New Return Procedure at Soarin'

RayTheFirefly

RayTheFirefly

Well-Known Member
GrumpyFan said:
This is a test. This only a test!

Not sure why people seem so upset over this. Disney's actually trying to do something to improve in park experience for guests by looking at new ways to get them out of line. Sure, I get that everybody thinks Disney needs to build more high caliber attractions to balance out the park(s) and reduce the need for such a system, but until they do, we are all going to have to make do with what's there.

Personally, I like this approach. It gets me out of standing in line for 2+ hours if I don't have a Fastpass+ and allows me to go do something else, which might include making a purchase. So, it's a win for them and me too!
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The only way I'm ok with it is if the ticket return time is for exactly how long the wait would have been if I waited in line. But if it's what would have been a one hour wait in line, but they give me a return time that's in 2 hours? That screws up the rest of my day/plans.
 
71jason

71jason

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
danlb_2000 said:
Saw this on twitter:

"At 5:30 guests were near riot level refusing to leave and the CM's were threatening to all quit. Reopened standby - made return holders mad."

"Second day, orders came down to "stick to the plan" and the queue closed again around 5pm. At 6:40 CMs began walking off refusing to work."
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The sad thing is, this says far more about the typical WDW guest these days than this (admittedly dumb) test. I don't like that the ride closed at 5:00, but if guests want to stand there and violently berate CMs over that fact--time to call in security, or Orange County.
 
GrumpyFan

GrumpyFan

Well-Known Member
RayTheFirefly said:
The only way I'm ok with it is if the ticket return time is for exactly how long the wait would have been if I waited in line. But if it's what would have been a one hour wait in line, but they give me a return time that's in 2 hours? That screws up the rest of my day/plans.
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Just curious, how would you feel about the option of waiting in the standby line, with the posted wait time (likely exceeding 45 minutes)? Or, coming back and waiting in the shorter standby. Basically, they would put everybody with a Fastpass+ and this new system (whatever they call it), in one line where the wait would be kept to no more than 30 minutes, then the standby, which might be 45+ minutes. That way you would at least have a choice. They would have to carefully integrate the two/three wait queues, one for FP+, second for (old) FP, then another for standby, but I think it could be done.
 
GrumpyFan

GrumpyFan

Well-Known Member
71jason said:
The sad thing is, this says far more about the typical WDW guest these days than this (admittedly dumb) test. I don't like that the ride closed at 5:00, but if guests want to stand there and violently berate CMs over that fact--time to call in security, or Orange County.
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I have to question the accuracy/legitimacy of that tweet also. Slight exaggeration? Tired/unhappy CM? Who knows, but I don't think I've ever seen anything at WDW that I would consider near riot level, except for maybe the bus stops when a bus hasn't shown for more than 30 minutes.
 
disneydudette

disneydudette

Well-Known Member
The only glaring discrepancy I see... is the automatic assumption you'll wait "120mins" for Soarin'.

At 3:30p (for article comparison purposes) the wait for Soarin' was 75mins.

It's a crowd level of 8 today, and EPCOT is not recommended due to evening EMH. Yesterday was also an "8"... with EPCOT as a park recommendation. I'd assume yesterday's wait time would be similar, if not shorter, in comparison to today's.

Guest A walks in at 3:30p... 75min wait... exits attraction at 4:45p - 4:50p.

Guest B walks in at 3:30p... returns at 4:45p... waits 45mins... exits attraction 5:30p - 5:35p.

Guest A stood in line 30mins longer than Guest B... exited attraction 45mins earlier.

The peak wait time for Soarin' was 85mins today... if it was indeed 120mins... popularity would force later return windows with waits closer to 60-75mins.

It's now 4:45p and outside of TT and Soarin'... the longest wait in FW is 10mins for Mission Space.

Guest A has the ability to accomplish Soarin', SSE, and M:S in the same time frame Guest B accomplishes Soarin' and JitI.

Journey has not had a wait time higher than 5mins.

#TeamGuestA
 
RayTheFirefly

RayTheFirefly

Well-Known Member
GrumpyFan said:
Just curious, how would you feel about the option of waiting in the standby line, with the posted wait time (likely exceeding 45 minutes)? Or, coming back and waiting in the shorter standby. Basically, they would put everybody with a Fastpass+ and this new system (whatever they call it), in one line where the wait would be kept to no more than 30 minutes, then the standby, which might be 45+ minutes. That way you would at least have a choice. They would have to carefully integrate the two/three wait queues, one for FP+, second for (old) FP, then another for standby, but I think it could be done.
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I mean... I guess that would be ok, but I'm gonna be honest, it sounds a little insane and like a big ole mess. Then why would you bother with FP+? It just seems unnecessarily complicated.
 
MrNonacho

MrNonacho

Premium Member
RSoxNo1 said:
I suspect it's based solely on the Orange Team numbers, as such FP+ would be limited. That seems to be different than regular Fastpass which was often available up until 8 PM same day.
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A big difference is that people wouldn't even bother getting a paper FP when the wait time wasn't that high. With FP+, people are choosing M:S regardless of the wait time, resulting in MUCH more people coming in that way than before.
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
natatomic said:
How does this work? I feel like this just doesn't make sense. I mean, if you expect a super busy day, giving out more FPs just makes the FP line slower, which in turn makes the SB line slower. Are Merge CMs having to adjust their merge ratios more often? Like being at a phase two more often than usual? I guess if you just increase the ratio, you could keep the FP line the same length no matter how any extra FPs are coming through (to an extent anyway), but then standby just gets that much longer. And it's already longer to begin with if it's extra busy. Plus, with a 3 FP limit, everyone is gonna end up waiting in at least a couple of (now longer) standby lines. They're just gonna end up using the time they saved in the FP line for the longer wait in SB.
On the other hand, if it's a slow September day, why lower the number of FP? Most lines won't be long to begin with. I would think a majority of guests could get the FPs they wanted on slow days if they didn't lessen the amount.

I honest to God think Disney is overthinking the whole Fastpass thing.
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I guess I made a bit of an overstatement. You are right, there's no real reason to adjust the number of Fastpasses distributed unless the ride's capacity changes, but with Fastpass+ it is much easier to do and move the demand for that attraction around than with the old system.
GrumpyFan said:
This is a test. This only a test!

Not sure why people seem so upset over this. Disney's actually trying to do something to improve in park experience for guests by looking at new ways to get them out of line. Sure, I get that everybody thinks Disney needs to build more high caliber attractions to balance out the park(s) and reduce the need for such a system, but until they do, we are all going to have to make do with what's there.

Personally, I like this approach. It gets me out of standing in line for 2+ hours if I don't have a Fastpass+ and allows me to go do something else, which might include making a purchase. So, it's a win for them and me too!
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I get that, but if its true that people were being denied the ability to ride Soarin' at all, then that is unacceptable and not well thought out, because then they are basically denying guests what they paid for.

Also, it just doesn't make much sense, return at a designated time an hour and a half or so later, but still wait 45 minutes?
 
omurice

omurice

Well-Known Member
dadddio said:
If that's true, I imagine that some CMs lost their jobs. Hopefully those who complained about it to guests were also terminated.
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Are you serious? I cannot believe anyone thinks a CM should fear for their job if there is a genuine issue, for voicing their concerns.
If a guest is complaining and a CM is candidly sympathizing they know this test was not the best idea, they should be fired for having an opinion?

I know it's not the best thing for corporate image but I'm somewhat comforted if a CM agrees with me that things could be better...
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
omurice said:
Are you serious? I cannot believe anyone thinks a CM should fear for their job if there is a genuine issue, for voicing their concerns.
If a guest is complaining and a CM is candidly sympathizing they know this test was not the best idea, they should be fired for having an opinion?

I know it's not the best thing for corporate image but I'm somewhat comforted if a CM agrees with me that things could be better...
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I think it really depends on exactly how they handle it. If they simply bad mouth the company and tell the guest that this was all a stupid idea, then yes, I think that would be grounds for discipline. A better way to handle it would be to apologize, explain that it is a test, and that they are seeing that things aren't quite working out as expected. This way they would be admitting that there is a problem, sympathizing with the guest, but not totally trashing the company.
 
danv3

danv3

Well-Known Member
Belowthesurface said:
Get rid of FP+ and you can actually go back to enjoying this place.
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All they had to do was update FP to be electronic. None of the rules needed changing. No one needed to book a ride slot 60 days in advance. The result of the FP+ nonsense is that it now needs to be "fixed" with some of the additional nonsense we saw being tested the last couple of days.
 
Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
danv3 said:
All they had to do was update FP to be electronic. None of the rules needed changing. No one needed to book a ride slot 60 days in advance. The result of the FP+ nonsense is that it now needs to be "fixed" with some of the additional nonsense we saw being tested the last couple of days.
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That would've been perfect. All the old fastpass machines updated or replaced so that all you did was scan your band and you got your return time, maybe get to choose it too. Much better than the kiosks. Maybe also be able to use the app to get them on the day of your visit.
 

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