New Return Procedure at Soarin'

[tsaintc]

So your saying that the monsoon doesn't affect you if you use a kiosk? And why wouldn't you get a fp for Space Mountain before heading all the way over to Splash? I guess people think MDE makes you more intelligent.

Have you actually used the old and new system??

 

[RayTheFirefly]

Ya, I would much rather the good 'ole days when I had run from Splash to Space Mountain to wait in line a 10 minute line for a piece of paper while the rest of my family takes a spin on the Tea Cups so they can 'do something' until we all have to walk in the monsoon that had just arrived to ride the Jungle Cruise because I cannot change the time on that piece of paper to better adjust my schedule due to the rain.

Your right, those kiosks are awful...

I've never once waited in a ten minute line for a paper fastpass. And I haven't had much luck at all "adjusting" my schedule with FP+ the day of, especially in the high season. As for the Florida afternoon monsoons... I don't believe FP+ has made those disappear at all. A timer on your watch/phone for 3:00pm might help with those.

I'm not against FP+. I actually like it and think it has potential. But it needs tweaking, and yes, those kiosks are awful.

 

[flynnibus]

Isnt it funny. I remember so many people saying you would still be able to book FP+ for marque attractions "day of" when the system fully rolled out. So many people were yapping about how they would never have to do rope drop again because they could book a FP+. If you think about it, the system is flawed from the get-go. If MM+ does indeed draw more people to the parks, then there will be more people making FP+ reservations months in advance thus causing the same effect you get with the dining reservations.

Yet people are still getting short term FP+ reservations. They don't have to book Soarin' months out.

Can you get a FP+ reservation at 5pm when the line has been closed? No.. but in most cases people are saying they get the FP+ they want on short notice or even day of. You may not get the time choice you want... but availability has been reported to be GOOD.

 

[peter11435]

Yet people are still getting short term FP+ reservations. They don't have to book Soarin' months out.

Can you get a FP+ reservation at 5pm when the line has been closed? No.. but in most cases people are saying they get the FP+ they want on short notice or even day of. You may not get the time choice you want... but availability has been reported to be GOOD.

I have been able to get FP+ day of for:

Thunder mountain
Splash mountain
Space mountain
Test track
Soarin'
Rock'n roller coaster
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Expedition Everest
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Dinosaur

Not to mention countless other less desired attractions.

 

[morningstar]

Isnt it funny. I remember so many people saying you would still be able to book FP+ for marque attractions "day of" when the system fully rolled out.

You're assuming the system is fully rolled out. I think this test is evidence that they are still tweaking it. Full capacity of rides is still not being allocated to FastPass+. If and when it is, it might be true that you can book day-of. As long as there are still a lot of seats on the ride set aside for standby, surprise, surprise, some people will have to wait in line to ride it.

 

[LondonGopher]

I liked it better when there was no Fast Pass of any kind. You walked in, went to a ride, and stood in line.

I was thinking about this at Vulcania in June. It was a French public holiday and NASTY busy. The park has no FP (plus or otherwise) system. Everybody just waits. Together.

The "meta" thought that I had was this:

Lack of FPs, single riders, Q-bots, express passes = a kind of camaraderie among guests. Because EVERY guest has the same experience. No one has any reason to get shirty with other patrons or CMs. And at Vulcania that day, no one did.

We've all gotten "the look" from a stand-by guest when we walk into the FP line. We've all heard, "How much extra did THAT cost?"...This "test", while it may come to nothing, creates yet another "class" to argue/fret about. And as I live in England, I deal with enough class rubbish already.

In an age of diminishing civility (something that is remarked on - as it relates to WDW - by many on this site), perhaps EQUALIZING the experience (again) is something to think about.

 

[wdisney9000]

Have you actually used the old and new system??

Yes.

 

[wdisney9000]

Yet people are still getting short term FP+ reservations. They don't have to book Soarin' months out.

Can you get a FP+ reservation at 5pm when the line has been closed? No.. but in most cases people are saying they get the FP+ they want on short notice or even day of. You may not get the time choice you want... but availability has been reported to be GOOD.

I'm not saying people can't get FP+ day of still, but I had days in January (non peak season) which I could not get FP+ for Soarin. I tried to get one at 11 am and could not. Same for TT on a different day. Others have reported similar situations. Now we are seeing 7dmt booked solid and people are forced to be there at rope drop if they don't want to wait over an hour, which was the only point I was originally making. Many people kept claiming how fp+ would eliminate having to be at rope drop.

If Disney gets their wish and MM+ does increase attendance do you not think that FP+ will eventually be similar to the dining reservation system? People will have to be up early on the 60 day mark to get that FP+ they want. Changing on day of will be extremely limited as well. It already is happening (slowly). Is the sky falling? No, but it's not getting any better either. I'm not damning the system either, just saying that all the people who acted like FP+ would revolutionize their vacation experience were wrong. Aside from occasionally avoiding rope drop or the ability to change fp time, that's all there is so far. Lines are not any shorter, and fp's for E tickets are still gone by afternoon on most days. Just saying it is not that much better than legacy.

 

[wdisney9000]

You're assuming the system is fully rolled out. I think this test is evidence that they are still tweaking it. Full capacity of rides is still not being allocated to FastPass+. If and when it is, it might be true that you can book day-of. As long as there are still a lot of seats on the ride set aside for standby, surprise, surprise, some people will have to wait in line to ride it.

Call it what you want but the system is as functional as it will ever be. Tweak all u want, it's been long enough and they know as much as they need to know about crowd dispersion by now. Like I said, the sky isn't falling, but they're appx 2 billion deep into this and vacations aren't much more "enhanced" than they were before. If you enjoy the system, why care what I think. I still enjoy myself when visiting even though im not a fan of MM+. I wish you nothing but happy travels

 

[dadddio]

FP:

• Get a FP for one ride after you've entered the park.
• Not able to choose times.
• If plans change, FP is wasted.
• Additional FPs can be obtained after the first one is used.
• Criss cross the parks in order to obtain FPs and return at the assigned time.
• FPs for the most popular attractions run out early in the day.

FP+:

• Get three FPs ahead of time.
• Choose times that work for you.
• If plans change, you can use your phone (or a kiosk or your PC or an ipod) to change the time or attraction.
• Additional FPs can be obtained after the first three are used.
• These additional FPs can be obtained at any park kiosk, making it unnecessary to 'criss cross' park to obtain FPs.
• FPs for the most popular attractions run out early in the day. Some may still come available as people swap their FP+ selections/times.
• FPs are often available for 'right now'. This means that you may choose to get your 4th+ FP for rides that you normally wouldn't use a FP for because you will have an immediate bypass for a 15-20 minute line.

Does FP+ solve every line issue that you might encounter? No.
Are you guaranteed to get a FP+ for every single ride that you might want it for? No.
Is it far better than the old FP system? Yes.

 

[Mawg]

When all rides are kept at capacity for the entire day the average guests gets to experience more attractions in a day. When a few rides are over capacity and some under capacity (seats empty) then the average guests experiences less overall. This is true of any theme park. At the beginning of a day or end of a day there are rides and shows with empty seats that are less popular and popular rides with long waits. If you take the total attraction capacity for an hour, let's just say it's if 50,000 people (addition of all rides and shows hourly capacity) and divide it by the number of people in the parks, let's say 25,000. Then each person should be able to experience an attraction every 30 mins. I think the average guest would be very happy with this. However, this is not how it works in real life. Now enter Fast Pass + or some kind of reservation system. If a guest can make a reservation for a popular attraction that may make them want to experience less popular attractions at times when they are not at capacity, thus increasing overall park capacity and the overall average guest experience.

I saw a chart somewhere that overall wait times at popular attractions has gone down slightly and waits at less popular attractions has gone up. Which means the less popular attractions are better staying at capacity. What would be a nice statistic to see if this is all working is to know how many empty seats there are per hour for all attractions before and after Fast Pass +. If there are less empty seats on all attractions now, then the reservation system is working regardless of what perception is.

I think a reservation system is a genius idea, I just don't think any real geniuses have been involved on implementing this one yet.

 

[bugsbunny]

I concur with Trotsky. Billions of dollars and years of planning to change when you may enter and the only way to do a test regarding "when you may enter" is via paper? From an IT, logistics, and planning standpoint; that's ludicrous. I'd fire you.

Which leads me to believe that they want to let you use your FP+ bands in this situation, but didn't account for "spot" additions to the queing system. Meaning, instead of getting this paper to come back, you scan your band on the fly to let you come back at 5:30. Instead, they have no current ability to do this and instead, have to use paper.

So if this paper test works, fully expect limited queue access as they further reduce standby queue availability to allow for spot returns via a FP+ system. Guaranteed. There's simply no other explanation.

And that being that.....is there going to be ANY part of a vacation to WDW that isn't planned out to the minute like a corporate function or NYC bus schedule? I want to relax, not hurry up and wait by the minute to keep the spreadsheet happy.

 

[muteki]

The problem with MM/FP+ is when you outsource the work every time you want to make a change you have to go through contract negotiations/scheduling/planning with a 3rd party. They might very well want to pull in all these paper return times into MM+, but making changes like this to the backend, website, mobile apps, etc. takes time. Also probably why you have to go to a kiosk to get your 4+ FP for the day.

If they did more in-house they could probably get things like this implemented quicker.

The real problem is as massive and complex as the system is, it is realistically not possible to adapt it quickly to unexpected changes in the park.

 

[Mawg]

The problem with MM/FP+ is when you outsource the work every time you want to make a change you have to go through contract negotiations/scheduling/planning with a 3rd party. They might very well want to pull in all these paper return times into MM+, but making changes like this to the backend, website, mobile apps, etc. takes time. Also probably why you have to go to a kiosk to get your 4+ FP for the day.

If they did more in-house they could probably get things like this implemented quicker.

The real problem is as massive and complex as the system is, it is realistically not possible to adapt it quickly to unexpected changes in the park.

I wasn't aware they outsource this stuff, interesting and agree they should bring it in-house. Might cost a bit more but adds so much more flexibility which saves money in the end.

 

[stevehousse]

Yes one if the main reasons u can't do a FP+ for Be Our Guest Lunch on the main site is because that was outsourced...and they still can't get it to work properly by itself...

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I have been able to get FP+ day of for:

Thunder mountain
Splash mountain
Space mountain
Test track
Soarin'
Rock'n roller coaster
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Expedition Everest
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Dinosaur

Not to mention countless other less desired attractions.

Thats a pretty full day.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Ya, I would much rather the good 'ole days when I had run from Splash to Space Mountain to wait in line a 10 minute line for a piece of paper while the rest of my family takes a spin on the Tea Cups so they can 'do something' until we all have to walk in the monsoon that had just arrived to ride the Jungle Cruise because I cannot change the time on that piece of paper to better adjust my schedule due to the rain.

Your right, those kiosks are awful...

Id blame your inability to manage your time and use the machines effectively if it took the time you state.

personally Id hazard a guess you are telling a wee porky with that one, unless it was TSMM, but then no doubt within 10 milliseconds there would be no FPs left anyway. Or something.