RUMOR: WDW purposely restricting FOP fastpasses

trampdog

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I just spoke to a CM friend of mine who works at HQ in the stats processing department. He said that Disney was experimenting with severely restricted FP at FOP to "manage" crowds and "enhance" guest experience. By manage crowds, it is designed to keep more people in the FOP stand-by for longer waits. This helps drive other AK attraction wait-times down. If you've tried to get a fastpass for FOP, you will know that it is near impossible due to the very limited number available per hour and FP+ plus scalpers (multi-passholder businesses buying annual passes for individuals and keeping the accounts and bands).

I have an email out to another buddy that does the software engineering on their FP+ system to confirm.

This is a pretty sad state of affairs.
 

trampdog

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Isn't crowd manipulation one of the reasons they implemented the system in the first place?

Correct, but not in this way. Think about it. If we keep people standing in line for 3 hours, then those people are not on the other rides. This is currently the only experience with the "severely restricted" distribution, as I was told. I don't have a great problem with it, as FOP is not exactly terrific IMO. However, it could be a precursor to other attractions being FP limited or to introduce the new paid "unlimited" FP. That sort of makes sense.
 

trampdog

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I’m no expert in the logic behind these things, but doesn’t a smaller amount of FP actually keep the stand-by line smaller? Less people cutting through to the front of the line and more people getting fed through the standby per hour and not backed up for an extended period of time.

Not on this ride. Have you seen the queue size? You can be talking about several hundred people sitting in a line for three hours.

I am not sure what the capacity per hour for FOP is, but I think it is two or three times the amount of FP+ they are putting out each hour. I know what the number of FP+ given per hour is, but I will not divulge that info. It's really low. Statistically, you should play the lottery instead of trying to get an FOP FP.
 

JUFL2019

Well-Known Member
Not on this ride. Have you seen the queue size? You can be talking about several hundred people sitting in a line for three hours.

I am not sure what the capacity per hour for FOP is, but I think it is two or three times the amount of FP+ they are putting out each hour. I know what the number of FP+ given per hour is, but I will not divulge that info. It's really low. Statistically, you should play the lottery instead of trying to get an FOP FP.


Your logic behind this is flawed.
 

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Correct, but not in this way. Think about it. If we keep people standing in line for 3 hours, then those people are not on the other rides. This is currently the only experience with the "severely restricted" distribution, as I was told. I don't have a great problem with it, as FOP is not exactly terrific IMO. However, it could be a precursor to other attractions being FP limited or to introduce the new paid "unlimited" FP. That sort of makes sense.
I actually don't worry about them selling an unlimited FP. I just happen to believe that even if they cut back on "free" FPs they wouldn't have the inventory to make a go of it without creating chaos in the parks. I personally believe they would have to price it on par with a VIP tour to have enough to make it work. Just my opinion.
 

lnsemsf

Well-Known Member
I don't think you're making any sense. If you restrict the number of fastpasses per hour then you increase the standby flow through, which reduces the wait time. Now no matter what FOP is going to have large waits because it's the new must do attraction. There's not really a way to artificially inflate the standby time while reducing the fastpass distribution unless you lower the capacity for the ride by closing theaters. There's no way that makes even the smallest bit of sense. You could distribute MORE fastpasses, and change the ratio of fastpass to stand by to increase the time you wait in line in standby, but that also could cause there to be a long line in fastpass too. Either way, restricting fastpass will only help the regular line move faster.
 

Rodan75

Well-Known Member
When we were there during the week of Mem Day, it was obvious they were testing a different strategy in all of the parks for FP+, every major attraction that we had Fast Passes for, the wait was 10-20 minutes even with the FP. And that the Stand-by lines were moving faster than normal. Simple things like only using the right side for FP and letting the Left be Stand By only on Space Mountain, or holding groups at the merge at EE and Splash for a few minutes before letting them/us get in the boarding line.

To be honest, I thought it was a good thing. I don't mind waiting a little bit if it keeps the queue moving. Most things you do are going to be via Standby...so why make standby unbearable?
 

BlindChow

Well-Known Member
What is FOP?
This is a fop:

_0004_tim-roth-rob-roy-pic1.jpg
 

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
MM+, MDE, FP+ were all introduced to help direct people where to go and keep everything flowing.
But what we got, was a system that installed FP touch points to pretty much everything. This made for rides that were traditionally no-line, walk-ons now were at a 20-30+ minute wait constantly. The big "Tier 1" rides are still just as popular as they were before this.

If the system was made to "offer suggestions" to people of where to go, why doesn't it do it?

This just kinda proves that no matter what Disney does, people will ultimately still go where they want to go and do what they want to do.

Surely you jest on this

It's Rusty... pretty sure he's joking.
 

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