Why did Disney create the FastPass system?

[DarthVader]

I know its gone, and we now have a paid tier, but it made me think. What was the purpose of the fast pass?

I know what disney marketed it as, i.e., skipping the line for your favorite ride, but think about it.
They took rides, and reduced queue in half. If there were two lanes before fast lane, now there is one (for non-fast lane). Add in that they purposely gave preference to letting more FP holders onto the ride then standby people, meant those standby lines would be longer, then if there was no fastpasses.

Wouldn't it be more equitable if we had no fastpasses, and it was a true first come first serve? The lines would move faster, since they wouldn't let 10 to 15 FP holders through the ride for every family waiting in standby. Everyone would know where they stood, literally.

I'm not knocking the now defunct fastpass system, hell, I used it as much as possible and skipping the line was great, but I feel it was replacing overall line management that was equitable and worked, for a system that gave you short term gains on three rides.

I think the Genie+ is the worst incarnation of fastpass, because now you have much less participation, since it costs money, and so more people are in the standby lane, but they still give a large preference to those genie + participants (which I get they spent money)

 

[Goofyernmost]

The question was why did the create fastpass? Two reasons, people were whining about the long lines that any theme park as popular as Disney would have and thought that if they could come up with a way to con the public into thinking that Disney was giving them a way to spend less time in line that they would be happier and have more time to spend money on food and merch.

It did neither but it did create an illusion (and who was better at creating an illusion than Disney) that your time in line was lessened. If you had a FP for a popular attraction that was true, but then you spent the longer time in line for other attraction or just standing around waiting for your window to open or running across the parks numerous times to secure a FP and later to actually ride it, so you actually saw fewer attractions overall. However, time has shown that people are easily led into believing almost anything.

 

[Married5Times]

FP was an answer to fix something that should have been left alone. For every reason to welcome the program there was an equal and opposite reason to question it.

Overall the program did absolutely nothing to change how many guests got to ride in a day.
Parks needed more throughput not a different way to service the waits.

Reconfiguring the waits while not increasing ridership did more or less nothing.

 

[KaliSplash]

I know its gone, and we now have a paid tier, but it made me think. What was the purpose of the fast pass?

I know what disney marketed it as, i.e., skipping the line for your favorite ride, but think about it.
They took rides, and reduced queue in half. If there were two lanes before fast lane, now there is one (for non-fast lane). Add in that they purposely gave preference to letting more FP holders onto the ride then standby people, meant those standby lines would be longer, then if there was no fastpasses.

Wouldn't it be more equitable if we had no fastpasses, and it was a true first come first serve? The lines would move faster, since they wouldn't let 10 to 15 FP holders through the ride for every family waiting in standby. Everyone would know where they stood, literally.

I'm not knocking the now defunct fastpass system, hell, I used it as much as possible and skipping the line was great, but I feel it was replacing overall line management that was equitable and worked, for a system that gave you short term gains on three rides.

I think the Genie+ is the worst incarnation of fastpass, because now you have much less participation, since it costs money, and so more people are in the standby lane, but they still give a large preference to those genie + participants (which I get they spent money)

Disney was not concerned about equitable. They were concerned about making more money. with FastPass, they offered a perceived value, short, preferential lines, while increasing the number of people in the non-FastPass line. These non FastPass people were hoped to therefore spend more time in the gift shops, snack carts and restaurants, spending money, rather than waiting in long lines.
Now, they are just being more blatant about it. Pay for the shorter, preferential lines, or be stuck in long lines, or even better, avoid the long lines and go buy something. Or buy something to pass the time in the longer lines.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I know its gone, and we now have a paid tier, but it made me think. What was the purpose of the fast pass?

I know what disney marketed it as, i.e., skipping the line for your favorite ride, but think about it.
They took rides, and reduced queue in half. If there were two lanes before fast lane, now there is one (for non-fast lane). Add in that they purposely gave preference to letting more FP holders onto the ride then standby people, meant those standby lines would be longer, then if there was no fastpasses.

Wouldn't it be more equitable if we had no fastpasses, and it was a true first come first serve? The lines would move faster, since they wouldn't let 10 to 15 FP holders through the ride for every family waiting in standby. Everyone would know where they stood, literally.

I'm not knocking the now defunct fastpass system, hell, I used it as much as possible and skipping the line was great, but I feel it was replacing overall line management that was equitable and worked, for a system that gave you short term gains on three rides.

I think the Genie+ is the worst incarnation of fastpass, because now you have much less participation, since it costs money, and so more people are in the standby lane, but they still give a large preference to those genie + participants (which I get they spent money)

Watch this YouTube. This is the absolute best content on this subject!

 

[Kramerica]

Just watch this

 

[mysto]

I have no inside information on this, it is speculation.

I believe all fastpass incarnations had an unlimited version, call it UFP. During paper days, it may have been a badge worn around the neck as during the year of a million dreams era. Under FP+ and G+ UFP users can just tap in anywhere anytime and it always works, no scheduling required.

Why? Because UFP users do not want to be scowled at when they cut the line. They can blend into the "ordinary" FP line and everyone is all smiles. This is why FP was added to the parks, as a cover for UFP.

Under FP+ sometimes the FP line had a wait, that was no good. So under G+ the numbers have been shifted so that there is never a wait for LL. Hmm.

 

[SteveAZee]

Guests: I want to spend more of my time enjoying attractions and less time on lines or just standing around.
Disney: We want guests to spend less time on attractions and lines and more time eating and buying merch.

Intersection: Neither want guests standing in lines, EXCEPT that it reduces the feeling of the parks being overcrowded since the guests are queued up rather than milling about.

Solution: A system that minimizes preferred guests from spending a lot of time on lines (preferred would be those buying food and merch, i.e. those with larger discretionary income)... so pay to skip the lines.

To me, it just seems like the current system is a bad solution to this problem.... too cheap, too confusing, not flexible enough, 7am reservation rush, can't re-ride attractions, etc.

 

[Smooth]

Fast Pass was cheaper than building new attractions.

 

[LongballMG]

People waiting in line aren't spending money on food and merchandise.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Could it have been a way to roughly estimate an attraction's relative ranking? Was there an elitist angle that could be seen?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

FP was an answer to fix something that should have been left alone. For every reason to welcome the program there was an equal and opposite reason to question it.

Overall the program did absolutely nothing to change how many guests got to ride in a day.
Parks needed more throughput not a different way to service the waits.

Reconfiguring the waits while not increasing ridership did more or less nothing.

FastPass was not a math play, it was a psychology play. Waiting in line 40 minutes 8 times feels bad. Waiting in line 60 minutes 5 times and 5 minutes 3 times feels good.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Just watch this

Absolutely watch this. It's a must watch for any theme park fans.

A brief summary: In the beginning, it discusses how the earliest form of Fastpass actually was developed by crowd logistics engineers or whatever they would be called. They found that it only worked on the high capacity, high demand attractions like Space Mountain, which is where the first test was done. They would distribute just enough Fastpasses that a large portion of the park's guests could enjoy Space Mountain with a minimal wait, without impacting its standby line too much, resulting in a net gain of +1 attraction per day for many.

Implementing it on lower capacity attractions would only inflate their standby lines drastically, and implementing it everywhere was out of the question as it cancelled out any actual benefit. They even tried it at Haunted Mansion early on, but found that it was unnecessary to have on a continuously moving omnimover and the line would always be shorter without it.

But... soon enough, marketing and pencil pushers got involved as they realized two things: more Fastpass attractions allows for more time for guests spending money in shops and restaurants, and increased the perceived value of the park admission by guests who thought they were getting to "skip a bunch of lines". They pushed for more and more attractions to utilize Fastpass and for more Fastpasses to be distributed at each.

Essentially, and the video documents this with data in depth, the result of this expansion of the concept was that the average guest, or the majority, had to use Fastpass to ride the same number attractions they would if it didn't exist. A small percentage of "power users" (like myself and many on here) knew how to game the system and could ride a bit more than if it didn't exist. Those who were confused by it or didn't use it at all ended up riding less on average than if it didn't exist. Note that the system would not work if the majority of guests became power users, and only "allowed" for them on the simple fact that they were the vast minority.

So Fastpass essentially forced most guests to do extra work and planning to experience the same number of attractions they would if it didn't exist, albeit with a bit more "down time" to shop and eat, and Fastpass+ only tripled down on this by forcing you to do it before you even got to the park. But... at least it was free.

Now, the system has come full circle from something with genuinely good intentions and a minor benefit to full on exploitation and manipulation for extra revenue, now that you are charged and must aggressively use the app daily to experience the same number of attractions you would if it didn't exist (or maybe slightly more if you're lucky).

 

[Chi84]

I’m guessing for the same reason some form of fast pass system exists in every major theme park including international ones. People want them.

 

[Pepper's Ghost]

So now, the system has come full circle from something with genuinely good intentions and minor benefit to full on exploitation and manipulation for extra revenue, now that you are charged and must aggressively use the app daily to experience the same number of attractions you would if it didn't exist (or maybe slightly more if you're lucky).

Great write-up, "Tom Morrow... Mr. Tom Morrow". The part I've bolded above is what I think will be the downfall. I think the aggravation and expense will turn off so may customers over time resulting in much reduced attendance in a couple/few years.

 

[World_Showcase_Lover007]

Reason #1
Money.
You can’t spend money if you are in a queue. However, if you have an arrival window and are free to roam until that time, you tend to pop in a shop and have a snack.

Reason #2
Corporate Ladders
You can’t make a name for yourself in a corporation if you keep things the same. If you’re in charge of parks, etc, you gotta change it up and make yourself seem like your a mover and a shaker.

 

[tl77]

The Original Paper FastPass was basically just a way for people to "make a reservation" and guarantee the got to ride something without the huge wait, and it wasn't on everything just rides with long waits. So if you "really wanted to ride Space Mountain" but didn't want to stand in a huge line and miss other things, then you could get the paper FastPass for Space Mountain and come back at the "reservation time" to ride it.

Paper FastPass was basically the same system they had for making dining reservations in the early years of the park... You didn't have to call in a dining reservation 6 months in advance back then. If you wanted to have lunch or dinner at Cinderella Castle or The Diamond Horseshoe, you could make a reservation on Main Street when you entered the park (I think it was at City Hall) or go to the restaurant directly, make your reservation to eat, and came back at the time they had available.

Because at Walt Disney World they build more hotels than rides they have problems with capacity and over crowding, and because people keep coming regardless of how bad their accommodations are, there is no real incentive for the Walt Disney Company to fix the crowd problems in the parks. FastPass+ and Genie+ are really just ways to "appear like they are addressing the problem" building attractions to handle the amount of people on their property is the only way to "actually fix the problem of crowd control", but that would cost them money, and they don't like to spend "their" money, they just keep looking for cheap ways to make sure "you keep spending your money"

 

[jloucks]

I know its gone, and we now have a paid tier, but it made me think. What was the purpose of the fast pass?

I know what disney marketed it as, i.e., skipping the line for your favorite ride, but think about it.
They took rides, and reduced queue in half. If there were two lanes before fast lane, now there is one (for non-fast lane). Add in that they purposely gave preference to letting more FP holders onto the ride then standby people, meant those standby lines would be longer, then if there was no fastpasses.

Wouldn't it be more equitable if we had no fastpasses, and it was a true first come first serve? The lines would move faster, since they wouldn't let 10 to 15 FP holders through the ride for every family waiting in standby. Everyone would know where they stood, literally.

I'm not knocking the now defunct fastpass system, hell, I used it as much as possible and skipping the line was great, but I feel it was replacing overall line management that was equitable and worked, for a system that gave you short term gains on three rides.

I think the Genie+ is the worst incarnation of fastpass, because now you have much less participation, since it costs money, and so more people are in the standby lane, but they still give a large preference to those genie + participants (which I get they spent money)

The problem with Genie+ is that you can NOT just throw money at it and have a great experience at the parks. There are multiple throttles to use and I found it very annoying. The 2 hour cool-off period was particularly infuriating my last trip a few weeks ago.

 

[Andriadisney]

I have two ideas, first call Bruce Laval and see if he can do something. Fast pass was his baby, bring him back in the conversation to fix it. Then second, just lower capacity. Less people allowed in the park less wait times in rides. Customer satisfaction way up, so more repeat visitors. Also, they can keep this ineffective park reservation system that they are so in love with. The concept may work well with lower capacity. Disney inflated the maximum capacity numbers many times, the last time was when you story land opened. They can do it, it will work. Just lower capacity Disney. Fix this mess now.

 

[Pepper's Ghost]

I have two ideas, first call Bruce Laval and see if he can do something. Fast pass was his baby, bring him back in the conversation to fix it. Then second, just lower capacity. Less people allowed in the park less wait times in rides. Customer satisfaction way up, so more repeat visitors. Also, they can keep this ineffective park reservation system that they are so in love with. The concept may work well with lower capacity. Disney inflated the maximum capacity numbers many times, the last time was when you story land opened. They can do it, it will work. Just lower capacity Disney. Fix this mess now.

This is literally many people's complaint. They can't get into the parks. If you want smaller crowds, $400+/day/person to enter... period. Crowds will shrink pretty fast IMO. Otherwise, all you're doing is shrinking revenue, and p!ssing people off because they can't get tickets/reservations. When people can't get FP to their faves due to how quickly they go, they get upset. Imagine if they just can't get into parks now. Lowering capacity alone only shrinks revenue. Never gonna happen without massive price hikes.