Lee
Adventurer
I do not approve of that foolishness.
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NextGen / FP+ / Magic Band. The official truth starts to appear
- Thread starter marni1971
- Start date
flynnibus
Premium Member
Unclear - but if they keep an allotment of FP+ available for day of.. this type of example guest should be able to get some FPs from a kiosk in the park.. just like they do today. But instead of doing it throughout the day, it would make sense to setup your FP+ reservations all at once.
PolynesianPrincess
Well-Known Member
I think it's ridiculous that the maximum amount of FP someone can get is 3 daily. Somedays we get upwards or 7 or 8. And where they are adding FP+ to pretty much every attraction and show, why limit it to 3? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for being able to reserve your FP+ ride times in advance but limiting it to 3... And in only one park no less, so if you choose to spend the morning at Epcot and the evening at DHS, you have to pick one park or the other to get FPs at. This just means more time guests will be spending in line and not out shopping in the stores! Absolutely ridiculous.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Note the following answers contain the latest information but could change:
(a) FP+ can be used at one park per day only. You'll be able to park hop but not using FP+.
(b) Conventional FP eventually will go away. It appears there will be a transition period when both are available. However, you can use only one or the other. Once you opt in to FP+, then it's no more FP for you.
(c) Yes, Standby lines for FP+ attractions almost certainly will grow. See my analysis here:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/fastpass-’s-possible-impact-on-standby-lines.858496/
(d) Everyone eventually will use one form of RFID or another. RFID technology is already in use at the resorts, to enter the theme parks, and at touch-to-pay locations. FP+ is one of the last systems upgraded to RFID technology. Tickets and room keys now being distributed already contain RFID tags. MagicBands simply use more versatile RFID technology.
(e) For some perspective, Disneyland was a disaster on Opening Day. It took a lot of time to work out all the problems. With that acknowledged, it appears Disney badly misjudged the complexity (along with the number of corresponding issues) of NextGen and, consequently, is having great difficulty with the rollout. Disney already has sunk a great deal of money into NextGen. They cannot afford to back down now so expect them to continue to throw money at it until the most serious problems are solved.
flynnibus
Premium Member
Or inversely.. if you are the type that thinks FP hurts lines and makes them longer... if you believe everyone used to get 7 or 8.. being limited to 3 would decrease the impact of FP on standby lines.
Todd L
Well-Known Member
Not sure if this was brought up or Not But does anybody know if this technology has been field tested to any real extent??
Do we know If this was developed By Disney people or was it Designed specifically for Disney by a Third party???
I work in the Digital infomation, Tech. world for a Tremendous company that the majority of you use everyday and Im telling you If I had a dollar for everytime I was dragged into a meeting to deal with people we are buying the latest and greatest new techno gizmo from Id be rich.
99.9% of this stuff does not go smoothly and The developers of course make promises that they almost never live up to and before too long we either scrap the project or use it to a much lesser capacity than It was ever intended for.
I cant imagine What kinda living hell Disney I.t. will be dealing with out of the gate...Can you imagine if fast passes were lost , Meal plans improperly charged/accredited, Resort door not opening ...Mixed up Credit card info.
I wouldnt want to have to answer to my boss why 100,000 Guest were not able to use their Credit cards to make purchases......
Do we know If this was developed By Disney people or was it Designed specifically for Disney by a Third party???
I work in the Digital infomation, Tech. world for a Tremendous company that the majority of you use everyday and Im telling you If I had a dollar for everytime I was dragged into a meeting to deal with people we are buying the latest and greatest new techno gizmo from Id be rich.
99.9% of this stuff does not go smoothly and The developers of course make promises that they almost never live up to and before too long we either scrap the project or use it to a much lesser capacity than It was ever intended for.
I cant imagine What kinda living hell Disney I.t. will be dealing with out of the gate...Can you imagine if fast passes were lost , Meal plans improperly charged/accredited, Resort door not opening ...Mixed up Credit card info.
I wouldnt want to have to answer to my boss why 100,000 Guest were not able to use their Credit cards to make purchases......
Skippy's Pal
Well-Known Member
Thanks for your informative responses. It will be interesting if Disney still charges extra for Park Hoppers when hopping exiles you to the standby line only and you lose the "advantages" of MYW.
PolynesianPrincess
Well-Known Member
True. But I don't like the fact that I am going to be limited on how many FPs I can get. Everyone had the ability to get as many as they could if they knew how to use them to the fullest potential. Now we can only have 3. And I'm willing to bet you won't be able to pick all 3 for big headliners. So say I got to DHS, will it be that I can pick TSMM, RNRC or TOT but not all 3? And then use my other two for something like GMR and Indy? Two attractions that don't NEED FPs nor would I want to waste my alloted FPs on. I think they are adding FPs to rides that just don't need it, thus making all those lines longer. I feel that with this change it will make short stand by lines longer and (possibly) longer standby lines shorter. I could be wrong but either way I am not happy with the fact we only get 3 FPs per day.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I don't think it will change FP lines at all because I think that they will issue the same amount every day for each ride, however, by limiting those the once got 7 or 8 it will open up the opportunity for others to have FP availability, not just the same people all the time. Who knows? I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
FP+ will distribute FP more evenly than the old FP system. Like you, I am one of those capable of scoring many FP per day using the current system. But for everyone like you and I, there are 10 guests who don't understand or use FP at all. I have crunched the numbers and believe the current attraction capability probably would be unable to handle 4 FP+ per person at every park except MK. 3 FP per person per day gives Disney some spare capacity. It will be interesting to see how they use it.
WDW's nearly 15-year experiment with FP showed that one of its goals, to get people out of lines and into stores, simply didn't work. What inevitably happened was that guests would pick up a FP for one attraction and immediately hop in line for another attraction.
I believe the best FP+ park hopping strategy will be to arrive at one park for opening, ride the attractions there in the morning, and then hop over to a second park in the afternoon, using FP+ at that second park. Unless you want to stand in line for 120+ minutes, the old FP system pretty much forced you to arrive at opening for high demand/low capacity attractions such as Soarin' and TSM. With FP+ you will, for example, be able to arrive for opening at DHS, ride TSM, TOT, and RnRC before the lines get too long and then hop over to Epcot without having to stand in line for 2 hours for Soarin' if (huge if) you can get a Soarin' FP+ for the right time. I have calculated that less than 1-in-4 Epcot guests will be able to get "good" Soarin' FP+ return times. Your advantage will come from knowing what the good times are but it likely means logging on 60 days before arrival and making your FP+ selections first thing in the morning. In this sense, FP+ now becomes like ADRs. By the way, I hate the current ADR system. I don't want to have to decide 6 months in advance where I am going to eat.
I am a fan of FP but, at this point, my opinion is that the fairest thing would be to eliminate FP/FP+ completely. However, this does not make good business sense. (Isn't it sad that "fair" and "good business" always seem to be contradictory?) FP+ allows Disney to take tighter control over its attractions in order to drive revenue growth.
flynnibus
Premium Member
But if you limit how many FPs people can get.. you are limiting how many FPs you need to distribute too. If you were able to get 3 FPs for Space Mountain before.. you would not be able to now. In effect, limiting how many FP users there are. Limits still play a factor for attractions 'everyone' wants to do.. like a Space Mountain.. or Peter Pan.. but for most.. because people have such limited FP access.. it in effect would reduce use of FP.
That's why I don't really think the 3 number we keep hearing is the 'full' picture. You can't have this massive FP+ infrastructure and have it sit idle. I think there is more to the story we don't know yet...
flynnibus
Premium Member
Yeah, but one has to realize Disney is trying to make the most people happy.. and not just the people who could maximize their FP usage by using late returns, runners, etc. In many respects, this will 'level things out' - but its not going to cater to the old FP Maximus anymore that's for sure.
Genie of the Lamp
Well-Known Member
I always appreciate your insight on FP+/NG @ParentsOf4. I don't really mind allocating 3 FP+ to all WDW Guests as I believe that's a fair offer for everyone. What I would do is offer 3 FP+ everyday to all WDW guests but for resort Guests, I'd allow them to be able to purchase one extra FP+ on certain days of the week. Need a table, I'll show you an example:
Value Resorts: 3 FP+ guaranteed everyday. On let's say every monday and wednesday, they will recieve an extra FP+ reservation
Moderate Resorts: 3 FP+ guaranteed everyday. On let's say every Tuesday and Thursday, they will recieve an extra FP+ reservation
Deluxe/Deluxe Villa Resorts: 3 FP+ guarateed everyday. On let's say every Friday and Saturday, they will recieve an extra FP+ reservation.
Reason I'm saying Resort guests should get an extra FP+ Reservation is because they are offering their services to Disney by staying on WDW property and at a WDW Resort and shelling out the most casholla. So since they are being loyal guests, they should be rewarded by recieving an extra FP+ reservation on certain days. Resort guests need incentives and with EMH's going away, I feel this would be at least a step in the right direction of Disney showing that they care about their on property resort guests. But I'm just looking at it from a domestic out of state WDW guest, not from a local's perspective. I'll miss the EMH (Evening ones) days. One thing I don't like in particular about participating in FP+ is that you won't be able to park hop. Yeah, I agree that FP should be eliminated, but that doesn't make much business sense and wouldn't be well recieved by guests.
muteki
Well-Known Member
I agree for the most part about giving resort guests an extra perk, and it being even across the board as far as resort levels go, but it should be included in the reservation, not an additional purchase. EMH was never an extra fee, and once it goes away, FP+ should replace it as the on-property free resort perk.
Genie of the Lamp
Well-Known Member
Yeah true, you gotta good point. Then FP+ shall become the free on-property resort perk (or at least one of) under my proposal.
michmousefan
Well-Known Member
Especially considering that 3FP+ might suffice at a park like AK, where most guests seem to be done by mid-afternoon, but it definitely wouldn't suffice at a park like MK that is open some days to 1am or later.
There's another shoe that's going to drop... and I'm sure it will just as soon as TDO figures out what it is.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I'm sure that there is a lot more to the story, but I am just speculating here that you are distributing them to others that in the past were not able to get one. At the same time you are cutting down on the numbers of people in either line because now instead of people getting a Fastpass and then another and another, that are taking up room in lines, virtual or not, will instead go to a different more quick moving line. It will slow that one down but it will allow an equal access to rides, high demand or not and spread out the crowd. Even though I have taken advantage of FP many times, I see this possibly being something that helps everyone feel that they were given a fair shake at riding a popular ride. The very thing that I have advocated since the birth of FP and the one major negative about it. General enjoyment for every Guest not just those that spend half their time gathering FP's.
Someone mentioned the possibility of FP's for CoP. How ridiculous would that be really. Yet, they will use that when they have used up the allotted number of FP's for any given ride. Those will be additional FP's, and why not, no ones going to use them anyway. So one can end up with one of the FP's of the three being CoP. and that frees up passes for things like Splash or BTMR or whatever or directs people to other parks on the days that Disney decides it needs to balance the crowd.
I know that all sounds a little far fetched, but it seems to me that with a little savvy they could make the reservation computer be a random pick at the point that the guests cannot decide and set perhaps a lower level of distribution via reservations. If they are able to save FP's for those that are not onsite with reservations, which I think they will have to do to prevent a riot, it will make everyone except FP commando's happy.
PolynesianPrincess
Well-Known Member
How were people in the past not able to get one? Everyone had equal opportunity to show up to a park and get to the FP machines. I think people still won't know how to use the whole My Magic + online to book their FPs in advance. It's like the ADR's. Some people just don't understand that you need to book 180 days out to get what you want. Instead they think walking up to Le Cellier during the Christmas season will get them a table. There are still people who won't understand how it works, just like there are people who don't understand how the current system works. I know a lot of older folks who aren't computer savy who go to Disney. If they want FPs now, this means they need to learn to use the system. Why should someone be forced to use a system they don't want to use? The FPs now are easy: you walk up, put your ticket in, you get the FP. It's simple enough anyone can do it if you know about it. This whole booking online thing is going to throw some people for a loop.
dhall
Well-Known Member
I'm one of those, so a hard limit of 3/guest would be a great improvement, IMO. We hardly ever got more than 1 or 2 FP/day to begin with since there were only a handful of rides that really need it. We also park hop most days, generally finding that all the FP's worth getting are long gone in the 2nd park.
In my mind, there's only 8 attractions on the whole property that are worth grabbing a fast pass for: SM, BTM, Splash, R&RC, ToT, Soarin', TT, & Everest: everything else, I'll ride if there's a 20-30 min line and skip otherwise.