Deacon on Disney - Fastpasses

[rdeacon]

Reading the posts I have to say I find it interesting, one the different sides of the debate. And two how many people are just not sure EXACTLY how the FASTPASS system works.

This is form the Disney World website

Disney's FASTPASS® service is sure to help you get the most enjoyment out of your day at the Walt Disney World® Resort! This free Guest Service saves your place in line, allowing you to venture off and experience more of the wonders of Walt Disney World — before returning to board your attraction with a minimal wait.

From the Disneyland website

Disney's FASTPASS® Service

Take advantage of Disney's FASTPASS® service. You can enjoy the rest of the park while FASTPASS® saves your place in line.

To use Disney's FASTPASS® service:

* Look for the FASTPASS® distribution area near the entrance of an attraction (check the complete list of attractions that accept FASTPASS® below)
* Check the FASTPASS® “Return Timeâ€

[secondstar]

I'm not sure if that's entirely true. The last time I was at WDW (2007), your FastPass was still valid AFTER the posted time. Therefore, if you had a Splash Mountain FastPass from 10:30 - 11:30 and it was 11:25 and you were in Tomorrowland, you could obtain another FastPass for, let's say Buzz Lightyear, but you would not need to get in the Splash Mountain FastPass line within the next 5 minutes. You could enter it later in the day after its time had lapsed. (A CM told us it's good all day.) Maybe a current CM verify that for us!

That is true. But everytime someone does that, it throws off the balance a little bit. If enough people do that, it throws the stand-by lines even more out-of whack..

That was in response to someone believing that if they only had five minutes left on their Splash Mountain FastPass and they were in Tomorrowland they would have to stop what they were doing and run back to Splash Mountain. I was merely explaning they would have time to stay in Tomorowland and better utilize their time and not run out immediately.

The last time I went to Cedar Point (which was several years ago), I rode FIVE RIDES ALL DAY!!!! I waited in line 2.5 hours for Top Thrill Dragster, 2 hours for Millenium Force, almost 2 hours for Raptor, over an hour for Mantis, and over an hour for Millenium Force again. That was all I did ALL DAY!!!!!

I don't see that as a reason to support FP. If anything FP makes overall lines longer, not shorter.

I don't see how riding five rides for an entire day and spending ALL your time in lines is an enjoyable vacation. We used to go to Cedar Point every year. Finally, we got tired of spending the first day of every two-day vacation standing in lines.

On the other hand, my DW and I have four-year-old. In an afternoon using FastPass, we can:
..grab a Peter Pan FastPass, then.
..ride Dumbo
..see Mickey's Philharmagic
..ride Carousel [Peter Pan is now valid]

Grab a new FastPass for Winnie the Pooh
..use Peter Pan FastPass
..ride It's a Small World
..grab a bite to eat
..shop in Pooh's Thotful Shop
..ride Mad Tea Party [Winnie the Pooh FastPass is now valid]

Grab Buzz Lightyear FastPass
..use FastPass on Winnie the Pooh
..ride TTA
..ride Monster Inc.
..grab Turkey leg
..use FastPass for Buzz.

This keeps a four-year-old very happy (and the parents, too).
To be fair, we didn't have our daughter when we went to Cedar Point

[lebeau]

Both descriptions are vague.. is that intentional? Do they just assume everyone knows how to use the system? Either way its a poor policy to not explain a service touted as a valuable guest reward.

Sadly I had to go to a fan site to find detailed explanations of the FASTPASS system, and they even have 2 different explanations. To add to the confusion it appears as if the rules are different for Disneyland and Disney World.

Disney World
Wikipedia

Disneyland
Mouse Planet


It would be nice to find and "official" FASTPASS policy on Disney's sites that can give a detailed description of how to use the FASTPASS without using outside resources.

This is also an excellent point!

I beleive that Disney leaves the rules of FP vague intentioanlly. They market "shorter lines" and try to sell it like something it's not. Meanwhile, they are free to make changes to the system whenever they like - which they do quite frequesntly. They are always tweaking FP and testing out new ways to use it.

I don't see how riding five rides for an entire day and spending ALL your time in lines is an enjoyable vacation. We used to go to Cedar Point every year. Finally, we got tired of spending the first day of every two-day vacation standing in lines.

You have to compare apples to apples. FP might not have made your day at Cedar Point any better. Perhaps you'd have FP's a ride or two. But that would have caused every stand-by line you waited in to be that much longer.

If other people knew how to use Cedar Point's (imaginary) reservation system better than you did, your overall waits might have been longer while theirs were shorter.

All FP does is allow some people to have shorter waits at the expense of others.

On the other hand, my DW and I have four-year-old. In an afternoon using FastPass, we can:
..grab a Peter Pan FastPass, then.
..ride Dumbo
..see Mickey's Philharmagic
..ride Carousel [Peter Pan is now valid]

Grab a new FastPass for Winnie the Pooh
..use Peter Pan FastPass
..ride It's a Small World
..grab a bite to eat
..shop in Pooh's Thotful Shop
..ride Mad Tea Party [Winnie the Pooh FastPass is now valid]

Grab Buzz Lightyear FastPass
..use FastPass on Winnie the Pooh
..ride TTA
..ride Monster Inc.
..grab Turkey leg
..use FastPass for Buzz.

This keeps a four-year-old very happy (and the parents, too).
To be fair, we didn't have our daughter when we went to Cedar Point

Again, apples to apples. You have just described a very different day than the thrill-ride packed day you described at Cedar Point.

The one thing I will say in favor of FP is that it is nice when you have kids too young to wait in lines. We'll be taking our three-year-old this September and I fully intend to FP darn near everything.

[disneylandmom]

Fastpass is a great tool to make the most out of your disney visit IMO. It basically holds my place in line for a period of time so I can go and enjoy other attractions or have a bite to eat while I wait my turn. It is available to every ticket holder and it is up to them either use it or not. Therefore I don't know why it would cause a division among guests.
I have never had resentment or even cared about the people passing me by as I wait in a regular line. Because I know that I have the same option as they do to either take advantage of the system or not.

We spent a day at Knott's during one of our trips to the area and we didn't enjoy it very much at all and that was mostly because we spent all of our time in extremely long lines and only had time to ride a few the park had to offer. And we didn't even have a chance to see anything else the park had to offer because of this fact.

I really think as with any benifit of anything such as coupons etc. If your time and money are important to you then you will take the time to do your research and find out the best way to maximize your experience be that by using a coupon, getting a dining reservation, finding the best spot for a parade or even how to use a fastpass.

[Captain Schnemo]

If everyone used FP, there would be no advantage to anyone.

I think this pretty much sums up the problem. It's not so much a matter of whether the system "works", it's more about how comfortable you are increasing your enjoyment at the expense of others (and/or supporting such a system).

Now that FastPass exists, you get screwed if you don't use it, so the arguments against it are more a matter of taste (are you a park commando or someone who likes to relax on vacation?).

I also notice that a lot of long-time parkgoers don't seem to like FP as much. In part that's probably in part due to attitude (if you've seen everything many times, there's no need to rush around like a headless chicken) but also due to a sense of perspective.

In order to make a clear distinction, you really need to have experienced the park in both states. If you've only seen the parks with FP, then of course you're in favor of them, because if you choose not to use them, you get screwed.

[rdeacon]

I should also make a point that I am not trying to advocate guest waiting in line for 2 hours, just to make the experience equal for all guests.

Of course this might require that Disney go back to a overall plan for crowd control rather then use a patchwork approach. What do I mean.

• 1. Design attractions that can handle large capacity crowds. This can be done a multitude of ways. Either high capacity ride vehicles, or a ride that has a fast turnover rate. If that is not feasible, create dynamic and creative preshows that eat time while guests are in line. This formula worked pretty well before... They can also design an attraction that has an interesting and entertaining post show, not a car pseudo dealership.
  
  2. Have all lands/pavilions firing on all cylinders. Removing a major attraction and replacing it with a park does not help control lines. Also removing a key pavilions and making it a temporary seasonal destination does not help either. All of these just cuase other attractions to back up. Attractions need to be refurbished, updated or replaced on a regular basis to even out crowd levels. Letting a attractions become stale, boring or replaced by inferior version just piles up lines at key attractions.
  
  3. Design rides that are dynamic and have re-ride-ability. More often then not I pass by some of the new rides, since they are mediocre and lack vision and are not "must rides". This just piles on the lines for the a-list attractions
  
  4. Give guest something else to do. It could be parades, street performers, stage shows, etc. The more choices will spread out the crowds.

I know what you are thinking.. the crowds at WDW are getting worse and worse. Wrong. Crowd levels have not not dramatically increased in 10 years at the Magic Kingom. Park attendance was 17m in 1997 and in 2007 was 17m. Why was there a sudden need for FASTPASS to handle crowd control?

In that same time how many attractions are gone and not replaced, or replaced with attractions that are inferior?

It just seems there are fundamental issues with the parks that has led Disney to put band aids on things. I feel FASTPASS is just that a band aid. Instead of taking a hard look at the issues in the parks Disney looks to take a short cut. This is just a bad show. Disney needs to get back to its core, and fix the crowd issues by fixing the parks.

Now I will say that nothing will fix all issues. There will be days that the parks are insanely crowded or when an new attraction has just opened. But that is to be expected. But during normal to high volume days the parks should digest the crowds with relative ease.

Rich

[Captain Schnemo]

Good point on the ride configuration, rdeacon. The old Omnimover attractions did an excellent job of sucking up crowds. Replacing them with slow loaders or show-based attractions (Soarin', Mission: Space, etc.) does a lot to increase wait times, although certainly a mix of different attraction types is necessary to keep things interesting.

Another point is that queue lengths moderate themselves after a point. Not many people are willing to wait two hours for an attraction, and typically they will look for something else to do. FastPass artificially generates more two hour waits and increases wait times across the board.

Anyone in front of you in line with a FP in their hand for something else, is increasing your wait at both attractions.

[DisBeamer]

I'm not sure if that's entirely true. The last time I was at WDW (2007), your FastPass was still valid AFTER the posted time. Therefore, if you had a Splash Mountain FastPass from 10:30 - 11:30 and it was 11:25 and you were in Tomorrowland, you could obtain another FastPass for, let's say Buzz Lightyear, but you would not need to get in the Splash Mountain FastPass line within the next 5 minutes. You could enter it later in the day after its time had lapsed. (A CM told us it's good all day.) Maybe a current CM verify that for us!

This is true, and we've experienced it ourselves (using FastPass after it's time window has closed). However, I don't think the system was designed to work that way. Otherwise, why would they bother printing an expiration time? I think it comes back to the issue someone else here mentioned of throwing the balance between standby and the FastPass queue out of whack.

You can also use them the next day if the ride goes down and isn't running when you return. I really don't know why they bother printing expiration times on there anymore. The cynic in me assumes it's to discourage people who don't realize they can still use them afterward from trying. I remember at the start once your window closed, it closed. Now it's 'use it on this day, after this time, or possibly tomorrow'.

Does anyone remember when Universal introduced its front of the line pass/privilege for hotel guests? Wiki says FastPass debuted in 1999 so I'm assuming it was the first one, but I'm curious which company was responding to which.

[lebeau]

I'm not sure if that's entirely true. The last time I was at WDW (2007), your FastPass was still valid AFTER the posted time. Therefore, if you had a Splash Mountain FastPass from 10:30 - 11:30 and it was 11:25 and you were in Tomorrowland, you could obtain another FastPass for, let's say Buzz Lightyear, but you would not need to get in the Splash Mountain FastPass line within the next 5 minutes. You could enter it later in the day after its time had lapsed. (A CM told us it's good all day.) Maybe a current CM verify that for us!

This is true, and we've experienced it ourselves (using FastPass after it's time window has closed). However, I don't think the system was designed to work that way. Otherwise, why would they bother printing an expiration time? I think it comes back to the issue someone else here mentioned of throwing the balance between standby and the FastPass queue out of whack.

You can also use them the next day if the ride goes down and isn't running when you return. I really don't know why they bother printing expiration times on there anymore. The cynic in me assumes it's to discourage people who don't realize they can still use them afterward from trying. I remember at the start once your window closed, it closed. Now it's 'use it on this day, after this time, or possibly tomorrow'.

Does anyone remember when Universal introduced its front of the line pass/privilege for hotel guests? Wiki says FastPass debuted in 1999 so I'm assuming it was the first one, but I'm curious which company was responding to which.

I'm not sure if Universal's system came first or not. But I remember reading that FP was not the first ride reservation system.

[Joe90]

In general I like the Fast Pass system.

I don't plan my days months in advance.
I don't run back and forward across the parks from one fastpass ride to another.
I fastpass the ride I want to go on then wander off round the park. Shopping, shows, parades, other attractions (with no, or small, lines) food and photographs then wander back for my fastpass time. (I have never tried to get on a ride if the ticket time has expired.) Do the ride then fastpass the next one.

I think this is what the people who thought the fastpass idea originally up had in mind. It is just like being in line but you get to go and spend your time and cash somewhere else.

Could I use the system more effectively?-yes. No doubt.
But I'm not in a rush. I'm on holiday.

Would we rather stand in line for two hours (even a well themed one) or sit and eat funnel cake watching a parade go by while waiting for our turn on the ride.

No contest.

OK there is no EASY way to stop people being in "two lines at once" with there fastpass. As far as I am concerned this is really the only major downfall of the system and the sole reason for the increase in line time for regular riders.

If you don't like the fastpass system; get a ticket and then throw it away unused. If what people have been writing is true (and I have no reason to doubt it), in theory, this should speed up all of the regular lines for every other attraction in the park. (If only by fractions of a nanosecond.) At least you will have registered and actioned your protest.

I'm on vacation. No stress allowed.

[Cheshire Cat]

The last post got me thinking. What if, once you got a fast pass for an attraction, you could spend the time however you wanted, but you couldn't ride otehr rides? I know there is no plausible way to regulate it, but it would solve the problem of being in two lines at once. Hiowever, it still gives you time to do other things such as shopn snack or enjoy atmosphere and street shows.

Just random thoughts.

[sag746]

Thank you

I agree. People forget that they are on vacation and going to a Disney theme park will cost you money. When I go to DisneyWorld. I use my fastpass for Splash Mountain and wait on line for Thunder Mountain. When I finsh that ride, Splash Mtn. awaits me. I have no problems with that.

SAG

[Calypso]

What a great topic! Very interesting read. Personally, I use FP whenever I need to.

[meticulus9]

the fast pass line for everest has a diff style queue. they built it with FP in mind (already booked on a trip, etc).

[meticulus9]

i question the resentment part too: if i wait in standyby for test track, but hold Fp for soaring, why would i be resentful towards Fp in test track. i know i will skip a hefty like at soaring. maybe i think about it logically!

i do miss the queue on some rides, but i make sure that i use the standby line for elaborate queues at least once on my vacation. i usually go to two days/park and hit all the major attractions once on day one and at least twice on the second day! and yes i do attacck, thats how I enjoy my vacation. to do as much as possible and see what i want (3 rides of space- why not). get fp, wait in line. use my fp and get another. meanwhile, see other rides, maybe an fp for splash and wait for big thunder....etc.