New Fast Pass System idea

[Chi84]

I don't mind the FP+ system (or at least I didn't before the tiers made it ridiculous at some parks) because there are a decent number of attractions I don't really care about riding. There are only a handful that are must-dos for me.

However, I'm surprised by your experience. The last two times I went to WDW, the only reason I was able to get FPs for every ride I wanted is because we were there long enough to have a long FP+ window and the flexibility to look at multiple days. For example, Flight of Passage was unavailable the second the 60 day window opened for the first 5 days of our trip, but I was able to get one on the 6th day. If it had just been a 4 or 5 day trip, it would have been impossible to ride Flight of Passage unless we were willing to wait 2-3 hours in line.

Thing is, without FP, the standby lines move much faster. I don't think you would see standby lines any longer than what currently exist at most attractions, and they'd probably be shorter at many if not most.

I’m sure there are differences based on the time of year or maybe just luck. I don’t doubt that standby lines would be shorter without FP+, but with it there are pretty much no lines at all. We usually just walk on or wait at most 10 minutes. I’m not anxious to give that up in favor of waiting 25 - 30 minutes for some rides and well over an hour for headliners. Others would gladly choose to get rid of FastPasses altogether. It’s just a matter of preference.

 

[UNCgolf]

I’m sure there are differences based on the time of year or maybe just luck. I don’t doubt that standby lines would be shorter without FP+, but with it there are pretty much no lines at all. We usually just walk on or wait at most 10 minutes. I’m not anxious to give that up in favor of waiting 25 - 30 minutes for some rides and well over an hour for headliners. Others would gladly choose to get rid of FastPasses altogether. It’s just a matter of preference.

Sure, but that's only for 3 rides per day. Maybe 4 or 5 if you're really lucky and can grab something late in the day after the original three. As I said, it's worked pretty well for me because most rides aren't that important to me and I'm okay with only riding a few per day. I think if FP+ was eliminated, though, I'd probably ride more because I think most of the waits would be more manageable. There's not really any ride I want to wait 2 hours for, but I might wait 30-45 minutes for some.

I know I was able to ride far more rides when I was a kid when FP didn't exist at all (not just FP+, but paper FP too). I know that's not really a great comparison, though, because the parks were also far less crowded back then and EPCOT (the best park of all) was designed to move huge numbers of people through basically all of its attractions and so there wasn't much waiting.

What Disney really needs to do is eliminate FP+ and also build numerous new attractions (which is why wait times have gotten so bad to begin with -- they thought FP+ would keep them from needing to build new attractions to keep up with the increased attendance), but that's likely not going to happen anytime soon. The Magic Kingdom would likely be far more pleasant with no FP+, but the other parks could be worse due to lack of attraction capacity. I know that Magic Kingdom is currently the park where FP+ feels more like a hindrance than a benefit if you're actually interested in riding all the headliners instead of just 3 or 4.

In general, I think FP+ works better for some people (and I'm probably one of them), but I think it's significantly worse for the vast majority of guests.

 

[FettFan]

Scrap FastPass altogether and start plussing the interactive queues.
Everybody stands by.

 

[Chi84]

Sure, but that's only for 3 rides per day. Maybe 4 or 5 if you're really lucky and can grab something late in the day after the original three. As I said, it's worked pretty well for me because most rides aren't that important to me and I'm okay with only riding a few per day. I think if FP+ was eliminated, though, I'd probably ride more because I think most of the waits would be more manageable. There's not really any ride I want to wait 2 hours for, but I might wait 30-45 minutes for some.

I know I was able to ride far more rides when I was a kid when FP didn't exist at all (not just FP+, but paper FP too). I know that's not really a great comparison, though, because the parks were also far less crowded back then and EPCOT (the best park of all) was designed to move huge numbers of people through basically all of its attractions and so there wasn't much waiting.

What Disney really needs to do is eliminate FP+ and also build numerous new attractions (which is why wait times have gotten so bad to begin with -- they thought FP+ would keep them from needing to build new attractions to keep up with the increased attendance), but that's likely not going to happen anytime soon. The Magic Kingdom would likely be far more pleasant with no FP+, but the other parks could be worse due to lack of attraction capacity. I know that Magic Kingdom is currently the park where FP+ feels more like a hindrance than a benefit if you're actually interested in riding all the headliners instead of just 3 or 4.

In general, I think FP+ works better for some people (and I'm probably one of them), but I think it's significantly worse for the vast majority of guests.

I can't claim to speak for the vast majority of guests, but I agree there would be no need for FastPass if Disney built so many new attractions that there would be a minimal wait for them. While that's happening, they need to come up with some type of ride reservation system to replace FP+, which doesn't seem to be popular these days, even with Disney. In my opinion, simply eliminating it is not a good idea - others may disagree. While I agree that Disney needs to consider the good of the many, my altruism varies with the heat index - at Disney it expires after 15 to 20 minutes in line.