TSM standby-less test Oct. 6-9

[cakebaker]

So just for the sake of argument.. If a ride is down during your entire FP window, do you get dibs when it comes back online or what?

I haven't encountered that since FP+ so no real experience.

I've read some accounts that they're given an anytime fp for another ride, some have said they got to return anytime using their original fp+.

 

[decoy7375]

Fair enough - people are certainly upset if they can't get a reservation at a restaurant and it's booked.

But, is anyone suggesting that a BETTER alternative would be for the restaurant to leave a certain fraction of its tables available everyday for walk-up/standby guests? That doesn't seem like an improvement to me.

Thank you for the...fair enough response. I appreciate the civil discourse. I think my reaction was primarily to idea that people would not be upset.

No, I don't think I am suggesting leaving tables open would be a better plan for a restaurant.

I don't know what would be the best plan for a theme park. For the first time in 20 years I find myself fearful of the direction they are heading and if I will be able to make the most out of whatever situation they present. Deep sigh. This is coming from a person who researches, plans and rope drops. I can't even imagine how my in-laws would survive now...let alone without a stand by line.

 

[glamdring269]

Fair enough - people are certainly upset if they can't get a reservation at a restaurant and it's booked.

But, is anyone suggesting that a BETTER alternative would be for the restaurant to leave a certain fraction of its tables available everyday for walk-up/standby guests? That doesn't seem like an improvement to me.

How about a restaurant that doesn't allow walk-up/standby but still has empty tables?

 

[faneuil]

If they want us to shop and eat instead of being in line - why don't they put a gift shop/snack shop in the middle of the queue?

Be like Dumbo, give you a pager, so you can look around and shop or eat until your pager goes off.

Okay, that idea was in jest, but now that I think about it...

 

[minnie-apple-mouse]

So just for the sake of argument.. If a ride is down during your entire FP window, do you get dibs when it comes back online or what?

DD got an email that it was good for any other ride-did RNR. Will ask if she could have stayed with TSM-but she did mention it was still down anyway.

 

[mesaboy2]

I'm so sorry to read this, and hope the rest of your trip is better than that.

This is just the kind of thing I thought would happen with this "experiment", and I imagine it is happening thousands of times in the last few days. It reminds me of the Griswold family arriving at Wally World only to find it closed, though I don't mean to shed light on the quoted post. It's incredibly shabby treatment of guests by Disney.

The moose outside shouldn't have told ya.

That's already how it works for many restaurants, and no one seems to mind too much.

Is it not understood by a large segment of the population that getting to eat at a popular restaurant might require a reservation? Can you apply that same question to a theme park ride?

At least you didn't suggest it's no different than walking up to the airport counter and expecting a seat on the flight of your choice.

 

[lugnut33]

Or, it's the guests who don't know what they're doing, and that's why they need to be shouted at.

Yeah, that's it, the guests are stupid idiots.

Thank goodness you're so smart.

I see the winky emoticon, but your comment is exactly how many CM see the guests.

 

[JanaDee]

So just for the sake of argument.. If a ride is down during your entire FP window, do you get dibs when it comes back online or what?

You can choose a different choice (outlined in the email you will receive) or if you don't use the FP+ for something else, you can use it at anytime once the ride comes back online.

 

[Laketravis]

We were at DHS yesterday.
We had gone to EMH there on Sunday evening, expecting to ride TSM a few times. It was broken down basically all of EMH, every time we checked. I don't know why.
So I told the kids, if we get up early today and make rope drop, we will be able to ride TSMM at least once, probably twice, and then we have FP for around noon....

We did miss rope drop thanks to missing a bus, but still got there well before ten. The park was not crowded and we were denied SB, of course. But told we could come back during our FP time. Or, cancel ALL of our FP to try for an earlier one. I was speaking with one of the manager types and trying to wrap my head around this.

I did all of my homework. I spent HOURS trying to understand the FP system, booking my rides sixty days out, staying on property for seven nights to make sure we could get it all done. What in the wide world of sports have you done? My kids think I lied to them, that I tricked them into waking up at the crack of dawn to come over here and now the one stupid ride they want to ride in your whole stupid park, we can't ride it?

I made the cast member talk to my kids. No way will I be the bad guy when this is not my decision. My nine year old called him out when he started to explain this was a test. "You didn't tell us you were testing anyone. It's like you're changing the rules in the middle of the game. That's not fair."

And that's the bottom line. IT IS NOT FAIR. Yeah, I'm whining like a nine year old. If you don't want people waiting in line, plan that out ahead of time. Warn us that we are spending thousands of dollars on a vacation to play guinea pig for you.

I was punished because I played by their rules. I scheduled FP, and would have had to release them and risk the rest of my day there to ride that one stupid ride.

Did it ruin our whole vacation? No. Of course not. We are having lots of fun.

But, man, I love Disney world. It should be more than fun. When I was a little kid in Jacksonville, before Epcot was born, I wanted to be Cinderella in the MSEP when I grew up. It's one of those places that sings to me. And you made my kids sad, and they don't trust you anymore. All afternoon yesterday and this morning, when were on our way to ohana. "Is Mickey still at ohana? What if he's not? What if that changed and they didn't tell you? What if they do another test tonight and we don't see Belle?"

I'm not sure this place will sing to them like it sings to me. And that is sad.

The worst part is they did nothing. The cast member said he couldn't help us, or he'd just have to give extra FP to everyone. To which I replied, yeah, or you could just let us WAIT IN LINE which is what we were expecting to do. They did offer to put the day back on our tickets if we wanted to leave. Which meant nothing because we have park hoppers. It was a really bad experience. And when our window did open, walking back through their cadre of CMS shouting, "fast pass only!" Did not help. We got to ride once, then the FP were (allegedly) done for the day.

We spent eight total hours in DHS. Between the EMH and yesterday. Rode TSMM once. ONCE. That stinks. We were supposed to do another half day at DHS before we go, and the kids have already said they won't go back. They love Star Tours but we've ridden it nine times already. What else is there for them? RNRC and ToT are too much for them, they are too old for the Disney Jr junk. You have a barn full of snow. We live in COLORADO. Not interested.

I hate that we got stuck here during this time. We will absolutely not come back until they figure out how to make this system work for their guests, and not just their pocket books.

Wow.

I'm not going to get on some high horse and try to tell you why you should feel good or lucky about any of that, or why or how you should have done anything differently.

That was your experience, and it sucked. I hope you send those very same comments to Disney.

 

[minnie-apple-mouse]

You can choose a different choice (outlined in the email you will receive) or if you don't use the FP+ for something else, you can use it at anytime once the ride comes back online.

Hey correction on my part sorry-you are correct, DD did not head over to RNR but grabbed a snack and noticed TSM was running again.

So she went back outside/after the original window with no problem, but it did take 20 minute wait-which seems kinda short if down that long really.

 

[grimley1968]

I made the cast member talk to my kids. No way will I be the bad guy when this is not my decision. My nine year old called him out when he started to explain this was a test. "You didn't tell us you were testing anyone. It's like you're changing the rules in the middle of the game. That's not fair."

And that's the bottom line. IT IS NOT FAIR.

Leave it to kids to get to the heart of the matter. Whether you prefer FP+, FP-, standby as it existed before FP-, or whatever system (I prefer not to talk about restaurants in this thread), the point is that this was grossly unfair to the guests that chose to go there at this time and planned the way Disney wants them to plan, with no knowledge that Disney would change the rules of the game while they are there.

 

[magicbob]

It doesn't seem like this little experiment they're doing is for that purpose though, does it? Sounds like they're toying with the idea of 2 stand by lines vs 1 fp or vice versa.

I think that what they may be doing is trying to see if they can manage the distribution of FPs in a way that would maintain a steady flow of guests onto an attraction without creating an undesirably long wait for FP holders or wasted capacity. This could be part of the consideration of whether a "FP Only" track for TSMM would be feasible.

This is precisely what I think they are testing. It makes no sense to test IF they need additional capacity for this ride. They DO! But if the rumored third track is to be used only for FPs, they need to ensure they balance the number/times of the FPs to ensure no wasted capacity (which many reported seeing during this test).

I disagree vehemently with the way in which they're going about executing the testing. But the test itself does make sense. Think about the complaints we've seen here about PotC boats leaving half full while there is a long line for SB. That's what can happen if one track is dedicated to FP+. With PotC, they have sometimes diverted SB guests to the other side to remedy the unbalanced lines. But if the FP+ line and third track are not accessible from the SB line, that won't be an option. So they are going to want the line being just long enough to ensure vehicles are getting filled without backing the line up too much or else there will be complaints that FP is not fast enough.

One possible positive outcome: A dedicated third track to handle all FP+ guests would mean that SB guests would not experiences "pauses" in the progress of the line as FP+ guests are let in. So this would not only increase capacity, it could make the lines more efficient for all.

The ends don't justify the means, but hopefully there is a silver lining in the long run.

 

[vacationer1954]

I think it would have been nice for the test to be included in the normal means that Disney uses to communicate rehabs, but nothing beyond that.

 

[ABitDistracted]

I am standing in the FP+ line now -- been inside for 15 minutes and we aren't even close... It's the longest FP line I have ever stood in! Most people are not too happy.

 

[Jennasis]

Come on...did they REALLY need a "test" to see if ADDING CAPACITY to the ride (via an additional ride track) would lessen the wait times??

 

[Laketravis]

This is precisely what I think they are testing. It makes no sense to test IF they need additional capacity for this ride. They DO! But if the rumored third track is to be used only for FPs, they need to ensure they balance the number/times of the FPs to ensure no wasted capacity (which many reported seeing during this test).

I disagree vehemently with the way in which they're going about executing the testing. But the test itself does make sense. Think about the complaints we've seen here about PotC boats leaving half full while there is a long line for SB. That's what can happen if one track is dedicated to FP+. With PotC, they have sometimes diverted SB guests to the other side to remedy the unbalanced lines. But if the FP+ line and third track are not accessible from the SB line, that won't be an option. So they are going to want the line being just long enough to ensure vehicles are getting filled without backing the line up too much or else there will be complaints that FP is not fast enough.

I think you're on to something. One of the elements they may not have been able to control to a level of highest quality would be the CM who decides (or follows general guidelines on) how many FP riders to let on versus SB riders.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Maybe they're not testing adding a FP+ only track...maybe they're testing adding a SB-only track, and the existing tracks will be FP+ only. If a third track was put where Wandering Oaken's was formerly located, then it would be easy to reconfigure the SB queue to spit people out that way without an extended closure.

ETA: It could also be reconfigured in such a way to diver SB passengers over to the existing tracks in the event that the FP+ tracks weren't running at capacity at any given time, such as how they are now running POTC. Maybe the queue is reconfigured so that SB guests stop at Mr. Potatohead and are either routed to the left (SB only) or to the right (dedicated FP+ with SB overflow when capacity allowed).

 

[lugnut33]

I am standing in the FP+ line now -- been inside for 15 minutes and we aren't even close... It's the longest FP line I have ever stood in! Most people are not too happy.

LOL at shifting standby wait times into the FP+ lines.

 

[minnie-apple-mouse]

I am standing in the FP+ line now -- been inside for 15 minutes and we aren't even close... It's the longest FP line I have ever stood in! Most people are not too happy.

DD was just through but it was only 20 minutes-it was down a long time so expect many folks to be returning.

FYI-she had a sneaking suspicion they went down on purpose to see what would happen and how long to catch up etc-but I have not asked her why she thinks that.

 

[wisblue]

I think it would have been nice for the test to be included in the normal means that Disney uses to communicate rehabs, but nothing beyond that.

I agree. If announced in advance that TSMM will be FP only on certain dates, it would be no different in my opinion than any other refurb. Guests who pay attention to those things in advance would know what they were getting into while those who are oblivious to it will be unpleasantly surprised, just like they are when a major attraction like Splash Mountain is closed.

I would also think that making that announcement would have a minimal enough impact on the crowd at DHS that it wouldn't affect the test.