Fastpass Plus is doing its job

[rteetz]

http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/06/23/fastpass-lowering-waits-disney-world-popular-rides/
Many have noticed an increased average wait time for attractions that are normally walk ons or short waits, such as Great Movie Ride, Living with the Land, Pirates, Haunted Mansion and others. That also is the same for longer wait attractions they are seeing shorter waits. Space Mountain, TSMM, RnR are all seeing a decrease in average wait times. It is assumed that the lesser known attractions (those with lower waits) are now gaining more attention because of FP+ and MDE. In the article above the data shows 3 of 4 of the attractions with increased waits are high capacity attractions spaceship earth, HM, and pirates. The results from the data collected in the article use a t-test which is measuring probability. This is to see if a decrease in wait for space mountain is random or not, the result was 0.01%. Meaning its 99.9% sure that its due to FP+. Fastpass+ is evening the playing field it seems.

What do you think about these findings? Will this continue even more? Is it just coincidence?

 

[mesaboy2]

I agree FP+ is spreading crowds out to the mid-tier attractions. I'm not sure how that can be questioned, actually--it's pretty clear.

 

[AAPDisney]

Interesting article! Thanks for this... I am looking forward to experiencing my first Disney trip with FP+!

 

[illinidp]

Yeah, people are definitely riding fewer rides under the new system, so it's definitely making money for Disney as a result. The days of waking up and deciding what you want to do that day are long gone. I don't think it's for the better.

 

[MattRyan]

Yeah, people are definitely riding fewer rides under the new system, so it's definitely making money for Disney as a result. The days of waking up and deciding what you want to do that day are long gone. I don't think it's for the better.

Ummm, I rode just as many rides with FP+ as I did without. You can still make your FP+ selections the day of if you choose to.

 

[btk2333]

Ummm, I rode just as many rides with FP+ as I did without. You can still make your FP+ selections the day of if you choose to.

Ditto I haven't decreased my total number of rides at all with fp+

 

[t_catt11]

We used fewer total fastpasses with FP+ than we did under the paper system. Not a ton fewer, but fewer.

The big difference, to me, was the rushing around that FP+ brought into the equation. In the old days, we'd grab a FP for either Thunder or Splash, then ride the other one standby. By the time we were done, it would frequently be time for the FP, at which point we would head somewhere else for the rest of the day.

These days are long gone. Now, it's ride Thunder or Splash with FP+, wander to Adventureland, grab something to eat, oh crap time to go all the way to Tomorrowland to hit Space, ride one other ride, crud we have to go back to Frontierland or miss out on the FP+.

We spent the least money per person on our previous trip compared to the four before it... and I don't doubt for a moment that all the running back and forth due to FP+ had a lot to do with that.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Yeah, people are definitely riding fewer rides under the new system, so it's definitely making money for Disney as a result. The days of waking up and deciding what you want to do that day are long gone. I don't think it's for the better.

We definitely rode more rides than ever before during the first week of June. I think this is due to 3 factors:

1. No more running around gather fast passes then having to return later. That time can be spent doing something. It's also pretty convenient to pick up additional passes at the kiosks.

2. Parks are open later than they have been for the past few years. It wasn't long ago that MK closed at 10 during the summer.

3. More people are booking their first three passes earlier in the day. They show up early and eventually get hot & tired and leave. The rides are then wide open late at night and it's multiple re-ride time for the night owls.

 

[lizard1]

I find it interesting that the standby waits have decreased at all with FP+. This is due to my observation on Sunday during EMH. I entered the queue at 7DMT around 2 a.m., even though the line was long- almost to the end of the post railing. While it was slightly shorter than I had observed during the day, I figured that the wait was about the 55 minutes that was posted (do they ever update those wait times during EMH??), since that seemed about average from the wait times during the day. However, I found without people being able to use the FP during that time, the wait that would normally have been 55 minutes was really closer to 25 minutes. All parts of the queue seemed to be opened (though I had only ridden with a FP until this point, so I can't say for sure), so it isn't as if it was a shorter wait due to the interior line being shortened.

I know I am just looking at the one most popular ride at the moment, so maybe FP+ has spread the people around to various rides that they wouldn't have ridden before (the line for Tea Cups was horrendous when my kids asked to ride). Maybe FP+ was designed to force 'average' guests into riding things aside from the headliners at each park.

 

[Mad Hattered]

Maybe FP+ was designed to force 'average' guests into riding things aside from the headliners at each park.

Winner winner chicken dinner!!! Pssssst....it's because they don't have enough headliners to go around.

 

[lizard1]

Winner winner chicken dinner!!! Pssssst....it's because they don't have enough headliners to go around.

Is that why they are out in force with surveys asking guests about their ride experiences, if they would recommend the ride to others, if they used a FP for it, etc.? Not that any opinions from guests are really going to change the way Disney operates.

 

[Mad Hattered]

Is that why they are out in force with surveys asking guests about their ride experiences, if they would recommend the ride to others, if they used a FP for it, etc.? Not that any opinions from guests are really going to change the way Disney operates.

No. They are trying to justify spending 2 billion dollars for MM+ and use positive feedback (oh, it's out there) to make their case. Is one of the survey questions whether or not they should have spent this much money on MM+ or would it have been better spent on Star Wars land? I didn't think so.

 

[mom2rtk]

Of course it's doing its job. It was supposed to get people to spend more time on secondary attractions, allowing Disney to ration the number of rides one can do on the headliners.

I don't doubt that with the addition of the 4th and subsequent FP, many people are doing close to the number of attractions they did before. And that's fine if headliner access is not an issue for you. But for many, the breakdown of WHAT they are doing is very different, and still disappointing.

 

[sethschroeder]

We used fewer total fastpasses with FP+ than we did under the paper system. Not a ton fewer, but fewer.

The big difference, to me, was the rushing around that FP+ brought into the equation. In the old days, we'd grab a FP for either Thunder or Splash, then ride the other one standby. By the time we were done, it would frequently be time for the FP, at which point we would head somewhere else for the rest of the day.

These days are long gone. Now, it's ride Thunder or Splash with FP+, wander to Adventureland, grab something to eat, oh crap time to go all the way to Tomorrowland to hit Space, ride one other ride, crud we have to go back to Frontierland or miss out on the FP+.

We spent the least money per person on our previous trip compared to the four before it... and I don't doubt for a moment that all the running back and forth due to FP+ had a lot to do with that.

So you were forced to make your FP+ back to back and across the park? I think that's more an issue of it being a new system isn't it? Why don't you just schedule differently in the future? Space out the times or group rides on the same side of the park together? In the past you could have had the same issue with running across the park to grab a FP for Space after Splash and then having to run back across the park to Big Mountain to grab another FP.

 

[Rileygirl]

It's interesting. With all the projections last year of how fast pass plus would impact the system, I never thought it would translate into shorter lines at the headliners. Hmm.

 

[JZCubed]

I believe that some observers are missing the point.

One of the stated purposes of FP+ was to give guests more time to do other things.

On the one hand, Disney was hoping that guests would use the free time to spend more money. It is not clear if guests are spending more money.

On the other hand, guests can also use the additional time to ride/see more attractions. Longer wait times indicates that some guests are likely riding more rides and/or visiting attractions.

Either way, FP+ has solved three [3] problems:

1.) Guests no longer have to arrive at rope drop to grab FP- for a seemingly random time later in the day. No need to strategize which FP- is best selected first, and so on.

2.) Guests no longer have to dash back-and-forth to obtain FP-.

3.) Guests can better plan their day/night around scheduled FP+.

In no uncertain terms, FP+ has made a day in the Parks better for my family.

 

[Jennasis]

I just wish it wasn't so complicated.

 

[luvsTink]

Just back (and, sad ...because I am back )

I was very very very nervous about the system, but ultimately---for my family--it is a better approach. We missed rope drop (gasp) a couple times due to traveling with a 3 year old (we are grandparents and out of practice!) But, thanks to our FP+ ressies that didn't toast our plans. We loved not having to do the FP dash at each park every morning. My only negative feedback is the lack of kiosks and how slow some guests are at the kiosks. There were cm's everywhere to help, but it is hard to help a guest that doesn't know what the attractions are and needs a description of each one

Even though I understand it, the challenges with canceling a dining ressie actually caused us much more grief. Again, traveling with a 3 year old is unpredictable and we had to cancel a ressie and change a ressie. It took ALOT of maneuvering to avoid the 10 buck per person fee.

Humans are notoriously bad at handling change initially, but I can almost guarantee that in one year, there will be more positive folks than negative folks. JMHO.

Anne

 

[Rileygirl]

Actually, I think the on line system appears to be very easy to use. Grant it, I just tried it out for the first time a couple of days ago, so I imagine I missed a lot of frustration with bugs being worked out.

I was only 30 days out from my trip, and there was huge availability on all attractions that I went for, the exception being fireworks/parades and the Anna Elsa thing. I agree with the previous poster who said it would mean a lot less running around across the park then the legacy system. I actually love that I can pick a time for my fast pass headliner, I am targeting zones for rides, and there is going to be a lot less walking involved. (Please note I have not used the fp+ system at the parks yet! just the online planning portion, so I THINK a lot less walking will be involved.)

I never felt the time between fast passes was a waste of hanging out, waiting for the time to mature. This is the time I kinda love, taking in the details, a casual browse through the stores, the smaller known special things like animation academy, or the gorgeous walks through animal kingdom.

My general plan is to rd for a couple of hours to get in a few attractions, big break, then use the fp+ for some evening fun staying late. I'm traveling with two teens, so I think they will have the endurance. This plan may change while I research how fp+ is impacting crowds but it's a start point. The surprising thing to me is how flexible the fp+ system is right now! with almost no limitations on what I get to pick ( other then what was previously noted) indeed, the limiting factor is dining reservations.

If I want to change a days schedule, it's no problem with fp+, bigger problem with dining ressies. And, I don't have any hard to get dining ressies either. I strongly suspect that the ease of selecting your fast pass, right down to the hour you wish to hit that headliner, will eventually go the direction of dining ressies. In other words, I'm going to make hay while the sun shines, cause it might be a bit of a downhill ride from here....

Edited to add, I don't know where all the exclamation points are coming from, I didn't put them in..

 

[doconeill]

It's interesting. With all the projections last year of how fast pass plus would impact the system, I never thought it would translate into shorter lines at the headliners. Hmm.

I predicted this result over a year ago (and you responded )

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48617624&postcount=41

What is interesting is the effect on Great Movie Ride. I'm having trouble figuring that one out - but it also might change now that it is a Tier 1 ride.