I guess we will found out very soon - my feeling is that it will be very popular. Just the fact that guests wont have to walk between FP machines will sway a lot of people. I can very well imagine people at breakfast whipping out the iPhone and picking up some FP+. Much better than charging across the park in a mad dash to a FP machine in a lot of people's eyes.
In this post you describe what FP+ should have been. If only Disney had simply made it digital! It's the obvious successor to the current system.
I participated in the earlier test at the Contemporary, and it's true that the ability to double-dip reserved FPs and new ones was great. But my co-workers tested the full system on a CM-only preview at the Beach Club, and the limits were frustrating. They couldn't gather as many FPs as usual and spent most of their day standing around Epcot.
A few other points—some negative, some positive:
• The FP+ tests at POTC and HM were disastrous, ruining the attractions' previous efficiency.
• Guests were told to make purchases only with their Magic Bands. The bracelets didn't increase sales.
• The eventual goal of NGen is for everything to be completely scheduled in advance—every ride, every character interaction, every meal. FPs themselves would theoretically be phased out because you'd arrive at each attraction at the proper time anyway. Does this solve lines at WDW? It remains to be seen—it certainly sounds like nothing more than a shell game.
• After these tests, nobody in Ops or mid-level management thinks NGen is going to work. Execs are becoming more openly negative. PhotoPass, automatic attraction photos, Talking Mickey, and hotel room keys aren't functioning properly...
• There is a warehouse full of IT nerds trying to fix computer code and scheduling for FP+ and other components of NGen. Much of the budget overrun is directed here right now.
• The upcoming Imagination refurb and DHS reboot should be successful, but Disney is concerned that no matter what they build, crowds will continue to be unwieldy. NGen was popularized among execs as crowd management.
• The data mining angle was mostly phased out after it raised eyebrows in Congress. Yeah, they'll still track your purchases, but it's no worse than how Super Target offers coupons or how Amazon and Netflix make suggestions.
• @
wdwmagic You're right. Simply making the current FP system digital would have been a fantastic system. It's too bad Disney didn't roll things out in phases. As it stands, they bit off more than they could chew.
Is FP+ utterly doomed? No, Disney will figure out a way to use it. It just won't be what was planned.
