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

[ParentsOf4]

Of course, the flip side of that is that if this is working "ok," then maybe they won't have to give offsite users any advance access. That would be one pretty big perk for staying onsite and a good way to recoup the massive sum sunk into mm+. Granted, this "test" is so far only at AK, which would probably be the easiest to implement such a protocol. But so far, thus seems to be going much better than I expected.

Exactly!

That's why I think operation of the FP+ kiosk lines is the most interesting thing to watch right now.

One person posted FP+ kiosk lines at DAK were about 20 deep earlier today but, so far, I haven't read anyone post how quickly the lines were moving.

 

[TDF]

Of course, the flip side of that is that if this is working "ok," then maybe they won't have to give offsite users any advance access. That would be one pretty big perk for staying onsite and a good way to recoup the massive sum sunk into mm+. Granted, this "test" is so far only at AK, which would probably be the easiest to implement such a protocol. But so far, this seems to be going much better than I expected.

Good perk and a great way for Disney to make more money. Indeed it is going much better… where are all the haters now? LOL

Figment is surprising but I thought the point of FastPass+ was to get riders on other rides. Maybe we can finally get some love to other attractions not “prime.”

 

[flyerjab]

It's good to see something positive for a change. Honestly, the "why we can't have nice things" thread became unreadable to the point where I needed to stop looking at it.

Any news on future park rollouts for this system?

 

[Cletus]

Good perk and a great way for Disney to make more money. Indeed it is going much better… where are all the haters now? LOL

Oh, we're still here. I imagine we might be able to recruit some new people from this FP+ kiosk line at EE in the near future!

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

So ill be able to get as many FPs as I do currently afterall? Thats good to know.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

You know, it's possible that a vast majority are passing the kiosks by completely and only doing stand by... That could be for many reasons. Maybe they don't know what it is. Maybe they thing they aren't allowed to do it. Maybe they don't want to slow down to figure it all out.

I have no idea... But it's possible. If there's one park that you could do that with and not ruin your day with waits, it's AK.

 

[TDF]

Oh, we're still here. I imagine we might be able to recruit some new people from this FP+ kiosk line at EE in the near future!

I am not saying those lines are acceptable but you gotta think about it in other ways also. This is brand new. These people probably go to Disney once or have never been to Disney before. When you pay to park and are handed a FastPass+ information packet most think it is probably necessary to do and they should do it. As I said I think in the future Disney will let guess link passes and choose FastPass+ that way, plus it is Christmas. There are lines for everything the bathroom, drinks, rides, etc… I remember with the old FastPass machines I had to wait in line to. Still not much of a difference and the ride times are not effected so… yea. If you can’t wait in line don’t go to Disney… especially during Christmas.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Oh, we're still here. I imagine we might be able to recruit some new people from this FP+ kiosk line at EE in the near future!

How quickly is the line moving?

For someone entering the line, how long do you think it would take before they finish and exit with their FP+ selections?

Thanks!

 

[orky8]

You know, it's possible that a vast majority are passing the kiosks by completely and only doing stand by... That could be for many reasons. Maybe they don't know what it is. Maybe they thing they aren't allowed to do it. Maybe they don't want to slow down to figure it all out.

I have no idea... But it's possible. If there's one park that you could do that with and not ruin your day with waits, it's AK.

But this happened with FP too.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

But this happened with FP too.

Sure. But you ramp up the technical and time requirements, plus give everyone a daunting learning curve to progress... I could see many more skip this than regular FP.

I have no idea... But it's possible.

How great would it be if the net result is shorter stand by waits because no one wants to use their system they spent $2bill on? Ha. One can dream, at least.

 

[ParentsOf4]

You know, it's possible that a vast majority are passing the kiosks by completely and only doing stand by... That could be for many reasons. Maybe they don't know what it is. Maybe they thing they aren't allowed to do it. Maybe they don't want to slow down to figure it all out.

I have no idea... But it's possible. If there's one park that you could do that with and not ruin your day with waits, it's AK.

But this happened with FP too.

DAK is an excellent choice for Disney to first experiment with FP+ for offsite guests.

It has only a few attractions and its headliners, KS and EE, have huge capacities. It also has considerably fewer visitors than MK or Epcot.

The problem with FP+ is that the user interface is more time-consuming to use than FP.

With FP, it's a matter of looking at the posted return time, sticking in your media, and waiting for your paper FP ticket to print. For each person, using the interface usually takes no more than a few seconds. (I usually could get the 6 tickets for my family in under 15 seconds.) So, even if there were a dozen people ahead of you, the line only took a few minutes.

With FP+, the interface is a lot more time-consuming to use. It's a matter of deciding which attractions to chose, planning out when to visit them, and then hoping those attractions and times are available. It's more akin to ordering food at a WDW restaurant, with the additional caveat that the food you want might not be there by the time it's your turn to place your order.

FP+ helps avoid backtracking between attractions but it also limits us to 3 FP per day and only at one theme park.

FP+ requires preplanning. Many will like that; others will dislike.

FP+ also has attraction tiering at Epcot and DHS. That most definitely stinks.

As a whole, FP+ is not better or worse than FP, just different.

However, if offsite guests also have to wait in long, slow FP+ kiosk lines, then FP+ is decidedly a step in the wrong direction.

Let's hope offsite guests eventually get to pre-book their FP+ too.

 

[orky8]

Sure. But you ramp up the technical and time requirements, plus give everyone a daunting learning curve to progress... I could see many more skip this than regular FP.

I have no idea... But it's possible.

How great would it be if the net result is shorter stand by waits because no one wants to use their system they spent $2bill on? Ha. One can dream, at least.

Yeah. I thought this kiosk only would crash and burn horribly, though, and so far is much better than I expected. My gut feeling is those that skipped FP will skip FP+ and just like FP, eventually it's usage will rise.

I'm not seeing anything worth 2B here, and the real shame is mm+ has deferred spending on attractions.

 

[TDF]

I'm not seeing anything worth 2B here, and the real shame is mm+ has deferred spending on attractions.

I am not to sure about that. Yes we all know Disney has cut back on spending for attractions but once the roll out of MM+ is done I can see Disney spending money to update secondary attractions. If Disney continues to do the policy of choosing one major ride then two other rides, those rides will get more use and eventually will be updated. I guess one can hope for that though.

 

[Cletus]

Just read a report that all kiosks have a minimum 20 minute wait and that EE, KS and Micky M&G are all gone for the day. Dino FP return time is out to 8pm.

I would be ticked to wait 20 minutes and then get up there and NOTHING is available.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Just read a report that all kiosks have a minimum 20 minute wait and that EE, KS and Micky M&G are all gone for the day. Dino FP return time is out to 8pm.

I would be ticked to wait 20 minutes and then get up there and NOTHING is available.

Can't blame Disney for FP+ running out. KS and EE are both high capacity attractions. FP or FP+, they are going to run out during Christmas week.

However, Disney needs to work on keeping FP+ kiosk lines reasonably short.

Disney also needs a procedure to clearly announce what FP+ return times remain so guests aren't waiting for something they won't get.

Imagine if you showed up at a restaurant and they told you it was a 20-minute wait. Then after waiting 20 minutes, you were told that the only items left on the menu were ones you disliked.

Disney needs to avoid making the offsite guest experience worse. Word will get out and WDW will start losing day guests, significantly offsetting gains they hope to achieve through additional onsite guests.

 

[TDF]

Can't blame Disney for FP+ running out. KS and EE are both high capacity attractions. FP or FP+, they are going to run out during Christmas week.

However, Disney needs to work on keeping FP+ kiosk lines reasonably short.

Disney also needs a procedure to clearly announce what FP+ return times remain so guests aren't waiting for something they won't get.

Imagine if you showed up at a restaurant and they told you it was a 20-minute wait. Then after waiting 20 minutes, you were told that the only items left on the menu were ones you disliked.

Disney needs to avoid making the offsite guest experience worse. Word will get out and WDW will start losing day guests, significantly offsetting gains they hope to achieve through additional onsite guests.

This issue will probably be resolved with the MyDisneyExpierence app. I can also see there being return times posted like they where with the old FastPass. 20 minutes is long but once again with it being Christmas, it’s not that bad.

 

[lentesta]

Exactly. The wait times today seem pretty typical for Christmas. I suspect it would take a detailed analysis to notice one way or the other if anything has changed with FP+. We'd have to defer to @lentesta and his awesome team for that.

We'll take a look once things settle down at the end of next week.

For now you can look at individual attractions from 2013 and 2012 by adjusting the date in the URL.

Here's Peter Pan for December 27, 2013 and 2012:

http://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/attractions/peter-pans-flight/wait-times/date/2013-12-27 (peak of 180 minutes, average 105)

http://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/attractions/peter-pans-flight/wait-times/date/2012-12-27 (peak of 180, average 105)

 

[donsullivan]

I was at AK briefly today and noticed a few things with this 'test'

1) when I got there, you had to wait 20+ minutes in line, only to be told that there are no FP+ for anything but Nemo & ITTBAB.
2) there is no way to know until you get through the line what time FP+ is available for. If you knew in advance that 5:30 was too late for your schedule, you have to wait thru the line and then find out you can't use what's available.

If this is the future, the tip boards need start reflecting current return time instead of making you wait 20-30 minutes to find out

 

[Captain Chaos]

So, was the "successful" first day just really jumping to conclusions? Looking for any little positive out of this giant negative? Or is the testing still a rousing success???? After reading @donsullivan post above mine, I wouldn't call it a rousing success...

 

[donsullivan]

So here's an attempt to be a little more coherent than I was in typing in frustration on my phone this afternoon while in the park.

1) When I arrived a little after 1PM, the lines at nearly all of the FP+ locations ranged from 30 to 50+ people. To understand it I walked around the park to get a reasonable sense of whether the one up front behind the tip board was an anomaly and while others were a little shorter, there were long lines at all the FP+ locations.
2) The line I got in had about 25 people ahead of me and took ~20 minutes to get through since there is so much interaction between the guest and CM to get everything booked.
3) There is no way when you get in line to know what the available FP+ returns times are for attractions, nor is there any way to know if FP+ is even still available for an attraction you want. You have to wait the entire length of the line before you may find out that there are no FP+ available until after you have to leave the park or no FP+ for the attraction you wanted left available for the day. So then, not only do you not have an FP's, you wasted 20 minutes of your day to not get any FP's.

If this is going to be the model for FP+, they're going to have to come up with some way to alert guests what attractions are 'sold-out' and what time windows are available from what's left before they get in line. I get that today is a ridiculously busy day but the pattern will always be the same. If people are waiting 20 minutes in line and then you tell them there are no FP's for anything but Nemo and ITTBB they are not going to be happy campers. Especially since that 20 minutes could have otherwise been spent in the SB line of some attraction they were interested in instead of wasted in a FP line with nothing to show for it.

And now for my obligatory personal rant about how I continue to be disgusted by how poorly Passholders are being treated through all of this. I'm sitting with a Premier Passport and waiting in line for 20 minutes to not be able to get any FP's. Disney continues to make absolutely no commitment on what if any advance reservation options Passholders may have. And when you push them for something you get a patronizing "We understand you're disappointed, but we have nothing to announce at this time." Meanwhile, I continue to be unable to ride any headliner attraction when I visit a park.