FP + What we know and what we want to know

[cmwade77]

Bottom line is there is one reason and one reason only that Disney will roll out any changes and that is that it will increase its profits over the long term.

They aren't necessarily thinking about a year or two, but 5-10 years away what today's changes will mean for profits then.

As for selling out, my guess is that Disney will hold a certain number of reservations for day of (which is what they should do for the restaurants as well). This will prevent them from being completely sold out.

I would also imagine the 3 limit will be 3 per day in advance and then day of will have similar limitations to what the current FPs have. They could even make it where park hopping isn't restricted for day of reservations.

 

[Tink10]

I am NOT buying the line that FP+ is designed to get guests out of line.. the present FP system does that just fine. When you add up the cost of re-outfitting all those FP attractions, changing turnstiles, new FP+ kiosks, SW Engineering for the new site and Mobile App, new RFID door locks at every resort, Wi-FI at every resort and alll the parks, and new RFID equipment for every cash register... there must be a BIG monetary payoff coming.. as this was an amazingly large investment to make short of building a new hotel or park.

I don't think we've seen the end game on this.

I certainly hope that they're anticipating a big payoff. As a stockholder, if Disney weren't trying to increase the bottom line, I would question their business judgement.

 

[bcrook]

2- Leave the FP system, the heck, alone.
And, build more attractions with their "billion dollars," for cryin' out loud.

With that money...entire new lands!

 

[Robo]

With that money...entire new lands!

It costs (present-day) approx. one hundred million dollars to create a major new "E-ticket" attraction, give or take a few million.

A billion dollars would net TEN brand new "E-ticket" attractions, give or take an attraction or two.

Would being able to ride 8-12 new major attractions appeal to guests?

 

[BeccaG]

One of the links to articles posted on page 1 states the target audience for the NewGen, RFID, FastPass+, etc are those folks born between 1982-2000 as a way to lure them into WDW and keep them coming back.

/QUOTE]

This age group is my friends and I...and I can say those of us who can afford WDW, plan. We also will be excited by alerts to our phones..especially those born in the 90s and aughts, as the phone never leaves their reach! (I teach high school too!!)

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

[/QUOTE]

This age group is my friends and I...and I can say those of us who can afford WDW, plan. We also will be excited by alerts to our phones..especially those born in the 90s and aughts, as the phone never leaves their reach! (I teach high school too!!)[/QUOTE]

But if you are in the middle of riding Space Mountain will you hear your phone?

So here is another thing to wonder about. If a special offer is sent to you for another FP or whatever, will there be a time limit to accept it? Will you have say 15 minutes to decide if you want that extra FP for Splash Mountain or it goes away?

 

[UNCFanatik]

It costs (present-day) approx. one hundred million dollars to create a major new "E-ticket" attraction, give or take a few million.

A billion dollars would net TEN brand new "E-ticket" attractions, give or take an attraction or two.

Would being able to ride 8-12 new major attractions appeal to guests?

yes and no.

If these new attractions were using the same FP system and not FP+, you would experience some of the same issues because if you build new attractions and heavily market them, then it would increase park attendance.
However, using some of Disney's apparent reasoning and reported feedback, if guests complained they couldnt get FPs for the new attractions or the wait was too long for some attractions, it could be a net negative if Disney did not address the challenges that comes along with new attractions.

I dont think adding more attractions is the magic cure all. I think it would help but more must be done.

I am still looking for a balanced answer that would turn a first time guest into a repeat guest and keep the repeat guest generally happy. I dont think making no changes at all to FP system would be a balance between the two.

 

[jade1]

With that money...entire new lands!

Or John Carter II

 

[UNCFanatik]

This age group is my friends and I...and I can say those of us who can afford WDW, plan. We also will be excited by alerts to our phones..especially those born in the 90s and aughts, as the phone never leaves their reach! (I teach high school too!!)[/QUOTE]

But if you are in the middle of riding Space Mountain will you hear your phone?

So here is another thing to wonder about. If a special offer is sent to you for another FP or whatever, will there be a time limit to accept it? Will you have say 15 minutes to decide if you want that extra FP for Splash Mountain or it goes away?[/QUOTE]

You wont have to hear your phone.

My 17 year old daughters phone is an extension of her hand...lol. Any time she would get off an attraction, out would come her phone to check to see if she missed any texts...cause..God forbid...lol

 

[cmwade77]

What we also are forgetting is that this investment will be spread out over at least four resort areas: Disneyland, WDW, DLP and HKDL, probably Shanghai as well and if it goes well Disney will probably license it to Tokyo. So when you look at it that way a billion doesn't seem quite as bad (although its still a lot)

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

yes and no.

If these new attractions were using the same FP system and not FP+, you would experience some of the same issues because if you build new attractions and heavily market them, then it would increase park attendance.
However, using some of Disney's apparent reasoning and reported feedback, if guests complained they couldnt get FPs for the new attractions or the wait was too long for some attractions, it could be a net negative if Disney did not address the challenges that comes along with new attractions.

I dont think adding more attractions is the magic cure all. I think it would help but more must be done.

I am still looking for a balanced answer that would turn a first time guest into a repeat guest and keep the repeat guest generally happy. I dont think making no changes at all to FP system would be a balance between the two.

FP the way it is now was in place when we took our first family trip and we have been repeat guest every year since 2007. So the FP is what made our family a repeat guest. I did the research and learned what I needed to do to make our trip a good one. If Disney has done such a poor job letting other first timers know about the FP program, why will they do better this time? And why not just spend the money to market the current system better?

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

The current FP system also is what helped me talk my friend and their family in to going the following year with us and since that year, they too have been repeat guest. And now, this year, my friend is take 3 families with her this summer and the current FP was a selling point when talking about the trip.


So first timers can learn the system and become repeat guest.

 

[Robo]

I am still looking for a balanced answer that would turn a first time guest into a repeat guest and keep the repeat guest generally happy. I dont think making no changes at all to FP system would be a balance between the two.

Obviously, the FP system IS the primary focus of this thread.

But, to my mind, a complete reworking of the FP system is not necessarily a cure-all
(or even an appropriate cure, period) for the ills in question.

The new FP+ rules (as we know them at this point...) severely disturbs a group of guests that was pretty "happy" before, and drags their experience down to a level that matches folks who either don't know the difference, don't bother to research, or don't care enough to take advantage of a wide-open FP system that has worked pretty well for over a decade.

The "spread the misery" approach is not exactly "fair" to anyone, IMO.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Imagine that you and I are in line to get FPs. I go first and pull a FP that I don't intend to use but will instead gift to some unknown person. You then step up to find that there are no FPs left. I have prevented you from getting a FP.

The same # of people are getting a fastpass regardless. If I had used that FP myself, or the person I gave my FP to had been in the FP line in my place that person still would not have gotten a fastpass in your scenario. The only way, in that scenario, that I truly prevent someone from getting a FP is if I pull one and then don't use it.

 

[UNCFanatik]

FP the way it is now was in place when we took our first family trip and we have been repeat guest every year since 2007. So the FP is what made our family a repeat guest. I did the research and learned what I needed to do to make our trip a good one. If Disney has done such a poor job letting other first timers know about the FP program, why will they do better this time? And why not just spend the money to market the current system better?

What more could they do to market the current FP system? They have it in their literature and on resort TV. But certain guests continue to be either confused about its use or just ignorant all together about FP. And yes, I agree, it is on the guest to do the research up front but that is not happening and apparently the guests are complaining about it.

It would seem that the FP+ would have more prompting of the guests on the front end to make FP+ reservations. They have more of an ability with the FP+ system to market it.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Admittedly, this is less of an issue in the post-enforcement days.

But since you asked, certain attractions would run out of FPs by late morning or early afternoon like TSMM and Soaring. Since there is a limited supply of FPs, people pulling FPs with the sole intent of giving them away later would stop other guest who arrive later in the park from getting an FP.

That really only applies if one is hoarding fastpasses, though. If I am in the park at 11am and pull a 12:10-1:10 fastpass, and then (for example) my child has a meltdown and I have to leave the park I have two choices.

#1. Just leave and don't use the FP. End result: Wasted FP. Truly preventing someone from getting a FP, since that FP slot ends up unused by anyone.

#2. Hand FPs to another family on our way out of the park. I can't use the FP, though I'd pulled it with the intent of using it - at this point the only way that slot gets used is if I hand our FPs to people who can use them.

Or in the scenario I mentioned earlier - DH and I would frequently get one on our way otu of the park to hand to someone. At DLR on our last visit,, we got one for Indiana Jones. We picked up the FP as we were walking to Main Street (probably around 11am or so), and the return time was for about an hour or two later. This is no different than the couple we gave them to walking up to the FP machine and getting one themselves - except that now they know about FP if they didn't before.

 

[DougEMG]

I am still looking for a balanced answer that would turn a first time guest into a repeat guest and keep the repeat guest generally happy. I dont think making no changes at all to FP system would be a balance between the two.

I think the balanced solution has been presented here by many people already, a combination of prebooked FP+ and in-park FP+.

If people standing in long lines is bad for business and bad for the customer, then why not eliminate the standby line entirely!

 

[Angel Ariel]

And, build more attractions with their "billion dollars," for cryin' out loud.

Amen! I would have much rather seen them build the mythical creatures land in AK, or a Pixar or Star Wars land in DHS (both parks in desperate need of more attractions) than "fixing" FP.

 

[dadddio]

The same # of people are getting a fastpass regardless. If I had used that FP myself, or the person I gave my FP to had been in the FP line in my place that person still would not have gotten a fastpass in your scenario. The only way, in that scenario, that I truly prevent someone from getting a FP is if I pull one and then don't use it.

I was responding to the hypothetical of someone pulling a FP with the intention to pass it along to a stranger.

 

[DougEMG]

Or John Carter II

Hey, I liked John Carter and so did everyone else I knew that went and saw it.