I am a firm believer that Fastpass Plus increased wait times around Walt Disney World. What do you guys think? I'm sure someone on this forum has more insight than me and I'd love to hear from them on this issue.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Fastpass Plus and Wait Times
- Thread starter justintheharris
- Start date
I added another option and made another typo in the process.
danyoung56
Well-Known Member
I think it's a no brainer that the standby lines are much longer. But if someone uses FP+ judiciously, they (I) can ride a bunch of stuff with minimal waits.
Well obviously but I’m wondering if people perceive fastpass plus as a reason that the standby lines have increased if not whether or not they actually are the reason
Surfin' Tuna
Well-Known Member
Lines have increased, because attendance has increased. That's true. The standby lines are longer, because of fastpass+. This is also true. They give priority to the fastpass+ line, which makes people wait in the standby line longer. Standby would move faster if it was the only line - that's a pretty simple observation. I'm glad they have fastpass+ even if it is a thorn in most people's side. The only time fastpass+ is awful is when I can't book what I want; then I am sure it is the root of all evil.
Let's see... If that's the reason, then wait times for PotC should have increased from 5 minutes to 5.4 minutes.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
You think that the relationship between wait times and park attendance is linear?
If it isn't, what's the point in bringing it up?
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Do you understand the difference between linear and non-linear relationships?
bigrigross
Well-Known Member
The biggest problem is occurring because of staffing. There are now less CMs manning rides and other attractions all while attendance is increasing. That is the biggest problem. If anything, FP+ is just keeping it steady.
HansGruber
Well-Known Member
FP+ can definitely screw-up the wait times.
If a ride is closed for any substantial amount of time, the park must honor those FP tickets, thus pushing the wait time to insane levels once the ride reopens.
Also, FP+ has completely screwed-up the relationship between how many people are currently in stand-by vs. the current wait time.
I've seen Space Mountain with a 120 minute wait time when there were only a few hundred people in the stand-by line.
If a ride is closed for any substantial amount of time, the park must honor those FP tickets, thus pushing the wait time to insane levels once the ride reopens.
Also, FP+ has completely screwed-up the relationship between how many people are currently in stand-by vs. the current wait time.
I've seen Space Mountain with a 120 minute wait time when there were only a few hundred people in the stand-by line.
Sure. But to cite an "8% increase in visitors" is meaningless unless you can show the relationship to the massive increases in wait times at rides like PotC.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Good. Then you know that to assume that an 8% increase in park attendance to correlate to an 8% increase in waiting time is silly. Off the top of your head you asserted that in 2014 there was a 5 minute wait for Pirates of the Caribbean, so assuming you're correct this attraction was already being patronized beyond its hourly capacity, (since there was a queue at all). Pirates handles about 3,500 guests an hour already, and in your model we're already at capacity so adding at least an additional 4,000 potential riders into the park isn't going to increase the wait time as a linear function of guest attendance- it's going to begin increasing as a function of how many prospective and willing riders are in the park that exceed the ride's capacity, which according to your recollection, they were already exceeding. That's why expecting an 8% increase in park attendance produced a much higher increase in wait times than 108% of the original queues.
For what it's worth, if we're talking specifically about the Magic Kingdom, attendance has increased more like 9% since the introduction of Fast Pass Plus, so we're really talking about more than five thousand extra guests in the park than would be there before 2014.
If you've actually been on the ride, you'll know that 5 minute wait equates to a casual stroll through the queue. And an 8% increase in attendance, given the number of other attractions and rides available to absorb those 5,000 guests, shouldn't increase wait times at a particular attraction by 900%... unless there's some other factor (like FP+) driving people to it.