Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[ford91exploder]

That doesn't explain how IQT is involved in this project.

And frankly, the government tracking me doesnt concern me as much as a private corporation doing it.

I go to Disney to escape that, not be a part of an industrial engineering science project and then having bit of my shopping likes/preferences marketed back to me or that information sold to a third party.

You do know that IQT or IN-Q-TEL is actually the CIA's Venture Capital arm and Palantir is one of the companies they funded, So now the unlimited budget for NGE is explained it was indeed a behavioral analytics program using Disney as a petri dish, And IQT is a private company the same way 'Air America' was a private airline

Now it would be interesting to look at whether Disney took out any large lines of credit or issued special classes of stock. Just imagine Disney in bed with the CIA... The mind boggles

 

[ford91exploder]

mmmm...they certainly aren't idiots. They just ended up in a field they don't really belong in. Then there is the issue of what they were taught in ivy-covered 300 year old buildings. One thing you can't deny--they are smartly dressed.

Having come from those ivy covered buildings, Harvard College students are taught the art of manipulating others, The graduate students are taught hard sciences, the B-School people are taught the advanced version of the undergrad curriculum.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Was he banned or did he just leave? I enjoy hearing opposing points of view, but I don't enjoy the back and forth battles full of personal attacks.

He was bullied away. If there was any banning, it should've been the people doing the bullying as if they were back in the schoolyard, all together picking on the isolated kid. Bah. I didn't stand for vile bullies picking on people on the schoolyard and I won't stand for it in a digital realm. Shame on all of you, you know who you are. A disgrace to this website.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Since you were off enjoying yourself at the world instead of hanging around here, the latest news on the $3B number is that its been pretty much debunked as an exaggeration. Not trying to open that can of worms again, but the consensus seemed to be the actual spend is somewhere around the budget of $1.2 billion already but people are estimating that number could go up since all of the spend is not complete yet. Still an insanely large number that is difficult to comprehend.

A CM and a travel agent who works exclusively Disney both told me around $2 billion. So $3B, yes, is an exaggeration, but the $2B is still a number they could have put elsewhere. Like, ya know, more rides, perhaps?

 

[doctornick]

Not good. I am hoping the bonus FP+ that someone mentioned had some impact at least for Pirates. Seems like the predictions of this system creating longer standby lines are probably correct.

Well, at this point FP+ is only adding to the total numbers of Fastpasses out there, so it is going to lengthen lines. The question IMHO is how will the total number of Fastpasses distributed daily compare with FP+ compared with paper FP? If the number if roughly the same for a particular ride, then it should not hurt overall wait times for that ride. IF the total number of Fastpasses for a ride is less with FP+ (which seems possible to me with only 3 per person per day) then the standby time for that ride could go down, even though it would be increasing for rides with FP+ that did not have FP.

I also think you'll have more "unused" FP+ than you do with paper FP as people with forgot they have said passes (or the time for said passes). Obviously, an unused FP+ slot won't negatively impact the standby line.

 

[Clever Name]

Surely, had they gone with Yalies, we wouldn't be in this mess and would instead have had 15 new rides since 2008.

They obviously need to hire more University of Phoenix graduates.

 

[afar28]

I just came back from WDW. So in a nutshell...my opinions

New park entry system: Works much better, they don't have to constantly rescan my pass like they did the old one, finally plastic for APs, but why couldn't they send the AP's the new passes? I mean, it only took five minutes to convert, but still. Overall, much faster and I don't miss the turnstyles. I also have figured out I don't need to take my pass out of the sleeve to get in. I call this the lazy method
New touch-to-pay system: Works well for room keys, not for credit cards. If I used my Disney Visa, I'd have to scan it 2-3 times on various occasions.
Fastpass+: Although I was not a tester, lines seemed to move even more slowly and I hate the concept. Buzz Lightyear seemed to be more whacked out that usual.
Door entry: I have far less trouble with it as well than the old ones. I also have the lazy method for the door where the key does not come out of the purse.
New mugs: Had not fully rolled out at the resorts, but got to test at the water parks. The nice thing was they let us exchange our old mugs for a lower price and they let you reactivate for a lower price. I'm hoping this becomes the case at the resorts so I don't accumulate a collection of mugs. The problem is the machines don't always work. It seems unless you have it placed perfectly, it won't dispense your drink. The lockout time is 3 minutes as previously reported.

Yeti still broken on Everest (of course). It's a shame because my uncle could barely even see him. "Was he always there?"

Hollywood Studios needs an update. I vote Star Wars Land over Carsland (of course). I like Carsland (yes I've been), but I want WDW to have Star Wars Land.

I'm at the world right now and I agree with everything you said, except the new mugs. People were confused (they werent putting the cup down so when they attempted to get a drink nothing would come out) and management did almost nothing to try and help. It was hectic. Besides that, I agree.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I'm at the world right now and I agree with everything you said, except the new mugs. People were confused (they werent putting the cup down so when they attempted to get a drink nothing would come out) and management did almost nothing to try and help. It was hectic. Besides that, I agree.

Well, like I said, I didn't test the new mugs at the resorts, just in the water parks. When I was there they were still using the old ones for part of the trip and then started selling the new ones, but the machines were not activated yet.

The machine at Contempo Cafe talks and tells you to place your mug on the tray. Why none of the others do it is beyond me.

 

[Bobster]

Well, at this point FP+ is only adding to the total numbers of Fastpasses out there, so it is going to lengthen lines. The question IMHO is how will the total number of Fastpasses distributed daily compare with FP+ compared with paper FP? If the number if roughly the same for a particular ride, then it should not hurt overall wait times for that ride. IF the total number of Fastpasses for a ride is less with FP+ (which seems possible to me with only 3 per person per day) then the standby time for that ride could go down, even though it would be increasing for rides with FP+ that did not have FP.

I also think you'll have more "unused" FP+ than you do with paper FP as people with forgot they have said passes (or the time for said passes). Obviously, an unused FP+ slot won't negatively impact the standby line.

doctornick, I'm thinking very much along the same lines regarding wait times. Maybe I have misunderstood this completely, I would love someone to explain what I have misunderstood.

I'm not debating the 60-day reservation window and the impact on locals and guests who take last minute trips. Just the overall wait times. What we have been told is that Fastpass+ is pulling from the regular Fastpass numbers and 3 Fastpass+ is the max a guest can get on one day. So when this goes fully live and old Fastpass is gone...

Many people are complaining that 3 Fastpasses isn't enough. Most seem to agree that with the old system, it was pretty easy to get 4 or 5 and maybe even more on a good day. So if only 3 Fastpass+ are being given out and many people were using 4 or more before... there will be less Fastpasses in circulation. That will be good for overall wait times.

Secondly, most everyone seems to believe that MyMagic+ will NOT increase attendance. As such, the actual number of people in the parks will remain the same. So it's not like there are more people in the parks to increase wait times significantly.

Like doctornick said, some people will forget about their Fastpasses and some won't show up. I would expect that number to be slightly higher now (versus the original Fastpass) since people won't have a paper (unless they write/print one themselves) and not everyone will use their smartphone to keep track. And since many of these guests are doing their reservations many days out, some may not even visit a Disney park on the particular day. So again here in the new versus old comparison, I would expect more Fastpass+ will no-show. So another good thing for overall wait times.

In the end... YES... I would expect some wait times will go up due to the addition of Fastpass+ to some attractions, but if the points above are true, then some wait times should go down. No?

 

[afar28]

Thanks for the update. About how long was the line for POTC? To me longer standby lines are the biggest perceived negative of FP+.

Since you were off enjoying yourself at the world instead of hanging around here, the latest news on the $3B number is that its been pretty much debunked as an exaggeration. Not trying to open that can of worms again, but the consensus seemed to be the actual spend is somewhere around the budget of $1.2 billion already but people are estimating that number could go up since all of the spend is not complete yet. Still an insanely large number that is difficult to comprehend.

For me at least, waits for Haunted Mansion and Pirates were at 25 minutes at mid day, with HM going all the way up to 50 minutes at one point, the highest I've ever seen it.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

One really big issue with Fastpass+:
Who seriously wants to decide what they want to ride 60 days out? When I go, of course dining reservations are made and EMH helps determine the park of the day. But other than that, I have no clue what to do that day. In August, the weather determines a big part of the day. Last time I checked there was no 60+ day forecast.

One giant flop this will be.

 

[PhotoDave219]

You do know that IQT or IN-Q-TEL is actually the CIA's Venture Capital arm and Palantir is one of the companies they funded, So now the unlimited budget for NGE is explained it was indeed a behavioral analytics program using Disney as a petri dish, And IQT is a private company the same way 'Air America' was a private airline

Now it would be interesting to look at whether Disney took out any large lines of credit or issued special classes of stock. Just imagine Disney in bed with the CIA... The mind boggles

The fun part is proving all this stuff.

But yes, Ive looked at IQT as much as a feel safe looking at it from my home computer....

 

[Lee]

He was bullied away. If there was any banning, it should've been the people doing the bullying as if they were back in the schoolyard, all together picking on the isolated kid. Bah. I didn't stand for vile bullies picking on people on the schoolyard and I won't stand for it in a digital realm. Shame on all of you, you know who you are. A disgrace to this website.

Well, he was wrong.
He insisted that the entire project, not just WDW, was costing a billion, and that WDW alone was only a few hundred million. Entirely incorrect, but he wouldn't hear of it. In fact he's still sticking to that line in comments on Garcia's article.

Same way in the mine ride thread he insisted that there was going to be a log bridge and a mine entrance next to the first lift. Wouldn't be swayed...and was still wrong.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Thanks for the update. It's good to know that they aren't that stupid.....at least throwing 1.2B isn't as bad as 3B.

As far as the potc line? We were quoted 25 min. Pure crap. It was the worst line of the day for us....at least a 45 minute wait to get to the merge.

Haven't you learned about judging wait times and not believing the sign? The wait signs seemed to be off. Pooh showed a 20 minute wait. I got in line and had the red card that times it. I know I only waited about fifteen minutes. I got out of line and it said 45 minutes

Wait times were worse than normal. We can get a GAC since my brother has autism but usually don't because we want to teach him to function in the real world. The first time we got one was in DLR this summer after 3 days of pure stress for him and headaches for us since he was hitting us on the heads (something my parents are going to see a behavior specialist about; he's been pretty stressed this summer in general because he's starting Middle School). After my mom and I stood in line for over an hour for Goofy's barnstormer when he insisted on riding it (I thought it looked way longer than 30 minutes, but I tried to pull him out and could tell a meltdown was coming) and we nearly missed our dinner reservation, we went and got a GAC. We only use it if the wait is more than 20 minutes, but it did save a few meltdowns. We ended up using it a lot this trip though just because waits were so long and he was pretty intent on getting things accomplished.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Well, he was wrong.
He insisted that the entire project, not just WDW, was costing a billion, and that WDW alone was only a few hundred million. Entirely incorrect, but he wouldn't hear of it. In fact he's still sticking to that line in comments on Garcia's article.

Same way in the mine ride thread he insisted that there was going to be a log bridge and a mine entrance next to the first lift. Wouldn't be swayed...and was still wrong.

All I have to say is Pixie's on some strong dust.

 

[asianway]

All I have to say is Pixie's on some strong dust.

Cars Land is hot.
Parking lots make great expansion pads.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Well, he was wrong.
He insisted that the entire project, not just WDW, was costing a billion, and that WDW alone was only a few hundred million. Entirely incorrect, but he wouldn't hear of it. In fact he's still sticking to that line in comments on Garcia's article.

Same way in the mine ride thread he insisted that there was going to be a log bridge and a mine entrance next to the first lift. Wouldn't be swayed...and was still wrong.

Waitaminute.

I go away for a week and suddenly we're a bunch of bullies because someone insists beyond all sense of reason, logic, or evidence presented to the contrary that they're right? We're bullies because the earth - in fact - did not turn out to be flat?

Interesting.

 

[1023]

OK....took a few days off posting to go back to lurking. I learned a lot by reading the posts, rereading my post, and reading responses to similar posts. So, while my approach will not change, who I choose to engage in meaningful exchange will be far different.

With that being said, I am going fishing. Here's the bait.....

Why is the team at WDW adding FPminus queues to attractions that previously had little wait before?

It seems a simple question. Rhetorically, is or can that answer be as simple?

As an aside, I intentionally use the popularized FPminus as it reduces guest experience compared to the current "legacy" FastPass system.

End of line...

*1023*

 

[PeterAlt]

One NextGen Failure = Fifteen John Carters

 

[PeterAlt]

With NextGen, they can reopen the WOL pavilion as This Is Your Life! It will be personalized and walk you through life events recorded in collaboration with the NSA. Visitors who have spent their lives working and going to church or temple will be seeing the Great Beautiful Tomorrow. However, other guests, who's files show suspicious activity or remote associations with suspected terrorist organizations will a have very different experience. Depending on the level of suspicion, some guests may receive immediate processing and get free room and board courtesy of the Walt Disney Company at select correctional facilities.