I think we have been doing a bad job of explaining what we experience. I agree that the capacity of the rides do not change with or without fastpass. Before fastpass you did have to wait in lines and sometimes long lines. With fastpass, when you can get a slot scheduled you can usually walk on the ride in a very short period of time. Before fastpass a majority of the time, unless it was a new ride, you could pass a long line and come back later and find a shorter line. If it was a new ride you had no choice but to wait for a very long time. With fastpass if you do not have a fastpass you have to always wait in a very long line. Before fastpass the long lines moved constantly so you always felt like you were progressing towards getting on the ride. With fastpass the standby line often barely moves and you feel like you are never getting any closer to getting on the ride. Before fastpass you would enjoy all of the park in a casual manner. With fastpass your day is scheduled and you must always be aware of your schedule and often hustle back and forth across the park to keep the schedule.
I have created a little chart below to try more visually explain the difference we see between lines before fastpass and with fastpass. It may be flawed, but I don't think it is flawed. It shows a ride line without fastpass and with fastpass. Both versions of the line are for the same ride with the same capacity of people getting onto the ride in the same amount of time.
On the left side it has numbers in green representing people in line without fastpass and when they get on the ride. On the right side it shows the same line with the same standby people in line in green and fastpass people in red who are walking up and when they all get on the ride.
Without fastpass the 79th person in line gets on the ride in 7 mins.
With fastpass that same 79th person in the standby line gets on the ride in 21 mins
Without fastpass the 79th person in line is the 79th person to get on the ride.
With fastpass the 79th person in the standby line is the 208th person to get on the ride.
Without fastpass in 20 mins 207 people in line get on the ride
With fastpass in 20 mins the 78th person in the standby line get on the ride
Without fastpass in 1 hour 621 people in line get on the ride
With fastpass in 1 hour the 234th person in the standby line get on the ride
Without fastpass in 2 hours 1,242 people in line get on the ride
With fastpass in 2 hours the 468th person in the standby line get on the ride
(beyond 2 hours is probably overkill)
Without fastpass in 3 hours 1,863 people in line get on the ride
With fastpass in 3 hours the 702nd person in the standby line get on the ride
Without fastpass in 4 hours 2,484 people in line get on the ride
With fastpass in 4 hours the 936th person in the standby line get on the ride
The notion that one does not have to use fastpass if they do not want to schedule their day is true but you lose your whole day because you have to sit in much slower moving lines. So it is not practical to not use fastpass.
I get that a LOT of people love fastpass and scheduling so much of their vacation. A large percentage of those people only know a world with fastpass and scheduling so much of their vacation. I am not a nostalgic old person who is going to do it the old way no matter what. I adjust with the times and will make whatever system I have to work. In the days of the paper fastpasses and kiosks at each ride, I would send the family to a ride without fastpass and hustle with all the park tickets across the park to get us all fastpasses and then hustle back across the park to join them in the line and do this over and over until there were no fastpasses left. I am sure I would have been getting double to triple the steps of the rest of the family on any given day. At least with Fastpass+ you don't have to hustle back and forth across the park. You do now have to plan out exactly what you want to try to do 60 days ahead of time. I am not sure which is worse.
As a person who has been to the parks many times before and after fastpass I would still rather stand in a few longer lines that are moving and enjoy a more casual spontaneous vacation than the structured and scheduled one you have to take now.
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