New Return Procedure at Soarin'

[StarWarsGirl]

As much as I would love more attractions, I doubt that your plan would work.

If another E-ticket attraction was built in Epcot, it wouldn't stop people from wanting to ride Soarin'. In fact, it might draw more people to the park. These new people wouldn't just come to ride the new ride. They'd also want to ride Soarin'.

The solution is to fix the capactity problems with this ride, but that's food for a different thread.

What's needed is not just one additional e ticket, but several additional e-tickets. That may draw more guests, but at least that dispenses them. That's why DL does not have this issue in either of their parks (minus RSR, but that's also a capacity issue with that ride). FPs are always easy to come by, waits are never completely insane, and if one wait time is bad, there are plenty of other attractions that can occupy your time so that one missed attraction may not be a huge deal.

 

[morningstar]

Exactly, and the "calm down" crowd is too busy paying attention to people complaining to even realize how WDW is slowly being turned into a place they want you to shop and eat 90% of the time and maybe slip in a few rides when time permits.

In the old days, didn't you spend 90% of the time in a line, with a few short rides? Okay maybe 90% is high, but a good 50% is a ballpark. Fastpass means you are spending less time in pursuit of riding rides, but not actually less time on rides. Maybe that makes your vacation seem less ride-oriented, but it doesn't actually provide less value.

 

[Fishbait]

One would think that the multiple-hour waits tend to keep people from repeating Soarin'.

Maybe. But I have the opportunity to wait in that line if I choose to do so. My time, my money, I decide how/where I want to spend both. I would be irate if I park hopped to Epcot in the evening and wanted to ride Soarin only to find that I didn't even have the option of waiting in line. And when I go we always ride our favorite rides more than once a day. Take that option away....

This is as dumb of a idea as I have heard. Between this (if it becomes more than a test), prices, the new FP+ system, dirty rides/queues, ill-mannered CMs and guests, WDW is making it easy to book somewhere else for vacations.

 

[DanStat]

If I were a guest and I walked up to the attraction and could not line up at a reasonable time, say 5 in the afternoon, I would be very upset.

This is another example of WDW not being able to maintain even as profits soar.

 

[morningstar]

Not if they eventually extended this to every attraction.

I doubt that will happen. They might extend it to every Fastpass attraction, but they will leave the A- and B- tickets with standby-only. That's what you can do while waiting for your scheduled ride time on the E tickets.

 

[Captain Chaos]

What's needed is not just one additional e ticket, but several additional e-tickets. That may draw more guests, but at least that dispenses them. That's why DL does not have this issue in either of their parks (minus RSR, but that's also a capacity issue with that ride). FPs are always easy to come by, waits are never completely insane, and if one wait time is bad, there are plenty of other attractions that can occupy your time so that one missed attraction may not be a huge deal.

Doesn't even have to be E tickets... Just as long as it is something which the guests would actually see and enjoy... E tickets help, but aren't the be all end all...

 

[fillerup]

My question is this - Why now?

To state the obvious, Soarin' has been enormously popular since opening and more days than not has had unpleasantly long SB lines, as do a few other well known attractions.

So why now? This doesn't really have anything to do with FP+ - this "test" could have been tried years ago, right?

I suppose it's possible that this idea just recently dawned on someone when they were kicking around what to do about the insane lines for A&E, but maybe there's more to it.

I'm going to engage in my right to speculate a little.

Maybe there's an urgency to generate near term guest spending and one way to do that is to get people out of queues. Another way is to add a whole bunch of new hard ticket events.

I always come back to this, but Jay Rasulo told the Street to expect FY '14 spending to see a boost of around $300M from NGE. Maybe, just maybe they're falling well short of that and there's a bit of a sense of desperation that they'd better kick it into gear to show the financial success of this new (expensive) technological project.

Freely admit this is pure speculation and might be wrong, but it crossed my mind.

 

[psherman42]

Wait so is this an all day thing where they hand out return times, or only after the stand-by wait time reaches a certain point like with the Anna and Elsa meet and greet?

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Wait so is this an all day thing where they hand out return times, or only after the stand-by wait time reaches a certain point like with the Anna and Elsa meet and greet?

To my knowledge it works like the Anna & Elsa Meet & Greet.

Yeah. It's a very BAD idea.

 

[cw1982]

Wait so is this an all day thing where they hand out return times, or only after the stand-by wait time reaches a certain point like with the Anna and Elsa meet and greet?

Well, considering the standby wait usually reaches the cut-off to start handing out the paper passes within an hour of opening, I'd say it's pretty much the same thing either way. Neither attraction tends to ever dip below a 30-minute wait once the lines get long during an average day.

 

[landauh]

No it is not because there are a finite number of actors who can play the Frozen characters, and CMs who run attractions are much larger in number and more easily interchangeable. Hence the actors having greater instances of overtime pay or exhaustion etc.

You have never been an Attractions CM, have you.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

You have never been an Attractions CM, have you.

I agree; while the characters have a lot to deal with, dealing with some of the stuff guests pull can make being an attractions CM just as bad.

 

[G00fyDad]

Just taking the opportunity to mention that all of those things turned out to be pretty good, even though internet people claimed they were going to be the death of all things vacation.

I understand your point, but someone cannot simply dismiss the new procedures as "just a test", because we all know how Disney's "just a test" works out. It has nothing to do with the validity or the success of previous procedures.

 

[maxime29]

Guests can't spend money on merch/food when they stand in a 2 hour line. That's the only logic I can think of to consider this type of test.

 

[cw1982]

Guests can't spend money on merch/food when they stand in a 2 hour line. That's the only logic I can think of to consider this type of test.

Yeah, we've been over that lol. As others have pointed out, though, many guests go to WDW with a set amount of money budgeted for food and merchandise. Cutting out time that they are waiting in line doesn't necessarily add to the amount of time they are spending money. In fact, it might just mean they leave the park earlier, which means they might catch their next meal at a fast food joint up the road instead of in the park, the second of which would be more likely if they're hungry by the time they finish waiting in that long line.

 

[flynnibus]

Freely admit this is pure speculation and might be wrong, but it crossed my mind.

I'll fill that in the 'conspiracy bin'

Disney frequently does different tests on lines, methods, etc. This isn't really unique.

 

[danlb_2000]

I'll fill that in the 'conspiracy bin'

Disney frequently does different tests on lines, methods, etc. This isn't really unique.

Yeah, a while back they did a test of virtual queuing at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The only place so far this has actually been put into full time use in the new Dumbo.

 

[landauh]

I agree; while the characters have a lot to deal with, dealing with some of the stuff guests pull can make being an attractions CM just as bad.

Actually there is more to it than dealing with guests.

If the attraction has a three hour line at closing and the attraction stays open the Attraction CMs must be available to operate it. For some attractions that means a minimum of ten CMs and they must be qualified on that attraction. They would get overtime pay and if they worked a certain amount of hours it could even be double-time. Then there is a rule that if two shifts have less than eight hours the entire time for both shifts double-time.

Keeping the attraction open means that maintenance and park cleaning cannot start. Also merchandise must stay open and have CMs available. More overtime.

Then you must keep transportation available. Since the Monorails and watercraft stop early that leaves buses. You will need bus drivers who are limited in the number of hours they can be behind the wheel by DOT regulations.

So controlling the line is important. I'm just not sure this is the way to do it.

 

[JediMasterMatt]

My question is this - Why now?

To state the obvious, Soarin' has been enormously popular since opening and more days than not has had unpleasantly long SB lines, as do a few other well known attractions.

So why now? This doesn't really have anything to do with FP+ - this "test" could have been tried years ago, right?

I suppose it's possible that this idea just recently dawned on someone when they were kicking around what to do about the insane lines for A&E, but maybe there's more to it.

I'm going to engage in my right to speculate a little.

Maybe there's an urgency to generate near term guest spending and one way to do that is to get people out of queues. Another way is to add a whole bunch of new hard ticket events.

I always come back to this, but Jay Rasulo told the Street to expect FY '14 spending to see a boost of around $300M from NGE. Maybe, just maybe they're falling well short of that and there's a bit of a sense of desperation that they'd better kick it into gear to show the financial success of this new (expensive) technological project.

Freely admit this is pure speculation and might be wrong, but it crossed my mind.

Why now? Likely because of the impact of FP+. I noticed on my most recent trip that standby lines move slower due to an increase in the number of people using FP. For Soarin' this might be why they are trying it. To keep people out of a slow moving and unsatisfying line.

 

[morningstar]

My question is this - Why now?

To state the obvious, Soarin' has been enormously popular since opening and more days than not has had unpleasantly long SB lines, as do a few other well known attractions.

So why now? This doesn't really have anything to do with FP+ - this "test" could have been tried years ago, right?

Unlimited FP+ was recently rolled out. It could be that more FP reservations for Soarin' resulted in a slower standby line and longer waits.