Future of FP+ vs Virtual Queues

[Trackmaster]

I did say it wasnt liked by everyone. It was controversial to guests who got to the parks early, tapped on their devices and missed out. It also failed due to the inconsistent ride ability to function. But for Disney it created some manner of order they were seeking. Because of that it will be relied upon again. FP+ also has been less than favorable with many people who believe it creates more problems and line building, but again Disney sees it as a solution to avoid chaos.

Right, people always want to complain about something, especially when they can't envision the alternatives. I did concede that the problem with RotR is not the queuing system but the inexplicably and inexcusably poor capacity, even way before Covid was a thing. In my opinion, Disney needed just to stick with an omnimover. The IP, the story, the effects, and the theming were enough to make it a hot ride. They didn't need to throw in a low capacity thrilling ride system on top. I'd have saved that for a lower expectation ride where the demand wouldn't break the park. Maybe I don't know the exact blueprint of the building, but to my knowledge, only 16 people load at a time (pre-Covid levels). Mickey and Minnie at least had 32.

It needed to be an omnimover like Spaceship Earth or Little Mermaid where the entire track was a ride vehicle. Trade-off the quality for some capacity.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Management (hahahaha, funny) should look at Rise and ask themselves why people would still attempt to ride, with the same knowledge that they may not get a boarding group, the ride may go offline, and they may have to sit behind plexiglass bouncing and reflecting light this way and that. Why? Maybe because the public making these choices don't think anything else is worth their time. And that's... why we live in Frozen Ever After, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Flight of Passage, Rise territory. There simply isn't demand for anything else on this scale. Would people risk a boarding group for those other three? I'm going to say YES. But at least those work!

 

[Roakor]

Love it or hate it, fassPass+ makes standby lines longer. a lot longer. My opinion is either do all stand by or all fassPass not both. My preference is all standby. When they have their party nights (halloween/christmas) there is no fasspass. I have seen (and stood in) lines that extend beyond the ride entrance but only take 20-30 min to get through vs the 1-2 hours they do during the day with fasspass running. Last few times we got the party tickets for the sole reason of being able to ride rides without fasspass.

The only reason they are not moving that fast now without fasspass is because ride capacity is severely limited due to Covid.

 

[Chi84]

Love it or hate it, fassPass+ makes standby lines longer. a lot longer. My opinion is either do all stand by or all fassPass not both. My preference is all standby. When they have their party nights (halloween/christmas) there is no fasspass. I have seen (and stood in) lines that extend beyond the ride entrance but only take 20-30 min to get through vs the 1-2 hours they do during the day with fasspass running. Last few times we got the party tickets for the sole reason of being able to ride rides without fasspass.

The only reason they are not moving that fast now without fasspass is because ride capacity is severely limited due to Covid.

Party nights have limited capacity. We visited the parks before Disney instituted fastpasses, and standby lines for the most popular rides often exceeded an hour. Some people can stand in lines that long, but not everyone is willing or even able to do so. There were a lot of families with older people or young children who would just not go on those rides. Like it or not, Disney is going to cater to those multi-generational groups, and FP is one of the ways it does so.

 

[NelleBelle]

We're still fans of the MaxPass at DLR--worth every $ spent on it! We never rope-dropped and went over their version of Holiday Food & Wine festival weekend in Nov. and it was amazing!! I absolutely hate the idea of trying to compete for a VQ. At least when FOP opened, you had the ability to wait in a stand-by line if you wanted.

 

[Trackmaster]

Love it or hate it, fassPass+ makes standby lines longer. a lot longer. My opinion is either do all stand by or all fassPass not both. My preference is all standby. When they have their party nights (halloween/christmas) there is no fasspass. I have seen (and stood in) lines that extend beyond the ride entrance but only take 20-30 min to get through vs the 1-2 hours they do during the day with fasspass running. Last few times we got the party tickets for the sole reason of being able to ride rides without fasspass.

The only reason they are not moving that fast now without fasspass is because ride capacity is severely limited due to Covid.

100% stand-by might be egalitarian and enticing in theory, but the problem is that they're required by law to basically give Fast Passes to people if they ask... its called a DAS pass, and the law is the ADA. Love it or hate it, the ADA is here, and there's nothing Disney can do about it. Yeah, you say "But you need a disability." Well that's great, but there's also a law that says that they can't look at doctor's notes. So in effect, anybody can walk up and say "I have XYZ qualifying disability that makes me not able to wait in line, you can't see it, but its there." Eventually everybody will catch on if its that or waiting in never ending, never moving stand-by lines. So you might as well institutionalize the system and not make people have to lie to get it.

Or, who knows, maybe the GOP 6-3 majority in SCOTUS will strike down ADA altogether and we can go to 100% stand-by.

 

[Roakor]

Party nights have limited capacity.

The limited capacity of party nights is about the same as the limited capacity they have right now, but it doesn't matter what the capacity is. If you enter a standby line that starts at the exact same point with and without fasspass. It takes you 1hr+ to get through that line from that point with fasspass and 20 min to get through it without. We have entered rides like peter pan, 7 dwarves, space mountain where the stand by line started at the entrance to the line. with fasspass that would easily be 1hr+ wait time. Without fasspass we made it through in 20-30 min. And yes they had the full queue line open, no shortcuts.

 

[Chi84]

The limited capacity of party nights is about the same as the limited capacity they have right now, but it doesn't matter what the capacity is. If you enter a standby line that starts at the exact same point with and without fasspass. It takes you 1hr+ to get through that line from that point with fasspass and 20 min to get through it without. We have entered rides like peter pan, 7 dwarves, space mountain where the stand by line started at the entrance to the line. with fasspass that would easily be 1hr+ wait time. Without fasspass we made it through in 20-30 min. And yes they had the full queue line open, no shortcuts.

Well, there's no point in arguing. I can just tell you from my own experience that before FP of any kind, there were frequently waits of over an hour for Splash, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain and other popular rides. Even if it were half that, I know a lot of people (myself included) would prefer little to no wait with FP to waiting 30 minutes at several rides.

I don't agree that capacity doesn't matter. Without FP and in a near capacity park, you wouldn't be entering the line where you did on a party night.

 

[Trackmaster]

The limited capacity of party nights is about the same as the limited capacity they have right now, but it doesn't matter what the capacity is. If you enter a standby line that starts at the exact same point with and without fasspass. It takes you 1hr+ to get through that line from that point with fasspass and 20 min to get through it without. We have entered rides like peter pan, 7 dwarves, space mountain where the stand by line started at the entrance to the line. with fasspass that would easily be 1hr+ wait time. Without fasspass we made it through in 20-30 min. And yes they had the full queue line open, no shortcuts.

The only hard ticket that really offers you reduced lines (unless you get really lucky) is the After Hours. Everything else is really popular. The point of After Hours is to give you a shot at Disney when its empty, the point of the other stuff is that they're extravagant events that do stuff beyond a normal park day.

Its possible that After Hours might have a reduced capacity, but I don't think its ever really "sold out" and they don't really need to reduce the capacity. Its a total niche orient event for people who are willing to pay extra money to go at night for a few hours of exclusive ride time. Its not going to appeal to many people. I'm a huge supporter and advocate of it though. Especially for people you know who would never go to Disney on their own normally but like other theme parks.

 

[Paper straw fan]

Eh, see that's one of my issues with FP+... I feel like it creates an attitude of having superiority over other guests and (I'm trying to figure out how to explain this...) it places the guests against each other? if that makes sense?... "HAHA I BEAT THE SYSTEM!" and I really think, since this is a family theme park, the reservation system needs to be fair to all, which FP+ is not. Whereas the old FP system was. hey, you got their first and was able to grab a ticket! nothing complicated about that IMO

I know I can enjoy when we ‘get over’ and get a good list of rides that day, but I feel for (some) people who for whatever reason don’t really get FP before they go.

I know one day a nice family visiting at AK, that was in stand by on Safari, asked me what we did to get FP. They honestly didn’t know, and I felt a little bad that I, who’s been there maybe hundreds of times, was flying thru FP while these nice people who traveled and spent far more than I did (FL resident) and likely won’t get the chance to be there nearly as often we’re trying to do everything standby by default. I did what I could for them but setting up FP on the fly like that is almost pointless. So I let them know where a couple of the old manual FP ticket kiosks were (this was a couple years back) and said if they were there any additional days to probably go check w customer service about getting their stuff linked to the app. It’s a lot to take in, especially if you are conditioned to think theme parks are just ‘show up and get in lines’ that perhaps someone who hasn’t been to parks since they were kids themselves would.

I do sometimes miss the kiosks, there were times we got FP on them for a good ride, then lucked out after a rain storm and got on standby real quick- and after FP had ran out, just gave ours to some passers by that missed out.

 

[macefamily]

Before this rotten virus hit us, I heard rumors that Disney was developing a program where FastPass was going to
be an extra charge for the customers. I think Disney will take advantage of this situation and once the pandemic breaks
and things get back to normal, we're going to see that happen. Disney will need to squeeze every dime out of us to make
up for the losses from Corona.

 

[JusticeDisney]

The limited capacity of party nights is about the same as the limited capacity they have right now, but it doesn't matter what the capacity is. If you enter a standby line that starts at the exact same point with and without fasspass. It takes you 1hr+ to get through that line from that point with fasspass and 20 min to get through it without. We have entered rides like peter pan, 7 dwarves, space mountain where the stand by line started at the entrance to the line. with fasspass that would easily be 1hr+ wait time. Without fasspass we made it through in 20-30 min. And yes they had the full queue line open, no shortcuts.

Yeah, but you’re missing a key component of the equation. If there is no FP+, then you won’t be starting at the same point in the standby line because that line will be much longer due to the absence of the FP+.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I’ve actually been thinking about FP and all the new rides opening soon. Do you think there will still be tiers? With all the new stuff opening, it doesn’t seem quite as necessary.

 

[Chi84]

I’ve actually been thinking about FP and all the new rides opening soon. Do you think there will still be tiers? With all the new stuff opening, it doesn’t seem quite as necessary.

There have been other threads on this. Most people who seemed to have some insight into the matter thought that FP+ would not be coming back in its current form; they believe that Disney is going to adopt a completely different ride reservation system.

 

[Trackmaster]

There have been other threads on this. Most people who seemed to have some insight into the matter thought that FP+ would not be coming back in its current form; they believe that Disney is going to adopt a completely different ride reservation system.

My money is the new system running through "Virtual Queue." If you think about it, if Virtual Queue became the new Fast Pass, with the standby open alongside of it, it would be no different than just a free version of Max Pass. That's what I see, Max Pass but called Virtual Queue. Maybe they'll find a way to let people sprinkle some Magic Dust on it if they shell out some extra money.

 

[Chi84]

My money is the new system running through "Virtual Queue." If you think about it, if Virtual Queue became the new Fast Pass, with the standby open alongside of it, it would be no different than just a free version of Max Pass. That's what I see, Max Pass but called Virtual Queue. Maybe they'll find a way to let people sprinkle some Magic Dust on it if they shell out some extra money.

The key to enjoying WDW is being flexible enough to work with whatever system they have in place. I've been doing that for many years, so I'm sure I'll be able to adapt to the system they institute. I do hope that it will allow me to get the headliners without having to get to a park first thing in the morning though, because that's not happening.

 

[Trackmaster]

The key to enjoying WDW is being flexible enough to work with whatever system they have in place. I've been doing that for many years, so I'm sure I'll be able to adapt to the system they institute. I do hope that it will allow me to get the headliners without having to get to a park first thing in the morning though, because that's not happening.

Heck yeah man. I love it when they make things unnecessarily convoluted. The more they tinker, they more I can figure out how to beat it. I was despondent when I learned about they were robbing us of our believed FastPasses. But as I looked inward, I remembered that I am fully diagnosed with ADHD... and take medication for it, and I have a valid note from the doctor saying I should be able to skip lines because of it due to protections from the ADA. My people have been held down for way too long from the ablists, so I pull that card, and I use that with glee.

 

[MurphyJoe]

There have been other threads on this. Most people who seemed to have some insight into the matter thought that FP+ would not be coming back in its current form; they believe that Disney is going to adopt a completely different ride reservation system.

I don't have any inside scoop, but it probably has something to do with the Genie.

Revolutionary New Digital Offering, ‘Disney Genie,’ Coming to Walt Disney World Resort

"...a revolutionary new digital offering set to debut in late 2020 that will enhance the way you plan for and experience a trip to Walt Disney World Resort."

 

[Chi84]

I don't have any inside scoop, but it probably has something to do with the Genie.

Revolutionary New Digital Offering, ‘Disney Genie,’ Coming to Walt Disney World Resort

"...a revolutionary new digital offering set to debut in late 2020 that will enhance the way you plan for and experience a trip to Walt Disney World Resort."

As long as the Genie doesn't expect me to get up at 6 am to ride Rise of the Resistance, I'll be fine with it.

 

[MurphyJoe]

As long as the Genie doesn't expect me to get up at 6 am to ride Rise of the Resistance, I'll be fine with it.

Based on what little has been publicly shown, and that WDW doesn't have a paid skip-the-line option yet for the average visitor, I'm anticipating Genie will include paid themed touring packages. So while the daily boarding group lottery would still happen for RotR, there might be a Star Wars package or an All Access Studio package which would get the purchaser on the ride without having to bother with the lotto. Along those lines, packages could also include dining and individual experiences which normally carry an upcharge (behind the scenes tours, BBB).