FP+ Details Are Out!

[bcrook]

I agree there will be a short window where there will be a lot of confusion and ignorance. However, these numbers are only for resort guests, who either won't be ignorant, or will be sent many e-mails explaining how simple it is to get those FP+.

And while I think there's a pretty good supply of ignorant people on this Earth, Disney will do their best to educate them. They aren't spending a billion dollars on a system most people won't use.

It'd be different if there was a huge excess of mountain FP+s, but there simply isn't. When you go to other parks, it get's a whole lot more bleak. EPCOT only has 2 highly popular E-tickets, although I wouldn't wait more than 10 minutes for Soarin', myself.

I know folks think Disney couldn't be this off in their expectations, but the facts that they are saying the double dippers are happy, so it's a great program, and they aren't even asking for feedback anymore, tells me they may be a bit out of touch on this one.

Jason

It will also help MK, to get that 4th mountain online. I know you don't think it is an e ticket, but it will absorb a lot of FP! The other parks desperately need more attractions.

 

[jade1]

Math is fact. It doesn't matter if they are tiering. If everyone chooses the mountains for FP+, it is an absolute certainty that no one will have an MK day with their 3 FP+ being Splash, Space, and Big Thunder. And it would take A LOT of folks to choose other things, like essentially half of everyone going to the park saying "You know, I don't like E-ticket Mountains, but I do like C ticket dark rides and parades".

Actually, let's recheck the math. 25000 rooms, 80000 guests, assume one fourth hitting MK, meaning 20000 people and 60000 FP+ for RESORT GUESTS at MK. Assuming 12 hours of operation and 4500 people an hour total capacity of the mountains, and 80% for FP+ pre-reservation. That's 43200 Mountain FP+. And that's with a LOT of kind assumptions.

So, RESORT guests, who get first crack, can easily take every Mountain FP+, and still one third of them won't get on all three. And everyone else visiting that day, which could be up to 30,000 people on a busy day, will get ZERO mountain FP+

There most certainly will be a shortage. It is a mathematical certainty.

Again, the only way it WON'T be a disaster is if there is a large percentage of people who do not ride any of the mountains. There are some, sure, but I'd put them at 20% or so. It would have to be almost a third of the people to even make it so all resort guests that WANT to ride them all, can. And the non resort guests are still stuck holding the crumbs of IASW, Autopia, and Rocket Jets.

Jason

Yea it will be interesting once rolled out completely.

Not sure on the 20%-MK has a lot of older and young that wont ride the mountains. That number alone could be well over 1/2 IMO.

But now throw in the current number of qualifiers that arrive later and skip the mountain waits-they may now be in the pool that find they "can" get mountain/s FP+.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it shakes out.

 

[mom2rtk]

It will also help MK, to get that 4th mountain online. I know you don't think it is an e ticket, but it will absorb a lot of FP!

But it will also attract a lot more guests to the park, at least for the first year or so. How many people have put off trips until 2014 until that final piece is in place?

 

[KatieCharlotte]

The big assumption in here is that at least as many guests will actually book FP+ in advance for an attraction as there are slots available. Although I agree that it is likely in the long term, it remains to actually be seen. The majority of WDW guests do not read these boards, do not know about these changes yet, will only learn about them when they are notified of them (if they are notified), and then have to figure out MDX would the help we've all given each other, and book those FP+...

And, if there is a three fastpass limit, they have to know which rides will most need fastpasses. After all, I read a travel magazine that advised me to get fastpasses for "the most popular rides, like Magic Carpets of Aladdin." I could also easily see many families only booking fastpasses for the rides that appeal to the entire family, which may not be the mountains. Our youngest will finally be tall enough for the mountains this year, but we won't be riding Space again because our older kids thought it was too intense. Others traveling in the winter might avoid Splash.

But I will be surprised if guests aren't informed about FP+ when they book a resort package and reminded when they are within sixty days.

 

[bcrook]

But it will also attract a lot more guests to the park, at least for the first year or so. How many people have put off trips until 2014 until that final piece is in place?

oh, there is that too!

 

[Bob NC]

How many people have put off trips until 2014 until that final piece is in place?

I imagine you have a pretty accurate estimate, how many?

 

[Shaden]

I don't know another person who reads the disboards in my day to day life, but all of my Disney friends, colleagues, and family are acutely aware that FP is going to be better than ever, they can't wait for their magicbands, and are excited about cool new interaction available in the park.

I never talk about, because everyone is so excited. I just hope it works out ok for us all.

It's kind of like Be Our Guest, everyone knows it is there, and somehow they all know you have to book it way in advance. How does one know this if you don't keep up with a forum?

Is it just word of mouth?

This is my experience as well, the "DISers are a small portion of people at disney world" rationale just does not hold up.

 

[harleyquinn]

Alright everyone, I got chosen and I have questions for our trip departing on August 13.

1. Has anyone heard of anyone being able to link a Travel Agent pass? I have a confirmation number, but it won't accept it (it's shorter than a normal Will Call number).

2. I have purchased 10 day PHs for DD and DH and plan on bridging them to APs. I can add their tickets to the MDE account, but I'm worried about bridging them when I get there. Will I have issues or should I just go ahead and link them?

Anyone?

 

[doconeill]

A couple of things here. Once a visitor gets to the park or resort the first day day and figures out the system (and it really isn't that difficult), they will schedule rides for all days of their trip. They will go ahead and grab something. Disney might even encourage them to go ahead and grab the fast picks.

The other is the argument that most people don't understand Fastpass or bother to use it. I find that hard to believe and there is no evidence really. Every fastpass for every major attraction is used everyday during peak times. People estimate that 80% of all riders are using FP on the headliners. And if you stand by for Peter Pan, that is not difficult to believe.

No matter what the percentage of people that understand how to use FP, there is currently enough to gobble up all the good stuff. With this new marketing and reach out plan to educate all, the percent has to go up. Demand for the headliners has to go up. It won't take long either.

I don't know another person who reads the disboards in my day to day life, but all of my Disney friends, colleagues, and family are acutely aware that FP is going to be better than ever, they can't wait for their magicbands, and are excited about cool new interaction available in the park.

I never talk about, because everyone is so excited. I just hope it works out ok for us all.

It's kind of like Be Our Guest, everyone knows it is there, and somehow they all know you have to book it way in advance. How does one know this if you don't keep up with a forum?

Is it just word of mouth?

I disagree there is no evidence that people don't understand Fastpass...I've witnessed it myself.

And in contrast to your experience, I just recently spoke with some people who are not DISers, have been to WDW several times, are familiar with Fastpass, and hadn't heard a things about Fastpass+ until I mentioned it. And one of the first things they asked was if they'd need to keep their phones on them all day.

That I think is what make FP+ _harder_ to use. Fastpass was easy...insert ticket, get FP. FP had all the info on it. No problem. Yet still guests didn't bother. Yes, they all got used up...on that day.

Now FP+ adds:

- Requirement to have a MDX account;
- Requirement to link tickets they may not have, and even DISers having a tough time with it
- Option to customize magicbands
- Requirement to use MDX smartphone app, not available to all smartphones, and problematic on the ones that it is, or kiosks around the park whose quantities and locations are (at this point) VERY limited and even in the future appear to be limited

All of that is "new" technology to the guest experience. Precisely what people are already complaining about. Some people, who may have been fine with the FP kiosks as they are now, may go nowhere near FP+. Many more won't be getting FP+ in advance. And it doesn't matter how Disney advertises it. They've been advertising FP for 14 years now.

Anyways, my point was it will depend on the acceptance and utilization of FP+ plus MDX _in advance_ to know whether anything will be available on the day in question. It is easy to say "there are only X slots available", but we do NOT know how many will actually utilize this to actually get slots in advance. We CAN'T predict it. We can't apply our own knowledge over the whole of WDW guests.

 

[bcrook]

Anyone?

This is a tough question. You are in unknown territory.

 

[WillAustin]

It is easy to say "there are only X slots available", but we do NOT know how many will actually utilize this to actually get slots in advance. We CAN'T predict it. We can't apply our own knowledge over the whole of WDW guests.

I don't think Disney has enough data yet to predict it either.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I disagree there is no evidence that people don't understand Fastpass...I've witnessed it myself.

I don't know how many times we have overheard people at WDW "Oh it would be nice to be able to afford that." "Oh, they're staying at the expensive resorts" "Oh we can't use FP+, we haven't paid for it"

I also don't know how many times we have heard guests arguing or complaining at restaurants when we are checking in to an ADR "What do you mean we had to book 180 days out?" "We are on the Dining Plan, it says we can eat at any restaurant we want!" "How were we meant to know what we wanted to eat 6 months ago!"

People STILL don't get it so I'm not sure how FP+ will work. Unlike ADR's, not booking 60 days in advance won't necessarily mean "missing" an attraction but it will mean longer standby lines.

 

[bcrook]

I disagree there is no evidence that people don't understand Fastpass...I've witnessed it myself.

And in contrast to your experience, I just recently spoke with some people who are not DISers, have been to WDW several times, are familiar with Fastpass, and hadn't heard a things about Fastpass+ until I mentioned it. And one of the first things they asked was if they'd need to keep their phones on them all day.

That I think is what make FP+ _harder_ to use. Fastpass was easy...insert ticket, get FP. FP had all the info on it. No problem. Yet still guests didn't bother. Yes, they all got used up...on that day.

Now FP+ adds:

- Requirement to have a MDX account;
- Requirement to link tickets they may not have, and even DISers having a tough time with it
- Option to customize magicbands
- Requirement to use MDX smartphone app, not available to all smartphones, and problematic on the ones that it is, or kiosks around the park whose quantities and locations are (at this point) VERY limited and even in the future appear to be limited

All of that is "new" technology to the guest experience. Precisely what people are already complaining about. Some people, who may have been fine with the FP kiosks as they are now, may go nowhere near FP+. Many more won't be getting FP+ in advance. And it doesn't matter how Disney advertises it. They've been advertising FP for 14 years now.

Anyways, my point was it will depend on the acceptance and utilization of FP+ plus MDX _in advance_ to know whether anything will be available on the day in question. It is easy to say "there are only X slots available", but we do NOT know how many will actually utilize this to actually get slots in advance. We CAN'T predict it. We can't apply our own knowledge over the whole of WDW guests.

I agree with you.

My post was focusing on the thought that "most" people don't understand FP. I believe that "some" people don't get it. The fastpass system is well used at wdw.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

How many people have put off trips until 2014 until that final piece is in place?

We haven't put off our trip but we have already decided that we will opt out if FP+ is offered to us this trip.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I disagree there is no evidence that people don't understand Fastpass...I've witnessed it myself.

I don't know how many times we have overheard people at WDW "Oh it would be nice to be able to afford that." "Oh, they're staying at the expensive resorts" "Oh we can't use FP+, we haven't paid for it"

With all due respect, I think you're missing bcrook's point. I agree that there is a percentage of the Disney-going population that doesn't understand FP. But regardless, there are STILL enough people at Disney who know enough about FP to snatch up all the TSM FP's before noon most days. There are STILL enough people snatching up PP FPs to push return times out several hours each day. And so on. So, yeah, there are some people who simply don't get FP, and even with all those people taken into account, there are still enough people utilizing the FP system currently to make it a success in Disney's eyes. I think that was bcrook's point.

 

[jade1]

- Requirement to use MDX smartphone app,.

Hey we have QTY 5 ATT phones. 2 are up for renewal.

One has been iphone, and one Samsung 4.

Looking at the new Samsung 4 "ACTIVE" which is water proof.

Is there any reason to choose one over the other when it comes to the new Disney FP+ process etc? Or is it too early to tell.

WDW and living on the lake have us thinking water proof.

 

[WillAustin]

There are STILL enough people snatching up PP FPs to push return times out several hours each day. And so on. So, yeah, there are some people who simply don't get FP, and even with all those people taken into account, there are still enough people utilizing the FP system currently to make it a success in Disney's eyes. I think that was bcrook's point.

And there will only be more people using it once FP+ is rolled out, advertised, and completely integrated into the reservation/online check-in process.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

And there will only be more people using it once FP+ is rolled out, advertised, and completely integrated into the reservation/online check-in process.

ITA. They're being so much more in your face about FP+ then they ever were with FP, so some of those people who are ignorant about the current system are bound to be FP+ adopters. Heck, some will probably see it as a new free "benefit" if they thought that you had to purchase FP!

 

[doconeill]

I agree with you.

My post was focusing on the thought that "most" people don't understand FP. I believe that "some" people don't get it. The fastpass system is well used at wdw.

I don't recall ever saying that "most" don't understand FP. Some don't (or can't be bothered).

But I have a feeling whatever percentage it will be will jump up with FP+, because they've increased the complexity significantly.

More on utilization after the break...

With all due respect, I think you're missing bcrook's point. I agree that there is a percentage of the Disney-going population that doesn't understand FP. But regardless, there are STILL enough people at Disney who know enough about FP to snatch up all the TSM FP's before noon most days. There are STILL enough people snatching up PP FPs to push return times out several hours each day. And so on. So, yeah, there are some people who simply don't get FP, and even with all those people taken into account, there are still enough people utilizing the FP system currently to make it a success in Disney's eyes. I think that was bcrook's point.

Ah, but WHO is getting all those FPs? If some unnamed posters who are generally no longer around were to be believed, it was because we power users were gobbling them all up anyways. Now we're being limited to 3 (assuming regular FP goes away and there is no "spiritual replacement").

That will reduce the utilization among power users.

Will utilization go up among the rest? I think it will - I'm sure there are plenty that would have loved a FP for Soarin' or TSM, at least, who didn't get one because either it was gone or at least way too late. Will it cover the entirety of what was freed up? I don't know. Predicting the mob mentality when the mob isn't 50k DISers is not generally possible. It can be done in a few instances (look back at my analysis of what I think will happen to standby lines...I should probably put that up on my site for safe keeping), but this has too many factors to compute.

 

[doconeill]

Hey we have QTY 5 ATT phones. 2 are up for renewal.

One has been iphone, and one Samsung 4.

Looking at the new Samsung 4 "ACTIVE" which is water proof.

Is there any reason to choose one over the other when it comes to the new Disney FP+ process etc? Or is it too early to tell.

WDW and living on the lake have us thinking water proof.

I think the app is crappy right now whichever platform you use...as long as it's Apple or Android 2.X. Apple might get fixes slightly ahead of Android.

As for being waterproof...well, if dropping it while on Pirates or IASW while waving it around trying to get a signal to check whether a Splash Mountain FP+ slot became available, I think you have your answer...