F&W Festival Passports..... so disappointed

[CinderBelleDVC]

I know at Flower & Garden with those passports some booths just had them sitting by the napkins so you could DIY. I would think that would cut down lines, but I wonder if they walked off as free souvenirs???

Probably this ... and a lot of line issues with kids/parents trying to get the souvenir passport book filled.

The stickers are all in the center fold of the passport.

I like this change, and think the kids will enjoy it just as much, if not more. Plus, if a kid who's stuck to mom and dad's side doesn't make it to all the places, at least they're not short-changed and can complete the book.

Sounds like a good free activity for our DS who loves stickers......

my thoughts, too.

AP tumblers? 3 visits? free for all ap passholders? what about after the 6th visit?

 

[mrzrich]

First world problems...big time

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Sounds like a good free activity for our DS who loves stickers......

DD is going to love the stickers too. I've been buying Disney ones at the dollar store for the trip, but I'll give her the passports on our Epcot days.

A lot of the booths had CMs whose only job was to stamp. I would say the stickers cut down on payroll.

Agreed. If you figure ten hours a day, times however many booths there were last year, times how many days the festival ran, you're talking about probably thousands of dollars.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm looking forward to the change because I was terrible about remembering to get our Passport Stamped.

 

[DisneyKeepsUsYoung]

My kids were excited to have the stickers as we walked around the showcase. I liked the new books.
As slow as people were about digging out their wilderness explorer books to get stickers in them over at AK I can only imagine how much slower the F&W lines moved with people trying to find the right page to stamp. Faster lines are always nice.

 

[Hikergirl]

This is my first F&W so I have nothing to compare but I likebthe passport. Last night when I got back I sat down and checked off all the stuff dh and I ate.

 

[L&Lfan]

I don't mess with the passports so this doesn't
affect me. Too busy eating and drinking.

 

[WEDWDW]

They don't have the stamps anymore, now you have to put your own stickers in! Ridiculous. The whole point of the stamp is because the book is a PASSPORT. As you move from country to country, you get a STAMP. Like when you actually travel. When you go on a trip somewhere, they don't give you a sticker at the airport when you leave and say, "when you get to your destination and go through customs, put this sticker in your passport". SMH.

I suppose it's to trim the wait times in the lines down but really, was it that cumbersome to just put a stamp in a book? It just seems that Disney continues to take away all the details that made coming to Disney so special.

We are AP holders, and we love Disney, so we aren't ones to complain. But the dumbing down of the food in general and these little things like the stamps are things that really, really make us sad.

Another "stamper" here,but I think we are definitely in the minority!lol
http://www.disboards.com/threads/ne...s-no-more-stamps.3545792/page-2#post-56466013

 

[Bellamouse]

I don't have little kids, so we never used our passports as entertainment for little kids. They should just quit calling it a PASSPORT then. A passport is a document that gains you entry into a different country. The THEME is that you are TRAVELLING from one country to the next (just like when you go to Europe, before it was the EU), and you stopped at each border and got your PASSPORT stamped. If it's just going to be a "memory of what I ate book", then make it that.

We just have so many years of these as mementos and feel sad that the theme has changed.

Of course they are first world problems. ANY problem with Disney is a first world problem! But I can lament if I want. We spend our very hard earned money to go there, and we liked the way they did things which is why we kept going. Now they keep changing the parts we like, dumbing down the food in the restaurants and taking away rides.... it's just depressing.

 

[Bellamouse]

This is my first F&W so I have nothing to compare but I likebthe passport. Last night when I got back I sat down and checked off all the stuff dh and I ate.

Yes, I love the passports. That is my problem. Instead of the stickers in the center fold, you used to get an actual rubber stamp at each of the kiosks. It is the sticker stamps that I object to. But I am clearly in the minority. I guess most people just use them as play sticker books for their kids.

 

[Bellamouse]

Forgive my ignorance but aren't the passports just a way to keep track of the items you have tried? What difference is there between waiting in line to get a stamp and putting a sticker on yourself?

Clearly this is the way most people are using them. They aren't getting into the "travelling from one country to another" theme. I liked the theme and it made it more magical to me to use it like an actual PASSPORT. I am waiting in line anyway to get my food, and I didn't get stamps from countries I didn't "visit" (just like a real passport!). Why would I get a stamp from a booth that I didn't eat anything from? So it was no big deal to get it rubber stamped while you were ordering/paying or picking up your food. No reason to wait in a line at a booth for a stamp if you're not eating there. I wouldn't get a stamp in my REAL passport for a country I didn't visit.

I think the whole idea is lost on many people..... they really just need to call them something else.

 

[Turn the Page]

Clearly this is the way most people are using them. They aren't getting into the "travelling from one country to another" theme. I liked the theme and it made it more magical to me to use it like an actual PASSPORT. I am waiting in line anyway to get my food, and I didn't get stamps from countries I didn't "visit" (just like a real passport!). Why would I get a stamp from a booth that I didn't eat anything from? So it was no big deal to get it rubber stamped while you were ordering/paying or picking up your food. No reason to wait in a line at a booth for a stamp if you're not eating there. I wouldn't get a stamp in my REAL passport for a country I didn't visit.

I think the whole idea is lost on many people..... they really just need to call them something else.

The idea isn't lost on me at all. I get it, you use them to keep track of what booths you have visited. You didn't get stamps from booths you didn't visit but a lot of other people apparently did and it tended to cause bottlenecks at the booths. Likewise, you don't have to put the stickers in next to booths you didn't visit either.

Just out of curiosity did different booths have different stamps or were they all the same and are there a variety of stickers in the book or are they all the same?

 

[Bellamouse]

The idea isn't lost on me at all. I get it, you use them to keep track of what booths you have visited. You didn't get stamps from booths you didn't visit but a lot of other people apparently did and it tended to cause bottlenecks at the booths. Likewise, you don't have to put the stickers in next to booths you didn't visit either.

Just out of curiosity did different booths have different stamps or were they all the same and are there a variety of stickers in the book or are they all the same?

My point is, that is not how a passport works. In any place on this earth. You don't get stamps for places you don't visit. If people are doing that, then it's not really a passport is it? Then call it a memory book. Or an activity book. Or a game - "collect all the stamps!" But it's not a passport.

The different booths have different stamps. You have to look at the booth page to see which stamp it is (they are pictures, no words) and find the corresponding one on the sticker pages in the center fold.

Heck, you can get a book and put all the stickers in it without even going to Disney. Lame. The REAL F&W passport required you BE there and get a real stamp put in by a real person proving you were there. Just like a REAL travel passport. It was a real keepsake (for those of us who like to have them as keepsakes, and who like to keep their REAL passports after they've expired to see all the places you've actually travelled to). It's pointless to me to just have a dumb sticker book full of stickers. Doesn't carry the same memories at all when you look at them years later.

 

[china mom]

Just out of curiosity did different booths have different stamps or were they all the same and are there a variety of stickers in the book or are they all the same?

each booth had a different stamp. Each booth now has a different sticker (they seem to be the same designs as the stamps)

 

[TheBacklot]

It doesn't really bother me either way but I think like maybe her opinion was that you can just slap a sticker for each country in the book now, instead of "earning" it by interacting with the kiosks in some way? And I get it.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

My point is, that is not how a passport works. In any place on this earth. You don't get stamps for places you don't visit. If people are doing that, then it's not really a passport is it? Then call it a memory book. Or an activity book. Or a game - "collect all the stamps!" But it's not a passport.

The different booths have different stamps. You have to look at the booth page to see which stamp it is (they are pictures, no words) and find the corresponding one on the sticker pages in the center fold.

Heck, you can get a book and put all the stickers in it without even going to Disney. Lame. The REAL F&W passport required you BE there and get a real stamp put in by a real person proving you were there. Just like a REAL travel passport. It was a real keepsake (for those of us who like to have them as keepsakes, and who like to keep their REAL passports after they've expired to see all the places you've actually traveled to). It's pointless to me to just have a dumb sticker book full of stickers. Doesn't carry the same memories at all when you look at them years later.

Okay, but you wouldn't want it to be how an REAL actual passport works. Looking at my old REAL passports, I entered many countries that I never left. I guess I must have teleported out. And I left countries that I never entered. Again, that old teleportation movement. And that is on my REAL passport.

I'm sorry, but "Passport" still works. Put your sticker in the book as you visit that country. Don't put in if you don't. It will look like the REAL passport you are trying to get.

 

[Turn the Page]

Okay, but you wouldn't want it to be how an REAL actual passport works. Looking at my old REAL passports, I entered many countries that I never left. I guess I must have teleported out. And I left countries that I never entered. Again, that old teleportation movement. And that is on my REAL passport.

I'm sorry, but "Passport" still works. Put your sticker in the book as you visit that country. Don't put in if you don't. It will look like the REAL passport you are trying to get.

Actually, I thought most countries don't really do the stamps on REAL passports anymore anyway. I thought if you wanted a stamp in your passport you had to ask for it in most places now. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't have a whole lot of experience with foreign travel.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes, I love the passports. That is my problem. Instead of the stickers in the center fold, you used to get an actual rubber stamp at each of the kiosks. It is the sticker stamps that I object to. But I am clearly in the minority. I guess most people just use them as play sticker books for their kids.

I only noticed a couple people saying that their kids would like them. And that doesn't mean it's a sticker book for them. Just that having the stickers would be nice.

Clearly this is the way most people are using them. They aren't getting into the "travelling from one country to another" theme. I liked the theme and it made it more magical to me to use it like an actual PASSPORT. I am waiting in line anyway to get my food, and I didn't get stamps from countries I didn't "visit" (just like a real passport!). Why would I get a stamp from a booth that I didn't eat anything from? So it was no big deal to get it rubber stamped while you were ordering/paying or picking up your food. No reason to wait in a line at a booth for a stamp if you're not eating there. I wouldn't get a stamp in my REAL passport for a country I didn't visit.

I think the whole idea is lost on many people..... they really just need to call them something else.

No one here has said they would put stickers in for places they hadn't gone. Must be disappointing for you to think that's possible for you, but no one is saying they would actually do that.

Though they are saying that people have done that with the stamps; lining up at the cm to get a stamp instead of getting them while in lineup the other hand those might have been people who forgot earlier. Like some people have mentioned they've done; just forgotten about it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Actually, I thought most countries don't really do the stamps on REAL passports anymore anyway. I thought if you wanted a stamp in your passport you had to ask for it in most places now. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't have a whole lot of experience with foreign travel.

Only Canada and Nassau (the latter while cruising) are lax with their passport stamps I've noticed. For an American, at least. Actually the Bahamas countries for cruising you do need to go seek out the stamps. They know how you are leaving when you're cruising, and that it will be that day. Plus most Bahamas etc cruises, for Americans, don't even require a passport, so why have someone there for it? We use passports for cruising and we go in search of the stamps, personally.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Actually, I thought most countries don't really do the stamps on REAL passports anymore anyway. I thought if you wanted a stamp in your passport you had to ask for it in most places now. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't have a whole lot of experience with foreign travel.

Yes, even back in 2004 when I went to Europe, they didn't stamp passports upon border crossing unless requested (they did stamp in the airport). I was on a college trip and we definitely got a big eye roll from the Czech border guard who had to come onto our bus and stamp 13 American college kids' passports because we WANTED THOSE STAMPS, DARNIT!

If you think about it, it doesn't make sense in a lot of those countries to be doing stamps for every border crossing. A lot of the countries are so small, a "neighboring city" could very well be in a different country. Just for one example, it's only a 45 minute drive between Vienna and Bratislava, both major cities. There are likely a lot of people who do border crossings on a daily basis. Their passport would run out of places to stamp within a couple of weeks!