RUMOR: WDW purposely restricting FOP fastpasses

[Tod&BigMamaOdie]

Shaft.
I just wanted to say it.

You're d*** right!

 

[The_Jobu]

For anyone curious as to how the towers work and their different layouts, Martin (@marni1971) , our resident documentarian has you covered

 

[andysol]

Radiator Springs Racers, Pirates (either one), HM (either one), ToT, Spaceship Earth (even with the lousy ending), Safari...

Of all the rides to mention and to leave out the 15 minute flume ride that redefined what a flume ride could be in the same manner that ToT redefined drop towers.
FoP, in all of it's "fun", didn't redefine an entire genre of ride. "favorite" is subjective- but the legacy of these other rides will live on longer than FoP ever will. Just look at Soarin- which was just as impressive as FoP in it's day- and while Soarin' is still great, it is by no means the greatest.

Give me Splash or ToT. Redefining and groundbreaking attractions that flipped conventional counterparts on their heads- ones that no "similar" rides domestically or worldwide can match this many decades later.

 

[Daveeeeed]

Was it a mess?

It felt very busy. Mexico was super crowded, but the line had a Cast Member directing people into it, so while it was very cramped it wasn't chaotic.

 

[Texas84]

Shaft.
I just wanted to say it.

You're d*** right!

Shut your mouth!

Oh, you're talking about Shaft.

Sorry

 

[Legendary]

my understanding from people I met who work in IE (industrial engineering) is when a new ride opens they purposely deflate the FP+ numbers... especially after FEA going down almost nonstop. This way if there is a down time you don't have 2X or more Guest then you can handle returning at once.

Once they feel confident with the attraction reliability they will bump it up. But this can take a few months.

This makes the most sense to me. I was there opening weekend and FOP was down several times. If they issued maximum FP it would greatly increase the standby wait times.

 

[WDWTrojan]

Because after Orlando they increased the number of loading areas to speed up the process and increase capacity, which required the new design. They must not have been happy with Orlando's hourly capacity numbers.

Having that hallway and multiple levels is infinitely cheaper than additional drop shafts, which is the only other way to increase capacity.

Hence the horrible hallways.

Also what @Herah said.

Not entirely true. While that was an added benefit, the bigger reason is simply they wanted to reduce costs substantially and doing away with the complicated AGV system accomplished this. Simultaneously it also allowed them to create a dual loading system. However, the longer ride path did allow for more vehicles along it, which helped to balance the total number of guests (i.e. one vehicle loading, one in load shaft, one in the drop shaft, one at unload and one empty, immediately ready to move into the VVC once the previous vehicle was in the Fifth Dimension), making the operating hourly ride capacity similar to Disneyland's under the best conditions

 

[thomas998]

This is why the queue for FoP seems to move surprisingly fast (which is one of the things people are commenting positively about). Imagine how fast queues would move if there were no Fastpasses anywhere...

Frankly I wish they would rethink their fastpass system and stop doing them on the most popular rides. Would make the lines move faster on those rides... if they want to do a fastpass just do them on the lower tier rides as it would help planning and yet wouldn't turn the standby lines on the rides with a fastpass into a terminally slow line of death. I would love to know how quickly the line on Mine Train would move if they would eliminate the fastpasses. I suspect the speeds of the line would be pretty close to the speed during hard ticket events which are never as insane as they are during the regular park hours.

 

[larryz]

Shaft.
I just wanted to say it.

You're d*** right!

I heard he's a bad mother-hush your mouth!

 

[Megbutnotmegan]

Thanks for all the information! Definitely confirms my feelings about how awesome the Orlando ToT is!

 

[matt9112]

Welllll - we get all the above . Whatever it is. So here is what WE will do:

Given 60 day advance FPs? My wife and I will try to GET one. Don't get one? Going to a different park, ignoring AK. Really, we don't personally CARE that much about AK. Haven't bothered with it in a good 8 years worth of WDW vacations.

FOP has us intrigued. But no FOP FP? No park visit. WDW may choose to do what WDW chooses to do.
"All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong."

i might agree with you on pure attraction lineup but my gosh AK is the prettiest park out of them all....its just such a nice place to take in all the sights. the detail.

 

[tissandtully]

I don't know, I was able to get a FP for FOP like a couple weeks before Pandora opened for June 29th for six people.

 

[rreading]

Another perspective: while this land and ride is new and in high demand, if people can't get a FP for FOP, then more will choose FP for the river ride. Apparently the river ride is not as enchanting and perhaps not worth the wait - and has a more basic queue - while FOP apparently has a great queue and FOP is more likely "worth the wait" for more people. So a by shuttling more people to the river ride FP and waiting in the immersive queue for a great ride may increase overall guest satisfaction for the Pandora experience.

At least, that's my guess... and it's possible that considering the enthusiasm of those passionate about this project, they may be thinking about this that seriously.

 

[Cesar R M]

Holding back FP's for Flight of Passage means the standby line moves better. The OP's rationale doesn't make any sense.

I noticed the same thing @Rodan75 did. They seem to be experimenting with holding up FP line for a bit longer. Some attractions, not all. Sometimes it felt like I breezed right on some things in FP.

I still don't believe some things need FP, the lines become a mess, notably Pirates, Spaceship Earth and Haunted Mansion

but they are forced to SELL the "exclusivity" and "efficiency" of FP+, even if it only makes things worse on people eaters.

 

[Cesar R M]

Are you suggesting they built the ride and are now hoping people won't want to ride it?

No, they probably just do not want huge lines that back it out like in Forbidden Journey on extreme days.
So they manipulate the outpout/input and forcing people to other attractions. Thats always been the basis of FP+ to reduce the need to build new attractions.

 

[Cesar R M]

Just thought I would throw this out there.....Hit my sixty day window about a week and a half ago, and had no problem getting FOP fastpass. It was essentially at any time of day I chose so it didnt feel very restricted to me.

Makes me wonder, what if they needed to do more testing for things that used to fail constantly? (like the decontamination chamber) or maybe just expedited maintenance to flaws they found? therefore reducing the output of FP+s?

It felt very busy. Mexico was super crowded, but the line had a Cast Member directing people into it, so while it was very cramped it wasn't chaotic.

Are they building the wall already?

 

[Rider]

The "decontamination" (actually Avatar matching) isn't a mechanical issue. It's a contingency in the video that happens if the riders in front of you take longer than normal to load and unload. It could be for a mechanical issue but much more likely it could be a larger guest who can't ride or a kid who is scared and wants to get off or something completely outside of Disney's control.

 

[Cesar R M]

The "decontamination" (actually Avatar matching) isn't a mechanical issue. It's a contingency in the video that happens if the riders in front of you take longer than normal to load and unload. It could be for a mechanical issue but much more likely it could be a larger guest who can't ride or a kid who is scared and wants to get off or something completely outside of Disney's control.

aaah gotcha! thanks for clearing that up !

 

[freediverdude]

I'm curious what this scalping is. I thought the latest changes put an end to most of the abuse. Do they rent out magicbands loaded with fastpasses or something? That doesn't seem possible if it's annual passes. Unless they're already inside the park or something with a bag full of bands, that still wouldn't make sense though.