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View Full Version : Fastpass - is it really better?



coronamouseman
10-04-2001, 06:43 PM
Each time I go to the park, it seems to get more annoying each time as the later you arrive in the day, the more outrageous the Fastpass return times become (you try to get a Fastpass at
11:00AM at Space Mountain and it tells you your return time
is 5:00PM). This is especially the case if you are an annual passholder and you are looking to only spend a few hours at the park, go on a couple of rides and maybe hit a restaurant at
Downtown Disney (imagine actually going to Disney to eat good food!)

In 1995, it seemed like one could go the park on a winter's Sunday and hit all the major rides in 3-4 hours - now, with Fastpass, it seems like you can never do more than 2-3 in the same time period.

Anybody else care to comment on this?

Thomas
10-04-2001, 07:26 PM
I agree with you.

I usually get to the park around 5pm with my family. If we go over to Indy or Splash Mountain, return times are around 11pm - midnight.

I think the line at both attractions actually moved faster without Fastpass. I have not hac a bad experience on Space Mountain yet. Usually only a 1 hour return time.

Morrigoon
10-04-2001, 07:41 PM
I agree... fastpass has killed spontaneity.

Nigel2
10-04-2001, 09:26 PM
One time (this was before it was really common for super time differences) I was going to get a FP for indy and I saw the sign (at 10 am) and it said 1 to 2 I thought at frist that it was broken since it was so far ahead, but it was that time.:( A friend of mine was also at WDW this summer (did anyone else seem to have every person they know at disneyworld this summer?) and he told me that some of the machines were sold out for the rest of the day by arround 3. Oddly during the week (and the buckets of rain) the FP weren't that hard to get, but TT had a long mature time since rain shut it down.

RideMax Mark
10-05-2001, 05:38 AM
Interesting thread...

It used to be that during the "busy season," arriving at the park early in the day was just good advice. With FP, it's almost a necessity if you're trying to ride a substantial number of rides.

In the morning, the return times aren't that far away, but as everyone has noted, the more the day goes on you're able to get fewer and fewer FP's.

Mark
______________
Disneyland - Spend less time in line with RideMax for Disneyland (http://www.ridemax.com)

dshimel
10-05-2001, 06:11 AM
Clearly, FASTPASS isn't a great deal for people with APs that only want to spend a couple hours in the afternoon or evening at the park and want to do the favorite attractions.

However, for someone that is dropping $2-3K on a weekend a couple times a decade, FASTPASS is great. Rather than spending hours in line for the best attractions, we can grab a FASTPASS, check out the attractions that have no line, then ride with little to no wait.

I know these boards are loaded with people that have APs, so a vote on this board is probably going to go against FASTPASS. I'll bet that on the average busy day, there are FAR more people in the park that don't go several times a month. I bet most of those people love FASTPASS.

Flubber
10-05-2001, 07:26 AM
I'm not concerned with the $2-3k weekender. What can Fastpass do for me, Flubber (thanks al franken). When I can use it, great. When I can't because of distant ride times, hate it. I've posted this before but to me Fastpass artificially inflates stand-by queues to keep the Fastpass queue short or non-existent. Fairness to guest (APs are still guest) issue aside Fastpass seems horribly inefficient to me.

Fastpass will become a commodity in the near future. An upgrade for hotel guest and APs. For Disney this is a much better solution to the guest complaint of long lines than building more attractions or limiting attendance.

Flub

dshimel
10-05-2001, 07:37 AM
All reports are in, it is now official, life is not fair.

APs are guests, but they are paying far less per visit then the general public. That isn't fair.

People staying on site, or using multi-day passes, get in earlier than day trippers. That isn't fair.

People going for the full day get better access to FASTPASS. That isn't fair.

I don't care about APs being able to show up at 4:00PM and get on Indianna Jones with only an hour wait. I'm worried about me being able to get a FASTPASS to Indianna, then do 3-4 rides in the couple hours until the return time.

I'm sure that if AP sales drop due to FASTPASS, they'll change the system. As long FASTPASS still appeals to the big spending out of towners, I doubt it is going anywhere.

Does FASTPASS increase the average wait time? I doubt it. If I grab a FASTPASS, then wait 2 hours, then ride again on the FASTPASS, then the average wait was 1 hour. That is probably what the wait would have been had there not been FASTPASS. Point is, that I get a FASTPASS, then ride things that have little or no line, then come back and use the FASTPASS.

So, FASTPASS probably helps those that take best advantage of it, and hurts those that don't. Don't expect it to go away just because your personal visiting habits don't allow optimal use of FASTPASS. In general, I'd think it helps more people than it hurts.

Nigel2
10-05-2001, 09:22 AM
The only thing that they need to do is make a 2nd line for all FP attractions, so the stand by people don't stand there for even longer since a CM wants to wait for a while before letting FP people through. Pirates, HM, SM, Splash, BTRR and I think ISWH do it that way. But indy and autopia need to do it that way also. I don't know why they have one for Steps in time though?

TDS#1Disney Park
10-05-2001, 09:57 AM
FASTPASS IS JUST A FEATURE !!!.YOU DONT HAVE TO GET A FASTPASS IF YOU DONT WANT TO.....I GET SO TIRED OF PEOPLE GETTING FASTPASS THE GET MAD AT THE TIME THATS ON THERE,IT JUST TICKS ME OFF WHEN PEOPLE ARE JUST IDIOTS AND DONT USE THERE HEADS.IF YOU THINK YOUR FASTPASS TIME IS TO LATE FOR YOU ,THEN WAIT IN THE STAND BY LINE AND STOP YOUR COMPLAINING. AND FASTPASS HAS THERE OWN LINE,EVERY ATTRACTION HAS THERE MERGE POINT THATS WHERE FASTPASS AND STANDBY MERGE IN TOGETHER.AND IF YOU WONDER WHY THAT CM LETS SO MANY FASTPASS THROUGH THEN STANDBY BECAUSE THE CM HAS TO LET IN ABOUT 7 TO 10 RATIO OF FP MEANING FOR EVERY 7 FP THERE WILL BE 3 STAND BY.AND IF THE LINE MOVES TO SLOW ,DONT TAKE IT OUT AT THE CM HE'S JUST DOIN HIS JOB.

Andrew
10-05-2001, 10:21 AM
Please remember to turn off your caps lock key when posting. Thank you.

Thomas
10-05-2001, 10:55 AM
The point is that the standby times were shorter before fastpass. On Indy for example, the standby time is normally 90+ minutes. Before Fastpass it was less than an hour. Same for Splash Mountain.

Nigel2
10-05-2001, 11:47 AM
Bad juior member bad. We wen't taking it out on the CMs, just commenting. Plus its one thing if there are FP holders coming, but alot of times there aren't any and there is still a hold up. Some attractions do have merge points, but alot don't, they have 2 seperate lines. Now cool your jets or we will get the hazing items.

coronamouseman
10-05-2001, 04:24 PM
So if the ratio of FP to standby guests is 7/3, then for a ride such
as Space Mountain with a capacity of 2000 (?) guests per hour,
in one hour 1400 FP guests will ride and 600 standby guests will
ride. So if the only way to ride Space Mountain without a long wait is to use Fastpass, so be it. Same for Indy, same for Splash Mountain. But most certainly your wait in a standby line will be longer than if Fastpass did not exist.

But things go bad when you have a two-hour wait for your Fastpass return to Splash Mountain when you have long standby lines for Indy, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Carribbean and Jungle Cruise because they too have Fastpass. The point is that Fastpass should only be offered for those rides that typically have waits over 45 minutes because you should have other rides to go on while waiting for your Fastpass return times where the queues move more quickly without any Fastpass being offered.
This is what one would think Disney would be doing if all they were concerned about was getting the most people on the most rides in a day.

If Disney plans to install Fastpass on most all attractions, then "regular"visitors (meaning anybody not staying at a Disney hotel) will most likely eventually have to brace for the fact that hotel guests paying exhorbitant package rates will have priority
Fastpass access (read "no wait" here) - what better tool for Disney to increase revenues during times when theme park attendance is down than to offer newer and more expensive premium services within their parks using equipment already in
place? Buy your "Instant Fastpass Passport" for $100 a day and save the wait! This already is the case at Universal Orlando where hotel guests get "no-wait" access on any and every ride they wish simply for booking themselves into a $300 a night hotel.

stevemo
10-05-2001, 04:34 PM
I think that this is a valid question. Does the Fastpass system cause longer wait times overall? This last Sunday I went to the park, waited about 15 minutes for Indy and about 10 for Pirates without using fastpass. I think that we can agree that during the off season Fastpass is unnecessary. During the Busier season I would agree with the poster who stated that fastpass works for the person who intends to spend the day at the park as oppossed to one who wants to swing through and catch dinner and a ride or two. During the On Seasons, before Fastpass, I remember waits of over an hour on almost every ride. But that's why we have AP's, so that we can enjoy the park whenever, even during the slow times.

The Big Question here follows; is fastpass better at evening out the lines and distributing ridership across all types of attractions than was the old ticket book system? The ticket books were originally introduced to reduce lines on the more popular attractions by encouraging guests to utilize the tickets that they had purchased for the less popular attractions, although my E's were always gone and I always had a couple of A's and B's left. The unlimited pass, although a nice feature, caused longer lines in my opinion.

blusilva
10-06-2001, 11:38 AM
Originally posted by stevemo
The Big Question here follows; is fastpass better at evening out the lines and distributing ridership across all types of attractions than was the old ticket book system? The ticket books were originally introduced to reduce lines on the more popular attractions by encouraging guests to utilize the tickets that they had purchased for the less popular attractions, although my E's were always gone and I always had a couple of A's and B's left. The unlimited pass, although a nice feature, caused longer lines in my opinion.

That's a really interesting question. Last night, I got to the Park about 7:00 with the sole intention of seeing the new Mansion overlay (because I couldn't stand waiting anymore to read Sue Kruse's columns! ;)) I went straight over to get my FP, which was for 9:30-10:30.

In the interim I went on the Mark Twain, ate some dinner at the Stagedoor Cafe, took the train from the Frontierland station to the Toontown station, went on It's A Small World, and watched the fireworks in Fantasyland. I had planned to see Mr. Lincoln before 9:30, but the train was having some issues and I got "stuck" at the Toontown station for a half an hour.

I was avoiding other FP attractions while I waited for my Mansion FP to become valid. I used the "downtime" to visit attractions that I normally wouldn't have gone on. Part of that was because I was alone and had the total freedom to do what I wanted.

I generally dislike FP simply because it makes no sense to me. Mathmatically, it doesn't seem to work in favor of the average guest trying to maximize his bang for the buck. I also don't like the added stress of "planning" my day inside of Disneyland. As I sat eating my dinner, I formulated a plan that included taking the train to specific parts of the park to "maximize" my down time. When the train had "down time", it threw a monkey wrench in my perfect planning.

That being said, I was glad that I had the FP for the Mansion and didn't have to wait in line for more than 10 minutes.

But I'm also not your typical visitor. I'm a Premium AP and last night I was there with one purpose only. So....take this case study FWIW.

DisneylandKid
10-06-2001, 08:19 PM
Oh, you complainers. Of course it is better to have the Fastpass option than not too. As much as I love both the Indiana Jones Adventure queue and actual ride, I don't know if I would wait in it for 120 minutes...the 10 minute Fastpass line will do for me!

Nigel2
10-06-2001, 09:20 PM
But someone raised that point earlier that 120 minute line could be like a 50 minute like if there was no FP. But yeah it still is good if you wanted to take in a show or a lower capacity ride while it matured. For example WWTBAMPI (anagrams, just for fun) you can usually get a FP that is already valid for that show, then rush over (or walk if you have time) to another attraction get a FP there (since they now let you get one once the early time is valid) and then go back to millionare and then enjoy the show and usually the FP is almost mature on a good day.

Thomas
10-07-2001, 09:17 AM
Saturday 10/6:

Autopia - got FP, came back, only one line of cars open. approx wait 45 minutes. got out of line.

Indiana Jones - FP at 6:30, come back after 11:30. Splash, same thing.

Haunted Mansion - 10 minute wait in FP line, only 10 minute wait to get on ride with FP. Definitely worked out on this one.