Reserve ride time from home?

[yodiwan1]

ok, heres how I can see it working....let it be for AP and seasonal pas holders. This way their time slots can be "activated" once their tickets are scanned.

[mindflipper]

ok, heres how I can see it working....let it be for AP and seasonal pas holders. This way their time slots can be "activated" once their tickets are scanned.

I can't see them spending the millions $$$ just for a system that will only work for AP ans seasonal pass holders. I imagine it will be for anyone that has a smartphone, ipad, or netbook.

[Wizzard419]

I hope they do it on smart phones, then we can scam it like the starbucks thing. A friend of mine didn't pay for a drink for months until some tattle tale told everyone that their system had a major flaw.

[timekeeper]

the problem I see with this is people reserving times on rides then not even attending that park. How would that be addressed? Right now, you can't get a FastPass without being in the park. But imagine if you are home and trying to plan out your trip. You could have the best intentions of fulfilling your schedule, but when you arrive (if you arrive), you may have changed your mind and attended a water park that day. What would happen then? (I'm sure they've thought of this, though.)

I think like you showed this has some huge flaws. I like the current fastpass system, think it works well if people want to use it. I would think the Disney think tank has a pretty good handle by now of crowd/park/day thing.

[mindflipper]

I feel pretty sure if Disney dumps a ton of $$$ that they're going to work out the bugs as best as they can before they roll it out to the public.

[Wizzard419]

Yeah, because Starbucks is a tiny place with no budget. Unless they are sticking to preprinted fastpasses that get sent via mail/left in your room there will be no way to prevent abuse.

[secondstar]

the problem I see with this is people reserving times on rides then not even attending that park. How would that be addressed? Right now, you can't get a FastPass without being in the park. But imagine if you are home and trying to plan out your trip. You could have the best intentions of fulfilling your schedule, but when you arrive (if you arrive), you may have changed your mind and attended a water park that day. What would happen then? (I'm sure they've thought of this, though.)

I think like you showed this has some huge flaws. I like the current fastpass system, think it works well if people want to use it. I would think the Disney think tank has a pretty good handle by now of crowd/park/day thing.

I think they would have to incorporate some kind of smart--phone technology into the program. Most phone apps ask "OK to use current location?" Perhaps you would have to install a free app on your phone to make your at-home FastPass reservations. Then, if your device is not in the park at least an hour prior to your FastPass becoming valid, your saved time becomes available.

Still, i see problems with this. As many of us know, Disney Parks are immense. At home, we may have to most ambitious scheduled planned out in our heads. But after four solid days open-to-close, extended-hours, bus-hopping, water-taxing park fun, we may be wiped out by day five's trip to Animal Kingdom. And maybe we just don't "feel" like walking ALL THE WAY OVER TO EXPEDITION: EVEREST for a FastPass. Maybe, we just want a slow day. But if our time is already reserved from home, then someone else, who is arriving on their first full day and is full of energy may miss out.

I think it's an overuse of technology. I'd prefer some kind of Smart Phone App that allows you to make FastPass reservations from your phone once you're inside that park. That would cut down on FastPass lines. And, it should have the same kind of restrictions current FastPasses have. In other words, you couldn't grab a whole day's worth of FastPasses at once. You could only your next pass once your current one is used up.

[Amy]

You make some good points secondstar, but the only problem is it leaves the people without smart phones out of the loop. I suppose they can make do with the current FP system if they don't have a smart phone....

[mindflipper]

You make some good points secondstar, but the only problem is it leaves the people without smart phones out of the loop. I suppose they can make do with the current FP system if they don't have a smart phone....

Remember, the current FP system doesn't allow you to get another FP within an hour after getting your last FP. Put the same restriction on the iphone to be fair? How to enforce that on an iphone?

[Jacca5660]

What happened to when Disney was inclusive? This program, besides sounding unmanageable, seems to cater to those of us who are into high tech. I for one don't see how this is gonna work. There are so many good points brought up here about guest not making the trip, not going to that park that day, not making their time, and just generally clogging up the system with no shows.

Even if the system had an activate when entering the park function, you're still gonna have no shows at the venue. I say leave the system like it is. Like I've said before, I think this is the end stage of HAY!!

[Amy]

You make some good points secondstar, but the only problem is it leaves the people without smart phones out of the loop. I suppose they can make do with the current FP system if they don't have a smart phone....

Remember, the current FP system doesn't allow you to get another FP within an hour after getting your last FP. Put the same restriction on the iphone to be fair? How to enforce that on an iphone?

Wouldn't phones have individual IEP addresses like computers?

[nicklesm17]

here i see a parallel of problems that could be ended on these blogs. you don't have the resources (time or money?) to revert enchanted tiki room back to it guest preferred status, taking advantage of an unfortunate accident and having some good come out of it. yet, imagine the personnel hours logged into dreaming up this unpractical nonsense, like they've run out of things to do, what can they mess w/ next?
well, what do you do? 3 lines now? integrate 'em in w/ fast pass? print 'em out yourself, or "here, look at my phone". talk about a slow down.
come on, disney's gotta start reading these boards. our's is no different than any other websites dis-boards. i've been on 'em, and the opinions here are identical to those on every other site. is the yearly disney guest really in the minority? you'd think your opinion would count the most.
regardless of trying to "keep up w/ technology", this is impractical nonsense that will benefit few, and bottleneck many. nobody wants this, everyone wants to retro tiki room. scrap the idea, swap the funding, 2 problems solved.

[Wizzard419]

What happened to when Disney was inclusive? This program, besides sounding unmanageable, seems to cater to those of us who are into high tech. I for one don't see how this is gonna work. There are so many good points brought up here about guest not making the trip, not going to that park that day, not making their time, and just generally clogging up the system with no shows.

Even if the system had an activate when entering the park function, you're still gonna have no shows at the venue. I say leave the system like it is. Like I've said before, I think this is the end stage of HAY!!

Well it's always only as inclusive as your wallet will allow.

Though, if they are wise, they will not use any smart phone based system (aside from it making their bff verizon mad for having to cater to other carriers) since international guests would have to pay a huge price to use the same systems and people would find the week points and abuse it so much you would swear it was an Irish housewife.

[mindflipper]

Remember, any such system hasn't been officially announced, so it must be in the development stage. I'm betting no coding has yet to be done! I don't think this system will be coming out any time soon, so the many issues, problems and vulnerabilities can be hopefully explored adequately before it gets turned on.

[mindflipper]

You make some good points secondstar, but the only problem is it leaves the people without smart phones out of the loop. I suppose they can make do with the current FP system if they don't have a smart phone....

Remember, the current FP system doesn't allow you to get another FP within an hour after getting your last FP. Put the same restriction on the iphone to be fair? How to enforce that on an iphone?

Wouldn't phones have individual IEP addresses like computers?

How would that stop families with more than one smartphone? Mom could get ride reservations for the entire family on Ride A while the Father gets ride reservations for the entire family on Ride B - for the same time! This could create that abuse that Wizz is warning about.