Lines at the FP+ entrances

[Disneyfamily4]

Well, sortof also depends on when they went and where the kiosks were active. The only kiosks I saw were at Sids when I went in August.

But, I knew they were coming.

Yeah but remember, he used the word ignorant. Ignorant, would be what he is, to assume that the lines he saw, if they were short, would be like that during spring break. Which was a major point to everyone's posts here about the busy season. So he is either ignorant to think waiting in the lines at the kiosks are no big deal, or he has never used the system yet and doesn't know what he is talking about.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Well, sortof also depends on when they went and where the kiosks were active. The only kiosks I saw were at Sids when I went in August.

Yeah but remember, he used the word ignorant. Ignorant, would be what he is, to assume that the lines he saw, if they were short, would be like that during spring break. Which was a major point to everyone's posts here about the busy season. So he is either ignorant to think waiting in the lines at the kiosks are no big deal, or he has never used the system yet and doesn't know what he is talking about.

Kiosk usage now is much different than when I last visited in November.

In November, FP+ was limited to onsite guests, many of whom made their selections prior to arrival.

Now that FP+ is available to everyone, most of whom cannot make FP+ selections until after arriving, kiosk usage is up significantly.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

Kiosk usage now is much different than when I last visited in November.

In November, FP+ was limited to onsite guests, many of whom made their selections prior to arrival.

Now that FP+ is available to everyone, most of whom cannot make FP+ selections until after arriving, kiosk usage is up significantly.

Exactly, and for anyone who has gone there, they would know this. This of course leads me to believe a lot of the people who post they love these bands, have not even been there to use them in action yet. So most of all, they like the thought of the bands, not the effectiveness or lack there of.

 

[fillerup]

The money Disney is hoping to get out of this is through staff management and crowd control and other ways of using the data they get from the Magic Bands.

Not quite, Tom Staggs, I believe it was, stated in the Q4 '13 conference call that they expected this program to generate 300M in new revenue for FY14,
the rollout year.

That's not labor management or crowd control, that's 820K per day in new spending. Does anyone think that's happening?

 

[stevehousse]

Again, it's comments like this that make me believe that the majority of these people claim they have been to disney and used the bands when their posts show they clearly have not.

People have two choices. You can bring your cell to the park so it is more convenient to make changes or you can leave it in the room and wait 30 min at the kiosk during spring break.

Now there will be a reply, like the other one, claiming they have been there 11 times in the past 3 weeks.

There you go again, making assumptions. I'm sure if u actually took the time to read through the boards you would see that I actually have been to Disney recently and used the bands and so have all the others you claim haven't been!

Did I enjoy using them, yes. I was very skeptical just like u were until we actually got to use them. Again, it is your choice to bring your phone with u if u want. Either way, u still have access to the system.

Seeing as how you are much older than I am, I can see why you would be hesitant to rely on a phone for everything since it not something u grew up with. Now, are u actin this way because you don't have a smartphone or u just don't like having one on u 24/7 like most kids and young adults do these days?

 

[Disneyfamily4]

There you go again, making assumptions. I'm sure if u actually took the time to read through the boards you would see that I actually have been to Disney recently and used the bands and so have all the others you claim haven't been!

Did I enjoy using them, yes. I was very skeptical just like u were until we actually got to use them. Again, it is your choice to bring your phone with u if u want. Either way, u still have access to the system.

Seeing as how you are much older than I am, I can see why you would be hesitant to rely on a phone for everything since it not something u grew up with. Now, are u actin this way because you don't have a smartphone or u just don't like having one on u 24/7 like most kids and young adults do these days?

Yeah ok. But we don't need our phones though right?

 

[doctornick]

Again, it's comments like this that make me believe that the majority of these people claim they have been to disney and used the bands when their posts show they clearly have not.

People have two choices. You can bring your cell to the park so it is more convenient to make changes or you can leave it in the room and wait 30 min at the kiosk during spring break.

...or you can simply not makes changes and stick with whatever FP+ plans you have that day.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

...or you can simply not makes changes and stick with whatever FP+ plans you have that day.

Yeah because planning your day 30 days in advance always works out without a hitch.

 

[doctornick]

Yeah because planning your day 30 days in advance always works out without a hitch.

Everyone is different, but I am sure there are some folks who can and will plan out their whole vacation, including FP+ and stick to it.

Furthermore, a person could easily change their FP+ in the evening in their hotel room for the next day. I did that a little in Dec during our trip -- I would tweek things. Mostly, I stuck to the FP+ reservations I had booked 2 months before the vacation, but I did do some changes based on what we had already done during the vacation.

Anyway, being "forced" to carry your phone strikes me as one of those complaints brought up specifically to complain. Personally, I would say, if you want to go that vein, that mentioning that a lot of people simply don't have smart phones (or cell phones at all) is a much more valid point. That actually would impact a lot of guests.

Are there people who don't want to carry a phone on vacation? Sure, but I'd imagine they are an exceedingly small percentage of WDW guests. The vast majority carry and use phones in the parks and for most people having to get on the phone once or twice a day to change a ride time is a small burden in the grand scheme of park planning.

Seriously, it's grasping at straws. There are a ton of legit complains about FP+ that affect a lot of people (the limit of 3 per day, one park, tiering) plus plenty of technical aspects that are issues (MBs not working, glitchy system that sometimes does or does not work to reserve/change FP+, etc.) or global issues (having to reserve ahead of time/lack of spontaneity, potential for FP+ to be out for a ride you want, longer standby lines on rides that added FP+) that complaining about minute issues that most people wouldn't care about only undermines your case.

 

[doctornick]

Kiosk usage now is much different than when I last visited in November.

In November, FP+ was limited to onsite guests, many of whom made their selections prior to arrival.

Now that FP+ is available to everyone, most of whom cannot make FP+ selections until after arriving, kiosk usage is up significantly.

They have, and will continue to, increase the number of kiosks. But, yeah, it's going to be a problem with lines at them.

The sooner they allow pre-reservations for all APers, the better. And then hopefully they will have plans to get off-site (not AP) guests to be able to use the app/website as well and not be forced to use the kiosks in the park. I'm curious as to how they handle non-AP day guests going forward and whether any advance or not in-park reservations will be possible.

 

[stevehousse]

Everyone is different, but I am sure there are some folks who can and will plan out their whole vacation, including FP+ and stick to it.

Furthermore, a person could easily change their FP+ in the evening in their hotel room for the next day. I did that a little in Dec during our trip -- I would tweek things. Mostly, I stuck to the FP+ reservations I had booked 2 months before the vacation, but I did do some changes based on what we had already done during the vacation.

Anyway, being "forced" to carry your phone strikes me as one of those complaints brought up specifically to complain. Personally, I would say, if you want to go that vein, that mentioning that a lot of people simply don't have smart phones (or cell phones at all) is a much more valid point. That actually would impact a lot of guests.

Are there people who don't want to carry a phone on vacation? Sure, but I'd imagine they are an exceedingly small percentage of WDW guests. The vast majority carry and use phones in the parks and for most people having to get on the phone once or twice a day to change a ride time is a small burden in the grand scheme of park planning.

Seriously, it's grasping at straws. There are a ton of legit complains about FP+ that affect a lot of people (the limit of 3 per day, one park, tiering) plus plenty of technical aspects that are issues (MBs not working, glitchy system that sometimes does or does not work to reserve/change FP+, etc.) or global issues (having to reserve ahead of time/lack of spontaneity, potential for FP+ to be out for a ride you want, longer standby lines on rides that added FP+) that complaining about minute issues that most people wouldn't care about only undermines your case.

Thank u!

 

[Disneyfamily4]

They have, and will continue to, increase the number of kiosks. But, yeah, it's going to be a problem with lines at them.

The sooner they allow pre-reservations for all APers, the better. And then hopefully they will have plans to get off-site (not AP) guests to be able to use the app/website as well and not be forced to use the kiosks in the park. I'm curious as to how they handle non-AP day guests going forward and whether any advance or not in-park reservations will be possible.

They will never have enough kiosks to make the wait time to use them less than 15-20 minutes. Disney wants people to stay on property. This is a planned inconvenience

 

[doctornick]

They will never have enough kiosks to make the wait time to use them less than 15-20 minutes. Disney wants people to stay on property. This is a planned inconvenience

Ignoring that you are just making stuff up and have no idea...

Just making day guests be limited to "day off" is the big factor that could theoretically push them to on site stays. That's the big advantage for on site versus off site. If you allow people to use their phone to book the FP+, that's not some massive time savings that makes off site suddenly great if going to the kiosk was such a burden that would make one change to on site in the future. Also, the amount of people needing to use the kisoks will go down quite a bit once all APers are able to use the website/app which we know is coming.

Furthermore, TDO is cheap. If they can get people to use their own phone/tablet/computer to make FP+ reservations and not have to staff/rum as many in park kiosks, that is in their favor. I don't see the benefit to Disney to obligate people to use the kiosks -- in fact, I'm sure they'd rather not have the kiosks at all.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

Ignoring that you are just making stuff up and have no idea...

Just making day guests be limited to "day off" is the big factor that could theoretically push them to on site stays. That's the big advantage for on site versus off site. If you allow people to use their phone to book the FP+, that's not some massive time savings that makes off site suddenly great if going to the kiosk was such a burden that would make one change to on site in the future. Also, the amount of people needing to use the kisoks will go down quite a bit once all APers are able to use the website/app which we know is coming.

Furthermore, TDO is cheap. If they can get people to use their own phone/tablet/computer to make FP+ reservations and not have to staff/rum as many in park kiosks, that is in their favor. I don't see the benefit to Disney to obligate people to use the kiosks -- in fact, I'm sure they'd rather not have the kiosks at all.

Once peak season, we will no for sure. I guarantee people will be waiting a long time at those kiosks, while each person, looks, thinks and then finally decides what to do.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

My guess is once the peak season gets into full swing and then those people chime in, a few members here will disappear.

 

[stevehousse]

I would assume by then that there should be more kiosks in place. I'm sure they will eventually turn all the old FP areas into new mm+ kiosks to help spread the crowds now that legacy FP is done for...I can't see them just letting all those old machines sitting there taking up space for no reason.

 

[lentesta]

Looking at Buzz Lightyear since 2009, and accounting for things like EMH, park hours, holidays and weekends, FP+ appears to be adding less than 1 minute to standby posted waits there.

That said, Buzz has been FP+-only for a only a couple of weeks, so we have maybe 1,000 wait time samples during that. We'll know more as time passes. This is what we can say now.

One of our statisticians is looking at wait times. Another is looking at the overall effect on touring plans.

For Epcot's touring plans, it looks like there's a small increase in time spent in line with FP+, and a reduction in time spent walking. The time saved by not walking to FP booths is more than the extra time spent in line. So FP+ is a net benefit for touring plan speed.

That's just one plan, and we're still working on all attractions at all parks.

 

[ParentsOf4]

For Epcot's touring plans, it looks like there's a small increase in time spent in line with FP+, and a reduction in time spent walking. The time saved by not walking to FP booths is more than the extra time spent in line. So FP+ is a net benefit for touring plan speed.

The disadvantage with the new FP+ system is that offsite guests might follow your touring plans and still be unable to obtain valuable FP+ selections for popular but low-capacity attractions such as Soarin' or Test Track.

An attraction such as Soarin' has insufficient capacity to accommodate all Epcot guests most days. In the time of legacy FP, any Epcot guest could follow your touring plans and have an excellent chance of obtaining FP for Soarin' or Test Track.

FP+ changes that significantly.

Onsite guests make their selections up to 60 days in advance plus length of stay. AP holder eventually will be able to make their FP selections up to 60 days in advance.

What happens to offsite guests?

Today with FP+, offsite guests to have to stand in line at FP+ kiosks to make their selections. Today, those guests have to hope that onsite and (eventually) AP holders don't use up all Soarin' or Test Track FP+ capacity before they have an opportunity to make their FP+ selections.

Those guests might very well consider the legacy FP system to be superior to FP+, where everyone had an equal opportunity at FP selections. Those guest might prefer the extra walking vs. the alternative.

FP+ reallocates ride capacity, favoring those who stay onsite by allowing them to make their FP+ selections ahead of everyone else. For them, FP+ is a net gain.

For offsite guests, FP+ is a net loss.

 

[Goofyernmost]

For offsite guests, FP+ is a net loss.

Granted I went during off-peak, but, as an offsite guest I was amazed at the Fastpasses that I got. I don't know this for sure, but, I think that the new system has another advantage for Disney and that is the ability to limit, at will, how many of any FP that they issue. When you walked up to an old FP kiosk, you had complete control as to how many you could get determined by how often you could go back and get another. Now, that doesn't exist. There should be more available to everyone, not just onsite people. Now they can set a limit of the number of FP's that they will release to onsite guests leaving a block available to offsite. That creates a smaller need for Rope Drop arrival to still have something available. Thus the reason for so many new FP locations. Perhaps the Tier system was badly received by the public, but, this can be done with absolutely no awareness to the public.

Once instituted completely, we shall see how that holds up during high-peak times. Since that is in the future no one has the ability to know how it will work out. It might be a disaster, it might not. We can banter it about, but, until it actually happens we have no clue. It certainly worked well for me, now, as an offsite guests and I didn't even get to the parks until after 11 AM. Time will tell.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Once instituted completely, we shall see how that holds up during high-peak times. Since that is in the future no one has the ability to know how it will work out. It might be a disaster, it might not. We can banter it about, but, until it actually happens we have no clue. It certainly worked well for me, now, as an offsite guests and I didn't even get to the parks until after 11 AM. Time will tell.

I agree that it will be while before we see how this ultimately plays out.

However, FP+ does not add ride capacity. Prior to FP+, WDW theme parks had insufficient capacity on their popular attractions, particularly at Epcot and DHS. FP+ doesn't change that.

Ultimately, FP+ doesn't make things better or worse, just different. It solves some problems but creates others.