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

[awilliams4]

I hate when people curse on family message boards, haha.

You must research the Disney product now, months in advance! For dinners, experiences, and now FastPasses. You now need to research in order to have success. I guess Disney thinks that this business model WILL work for them.

Modified....to griping.

I personally believe that Disney has known for years that newbie's are very frustrated at WDW in regards to many things but FP being one of them. Disney taking a limited product that can only be given out so many times per day and dividing it up to all park visitors equally makes perfect sense. I also believe that it is only 3 right now so that there is availability each day to non-resort guests and to allow some rescheduling throughout the day.

I am surprised I haven't noticed any speculative models on the boards yet theorizing that Epcot has X number of E-Ticket FPs they can handle and they usually have X guests, plus we need to leave a bit of capacity for rescheduling. I suspect, that '3' has a whole lot to do with that.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I can't wait for Disney to switch over to FP+ completely and remove Legacy Fastpass so you all can stop complaining about which group of guests is getting the better treatment.

 

[Nubs70]

Some average wait times from this and last year (thank you, touringplans) compared to what was listed yesterday (1 PM) on MDE:

DAK December 30, 2012 (touringplans)
- DINOSAUR: 56 min
- Expedition Everest: 85 min
- Kali River Rapids: 12 min
- Kilimanjaro Safaris: 74 min
- Primeval Whirl: 46 min
Total: 273 min

DAK December 30, 2013 (touringplans)
- DINOSAUR: 60 min
- Expedition Everest: 75 min
- Kali River Rapids: 25 min
- Kilimanjaro Safaris: 88 min
- Primeval Whirl: 27 min
Total: 275 min

DAK December 30, 2013 (MDE - 1 pm)
- DINOSAUR: 70 min
- Expedition Everest: 75 min
- Kali River Rapids: 10 min
- Kilimanjaro Safaris: 120 min
- Primeval Whirl: 50 min
Total: 325 min

Can't say if crowd levels are different so only Disney knows what this means.

I was hoping the new DAS policy would have had an observable effect. Doesn't seem to be.

So, offsite guests now get to stand in long attraction lines plus long FP+ kiosk lines.

Marvelous.

I would wait till early February for the data to accumulate. Then compare year over year wait times over a period of two weeks before and after 12/25.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I don't think we'll truly know how it has impacted the standby wait times until legacy Fastpass is removed and the system has been given time to have adjustments made. At the very least, the NYE wait times tell us that it hasn't made it worse. Also, up until the last few days, DAK was showing shorter than average wait times.

 

[flynnibus]

However, the new DAS policy has been fully in effect for a couple of months now. Theoretically, if a large percentage of WDW guests were using (or abusing) the system, then we should see the impact of that new policy immediately.

GAC abuse was far more an issue at DLR from what I've gathered. I don't expect much of a measurable impact at WDW.

Or maybe they all just went to UNI because they thought UNI wouldn't treat them as bad as Disney..

 

[wm49rs]

GAC abuse was far more an issue at DLR from what I've gathered. I don't expect much of a measurable impact at WDW.

By CMs, yes. With others I don't know how the two parks compared....

 

[ParentsOf4]

GAC abuse was far more an issue at DLR from what I've gathered. I don't expect much of a measurable impact at WDW.

I agree. We all heard about the rampant GAC abuse at DLR but recognize that the GAC policy changed because of very limited high-profile abuse at WDW.

The thing is, there were a lot of nasty things said on these boards concerning families with special needs and the old GAC system. Others felt sorry for these families and were happy that WDW tried to do something nice for them.

I really was hoping that we'd see at least some sort of objective evidence that the new DAS policy was making a difference in Standby lines. In other words, that all the & moaning about the old GAC system had at least some justification.

So far, all I see is families with children with special needs being told to go through the "FP dash".

Isn't this one of the things FP+ was supposed to solve? The need for parents to separate while one goes running about from attraction-to-attraction collecting FP return times?

I guess I'm disappointed that families with special needs (at least at WDW) got shafted while those that bellyached are still stuck in lines that seem to be just as long as before.

Relating all this to the point of this thread, some thought that FP+ would be some sort of magic cure and Standby lines would be reduced. As you probably know, I've always thought WDW's problem is one of ride capacity and that FP+ doesn't solve that.

Overwhelmingly, getting FP+ selections for It's a Bug' Life does not make guests decide that they want to skip Expedition Everest or Kilimanjaro Safaris. Demand for popular attractions will remain high regardless of what games Disney plays with FP+. We saw it before when Disney used to spit out "bonus" FP. No reason to think FP+ is going to change that in any meaningful way. Despite what some might think, most guests are just not that dense.

Still, I was hoping for some signs that the new DAS policy was having a noticeable impact on Standby lines. After all, the new DAS policy should theoretically decrease demand.

Casually looking at the data available on touringplans.com, it appears numbers are not there to suggest the new DAS policy made a meaningful difference. It seems that no one is benefiting from the new DAS policy while families with special needs are being adversely impacted.

I suppose we need to keep watching and keep hoping that these FP+ and DAS policy changes are more than just cynical moves by corporate Disney to manipulate the public into thinking "new" equals "better".

 

[flynnibus]

By CMs, yes. With others I don't know how the two parks compared....

ancedotal evidence that I personally observed... saw a ton at DLR by teens and families.

 

[TheDisneyMagic]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but FP+ was made available to Annual Pass holders today. 3 per day are available for the whole year.

 

[MrNonacho]

If this is true, it's not yet rolled out to everyone. No luck with my wife's AP.

 

[alissafalco]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but FP+ was made available to Annual Pass holders today. 3 per day are available for the whole year.

How? Through MDE? Because this is the screen that I get when I just tried to schedule FP+ and I have my AP linked to my account.

 

[Tom Morrow]

ancedotal evidence that I personally observed... saw a ton at DLR by teens and families.

Exact same situation at WDW. The WDW attractions that were chosen to track GAC usage were reporting as high as 1/5th to 1/4th of everyone riding per hour entering via GAC.... we've been over this!

 

[donsullivan]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but FP+ was made available to Annual Pass holders today. 3 per day are available for the whole year.

Not for me it hasn't. Care to share some additional detail to support the statement?

 

[RSoxNo1]

I absolutely hated the fact that you could return anytime. That was a horrible policy that really affected standby lines.

I get that, but I would still like to see larger windows on lower demand Fastpasses. Sure, keep Soarin', Test Track and Toy Story Mania windows to an hour, but is it so bad to open the window for Jungle Cruise to 2 or 3 hours?

 

[Disneyfamily4]

A friend of mine is there today and he was given the Key to the world card as well as fast pass +. He said from talking to his resort concierge, that all moderate and luxury resort guest will get both. All value resort guests will just get the the 3 Fast Pass + on the bands.

My friend tried to get the scoop for annual pass holders, but the concierge did not know. He was under the impression that getting the key to the world card is going to be a perk for staying at a moderate or above resort. He also said that when he got to the resort window for check in, the lady at the counter said " Since you have park hopper tickets, here is your key to the world ticket to use for fast passes at the additional park you enter". So this may also be for just people who stay in Moderate or above resorts, with Park Hopper. Giving the cards for Park Hopping does make a lot of sense, especially being that the Fast Pass + does not allow you to plan anything at two parks in one day.

If this is a perk for staying at a better resort, fast pass + along with the Key to the world card to get more fast passes would be great IMO.

 

[doctornick]

If this is a perk for staying at a better resort, fast pass + along with the Key to the world card to get more fast passes would be great IMO.

Except they are getting rid of the traditional FP machines. People have posted the work permits for that process, so it will likely be happening in the near future (next month or two, I would think).

I wouldn't be surprised if long term, however, resort guests will get extra FP+. A simple scale would be:

Day guests: 3 F+, cannot book until day of
Value: 3 FP+, get to book at 60 days
Mod: 4 FP+, get to book at 60 days
Deluxe: 5 FP+, get to book at 60 days

 

[Disneyfamily4]

Something has to change for the Park Hoppers. If the Fast pass + continues to not allow access to plan something at two parks in one day, I think there will definitely be a decline in people buying Park Hoppers.

 

[TimeTrip]

I wonder what percentage of disney-goers actually took advantage of fastpasses at 2 parks in one day. I suspect that percentage is quite low. When I park hopped before moving to FL, I would either have a short morning at Animal Kingdom and get fast passes at the afternoon-evening park, or take a long morning/afternoon at the first park with the knowledge that good fastpasses would be gone by the time I made it to the second.

 

[doctornick]

Something has to change for the Park Hoppers. If the Fast pass + continues to not allow access to plan something at two parks in one day, I think there will definitely be a decline in people buying Park Hoppers.

Who knows. Personally, I find that FP+ makes me more likely to use hoppers since I can reserve FP+ in the afternoon/evening in a different park and just hit a bunch of rides standby in the morning in my first park. Previously, when I would have paper FP in hand for the initial park and less chance of getting paper FP for top rides in the second park after going later, I was not particularly inclined to hop.

 

[donsullivan]

Something has to change for the Park Hoppers. If the Fast pass + continues to not allow access to plan something at two parks in one day, I think there will definitely be a decline in people buying Park Hoppers.

I've always been of the impression that one of the goals of MDE and specifically the FP+ portion of it is to de-emphasize the whole park-hopping concept. They're not going to prevent you from park-hopping but are also not going to reward the behavior by allowing you to get FP+ at multiple parks in one day.

As I've understood it, one of their goals with FP+ advance reservation is to better manage staffing by improving their ability to predict how many people will be in each park on a given day. They can match staffing to demand better and reduce over/under staffing conditions helping to manage labor cost a little better.