This is what a FastPass+ line looks like

[GoofGoof]

I visit WDW every Thanksgiving. FP lines were never like this.

What I observed wasn't particularly a MagicBand problem. Sure, occasionally some fumbled around with them for a few seconds with their MagicBands. However, the lines often stretched continuously for great distances from the attraction itself to well pass the FP+ return entrance.

What I observed yesterday was a phenomenon that happened at the start of each hour. Guests would flood attractions at what I assume was the start of their return windows. By the second half of each hour, FP/FP+ lines were back to normal.

It appears to me that, disproportionately, guests are being allowed to pick FP+ return times at the start of each hour (i.e. 10 AM, 11 AM, noon, 1 PM, etc.). Maybe guests want this because it's easier to remember but with holiday crowds, it is causing a mess in the FP/FP+ lines.

This is a problem that is easily fixed with better FP+ distribution algorithms. Disney's FP distribution algorithms already address this problem. In my opinion, they need to apply their FP distribution algorithms to FP+.

Yep. And this is definitely not happening yet. Even up to the day of I could switch to a reservation at the top of the hour. 24 reservations in a week and the only ones that were not at the top of the hour were shows that had set start times like illuminations.

 

[Magenta Panther]

It's all too complicated. I'm a fairly adept technical person, and I liked the band for getting into my hotel room and using DDP. But for Fastpass it was a pain in the rear! It never worked right ONCE. A very nice, very stressed-out CM working at the Fastpass machine near Philharmagic tried to help me but it was no use. And oh, there was a line THERE too. I guess we need a Fastpass for people trying to figure out how to use Fastpass.

 

[s&k'smom]

Yup we were at AK several weeks ago and had exactly that happen also with the safari ride. Line went on and on and on. Needsless to say we didn't bother. They even had some poor CM with a sign saying where the FP line started. Felt pretty bad for them. I can't imagine the hard time she must have been given.

 

[TDF]

Also what is the deal with the system.. you are suppose to scan twice correct? On a majority of our rides we only scanned once. Technically people can line jump and get right on. Terrible system. I can only see it becoming worse when they actually get rid of Fast Pass. Imagine a queue line 1000X times longer and then the + line just as long. Ugh… please Disney don’t do it!

 

[GoofGoof]

Also what is the deal with the system.. you are suppose to scan twice correct? On a majority of our rides we only scanned once. Technically people can line jump and get right on. Terrible system. I can only see it becoming worse when they actually get rid of Fast Pass. Imagine a queue line 1000X times longer and then the + line just as long. Ugh… please Disney don’t do it!

We had to scan twice for every ride last week. The only exception was illuminations. I think once regular FP is gone it will make it a little better. Lots of confusion when someone with a paper FP was trying to get past our group before we finished scanning. We did have 8 people so it took a little longer than most, but when people tried to jump into the middle of our group it caused issues.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Thank god I go solo on these trips and being a single rider...

 

[copcarguyp71]

At some point no matter how they try to mitigate their crowds (I do not believe in their current direction) they will fall prey to their own monster. Building umpteen resorts and the rigorous DVC outbuild along with folks staying offsite and FL residents coupled with not enough attractions or low capacity per hour rides is going to back up on them and every day will be like mid-August. I am sure that is what they THINK they want and perhaps it will fly for a while with the newbies and the die hard fans who breathe deep of the pixie dust but at some point the straw will break and management will be forced to balance their greed with temperance. IMHO of course...

 

[TDF]

At some point no matter how they try to mitigate their crowds (I do not believe in their current direction) they will fall prey to their own monster. Building umpteen resorts and the rigorous DVC outbuild along with folks staying offsite and FL residents coupled with not enough attractions or low capacity per hour rides is going to back up on them and every day will be like mid-August. I am sure that is what they THINK they want and perhaps it will fly for a while with the newbies and the die hard fans who breathe deep of the pixie dust but at some point the straw will break and management will be forced to balance their greed with temperance. IMHO of course...

I think the newbies will find this system very complicated. People don’t always like using a smart phone to choose a ride 60 days in advanced or change a time they want to ride. People don’t even like the dining in advance. Isn’t the point of a vacation to relax? This system is for those more like us Disney fans that wanna hit a couple of rides and know what to choose and when to choose it.

 

[DebDeb]

We were there last week and loved the fp+! Rode Peter Pan twice in the same trip! Haven't done that in years! Walked right on Soaring! And toy story mania! Some of those we have missed because of long waits and no fp left! So the new fp+ gets nothing but thumps up from us! Granted the crowds were not bad yet! It started getting crazy crowded Monday! But we still rode Buzz and TM without a problem! Hope they work out the over booking of the fp+ and the in park fp. Best trip ever!

 

[copcarguyp71]

I think the newbies will find this system very complicated. People don’t always like using a smart phone to choose a ride 60 days in advanced or change a time they want to ride. People don’t even like the dining in advance. Isn’t the point of a vacation to relax? This system is for those more like us Disney fans that wanna hit a couple of rides and know what to choose and when to choose it.

I guess I meant that newbies would be less likely to know the difference between how it used to be instead of this "wonderful" new generation of micromanaging your vacation. If they have never known any different then they would not know enough to be unhappy with it if they think it is the norm.

 

[Marc Gil]

The Fastpass+ lines seem to be relatively the normal and short. I just visited Magic Kingdom today and I noticed a whole bunch of attractions with the FP+ signage. It honestly did not affect my standby queuing experience.

 

[Gabe1]

Could you tell whether the wait was caused by slow band-scanning or whether there was much of a wait past that point?

My DS was vacationing in Mid October during food and wine and FP+ did the same thing over the long weekend.
Toy FP+ went all the way past One Man. Test Track was out the door and Soarin FP+ queue was very plump too.

FP+ works nicely when the parks are at low capacity, when you don't need FPs in the first place. Let the parks get to moderate or high levels and there are just not enough E attractions to cover the demand. Guests are no showing to their FP+ to attractions like Tiki, Imagination, Country Bears etc. Disney wants their Theme Park guests to follow a schedule like high school children, get up this hour...arrive at this time...arrive here at:....eat now...see this show now..ride this...meal now...parade now...stare at castle now...exit now....released to sleep now cause we are closing our resort pools and taking our lifeguards home.

Who wants to do that? Right now off season is a more coveted time than ever before.

 

[disney4life2008]

Thank god I go solo on these trips and being a single rider...

hail to the solo disney trip - I am coming up on solo #7

 

[copcarguyp71]

Right now off season is a more coveted time than ever before.

That is the problem....If they have their way though with all of the DVC outbuild and resorts that they are trying to populate then there will be no off season. As things are now over the past six years the usual autumnal lull has been disappearing. I have noticed many more foreigners during this time than ever before so maybe they are offering discounts to those venues since they already know that the US market is a lost cause during that time so they are loading the parks with those who have differing schedules or maybe the discounts are just too tasty to pass up.

Whatever the reason management seems to have found an all new group to pander to in the off season and it seemed to me that every time I was in a queue there were latin/south americaners and french canadians all around us so obviously management is trying to turn the parks into July all year round. I do not belittle them looking for ways to load the parks nor do I care about foreigners in the parks but they are going to have to try and manage the crowds far better than FP+ or Magic bands...

 

[Megalodumb]

The stomach-churning part about this is that for the same amount of $$$$ Disney has spent on this debacle, we could be having a discussion right now on how we like WDW's newest theme park that just opened.

 

[englanddg]

The stomach-churning part about this is that for the same amount of $$$$ Disney has spent on this debacle, we could be having a discussion right now on how we like WDW's newest theme park that just opened.

Exactly.

 

[JimboJones123]

In fairness I've seen this happen all week, and it was because of idiotic guests, not the fp+ system itself. Guests didn't know how to scan the bands, weren't using both posts, didn't have the bands out, didn't actually have reservations (and then wanted to argue about it), or some other calamity.

Once you made it past the touch point, you proceeded almost directly to the attraction.

I'm not solid on fp+ either, but let's calm down folks.

So, WDW makes the system to difficult for guests... and it is the fault of the guest?

No, that would be the exact fault of WDW and FP+.

 

[JimboJones123]

how often do you see the FP RETURN line snaking down the path? Forget matching a day/week of the year.. in general? You're trying to nitpick to debunk things and missing the obvious.

I have once. That was New Years Eve. The only time.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I think they had the right idea with FP+ with reserving your rides electronically, getting to pick from available times, and not having to go to the actual attraction to do it. The biggest flaw, and what seems to be causing the most issues, is reserving the attractions in advance and allowing everyone to modify them by creating an account on their phones. That is where it becomes overly complicated. Though it may be hard to believe for us, many WDW visitors have a hard time grasping the concept behind legacy Fastpass - how could Disney expect these people to understand a system that is several times more complex? I feel that Fastpass+ should have started out by being entirely done in-park, not in advance, and not on phone apps. Perhaps that aspect of it would have been better off being saved for down the road.

 

[Ralphlaw]

I think the problem is the basic idea that training consumers is always problematic. Under the old system, if you didn't understand fastpass, that was fine. However, learning it was very easy, and there were often CMs there to assist you. The new system, I don't understand it, and I've been to Disney parks for nearly a dozen trips. Luckily my wife has taken the bull by the horns and learned it. But it still required phone calls, long waits on the phone, and reading. The old fastpass was quite simple, and you didn't NEED it to have a good time. Now it's been replaced by a computerized system that may or may not ever work the way they envisioned it.

MY questions: (1) What was so wrong with the old system that it needed replacing?

(2) And what are the advantages of this system even assuming they get it to work right?