Lines at the FP+ entrances

fillerup

Well-Known Member
Today's AK experience:

Four blue circles of death at the entrance. "Is that the same finger you used last time?" "No Mr. Castmember, I'm obviously too stupid to remember which of my ten digits I've been using for the last ten years."

Yes, one of the IPad Brigade got me in after a couple of more minutes so for those of you wondering why this is any kind of big deal at all, here's the answer: This is merely the continuation of 10 months of failure since I got the RFID card. My entry point success rate is no more than 40%. I've been infinitely patient but it's wearing pretty thin at this point.

Wanted FPs for KS and the tipboard said they were available. FP+ kiosk behind the tipboard was closed so on to the next one. Very crowded park by the way. At the kiosk were two guests and six CMs, so no waiting. In spite of the tipboard, the terminal said only standby was available. Then a quick intervention by a CM who said she had a workaround.

She booked us both for Tough to be a Bug and then went back to change it. At 2:30pm she successfully changed my wife to KS at 3:35. Ten more minutes of fiddling, changing, cancelling, booking, and rebooking and otherwise wasting our time, she had no luck changing mine. She had an explanation for why she couldn't change mine that was so convoluted and nonsensical I won't even repeat it here.

The following conversation ensued:

CM - "Here's what you do, and you didn't hear this from us, just have your wife use her AP to get you in. They'll "almost always" let you both in on just one card."
Me - "What if they ask me to show my card as well? What then?"
CM - "They "usually" won't ask for both. So give it a try. But you didn't hear it from us. Just try to look innocent or confused or something."

(BTW - the above is exactly how the conversation occured.)

In the end, it worked, we entered FP queue on wife's reservation and all was well. The second checkpoint wasn't in use, just as we experienced in January. With a standby queue of an hour, we were on a truck in fewer than 10 minutes.

On another note, as I'd posted a few weeks ago, I took the time to stand and observe the EE FP return and saw the same thing I did a month ago.

Around 10% to 15% of guests were getting the Blue Circle (both Cards and MBs). None of them, and I mean none, were trying to argue the case that they had a valid reservation and should be let in, they simply turned around and left. Clearly these were people who didn't understand the system or simply wanted to test it. Not a big deal but it does add to the congestion and frustration for CMs.

That's all folks.....

Edit to add: Just making a point of observing as many guests as I could over a few hours, I have to say that MB usage has to be approaching 50% at this point.
 
Last edited:

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
We would never voluntarily give any data to anyone without a warrant.

BRAVO-SIERRA, For most companies that is we would never ADMIT to giving customer data to LE without a warrant, In reality its done all the time because unless they are after one of your employees it helps being on the good side of LE.
 

JimboJones123

Well-Known Member
Today's AK experience:

Four blue circles of death at the entrance. "Is that the same finger you used last time?" "No Mr. Castmember, I'm obviously too stupid to remember which of my ten digits I've been using for the last ten years."

Yes, one of the IPad Brigade got me in after a couple of more minutes so for those of you wondering why this is any kind of big deal at all, here's the answer: This is merely the continuation of 10 months of failure since I got the RFID card. My entry point success rate is no more than 40%. I've been infinitely patient but it's wearing pretty thin at this point.

Wanted FPs for KS and the tipboard said they were available. FP+ kiosk behind the tipboard was closed so on to the next one. Very crowded park by the way. At the kiosk were two guests and six CMs, so no waiting. In spite of the tipboard, the terminal said only standby was available. Then a quick intervention by a CM who said she had a workaround.

She booked us both for Tough to be a Bug and then went back to change it. At 2:30pm she successfully changed my wife to KS at 3:35. Ten more minutes of fiddling, changing, cancelling, booking, and rebooking and otherwise wasting our time, she had no luck changing mine. She had an explanation for why she couldn't change mine that was so convoluted and nonsensical I won't even repeat it here.

The following conversation ensued:

CM - "Here's what you do, and you didn't hear this from us, just have your wife use her AP to get you in. They'll "almost always" let you both in on just one card."
Me - "What if they ask me to show my card as well? What then?"
CM - "They "usually" won't ask for both. So give it a try. But you didn't hear it from us. Just try to look innocent or confused or something."

(BTW - the above is exactly how the conversation occured.)

In the end, it worked, we entered FP queue on wife's reservation and all was well. The second checkpoint wasn't in use, just as we experienced in January. With a standby queue of an hour, we were on a truck in fewer than 10 minutes.

On another note, as I'd posted a few weeks ago, I took the time to stand and observe the EE FP return and saw the same thing I did a month ago.

Around 10% to 15% of guests were getting the Blue Circle (both Cards and MBs). None of them, and I mean none, were trying to argue the case that they had a valid reservation and should be let in, they simply turned around and left. Clearly these were people who didn't understand the system or simply wanted to test it. Not a big deal but it does add to the congestion and frustration for CMs.

That's all folks.....

Edit to add: Just making a point of observing as many guests as I could over a few hours, I have to say that MB usage has to be approaching 50% at this point.

We dealt with a CM that was also overly impressed with their skills at manipulating MM+. We were only able to get one FP booked for the 4 hours we were in the park because they had to split all five people in our group to different FP times that all had a 10 minute overlapping window just over 2 hours after we arrived. This back patting CM took nearly 15 minutes of swapping times and leaving us to bail on our other FP possibilities.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
That is totally incorrect.

If you arrived at the rope drop, they did exist. They do not now. FPs are gone before park opening.
Explain to me how I was able to come into MK, last week from offsite at 11:30 AM walk up to the first FP+ kiosk that I could find, request Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan and not only get all three but the first time was 40 minutes away and then an hour and then another hour. Must have been some neat trick since, as you say, all of them are gone before the park even opens. Did the same thing the next day at Epcot were I got a pass for Soarin only about 4 hours away.

I have never been able to get a FP for JC and especially Peter Pan unless I was there at Rope Drop and even then never for both of them. Based on experience I'd have to say that information is totally incorrect.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
And yet I promise you an apologist will try to explain this away.
I guess that an apologist is someone with enough common sense to be able to figure out that there is usually a reason for those situations to happen. They might be because of some unverified reason or there might be the case of someone that is so laden with their own brand of Pixie Dust that they just cannot accept that things happen other then what their narrow little thought pattern will allow them to acknowledge. Then decide that every problem is caused by one particular preconceived notion without knowing the facts.

That be the case I proudly will remain an apologists for as long as my mind allows me to reason and insist on seeing the entire picture before I jump to a conclusion.
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
And yet I promise you an apologist will try to explain this away.

I hate FP+ and am not an apologist. I do think that a part of what makes these even worse is that people that don't know the proper procedures (i.e. infrequent visitors) see the FP+ line and assume it is the standby line and get in it. This will make the FP+ line longer AND make it take longer because they will clog it up when they are rejected at the front.
 

JimboJones123

Well-Known Member
Explain to me how I was able to come into MK, last week from offsite at 11:30 AM walk up to the first FP+ kiosk that I could find, request Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan and not only get all three but the first time was 40 minutes away and then an hour and then another hour. Must have been some neat trick since, as you say, all of them are gone before the park even opens. Did the same thing the next day at Epcot were I got a pass for Soarin only about 4 hours away.

I have never been able to get a FP for JC and especially Peter Pan unless I was there at Rope Drop and even then never for both of them. Based on experience I'd have to say that information is totally incorrect.
Oh... LAST WEEK... one of the three deadest weeks of the year?

Good one.
 

JimboJones123

Well-Known Member
peter114post: 5945654 said:
There has not been a day yet when any attraction was out of fastpasses before park open. This includes the two holiday weekends that have occurred since the rollout.
How about after park open and a 30 minute wait for FP kiosk?

Because things are very different by then.
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
How about after park open and a 30 minute wait for FP kiosk?

Because things are very different by then.

Actually no.. For most major attractions fast passes are still available well in to the day. Maybe not for the times you would like. But they are available. At 3pm yesterday I was still able to get a fastpass for thunder mountain and Peter Pan. And that was on a busy holiday and with splash mountain closed for refurbishment.

Yes some attractions (toy story mania, belle, etc...) do run out quickly but this has always been the case.

Additionally there is no reason to wait 30 minutes at a kiosk. Sure some kiosks do get long lines. However other locations, primarily those towards the back of the park usually have less than a 5 minute wait. If you feel the need to get in line at the first one you see then chances are everyone else will to. This "problem" will only get better in the coming months as more and more guests; and eventually everyone, are able to book and modify there fastpasses using the app.
 

Snowflake82

Active Member
So when Peak Season starts next month and the parks are filled 100 x's more than it is now, do some people think there will not be a problem?

As someone who has not been to the parks since early 2012, and has not used FP+ or MBs, I sincerely appreciate hearing about others' experiences, both positive and negative. I'm also interested in understanding how the experience differs during high and low periods. But I don't think it's possible for the parks to be "100 x's" more crowded at peak - those numbers don't work.
 

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