Pandoran problems 4.25.18

[cspencer96]

Could the issue be with the Orange smell from FoP? Stupid question I know but it's worth asking.

No, the issue is specifically with the fire detection system within the attractions’ building. False alarms are happening too often, to the point that they need to isolate the issue and fix it - before it cries wolf and a real wolf (or, fire) is there.

 

[disneygeek90]

I'd agree with the post above more




if an understanding of game theory wasn't necessary to book rides for Maximal Ride Opportunity (MRO). If I'm spending many thousands for a vacation and I used time at home or work early in the morning 2+months ago to get a reservation for something I am at least planning part of my day around some compensation isn't unreasonable. Disney made this system. The consequences are their burden.

All I'm saying is, if you're planning 5+ days at parks, don't leave the thing you apparently HAVE to do to the last day possible. Give yourself some room in case of weather, sickness, or even technical issues from a ride that's had a history of them. It's clearly a very complex piece of machinery and you can't expect 100% uptime.

 

[drizgirl]

All I'm saying is, if you're planning 5+ days at parks, don't leave the thing you apparently HAVE to do to the last day possible. Give yourself some room in case of weather, sickness, or even technical issues from a ride that's had a history of them. It's clearly a very complex piece of machinery and you can't expect 100% uptime.

And sometimes there just aren't multiple options. It's like a huge jigsaw puzzle. And sometimes the pieces aren't very flexible.

 

[drew81]

MyMagic+

Ruining vacations one fire alarm at a time

 

[disneygeek90]

And sometimes there just aren't multiple options. It's like a huge jigsaw puzzle. And sometimes the pieces aren't very flexible.

I mean... the whole attraction isn't FP only. Just because you don't have a FP doesn't mean you can't go at rope drop the next day (assuming you didn't leave it till the last day possible). Obviously it sucks it was down an entire day, but if it was me planning my "once a year" trip, etc. I would make sure I had something planned for a "worst case scenario" that you can't make it to the ride that day.

 

[jakeman]

Blaming FP+ is such a weird leap in logic in this case.

I don't understand it. At all.

If there was no FP, you'd still have a bunch of people that were stuck in a hours long queue that won't get to ride and you'd still have a bunch of people that show up today expecting the attraction to be open when it isn't.

I just don't get how "Fire Alarm going off" equates to "FP+ is terrible".

 

[Kingtut]

It's better when there are no or not enough "slots" to give away. Think of it as a problem in your hotel room when the hotel is booked solid for the night. They can't move you to another room so they offer you a free night.

Yeah, they may lose money down the road on that free night but they can't really do anything for you in there here-and-now that gives you what you want.

In the case of a ride like FOP, I suppose they could just give everyone impacted an anytime fastpass and then watch the fastpass line balloon to a 4 hour wait. What does that accomplish? It royally angers the people with fastpasses for that timeframe and does nothing to really help the people you gave the "extra" fastpasses to.

Giving people tickets to come back seems like a huge gesture given the price guests pay to get in but it is really only a potential opportunity cost for Disney. The only way they lose out is if someone is using that ticket at a point they would have gone anyway and paid full price or on a day when the park has to close for capacity and they couldn't sell someone a ticket because that person got in for free.

Even if they lose out on the chance to sell that person a ticket for the day they decide to use it because having the free ticket wasn't the main motivation to go on that particular day, they still stand a good chance of making better-than-otherwise money on that guest in terms of food and merchandise sales since many people are inclined to "splurge" more when they feel they have gotten a deal - like buying concessions at a movie theater when going on a free ticket when you might otherwise not have if you'd paid full price to get in.

Would that hit break-even on a ticket price? Maybe. Maybe not but it isn't necessarily as bad as saying they lost $100 in that situation.

Free tickets are probably one of the easiest things for Disney to offer as long as they don't do it all the time for any and every reason and it feels to the guest like a major compensation when in reality, you just walked out of there without Disney refunding you anything, without giving you anything that it really cost them anything to produce (like food or merchandise), and it means you're coming back with the likelihood of spending more money with them in the future.

I suppose my feeling was to not assign 100% of the available FP slots but maybe only 99.5% give yourself a little wiggle room in the lines of all the attractions. After all only Disney knows precisely how many slots there are and how many are reserved.

It is a complex problem with many moving parts and I am not qualified to analyse it ( or just too lazy too) but many of the issues I read about here could be assigned to a lack of ride capacity as the root cause.

 

[WondersOfLife]

I would be frustrated and upset, but I wouldn't/couldn't ask for compensation for these attractions being down. There are still other attractions to experience in the park. I would make lemonade with the lemons.

There's like.... 6.

 

[MrConbon]

Why exactly do people plan their fast passes 60 days out? That seems like such an overkill. I get mine usually the night before or the morning of when I go and have no problem getting any ride at the time I want minus Pandora, Mine Train, and Frozen. But if I wanted to ride those I would just get in line right before park close. Planning isn’t THAT hard that you need to have everything set 60 days ahead of time.

 

[Brad Bishop]

Some
Some people expect compensation I am sure. Some people really just want to hear a genuine I am sorry.

Working in an amusement park when I was younger I realized the deal: You don't get a refund to come back due to weather or a ride that's down. Most parks will have a list of down rides on a board outside of the gates so you have an opportunity to pass. Doesn't help if the ride goes down midday, though.

This is just accepted.

That said, I get that some people expect compensation. I don't really fault them for it. If I went to see a movie and the projector wasn't working or the power was out then I expect to get a refund. It's not my fault the power is out. I paid for a movie.

I think you're right with some folks just wanting a genuine apology which is stupidly subverted by lawyers who'll tell you, "never admit fault."

I wouldn't head to guest relations over something like this. I'd just figure that I'd do it the next time and sometimes life isn't perfect and I'd just get on with my day. At the same time I'd figure that waiting for an hour or two in a guest relations line is wasting time when I could be doing something far more fun.

We all think/feel different, though.

 

[larryz]

I would make lemonade with the lemons.

And the majority says...

 

[MrConbon]

Maybe, um.... to not have to do that?

Why would you not do that? Right before park close every ride is a walk on. It’s better than staying up till midnight to make sure you get a fastpass or wake up at the crack of dawn to get there before the park even opens. It means you get to ride an additional attraction with absolutely no impact on the rest of your park hours.

 

[ABQ]

Blaming FP+ is such a weird leap in logic in this case.

I don't understand it. At all.

If there was no FP, you'd still have a bunch of people that were stuck in a hours long queue that won't get to ride and you'd still have a bunch of people that show up today expecting the attraction to be open when it isn't.

I just don't get how "Fire Alarm going off" equates to "FP+ is terrible".

It's because it's the party line. Give it time and someone will blame ESPN, before that it was Shanghai. Surprised it hasn't gone to the classic Uni vs Disney as fire alarms may never go off in Diagon Alley or something. It's nonsense.

 

[networkpro]

Lets just look at those terms of service that are part of every admission media purchase:

Parks, restaurants, attractions, recreation, FastPass+ selections, entertainment, and other products, services or items are subject to change without notice, cancellation, and may close temporarily due to rehabilitation, refurbishing, capacity, seasonal, inclement weather or special events and may otherwise change or be discontinued without notice and without liability to the owners of the Walt Disney World® Resort. Ticket media is not valid for special or premium events or other activities which are separately priced. Admission entitlements are non-transferrable, not for resale, and must be used by the same person on any and all days. Age restrictions apply for access to certain facilities. Guests must be 21 years of age or older with valid proof of age to redeem alcohol entitlements.

It doesnt say that if Dumbo isnt spinning around in circles, you get a free premium Mickey Bar from Walt's Cryovault.

 

[rd805]

Why exactly do people plan their fast passes 60 days out? That seems like such an overkill. I get mine usually the night before or the morning of when I go and have no problem getting any ride at the time I want minus Pandora, Mine Train, and Frozen. But if I wanted to ride those I would just get in line right before park close. Planning isn’t THAT hard that you need to have everything set 60 days ahead of time.

Because the big rides sell out of fastpasses in most cases...?

 

[MrPromey]

I suppose my feeling was to not assign 100% of the available FP slots but maybe only 99.5% give yourself a little wiggle room in the lines of all the attractions. After all only Disney knows precisely how many slots there are and how many are reserved.

It is a complex problem with many moving parts and I am not qualified to analyse it ( or just too lazy too) but many of the issues I read about here could be assigned to a lack of ride capacity as the root cause.

I'm not qualified either but that's why we're on a forum debating this instead of working as consultants for Disney - amiright?

Either way, I'd completely agree that a lack of capacity is a major root cause. Some might argue that saying that means they should have 20-30 theaters for Flight of Passage which I don't think any reasonable person would think but I believe that if they had continuously invested in adding new e-ticket attractions over the years, dealing with situations like this would be a lot easier because there would be more alternatives that felt closer to an equal value, especially to infrequent guests who haven't yet experienced that "new" thing from two years ago.

Everyone loves Haunted Mansion. Almost nobody would consider it a suitable substitute for losing their fastpass to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train if something like this happened over at the MK and that kind of thing is a real problem.

It seems like they have slowly come to realize this (I wouldn't be surprised if FP+ quickened that realization a bit) and have begun investing in two of the parks that most need it but I imagine AK will be slow to get anything else after what has opened with Pandora simply because they want to milk the marketing of this new area to full effect before they move on to the next thing.

It's understandable given the scale and completeness of the environment they've created there which in person, is impressive (and the investment that went with it) but I think it highlights the potential problems that come with basing a whole land - and the marketing of that land as a new "land" - around only one or two attractions.

 

[andysol]

Why would you not do that? Right before park close every ride is a walk on. It’s better than staying up till midnight to make sure you get a fastpass or wake up at the crack of dawn to get there before the park even opens. It means you get to ride an additional attraction with absolutely no impact on the rest of your park hours.

Or, I could do both. Get a FP for FoP and also ride it last thing.
Or, what if I had a 5 year old and am up at the crack of dawn anyway.
Or, what if I planned on being at DHS at 7am for the TS EMH in July and didn't want to be at MK at midnight waiting to ride 7D.

Or a dozen+ other scenarios.

Moral of the story - What works for you doesn't work for everyone.

 

[MrConbon]

Because the big rides sell out of fastpasses in most cases...?

I can always get a fastpass for big rides like Everest, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Test Track and and nearly everything else the same day no problem. No reason to plan so far in advance.

 

[ABQ]

I can always get a fastpass for big rides like Everest, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Test Track and and nearly everything else the same day no problem. No reason to plan so far in advance.

Are you getting FP's for a party of one or two? I've had similar luck then, but trying to get for a family of 5, not so much. Sometimes I've gotten overlapping times, that's worked, but it's entirely not as easy as just getting a single FP.

 

[MrConbon]

Are you getting FP's for a party of one or two? I've had similar luck then, but trying to get for a family of 5, not so much. Sometimes I've gotten overlapping times, that's worked, but it's entirely not as easy as just getting a single FP.

Usually one or two yes. But for example I was browsing the app Sunday night and I saw a Flight of Passage Fastpass pop up for 1:30 the next day. If there is ever something I want that isn't avalible, as long as I keep randomly clicking on the times, what I want more than usually appears.