Lines at the FP+ entrances

[Disneyfamily4]

Its a horrible system. Comes peak season, there will be so many complaints about this. I am dreading my March/April trip. Someone in another forum said they waited 40 min in a fast pass line. Are they really that long now to?

 

[roj2323]

I experienced FP+ for the first time yesterday.

I had been actively avoiding the system for a while but I figured I should try it out and there were several things I noticed.

Using the kiosks in the park was a Pain in the butt. This was partially due to the attendant not letting me use the kiosk myself and partially due to the touch screens being poor quality. By the time we finally got done we had spent over 10 minutes fiddling with the kiosk. I honestly could have walked to both attractions in that time.

Needed Kiosk improvements

• The Kiosk does not tell you what attractions are out of fast passes for the day, It simply does not highlight them. It would be nice if the kiosk said: Fast passes for x, y,and z attractions are no longer available for today. Would you like to continue? (This would have saved time)
• Temporarily until the screens are replaced with something more reactive to touch they should have a stylus at every station.
• The software is really buggy and needs a rewrite or extensive repairs.
• The big advantage of the old system was the times were printed on paper. With the new system you either need to remember the times or have an electronic device with you to remember. Adding a receipt printer to every station that will print your FP times upon request, would be helpful.

FP lines: I experienced a 75 foot FastPass+ line in front of Star tours yesterday and the attendant Holding a FP+ paddle at the end or this Line Said that it was common. She also stated that the main issue was people coming early thinking they can get in. once we were inside the attraction (took 5 minutes) we were again stopped at the second check station for someone ahead of us having issues.

Needed Attraction entry improvements

• A Check station so guests can check to see if it's time yet. Have a Mickey RFid reader with a screen that displays the correct time if they are early or displays Expired if they are late. Obviously if they are on time the screen should just display "Go" in green
• The printed paper receipts mentioned in kiosk improvements would also likely help smooth out the lines.
• A third option would be to have the computer send the person a Text message when it's time to ride.

One more important note: Once you get fast passes for one park you can NOT get them in any other park the same day.

For the estimated 1.3 Billion dollars they spent implementing this system you would think it would have been extensively tested with both guests and cast prior to roll out. Simple things Like the crappy touch screens make using FP+ more of a FP-

 

[Redhawk]

With the paper fast passes, you show the pass to the first cast member, then you have to present again at the end of the line. Does anyone know if you have to swipe your bands twice as well.

Yes, there is a second scanner further along each FP line, just like with the paper FPs.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I hereby invoke @lentesta because if anybody here can tell us, he is the one

As I posted here using data borrowed from touringplans.com, overall Standby wait times didn't change much for the month of December.

Looking at the results more closely, I did notice lots of individual trends but suspect these are noise caused by the variability of attendance and data collection. Focusing on the big picture, December 2013 wait times were not much different than December 2012 wait times.

I'll be sure to post results for the month of January as soon as possible.

 

[Redhawk]

• The big advantage of the old system was the times were printed on paper. With the new system you either need to remember the times or have an electronic device with you to remember. Adding a receipt printer to every station that will print your FP times upon request, would be helpful.

I agree that the system forces you to make note of your times in some way. Those who don't have smartphones usually take a photo of the screen to use as their reminder. Usually at least one person in a family or group has a digital camera. If not, then an index card and golf pencil works as well.

I can't see Disney ever putting the money into some sort of printer. They do not want to go back to spending money on machines that need paper and ink.

 

[stevehousse]

Its a horrible system. Comes peak season, there will be so many complaints about this. I am dreading my March/April trip. Someone in another forum said they waited 40 min in a fast pass line. Are they really that long now to?

When we went in te middle of November last year, we had moderate crowds in the parks. The only ride I waited that long for using a FP was Test Track! But I don't blame it on FP+ though. The actual design of the que is what made that wait time like that. There is no reason to mix FP and stand by so early on! They merge everyone right after you make your car with a good portion of que line left until you actually get to the ride. Horrible design. When we went my wife and older son went first ( we got a kid swap pass) I stayed behind with the younger son and thought something had happened to them because we had to wait so long for them to come out. They waited almost 40 minutes! We decided not to go on again right after. Later in the afternoon me and my older son used the ride swap pass we had for it and waited 30 minutes! Yes we did experience a few times a small wait outside te FP lines, but never waited more than 5 minutes to get into the que.

Our wait for FP rides was always 5-10 minutes.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

It is amazing, over 1 billion dollars spent on this and Disney apparently cant afford to let people park hop and get 2 passes for one park and one for another. As if that would collapse the entire system.

There is nothing about these magic bands that benefit the guests. We get limited fast passes, cant park hop and have to deal with errors and glitches from their new system. It is a shame. As much as I love Disney more than Universal, I hope Universal steals the magic away and Disney's stock falls.

 

[Redhawk]

Needed Kiosk improvements

• The Kiosk does not tell you what attractions are out of fast passes for the day, It simply does not highlight them. It would be nice if the kiosk said: Fast passes for x, y,and z attractions are no longer available for today. Would you like to continue? (This would have saved time)

This would be a definite improvement! I really question whether any of this system was tested in a "real world setting" way back when implementation was just a theory.

 

[Millionaire2K]

When I went to WDW once you used your first FP+ for the day you could not change any other passes the rest of the day. Did they change this? Seems like it would cut down on a ton of random changes.

Also peak times should not matter as all lines will be long and Fast Passes will be needed at most attractions. The amount of people changing would be low.

After using FP+ for 9 straight days I feel that the system will work when all the bugs are ironed out. This is something that takes time. Also when you create a new system that millions of random people a year are gonna use there is also a huge knowledge curve Disney has to deal with. How many years did it take for Disney to explain to people what Fast Pass was?

My only problems on my trip were:

1st day our flight was 2hrs late. So while at the airport I changed all our FP's for the 1st day. All day when we went to use them they gave us a blue light. I had to show the app at every attraction to show we had the FP. I went to the kiosk and the head person there took my band number and a TON of notes about my issue.

Every day since I had no problems except for the next 3 days the kiosk did not say our names. It just said guest 1,2 3. The bands were linked correctly to my Disney account that is also the same as my DVC account.

1 other small issue was with the app. My main Disney account is NOT an email address. Sometimes the app will only allow me to login when I enter an email. I would have to go to a different login screen where I could enter my non email login.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Needed Kiosk improvements

• The Kiosk does not tell you what attractions are out of fast passes for the day, It simply does not highlight them. It would be nice if the kiosk said: Fast passes for x, y,and z attractions are no longer available for today. Would you like to continue? (This would have saved time)
• Temporarily until the screens are replaced with something more reactive to touch they should have a stylus at every station.
• The software is really buggy and needs a rewrite or extensive repairs.
• The big advantage of the old system was the times were printed on paper. With the new system you either need to remember the times or have an electronic device with you to remember. Adding a receipt printer to every station that will print your FP times upon request, would be helpful.

Certainly a number of flaws at the kiosks that need improving, I agree. You're absolutely right that there needs to be a more readily available notice that lets you know which FP+ attractions are out of Fastpasses. Ideally, there should be overhead screens BEFORE you get to the kiosk displaying which attractions currently have FP+ available as well as noting the current return times, just like the old FP system had. The lack of a paper trail will always be mindboggling to me as well.

 

[fillerup]

One thing that's affecting the 1st FP+ checkpoint is the number of people wanting to "test" or "try" the system. These aren't people who have FP+ or think they have FP+. They are simply seeing people walking through the line, getting a green light and proceeding on. So they want to try it.

I'd posted in another thread that I stood and watched the fp return line at Everest for about ten minutes a couple of weeks ago, and the stream of people walking up, getting a blue light and then walking away was continuous. If they were folks who thought they'd booked a ride, they would have stayed and discussed it with the CM there, but they didn't. This is a problem that isn't going to just go away.

And a couple of people have mentioned the learning curve for CMs and guests alike. Well, guess what, that learning curve is here to stay until the end of time. Because every day, tens of thousands come through the gates for their first or second ever visit. And unless they've gone to the trouble of doing research, they're going to be clueless, not just about FP+, but about the parks in general.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

One thing that's affecting the 1st FP+ checkpoint is the number of people wanting to "test" or "try" the system. These aren't people who have FP+ or think they have FP+. They are simply seeing people walking through the line, getting a green light and proceeding on. So they want to try it.

I'd posted in another thread that I stood and watched the fp return line at Everest for about ten minutes a couple of weeks ago, and the stream of people walking up, getting a blue light and then walking away was continuous. If they were folks who thought they'd booked a ride, they would have stayed and discussed it with the CM there, but they didn't. This is a problem that isn't going to just go away.

And a couple of people have mentioned the learning curve for CMs and guests alike. Well, guess what, that learning curve is here to stay until the end of time. Because every day, tens of thousands come through the gates for their first or second ever visit. And unless they've gone to the trouble of doing research, they're going to be clueless, not just about FP+, but about the parks in general.

Good points there. With the old FP system, it was easy for guests to see that they needed a paper FP in order to enter the FP line - no paper, no entry. But as you point out, anyone who has a Magic Band and sees other people using them for FP+ is going to be inclined to "test" the system and see if they can do the same thing. The situation you outlined isn't really all that surprising when you think about it, especially considering the way this has been implemented along with the less than impressive informational material from Disney.

 

[bethymouse]

On another track... those of us who kept our "unused" fast passes will have them for a real souvenir like the old E-tickets, etc...

 

[Bryner84]

Certainly a number of flaws at the kiosks that need improving, I agree. You're absolutely right that there needs to be a more readily available notice that lets you know which FP+ attractions are out of Fastpasses. Ideally, there should be overhead screens BEFORE you get to the kiosk displaying which attractions currently have FP+ available as well as noting the current return times, just like the old FP system had. The lack of a paper trail will always be mindboggling to me as well.

Due to the flexible nature of FP+, is an attraction ever really "out" of FP? With cancellations and last minute changes an attraction's FP availibility is ever changing.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Due to the flexible nature of FP+, is an attraction ever really "out" of FP? With cancellations and last minute changes an attraction's FP availibility is ever changing.

While technically this is true, for the major attractions the "available" FP that results from changes and cancelations is probably at the margins. For all intents and purposes, rides like Space Mountain, RnRC and Test Track do "sell out" of FP availability.

Plus, its likely that any additional availability that may appear during the day is offered only to on-site guests because they are the ones with the ability to easily alter their FP selections on the go; off-site guests limited to the kiosks are not as well positioned to take advantage of hourly availability changes.

 

[lentesta]

Our statisticians are looking at this now. So far it looks like whatever impact there is, is mild. Give them a week and I'll post the results.

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.

 

[maxairmike]

Not to mention a lot of the "discarded" FP+ will be fore an expired or current time, and that's a limitation of the legacy system that has carried through. If a FP+ that is currently within the hour window is discarded, it probably doesn't go back into the "pool," because there is not a full hour window, and extending the window to an hour from the current point steps into another block's allotment.

 

[RSoxNo1]

This is a fundamentally flawed system. The distribution rules are a substantial step backwards from what was previously in place. They need to fix this so it's day of only, old distribution rules, and anyone can access on their phone or at a kiosk. That's an enhancement to the system.

Fastpass was a rare steak when you wanted it medium rare. Fastpass+ is that same steak burnt to a crisp, and if you're staying on property you don't even get the steak, you only get the mashed potatoes on the side.

 

[MarkTwain]

Thought people might be interested to know that there are incentives in place for cast members to increase guest use of FP+, with competitions for all the parks for which park can get the most FP+s booked. Specifically, Disney wants cast to encourage guests to use all three of their FP+s, which I'm sure explains the strange stories on here of the guest relations CMs encouraging guests to book all three even when the guests said they'd be leaving soon after.

I'm sure this isn't helping the lines at FP+ return, since there are now many guests lining up for rides they may not have even booked if Disney hadn't encouraged them to. I would say it's accurate that usage of FP+ is stronger than Legacy FP, since Disney seems to be making sure that guest awareness is higher.

 

[asialeigh]

I experienced FP+ for the first time yesterday.

I had been actively avoiding the system for a while but I figured I should try it out and there were several things I noticed.

Using the kiosks in the park was a Pain in the butt. This was partially due to the attendant not letting me use the kiosk myself and partially due to the touch screens being poor quality. By the time we finally got done we had spent over 10 minutes fiddling with the kiosk. I honestly could have walked to both attractions in that time.

Needed Kiosk improvements

• The Kiosk does not tell you what attractions are out of fast passes for the day, It simply does not highlight them. It would be nice if the kiosk said: Fast passes for x, y,and z attractions are no longer available for today. Would you like to continue? (This would have saved time)
• Temporarily until the screens are replaced with something more reactive to touch they should have a stylus at every station.
• The software is really buggy and needs a rewrite or extensive repairs.
• The big advantage of the old system was the times were printed on paper. With the new system you either need to remember the times or have an electronic device with you to remember. Adding a receipt printer to every station that will print your FP times upon request, would be helpful.

FP lines: I experienced a 75 foot FastPass+ line in front of Star tours yesterday and the attendant Holding a FP+ paddle at the end or this Line Said that it was common. She also stated that the main issue was people coming early thinking they can get in. once we were inside the attraction (took 5 minutes) we were again stopped at the second check station for someone ahead of us having issues.

Needed Attraction entry improvements

• A Check station so guests can check to see if it's time yet. Have a Mickey RFid reader with a screen that displays the correct time if they are early or displays Expired if they are late. Obviously if they are on time the screen should just display "Go" in green
• The printed paper receipts mentioned in kiosk improvements would also likely help smooth out the lines.
• A third option would be to have the computer send the person a Text message when it's time to ride.

One more important note: Once you get fast passes for one park you can NOT get them in any other park the same day.

For the estimated 1.3 Billion dollars they spent implementing this system you would think it would have been extensively tested with both guests and cast prior to roll out. Simple things Like the crappy touch screens make using FP+ more of a FP-

Attractions that are out of FP+ for the day are at the bottom of the list and says standby only.
FP+ CMs do have styluses to use on the screen.
Also FP+ CMs are there to assist guests mainly because it is a new system and many people will be unaware of how to use it. So they were only trying to be helpful. If you want unattended kiosks to use, stop by City Hall at MK or I'm sure the other parks' guest relations lobbies have unattended kiosks as well.