Lines at the FP+ entrances

[Disneyfamily4]

I never praised the new system. It's ok, nothing special. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. Again though, I don't go during busy times so I do understand that a lot will be frustrated when those spring break an summer crowds really effect the new system in a negative way. All I was chiming in on was that u were trying to say the dates I mentioned were spring break like crowds when they aren't...

Now this is a great post Steve.

Unlike other people, you are at least identifying that during busy times of the year, most likely there will be a lot of people frustrated based on what the system is about.

If you read carefully, other people here blindly ignore the faults because of their own personal love for Disney. And when a debate or conversation starts to not go their way, they then result to name calling and taking jabs. I think as a parent, you can agree that the people who resort to name calling may be to immature for the site.

 

[jlsHouston]

When Easter was early, we found that the first week of May was good, however, we've never been in any week of May where it was walk-on except at early and late hours. The weekends were crowded, but not anywhere near the crowds the week after Easter in 2013. It was a madhouse. There were queues for Stitch and TTA. I've never seen that before. We did not go the first weeks of May in 2013, so stevehousse would know better about that.
We will be there the middle of May this time, so I'm sure with SWW, it will be crowded.

I only go during peak visitor season because I take my grandkids and they can't miss a lot of school. I don't really mind crowded parks because we had FP for our favorite rides and we do alot of other things when we visit involving DtD and the pool and the community center arts & crafts...
But I can only recall one time getting into a line that said 50 minutes and it was Kali...it was summer 2012 and DGS did not want to go on EE, so the daughters and the granddaughter split from me and him at the Safari and went to EE with their FP....and took the FP they had snagged for him and I with them of course since we were not going on EE. So I got in line with him and we waited and waited and waited...It was so freaking hot that August morning and I was so aggravated by the time I got on that ride with Jayce and I got drenched, ruined my cell phone, and I think that ride lasted all of 3 minutes? Man that is probably my worse memory of WDW except the time I lost Jayce for about 5 minutes right by Jungle Cruise and I was scared he had fallen in the water.

Anyways that was the last time I willingly got into a stand by line for anything if the wait was over 30 minutes. The FP system worked. It wasn't perfect but you were pretty much always able to get 2-3 FP's per park for rides you really wanted to go on. Yes you had very little control over the times your FP ticket gave you for some of the rides but you pretty much knew your FP meant NO SIGNIFICANT WAIT.

 

[kma71677]

We went to EPCOT on Saturday, and had FP for Turtle Talk w/Crush, The Seas w/Nemo, and Soarin. None of them had any long lines in the FP line- we were on the rides very quickly. I would like to add that the FP for TTWC was a waste- there was a 10 minute stand by. Not worth burning a FP for, but there really wasn't anything else in EPCOT that I needed a pass for.

On Sunday, we went to AK. I had a FP for Everest, Kila Safari, and Primevil Whirl. Had no lines for the last 2, but the wait was a bit long in the FP line for Everest. Still nothing more than 15 minutes and we were on. The problem was at the entrance. For some reason, they were not letting us past the first gate. Once we got thru there we were only waiting maybe 5 minutes.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I've stood in the FP line longer than 30 minutes at TSMM and Space Mountain

And Soarin' and Test Track.

 

[wdisney9000]

The FP system worked. It wasn't perfect but you were pretty much always able to get 2-3 FP's per park for rides you really wanted to go on. Yes you had very little control over the times your FP ticket gave you for some of the rides but you pretty much knew your FP meant NO SIGNIFICANT WAIT.

Thats the one thing I cant put my finger on. The old system worked, yes it had flaws, but it worked just fine. The new system does work as well. I agree with @stevehousse , I dont hate it, but I dont love it. It even allows you more flexibility with your FP return times and allows you to switch them but I still prefer the legacy FP for some reason. I thought after using FP+ a few times it would maybe grow on me, but it didnt.

For us, I think FP+ didnt grow on us for the same reason the dining plan lost appeal after a few tries. The reservation times just make you feel restricted because there always in the back of your mind and the fact you planned them and put time and effort into it makes you feel obligated to adhere to that schedule otherwise you feel like you wasted your time. After we stopped using the dining plan we found so many ways to enjoy trying new places or finding QS spots that we never gave a chance before. We felt much more free as we strolled around and felt more like a vacation. Now we just eat when we get hungry and if we walk up to Via Nappoli and they can seat us, we eat there. If not, oh well, we just get some nudel gratin at Germany, or hit Boulangarie Patissierie (im sure i spelled that wrong). Without using the dining plan, we dont feel restricted, we eat when WE want, and we have found ways to save a few bucks while finding new things to experience.

 

[jlsHouston]

And Soarin' and Test Track.

not me... after that episode with Kali I had to have a serious discussion with the kiddos about how long I would wait for a ride...and Soaring and TSMM are two of my favs...but no FP or less than 30 minutes on stand by this grandma moves on past....

 

[ParentsOf4]

Thats the one thing I cant put my finger on. The old system worked, yes it had flaws, but it worked just fine. The new system does work as well. I agree with @stevehousse , I dont hate it, but I dont love it. It even allows you more flexibility with your FP return times and allows you to switch them but I still prefer the legacy FP for some reason. I thought after using FP+ a few times it would maybe grow on me, but it didnt..

FP+ favors those who preplan. This is one of the primary goals of MyMagic+. Get guests to preplan their days at WDW so they don't spend their vacation dollars elsewhere. Iger and Rasulo have been very open about this.

At the individual guest level, the advantages/disadvantages of FP+ compared with FP are secondary.

 

[jlsHouston]

Thats the one thing I cant put my finger on. The old system worked, yes it had flaws, but it worked just fine. The new system does work as well. I agree with @stevehousse , I dont hate it, but I dont love it. It even allows you more flexibility with your FP return times and allows you to switch them but I still prefer the legacy FP for some reason. I thought after using FP+ a few times it would maybe grow on me, but it didnt.

For us, I think FP+ didnt grow on us for the same reason the dining plan lost appeal after a few tries. The reservation times just make you feel restricted because there always in the back of your mind and the fact you planned them and put time and effort into it makes you feel obligated to adhere to that schedule otherwise you feel like you wasted your time. After we stopped using the dining plan we found so many ways to enjoy trying new places or finding QS spots that we never gave a chance before. We felt much more free as we strolled around and felt more like a vacation. Now we just eat when we get hungry and if we walk up to Via Nappoli and they can seat us, we eat there. If not, oh well, we just get some nudel gratin at Germany, or hit Boulangarie Patissierie (im sure i spelled that wrong). Without using the dining plan, we dont feel restricted, we eat when WE want, and we have found ways to save a few bucks while finding new things to experience.

Well I was never a big FP user anyways because I only spend about 30% of my time at WDW in the parks at this point. But my daughter always did the parks ninja style and she could easily do 6 FP's and she made the comment in November when legacy and FP+ were both working, the 3 ride, 1 park limit was going to suck. To be honest, scheduling my 3 FP+ is way more convenient than zig zagging to kiosks and being able to tweak them same day within an hour of the scheduled time worked great for me in November. I had no issues or complaints with FP+.
But legacy was still working side by side so the strain on FP+ even during the busy holidays was not really noticeable.

I like what you are saying about getting away from the ADR thing. Last summer when we were on property for 12 days, the last 5 we pretty much cancelled all the ADR's except OHANA and ate at a less scheduled pace. It worked fine. I don't know if I prefer that method over my ADR plan or not. We like to do a lot of character dining still so I do like having reservations but after 7 visits with ADR's I have learned that as much as I pre plan we still end up changing things around on the fly and we are happy with that.

 

[jlsHouston]

FP+ favors those who preplan. This is one of the primary goals of MyMagic+. Get guests to preplan their days at WDW so they don't spend their vacation dollars elsewhere. Iger and Rasulo have been very open about this.

At the individual guest level, the advantages/disadvantages of FP+ compared with FP are secondary.

And that is a crying shame...I sell a service and I was taught if you don't take care of your customers first...someone else damn sure will...

 

[doctornick]

What assumptions? All I have said over and over again is that during peak seasons, this fast pass + will take away from the experience. Ive been there twice with it and there is no way the people who go in April, will be able to do as much as they were able to do in September. That is a fact. And again, if you look at the other comments and the likes to the posts on here, the Majority have spoken and feel the same way.

Of course. The people who used paper FP frequently will not be able to do as much as they had in the past. This is obvious. This is where the griping comes from among the the knowledgeable minority that popular fan message board like this.

Conversely, the families going during those busy times who did not previously use paper FP or underutilized it will now be getting more FP than previously and potentially have better experiences and be able to ride more than in the past. This makes FP+ a net positive for those folks.

Since FP+ doesn't change capacity, but only redistributes wait times, the only way that some people (FP superusers) end up waiting longer in lines is because other people are waiting less. It's a zero sum game, assuming stable park attendence.

 

[TubaGeek]

Is this for their meet and greet at DHS?

Nope, MILF at Tomorrowland. They, thank god, have yet to try to put FP into the M&G.

The CM's at TT take the SR line way to seriously. last visit we saw a mother and 5 year old daughter in SR line. She politely asked if he could keep them close. (she explained she knew they couldnt be in same car). The CM looked at her as if she had lobsters crawling out of her ears, said no, and proceeded to separate them as far as possible. He sent the mother left and she was next in line to board. The daughter went right and was the third person in line.

Ya, ya, Im sure there is some method to keep SR line moving but it was a very young child and the ride was not busy to the point where it would have affected much and the mother was uber polite. The CM obviously got some devilish pleasure by showing her he was the boss! Watching her eyeball her daughter with concern as her car left I could tell she probly wouldnt even enjoy the ride. My wife and I wanted to tell her we would keep an eye on her daughter but thought it would seem weird. We silently kept an eye on the little girl just in case. The CM was a real hat. Pretty common nowadays.

(*kudos if you caught the "A Christmas Story" reference in there)

I'm not gonna stand up for the CM's attitude, but... the term "Single Rider Queue" is pretty self-explanatory...

 

[doctornick]

Anyways that was the last time I willingly got into a stand by line for anything if the wait was over 30 minutes. The FP system worked.

...for the people who utilized it to the maximum potential. Which was a relatively small percentage of guests.

For most guests, paper FP only inflated the standby lines they waited in as they didn't understand how to use paper FP or didn't fully recognize the benefit of using it. Most people would get to a line and then wait in the line if it was a ride they wanted to ride -- which sometimes meant very long waits for those people (lines don't get 120 min in length unless people are actually willing to wait that long).

In fact, the irony is that if "most" guests were using paper FP regularly and not waiting in any line longer than 30 minutes as people on this thread advocate, then paper FP would have run out for all rides very early in the day during busy times and no one would be getting 6-10 fastpasses and ride ride multiple times a day and avoid any long lines. The reason why you could pull a lot of FP is because most people weren't using them much (or at all) which meant that a small number of people got to ride a lot each daywith smaller waits while others would ride less and wait a lot.

Don't get me wrong, I will be negatively impacted by FP+ since I understand how to use paper FP efficiently. but I'm not foolish enough to think that I represent the majority of the guests. It's impossible for most guests to avoid 30 min waits while still riding a lot of rides; the ride capacity doesn't exist at WDW given attendence.

 

[kelknight84]

We were just at MK on Saturday, and it wasn't crowded but let's say "busy". Mountains were all 40-50 minutes. We had planned our FP+ awhile ago. We planned most for afternoon so started our day just doing standby. We have young-ins so didn't use it on the "big" rides but used it on the usual long wait kid ones. We started in the back of the park and everything was walk-on so while walking I swapped one of our FP's in seconds(wifi was working great this time). Made our way to tomorrowland and had a FP for buzz in about 2 hours. Buzz had a long wait but the sign was broken so I don't know the time but it was all outside and wrapped multiple times, so I got on my phone and bumped the fastpass up 2 hours so we only had to wait 5 mins for the window to open. Now I know it wasn't insane crowds or even super busy but I just loved the fast that we still could make changes and not have to rush to meet a FP window or rush to get a FP then double back 5 hours later. In the evening dinner ran late, and I was able to bump back that FP with no problems either. So this makes our second trip of being super relaxed and no rushing around. We were able to do everything we wanted and even left early.

 

[Redhawk]

Disney has return guests who want to ride EE three times in one day even in peak season and first-timers who just want to ride it without waiting an hour. The new FP+ system benefits the first-timers more. Like legacy FP it will work best for those who learn to work it.

So to get back to the original topic, are there still backed-up lines at the FP entrances? I encountered some but each time then walked all the way through to the second scanner.

 

[jlsHouston]

Disney has return guests who want to ride EE three times in one day even in peak season and first-timers who just want to ride it without waiting an hour. The new FP+ system benefits the first-timers more. Like legacy FP it will work best for those who learn to work it.

So to get back to the original topic, are there still backed-up lines at the FP entrances? I encountered some but each time then walked all the way through to the second scanner.

What is the purpose of the 2nd scanner ? Or maybe I should ask why do we have to scan the MB's twice ? Seems like this process helps to create bottlenecks. No matter how adept a person is at doing the mickey to mickey thing, it can't be faster than a party of 4 with one person holding the old tickets handing them over to a CM. I'm not a number person but that just seems like common sense. They were doing the 2 check point thing in November too when we still had legacy in place.

 

[jlsHouston]

We were just at MK on Saturday, and it wasn't crowded but let's say "busy". Mountains were all 40-50 minutes. We had planned our FP+ awhile ago. We planned most for afternoon so started our day just doing standby. We have young-ins so didn't use it on the "big" rides but used it on the usual long wait kid ones. We started in the back of the park and everything was walk-on so while walking I swapped one of our FP's in seconds(wifi was working great this time). Made our way to tomorrowland and had a FP for buzz in about 2 hours. Buzz had a long wait but the sign was broken so I don't know the time but it was all outside and wrapped multiple times, so I got on my phone and bumped the fastpass up 2 hours so we only had to wait 5 mins for the window to open. Now I know it wasn't insane crowds or even super busy but I just loved the fast that we still could make changes and not have to rush to meet a FP window or rush to get a FP then double back 5 hours later. In the evening dinner ran late, and I was able to bump back that FP with no problems either. So this makes our second trip of being super relaxed and no rushing around. We were able to do everything we wanted and even left early.

Yes, I like hearing when the FP+ works well and as intended.

 

[stevehousse]

The first scan is to check if u have a FP for that time, that's why sometimes when the lines back up they will say only 1 family member has to scan since everyone is linked. Te second scanner is to actually "use" the FP and have it show as redeemed.

 

[Redhawk]

What is the purpose of the 2nd scanner ?

To keep people from jumping from the Standby line into the FP line. Some have reported that at the second scanner CMs let one family member scan and waved the rest alongwithout scanning. I guess the second scan also now can be used to collect data on how long FP lines are.

I may have scanner info backward, but it appears sometimes only one member of the group has to scan.

 

[doctornick]

To keep people from jumping from the Standby line into the FP line. Some have reported that at the second scanner CMs let one family member scan and waved the rest alongwithout scanning. I guess the second scan also now can be used to collect data on how long FP lines are.

I may have scanner info backward, but it appears sometimes only one member of the group has to scan.

It would make more sense to only scan one member of the family at the first scanner (to ensure that that person has a valid FP+) and then scan everyone at the second one (to "redeem" all the FP+ in the group and make sure no one line jumped in the meantime). Not sure if that is what is happening though.

 

[jlsHouston]

Of course. The people who used paper FP frequently will not be able to do as much as they had in the past. This is obvious. This is where the griping comes from among the the knowledgeable minority that popular fan message board like this.

Conversely, the families going during those busy times who did not previously use paper FP or underutilized it will now be getting more FP than previously and potentially have better experiences and be able to ride more than in the past. This makes FP+ a net positive for those folks.

Since FP+ doesn't change capacity, but only redistributes wait times, the only way that some people (FP superusers) end up waiting longer in lines is because other people are waiting less. It's a zero sum game, assuming stable park attendence.

So people who tour the parks regularly are a minority as far as park guests go? Do you really think that it will work this way as far as how the available FP's are going to work? That it is simply a redistribution of the FP's ? I just pretty much assumed that at least half the people visiting the parks were repeat visitors. I don't remember seeing a lot of those 1st visit buttons on people nearly as much as I see Happy Birthday or I'm celebrating. Not that counting the buttons would be an accurate way to get a percentage of first time/one time visitors.
I guess I have just assumed that people who spend less time in the parks and use 3 or less FP's per day are the minority. And going on that assumption I have wondered since last fall why the new FP+ system was set up with 3 as the limit, tiered at some parks and only 1 park per day because it seemed to me that WDW was lessening the vacation experience for over half of their regular customer base...