Long lines at FP return queue

[ford91exploder]

Ohhhh. I suppose the CM's would simply have to direct guests to wait a little while if possible. Of course a system like this has a constantly mirroring backup system. If one failure happens then there is another drive/system that automatically kicks in.

Only if TDO paid for the backup systems, Besides tech never breaks so why do you need a backup?

 

[awoogala]

Just asking, of those who have been there during the long fp lines.. was this, say, at the top of the hour? perhaps, new fp+ users, who jumped at the 6:00 pm-7:00 pm at exactly 6 pm??? (trying to pace our fp+ for next week.. I have no issue showing up at 6:15 or 6:30 or 6:45! fora 6-7pm fp+!

 

[G00fyDad]

Just asking, of those who have been there during the long fp lines.. was this, say, at the top of the hour? perhaps, new fp+ users, who jumped at the 6:00 pm-7:00 pm at exactly 6 pm??? (trying to pace our fp+ for next week.. I have no issue showing up at 6:15 or 6:30 or 6:45! fora 6-7pm fp+!

For me it was pretty consistent, but did not start back up until later in the day. Maybe around 1pm or later. As for when it was heaviest, beginning of an hour or end of an hour, that wouldn't matter since the FP's do not roll out in bunches of 9am - 10am, 10am - 11am, etc.... They are distributed in 5 minute increments. So one person's "top of the hour" is someone else's halfway point for their return time.

 

[awoogala]

For me it was pretty consistent, but did not start back up until later in the day. Maybe around 1pm or later. As for when it was heaviest, beginning of an hour or end of an hour, that wouldn't matter since the FP's do not roll out in bunches of 9am - 10am, 10am - 11am, etc.... They are distributed in 5 minute increments. So one person's "top of the hour" is someone else's halfway point for their return time.

all our fp+ were basically an hour's worth. yes there was 6-7pm, and 6:05-7:05. but the 30 after the hour were rare. hoping people are going on the moment (from other's reports that people were waiting at the entrance prior to their times), so we are going to hope to err on the 15 minutes or so after the hour for all our fp+, and hope for the best!

 

[G00fyDad]

all our fp+ were basically an hour's worth. yes there was 6-7pm, and 6:05-7:05. but the 30 after the hour were rare. hoping people are going on the moment (from other's reports that people were waiting at the entrance prior to their times), so we are going to hope to err on the 15 minutes or so after the hour for all our fp+, and hope for the best!

Good luck. The FP system is set up so that it automatically allows you in 5 minutes prior or 15 minutes late. You'll still get the green on the Mickey head.


The people we found clogging up the entrance to the FP line either did not understand basic English and couldn't get the Mickey head to Mickey head concept, or they didn't even have a FP in the first place. They assumed the band just gave them FP's.

 

[Gabe1]

Any card with a magstripe will work, even old KTTW cards...

Really, so if I put my grocery store rewards card in I'd get a FP? Wish I knew this before they were taking away the FP machines, we have dozens of the KTTW cards around. If it will take any card how does it know it has not been long enough between FPs to get another one?

 

[EvilQueen-T]

We visited WDW 10/17 thru 10/20 and witnessed on several occasions long lines at the FastPass return queue. They moved pretty steadily, but tended to block the flow of traffic in the area at times. I attribute this mostly to the new usage of the Magicbands and people getting used to them. But, I think there seems to be a lot more FP usage as well. Rides we noticed the back up were mostly all of what would be considered "E-ticket" attractions, like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, BTMRR, etc. I wonder how this will be during the holidays?

we experienced the same thing during our trip oct 24-26th. one thing that i noticed is that instead of the cm being able to take a whole families paper fps with each person having to wait for the machine to register it slows each person down. maybe not by a whole lot but if everyone takes 3-4 times longer to just pass the cm that certainly adds up. i also heard that during november and december at least at epcot they're only allowing one e ticket fp+ to be booked per day...totally sucks for those of us who don't have little ones. it's not like i'm going on an all adult trip and want to book turtle talk with crush or nemo. i've gone from loving the fp system to beginning to completely hate it.

 

[G00fyDad]

Really, so if I put my grocery store rewards card in I'd get a FP? Wish I knew this before they were taking away the FP machines, we have dozens of the KTTW cards around. If it will take any card how does it know it has not been long enough between FPs to get another one?

It may not work. I have heard a few people say that it does, but no one I personally know that has tried this has ever been able to get it to work. I took old KttW cards with me this last trip and it never worked. Not once.

 

[ford91exploder]

Really, so if I put my grocery store rewards card in I'd get a FP? Wish I knew this before they were taking away the FP machines, we have dozens of the KTTW cards around. If it will take any card how does it know it has not been long enough between FPs to get another one?

The paper FP machines have been unlinked from the ticket system, so right now they are just pulling a hashcode from the magstripe which used to be sent to the ticket system for validation, Now they don't do the validation step but they still know locally that the card cannot be used again till FP interval has expired. Now if you had a bunch of cards...

However if paper FP's are gone for day it will not work, So try with valid media first

 

[ford91exploder]

It may not work. I have heard a few people say that it does, but no one I personally know that has tried this has ever been able to get it to work. I took old KttW cards with me this last trip and it never worked. Not once.

From what I have heard it works periodically. In august it worked all the time I did not try personally by a few friends did and they were very happy.

 

[Gabe1]

It may not work. I have heard a few people say that it does, but no one I personally know that has tried this has ever been able to get it to work. I took old KttW cards with me this last trip and it never worked. Not once.

Thanks. As I thought about it I wondered why my DS never shared that tip. CMs tend to know all the twists in the system.

 

[Gabe1]

The paper FP machines have been unlinked from the ticket system, so right now they are just pulling a hashcode from the magstripe which used to be sent to the ticket system for validation, Now they don't do the validation step but they still know locally that the card cannot be used again till FP interval has expired. Now if you had a bunch of cards...

However if paper FP's are gone for day it will not work, So try with valid media first

Color me curious.

 

[ford91exploder]

Thanks. As I thought about it I wondered why my DS never shared that tip. CMs tend to know all the twists in the system.

Because you raised an ethical DS who probably feels it's cheating others out a FP

 

[katiekinzakat]

There are so many things that slow people down at fastpass return it's ridiculous.

First off, you have the people whose bands for some reason register slowly. The light on the mickey head on the pole spins for twice as long as other though does eventually register green.

Then you have the people that think that just by having the bands they get fastpasses to everything. So they scan their band, get denied, and then you have to explain to them that they have to use the app or go to a kiosk to actually schedule a return time. This is especially fun if the guest doesn't speak english.

There is also the fact that some children are too short to actually reach the mickey head on a pole meaning that the parents have to both lift the child and finagle their wrist to try to get it to register. Brilliant. Children that are tall enough still have trouble aiming their bands which again slows everything down.

Similarly, you have the people that aren't wearing their bands for whatever reason and have to dig though their ginormous purse/backback/suitcase/cooler/what have you in order to find it. Of course it's always on the bottom and of course the people looking never step aside to let other people through. Because it was their turn and they're gonna be next or else.

Finally, you have the people whose entire's party has magic bands that won't sync up to the app. This is the worst because it's totally not their fault yet the problem takes the longest to fix. Usually what happens is that the mickey head turns blue and then tells me that they're scheduled for a different ride or different time. If that occurs and they dispute it, everybody in the party scans their magic band to see if the same thing happens. If somebody turns green, the entire party is let through on the assumption that the entire party did schedule their experiences together and the app just screwed up. If nobody scans correctly, somebody in the party has to pull up the app on their phone and physically show that yes, they are at the right attraction at the correct time but their bands are just stupid. Finally, everybody has to scan their bands again so that they can be granted access and not be given any trouble at merge.

I will say that when the magic bands work quickly they are pretty nice from a CM standpoint because we no longer have to play the "why is this fastpass wet" game nor do we have to touch any papers that tourists decided were a good idea to store in their sweaty gross bras. Because that happens. Unfortunately, I can scan a paper fastpass with my eyes four times as fast as it takes a band to register on the podium which when we're busy does make a difference in how backed up our line gets.

 

[Gabe1]

Because you raised an ethical DS who probably feels it's cheating others out a FP

That I did, but just because he doesn't do it doesn't mean he isn't aware, especially with his role. He knew of all the GAC issues and we had some interesting conversations about it for the last 2 years, he wasn't clueless about it.

 

[ford91exploder]

There are so many things that slow people down at fastpass return it's ridiculous.

First off, you have the people whose bands for some reason register slowly. The light on the mickey head on the pole spins for twice as long as other though does eventually register green.

Then you have the people that think that just by having the bands they get fastpasses to everything. So they scan their band, get denied, and then you have to explain to them that they have to use the app or go to a kiosk to actually schedule a return time. This is especially fun if the guest doesn't speak english.

There is also the fact that some children are too short to actually reach the mickey head on a pole meaning that the parents have to both lift the child and finagle their wrist to try to get it to register. Brilliant. Children that are tall enough still have trouble aiming their bands which again slows everything down.

Similarly, you have the people that aren't wearing their bands for whatever reason and have to dig though their ginormous purse/backback/suitcase/cooler/what have you in order to find it. Of course it's always on the bottom and of course the people looking never step aside to let other people through. Because it was their turn and they're gonna be next or else.

Finally, you have the people whose entire's party has magic bands that won't sync up to the app. This is the worst because it's totally not their fault yet the problem takes the longest to fix. Usually what happens is that the mickey head turns blue and then tells me that they're scheduled for a different ride or different time. If that occurs and they dispute it, everybody in the party scans their magic band to see if the same thing happens. If somebody turns green, the entire party is let through on the assumption that the entire party did schedule their experiences together and the app just screwed up. If nobody scans correctly, somebody in the party has to pull up the app on their phone and physically show that yes, they are at the right attraction at the correct time but their bands are just stupid. Finally, everybody has to scan their bands again so that they can be granted access and not be given any trouble at merge.

I will say that when the magic bands work quickly they are pretty nice from a CM standpoint because we no longer have to play the "why is this fastpass wet" game nor do we have to touch any papers that tourists decided were a good idea to store in their sweaty gross bras. Because that happens. Unfortunately, I can scan a paper fastpass with my eyes four times as fast as it takes a band to register on the podium which when we're busy does make a difference in how backed up our line gets.

Thanks its really helpful to have a front line CM tell us the reality of the situation, Makes me wonder why TWDC guys did not actively work with you so the electronic system would be FASTER than paper.

 

[GrumpyFan]

There are so many things that slow people down at fastpass return it's ridiculous.

...

I will say that when the magic bands work quickly they are pretty nice from a CM standpoint because we no longer have to play the "why is this fastpass wet" game nor do we have to touch any papers that tourists decided were a good idea to store in their sweaty gross bras. Because that happens. Unfortunately, I can scan a paper fastpass with my eyes four times as fast as it takes a band to register on the podium which when we're busy does make a difference in how backed up our line gets.

Thanks for posting this, it's very enlightening to read about some of the issues firsthand from somebody who has a good understanding of it.

It's interesting to note, some of it sounds like just the newness of the system and lack of understanding on the part of the guests. Some of this will iron out over time, but some as you noted, is a language barrier, which is harder to overcome.

After reading yours and others' comments and considering my own experience recently with using MagicBands and Fastpass+, I've come up with a couple ideas that I think they could implement to improve upon the system and correct some of these issues.

Improvement Ideas for MagicBand and Fastpass efficiency:
1) Enhance the scanners and expand the scanning zone. Instead of having a small circle that is a fixed height, implement new readers that have a vertical scanning sensor that runs from 24" to maybe 56" or higher, so that no matter the guest's height or how/where the guest holds their band, the sensor will be able to read it. Obviously, these should also be added at the front gates of the parks as well.

2) Replace the Mickey head with a screen or digital display that would show the guest's name, party size and FP return time in a way that is visible to them and the CM. Optionally, add an audio cue, either a voice or different sound that would identify the situation.

I think these two changes, would vastly improve the situation as well as make it easier for both the CMs and guests in understanding and hopefully resolving some of the aforementioned problems that can happen.

 

[krb2g]

There are so many things that slow people down at fastpass return it's ridiculous.

First off, you have the people whose bands for some reason register slowly. The light on the mickey head on the pole spins for twice as long as other though does eventually register green.

Then you have the people that think that just by having the bands they get fastpasses to everything. So they scan their band, get denied, and then you have to explain to them that they have to use the app or go to a kiosk to actually schedule a return time. This is especially fun if the guest doesn't speak english.

There is also the fact that some children are too short to actually reach the mickey head on a pole meaning that the parents have to both lift the child and finagle their wrist to try to get it to register. Brilliant. Children that are tall enough still have trouble aiming their bands which again slows everything down.

Similarly, you have the people that aren't wearing their bands for whatever reason and have to dig though their ginormous purse/backback/suitcase/cooler/what have you in order to find it. Of course it's always on the bottom and of course the people looking never step aside to let other people through. Because it was their turn and they're gonna be next or else.

Finally, you have the people whose entire's party has magic bands that won't sync up to the app. This is the worst because it's totally not their fault yet the problem takes the longest to fix. Usually what happens is that the mickey head turns blue and then tells me that they're scheduled for a different ride or different time. If that occurs and they dispute it, everybody in the party scans their magic band to see if the same thing happens. If somebody turns green, the entire party is let through on the assumption that the entire party did schedule their experiences together and the app just screwed up. If nobody scans correctly, somebody in the party has to pull up the app on their phone and physically show that yes, they are at the right attraction at the correct time but their bands are just stupid. Finally, everybody has to scan their bands again so that they can be granted access and not be given any trouble at merge.

I will say that when the magic bands work quickly they are pretty nice from a CM standpoint because we no longer have to play the "why is this fastpass wet" game nor do we have to touch any papers that tourists decided were a good idea to store in their sweaty gross bras. Because that happens. Unfortunately, I can scan a paper fastpass with my eyes four times as fast as it takes a band to register on the podium which when we're busy does make a difference in how backed up our line gets.

Thanks for this helpful description!

So, the way I (as a guest) can expedite my party through the FP line is:

1) make sure everyone has the band out and ready
2) pull up the reservation on my phone app
3) only then approach the FP entrance.

 

[Jeff456]

I know there are lines at the FP return queue but does this just speed up entrance once inside the FP line itself? Just wondering if all it is is moving a slightly larger line to a different point in the line.

 

[GrumpyFan]

There might be a second slow down at the next/final scan of the band, but it's usually due to CM, letting standby riders on. It's just more visible on the first one because of where it is and the lack of a queue line. So, many times there's a long line of people that sticks out and interferes with the normal flow of traffic.