My fix for FastPass

[MickeyMania]

I have a KevinYee-like dislike for FastPass, for pretty much all the reasons he's stated in his columns. However, I do like the Uni approach to FP that allows people a guarantee to "see it all" if they stay in one of the Uni hotels. I've been thinking about how to adopt that to WDW given the huge number of hotel rooms it has.

Here's my answer:

If you stay one night... You get nothing.
If you stay two nights... You get a collection of FP Return Line tickets for either Magic Kingdom or Epcot (your choice.)
If you stay four nights... You get the entry tickets for rides at the park you didn't select at the two night mark.
If you stay five nights... Your choice of the Studios or DAK.
If you stay six nights... Whichever park you didn't choose for five nights.

This scheme has all kinds of benefits. It upsells people to not stay an odd number of nights unless they're staying at least five. I suspect the majority of us choose between three or four night stays if we're not doing the full six night week, and in this setup you'd be tempted to push it out just one more.

Also, this would be the strongest shot yet fired by Disney against the hotels on I-Drive and elsewhere.

Because you have to stay quite a while to get the See It All stuff for DAK and Studios, it might cause these parks numbers to go down slightly. The fact that some people won't stay five or six nights and will be discouraged from going there until they've used up all their passes elsewhere should lighten the load on these parks (especially when you consider that a large number of people already do stay six nights and will gum up lines enough as it is.)

Finally, for the visitor there is a bit of an assurance that unless they slack off big-time, they will definitely have a chance to "see it all" at which ever park(s) they go to. You are guaranteed at least one go-round at every major ride at whereever you go. The rest of the time might be spent on re-rides, smaller rides, or relaxing or maybe even some of the non-park resort facilities that have languished in recent decades.

Thoughts?

[joanna71985]

I don't think that FPs should just be for people staying in the Disney resorts (not everyone can stay onsite). It's better to leave it the way it is.

[sediment]

I don't think that FPs should just be for people staying in the Disney resorts (not everyone can stay onsite). It's better to leave it the way it is.

I agree. But I also think that the number of Fastpases distributed should be more limited somehow, in order for the standby lines to move more instead of being halted.

My alternative idea for Fastpass (primary idea is to junk it, but so slowly no one notices -- machines for an attraction are closed "temporarily," then are never reopened, for example):
Number of FPs allowed depends on how much you pay to enter the park. If you have an AP, good for you. The number of fastpasses you get, for the year is, say, 40. Somewhere in the X/10 range, where X is the price paid to enter. The problem with this idea is that there might be days where lots of people have lots of fastpass access, and then there are days when they don't. I'm not sure if this dynamic exacerbates the problem of crowds or mitigates it. I'll have to think about it. Combined with the ignorance of the feature, and it could be worse. And I'm not sure if I want to let multi-day parkhoppers carry over leftover FP privileges to subsequent days. Lots of details to be hammered out. But then, I'm not in charge, so don't expect any nailing or sore thumbs.

[sassy*tink]

I think FP's work if you use them correctly and if there was a better system for the return times. I think the problem is not with the FP but the fact that when your time is up and you return to the line you walk the whole thing and almost never stop. And they let too many FP's in at a time and hold up the stand by line for too long. What they should do is make people with FP's wait in line longer. A FP to me is not a 'get out of line free' card, it's to make your wait time less and lets to do more in the park. What makes it frustrating is when you are in the stand by line and just stand for 15 minutes because they are letting everyone with a FP through. They should let the stand by line keep going until there is a slight line of FP's then switch.
I also think they should cut back on some of the attractions that have FP's. I can't think of any right now, but some just don't need it. But I do think they help the lines somewhat. I do remember when the line for Splash Mountain would easily be 2 hours or more in the afternoon on a hot day. With the FP I have seen the line only be an hour or so in the afternoon.

I just don't think it's fair to make someone pay for them when it's already expensive to visit the parks. And only giving them to people staying on property is not fair either. It makes them too exclusive and they should be something everyone is able to use. Not just people who can afford them or who can afford to stay on property. To me it's like saying "well you are staying at The Grand Floridian so you get a free ticket into one of the parks" when I am never going to be able to afford to stay at the expensive hotels. I'm lucky to be staying at the PORS right now. The majority of families can afford a Disney vacation, but when the extra's start adding up it makes it hard to enjoy your trip.

[sleepyjeff]

Good ideas op but how about this:

DAY guests..............1 fp per day, per park(hopper required to get more than one pass).

ALL-STAR/POP CENT guests.........2 fp per day, per park(hopper reqd. to get more than one pass).

MODERATE LEVEL guests..............3 fp per day, per park(hopper reqd. to get more than one pass).

DELUXE/HAFH guests..................Unlimited fp.

However, I would like to see the elimination of the entire thing. FP was designed to get people out of the lines and into the shops and restaurants; a problem that Disney brought upon themselves by eliminating the A-E ticket system.............

Basically Disney turned what was a Fine-Dining experience(for the purposes of this analogy) and made it an all-you-can-eat buffet.......slashing service and quality in favor of volume. Eliminating some of the more expensive menu items and reducing the hours of operation they then realized that the lines for some of the remaining popular entrées were keeping people away from spending money at the bar and gift shop.

What's worse is, they've done such a good marketing job at convincing people the all-you-can-eat buffet is a good thing if they ever decided to do away it and bring back Fine-Dining many would actually throw a temper tantrum.

[MickeyMania]

Good ideas op but how about this:

Okay, but I think you missed my point.

My point was to try and remove the "come back later" element of FastPass that annoys people. There's nothing fast about it, really, you're just killing the time somewhere else than in the queue and on certain ride systems like Omnimover you can ride faster just getting in the standby queue.

My thought is if you limit the number of line-jump cards you no longer need to distribute them evenly across rides or give people come-back times. Giving the people who hold them a bit of a bonus in that they're basically the same as the FP ride entry tickets handed out by CMs. Where you can go to any ride that's up and has an FP return line and immediately enter that return line whenever you choose to.

The other thing is that WDW's profit driver isn't really luxury hotels so much as it is long stays. Elaborate luxury hotel, or cheaply-themed glorified motel, it doesn't matter so much to them so long as you stay there for a long time. Luxury hotels don't really need the help since a number of them (particularly Yacht/Beach and the Contemporary) have a pretty steady convention business.

So long as they can convince you to stay there another day, they can hit you with the rate of the hotel room, AND you will likely rely on them for food another two or three times, and they have one more day to try and get you to break down and buy something.

This taps into the customer's primary desire to "see it all." Real fanatics like the kind on this board are probably aware that all they need is a four day stay to still see everything worth seeing at WDW on this plan, as they hit up all the MK and Epcot big rides using the passes and then parkhop to Studios and DAK to hit up the rides there in standby. But your average tourist doesn't know that, and others do but want a more relaxing park experience.

[MickeyMania]

BTW, I just want to mention that ideally with this idea the FPs are distributed on hotel room booking, not hotel rooms + admission, so that APs who stay on property can have passes, too.

APs who live so close as to not need a hotel get nothing, but then again they can much more easily come back later if they don't like the looks of a line that day.

[BANANAZ]

Really, I just hope they go ahead with the centralized fastpass use. I hate running around to each of the rides in order to get them.

[sleepyjeff]

Really, I just hope they go ahead with the centralized fastpass use. I hate running around to each of the rides in order to get them.

Take it one step further and just give everyone an unlimited fastpass(good on every fastpass attraction at anytime for as many times as desired) when they enter the park..........

[BANANAZ]

Take it one step further and just give everyone an unlimited fastpass(good on every fastpass attraction at anytime for as many times as desired) when they enter the park..........

Then that would defeat the purpose of the fastpasses though! Lines would be obsolete!

[sleepyjeff]

Then that would defeat the purpose of the fastpasses though! Lines would be obsolete!

But of course


Seriously though.....the main reason for fastpass was to get people out of line and into the shops.....why not just give shoppers a fastpass with their receipt?

Disney could really rake in the dough.....suppose they give you one fastpass for every $10.00 you spend; now suppose you decide to buy something that costs $26.00....that's two fast-passes.....wouldnt you be more inclined to spend an extra $4.00 on some piece of junk at the register in order to gain that 3rd fp?

[Coheteboy]

But of course


Seriously though.....the main reason for fastpass was to get people out of line and into the shops.....why not just give shoppers a fastpass with their receipt?

Disney could really rake in the dough.....suppose they give you one fastpass for every $10.00 you spend; now suppose you decide to buy something that costs $26.00....that's two fast-passes.....wouldnt you be more inclined to spend an extra $4.00 on some piece of junk at the register in order to gain that 3rd fp?

I initially thought that was a great idea... but then I thought about all the returns that Disney goes through in one day. And then I thought of all the sneaky people who will make purchases just to get a bunch of fast passes and then return the merchandise.

It's no longer a win-win for Disney.

[sleepyjeff]

I initially thought that was a great idea... but then I thought about all the returns that Disney goes through in one day. And then I thought of all the sneaky people who will make purchases just to get a bunch of fast passes and then return the merchandise.

It's no longer a win-win for Disney.

Good point......although I suppose they could put a disclaimer stating that in order to return an item for anything more than store credit you must return the fp's too.

I still think the best idea for a fastpass fix can be read in post #3.

...primary idea is to junk it, but so slowly no one notices -- machines for an attraction are closed "temporarily," then are never reopened