WDW To Enforce FP+ Rules

[Tom Morrow]

Regarding DAS, unlike the old GAC system, DAS, at the very least, forces the holders to obtain a return time for wait times more than 15 minutes. Of course, most of the people scamming it are also the entitled mentality that will argue with the cast members to just let them in instantly, and many cast members know that their managers will not back them up, so they just let them in.

At its peak abuse, the GAC system accounted for about 1/5th of all riders riding any major attraction.

Disney is not alone in this, either. At Universal, their similar disability access card and their Express Pass, despite being a paid system, are not controlled well at all and are also widely abused.

This is a situation where the companies know of the abuse but rely on the general public that follows the rules to not be aware of how much those who are cheating the system are screwing them over. I say, let it become as known as possible, and force the companies to do something about it and stop letting the cheaters win.

 

[LAKid53]

FWIW, They DO have the ability to store face photos with MDE profiles. My 5-year-old was having issues getting his fingerprint to work and the CM took his photo and told him to use two fingers next time (we're AP) and that works every time.

I know. I had intermetent problems with my MB not working properly, so instead of getting my photo taken, I popped over to GS to find out why. That's when I was told that you should only have a couple of MBs active in your MDE account - I had like 20 active. Once I deactivated most of them, I've had no problem with the entry points.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

You guys are being too hard on child swap. Requiring everyone that rides to have a FP will isolate the little child that can't ride. My 4YO will be too short for the 44" rides on our next trip. If the other four of us all need to have a FP to ride Everest, then the 4YO will essentially have one of their three FP that they can't use... they can't ride anything by themselves, and they can't ride the ride that the entire rest of the group wants to see. If two of us FP Everest, and the other three in the group FP the Safari and the two taller ones eventually use a rider switch pass on Everest... I think that's exactly what Disney wants. It's much nicer for families to not have to make that choice. If somebody uses their 1YO to double up their FP on all height requirement rides, then they're just being a jerk to their kid. The principle is the same even if the kid is too young to have a ticket. If people only use the "extra" FP to ride height requirement rides, they are stealing the short lines benefits of FP from the little one.

Is Disney required to offer it? No. But I think it makes sense to give those young families a bit of a leg up. They're probably in the park for less time and are slowed down by the baby. If Disney can give those families a bit of a better experience, they're probably more likely to return when the kid is 8 and they don't need rider switch.

 

[ford91exploder]

Given these moves any doubt that MM+ is a system designed to create artificial scarcity

 

[asianway]

Privacy laws, HIPPA, ADA, etc. I believe HIPPA may prevent Disney from asking for details about a guest's disability.

Which is why the US is seeing a proliferation of "service" dogs (the emotional support kind especially) because companies can't ask for proof that (1) the animal is a bona fide service animal (i.e., trained and registered as such) and (2) the person has a bona fide disability covered under the ADA that would necessitate #1. Oh, and because the person who felt that asking about #1 and #2 would infringe on their rights would scream "I'm gonna sue" and hire Morgan and Morgan or Dan Newlin......

How about the woman who "trains" service dogs and brings half a dozen into the WDW parks at a time....

 

[dreamfinder912]

I just hope they develop a way to "give" someone your FP if you aren't using it. We used to do that all the time with paper FPs if we were leaving a park without using them. The Soarin time slots would often be for way late in the day so if we got too tired we'd just give them away!

 

[Biff215]

I just hope they develop a way to "give" someone your FP if you aren't using it. We used to do that all the time with paper FPs if we were leaving a park without using them. The Soarin time slots would often be for way late in the day so if we got too tired we'd just give them away!

We used to do it too, but I doubt that will ever happen. The system benefits from an undetermined amount of no-shows, just like restaurants and airlines. Allowing guests to share a FP would only make the cheating worse.

 

[RustySpork]

How about the woman who "trains" service dogs and brings half a dozen into the WDW parks at a time....

It's a really good way to socialize them though. HEY WAIT A DARNED MINUTE! Maybe they're training them to be their shadow fp+ runners!

 

[Dizney Crew]

How about the woman who "trains" service dogs and brings half a dozen into the WDW parks at a time....

The thing that cracks me up about the service dog trainers is how upset they get when kids try and pet them. Come on your in park with thousands of kids, sure the parents should stop them and tell the kids don't touch but kids (especially young ones) don't always listen. To me its not the kids fault its the trainers for bringing them into the Lions Den and expecting nothing to happen.

And I get the whole training aspect, but there is plenty of space around WDW to take these dogs outside of Main Street.

 

[mouse_luv]

It's about time!

 

[Nubs70]

The thing that cracks me up about the service dog trainers is how upset they get when kids try and pet them. Come on your in park with thousands of kids, sure the parents should stop them and tell the kids don't touch but kids (especially young ones) don't always listen. To me its not the kids fault its the trainers for bringing them into the Lions Den and expecting nothing to happen.

And I get the whole training aspect, but there is plenty of space around WDW to take these dogs outside of Main Street.

Same thing with children that can't handle lines, crowds, heat or are generally susceptible to over stimulatuon.

 

[Dizney Crew]

Same thing with children that can't handle lines, crowds, heat or are generally susceptible to over stimulatuon.

That's why its FP all the way whenever we're at the parks, anything over a 20 min wait and our 4 yr old goes nuts. When we visited DLR our daughter was lost having to wait in regular stand by lines. Sorry but we love our FP+ system over the old paper tickets.

 

[markc]

This loophole did not always exist. When Fastpass+ was first introduced several years ago, park validation was working. In very simple terms, what happened, however, was the system continually crashed as it could not handle the amount of validation requests each time somebody went to pick a fastpass out due to the complexity of the system. I don't believe this has changed, and the system is still unable to fully validate tickets, so I'm rather curious as to whether or not the recent article posted has any true merit or not. Even if the validation isn't done until the point of entry at the attraction, the CM's neither have the time nor discipline to check validation status for each guest.

 

[tractor tipper]

I just wish they would do something like how Universal does with their Fast Pass. You pay a fee and then you can go on all the attractions without having to wait and see if Harry Potter makes it out of this one. Spoiler alert: he does, and you just waited 5 hours to find out! Actually im exaggerating. The most i see is a 45 minute wait, but that's still roughly an hour. No one should wait that long for a ride..and yet we do, sometimes we wait even more.

Unless UNI has changed, their paid FP does not cover all the rides.

 

[rct247]

This loophole did not always exist. When Fastpass+ was first introduced several years ago, park validation was working. In very simple terms, what happened, however, was the system continually crashed as it could not handle the amount of validation requests each time somebody went to pick a fastpass out due to the complexity of the system. I don't believe this has changed, and the system is still unable to fully validate tickets, so I'm rather curious as to whether or not the recent article posted has any true merit or not. Even if the validation isn't done until the point of entry at the attraction, the CM's neither have the time nor discipline to check validation status for each guest.

This and add to the fact that the kiosks had such long lines because not everything could be done via the app. Imagine waiting in line to make all your Fastpasses because you are not a resort Guest but half of the family was taking their time getting ready at random non Disney resort. Now you get up to the kiosk to find you can't make selections for your entire party because they aren't in the park.

Now that the kiosks have no lines (or even a Cast Member staffed at some) they feel more comfortable turning it on. The system is stable. The lines are gone. The abuse has gone up. It's time.

 

[drizgirl]

You guys are being too hard on child swap. Requiring everyone that rides to have a FP will isolate the little child that can't ride. My 4YO will be too short for the 44" rides on our next trip. If the other four of us all need to have a FP to ride Everest, then the 4YO will essentially have one of their three FP that they can't use... they can't ride anything by themselves, and they can't ride the ride that the entire rest of the group wants to see. If two of us FP Everest, and the other three in the group FP the Safari and the two taller ones eventually use a rider switch pass on Everest... I think that's exactly what Disney wants. It's much nicer for families to not have to make that choice. If somebody uses their 1YO to double up their FP on all height requirement rides, then they're just being a jerk to their kid. The principle is the same even if the kid is too young to have a ticket. If people only use the "extra" FP to ride height requirement rides, they are stealing the short lines benefits of FP from the little one.

Is Disney required to offer it? No. But I think it makes sense to give those young families a bit of a leg up. They're probably in the park for less time and are slowed down by the baby. If Disney can give those families a bit of a better experience, they're probably more likely to return when the kid is 8 and they don't need rider switch.

Lots of families face similar dilemmas all the time and Disney does not try to make things fair by only requiring part of the group use their FP. Some kids are tall enough but refuse to ride. Some adults refuse to ride certain rides. Some have favorites that others don't enjoy. Lots of people have limits on their time in the parks for a variety of reasons.

The bottom line is that child swap didn't become a big advantage before the introduction of FP+ because families without child swap could just pull a tier one, ride, then pull another full set of tier 1 FPs. The limitations are a problem for lots of guests. Everyone should be on equal footing for trying to access the tier 1 attractions.

I bet a lot more people are using it to maximize their height restricted rides than you know. That's because those are the rides with the longest waits.

 

[Master Yoda]

This loophole did not always exist. When Fastpass+ was first introduced several years ago, park validation was working. In very simple terms, what happened, however, was the system continually crashed as it could not handle the amount of validation requests each time somebody went to pick a fastpass out due to the complexity of the system. I don't believe this has changed, and the system is still unable to fully validate tickets, so I'm rather curious as to whether or not the recent article posted has any true merit or not. Even if the validation isn't done until the point of entry at the attraction, the CM's neither have the time nor discipline to check validation status for each guest.

It would not surprise me if they randomly turn it off and on just enough to make it to where the people abusing the loophole can't count on it, so they no longer do it.

 

[Lets Respect]

While it's an amusing fantasy to think about Disney scheming plans up to catch the "cheaters", this is a company that doesn't even put enough resources into running their day-to-day operations.

 

[dreamfinder]

While it's an amusing fantasy to think about Disney scheming plans up to catch the "cheaters", this is a company that doesn't even put enough resources into running their day-to-day operations.

Because bonuses come from developing ways to save or earn the company more money and no longer from keeping guests satisfied. Being able to shave 10% from your departments wages? You get a bonus and corner parking spot. Being able to "add capacity" to the FP+ system at no cost? You get a window cubicle and another bonus. The same thing happened with the refillable mugs. MOST people don't scheme the system, and the overall issues/losses are probably negligible in the scheme of things and can be written off as a rounding error. See how many people here didn't even know you could game the FP+ system in this manner, and if people fanatic enough about WDW to post on a forum don't know it, do you really think Joe Tourist from Podunk Whereversville knew it? But being able to show a net reduction in abuse reflects positively on someones bottom line, so some beancounter is trying to find things like this to fix.

It's the same mentality that is working so well (sarcasm is dripping from my screen as I type this) for many of the legacy airlines in the US, more seats filled and more fares = more bonus for CEO, keeping customers happy doesn't equate at all (Hi United!!!).

 

[drizgirl]

Because bonuses come from developing ways to save or earn the company more money and no longer from keeping guests satisfied. Being able to shave 10% from your departments wages? You get a bonus and corner parking spot. Being able to "add capacity" to the FP+ system at no cost? You get a window cubicle and another bonus. The same thing happened with the refillable mugs. MOST people don't scheme the system, and the overall issues/losses are probably negligible in the scheme of things and can be written off as a rounding error. See how many people here didn't even know you could game the FP+ system in this manner, and if people fanatic enough about WDW to post on a forum don't know it, do you really think Joe Tourist from Podunk Whereversville knew it? But being able to show a net reduction in abuse reflects positively on someones bottom line, so some beancounter is trying to find things like this to fix.

It's the same mentality that is working so well (sarcasm is dripping from my screen as I type this) for many of the legacy airlines in the US, more seats filled and more fares = more bonus for CEO, keeping customers happy doesn't equate at all (Hi United!!!).

If Disney decides they can sell those extra "found" fastpasses, then yeah, I can see them giving bonuses for clamping down and finding ways to prevent people getting extra. But if it only results in slightly increased and hard to quantify guest satisfaction that can't be absolutely pinned to this? I don't think they care that much (unfortunately). We still don't even have confirmation they are following through with this.