so it’s not going away entirely). If it’s 3pp for on site hotel guests (and no more), that should help take the FP lines down by ~50%.

Should do the trick. Maybe they didn’t want to before but that’s absurd that they wouldn’t. It’s totally why we’re staying at Universal this summer

 

[homerdance]

I just came back from a fastpass free Disneyland and it was such a great time. The lines were always moving so you never felt like you were stuck in line.

They seriously need to do away with the fastpass thing, it just makes everything complicated for the end user.

The wait time and the lines when they were closed were crazy low. Like non Existent.