Enforcing FastPass return times?

[danyoung]

Seems to me it's all about how you handle your FPs. If you have a window of say 1pm to 2pm, and you plan on riding the ride at 1:55pm, then you're taking a chance that you might be late. But if you plan on going on the ride as close to 1pm as possible, then the 1 hour window is a nice cushion in case of unforseen events.

[iceman559]

When they do start enforcing the window of time, I hope they at least extend it a little bit. Because one hour inside the parks does not equal a whole lot of wiggle room. I think a two hour window would help with the unexpected delays that guests come across.

I completely agree.


Seems to me it's all about how you handle your FPs. If you have a window of say 1pm to 2pm, and you plan on riding the ride at 1:55pm, then you're taking a chance that you might be late. But if you plan on going on the ride as close to 1pm as possible, then the 1 hour window is a nice cushion in case of unforseen events.

I agree that if you plan on the late end, you're likely to miss out, and that's your own fault. But let's say someone is visiting and isn't familiar with the park. Let's say they go stand in line for Splash or Indy, having a FP for Space. Both rides can have very deceptive queues. Let's say the sign outside says "15 minute wait", it's 12:45 and so you decide to stand in line for Splash Mountain, but it's backed up most of the way through the inside queue. If you haven't been on the ride before, you wouldn't know just how long you truly have left. Before you know it, 15 minutes are up. Assuming the sign was accurate (and let's face it, how often are they?), you'd expect to be "nearly there". So you wait. And you keep moving, turning corners expecting to see the station, but you don't. Just another corner. Now it's 1:20 and you're slowly coming around that final bend. Finally, after a 45 minute wait, you get on at 1:30. After the 10 minute ride, you get off at 1:40. Now, you have to make it from Splash Mountian all the way to Space Mountain in 20 minutes. On a light day, this probably wouldn't be an issue. But what if you hit a parade? Or a solid crowd on a heavy day? You may miss your window simply because the estimated wait was incorrect.

Heck, just the parade itself can mess things up big time. There's a lot of things that could catch people off guard and result in them missing their window accidentally, especially people who aren't as "experienced" as most of the people on here. While I can understand them wanting to actually enforce the window, I think they should either make the window two hours or give a 1-hour grace period after your window, especially on busy days where there could be a lot more unforeseen delays.

[danyoung]

iceman, I agree that there will be a lot of rookies who make mistakes and get bit by the new system. But I lean towards the "tough noogies" line of thinking. I mean, when we were park rookies we made all kinds of mistakes. But as we gained more experience we didn't make those mistakes any more. I just don't think it's that hard to hit an hour long window. And if you miss it, you miss it. Heck, there are even times when I want to make a FP window but I get tied up doing something else, and I just blow off the FP. And then there are times when I'll sorta hover around an area, shopping or whatnot, waiting for my FP ride time to roll around. It's still my choice whether I want to hit the window or not.

[PrincessTiffany]

A CM told DH that they would be doing it at DL as well. This happened Tink weekend and they also said March.

Touringplans.com said that Disneyland would not be enforcing the Fastpass return time. We are going to Disneyland in June and WDW in August, can't wait to see how this all plays out.

[elke]

couldn't this actually just lead to people overcollecting FP in case they miss some return windows? Wouldn't this also result in more FP never being used because you missed your window? And wouldn't that still mean that FP machines would run out of FP since I assume that has to do with number of FP dispensed, not number of FP used? Having said that though, none of my friends and acquaintances who go to DL were ever aware of being able to use FP past their return time window. Not the biggest sample, but I wonder whether it's really true that a noticeable amount of visitors "are in the know" and that this somehow negatively affects the system.
Or could this result in a some new "in the know" thing for dedicated planners who like to do their research to reduce their times waiting in line?
I wonder whether it would make more sense to impose a limit on how many FP total you could collect in a day - not sure what a good number would be, but this way you could manage your visit and plan which attractions to hit with a FP, where to go early, what to do with single rider etc.
I have to admit though that it would be nice not feeling pressured to race to Space Mountain at rope drop to grab a FP and then race back to Peter Pan to join the family - since that early FP would mature way too early, it wouldn't make sense anymore to do that.

[ogold72]

iceman, I agree that there will be a lot of rookies who make mistakes and get bit by the new system. But I lean towards the "tough noogies" line of thinking. I mean, when we were park rookies we made all kinds of mistakes. But as we gained more experience we didn't make those mistakes any more. I just don't think it's that hard to hit an hour long window. And if you miss it, you miss it. Heck, there are even times when I want to make a FP window but I get tied up doing something else, and I just blow off the FP. And then there are times when I'll sorta hover around an area, shopping or whatnot, waiting for my FP ride time to roll around. It's still my choice whether I want to hit the window or not.

As I stated before, we will just have to deal with it but I must say that simply because they are going to enforce and already existing policy (as you have mentioned several times), doesnt make it a good policy. If it was such an important policy/feature of queue control, why would they stop enforcing it in the first place? How long has it been since it was enforced? That is also another indicator of its lack of efficacy. I think that your thoughts on "rookies" actually highlights how flawed the policy it as it was originally designed. Why does someone have to intimately know the park and all of its intricacies in order to avoid missing FP windows? The casual, once a year visitor should be able to go to the park and not leave having missed rides because of policies and and not having an above average knowledge of the park. If a system is effective, it allows the lowest common denominator (in this case the once a year, never been before visitor) to use that system with minimal friction. If they do enforce it, its not going to last long because CMs and Town Hall are going to get real sick, real quick, of people begging to be let through because of whatever happened (innocently) that prevented them from making the window and at TH for hearing all the disgruntled guests who will complain.

I hope the scuttle posted about Touring Plans is true.

[AVP]

Why does someone have to intimately know the park and all of its intricacies in order to avoid missing FP windows?What intimate, intricate knowledge is required to look at a piece of paper that says "return between 1:10 and 2:10" and understand that this means "return between 1:10 and 2:10?"

The intimate, intricate knowledge is in knowing that "return between 1:10 and 2:10" is in operational practice "return between 1:10 and whenever we close." The casual, once a year visitor who returns during the window printed on the Fastpass gets exactly what they were promised.



I have to admit though that it would be nice not feeling pressured to race to Space Mountain at rope drop to grab a FP and then race back to Peter Pan to join the family - since that early FP would mature way too early, it wouldn't make sense anymore to do that.This is a lovely example of why there's room for improvement in the current system. (And I'm not picking on you, but this really is a great example of how behavior will change if the official policy is enforced.) If the additional enforcement gets people onto FP rides earlier in the day, there's less of a backlog of expired FPs being used later in the day, which could mean shorter standby lines at those attractions. Seriously, go hang out at Space Mountain for a while at night, and see how many people are using expired FPs - there's a reason that standby line is so long at night. It's not because everyone said, "hey, let's make Space Mountain our last ride," it's because there are so many more FP users.

Let's throw out a hypothetical number - say a ride has a capacity of 1000 per hour, and 100 FPs are issued for every return hour. That's 100 FP users and 900 standby riders every hour, all day. Every single FP user who returns after their window means one less standby rider in that hour. When it's the end of the day and you now have 200 FP users converging on Space Mountain every hour, that's 100 standby riders who have to wait LONGER because a FP user didn't return when they were supposed to.

[currence]

Let's throw out a hypothetical number - say a ride has a capacity of 1000 per hour, and 100 FPs are issued for every return hour. That's 100 FP users and 900 standby riders every hour, all day. Every single FP user who returns after their window means one less standby rider in that hour. When it's the end of the day and you now have 200 FP users converging on Space Mountain every hour, that's 100 standby riders who have to wait LONGER because a FP user didn't return when they were supposed to.

See, this is where Disney needs to decide what audience they are targeting with their fastpass policies. Disney is certainly within their rights to enforce their policies however they see fit, but they are also able to tweak their own software. If your example, they issue 100 fastpasses per hour throughout their operational day, but the bulk of the "expired" fastpasses are being used at night. If Disney chose to, they could adjust for this by issuing 200 fastpasses/hour (or any other amount, I'm just keeping with our original example numbers) from park opening until 4pm and then issue 50 fastpasses per hour from 4pm until 2 hours before park closing, at which point they stop issuing fastpasses completely. Under such a scenario, the 100 people who return after their allotted fastpass time are not competing with people who are "supposed" to be there and the standby lines are not lengthened because the fastpass "abusers" are effectively not displacing standby guests since the computer algorithm has accounted for the user.

Even if they did not go that extreme, I certainly would not begrudge Disney if they lowered the amount of fastpasses that were valid right at the end of parades/fireworks, since those seem to be popular times to redeem fastpasses.

Ultimately, Disney can do what they want and we will all adapt. I do wish that they created a hard line policy on redemption so that the cast members do not have to deal with obnoxious guests who know that they have discretion. I would also like it if they expanded the redemption window, but again that's more of a personal preference.

[3Princesses1Prince]

AVP your calculations don't consider the number of standby users that are getting on "earlier" because the FP riders don't show up in that particular hour. So you say those 200 standby riders are being delayed, when in reality the standby line is 200 riders ahead of schedule anyways.

[AVP]

AVP your calculations don't consider the number of standby users that are getting on "earlier" because the FP riders don't show up in that particular hour. So you say those 200 standby riders are being delayed, when in reality the standby line is 200 riders ahead of schedule anyways.Regardless of what time I enter the standby line, every person with an expired Fastpass who gets to board before me is making me wait longer. Earlier in the day it may mean that I board fast than I "should" because of all of the people who aren't using their Fastpasses on time. At the end of the day, the situation is very much reversed. I don't know if it evens out. I always believed Disney put some "breakage" into their FP distribution rate, assuming people wouldn't use them at all. I don't know how much that was tweaked to account for late returns.

[elke]

wouldn't it be neat if you could customize your FP return window - but there could be a limit on how many FP could be valid within any given hour. That way, earlier visitors would still get better "pickings", as the most popular return times would be gone earlier. Of course, I realize that we would now have an issue with lines at the FP machines! Unless there was a two tier system with the walk up FP and some kind of central FP hub where you enter your itinerary maybe even in advance. I am just wondering what kind of system would work best for crowd control AND customer satisfaction at the same time.
I am sure happy there is some kind of FP though - I remember on our first visit, in 2003 or so, during the last weekend of the socal 2fer, there was a 3 hour wait or something at GRR. And people were lining up despite that. This was in the evening on a Saturday. FP distribution was long over, but I don't recall a lot of people in the FP return line.

[Drince88]

wouldn't it be neat if you could customize your FP return window - but there could be a limit on how many FP could be valid within any given hour
I think that's what the 'master plan' idea floating around is all about - totally planning out your trip ahead of time with meals and attractions and character interactions, etc. Supposedly that 'plan' is for WDW - but who knows what they'll implement when and where.

[ogold72]

What intimate, intricate knowledge is required to look at a piece of paper that says "return between 1:10 and 2:10" and understand that this means "return between 1:10 and 2:10?"

The intimate, intricate knowledge is in knowing that "return between 1:10 and 2:10" is in operational practice "return between 1:10 and whenever we close." The casual, once a year visitor who returns during the window printed on the Fastpass gets exactly what they were promised.
Well, you should really ask DanYoung, since he made the reference to rookie mistakes, of which apparently would not be made without whatever intimate knowledge (I believe I also used the term "above average", which I will use for my reply). a non-rookie would make, but since you asked me, I will take a stab at it.

I will state, again, that my family and I will work within the new framework and still have a great time, but my chief observation is that the enforcement is a reduction in current flexibility.

Above average knowledge of the park (of which I can only aspire to) would mean to me that you really know how long it takes to walk from one end of the park to the other in order to make a window based on what ride you may be currently going on, how long a queue is for the pre FP ride, or even the FP ride itself because it may bump into lunch or dinner reservations. How going to the FP ride will effect you ability to see a parade or Fireworks or Fantasmic since if you want that really nice view, you often have to invest an hour or more securing a seat. You may not have anticipated that your little girl or even yourself would get so tired so quickly from all the walking, that your shoes will cause blisters or that the sun was starting to beat down on you and what you really need to do is go back to your room to rest but "tough noogies", you just will have to miss out on your ride. Maybe you didnt realize that it would take so long to actually get seated or served when you made those dinner reservations a month in advance but the FP at Star Tours will only let you come back at the hours right around your dinner. Perhaps your kids favorite character all of sudden arises on your path to your FP ride and now your little one wants to hug Mickey and get a picture. Uh oh, sorry kid, cant stop now, we have a window! Im sure there are myriad of other scenarios in which a person who doesnt go to the parks constantly will encounter that will make the windows a challenge. Yes, Im sure those folks understand that 1:10-2:10 means 1:10-2:10, perhaps even I may someday comprehend that too. Stuff happens that you dont anticipate and folks will be negatively impacted by a rigid policy. You seem pleased by the changes, I am not.

Regarding the premise that queues are going to get shorter because of this change is highly debatable. The example you provide omits that when a person doesnt use their FP during their window, an additional person gets onto the ride in the standby line because the FP person wasnt there. By folks waiting until later at night, that many more folks got to go through the line faster during the day. Another factor is that simply because a person uses their FP during their appointed time does not mean that they wont get back in line again without a FP, thus further clogging up the line. Its just like a highway, they will fill up until it isnt practical to use them - even if you open up a new lane, thus getting more people through, if it still takes an hour to get down the road because more people will get on the highway and you will not see any reduction in your personal commute time. Similarly, popular rides will just fill up until its not practical to wait any longer. It doesnt matter that an extra 100 standby people get through, you will still wait the same amount of time because folks will line up until the standby time is back to where folks decide its too long to wait. There are way too many people in the park for the FP enforcement to have any practical impact on wait times.

[danyoung]

ogold, I'm going to try and answer some of your questions. This thread is bordering on people being offended, which I hope doesn't happen. I mean no offense in my discussion of this topic, and I hope that goes for you as well.


If it was such an important policy/feature of queue control, why would they stop enforcing it in the first place?

I'm guessing that early on it was decided to be somewhat lax about the end time, as people would of course show up whenever, a little late or a lot late, and it was just easier to let 'em in. I'm also guessing that they've finally decided that this isn't such a good policy, and are attempting to tighten things up a little.



I think that your thoughts on "rookies" actually highlights how flawed the policy it as it was originally designed. Why does someone have to intimately know the park and all of its intricacies in order to avoid missing FP windows?

When I spoke of park rookies, I meant exactly that - the visitor who has never been there before. The intmate and intricate factors are all yours. I don't think I said that - I know I didn't mean it. And to me that's one of the beauties of FP - that with just a little knowledge you can make the system work well for your family. Of course some people have their secret tips and tricks for getting even more out of the system, and that's all well and good. But the basic operation of FP is pretty simple and easy to understand.


If they do enforce it, its not going to last long because CMs and Town Hall are going to get real sick, real quick, of people begging to be let through because of whatever happened (innocently) that prevented them from making the window and at TH for hearing all the disgruntled guests who will complain.

Well, this remains to be seen. I think people will soon adjust to the system. I mean, if your FP says 1pm to 2pm, and you show up at 2:30pm and want to use it, it's pretty cut and dried factual that you're there too late and your FP is no longer valid. Doesn't matter what happened, what caused you to miss your window, except for maybe a ride that was down and kept you on it for 60 minutes or more (which is pretty unlikely in Disneyland). And if that did happen, it's easy for the call to go out on the radio that this is a valid excuse for the next 2 hours or so, and to go ahead and accept late FPs. For every situation there's an easy fix, it seems to me.

[ogold72]

ogold, I'm going to try and answer some of your questions. This thread is bordering on people being offended, which I hope doesn't happen. I mean no offense in my discussion of this topic, and I hope that goes for you as well.



I'm guessing that early on it was decided to be somewhat lax about the end time, as people would of course show up whenever, a little late or a lot late, and it was just easier to let 'em in. I'm also guessing that they've finally decided that this isn't such a good policy, and are attempting to tighten things up a little.




When I spoke of park rookies, I meant exactly that - the visitor who has never been there before. The intmate and intricate factors are all yours. I don't think I said that - I know I didn't mean it. And to me that's one of the beauties of FP - that with just a little knowledge you can make the system work well for your family. Of course some people have their secret tips and tricks for getting even more out of the system, and that's all well and good. But the basic operation of FP is pretty simple and easy to understand.



Well, this remains to be seen. I think people will soon adjust to the system. I mean, if your FP says 1pm to 2pm, and you show up at 2:30pm and want to use it, it's pretty cut and dried factual that you're there too late and your FP is no longer valid. Doesn't matter what happened, what caused you to miss your window, except for maybe a ride that was down and kept you on it for 60 minutes or more (which is pretty unlikely in Disneyland). And if that did happen, it's easy for the call to go out on the radio that this is a valid excuse for the next 2 hours or so, and to go ahead and accept late FPs. For every situation there's an easy fix, it seems to me.

Well I appreciate your desire to have a genuine, even if spirited discussion. You observed correctly that the conversation was starting to go sideways, as the tone (IMHO) was starting to take the tenor that if anyone is unhappy or not "on-board" with the changes, then they are just whining and dont have valid concerns or opinions.


About rookies - well, if they arent clued in, then they are missing what more experienced folks have. My position is that even if you arent a rookie, life is going to get in the way of even the best laid out plan for the park and those windows will make it harder, not easier to do whatever a guest planned to do while at the park. Being a rookie will make it that much harder. We spend alot of time chewing on these topics and I still dont know if I have figured out a way to plan all the things I want to do at the park without watching FPs go to waste. Its not about the ease of FP, its about all the variables that you or I or AVP or anyone can anticipate that will effect a persons visit to the park. This is why I am a proponent of the flexibility the old (current) offers. Im not advocating hoarding FPs to use at night, but to allow folks to be able to be able to go to the park in leisure without feeling harried in order to meet a window, or risk losing the chance to go on a ride. I think we just see it differently. You see few reasons to miss a window and I see numerous. I think as I talk about this more, its the feeling of time pressure and rush that the windows will (certainly in my case) invite that I find unsettling.

You are right - it all remains to be seen. People do adjust to situations but whatever reasons led to your speculations as to why they let the rules slip in the first place will still be there and thus that friction between guest and CM will reappear and thats not good for business. So I think that the change will have a negative impact on a guests overall experience and that will reflect in other areas (merchandise, length of stay, retention of guests).

[danyoung]

Im not advocating hoarding FPs to use at night, but to allow folks to be able to be able to go to the park in leisure without feeling harried in order to meet a window, or risk losing the chance to go on a ride.

If that was all that was going on, I'd be right there with you. But unfortunately there are obviously many people who ARE hoarding FPs into the evening. And the abuse has gotten to the point where Disney feels they need to do something about it.


I think we just see it differently. You see few reasons to miss a window and I see numerous.

On the contrary, I think there are many things that can affect a person's day, sometimes to the point where he'd miss his FP window. All I know is from my own experience. If a ride is important enough to me, I'll make sure I hit the window. If, however, I'm getting a FP for Space Mountain and then spending my time over in Frontierland or Critter Country, it's less likely that I'll be able to zip all the way across the park. And that's my own choice. Of course it's going to be more inconvenient for those who have gotten used to not having to obey the end time on the FP. But it's certainly doable, and I understand why Disney feels the change is necessary.

[Angie2009]

Glad someone got a chuckle out of me being happy to enjoy a last trip with more flexibility!

If the prices were going up on May 5 and I bought a ticket on May 4th I'd be happy too! Not sure that would be as funny though.

[Angie2009]

Glad someone got a chuckle out of me being happy to enjoy a last trip with more flexibility!

If the prices were going up on May 5 and I bought a ticket on May 4th I'd be happy too! Not sure that would be as funny though.

Of course, I did purchase what I anticipate to be a lifetime supply of "forever stamps" when they first came out, and so I do chuckle when I mail an envelope!

[3Princesses1Prince]

I'm sorry Dan, but your view of making a FP window that's a priority is unrealistic to many of us because you typically are on your own or with adults, and those like ogold72 and I have kids to work around. I'm not saying that makes our needs any more important, but it does change our experience and priorities that you really can't compare to.

[houseofmouse]

I am curious how long the holdout will be for enforcement. Either CM's getting tired of the confrontation or mad that they now have to start enforcing them? Wondering if many will just keep the unofficial policy just because it makes their jobs easier? And whose to say if a Lead will always be there watching because I can bet fellow CM's won't rat on each other.

[danyoung]

I'm sorry Dan, but your view of making a FP window that's a priority is unrealistic to many of us because you typically are on your own or with adults, and those like ogold72 and I have kids to work around. I'm not saying that makes our needs any more important, but it does change our experience and priorities that you really can't compare to.

I don't really disagree with this. Of course my experience is going to be different than anyone else's, especially someone with kids in tow. I still feel, however, that the 1 hour window is totally doable - maybe more inconvenient than before, but still workable.

[MadasaHatter]

I see it as a rather simple kindergarten maxim of "You ruined it for everyone." Returning to SPACE MOUNTAIN at 9:00pm when the return was between 1:00 and 2:oo pm???? Tsk. tsk. That is asking a lot! Have I done it? Of course I have....I'm mad! If they enforce it I am fine with it. You don't need a fast pass for the Fire Engine so I'm not worried. That is still my favorite ride. Of course. I . am. mad.

[jsilkey]

I question whether there will be a large increase in complaints.

Most people don't know that they are good after the time. It seems that I have heard people mostly say that if they miss it, they don't even go to the ride to try.

I would think most rookies would just make the choice to go during the window or do whatever interrupted the plan, rather than go late and try to get on. Obviously not everyone, but I think maybe a majority do currently handle it this way and would continue to do so.

[iceman559]

And if you miss it, you miss it. Heck, there are even times when I want to make a FP window but I get tied up doing something else, and I just blow off the FP. And then there are times when I'll sorta hover around an area, shopping or whatnot, waiting for my FP ride time to roll around. It's still my choice whether I want to hit the window or not.

I'm assuming you go fairly often, as in once or more per year, correct? Not everyone has that ability. I have friends that have only gone twice in their entire lives (my brother-in-law included). Personally, I'm lucky if I make it once a year now-a-days. The people that go less often are going to be more affected by this policy than those that go often. When I go, I'm more likely to leave when it starts getting crowded or just don't feel guilty about not using FPs that I didn't get a chance to use because I was stuck on the other side of the park. Someone who's going for the first time in their life isn't going to want to "hover around an area, shopping or what not" waiting for an FP window so they don't miss it. I'm sure most of them would consider that a waste! Especially if it's like Splash Mountain or something where there's really no shops "nearby" the FP entrance.

Now, let's also look at it from a park crowd level perspective. Say I get a FP at noon that's valid from 2-3pm at Space Mountain. Well, I've got two hours. Okay, I'll ride Star Tours. Then, BLAB. Sigh. Only 40 minutes have passed, I still have an hour and 20 minutes until my window opens. I hate Captain EO, I hate Astro Orbitor, and Nemo isn't really my thing. Autopia, no thanks. So now either I re-ride Star Tours and/or BLAB again, just stand around twiddling my thumbs for over an hour, or I go elsewhere. Well, let's go to Matterhorn. Woohoo! Okay, now I ride Matterhorn. Including the wait, that blew another 30 minutes. Now it's just 50 minutes until my window. Well, since we're almost there, let's head over through Fantasyland over into Frontierland and ride Big Thunder. Uh oh, 30 minute wait. Well, let's do it. We're here and definitely won't have enough time to go anywhere else. So we finally get off Thunder after 45 minutes (the wait time sign was wrong). Crap. Window time! Let's head back to Space! Wait, a parade is starting! No! How do we get through? They won't let me through yet! Finally, after 10 minutes, they do. Okay, few. Now I just have to make it from the hub over to Space within 55 minutes. No problem! So I made that one. What if next time I get caught back in Critter Country during Fantasmic at night and need to make it to Tomorrowland? On busy days, I've had it take me 30 minutes just to get from Critter Country to the hub during Fantasmic.

By enforcing strict 1-hour windows, and hoarding is some "super-huge" problem that is apparently so bad that Disney can't afford not to enforce it, then this has the potential to cause nightmares for people. I have never HOARDED FPs before, I but I like that I can roam around the park without having to schedule everything around my FP or just not ride something (after about 30 minutes past park opening, I refuse to ride Space Mountain without an FP, same with Splash [which I only ride in the afternoon]). Like right now, I can grab a FP at Space, hit Star Tours and maybe BLAB, head around to Matterhorn, IASW, and then to BTMRR. Over to Pirates and HM. Head back through the hub, grab lunch or dinner at Plaza Inn and then head to Space to use my FP. I don't have to worry about whether or not I miss my window. I don't intend to use it late at night. I just use it in such a way that I can truly enjoy my trip there. Once the windows start being enforced strictly, then I might end up having to walk from Frontierland over to Tomorrowland for one ride, then back to NOS to continue my tour. That's a lot of extra walking.

Personally, I think it should be a ride-by-ride basis. They could easily update the FP system such that it accounts for how many FP tickets are currently outstanding. Just give the CMs a hand scanner or something and print a barcode on the FP. If it passes out 600 by 3pm and only 100 are used, then it adjusts its distribution accordingly. And if one single ride is an issue, then print on that ticket that the limit is strictly enforced after a certain time (say 5pm) to give people some room for error, but eliminating the issues with super long lines later at night. You could even make it such that if you fail to use two FPs, it locks that ticket out for the day or maybe even the remaining number of days, or for a period of X days on APs.

And so far, it seems like most people don't believe very many people knew that you could use expired FPs anyway, so then I would question how much of an issue the current non-enforcement of the windows is creating anyway. However, until Disney tests the enforcement of this policy, we won't really know for sure if it helps or hurts. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Malcon10t]

I don't think this is going to affect as many new visitors, as most simply didn't know you could extend the time frame. A lot of people have stated it is just to hard to make it back in that time frame, and yet, many make reservations at the various restaurants, and can make those on time. Try going into Goofy's at 630p and saying "Well, I had a reservation for 1130a, but it should be good now too.." You know walking up to the FP machine what time you will get. You can look at that and say "Well, 205p I don't think I will be in the park" and opt to skip getting one. This was more how FP was intended to be used. I think once people get used to it, it will work out better for all, including standby.