State of Fast Pass Return (or replacement)

[tigger2002]

There are many simple solutions that would alleviate the line anxiety and complaining.

No you're just being silly.

 

[Ginger R]

We simply aren't in a position to cancel at this point. Plane tickets have been booked and we're all locked in. There is no other time we could possibly go until next summer, and after having to cancel our trip in April 2020, and then pulling the plug on the April 2021 trip as well in favor of an August trip (hoping for no masks, which we basically got - yay), I'm unwilling to pull the rug out yet again because of this FP situation.

However, this will probably end up not being a super park-heavy trip. I'm really sad about that, but the current situation in the parks sounds miserable. And here we were so excited because we splurged for BWV. I guess the benefit there is that rope dropping DHS will be easier. We can get a ride or two done and then leave and get to know the pool slide really well.

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Yup, we are here now and we are here for a little over 2 weeks. We have 7 day tix that were from our trip that didn't happen last year so had to use them by this Sept. We've gone to HS once and did millenium falcon- 65 min wait, mickey & minnie runaway train-65 min wait, muppets and frozen sing along and we were done. Today we did MK and did winnie the pooh, mermaid, buzz lightyear and carousel of progress and we were done. Its way too hot to snake through every line for an hour or more. So, were doing more swimming and mini golf than normally we would. I totally see where you're coming from...we weren't willing to give up our trip after no vacation last year but for us this isn't ideal waiting in hour long line after line...ugh

 

[Gehrig1B]

Your post is giving me hope!

For what it’s worth. Been at Disney all week and haven’t needed fast pass at all… and I was the biggest worrier before coming and begging for fast pass. Been great. Yeah a few rides were about 45-50 mins waits but lines kept moving. The MAJOR rides. Some lines were less than 25 mins. Barely stand stills. The lines look huge outside but move. The lines app was better at wait times. Take about 15 mins off all waits posted by Disney. Only ride long so far was flight of passage, 89 min wait but moved the whole time

Very surprised and having a great time.

This could very well be weather related I’m afraid…

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Isn't 90 minutes, 90 minutes whether you're moving or not? Glad you're having a great time, but your experience is the first I've read that described waits as anything close to pleasant in the last week or so. Enjoy the rest of your trip .

90 mins for one ride, whom many consider the best ride, with the best standby setting, is doable for me. The others didn’t touch that wait time. I guess it depends on the persons tolerance to it. Just an pleasantly surprised. I thought I’d hate it but I went into it knowing there wasn’t much I could do about it. Still wish I had fast pass but it wasn’t as terrible or bad like I thought. I could have just gotten lucky this week. There are plenty of people who look like they wanna leave while on line believe me lol. It was cloudy the first few days though which I think helped cause I wasn’t hot.

I will add though. The Disney standby times are not the actual times most of the time. I timed everything with my stop watch to match the lines app. Usually 15 mins faster. That could be a lot or a little depending on the ride of course

Ah I forgot. One was long. I will also add that slinky dog was friggin long at around 115 mins. That I refused to stand on. I ended up going to guest services to ask about an issue I was having and they offered me a fast pass for it. Which I used and was on in 10 mins. So yes, for those headliners with long wait times like that, that fast pass reminded me of the light we once had lol

 

[cakebaker]

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Yup, we are here now and we are here for a little over 2 weeks. We have 7 day tix that were from our trip that didn't happen last year so had to use them by this Sept. We've gone to HS once and did millenium falcon- 65 min wait, mickey & minnie runaway train-65 min wait, muppets and frozen sing along and we were done. Today we did MK and did winnie the pooh, mermaid, buzz lightyear and carousel of progress and we were done. Its way too hot to snake through every line for an hour or more. So, were doing more swimming and mini golf than normally we would. I totally see where you're coming from...we weren't willing to give up our trip after no vacation last year but for us this isn't ideal waiting in hour long line after line...ugh

And your assessment matches the overwhelming number of reports I've read- people just giving up and skipping the headliners because the waits are unbearable. You really should let them know at guest services of your dissatisfaction. Squeaky wheels get greased....just sayin'... I hope things turn around for you, I'm beginning to dread our upcoming trip and that should never happen. I know it will be the last until things are straigtened out. I'm not wasting time and money again.

 

[Farro]

If I'm there in October and there is no form of fast pass at all and the worst wait time is 60 -70 minutes, I will be quite content.

 

[cakebaker]

If I'm there in October and there is no form of fast pass at all and the worst wait time is 60 -70 minutes, I will be quite content.

That's great, but you are definitely in the minority I believe. It will have to slow down some though- those are the reported wait times I see for most headliners but FOP is hitting 120 with some regularity.
But if you like standing in line, no problem! Enjoy! I prefer to ride more, but I'm weird so.....

 

[luv2cheer92]

If I'm there in October and there is no form of fast pass at all and the worst wait time is 60 -70 minutes, I will be quite content.

100% agree.

 

[Farro]

That's great, but you are definitely in the minority I believe. It will have to slow down some though- those are the reported wait times I see for most headliners but FOP is hitting 120 with some regularity.
But if you like standing in line, no problem! Enjoy! I prefer to ride more, but I'm weird so.....

No need for shade. Fine for me, not for you, who cares.

 

[Ginger R]

And your assessment matches the overwhelming number of reports I've read- people just giving up and skipping the headliners because the waits are unbearable. You really should let them know at guest services of your dissatisfaction. Squeaky wheels get greased....just sayin'... I hope things turn around for you, I'm beginning to dread our upcoming trip and that should never happen. I know it will be the last until things are straigtened out. I'm not wasting time and money again.

Yup, believe me our expectations were low for this trip in general...we had dvc points to burn and our tix from last year to use, but standing in the heat shoulder to shoulder in line after line gets to be a bit much...oh, and don't forget to "fill in all available space" lol

 

[Remy is Up]

So just to clarify, the delay is because the new system keeps crashing/failing and a multibillion dollar company doesn’t seem to have the ability to resolve it but actually the delay is because leadership at TDO is not antsy enough? And somehow Finance is involved with an interim solution? Why does this story feel like a work of fan fiction…

Take it for what it is. It isnt quite that simplistic. This is the sum of a lot of issues all at once biting a company in the rear.
Upper management bears the weight of it. Increasing capacity too quickly
Not spending money on a platform that would be more manageable
Wavering on decisions that should be easy
I'm not a Disney apologist or critic. I'm a businessman myself who has a lot of experience at the high levels. I see poor leadership and planning and an inability to make a definitive decision. IT has been pushed in numerous directions, finance has been asked to find a way to pay for things in a post covid world after mass losses.
I'm disappointed in the manner the whole thing has been handled.

 

[Remy is Up]

And I’m afraid one of the systems the new Fastpass app has not tested successfully with is AP so Disney could just continue to not offer them for even longer if they roll out new Fastpass in the near future.

I'd say your assessment is correct

 

[glocker]

Take it for what it is. It isnt quite that simplistic. This is the sum of a lot of issues all at once biting a company in the rear.
Upper management bears the weight of it. Increasing capacity too quickly
Not spending money on a platform that would be more manageable
Wavering on decisions that should be easy
I'm not a Disney apologist or critic. I'm a businessman myself who has a lot of experience at the high levels. I see poor leadership and planning and an inability to make a definitive decision. IT has been pushed in numerous directions, finance has been asked to find a way to pay for things in a post covid world after mass losses.
I'm disappointed in the manner the whole thing has been handled.

You bring up the heart of the matter: upper management has dollar signs in their eyes. Nobody made Disney increase capacity, they did it to themselves. They control the numbers of people in each park, and without a viable system to manage lines they decided to ramp up the numbers to bring in more money. They are doing so at the expense of guest experience. If this does not show us how little Cheapek cares about guests, nothing will.

 

[Wandering Oaken]

Take it for what it is. It isnt quite that simplistic. This is the sum of a lot of issues all at once biting a company in the rear.
Upper management bears the weight of it. Increasing capacity too quickly
Not spending money on a platform that would be more manageable
Wavering on decisions that should be easy
I'm not a Disney apologist or critic. I'm a businessman myself who has a lot of experience at the high levels. I see poor leadership and planning and an inability to make a definitive decision. IT has been pushed in numerous directions, finance has been asked to find a way to pay for things in a post covid world after mass losses.
I'm disappointed in the manner the whole thing has been handled.

It sounds like the goddess Shiva and none of her hands knowing what the others are doing.

 

[amdphenom]

I never said they destroyed it

As someone without access to VIP/Golden Oaks passes, is the running system the old system without any park pass integration?

Thanks for all the insight though. Being in software it's hard when you have bad requirements and they change constantly. We're still working on a system for it at my company.

 

[Loro]

Take it for what it is. It isnt quite that simplistic. This is the sum of a lot of issues all at once biting a company in the rear.
Upper management bears the weight of it. Increasing capacity too quickly
Not spending money on a platform that would be more manageable
Wavering on decisions that should be easy
I'm not a Disney apologist or critic. I'm a businessman myself who has a lot of experience at the high levels. I see poor leadership and planning and an inability to make a definitive decision. IT has been pushed in numerous directions, finance has been asked to find a way to pay for things in a post covid world after mass losses.
I'm disappointed in the manner the whole thing has been handled.

As a fellow businessman I could not have said it better myself.

I'll speak a little (vaguely) on the indecisiveness of the higher ups:

Chapek made his way up the ladder as a slash and burn guy, and there is heavy questioning of anything that incurs big costs or could prevent further profits (more than normal, and not just due to the pandemic). Some of the higher ups are afraid to push for what they know is right because they don't want to face consequences, and that is causing some of this indecisiveness and terrible decision-making. Chapek is loved by the shareholders, but is terrible for the long-term health of the company as a whole.

 

[Remy is Up]

As someone without access to VIP/Golden Oaks passes, is the running system the old system without any park pass integration?

Thanks for all the insight though. Being in software it's hard when you have bad requirements and they change constantly. We're still working on a system for it at my company.

Yes. There has always been a standalone program on the old platform and new that handles recovery passes, DAS, and Club benefits. It is not reliant on anything else for it to work. But FP+ was reliant on some other programs and on the new one, just had to be integrated with the reservations. So it wasn't hard to do because it doesn't need to rely on other programs. It was never destroyed or overwritten. It has always been an option. Just not the one management seems to want. And they keep shoving the IT department all over the place because of their indecisiveness.

 

[Remy is Up]

As a fellow businessman I could not have said it better myself.

I'll speak a little (vaguely) on the indecisiveness of the higher ups:

Chapek made his way up the ladder as a slash and burn guy, and there is heavy questioning of anything that incurs big costs or could prevent further profits (more than normal, and not just due to the pandemic). Some of the higher ups are afraid to push for what they know is right because they don't want to face consequences, and that is causing some of this indecisiveness and terrible decision-making. Chapek is loved by the shareholders, but is terrible for the long-term health of the company as a whole.

Agreed. Everyone knows who needs to be the guy in charge and that's Josh. I firmly believe he is the future, but that future needs to happen soon. Chapek was expected to be that experience who could get them through and be the conduit to get to Josh. My opinion is he is failing. MISERABLY

 

[Loro]

Agreed. Everyone knows who needs to be the guy in charge and that's Josh. I firmly believe he is the future, but that future needs to happen soon. Chapek was expected to be that experience who could get them through and be the conduit to get to Josh. My opinion is he is failing. MISERABLY

Completely agree. Josh is clearly the man for the job. I truly hope we don't lose him before he's able to get it. He's about as close as we are going to get nowadays to someone Walt himself would choose.

 

[Jrb1979]

Unless Disney stock takes a huge hit I can't see Chapek leaving any time soon.