Fast passes soooon?

[mort1331]

So as someone who has experienced all 3 fasspass systems. Paper, fp+, and max. I would vote fp+ hands doen evetytime for wdw. DL and WDW are 2 very differeny beasts. The shear numbers at WDW out does DL every day. It was already mentioned that DL has almoat the same amount of rides in 2 parks that WDW has in 4. But they also have smaller capacity. If you think the crazy early am start just for a chance at ROTR is nuts, (yes I know its been tweeked now but still) with Max it would be gone as quick of not quicker...as well as any of the headliners. Add that to when a head line ride goes down and your fasspass time is then gone, you get a fasspass to any other ride. Guess what, the FP line for then next big ride is nuts.
Ive seen the fp line for Cars back past Floes dinner when 1 or 2 rides go down. Then you want to hear the complaints. You have jist paid 15bucks each and are still waiting in line for an hour.....
One sounds great,,but logistically cant see it happening.
And dont want to see it happen at WDW. Imagine Epcot and both TT and Soaring down...what is your maxpass getting you now.
Carefull what you wish for.

 

[justadreamaway77]

We are currently at Disney and the wait times are long and some underestimated. I hope they bring back the fast passes.

I have literally heard from others/experienced myself (3 times since they opened) the exact OPPOSITE. We were there for Spring Break and waited 25 minutes for 7D's.....posted time was 45 minutes. 7D's posted wait times never went over 60 minutes and it was SPRING BREAK. FP's are only missed by AP holders that literally go into the park, use their 3 fast passes and then leave to go hang out at their resort. I do not miss Fastpasses, we get so much more done without them, and the lines actually move without them!

 

[MrsBergs]

I have literally heard from others/experienced myself (3 times since they opened) the exact OPPOSITE. We were there for Spring Break and waited 25 minutes for 7D's.....posted time was 45 minutes. 7D's posted wait times never went over 60 minutes and it was SPRING BREAK. FP's are only missed by AP holders that literally go into the park, use their 3 fast passes and then leave to go hang out at their resort. I do not miss Fastpasses, we get so much more done without them, and the lines actually move without them!

We were there the week of April 16 -23rd and we waited over the estimated times. At animal kingdom the safari was 90 minutes long and avatar was 110 minutes. We did wait for avatar but skipped the safari. Maybe we hit the wrong parks on our day. But we did try to switch parks 1 day and guest services at Epcot said that all parks for that week was unavailable and at capacity

 

[kanerf]

The biggest issue that I have with no FP is that the lines are very long to support social distancing and the shade is minimal in some areas. It sucks to stand in a slow moving line for 45 minutes in the hot sun.

 

[Chuck S]

We were there the week of April 16 -23rd and we waited over the estimated times. At animal kingdom the safari was 90 minutes long and avatar was 110 minutes. We did wait for avatar but skipped the safari. Maybe we hit the wrong parks on our day. But we did try to switch parks 1 day and guest services at Epcot said that all parks for that week was unavailable and at capacity

You may have been hitting the tail end of some spring breaks.

 

[LPnerd]

I have literally heard from others/experienced myself (3 times since they opened) the exact OPPOSITE. We were there for Spring Break and waited 25 minutes for 7D's.....posted time was 45 minutes. 7D's posted wait times never went over 60 minutes and it was SPRING BREAK. FP's are only missed by AP holders that literally go into the park, use their 3 fast passes and then leave to go hang out at their resort. I do not miss Fast passes, we get so much more done without them, and the lines actually move without them!

AP people are mostly FL residents, or folks that come multiple times a year. I'm not a fan of this system, in fact if it ain't broke why fix it? I can see using them for new rides, star wars , maybe the 30 min shows? what would work is to keep lower capacities. Not this low but I think the park reservation deal is what's making things work. Just a hunch.

 

[crazymomof4]

Experience with WDW goes back to before there were even paper FP. Have used paper FP, FP+ and in Sept 2020 no FP at limited capacity.
Given the heat I really thought mask wearing would be the biggest negative "hit" on our Sept trip.
Turns out, the thing that had the most negative impact on the trip was the lack of FP+. All 4 of us (adults with lots of WDW and DL experience) agreed and talked about it through the entire trip..... WE MISSED FP+!!!
On "normal" trips we use FP+ totally to our advantage. We never feel "rushed" or "stressed" or "lacking freedom" (as many others report).

Honestly, I read the posts of people who hate FP+ and I think "What are they doing differently than us to feel that way?"

Love MaxPass in DL but agree with previous posters that I'm not sure it would work in WDW.

 

[zavandor]

I have literally heard from others/experienced myself (3 times since they opened) the exact OPPOSITE. We were there for Spring Break and waited 25 minutes for 7D's.....posted time was 45 minutes. 7D's posted wait times never went over 60 minutes and it was SPRING BREAK. FP's are only missed by AP holders that literally go into the park, use their 3 fast passes and then leave to go hang out at their resort. I do not miss Fastpasses, we get so much more done without them, and the lines actually move without them!

That's because attendance is limited to 35% of maximum capacity. With 3x time people in the park, wait time for the headliners skyrockets. That's when FP+ are useful for everyone. I'm not a local and visit once a year (if that), but I think I would miss FP+.

 

[Castillo Mom]

I'm not a fan of FP+ by any means, but it's better than nothing if they don't implement a system in WDW similar to MaxPass. That being said, why am I not a fan of FP+? Because I have book months in advance and get up at 3:00 a.m. to do it, also less flexibility. But again, better than nothing so I'm hoping it's implemented again soon based on the wait times I'm seeing.

 

[Nabas]

Having been to WDW on several trips since they reopened in July 2020, the theme parks are so much better without FP+.

No frustratingly slow Standby lines.

No preplanning.

More flexibility.

Everyone being treated like an equal.

It's basically back to the way it was run when Disney family members and close associated ran the company.

WDW did fine for nearly 30 years without FP or FP+. That's the way a theme park should be.

 

[CraigInPA]

Having been to WDW on several trips since they reopened in July 2020, the theme parks are so much better without FP+.

No frustratingly slow Standby lines.

No preplanning.

More flexibility.

Everyone being treated like an equal.

It's basically back to the way it was run when Disney family members and close associated ran the company.

WDW did fine for nearly 30 years without FP or FP+. That's the way a theme park should be.

You've also been going when capacity was capped at 25% or 35%. When they start allowing 100% capacity, you'll see how many complaints of >1 hour waits there are.

While we'd all like to go to a park with attendance levels down at Moonlight Magic levels, it's not a viable business model for Disney.

 

[Nabas]

You've also been going when capacity was capped at 25% or 35%. When they start allowing 100% capacity, you'll see how many complaints of >1 hour waits there are.

Yes, but we've also gone when attraction capacity is capped.

Rides like POTC and Jungle Cruise are running at only a fraction of their capacity.

Popular shows like FOTLC and Nemo are closed.

The question has always been, "35% of what?"

The best guess is that this is not 35% of normal attendance but 35% of maximum capacity.

The theme parks rarely reach maximum capacity where no one is allowed in. (Disney has a phased closing scheme.) Most of the time, the theme parks are running at considerably less than 100% capacity.

It's mostly going to balance out to what the wait times are like right now.

 

[808blessing]

I love fast Passes and didn’t remind figuring out how to maximize the system but now I do feel overscheduled in my overachiever tendencies. I have experienced them all and I like the Max Pass and want it back.
That said I had an awesome trip without them at a pretty light spring break. We were not efficient we were flowing. Being a planner for years, I was happy to take a break. Maybe I just was ultra grateful to be on vacation. But the lines were reasonable and I hate lines!

 

[justadreamaway77]

That's because attendance is limited to 35% of maximum capacity. With 3x time people in the park, wait time for the headliners skyrockets. That's when FP+ are useful for everyone. I'm not a local and visit once a year (if that), but I think I would miss FP+.

Your 3x the current capacity would be 105% capacity! What the capacity is today is actually the typical capacity of a during the off seasons. Disney rarely hits full capacity....NYE crowds.

 

[tgropp]

We'll see how that works when Disney opens up to full capacity, and then begins their 50 year celebration in October....

People must have short memories of Disney before Covid. There were long waits during most of the seasons. If you don’t want fast pass, don’t use them. Disney has had this system for over 20 years for a reason. If they thought that it did not benefit park goers it would have been gone a long time ago.

 

[Nabas]

People must have short memories of Disney before Covid. There were long waits during most of the seasons. If you don’t want fast pass, don’t use them. Disney has had this system for over 20 years for a reason. If they thought that it did not benefit park goers it would have been gone a long time ago.

FP and FP+ had nothing to do with benefiting Guests.

The original FP was put in place because corporate Disney (incorrectly) thought they would use the time to shop.

When that didn't work, they created FP+ as an incentive to stay onsite, since onsite Guests could book earlier than others.

FP/FP+ were designed to benefit Disney, not Guests.

 

[DSLRuser]

been going since regularly 1993.....put us firmly in the camp that hope fast pass NEVER come back.

but.....my spidey sense tells me....fast pass will come back....but....as a paid service. have to make up covid revenue some how.

 

[DSLRuser]

If they thought that it did not benefit park goers it would have been gone a long time ago.

What NABAS said.....it is so cute you think Disney did something for us, the customer......EVERYTHING Disney does is for the shareholders and the bottom line on the balance sheet.

FP and FP+ had nothing to do with benefiting Guests.

The original FP was put in place because corporate Disney (incorrectly) thought they would use the time to shop.

When that didn't work, they created FP+ as an incentive to stay onsite, since onsite Guests could book earlier than others.

FP/FP+ were designed to benefit Disney, not Guests.

 

[philbrody]

I'm a huge fan of FP+. If for no other reason we could schedule evening rides and spend the morning outside the parks. Now I feel like rope drop is the only option if you really want to enjoy multiple rides without waiting on lines all day. The exception is we learned is rides like TT always had huge FP lines late in the day because weather almost always shuts the ride down for a portion of the afternoon

 

[Meglen]

I feel there are alot of different groups here. The people who stressed and panic set up fp+ and the people who made sure to just pick 3 rides in the morning so they could look for more fast passes through out the day.

Being "forced" around a schedule never was an issue for my family since all booked past passes were used before noon. The hour window let us have freedom to just show up even 5 min before the time or right before it was up.

Let's pretend MK
8:30 pirates
9:30 BTM
10:30 space mountain

So first ride of the day you don't even need to be at the park till almost 9:20 to catch the first ride than asap hop over to BTM right after. You have been in the park now 20-30 min and got 2 of your rides done. Now you can chill out have breakfast and take your time in standby lines or shop up to around 11:20. Or get right on at 10:25. We always showed up at the start time. Once you scanned in.. it was GAME TIME. Phone out refreshing seeing what other fast passes we could get. We didn't "need" them but we liked the freedom it gave.

Yes freedom. I knew what time we could get in line and about when we would be done. The hour window left alot up in the air and tons of free time. If you wanted to pingpong around the park grabbing as many passes you can you can do that.. if you just wanted a 4th fast pass for a headliner at another park.. you can do that...


I miss it.