Why doesn't Disney implement virtual ques regularly?

[MisterPenguin]

You have to enter the park before you are eligible to access the virtual queue.........Also, unlike the old paper FastPass system, everyone in your party has to scan in. In the old paper FP, one person would "run" to the attraction you wanted right when the park opened. If you got to Soarin and got FP's for your group and the return time wasn't until 3pm, you could not get another FP until that one was used so you had to hang around and do the other attractions before you were eligible for your second or third FP

Indeed.

People keep forgetting that no system is perfect and they gloss over the downsides of their preferred method.

The VQ and old FP required getting to the park early and competing for early spots. If you wanted to go to the park at 1 PM, the VQ and FP spots would be all gone. You could only do the big popular rides by standing in bystander line for one to three hours each. And that's only if the ride still had bystander lines, which RotR currently doesn't. That means the only way to ride the most popular rides in that system is to compete with crowds for ever-earlier park arrivals. And we see what that looks like with RotR.

The no-VQ and no-FP system that relied just on bystander queues also required showing up earlier to beat others so that the most popular rides weren't a three hour wait in a queue. And then by noon time, the popular rides were still all 2-3 hours wait.

The current FP+ system allows people to schedule the times for their nearly-queueless experiences. But then for the most popular rides, that's a race for the 60+10 days-in-advance resorts sign-up at the mercy of the website. The non-resort guests can get locked out of a chance for a FP+ for the most popular rides for years. Disney attempts to alleviate some of these issues with limitations on signing up for FP+s (only three in advance, same-park limitations, tiers, etc...).

 

[tsesow]

The more I experience and read about FP+ and Virtual Queues, the more I miss Ticket Books (and yes, I am old enough to have used a Book and traded with my sister at both Disneyland in 1967 and Magic Kingdom in 1971). Even staying in Concierge and buying the extra Fast Passes really doesn't cut it. I guess the only way is to hire the VIP Tour Services, where is price is mind-numbing.

 

[Jon81uk]

I think attendance is simply too high to use this all the time.
The virtual que could fill up moments after the park opens.

This happened a lot with paper FP. We often found that if you arrived for a popular attraction half hour after park opening you might get a return time at 7pm or later, or nothing left at all.

 

[larryz]

Another option would be to release a limited set of VQ groups in the morning at park open, then another tranche around noon, and a final tranche around 3 p.m.

 

[NickMaio]

This happened a lot with paper FP. We often found that if you arrived for a popular attraction half hour after park opening you might get a return time at 7pm or later, or nothing left at all.

Toy Story Midway Mania was notorious for this - - - - because it was not a fast people mover.

 

[Doug Means]

So, I'm a fairly slow person mentally, I guess. After reading this thread, I'm still not sure exactly how VQ works. Can someone explain it to me, typing it in a slow manner so even i can understand? Thank you in advance.

 

[larryz]

Virtual queing breaks the potential riders into chunks of about 100 or so who are then called in groups to enter the queue for the ride. BG members can then proceed to the ride (if they have low BG numbers) or pursue other activities inside the park (if they have medium BG numbers) or at other parks (if they have BG numbers that likely won't be called for several hours). Once called, Boarding Groups (BG) have 2 hours to show up or have a good excuse why they couldn't (like being stuck on the Skyliner). In practice, using RotR as an example:
1. New ride goes operational
2. Guest shows up at main gate at ungodly early hour along with 10,000 or more others
3. Disney assesses potential danger in crowd level and opens park 'way earlier than scheduled
4. Guest trudges toward park and taps in at main gate tapstile
5. Guest immediately opens the latest version of the MDE app and hits button to obtain a BG for the ride
6. Guest receives BG number and then does other activities while waiting for their BG to be "called" on the app, also displayed on screens throughout the park
7. Guest shows up with members of their and other cohorts being called and is allowed into line for the ride (several boarding groups will be eligible to enter at a time)
8. Wait in line will vary with ride functioning and numbers of BGs already called and still in line
9. When the anticipated ride throughput has been accounted for in issued BGs, BG allocation will CLOSE FOR THE DAY. In the case of RotR, that has been happening within an hour of opening the BG allocation process.

 

[Shouldigo12]

So Rotr has no standby line, just VQ? It doesn't seem much of a surprise it's going so smoothly then. I can't see this ever working for the entire park though. Even if I don't get on a ride immediately I at least want the option to wait in a line.

 

[Jon81uk]

So Rotr has no standby line, just VQ? It doesn't seem much of a surprise it's going so smoothly then. I can't see this ever working for the entire park though. Even if I don't get on a ride immediately I at least want the option to wait in a line.

Yep currently just boarding groups. I think it is expected to switch to regular operation in January, maybe even with FP.
Currently it seems the only way to ride is to arrive at 7am to get issued a group. Once you have got into the park and signed up to a group it is a bit like a restaurant pager where the app calls you back to the ride when it is your turn.