My husband didn't believe me about FP+

[Robo]

Um, I don't see anyone in that line starving to death or being crippled by disease. They should all be grateful.

Some do look a bit peckish.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We are booking FPs for October. The last time we went was 5 years ago, before FP+. It's very aggravating to have to plan our days 2 months in advance! We thought it was bad enough having to arrange ADRs so far ahead.
How can this possibly be a relaxing vacation?! What are our chances of getting same-day FPs? We generally hate stand-by lines. Are those as bad as they always were?

Disney has never been all that relaxing a vacation. If you want relaxation, I suggest a secluded Island beach. I always figured things this way. You have to plan at some time. So why waste park time deciding what to do next all day when you can waste time doing it beforehand instead of watching reruns of dance moms? Even with the old fast pass system, you had to plan ahead. You didn't actually get the fast passes ahead of the day in question. But there was planning involved.

 

[rajak73]

It was very free flowing. Free-flowing doesn't mean plan free to me. It means that what you have planned works smoothly, and it did. It couldn't have worked much better actually.

It was more relaxing in that it was much less stressful. There were no worries about how to get headliners in at an evening park or how to arrange a schedule that allowed us to go to a park in the morning that we'd prefer to go to in the evenings. We were very pleasantly surprised to find that touring as we did eliminated a great deal of standing in line and that was certainly more relaxing.

I come home from every Disney trip pretty much exhausted. It is not a "relaxing vacation" physically. But while no Disney trip is a laid back, relaxed vacation, this past one was probably as close as it will ever get.

But again, our goal for WDW is not relaxation. I don't think WDW is where one should go if that's what they're looking for. If someone came to me and asked me where they should go for a nice relaxing vacation, WDW would never come up in the conversation and that hasn't changed since our very first trip years ago.

But yes, compared to other trips, this last trip ( while it doesn't win best trip ever), was much more relaxing and free flowing and much less stressful. Which is pretty much what I've said all along.

You can't say it was "free flowing"

Here's an example of a free flowing FP+ line spilling out into the walkways in front of SSE.

SSE currently shows 20 min wait, the line must move fast!

 

[JoshuaShaw]

We did "spontaneously" play Family Feud on my phone while waiting in various lines. I think that's an example of "making your own magic" though.

I think that sounds like a wonderful time. I know I don't spend thousands of dollars to go to Disney World to get away from my family.

Some do look a bit peckish.

Well, they had to cancel the ADRs they made six months in advance when the Fastpasses they made two months in advance clashed.

 

[mom2rtk]

Well, they had to cancel the ADRs they made six months in advance when the Fastpasses they made two months in advance clashed.

QUICK! Someone set up a snack cart!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I know I don't spend thousands of dollars to go to Disney World to get away from my family.

Hey, that is part of the attraction of a vacation over 1000 miles away - you leave those folks at home.

 

[minniecarousel]

I recall SSE as a "walk on". When DH started his search for FP+, he was surprised how many rides are now FP rides! We can skip rides that are duplicates at Disneyland if we need to. Our grandson is a baby so he won't know what he's missing!

We'll be spending a great deal of time @ F&W, so we shall see!

 

[3DisneyFanz]

I recall SSE as a "walk on". When DH started his search for FP+, he was surprised how many rides are now FP rides! We can skip rides that are duplicates at Disneyland if we need to. Our grandson is a baby so he won't know what he's missing!

We'll be spending a great deal of time @ F&W, so we shall see!

Some have suggested previously that ingesting large amounts of alcohol helps FP+ enjoyment. I guess by 4 drinks in Figment and TT are about the same.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Here's an example of a free flowing FP+ line spilling out into the walkways in front of SSE.

Part of the attraction is enjoying watching those around you. I know I would certainly love to know if those are red lip prints on that person's pants.

 

[GreatLakes]

I've not seen their project plan. I'd say the project didn't close till over a year from the public Go Live.

I think we're still a couple more years away from it being how they originally wanted it.

They had too much scope creep leaving them no choice but to Go Live as long as it doesn't hurt the bottom line. Which it doesn't seem to be,

I would guess we are about 5 years away from MyMagic+ resembling anything approaching an end product. That 2 Billion dollars isn't being spent on Magic Bands or FP+. That money was spent to build an enterprise system to mine data and then use that data to increase income. It is mainly an infrastructure and data mining project and should be viewed as such. The public facing portion of the project is small and a means to an end, not an end itself. Any such product by design has to be implemented at a much earlier stage then the completion date because the data gathered in production will directly dictate future incremental changes of the overall end product.

I also think the general public is under the false assumption that they are the customer for MyMagic+. They are not. The customer for MyMagic+ are internal clients. Operations, marketing, forecasting, business intelligence, etc.

I've used MDE, MBs, and FP+ without any real problem. Glitches sure but I run projects, I expect glitches in production. Are there also things that need changed? Yep. Integrating park hopping into FP+ for example. I am confident that such a change is part of the project plan, it just hasn't been implemented yet. We are really at the very beginning of the overall project and that is exiting. It is a lot of fun watching the thing change over time.

I can think of quite a few data intensive real-time implementations that I bet are on the horizon. Bus routing based on RFID pings at bus stops, inventory management integration with a shopping app, flow control with an interactive map, and things like that.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

Part of the attraction is enjoying watching those around you. I know I would certainly love to know if those are red lip prints on that person's pants.

Plus, you're at Epcot so you can get w a s t e d.

 

[mesaboy2]

I would guess we are about 5 years away from MyMagic+ resembling anything approaching an end product. That 2 Billion dollars isn't being spent on Magic Bands or FP+. That money was spent to build an enterprise system to mine data and then use that data to increase income. It is mainly an infrastructure and data mining project and should be viewed as such. The public facing portion of the project is small and a means to an end, not an end itself. Any such product by design has to be implemented at a much earlier stage then the completion date because the data gathered in production will directly dictate future incremental changes of the overall end product.

I also think the general public is under the false assumption that they are the customer for MyMagic+. They are not. The customer for MyMagic+ are internal clients. Operations, marketing, forecasting, business intelligence, etc.

I've used MDE, MBs, and FP+ without any real problem. Glitches sure but I run projects, I expect glitches in production. Are there also things that need changed? Yep. Integrating park hopping into FP+ for example. I am confident that such a change is part of the project plan, it just hasn't been implemented yet. We are really at the very beginning of the overall product. I can think of quite a few data intensive real-time implementations that I bet are on the horizon. Bus routing based on RFID pings at bus stops, inventory management integration with a shopping app, flow control with an interactive map, and things like that.

I'm not sure that John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. are going to care about this when they can't get FPs for Toy Story Mania anymore when they could easily before.

 

[WebmasterKathy]

Please remember to discuss topics here in a manner that is respectful to other participants. I've cleaned up a number of little insulting and attacking comments on this thread.

Carry on.

 

[GreatLakes]

I'm not sure that John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. are going to care about this when they can't get FPs for Toy Story Mania anymore when they could easily before.

Yea, most of the public really doesn't understand enterprise data or its application.

It really doesn't matter if John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. like it or not. It matters if the internal clients like it. If John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. complain about it and still come to the parks and spend their money then the internal clients won't really care on the 10,000 foot level because the data is worth more then the cost to listen to complaints from people who will still purchase your product.

There is also a change management component to the implementation. Right now it is new and people don't like new. Eventually the "new way" just becomes the "normal way". Riding out the change is something that is built into the project.

 

[rajak73]

I recall SSE as a "walk on". When DH started his search for FP+, he was surprised how many rides are now FP rides! We can skip rides that are duplicates at Disneyland if we need to. Our grandson is a baby so he won't know what he's missing!

We'll be spending a great deal of time @ F&W, so we shall see!

SSE was still a walk-on when we were there...well other than the NORMAL right at rope drop, just came back later and the wait was 10 min. A lot of rides were FP even with legacy FP but you didn't pull a FP for every ride then either. I love how they always use Captain EO and Figment for FP+, as of right now Captain EO shows 10 min, (walk on) Figment shows 15, ellens shows 10.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

I'm not sure that John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. are going to care about this when they can't get FPs for Toy Story Mania anymore when they could easily before.

That's the goal. When you can't get the FP then you won't waste time on silly things like rides. Who needs to actually experience something when you can get the tshirt and souvenir mug!

 

[mesaboy2]

Yea, most of the public really doesn't understand enterprise data or its application.

It really doesn't matter if John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. like it or not. It matters if the internal clients like it. If John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. complain about it and still come to the parks and spend their money then the internal clients won't really care on the 10,000 foot level because the data is worth more then the cost to listen to complaints from people who will still purchase your product.

There is also a change management component to the implementation. Right now it is new and people don't like new. Eventually the "new way" just becomes the "normal way". Riding out the change is something that is built into the project.

Yeah, I'm gonna disagree there.

 

[MataHari22]

I think that sounds like a wonderful time. I know I don't spend thousands of dollars to go to Disney World to get away from my family.

I do!

 

[GreatLakes]

Yeah, I'm gonna disagree there.

Fair enough. I am just trying to apply my experience managing enterprise projects to this enterprise project. What I have said here is said in just about every scrum meeting I've been a part of. Keep an eye on the end goal and big picture and tune out the distractions that aren't reflected on the balance sheet.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

It really doesn't matter if John, Martha, little Suzy, and Johnny Jr. like it or not.