FastPass+ Most Certainly Not Coming Back As It Was

[monothingie]

Shew Disney is getting hammered on social media where those are sharing this news/rumor. I can only imagine when this really happens

Sadly, they don't care because this involves $$$.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

So I have been trying to read through all of this since I last looked yesterday. Has Disn ey made the announcement on this for sure or are we still going off rumors and running with that as gospel? Not being snarky. Serious question. There have been so many rumors that people have taken as fact and started arguements about that it is hard to tell anymore. So, has Disney announced this yet?

Announced for Paris and people are jumping to the conclusion that WDW will be the same.

 

[Kevin_W]

I think it will have to be left to the app to explain the available options at any given time. It will likely be beyond any CM being able to give a definitive answer at any given moment.

If you develop a system that is complex enough that an average employee cannot explain it to an average guest... then perhaps the system is too complex.

 

[CastAStone]

I see that everyone here has convinced themselves that Disney will risk obliterating their primary revenue stream to set up a tertiary revenue stream.

I mean, they obviously will not do anything (or stick with something) that dramatically decreases guest satisfaction and reduces bounce back rates.

So if this is as bad as you all think, which I’m sure it won’t be, it will work itself out quickly.

 

[WannaGoNow]

Disney does not operate in a bubble. Pre-pandemic Disney was terrible with CM wages and benefits, now that there is a labor shortage, even with the sign on bonus (with restrictions), it is still too little to compete with the alternative of government assistance.

Florida stopped extended federal unemployment insurance benefits of $300/week on June 26. Florida‘s state unemployment insurance benefit (which is, after all, money the worker paid into the system in the first place) is $275/week, one of the lowest in the country. It might be time to find another canard to scapegoat.

Terrible wages and benefits, on the other hand, may have something to do with it, plus the jobs mostly require close contact with a public that may or may not be vaccinated.

 

[nickys]

the problem of unlimited virtual standby is unless there is something you give up for entering the queue there is no disincentive to join the queue… “why not?”

this will greatly increase the size of the virtual queue and increase no shows… making reliable estimates really hard.

it also makes it very hard to turn the virtual wueue back off once enabled.

people will have to give “something” up… like being limited to one virtual queue at a time at least.

You are limited to one Standby Return at a time.

What it means is people will have to go to the parks with a game plan.
What ride(s) are we willing to pay for?
Which rides will we go to first?
Which one ride will we grab a Standby Return pass for as soon as it becomes available?
And you’ll need to adapt plans on the fly, depending on what happens.

So instead of having one day at 60 days out and booking 3 FPs a day and then sitting back and relax knowing that at least that’s 3 important rides sorted, now you’ll have to do planning every single day of your trip and be watching your phone for either paid FPs &/or standby return passes to pop up. I prefer to do my planning in advance and then go with the flow each day.

 

[CastAStone]

Announced for Paris and people are jumping to the conclusion have inside information that WDW will be the same similar with some key differences.

FTFY

 

[iowamomof4]

Do we believe ROTR will continue to operate as it has been? Free boarding pass to the hardened smart phone warriors? Or will it enter the paid pass portal?

 

[nickys]

Don’t worry guys, Disney IT will make all these changes work so well you won’t even have to worry about planning anything

You know, you could have saved several pages of angst if you’d posted this earlier.

This is the funniest comment I’ve seen on it, well played!

 

[mightynine]

I know I'm looking forward to Disney IT adding another strain to the system. Maybe it'll take me three clicks on the website to see hotel availability instead of the current two!

 

[orky8]

I understand that Disney wants me to (and why). I'm asking why would I, as a guest, bother?

Because you're not going to risk not getting a reservation at the park you might want. And Disney's not dumb, I bet every 60 days or so, they'll have a random park run out of reservations just to remind folks not to risk not making a reservation. They'll later release the held back inventory and laugh.

 

[Surferboy567]

I see that everyone here has convinced themselves that Disney will risk obliterating their primary revenue stream to set up a tertiary revenue stream.

I mean, they obviously will not do anything (or stick with something) that dramatically decreases guest satisfaction and reduces bounce back rates. So if this is as bad as you All think, which I’m sure it won’t be, it will work itself out quickly.

This is also probably true. It all depends how frequently they would they use the standby pass. It would also matter how close the new system is to this.

 

[nickys]

I have a bit of a hard time seeing how a change like this could break even - let alone turn a profit. It would require a ton of development and marketing just to get the basics off the ground. I can’t imagine the cost of running this at scale. Disney generally has never been able to pull of a parks IT project that would meet this level of sophistication.

Depends how much they add on / tweak for WDW. The system is up and running at Shanghai, and soon at DLP. The basic system is there. The difficulty comes when trying to add extra functionality, if they want to do so. And Disney IT will inevitably mess it up if they add on anything.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Because you're not going to risk not getting a reservation at the park you might want. And Disney's not dumb, I bet every 60 days or so, they'll have a random park run out of reservations just to remind folks not to risk not making a reservation. They'll later release the held back inventory and laugh.

1. There's no risk of that unless I'm visiting Christmas week or the day a major new attraction is opening.

2. Disney wants pre-book information. They don't want pre-book information so badly that they're going to give up clicks to get it.

 

[pdude81]

Be careful what you wish for. This is kind of hilarious in a sad way

So many have said they wish they could just figure this all out day-of, and that we should bring Maxpass over to WDW. Many hated having to plan their vacations in advance and said they didn't mind paying the token fee for maxpass if it allowed for more freedom of selection during their trip.

Well it's here in a way. Not to WDW yet and not announced for DLR yet, but it's clear what's coming. Separate from the idea that some people liked the FP+ system for other reasons and didn't "wish" for this.... and clearly nobody was asking to have to pay lots more for the same amount of ride access... but this reads like a lot of the Genie and the lamp fables. They have fulfilled your wish, and you will have lots of flexibility on what happens. In fact, you'll be winging it so much that it's stressful in a different way. Beyond the extra money it costs will be the need to have a working device with adequate battery and connectivity at all times.

I wonder if there will be guest experience teams to help people pay for these passes if a phone is dropped and non-functional.

But now the Extra Magic Minutes come more clearly into focus, as you may have to be in the park to start using any of this or purchase ride passes. This comes directly from Maxpass as well where you can pull a pass for the most popular ride for park opening time when the hotel gets you into the park an hour early. Now in WDW it'll only be a half hour, but they found a way to reduce EMH offerings and use that to pressure you to pay for passes before the big, bad, day guests come in and buy them up.

Again, I'm not against the concept of paying over the top for additional fastpasses, but the loss of all free passes is very surprising to me. I guess the idea of standby pass reducing the other wait times that were inflated by FP+ might be enough to convince people this is a good thing.

And I apologize if this is late as I wrote this reply 2 hours ago and ended up pulled away from the computer. I find this funny because Genie is coming to grant the wish of flexible planning, in a very "Monkey's Paw" sort of way.

 

[mgf]

What makes you think its so complicated?

Because Disney IT will be building it. Half the time they can’t join databases for plans made months in advance. Having a hard time imagining them managing real-time ride inventory, demand, scaled/surge pricing, and micro transactions at scale in anyway that is intuitive and functions without downtime. That isn’t to say they won’t plop down a poorly optimized version of it to call it “working”. I just doubt they’ll manage to pull off the level of sophistication needed to make this truly profitable.

I’ll give them credit if they do it.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Wait. Hold on. As much as NEARLY $20 a person per FP in DLP? There are no words that I can post here lest I break at least 10 rules at once.

 

[willsdad01]

It’s really sad to see many of the changes being made. I’ll cherish the feeling of our first trip when we were sent out the Magical Express packet, greeted at the airport where the ”magic” began, and taken to our resort on the ME. We had the Spectromagic parade, paper fast passes, and felt immersed into the parks. We’ve been several times since. I’m not a fan of many of the so called “improvements“ they’ve made. I not a fan of ending the ME and certainly not a fan of having to pay extra for fast passes to insure you get on a ride. I don’t mind change when it makes sense or it helps improve the “experience“. They need to do more research on the psychological aspects of why people go and then keep coming back over and over. What makes it “special”. How can they enhance instead of take away?

 

[dsinclair]

I mean, this company charges their own hotel guests to park at their own (not inexpensive) hotels. This can't be too much of a surprise.

I don't think I've ever had free parking as a hotel guest at a 4 or 5 star hotel. It's inexpensive hotels that typically don't charge for parking.

I don't understand berating Disney for an industry standard.

 

[dovetail65]

So I have been trying to read through all of this since I last looked yesterday. Has Disn ey made the announcement on this for sure or are we still going off rumors and running with that as gospel? Not being snarky. Serious question. There have been so many rumors that people have taken as fact and started arguements about that it is hard to tell anymore. So, has Disney announced this yet?

Nope it's all conjecture based on what is fact at Disney China and coming to Disney Paris in August.