Pandoran problems 4.25.18

[larryz]

Yep . . . and when people stop coming because they're being directed toward the Fine Print instead of towards a solution that respects their interests as guests laying out potentially thousands of dollars for a trip, Disney's gonna have to find a way to rest easy knowing the Fine Print had their back.

. . . But being that this company built its reputation on things like giving guests another balloon when one flew away or a new ice cream when one fell on the ground, even though it actively lost them money, they seem to understand the value of creating a positive guest experience. Losing those couple bucks in the moment is worth the goodwill it buys you with your customer. They'll come back if they feel like they're being taken care of. I don't feel qualified to say what's appropriate to offer to guests in a case like this, but clearly there were a lot of unhappy campers and it makes business sense to try to fix that.

As far as I'm concerned, it's totally clear that the unannounced closure of Pandora's two attractions for the entire day is an exceptional circumstance. These are the highest profile attractions in the both the Park and the Resort at the moment, and it's absolutely true that people are booking trips to see the big new thing at Disney World. If Disney wants to build goodwill with the guests who woke up that morning thinking they had paid for a shot to get on those rides that day, then it makes sense to offer them *something* in return for the trouble they ran into on their totally expensive vacations.

They used to understand it, anyway.

I'm pretty sure they haven't lost money on guest recovery since the 1990's... all those costs are built into the admission ticket price. And FP's cost them nothing. Free one day tickets cost them nothing. Mickey bars and balloon cost them the wholesale unit price, but look back at how much it costs to get into the park... heck, they could give Coke products out free and still make scads of money. Holiday World, in Indiana, does... they also provide free sunscreen and free parking.

 

[jakeman]

I would disagree. Before they days of any fastpass you could have left Animal Kingdom and gone to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day because there was nothing keeping you there, like other fastpasses. You could have enjoyed the rest of the day at the Magic Kingdom because you could enjoy any and all the attractions you wanted to enjoy. You could have then gone back to Animal Kingdom on another day when everything was operational. You can't do that now because even if you abandon whatever fastpasses you had at Animal Kingdom, you would not have any at the Magic Kingdom and because of fastpass the standby lines are incredibly longer than the lines where before fastpass and you would not be able to do as much.

In the days before fastpass we would spend a day in EPCOT, a day in DisneyMGM Studios, a day in Animal Kingdom, a couple of days in the Magic Kingdom, a day in each water park, and then a couple of days park hopping just hitting our favorite attractions. If the weather was bad or we stayed in the Magic Kingdom until 2am we would adjust our schedule and swap a next day park visit for a late start at a water park or late start and hotel hopping. We often adjusted our schedule on the fly to accommodate unforeseen change in our plans. You can no longer do any of that because you are scheduled to the hilt.

It was so much more fun and casual in those days to enter the park and casually work your way around. If a line was too long you would skip it and come back later when the line was shorter. It was a relaxing, fun casual time with family. Since the first incarnation of fastpass that has all disappeared. In those days to work the system and not get screwed by the non moving standby lines you had to run from one side of the park to the other to get the paper passes and then race back to that attraction when your time came up. At least now you don't have to run back and forth across the park but your day is so structured that it feels like school getting from class to class.

Back in those days I can remember going to Universal Studios in California and hating the experience because the whole day there was spent trying to make a schedule work between riding rides and shows times, since almost everything there was shows, and the scheduled time you got when you entered the park for the lower half tram tour. I was always thankful that Disney was not like that.....

I wish I would have experienced this pre-FP utopia of no lines.

I mean I went in the 80s and 90s pretty frequently, but we must not have bought the right ticket, because I remember 180 minute waits for Splash, 120 minutes for Space, 150 minutes for Safaris, etc were all pretty common.

As for the bulk of your post, it's just a boilerplate anti-FP+ rant. I could sit here and provide anecdotal evidence to the contrary for every single one of your points like multiple people have done for years, but it doesn't matter. You and others come up with the weird arbitrary rules that you apply and then use that get upset at FP+. It's a circular argument where logic takes a backseat to you "feeling" like you have to schedule every minute of the day, when you don't.

Regardless of FP+ people would have been in that line when the ride shut down. Regardless of FP+ people would have still showed up yesterday expecting the ride to be operational and found that it wasn't.

At the end of the day, you're still blaming FP+ for a fire alarm going off. That's pretty silly.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I wish I would have experienced this pre-FP utopia of no lines.

I mean I went in the 80s and 90s pretty frequently, but we must not have bought the right ticket, because I remember 180 minute waits for Splash, 120 minutes for Space, 150 minutes for Safaris, etc were all pretty common.

As for the bulk of your post, it's just a boilerplate anti-FP+ rant. I could sit here and provide anecdotal evidence to the contrary for every single one of your points like multiple people have done for years, but it doesn't matter. You and others come up with the weird arbitrary rules that you apply and then use that get upset at FP+. It's a circular argument where logic takes a backseat to you "feeling" like you have to schedule every minute of the day, when you don't.

Regardless of FP+ people would have been in that line when the ride shut down. Regardless of FP+ people would have still showed up yesterday expecting the ride to be operational and found that it wasn't.

At the end of the day, you're still blaming FP+ for a fire alarm going off. That's pretty silly.

You don’t have to schedule every minute of the day - you can choose to put yourself at a massive disadvantage!

 

[jakeman]

The problem with your argument is that Disney is now catering to the 'one and done' guest who will never return

But the problem with your argument is you have nothing to support it other than your own anger.

 

[jakeman]

You don’t have to schedule every minute of the day - you can choose to put yourself at a massive disadvantage!

If you choose to see it that way, then sure.

But that's not accurate and it's disingenuous to argue from that position.

 

[tnemgif]

Na’vi River is closed again this morning, according to signs at the park entrance.

 

[Casper Gutman]

If you choose to see it that way, then sure.

But that's not accurate and it's disingenuous to argue from that position.

Explain, if you care to do so, why it’s inaccurate.

PS: given the note below, never mind.

 

[wdwmagic]

Guys lets please stay on the topic of the closures and not a FP+ debate. Thanks!

 

[wdwmagic]

Na’vi River is closed again this morning, according to signs at the park entrance.

Thanks for the update.

 

[jakeman]

Explain, if you care to do so, why it’s inaccurate.

No thank you. Because:

Guys lets please stay on the topic of the closures and not a FP+ debate. Thanks!

 

[GhostHost1000]

Na’vi River is closed again this morning, according to signs at the park entrance.

we're going to have to switch from Fix the Yeti to Fix Pandora

 

[GlassHalfFull]

I wish I would have experienced this pre-FP utopia of no lines.

I mean I went in the 80s and 90s pretty frequently, but we must not have bought the right ticket, because I remember 180 minute waits for Splash, 120 minutes for Space, 150 minutes for Safaris, etc were all pretty common.

As for the bulk of your post, it's just a boilerplate anti-FP+ rant. I could sit here and provide anecdotal evidence to the contrary for every single one of your points like multiple people have done for years, but it doesn't matter. You and others come up with the weird arbitrary rules that you apply and then use that get upset at FP+. It's a circular argument where logic takes a backseat to you "feeling" like you have to schedule every minute of the day, when you don't.

Regardless of FP+ people would have been in that line when the ride shut down. Regardless of FP+ people would have still showed up yesterday expecting the ride to be operational and found that it wasn't.

At the end of the day, you're still blaming FP+ for a fire alarm going off. That's pretty silly.

I will say I also remember the pre-FP days, as long as you went in the non-summer back then, you could legit ride rides without getting off..

My family went and stayed on the resort loop every early december and it was glorious. I remember my parents took a picture of the whole family lined up hands touching hands across the walkway between pan and small world(sounds like a dumb at the moment idea, but the picture does show how empty it used to be at times), and in the back of the picture there MAY be 10 people total. My parents vividly remember it was a normal early December day in the mid afternoon in the early to mid 90s.. Back in the day there were certainly dead seasons, and I would assume that is when this person also went. I personally don't ever remember huge lines as a kid because we always went in the off seasons(my dad designed/maintained a lot of the old hotel software so he would have to go down and visit in the off season when maintenance wouldn't kill the experience).

I also remember that you could go when it was a Cat 1 hurricane/tropical storm because non-floridians thought it was the end of the world so they would all leave.

 

[monothingie]

3 days due to a technical issue with the “fire alarm” is highly unusual. Problematic components can be bypassed in a matter of hours and remediated over a couple of overnights.

I am going to speculate that something happened that resulted in a fire alarm activation (broken sprinkler, water leak, an actual fire, etc) that needs extensive cleanup. It would not affect FOP because the system can be isolated to allow that section to be functional.

 

[mikejs78]

You it would basically be called bait and switch if it wasn't Disney

That's ridiculous. Bait and switch requires intent. If Disney touted FoP as the *only* experience in AK and then decided that only the first 20000 people in line would get to ride then that would be a bait and switch. An unforseen technical problem is *not* a bait and switch, especially given that there's a whole theme park there to do things in.

FastPass+ isn't any kind of gentleman's agreement. It's not a contract, an agreement of any kind - it's a reservation. If you think it's a gentleman's agreement, maybe Disney should start charging you if you miss your FP+ reservation?

 

[Roakor]

Part of the problem is that there really aren't any do-overs for the occasional traveler. They can't come back next week to try again. They really can't even come back tomorrow unless they want to go standby since all the FPs are gone 60+ days out. Under old paper FP, they could have regrouped and tried again tomorrow with all FP inventory still available at rope drop. I'd be really disappointed too.

This is the issue right here. Disney has orchestrated it so you have to plan everything out months in advance. If something goes wrong there is no rescheduling, its all booked up. I wish they would just get rid of fasspasses completely. The only they they have done is make the lines longer.

 

[Lets Respect]

Just saying but who in their right mind would do that? Magic Kingdom is the only park worthy of a one day.

Sure people do. I've bought one day tickets for MK, DHS and DAK (separate trips) before while staying at Universal, for a family

 

[mikejs78]

Well, not in public. Remember, a broken attraction needs no CMs manning it, just one or two out front to turn people away.

This is one of the most absurd conspiracy theories I've heard on these boards, and that's saying something.

 

[lentesta]

Na’vi River is closed again this morning, according to signs at the park entrance.

Confirmed.

 

[mikejs78]

MyMagic+

Ruining vacations one fire alarm at a time

I really don't see how My magic+ has anything whatsoever to do with this. The ride would be down regardless.

 

[drizgirl]

I really don't see how My magic+ has anything whatsoever to do with this. The ride would be down regardless.

Nobody thinks FP+ or MyMagic+ broke the ride. That's just silly. They're saying that the advance ride planning makes it harder for guests to recover from an outage because so many things are booked already and they are hemmed in with other appointment times they can't change.