My magic+ testing report

[Captain Chaos]

BTW I don't care if this fails or not... I don't care cause I'll be enjoying theme parks who actually give guests new experiences instead of placing them under house arrest, treating them like morons (then again seeing some people in the online community, maybe TDO is justified treating them like morons)... A place where I can plan a SPONTANEOUS vacation, and not having to plan 180 days in advance when I am going to have to take a ...

 

[Rodan75]

Honestly, if they keep the 3 FP per person per day, I think that will be a huge benefit. It could mean less FP overall which could mean less standby wait time and more spontaneity around 3 keystone events each day.

I fully expect them to monetize additional FP+ slots quickly though.

 

[asianway]

BTW I don't care if this fails or not... I don't care cause I'll be enjoying theme parks who actually give guests new experiences instead of placing them under house arrest, treating them like morons (then again seeing some people in the online community, maybe TDO is justified treating them like morons)... A place where I can plan a SPONTANEOUS vacation, and not having to plan 180 days in advance when I am going to have to take a ...

I think Id be a great catch for TDO, I despise the typical guest more than they do.

Who else cant wait until the system is up and running, and we have the first full fledged system crash?

Is there a manual contingency plan?

 

[bubbles1812]

Honestly, if they keep the 3 FP per person per day, I think that will be a huge benefit. It could mean less FP overall which could mean less standby wait time and more spontaneity around 3 keystone events each day.

I fully expect them to monetize additional FP+ slots quickly though.

But that's the thing... It won't. Because they are adding so many rides to FP, there will certainly not be less than before. And those three keystone events won't necessarily be the ideal attractions that you actually need them for. You aren't going to be able to FP the three mountains for instance, with the way the groupings are working.

 

[Prince-1]

Disney should provide the smart phones for guests to use. Then everyone will be happy, well except for Disney.

Well they do provide umbrellas for people waiting for Be Our Guest!!

 

[Jeffxz]

Yes. Today we started off at animal kingdom when the park opened. We rode ks, EE, and Dino with no wait in that order. We then did triceratops spin and primeval whirl with little wait again. We had lunch and went to FLK, then we went to Epcot where we were able to plan out our fastpass+ to ride TT, soarin, and MS. By mid day these rides fastpasses would normally have run out especially in the busy season. However, because of fp+ we were able to do the three most popular attractions upon arriving. So this strategy can work tremendously well even with the limit if you know how to work it.

A couple of questions for you @disney206313:

• Were you forced to select FP+ attractions from different groups of attractions or were you able to select 3 FP+ to any 3 attractions?
• Did you have to plan these in advance of your arrival to WDW or could you plan them the day you went to the park?
• Were you able to select a desired time?
• How long was the return time window?
• Were you denied any FP+ that you tried to get becuase they were gone for the day?

 

[RSoxNo1]

Here are some of the criticisms related to MyMagic+/Magic Bands/NextGen that aren't related to Fastpass+

• Privacy Concerns
• The interactive queues create bottlenecks and thematic intrusions
• Bugs in the system

The above concerns were not universally shared or can be solved. The system that they're trying to set up can certainly be beneficial to the guest experience. Yes, the expense seems ridiculous but I'd love to see the $1 billion plus itemized line by line to see where that money was actually spent.

For Fastpass+ the complaints have been:

• Booking Fastpasses days in advance ruins spontaneity
• Resticting Fastpass distribution to 3 per day lowers the usage by many people
• Adding Fastpass to additional attractions will result in longer standby lines at those attractions
• Same day availability for high demand Fastpasses is expected to be lower
• It limits the need/benefit of Park Hopping
• Will the be enough in park kiosks for guests that don't have smart phones?

It seems that the current public testing make all of the Fastpass+ concerns far more problematic for guests. Frankly, I don't see the advantage to them doing this. I don't see this as a money thing, nor do I see it as an improvement to the guest experience. Nobody has been able to adequately defend why this change is occuring.

 

[Lord_Vader]

Today's guest can get two, three, four or more fastpasses to an E-Ticket ride, under FP+ a guest can only get one. This new rule alone allows for a simultaneous reduction of total fastpasses for a single E-Ticket attraction while granting access to the attraction to a much wider audience of inexperienced guests. While it is yet to be seen, there is the possibility that overall standby lines can be reduced by only allowing one FP+ per ride as stated by the OP.

FP+ will negatively impact power users but may positively impact a casual guest as well, and there are a lot more casual guests than those of us that visit regularly and know the ins and outs of all the current processes.

 

[muteki]

Which I am sure will send guest satisfaction scores thru the roof! "Look honey! A FP for HM! I'm so glad I get this fast pass for an attraction that doesn't need it and lose out on a FP for Splash Mountain. What's that you say? Splash is a 2 hour wait? Wonderful! I really love that"

That's the spirit!

 

[spacemt354]

I love watching the train wreck of faux-insiders who feel the need to be something in the Disney online fan community because their lives are hollow, empty, pathetic, down right sad.. So they come on to a Disney fan forum to try to put some meaning in their worthless life... And failing...

There is an ignore button if a poster is troublesome to you. Why the need to personally insult someone like that? Let's all be polite and mature here. These types of comments aren't what this forum is about.

 

[spacemt354]

Hi all,
My family was selected for the testing this week of mymagic+ including magic bands and fast pass+. This testing was only for guests staying at the contemporary or animal kingdom lodge so it is a very select few guests at the parks. So far our experience has been mostly very good. First of all, lets get this out of the way: the bands ARE comfortable to wear. I have been wearing my band all day for three straight days, and I barely notice it. The impact is virtually the same as a live strong band. Fast pass+ has also been very positive. The bummer is its a maximum of three fast passes a day. This is our main complaint with the system as of now because before we were able to rack up 5+ fast passes a day sometimes. However, it makes it so much simpler to already have all your fast passes for the day when you arrive, so you don't have to run all over the park during the day. Having a band that controls your room key, snack/meal purchasing and fastpasses is VERY convienant. Also changing a fast pass on your smart phone while at the park is a great feature. For all those who have been hating something they have never even tried for some reason or another need to at least try this before hating it, because thus far we have had an excellent experience.

I'm glad your experience went well. When almost 2 billion is spent on something that is not building attractions, it's never money spent "well" to me. However, when this much time and effort is put into a project by Disney, especially one with so much public skepticism and hesitancy regarding it, I'm happy that it was an overall success. Not to say there aren't some kinks to be worked out, but thanks again for the review!

 

[Captain Chaos]

There is an ignore button if a poster is troublesome to you. Why the need to personally insult someone like that? Let's all be polite and mature here. These types of comments aren't what this forum is about.

Don't like it? Hold on.. let me get you a tissue too...

 

[spacemt354]

Don't like it? Hold on.. let me get you a tissue too...

Wow...

 

[ParentsOf4]

Honestly, if they keep the 3 FP per person per day, I think that will be a huge benefit. It could mean less FP overall which could mean less standby wait time and more spontaneity around 3 keystone events each day.

If only that were the case.

Even though FP was introduced in 1999, a sizeable majority still average less than 3 FP per day. Many get none. It is a select number of super-users, the ones who fully understand the benefits of the system, that maximize FP's potential.

Disney added FP+ to attractions that previously did not have FP because they had insufficient FP capacity. For example, on many days, Epcot will need to provide over 100,000 FP+ experiences to order to meet projected demand yet Epcot has only 3 attractions with a combined daily capacity of less than half that that genuinely benefit from FP.

All the needless FP+ lines point to longer waits in Standby lines, not less.

If you consider yourself a FP expert, you're pretty much out-of-luck with FP+.

 

[unkadug]

That's because you have muscle on your arms. Most people are sticks.

I don't think it was the muscles...I think it was the armband attacking the tattoos.

 

[unkadug]

@neoshinok

Thank you for deleting that

 

[neoshinok]

@neoshinok

Thank you for deleting that

I was a little upset by the negativity, but realized it makes no sense to add to it.

 

[Victor Kelly]

You don't have to parkhop. The same principle applies, though. You show up early, as usual, to get a bunch of rides in and schedule your fastpasses for the best rides during the busy time of the day.

We do this as well. For Example MK rope drop, BTMRR then Splash, POTC, HM. After that through old Fantasyland then to Tomorrowland.

 

[JandMGDdad]

I have to be honest - I have not read this entire thread - as we just got back from 10 days in WDW - staying at the contemporary. We got there too early for the selection period (got there on 12th - the day Disney updated their computer system - what a nightmare - but that is for another time). We did see some people with Magicbands and yes, I was jealous - but I see a huge problem! We were at the Nemo show sitting in front of a Magicband family - the dad spent the beginning portion of the show checking his smartphone for his selections - and was trying to change some while discussing it with his family! The same thing was occurring next to me with someone else. I finally had to ask her to please shut her phone off as it was distracting me from the show. I don't care what kind of announcements are made about silencing cell phones, turning them off, not video taping, ect - you will still have rude people - but I anticipate this being a big problem when a good portion of people will be focusing on their next experience instead of enjoying the one they are in at that moment! Nemo is an awesome show - too bad 2 idiots had to mess it up for me and my family. I can not imagine how may other times we would have to endure this if a good portion of people were Magicbanded!

 

[unkadug]

I have to be honest - I have not read this entire thread - as we just got back from 10 days in WDW - staying at the contemporary. We got there too early for the selection period (got there on 12th - the day Disney updated their computer system - what a nightmare - but that is for another time). We did see some people with Magicbands and yes, I was jealous - but I see a huge problem! We were at the Nemo show sitting in front of a Magicband family - the dad spent the beginning portion of the show checking his smartphone for his selections - and was trying to change some while discussing it with his family! The same thing was occurring next to me with someone else. I finally had to ask her to please shut her phone off as it was distracting me from the show. I don't care what kind of announcements are made about silencing cell phones, turning them off, not video taping, ect - you will still have rude people - but I anticipate this being a big problem when a good portion of people will be focusing on their next experience instead of enjoying the one they are in at that moment! Nemo is an awesome show - too bad 2 idiots had to mess it up for me and my family. I can not imagine how may other times we would have to endure this if a good portion of people were Magicbanded!

Unfortunately in this day and age, people will be on their smart phones for other reasons whether it be for updating their fastpasses or checking their facebook pages.

Heck, I've witnessed people walk smack into telephone poles walking down the street because they were too busy checking their phones to watch where they were walking.