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

[JimboJones123]

Same here cancelled Christmas trip because of bloody awful experience in August with MM- and My(bad)DisneyExperience application.

The app still BLOWS on Android.

Takes me over on average 90 seconds to pull up wait times. God forbid I want show times. It only gives the next one, not the full day's worth.

 

[JerseyDad]

Same here cancelled Christmas trip because of bloody awful experience in August with MM- and My(bad) DisneyExperience application.

....don't blame you one bit ...though I'm sure it's a disappointment.....

....our trip to WDW ...has been a yearly endeavor since 2004. We've always stayed on-site ...and we always felt that we got our moneys worth ...and more ...with each trip.

...but after our trip this past August ....our 2014 plans are more than just a bit "up in the air". IF ...and that is a BIG IF ...we go again ...it's 99% likely we'll stay off-site ...and do very limited trips to the parks. We drive ...so transport is not an issue ...though the hotel I scoped out has 4 shuttles per day each way. (Farfield Inn & Suites @ Marriot Village) ...and a room will be under $100/night with my member points / discount and AARP card.

....I won't buy into the whole FP+, MB and all that crap since we've been to WDW 11 time in 10 yrs ....so there's no "must do". But ...I will simply not be help captive with all this "technology" that they have decided "is better for me and my Disney Experience". Someone should let them know that a whole lotta' persons were just fine with their Disney experiences before they decided to mess with the "system".

 

[Tom Morrow]

AK is not really a fair test.

Switch it to DHS or Epcot where there are 2-3 long line attractions, and we will get a better picture.

There is rarely an AK ride that goes over 60 minutes.

True, but on a weekend before New Years, Everest and Safaris would normally be at around 60 minutes, not 30. I'm not actually saying this is solid evidence that it works, but the wait times DAK is reflecting are noticeably shorter than average for peak season.

 

[ford91exploder]

....don't blame you one bit ...though I'm sure it's a disappointment.....

....our trip to WDW ...has been a yearly endeavor since 2004. We've always stayed on-site ...and we always felt that we got our moneys worth ...and more ...with each trip.

It truly was a disappointment but Disney now feels like an extension of work not a vacation, hard deadlines for simple things that you need to reserve months in advance. Yeah you need a hard deadline for a tour or other organized experience.

Aride or where are we going to eat don't think so.

 

[wdisney9000]

Well said. I am also an AP holder for many years on top of spending thousands on multiple resort stays per year, food, shopping, and large tips. AP holders should be treated with the utmost respect and entitled value (same as those staying at the expensive resorts expect). However, under MM+ we are getting treated as second class citizens.

Thank you. It's one.of the reasons wife and I are not renewing our AP's this year. We are gonna visit Uni and DL this year instead and we are super excited. ( a feeling we haven't had in awhile when it comes to theme parks)

 

[Lord_Vader]

I am sitting in EPCOT, have been visiting the parks since the 21st.

There seems to be a massive shift in the times guests come to and leave the parks in general. We are averaging about six/seven attractions a day on average by using a combination of late afternoon FP+ and getting to the parks early with late evening dinners. We have been able to do more this year during the busy Christmas holiday than ever before.

In general I ding that the FP+ experience has allowed us to change entire park reservations quickly in the morning and not at all in the evening.

I will update more over the next few days as NYE is upon us and the very high croud levels.

 

[RSoxNo1]

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.

You know what also worked, giving guests the next available time and having a clock at each kiosk saying when the next available time was. Then... get this... you could actually return any time after the original opening window.

There is absolutely no way to look at this as it is currently as an improvement. It won't be an improvement until you can get it on your smart phone, at which point it will save guests from trekking around the park, but will otherwise still be less convenient.

If you want this to be an improvement for all guests while still prioritizing on-site guests, here's how you do it:

• On-site guests get advanced access to 1 attraction per day, unless they choice the Magic Kingdom, then they get 2 attractions per day.
• On-site Fastpass+ distribution includes all current Fastpass+ attractions, including parade viewing and fireworks viewing
• On-site Fastpass+ distribution is restricted to 50% of total Fastpass+ capacity at legacy Fastpass attractions
• Offsite guests cannot access Fastpass+ at new Fastpass+ attractions, parade viewing, and fireworks viewing
• Day of, guests will get access to Fastpass based on the legacy Fastpass distribution rules. On-site guests can modify their advanced selection under the current rules for modification.
  
• All of these "transactions" should be able to be done with a smart phone where you can define the individuals that you're traveling with and make Fastpass selections for all of them at once for the next available Fastpass time or the scheduled time you choice if you're modifying a Fastpass+ reservation.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The app still BLOWS on Android.

Takes me over on average 90 seconds to pull up wait times. God forbid I want show times. It only gives the next one, not the full day's worth.

The biggest problem I have with the app isn't the slowness now (it's still not great), but that the information is too compartmentalized and it's not user friendly to change. The default wait times are set to the Magic Kingdom, but to change parks quickly you need to go to "Filter", then change the park and then accept to go back to the park. Comparatively, on the TouringPlans app you can bring up all of the parks on the home screen using the touring plans app and it pulls up all of the wait times and show times, as well as character meet and greet wait times in one location. When you try to get dining information for a quick service location on the app, it's a total waste. It's also difficult to get same day reservations as well.

The convenient aspect of My Magic + should be the mobile integration. The problem is, the means of conveyance for that information (The My Disney Experience App) isn't user friendly at all. This means that the two consumer facing components of Next Gen, The App and Fastpass+ are currently downgrading the user experience.

 

[ParentsOf4]

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.

 

[JimboJones123]

The FP line for Space Mt was in 4 switchbacks and still back to the restrooms last night.

Too. Many. Fastpasses.

Actually, the Peoplemover and Space Mt Fastpass lines almost met last night right after Holiday Wishes.

 

[kelknight84]

You know what also worked, giving guests the next available time and having a clock at each kiosk saying when the next available time was. Then... get this... you could actually return any time after the original opening window.

There is absolutely no way to look at this as it is currently as an improvement. It won't be an improvement until you can get it on your smart phone, at which point it will save guests from trekking around the park, but will otherwise still be less convenient.

If you want this to be an improvement for all guests while still prioritizing on-site guests, here's how you do it:

• On-site guests get advanced access to 1 attraction per day, unless they choice the Magic Kingdom, then they get 2 attractions per day.
• On-site Fastpass+ distribution includes all current Fastpass+ attractions, including parade viewing and fireworks viewing
• On-site Fastpass+ distribution is restricted to 50% of total Fastpass+ capacity at legacy Fastpass attractions
• Offsite guests cannot access Fastpass+ at new Fastpass+ attractions, parade viewing, and fireworks viewing
• Day of, guests will get access to Fastpass based on the legacy Fastpass distribution rules. On-site guests can modify their advanced selection under the current rules for modification.
  
• All of these "transactions" should be able to be done with a smart phone where you can define the individuals that you're traveling with and make Fastpass selections for all of them at once for the next available Fastpass time or the scheduled time you choice if you're modifying a Fastpass+ reservation.

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

 

[Tinous]

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

But the kiosk lines haven't nearly been as bad as you predicted, and except for a couple times during extreme volume days this week have been almost negligible. Even with a moderate wait, relative to what's been reported here, it beats scrambling around the park to get traditional fast passes. Moreover, you keep assuming that this setup is the way it will be for all time. I still believe it's just a matter of time, and hopefully not too long, before non-resort guests can update their FP+ reservations via the mobile apps and the kiosks are just there as backup for those without modern phones or bad signals.

 

[tribbleorlfl]

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

100% agree. I know hoarding fp's and then using them later was a common strategy used by "experts", but as you referred to, the practice wreaked havoc on SB and FP lines during peak times when people used non-peak, out-of-window tickets.

 

[Grumps]

Will off-site guests ever be allowed to download the app and use it? I am not even talking about 60 days prior, but just being able to get log in and schedule it when in the park sounds better than using these kiosks.

 

[awilliams4]

We would not have been able to get on enough rides to make the trip "worth it," without waiting in lines (which aren't worth it). Three FastPasses a day??! Ridic!

Not sure how many rides would make it worth your trip but this seems to suggest to those that speculate it isn't worth it, that it is.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3214502

As far as 3 FP+ being ridiculous. Is 25% of the park goers getting 10+ FP- while the other 75% don't rate because they didn't wake up fast enough really something you would consider better? If so, seems a bit self centered to me.

 

[surfsupdon]

Not sure how many rides would make it worth your trip but this seems to suggest to those that speculate it isn't worth it, that it is.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3214502

As far as 3 FP+ being ridiculous. Is 25% of the park goers getting 10+ FP- while the other 75% don't rate because they didn't wake up fast enough really something you would consider better? If so, seems a bit self centered to me.

Absolutely. It's my family's vacation that we paid for. It's not a bit self centered, it's very self centered. I want to do as much as possible, and FP+ made that much tougher, and our ride count was very down.

But we still had a lot of fun outside at BoardWalk and walking around Parks.

 

[awilliams4]

Absolutely. It's my family's vacation that we paid for. It's not a bit self centered, it's very self centered. I want to do as much as possible, and FP+ made that much tougher, and our ride count was very down.

But we still had a lot of fun outside at BoardWalk and walking around Parks.

So for the newbie family that shows up and doesn't know all the FP- tricks...I guess it isn't their family vacation? They didn't pay for it?

FP+ makes it to where 1st timers for example have the same access to FP as everyone else because it is something Disney will market to those that have resort ressies. If you would rather those types of visitors be left out in the cold, I am glad that the decision makers at Disney are focused on Customer Service and not screwing other people to get more of their 'fair' share.

 

[surfsupdon]

So for the newbie family that shows up and doesn't know all the FP- tricks...I guess it isn't their family vacation? They didn't pay for it?

Every on site Guest is left out in the cold. With tiered FastPassing, you can FP Test Track but you got to wait in line for Soarin. Whereas you used to be able to grab a FastPass for both.

That's an angle I am annoyed at.

If you didn't know about FastPass of the past, that is your fault for not doing your homework. If you don't do your homework, you perform poorly on the test (a day in the Parks). Not my fault.

 

[awilliams4]

l

Every on site Guest is left out in the cold. With tiered FastPassing, you can FP Test Track but you got to wait in line for Soarin. Whereas you used to be able to grab a FastPass for both.

That's an angle I am annoyed at.

If you didn't know about FastPass of the past, that is your fault for not doing your homework. If you don't do your homework, you perform poorly on the test (a day in the Parks). Not my fault.

Is not having access to Extra Magic Hours being left out in the cold?

Epcot is that way because they don't have enough E Tickets. Who's fault is that? I would suggest anyone and everyone that participated in the Irrational Exuberance bubble and then everyone that lived outside of their means 6 years ago to crash things all over again. The economy over the past 15 years has a lot to do with why Epcot doesn't fit FP+ all that great just yet.

As far as homework goes, Disney is taking a product they are offering and they are deciding now that those that don't know any better, still get 3 FPs. Those that do know better, also get 3 FPs.

If the decision makers took your approach and said, if you don't spend 100s of hours researching our product, your screwed. I have a weird feeling that your business model wouldn't long last and if you are griping at Disney for that, sorry, your wrong.

 

[surfsupdon]

l

Is not having access to Extra Magic Hours being left out in the cold?

Epcot is that way because they don't have enough E Tickets. Who's fault is that? I would suggest anyone and everyone that participated in the Irrational Exuberance bubble and then everyone that lived outside of their means 6 years ago to crash things all over again. The economy over the past 15 years has a lot to do with why Epcot doesn't fit FP+ all that great just yet.

As far as homework goes, Disney is taking a product they are offering and they are deciding now that those that don't know any better, still get 3 FPs. Those that do know better, also get 3 FPs.

If the decision makers took your approach and said, if you don't spend 100s of hours researching our product, your screwed. I have a weird feeling that your business model wouldn't long last and if you are at Disney for that, sorry, your wrong.

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.