Fass Pass - A further observation

[subsonic]

Yesterday I was at Disneyland with my two-and-a-half-year-old son. As it was near spring break, I figured it was going to be a busy day. We arrived in the afternoon to find out that my guess was accurate. It was quite busy.

For those of you who don't know, I grew up with Disneyland. I am a Southern California native. I have never lived more than an hour away (without traffic). My father worked there. I worked there. And, I have owned an Annual Pass for the past 10 years. I have seen Disneyland evolve, for better or worse, quite a bit over the past three decades.

I give you this knowledge, because I’d like to believe that it’s fair of me to make judgements on the park. Some people might categorize me as the “nostalgic” type, but I think it’s more that I’ve been touched by some of the things that Disney has created. I know I wouldn’t be who I am, now, if it was not for things like Tomorrowland, EPCOT Center, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, to name a few.

When the Fast Pass was first introduced, I didn’t know how to feel. I would say most of my reactions were negative (unfortunately, it seems a lot of my reactions towards Disney’s park decisions have been that way over the last few years).

These negative opinions are still clear in my head:
- I felt the passes caused longer stand-by times.
- I felt that hundreds of man hours creating amazing-looking queues is now wasted; Indiana Jones has an amazing queue with interaction that is now usually bypassed. Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin has one of the most detailed queues I’ve ever seen, and half of the people miss it. Space Mountain’s “flyby” is now very plain looking (Yes, I know it was enclosed to make the attraction darker and I approve of that).
- A lot of paper is being wasted.
- More Castmembers are required to staff the area.
- Guests, who don’t understand the system, wonder why other people are able to receive “special access” without having to wait in line.
- (Opinion) A day can’t be “casual.” One can no longer casually stroll from one attraction to the other. One, now, constantly thinks about when the next pass is available to obtain, which attraction to visit, and spends a lot of time travelling to said attraction to get the pass.

Sure, there are some positive aspects:
- Those who know how to use the system can save time by not having to wait in a line.
- Less time in line means more money spent on stores and food.

As a regular visitor, I am very familiar with how to use the system. Over the years, I have come to “accept” it. In fact, when I’m not there with my son, I usually will start a visit heading directly to Space Mountain to get a Fast Pass, walk all the way back to the Grand Californian for a drink , and then finally head somewhere for rides. That’s a lot of walking.

This brings me to yesterday with my son. As I said, it was a busy day. I was looking to kill some time after I picked up my Autopia Fast Pass (the return time was only 35 minutes from when I got the pass) so I headed over to Buzz Lightyear hoping the line wouldn’t be too long. As I was approaching the line, I could see it was much longer than usual. My heart sank, I knew that even when the line is short it would take about 20 minutes to wait. Seeing this line, I was guessing it had to be about 40-50 minutes. As I got closer, I saw the stand by was only 20 minutes. I thought to myself, “That can’t be right.” I thought about it further and noticed that the times for Fast Pass were blank. Then I noticed that the entire Fast Pass ticket area was boarded off. “Woah!” I thought, “So there’s no Fast Passes, today. Could the line really not be as long without them?” I proceeded to wait in this longer line, for only 15 minutes!

Not only was the line longer, but also the time it took was actually shorter than when the Fast Pass line is operating. There was a constant flow of the line. All of this brought back my first opinions of the Fast Pass that I had forgotten. The short line was clear proof just HOW much of a difference in time to stand-by those passes make. I think the negatives outweigh the positives. Even though they are awesome for a single Space Mountain ride, I’d still rather wait 30 minutes for Space Mountain than worry about having a Fast Pass and wait 10. I also wouldn’t “skip” as many attractions, because I don’t have a Fast Pass.

[Wizzard419]

That was covered a few weeks back, Star Tours is losing it's FP location and taking over the Buzz one.

It's kind of a wash with FP, since it may create longer lines (harder to say since they only started using the red cards a few years ago), but it also helps displace the people to other parts of the park.

The only one I really hate is standby for Space Mountain in summer, it's like a giant heat reflector up there and they only allow groups of people to go in at a time so that they can keep the promise of a shorter wait for FP holders.

[mindflipper]

Maybe Buzz had a shorter line because all those people went to see Captain Eo instead?

[Wizzard419]

Yes, and monkeys will fly out of Jacca's butt.

I am trying to remember if it came with the ride or not. They were probably expecting that it would have the same super long lines that wdw had, even on slower days.

[subsonic]

Maybe Buzz had a shorter line because all those people went to see Captain Eo instead?

Are you talking about my article? I'm saying that Buzz had one of the longest lines I've seen for it, it needed an extended queue. BUT, because Fast Pass was unavailable the line moved more than twice as fast as normal.

[mindflipper]

Maybe Buzz had a shorter line because all those people went to see Captain Eo instead?

Are you talking about my article? I'm saying that Buzz had one of the longest lines I've seen for it, it needed an extended queue. BUT, because Fast Pass was unavailable the line moved more than twice as fast as normal.

No, it wasn't a comment about your post, but coming up with a humorous reason as to why they decided to take FP away from Buzz. But it doesn't surprise me that your longer line at Buzz moved quicker without FP; the same was true at WDW before they had FP and whenever the FP machines are down.

[Wizzard419]

The only time it feels like it takes forever is if you go when it's empty. I don't know if there are just more wheelchairs or what, but the line seems to stop a lot.

[mindflipper]

The only time it feels like it takes forever is if you go when it's empty. I don't know if there are just more wheelchairs or what, but the line seems to stop a lot.

The truely impaired or disabled in the wheelchair are not steady on their feet, so conveyor belt loading areas like HM and Buzz is hard for them to walk and board at the same time. That's why it has to be so slowed down so much. It's easier for rides where the vehicle doesn't move while boarding, like POTC or Peter Pan.

[northernmousefan2007]

I find that very interesting Subsonic, Ive only been to the parks when fast pass was available. I never thought about any downsides.

[Len90]

Maybe Buzz had a shorter line because all those people went to see Captain Eo instead?

Are you talking about my article? I'm saying that Buzz had one of the longest lines I've seen for it, it needed an extended queue. BUT, because Fast Pass was unavailable the line moved more than twice as fast as normal.

I feel that Buzz is one of those attractions that putting fast pass into was a huge mistake. The whole concept of the omnimover rides is to keep a constant motion where the line will move in an orderly and timely fashion. There are attractions like Space Mountain and Midway Mania that I feel have huge benefits with the fast pass system. The more I think about it, the more I can relate it to my personal feelings when I'm in WDW. I recall waiting for attractions before the fast pass system. It would be an average of 10-20 minutes wait for attractions with some of the more popular and longer load time ones going as high as 45 maybe 50 minutes. Now with the fast pass system the stand by lines are easily breaking an hour sometimes going as high as 75-80 minutes. The funny thing is the stand-by line is never just extremely long, it's always the fast pass line preventing the stand by from moving. People who have fast passes already feel as if they have waited an extremely long time to ride the attraction and therefore should not have to even stand in line for 5-10 minutes. It really creates a mess.

From some of my recent trips I have found some interesting things. When we rode the Kilamanjaro Safari, the stand by time and fast pass return time were literally the same timing. It was only about 30 minutes and there is really no place you can go to kill off the time. In an instance like that it makes no sense to be handing out fast passes when you could just put everybody on the stand-by and probably cut at least 5 minutes off of the wait. Peter Pan's Flight is another attraction that has been killed by the fast pass system. If it were just a regular stand-by attraction, the line would probably only be half as long since it would not have to consistently stop to let people merge in.

All in all, I have to agree with fast pass hurting the overall experience. It really is a shame that you bypass the queue as I feel it really is a key component of the attraction. The queue (IMO) sets the tone and transitions you into the story. You gradually get taken over and get a more fulfilling experience. Just look as Midway Mania in Florida. You never get to see Potato head from the fast pass queue. Secondly, the running around aspect. Fast pass has really taken what was once a more relaxing vacation and turned it into a hassle filled with running around. You now have to try planning which attractions you will fast pass and what you can do before redemption time. You have to actually plan your days out as opposed to being completely spontaneous in what you want to do. No longer can you easily accomplish most of the attractions with just a 20 minute wait.

[mindflipper]

With the overwhelming crowds the parks get they need the FP system. I remember they used to have a "max capacity" long ago and would limit the park population, but I don't think they have done anything like that in long, long time.

[Wizzard419]

They must do things really different at WDW for FP during the peak times. The only two rides I can think of where there is a build up of people at DL are Indy and Space Mountain. For those who really want to just go slowly through the queue, they actually benefit from it now since people can just walk by you rather than having to keep up with the people in front of you.

The truely impaired or disabled in the wheelchair are not steady on their feet, so conveyor belt loading areas like HM and Buzz is hard for them to walk and board at the same time. That's why it has to be so slowed down so much. It's easier for rides where the vehicle doesn't move while boarding, like POTC or Peter Pan.

Oh I know that, the day I like to go (for day off trip) is always a Weds., which is also the day of the week the special needs groups go out (lots of wheelchairs).


Oh (just saw the other post), Disneyland reaches Max capacity multiple times a year, esp. during the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve

[Len90]

With the overwhelming crowds the parks get they need the FP system. I remember they used to have a "max capacity" long ago and would limit the park population, but I don't think they have done anything like that in long, long time.

There are still phase closings in effect at the parks. Disney has to limit the park crowds to avoid being in violation. The parks have a max capacity and Disney has to keep the park just under the magical number on a very busy day.

[mindflipper]

I don't know, Len90 - but it doesn't feel like Diz does limit park crowds like they used to (either that, or they just keeping up their max capacity volume level).

Wizz: did DLR ever restrict/limit the park crowd when they reached max capacity during that time period?

[subsonic]

DLR had to shut it's gates down for 2 days around 2 months ago. So, yes, it happens.

Also, there's usually a limited number of Fast Passes. They can "sell out". That's why I try to make it to Space Mountain ASAP to make sure I get a pass. I think Space will usually sell out of passes around 5-6pm on weekend night.