FastPass+ open to all guests including offsite beginning next week at Disney's Animal Kingdom

[GoofGoof]

....except ..my impression of the use of a touring-plan ...was to be able to get to all the 'important' rides & attractions with the utilization of the standard FP system. Now ...with that system seemingly walking off into the sunset ....you're more at the mercy of "the schedule" as set up in your FP+ ride/attraction reservations.

Not every ride requires FP. Actually there are times where using one would actually result in longer waits. An exaggerated example would be if you got to EPCOT at rope drop at 9am but had a FP booked for SSE from 9 to 10. If you still want to ride both Test Track and Soarin but don't have FP booked for both it's in your best interest to go to the one you don't have booked right at rope drop when the standby line is shortest. Even if this means you miss your FP+ at SSE it's still a better plan if your goal is to minimize waiting in line. A good touring plan would recognize this. The touring plan isn't just about fast pass, but also a basic order for what to do when.

 

[doctornick]

Not every ride requires FP. Actually there are times where using one would actually result in longer waits. An exaggerated example would be if you got to EPCOT at rope drop at 9am but had a FP booked for SSE from 9 to 10. If you still want to ride both Test Track and Soarin but don't have FP booked for both it's in your best interest to go to the one you don't have booked right at rope drop when the standby line is shortest. Even if this means you miss your FP+ at SSE it's still a better plan if your goal is to minimize waiting in line. A good touring plan would recognize this. The touring plan isn't just about fast pass, but also a basic order for what to do when.

I would think a good touring plan would help with deciding what and when to book for FP+ as well. A new element, but still valuable information.

 

[JerseyDad]

I would think a good touring plan would help with deciding what and when to book for FP+ as well. A new element, but still valuable information.

....the "what & when" (attractions to go to) used to be completely up to the free-choice of the guest. Now ...choosing "what & when" is not up to you ...it's assigned based on availability.

...if, for example, 5000 people are standing at the gates to Epcot ...and they all initially planned to be "first in" at rope drop ...it's likely that they'd have chosen (or should I say, wanted to choose) Soarin or Test Track as a FP+ attraction. There's NO WAY that all of them would have received a 9:15am FP+ time for Soarin. WDW is breaking up the crowds because the rides (# of attractions) just aren't there ...and other reasons. So, the touring plan logic ...based on historical data, people movement trends and patterns, geographical locations of rides, and simply "what rides to do before others can do them" (aka: running like crazy to said rides) can't play out ...unless someone has access to WDW's database for that day, that park, and has the specific FP+ times given to a person or persons (as in everyone that's headed to the park).

....that's what I was basically trying to say ...that, in THIS version of WDW ....the guests that ascribed to touring plans, because they felt that they had a secret weapon and were "in the know" more than other guests ..doesn't fly any longer. And ....I think WDW knows this ...they intend to break any "trend" related to crowd levels and movements (guests free will) ...and will play with FP+ times as they see fit, in order to:

1. Appease the requests of resort guests
2. Steer crowds to parks as they see fit to maximize revenue and minimize cost.
3. Make the FP+ system not seem like the train wreck it is.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

I just read that Magic Kingdom just removed the Fast Pass Machines for Stitch. I know a lot of people don't really care about that ride anyways, but it is still very sad seeing the removal of fast pass machines have begun.

I don't care what anyone says, 3 fast passes are not enough. Especially when your in Disney during spring break for your children's vacation from school and wait times are 120-240 minutes. Unless something changes for the better, Disney has now made a lot of Disney Parents mad.

And can anyone tell me why we would buy Park Hoppers anymore. The Fast pass only works at one park, so why would anyone leave that first park.

 

[Jeffxz]

The CMs with iPads is happening.

I have personally had 5 expieriences where I have interacted with a CM using an iPad and all of them had at least partially failed.

2 Resort Checkins where the CM was "having a bit of trouble today" with the iPad and eventually got it sorted out and found our reservation.

2 Resort Checkins where the CM was having trouble and made polite small talk until they saw a person at the desk open up and walked us over to them.

1 time checking into Be Our Guest for lunch with FP+. The two CMs had 3 iPads and a laptop and none of them seemed to be working. Eventually they found our FP+ but it appeared to fail when they tried to forward it to the POS system. We were allowed to enter, but had to go through the ordering line again even though we had pre-selected our food online.


Is this just a coincedence for me or have you guys had similar expieriences? If this is more the norm than the exception I would hate to be staying offsite and going to DAK this week.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

However, at least during this testing period, it was very clear that it is beyond easy to manipulate the system. They are having such a hard time with the readers accepting people, that they are accepting just about everyone through. The tinniest piece of evidence that you once had the FP scheduled on the day and they will let you in (or make a big enough scene!). And all of that only at one park, 3 per day stuff? Yesterday, we used it at Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom on Test Track, Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller coaster, Big Thunder, and Space Mountain (and we got on TSMM too for our inconvenience at Guest Relations...).

Not surprised about the glitches happening with the readers. We saw how unreliable the RFID readers for Test Track 2.0 were, and I imagine that's basically the same hardware they have in place throughout the whole resort. And given the various hiccups of the whole MM+ infrastructure...

I've seen this complaint a bunch but when we were there last week, we never once had it not register for a ride that we had a FP+ for. I'm curious if this is really a common occurrence -- my guess is that most of the people who are coming up as not having a FP+ don't actually have one because they are mistaken about the ride/time they booked, changed it, tried to change but didn't complete the process, etc.

...I suspect this is true in a lot of cases. But thats what happens when you design a system with no paper trail. It all becomes a case of he said/she said.

I just read that Magic Kingdom just removed the Fast Pass Machines for Stitch. I know a lot of people don't really care about that ride anyways, but it is still very sad seeing the removal of fast pass machines have begun.

And can anyone tell me why we would buy Park Hoppers anymore. The Fast pass only works at one park, so why would anyone leave that first park.

I would think the marginalizing of the park hopper ticket is all part of the plan. Disney would prefer you don't visit two (or three) parks in one day; instead, they want you to take one day to visit each park. More days = longer hotel stay = more $$$ spent on tickets and merchandise and food. Not to say you can't still park hop, but for first time guests, I think its safe to say that one of the goals of FP+ is to encourage them to visit only one park per day.

 

[HTF]

I did not mean to imply all new attractions lack Express Pass, just that Universal does not uniformly include it with all new attractions. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has the infrastructure in place to handle an Express Pass queue but it is not an option. @HTF also recently said on Orlando United Radio that Express Pass would not be available for the Hogwarts Express and Gringotts. It was also only recently that Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rock It! began accepting Express Pass.

Correct, the Hogwarts Express, Gringotts, and FJ will not have express. The infrastructure is there for all three but will not be an option. I've already given great detail in the Hogwarts Express queue. Soon I'll share a room by room break down of the Gringotts queue.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I just read that Magic Kingdom just removed the Fast Pass Machines for Stitch. I know a lot of people don't really care about that ride anyways, but it is still very sad seeing the removal of fast pass machines have begun.

I don't care what anyone says, 3 fast passes are not enough. Especially when your in Disney during spring break for your children's vacation from school and wait times are 120-240 minutes. Unless something changes for the better, Disney has now made a lot of Disney Parents mad.

And can anyone tell me why we would buy Park Hoppers anymore. The Fast pass only works at one park, so why would anyone leave that first park.

Firstly, I would imagine that during Spring Break, with waits of 2-4 hours, you weren't getting more than 3 FPs in a single day anyway (assuming you get one at 9 am for 10 am, but 10 am you are probably looking at a 1 pm FP for anything worthwhile, and by 1 pm you'd be lucky to get a 9 pm FP for Peter Pan). The point of the Park Hopper? Go to one park in the morning, get on w/o much wait, and have FPs reserved for your evening park; under the current system, evenings in a theme park are frequently filled w/ fluff attractions, not E-Tickets, due to wait times. Now you can actually arrive at Epcot at 3 pm during Spring Break and ride Soarin.

No system is perfect, but I think FP+ could actually benefit folks during the busiest weeks if used effectively. During the quiet months, when you could reasonably get a FP for Soarin, Test Track, and Maelstrom in one day, FP+ is a negative.

My biggest bone to pick w/ the new system is how much it seems to have cost and, therefore, the fact that it has cost us MANY new attractions.

 

[lentesta]

....agreed ...I did leave that out.

....with that ...another thought just popped into me noggin': Wouldn't the new 'system' throw a huge monkey wrench into those 'steadfast-tried-and-true' ....Touring Plans ..and those that swear by them and see it as the only way to really "Do Disney"? I never even thought about trying to have a 'real' touring plan ...as proposed by many a WDW focused web site ...because the whole: Be at rope drop ...run here, get FP, run there, do ride , run back use FP, run there get new FP.......etc etc etc"....would have me drinking something at least 80 proof by 10am.! I might guess, perhaps, the web sites that 'give you' a touring plan ....must be having a coronary over these changes?

Hey JerseyDad! We've got Fastpass+ advice in all the touring plans of the new Unofficial Guide. Every time we think there's an attraction that could benefit from FP+, we tell you the time at which you should get a FP+ for it. And tell you how to prioritize them. On the MK one-day touring plan for adults, for example, we give this advice at the bottom of the touring plan:

Start time for Fastpass+ : Space Mtn 10:25 a.m.; Big Thunder 11:35 a.m.; Splash Mtn 1:15 p.m.; Jungle Cruise 2:05 p.m.; Under the Sea 4:30 p.m.; Pooh 6:05 p.m. Prioritize Space, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Under the Sea if needed.
​

For the online and mobile versions of the touring plans, we've have FP+ support since April. Enter in whatever FP+ reservations you have and we'll incorporate them. We'll also tell you if a particular FP+ reservation isn't needed, and we'll make suggestions for any unused FP+ reservations you may have.

We even support the FP+ tiers at Epcot and DHS, so the suggestions we make on how to use FP+ will be within Disney's rules.

It's complicated software, and I'm sure there are bugs (I know of a couple), but it's pretty solid software, IMHO.

 

[flynnibus]

....except ..my impression of the use of a touring-plan ...was to be able to get to all the 'important' rides & attractions with the utilization of the standard FP system

No, the idea of the touring plans was to optimize what you wanted to see - it could use FP but also included things like knowing when to hit an attraction and when to avoid them. It wasn't only about FP

 

[lentesta]

No, the idea of the touring plans was to optimize what you wanted to see - it could use FP but also included things like knowing when to hit an attraction and when to avoid them. It wasn't only about FP

Yeah, the purpose of a touring plan is to minimize your waiting and walking, while taking into account your meals, breaks, rides, and whatever Disney throws at you.

 

[JerseyDad]

No, the idea of the touring plans was to optimize what you wanted to see - it could use FP but also included things like knowing when to hit an attraction and when to avoid them. It wasn't only about FP

.....I didn't mean that it was 'all about the FP' ...but that it would utilize the FP as part of the whole. And I still think that with the FP+ piece of the puzzle now in the mix ...under the control of some outside power (WDW) will make the 'touring plan' not as effective as it may have been ...or not effective at all.

.....we never did 'strategic attacks' of the parks based on some 'master plan' ....and were not thrilled with the MB's and FP+ guinea pig test that we took part of back in August. In fact ....in the past ...we got to see / do more 'by chance' than by following some planned attraction appointment schedule put together by some 'higher power'. After 4 days of following the FP+ schedule ...we blew it off completely while at Epcot one day ...and had a more relaxed experience ...and still did all of "the majors" ...plus most of the other attractions.

 

[Hiro]

The original article says that guests at AK hotel can no longer use Legacy FP.
Does this mean any other on site guests can still use legacy FP?
I heard that All star, pop and sport guest also cannot use legacy FP but how about other on site guests??

 

[Cesar R M]

Firstly, I would imagine that during Spring Break, with waits of 2-4 hours, you weren't getting more than 3 FPs in a single day anyway (assuming you get one at 9 am for 10 am, but 10 am you are probably looking at a 1 pm FP for anything worthwhile, and by 1 pm you'd be lucky to get a 9 pm FP for Peter Pan). The point of the Park Hopper? Go to one park in the morning, get on w/o much wait, and have FPs reserved for your evening park; under the current system, evenings in a theme park are frequently filled w/ fluff attractions, not E-Tickets, due to wait times. Now you can actually arrive at Epcot at 3 pm during Spring Break and ride Soarin.

No system is perfect, but I think FP+ could actually benefit folks during the busiest weeks if used effectively. During the quiet months, when you could reasonably get a FP for Soarin, Test Track, and Maelstrom in one day, FP+ is a negative.

My biggest bone to pick w/ the new system is how much it seems to have cost and, therefore, the fact that it has cost us MANY new attractions.

actually; in my opinion....the new FP+ seems the perfect system to force the attendees to purchase another day ticket (or extend their stay ), because; "I didn't see that top tier attraction because it was either packed or I was forced to choose 1 per day".

so no surprise why it dings $$$ a la scrooge Mcduck on the Disney executives.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

And it should be remembered Uni was offering early entry to resort guests to experience the Boy Wizard area, a perk I believe was also extended to Virgin holiday guests.

Yep. Uni was smart enough to do two things here:

1. Not include FJ on their free express pass for hotel guests which keeps the standby line moving at a good clip.

2. Not alienate those hotel guests by instead opening that area of the park an hour early solely for them.

And the best part is... Both of these things have been done without negatively impacting the experience of the other group of guests.

Funny thing is... I would almost RATHER have an express pass line for FJ! The que is so incredible and full of so much detail and interesting things to watch, I find myself almost rushed through it. I routinely let people pass me, just because I want to watch the portraits for longer than the 15 seconds it takes to walk through that room.

 

[wdwmagic]

The original article says that guests at AK hotel can no longer use Legacy FP.
Does this mean any other on site guests can still use legacy FP?
I heard that All star, pop and sport guest also cannot use legacy FP but how about other on site guests??

The article I wrote doesn't mention Animal Kingdom Lodge.

The restricted resorts are Pop and All Star. The other resorts may still be able to use FP, but are being discouraged from doing so. AS the rollout progresses, I would expect that to be enforced across more and more resorts.

 

[psukardi]

And can anyone tell me why we would buy Park Hoppers anymore. The Fast pass only works at one park, so why would anyone leave that first park.

Dining would be my rationale for it. Go to MK in the morning and then go to Diner in Epcot that evening. Go to AK for 1/2 a day and then food in Epcot

 

[Cesar R M]

The article I wrote doesn't mention Animal Kingdom Lodge.

The restricted resorts are Pop and All Star. The other resorts may still be able to use FP, but are being discouraged from doing so. AS the rollout progresses, I would expect that to be enforced across more and more resorts.

when do you think they will bring the definitive axe to to the old FP?

 

[wm49rs]

when do you think they will bring the definitive axe to to the old FP?

I'm not sure they ever will. Instead, the announcements FP+ will simply continue, with the old system going by the eventual wayside....

 

[Cesar R M]

I'm not sure they ever will. Instead, the announcements FP+ will simply continue, with the old system going by the eventual wayside....

so..gradual phase out until noone remembers it?


-"grandpah, tell me a story about disney"

-"son, back in my days.. we had this amazing fast past system.. not to be confused with the new scroogy fp+ thing!"
"Boy.. we sure had fun back then!"