As a former CM, it is. Time is wasted trying to get counts and instead of just trying to get all guests through quickly, FP can never be long. So we have to nearly hold up standby in order to accommodate. It's a flawed system that inflates wait times.
Yup, I worked an attraction right after it got FP and daily standby waits went from 5-10min to 40+ bc the system always distributed too many fp. What once was a fun ride you could always depend on having minimal waits turned into another fp headache
Loved the original Fast Pass. The current system of booking 6 months out is why I stopped going to Disney World and went to universal where I don’t have to book meal times so far out along with rides.
Disney's Fastpass+ is a plague on guest experience. Anecdotally, a full Seven Dwarves Mine Train queue (without social distancing during parties) is about a 45 minute wait. Compare this to the regular day time with 3+ hour waits. I'm quite positive that Disney releases a disproportionate amount of fastpasses to purposefully and artificially inflate their lines. Like you said, the less people are in line, the more likely they are to dine and shop. Even on days that seem to have low guest attendance, wait times can seem ridiculously high, again being artificially inflated. I also strongly suspect that by making the parks look busier, they can justify price increases by saying that it's necessary to create lower crowds. This is definitely a problem in Disneyland, but in World, I believe it's an artificial problem that Disney created on purpose. It's definitely something that has only happened within the last few years, and while I understand that previous to 2020, Orlando was seeing record numbers of tourists, the wait times still didn't match up with less busy days.
The “if you’re getting on more rides with fast pass, someone else is getting on fewer rides” is really interesting. I grew up going to Disneyland all the time and Fastpass was how we did everything.
The new fastpass and the old fastpass are different. You couldn't get that piece of paper at the hotel. Or even at the gate. You had to get that paper to mark your spot in line. Now you can be in the shower at home getting ready in Georgia and getting your rides in California as long as you had a ticket for that day. I say go back to the old, non mobile way. Disney should be making people put their phones away, not making them weld it to their wrist.
@@hobinrood710 Thankfully, the Fastpass+ system was only ever in place in Florida. California never truly dropped the legacy system since it (along with Maxpass) essentially work the same, but but the tickets themselves are managed digitally.
Honestly a couple of months ago I would have said of course Fastpass is a good idea. However having recently been to the parks during social distancing and no passes, I would be happy without them. I liked how I could just walk around and not have to worry about being at a ride at a certain time. It almost makes you feel limited, if you enter one queue, you might not make it time. Also if you want to go to another park you can’t. You have to stick to the park to wait for your fastpass time. Either get rid of it entirely, unlikely, or scale it back for only a few rides.
I also just went in January and I hated the waits- the times at so many rides were routinely over an hour and without Fast Pass to fall back on there was nothing to do but just stand there and wait.
Ugh, who the hell wants to plan their day at a park 60 days in advance? I miss classic FP so much. You didn’t have to stress months beforehand. Just show up and have fun!
The only winners with Fastpass are those who work the system most efficiently. This turns vacation time into a competition where people are zigzagging through the park trying to optimize their time. It doesn't lead to a relaxing vacation. To lower wait times they need to reduce the attendance in the park. This would mean higher ticket prices and less annual passes.
I hate it too. When I went to Disney I absolutley hated it. So many people, so much Stress, you need to plan EVERYTHING in advance. It was a nightmare.
I come from a family of planners and honestly the year they introduced fastpass plus was the most relaxing Disney vacation my family had in YEARS. I don’t mind planning in advance and most people who frequent the parks (especially in Florida) don’t either. It’s worth it when you can do pretty much everything at your leisure during the trip with only a few time sensitive things in between
@@adrimartinez4714 I'm a big planner too and we did a road trip to Disney World from all the way up here in Saskatchewan. We were taking our girls there for the first time and another family was flying down to meet us. My plan for Magic Kingdom worked perfectly but my plan for Animal Kingdom was thrown completely off because our bus was late in the morning. This was a huge trip for us and we only had one day in Animal Kingdom. We made it to the things we wanted but it wasn't smooth. For people who can go to the parks on a regular basis that's probably not a big deal but it affected our experience negatively.
The nice thing about no fastpass is the line constantly moves You may wait an hour but you are always moving so it doesn't seem as bad. But the bottom line is they need to add a lot more attractions to absorb crowds and not increase overall park capacity.
If the park is crowded you can't do it all if most of your time is spent in lines. You will spend more money to come back. With online shopping, and ads on the app, your still paying money there, so restaurants are the only place else they get you. Money Money.
A few years back, I had a fastpass+ for Star Tours (Hollywood Studios), and the fastpass line was 3x the size of the standby line! I just hopped in the normal line and ended up riding it twice in a row without even using a pass.
One day they will do away with lines and you will need to make a reservation for every ride and attraction you want to see. They will come up with an app where you put in everything you would like to do at the park and the app will book your whole day for you with times (your reservation) to be at each attraction.
i haven't been to the parks since covid, but I do prefer the original fastpass system versus the fastpass+ system. The cool thing bout the original is that you just needed a ticket, you didn't need to be tied into this app that tracked your entire vacation. I remember on a rainy day, we waited out the storm and returned when the storm was letting up. It was the early evening, and a bunch of people were exiting Disney Hollywood Studios. One guy went up to my dad ad said "here, have these" and gave him a bunch of fastpasses to the new at the time toy story mania attraction. My family of 4 got to skip the 90 min wait time and hop onto a really fun ride. when we got off, my dad said, "did you kids like it?" and we were like "yea!" and he was like "do you wanna go again?" and we were like, "yeah, but it's not worth waiting 90 mins." and he was like " well i got these" and he pulled out two more fastpasses. turns out the guy who gave him the tickets had a family of six. so me and my sister rode toy story mania for a second time in a row while my parents waited outside basking in their achievement. (or rather their luck) so yah i might be a bit nostalgic over the older fastpasses, but if people knew they were gonna be wasted then they'd pawn them off to other people and they weren't totally gone. yeah, the new system lets you use the fastpass in a future occasion, but it's not as magical.
I hope that Disney just quietly kills off fastpass+ even after COVID ends. My biggest gripe is how it inflates waits on rides that don’t really need fastpass, like Spaceship Earth, Alien Swirling Saucers, and Peter Pan’s Flight
In February 2020 I went to the Magic Kingdom for a day on a whim while I was in Orlando for a week, it was an off day I'll admit but despite being in line for Seven Dwafs for two hours I managed, through cheesing it with the fast pass system, going on rides with short lines and strategic placement at rope drop and during the fireworks managed to ride every ride once, two rides on Thunder Mountain (including one during the fireworks which was an incredible experience) and three rides on Space Mountain (my first experience being in the front seat). The system certainly worked for me, a guy who went alone on a slow off season day and refreshed the hell out of my phone's mobile data.
Honestly..I don’t want to plan what rides I’m going to go on 60 days in advance. I don’t even know what park I’m going to be at on any certain day. It’s too structured and I like the flexibility to do whatever.
The upcharge pass has been the model in the main UK theme parks for as long as I can remember. The Merlin Entertainment parks (Alton Towers Resort, Thorpe Park Resort, Chessington World of Adventures Resort, Legoland Windsor Resort) all each have different packages, varying on the number of different rides, selected rides, amount of times you can use the pass and an "ultimate" pass which offers the unlimited rides on all fast-track (our version of fastpass) available rides on a day. The only time you ever get a free fast-track pass is if you stick-it-out in a queue when a ride has broken-down for more than 1/2 hour or you've been stuck on that ride for any period of time outside of expected normal operation. Wait times have always been similarly affected though; it's often you see maybe 2 - 4 stations worth of guests being allowed through the fast-track line before maybe 1/2 a station of regular guests are allowed through.
I used to love Disney even in the 90s when there were schools of children visiting from South America and when you saw the dreaded matching T-shirts you knew you were in for a long queue. Then they introduced fast pass and we loved it we could enjoy the day with a minimal amount of planning and preparation and feel like you got value for money. The digitisation and monetisation of fastpass is one of the reasons I no longer go to Disney despite being a DVC member. The idea of planning which ride I want to go on six months in advance feels more like work than a holiday also morally I don’t believe fun should be locked behind a pay wall.
without watching this yet, the answer is yes quite so, after experiencing the lines without fast pass, its insane how fast the lines move without. if fast pass didnt exist theyre wouldnt be a need for it, the lines actually move and when a 40min wait is moving along its not that bad
I just attended Disney World this January without the Fast Pass system- "due to Covid" - and it was the first time I had and frankly as far as rides it sucked. I spent by far more time in well over hour long lines (and this is January off-peak) for a 3-4 minute ride experience than anything else. With Fast Pass I would typically go and attend things like Carousel of Progress, Mickey's Philharmagic, People Mover or other easy on rides while waiting for the Fast Pass to come due or I'd eat or check out shops or try to catch street entertainment. As it was I did almost zero shopping (probably a good thing, lol), I ate mostly at my resort and caught random YT entertainment on my I-Phone or stared at the ground ahead of me in line. It was boring and after the ride wildly unsatisfying. I mean there were some great things like the Skyliner transportation system and the Epcot Arts Festival and Star Wars as a land overall was great- the cast members were great as always too but overall I'm not encouraged to go back, which you know, so what Disney probably won't care and will probably still have plenty of guests but there it is. I'd rather just not have the stress of knowing I paid a hundred buck to get in and wait in line for a total of six hours of my day. There's too many other things to do out there until Disney gets Fast Pass back online.
I can't stress enough how much more enjoyable the parks have been without fast passes. Getting to slowly meander around the park has been amazing! The stress before of having to get up early to book them 60 days in advance, and then spend all day waiting to ride just those three rides, and barely riding anything else since the waits are always ridiculously long made me question if I even wanted to go to Disney any more. The only people I see that are clamoring for them to return either haven't visited the parks in the past year or are experts at gaming the Fastpass+ system.
As a life long passholder I KNOW that they make the lines longer. The longest lines you waited for on a regular but busy day before fastpasses were usually 45 minutes, maybe an hour if that happened to be the busy ride after a parade or something. Ever since the fastpass started, or the "No Wait Pass" as it was called when they tested it at Dinosaur when I was a kid, the lines have grown steadily longer. It wasn't long before the lines started increasing to 90 minutes, 120 minutes, and longer all the time. It was OBVIOUS that the ulterior motive was to make people think they were getting some great advantage not waiting in line, but since the other lines were now also longer, you could rarely if ever go to another ride for fear of missing your "fast pass return" time... so all there was to do now is SPEND $$$$$. People are so impatient now and need instant gratification that they don't realize standing around with fastpass times not "waiting" in lines only lets them do a handful of things all day versus waiting in 20 or 40 minute lines and getting to do all the attractions. Add that they gave hotel guests the option to plan the best passes 6 months ahead of time leaving passholders with whatever is left, and the fastpass line intersecting and slowing down the standby line even more, and the whole system is a complete mess that takes away the freedom of just going to the park and having fun, relaxing, and getting a full day of attractions. People like to claim they don't care cause they "know the system", LOL, before the system I could do twice or more as many things in a day than them, spontaneously and freely, without having to adhere to some schedule like you have a nanny dragging you through the park telling you to BE ON TIME!
This is very true. I went to Disney World during typically low crowd times (January after the holidays and March before/after spring breaks.) We stayed off property and didn’t utilize fast pass at all and did everything we wanted. When I’ve returned during busy times fast pass actually really limited what I could do and even made it so I couldn’t do certain rides. Especially with the tier system where you can only pick one “premium” attraction
Just an idea, I have no clue if this will work. How about when you exit an attraction after waiting in the stand-by queue, you get the 'right' (probably some kind of paper ticket or a QR for mobile) to get a fast pass. This would only apply for attractions which have a fast pass service, eliminating people doing a small attraction just to get a fast pass. This way you are forced to do both stand-by queues and fast pass. Rope-droppers can't snatch all passes in the first few hours and the amount of passes available is based on the lenght of the line. A big flaw with this system: the amount of available passes is not controllable by Disney, since everyone gets fast-passes, so there is no ratio is basically 1 to 1.
The only FP experience I was okay with was Disneyland's original paper version. It felt like the most even playing field. WDW FP+ takes the fun of spontaneity out of a trip since i have to scramble to get one two months before a trip if I want any chance to get on some attractions. Not to mention how ripped off I feel about the MaxPass being an added charge at DLR ON TOP of a $150 entry ticket. It's all money money money to them.
In Universal Studios in California you literally pay as much money for the fastpass as you pay for the ticket itself. It's totally worth it, considering a line of 2 hours for a Harry Potter ride became just 15 minutes with the fastpass. But still, they're trying to take more money in the part for a "better experience".
Omg! Those stupid ‘magic bands’ and fast pass ruined my trip! You were so right, I did not want to have my nose stuck in my phone the whole time, but that what happened. And we still only got to use 1 out of 6.
Fascinating. Never thought about it that way before but now that you mention it it makes complete sense: Guests can't spend money while they're waiting around in queues for hours, so remove that time and they may well give Disney more of their cash....
Universal use too or maybe still has an EXPRESS PASS you could buy for differing prices for different days on top of your regular admission ticket. It basically doubled the price of ticket but allowed you to skip straight to the front of any line while those in line grunted and spit at you while you (me) would hold my sack and walk through, chest out, head up, lol!
I’m torn- I just got back from Disney World and those waits were like a normal one AT BEST, if not longer than average. The parks are only at 35% capacity last I heard so it makes me shudder to think what’s gonna happen when they bump it up. More importantly, on every line I waited in I saw outright vitriol from people in the stand-by line towards people with the DAS pass, who were the only people to get some sort of line skip privilege. Didn’t matter that they were literally pushing children past who had visible mental disability, some adult or another had to turn to the person letting them through and go “oh, so I can’t use a Fastpass, but SoMe PeOpLe JuSt GeT tO sKiP?!?!?” Also for some reason Animal Kingdom broke me harder than any other park, probably because it doesn’t have enough interesting rides to keep the lines short. That “eight ride rule” definitely applied to me that day. Magic Kingdom could EASILY get away without fast passes because they have enough rides to eat enough people.
I also feel like part of the problem with it is how few actual ride disney world has at the secondary parks. It's easy to see mine be so long when you have less the ten rides and the big E ticket ones get booked up so fast. Expanded the rides at these parks will mean people will spend more time there and will not be required to spend a second day a magic kingdom just it get the basic must rdo rides done.
I was just at WDW 2 weeks ago. We rode Mine train (35 min), Slinky dog (30 min), Flight of passage (20 min) and Mickey &Minnie (30 min) waits. This was with the distancing. The lines all looked longer than what they were. So I’m happy that fastpass is gone .
I was the designated fast pass getter! I would run to the back of the park with like 8 tickets in hand to grab fastpasses for the whole family. They would grab a coffee or something, I'd get back and we would all ride something, and then by that time our fastpass would be ready! We could finish any park in like 5 hours and then split up for whatever. Disney used to be great! Goddammit!
Max Pass at Disneyland actually worked. When I went it was $15 a day and with plenty of time choices. You could ride stuff multiple times. With it was able to ride Space Mountain 5 times in one day. You also got 1 fast pass reserved seating for the nightime shows which really helped. Plus Photo Pass was included! I barely had to wait in lines. The longest I waited.was 45mim for smugglers run (no fastpass on that when I was there)
My wife and I went to Florida a year and a half ago and found the fast pass system at Disney to be brilliant. These days it's second nature to use a variety of apps and sites to plan your holiday, we used a couple of apps that forecast how busy each park will be day by day and planned our visits accordingly. From that we booked our three fastpass tickets, we had to refresh regularly but managed to get all the high demand rides without much trouble. Limiting the passes to three per person and having people use them before they get more felt fair as it's open to all park guests. Sure, it may sound convoluted but is it any more difficult or different to whatever else we use our smart phones for?
I've never had a problem with fast pass at any Disney park. I've always been able to get either the fastpass I want through forward thinking. I've never waited more than 30 min in a line at any Disney park and still got to ride everything I wanted. I don't get the complaints
@@patrickn8355 That's kinda on them then. It's because of people like THAT that means I get to have an even better day! I've said it for years - Disney parks are a MUCH better experience without kids!
the only time I ever went to Disney world with my dad, he got all of us a fast pass each and I would be lying if I said it wasn't great to cut in front of others >:) still had a great time, took our time to do everything since we stayed for longer than a week
YES!!!! People think they are quicker, and yes if you have fast pass tickets you do get to move ahead fast, but before fast passes the lines used to shuffle (move fast). It might look like a long line but it moved so fast you enjoyed the lineup as you where never waiting in one spot while in line. The fast pass system went down one day when we were in the park and the lines started moving fast again. It was great. On top of longer line ups, it sucks that on rides you don't have fast passes for you get to watch people legally bud infront of you. Lastly they do make money off it. You get more fast passes if you stay at their hotel and spend more money, and again if you purchase the extra fast passes. I say get rid of them!
I hate fastpass. I remember back before it was added to Haunted Mansion here in Disneyland I would wait 15 minutes MAX on a peak day in the summer. Now when I go during the slow seasons it's a minimum 45 minute wait but I've seen it just to over 90 minutes which is why I'm glad Disney decided against adding it to Pirates when they had originally planned because it would wind up taking me at least two hours to get on my first two rides of the day when I go. I genuinely hope Disney never brings it back when the parks are fully reopened and back to normal because it ruins my trips and causes massive anxiety spikes for me in what used to be the one place I never had to worry about that. If Disney switches to an all paid fastpass system I genuinely think I would just stop going because it would make it impossible for me to actually enjoy my day and would most likely price me out of being able to go.
Which is their plan. Price us out in the long run and makes the same money by hitting those who CAN afford it more and hit them harder with food and "experiences" with their found time
I've been saying this for years- FP isn't always efficient particularly in WDW where there are more attractions on FP. I find that FP is better in Disneyland where there are less FP offerings (even though DL has more attractions than the Magic Kingdom) and you get can them roughly every 2 hours- you can get way more done in a day. I've never not ridden what I've wanted in DL using FP, whereas in WDW due to the FP+ system (which is more complicated IMO) I've been unable to get FP for the rides that really need FP and I wind up missing rides because the stand by is insanely long or wasting FPs on rides that really don't need a FP, so I can attempt to get another FP+ later in the day
I think the best system is to let people "plan their entire day" at the moment of buying their tickets. If the most popular attractions are taken people can decide not to buy their tickets and come back on a quieter day. Eventually spreading people over the year, increasing revenue and consumer satisfaction.
Yes they do make the lines longer. Since Fastpass was suspended for everyone (excluding annual pass holder or other Fastpass available status) it does bring the lines to be worked on more efficiently. When I recently went to Epcot, Fast track did not went to it's average 110 minute wait time. It averages around 60 minutes which isn't that bad actually. On Animal Kingdom, Flight of Passage, the like used to average 80 minutes, but now with Fastpass suspended, it averages to 65 minutes. Big difference. I think Disney should scrap Fastpass overall and keep it to pass holders.
I'm old enough to remember life pre-FP, and I think that all of us visited post-FP, pre-Genie+. Of course the standby waits are longer. FP, FP+, and Genie+ all blow.
I went to DL Paris a couple of years ago, ready to get that fast pass for Big Thunder mountain. But the system was down. Never queued longer than 45 minutes for any ride, and it was a more relaxing visit over all. Skip the queue passes are silly.
I had the opposite experience, all the big ticket rides had 60min+ queues and even the other rides were 30+. Fast passes gone in the morning. Spent the whole time stressing about missing out! I personally preferred booking in advance, its a pain having to be so planned but at least I can relax knowing I'm not gonna miss out! And tbh it was kinda fun getting passes in advance, kept up the excitement for the holiday keep checking 🤣
We are annual pass holders and I can say that the experience is far better with lower crowds, so ironically we buy the cheapest pass that only allows us to go when It isn't crowded, which is the only time we want to go. We also monitor websites that predict low crowd sizes. Add fast passes and we can do the park pretty efficiently. I feel bad for families with kids who have to go in the summer when it is crowded and spend thousands of dollars to go. Hot and crowded. Yuck! You could not pay me to go to Disney at peak times in the summer. We go several Times in October November and first two weeks of Dec. Also, don't go between Christmas and New Years.
Back in the days of the paper fast pass my mama had that system locked down we had like no down time bc we where always riding Also there's like no way my fam would return to Disney if they added paid fast pass
I've always been indifferent about FastPass at Disneyland because it wasn't useful for APs coming to the park later in the day. Good luck ever getting a FP for Racers :-( I did like MaxPass even though it was an added expense on the AP. Being able to just grab a FP on the app rather than walking all the way to the ride kiosk was great. We were always able to score more FPs that way then with the traditional system. What I'm not a fan of is the reservation system they were using for Rise of the Resistance. I wish they had just put FP in place for it. I would've waited in line for that ride when it first opened, no matter how long the wait was.
I do like the old one. We could often only get 3 fastpasses, but some lines were short. It is fine and makes you feel satisfied. Get a fastpass, do a different ride, skip one line. But with paid fastpass, you clogg the lines until you are unable to enjoy the park without. Last time I went to a park (not Disney, but still an amazing park) it was at only 5% capacity. I think I did 15ish attractions/rides and some of those multiple times. No waiting lines whatsoever, and got discounted tickets that were below 40 euro, including parking fee. And to imagine paying that amount of money just to ride 3 rides.... boy that seems discouraging. Also, at themeparks I don't want to witness class struggles. I'm there to take a day off from the normal world.
It is just a matter of time they introduce something like Maxpass to WDW or something similar to an Express Pass/Flash Pass/Fastlane/Quick Queue, etc. Free fast pass+ will disappear or they will offer it only to guests staying on site like the upcoming early entry access
Does anyone know if the algorithm in the app secretly allocates more desirable fast passes to guests who stay at deluxe resorts and have a record on file of having paid more money? I suspect it does....
My family managed to get through every ride that we wanted at all the Disneyworld Parks - and quite a few we did twice. Without using Fastpass. Except one - I think it was for Peter Pan and we got it because the ride broke down. Everyone in line got one. I can't imagine the time people waste running from one end of the park to another and back again because that's how their passes are timed.
unpopular opinion but I like fastpass+. I went to disney with a large amount of children and it made it easier to split them into groups and plan the day out. It’s easier to get younger kids to wait when they know exactly what they’re doing and how long they have to wait with fast pass. I woke up early to get the day of fast passes but honestly I didn’t feel like I spent the vacation with my head in a phone, maybe it’s because i’m younger lol. I also went with a band trip while injured and it definitely made things easier to meet up with classmates and plan out the rides we wanted to go on. I do agree some things didn’t need fastpass though. There were rides at disney world that rarely had long lines but now do.
Also I think most fast pass systems essentially creates a system where only rich people can enjoy the park to its fullest most people can’t afford to pay for another ticket on top off the already inflated price it takes to go to disney.
I liked the original fastpass, and absolutely hate the idea of the WDW Fastpass+ system it was bad enough to get a restaurant reservation months in advance, it's even worse to get premium ride access that far in advance too, I honestly haven't been back to WDW since they switched over. And if they want to go super greedy and put a paid fastpass like at Disneyland Paris, then I'm simply going to stop going at any time when there may be crowds which pre-pandemic was still most all the time, I've seen what a paid priority system has done to other parks and it's not good. So last laugh that Disney, you can't get me to spend money if I refuse to go to your park.
As a tourist from Australia I am happy to pay for a fast pass that I know is going to allow me to ride all rides when I want and multiply times a day during my visit so i get the most from my holiday. And if paid fast pass becomes a standard sign me up. If i fly to Shanghai and Tron has over an hour wait time and i can pay $9 for example to skip that wait...... duh! take my money. If i have to pay $150 for unlimited fast pass line skips for a day.... duh! take my money. I budgeted for two days for two people of the Universal Studios Japan fast pass tickets, i think around $500 ish total for the two days, and it made such a difference to the visit overall. It just sucks you cant leave the park and re-enter as we were staying at the hotel right opposite the park entry and its an official hotel. Dumbest rule ever! At Tokyo Disneyland/Sea we were fast pass gods during the visit and made sure to get a fast pass at park entry and kept note of the next available time we could get another. (normally a two hour window, sometimes shorter, some were even 30 mins in early morning) We collected the next fast pass ticket the second the time ticked over, then we made our way to the now active fast pass of the previous ride within the next hour. We held 3 fast pass tickets at once for Space Mt, Monsters INC, Thunder Mt. Photo to prove it :) We were able to complete every single ride, some more than others across the two parks in the four day visit with no longer than a 25 mins wait. And would not ride a ride if it had over a 25 mins wait like Peter Pan or Pinocchio, Snow White, Roger Rabbit, Haunted Mansion for example as i knew the lines would die off later at night when the locals went home after parades and fireworks around 8-8.30 and had the park till 9-10pm My trip to Toyko Disney was awesome because we planned, we stayed on site (15 min entry helps) and we knew what to do to in essence of "game the system" to the best effective use.
Get rid of it. It makes lines longer. I’ve been to various e-ticket attractions where they just let 3-4 standby groups go and let 10-12 fastpass groups after. Rinse and repeat.
Fast pass are kind of dumb but idk, I kind of like having to plan my schedule around them. Like on grad night, it was fun to just go get a fast pass to space mountain, then go on another ride, get a fast pass, go on another ride, etc
I HATE waiting in line. I would rather walk onto half as many rides than to wait in line for twice as many. I like Disney's standard FP+ system, but I do wish that there was no "first come, first serve, jump on it quick" aspect to it, and that they could instead come up with a system where everyone had time to enter their interests into a pool, and then a system would randomly distribute FPs accordingly. Like instead of having 100 FPs available for a ride and the first 100 who show up get them, people could have a couple days or more to enter in that they want to ride X ride between the hours of 10-12 and 1-4 on a given date, and then once everyone's had a chance to enter, the system randomly picks 100 people to get each time slot. It wouldn't be that hard for them to set up. I also think they should remove stand-by lines completely and replace it with something more like classic FPs, where you can be signed up for exactly ONE ride at a time, day-of, and are just in line behind everyone else who wants in, and it lets you know when it becomes available. The old line-up queues would be converted to air-conditioned seating.
It's quite obvious that these fastpass systems are ways of Disney to offer a better experience for the guests who are willing to pay. It results in a worsened experience for the quests who are not paying the premium for fastpass solutions ( Also indirectly by not staying at Disney resorts). The regular entrance fee offer value is directly reduced by purchasable fastpasses reducing ridespots.
I am looking forward to the democratization of high end theme parks that will be sprouting up in major cities all over the world as Virtual and Augmented Reality gets better. I foresee Costco sized warehouses filled with robotic chairs that one can sit in and experience any ride ever made and those never possible. This will bring theme parks to those who cannot afford to travel to a Disney or Universal park. Think Disney Quest, but actually delivers on the concept. Sure they will need Fast Passes however. That future is already starting as in a matter of weeks, I will be releasing a very high quality Dark Ride for the Oculus Quest and other headsets called "Into the Metaverse" that truly feels like a real theme park dark ride. This is only the beginning.
MaxPass is the best so far. It's relatively inexpensive and works very well. I really want them to bring it to Walt Disney World. FastPass+ requires too much pre-planning.
I feel like Disney could resign the system. Instead make fast pass a virtual queue. That way every guest has the option to not physically wait in line. The merge point would be adjusted based on the waits in both lines and in theory the wait time should be the same weather you go in line physically or virtually.
To be honest they should lower capacity to match d and e ticket attractions raise ticket prices and add a new gate. When deman exceed s again add more attractions or a new gate
I know it’s not the best financial interest of Disney to do so but I think to increase guest satisfaction they should lower the park capacity to reduce crowding. The last time I visited Disneyland I felt claustrophobic with the crowds. It kills the experience.
The more I see these things, the more I dread going to a Disney park. I want to one day take my kids there to experience the Disney magic, but I don't want to have go thru this.
I really like the paper fastpass system at Tokyo Disney, but that might also be due to the Japanese themselves. As long as I got it before someone else I was good to go.
For sure! 100%. I hate the Fast Pass+ (used in WDW) nowadays. Bring back the old general lines. It’s more fair. Do you want to go in more rides? Arrive early.
I think if they introduce a payed fastpass its just them being honest lol, but if they significantly reduce the amount they're giving I think they can still make a huge profit while decreasing wait times around the park. Maybe taking FastPass away from a lot of attractions permanently.
I've never been a fan. It creates a class system of access. Those who don't know the system, and those who can game the system: often younger and able to run to the FastPass kiosks faster to get their time slots. Access to attractions should be first-come, first-served given the cost of admission. It should not be a gamble if you have access to an attraction or not. The Ultimate FP is basically "let them eat cake" snub to the plebes who have to wait in line.
Pretty much, for some rides if you showed up more than hour after opening the fastpass is unavailable, and now with Rise of the Resistance's reservation system if you did not have your ticket scanned and were in the park before they opened up the whole park (pre-pandemic times) you literally can not get on the ride. First come first serve, and let me make that choice if I see a 120 minute wait chances are I'm not going to want to ride that ride, and figure people in that line are not going to be in front of me for 120 minutes in another line.
Went to Tokyo Disneyland 6 years ago and was horrifically confused, wait times were insane and all the fast passes were gone before we found out what they were. Completely foreign concept to me. The next day we went to DisneySea and it worked great, but when we came back 2 years later we saw the crazy line situation for midway mania, and the fastpasses weren't nearly as useful, they all sold out a lot quicker so we must have gone on a slow day. That being said, paid for the paid fast pass thing at Universal Studios Osaka and being able to skip the lines was well worth it. If you're a regular it'd be a huge pain, but $100 extra wasn't insane when you've already paid to go overseas. I wouldn't bother buying one for movieworld here as I've already been here, but if I was an international tourist I absolutely would.
What is disneyland .. make it once a year entrance for each individual... That means... Each individual is allowed to go Disneyland once a year... thus reduce frequent guests... Less wait time... Also to give chance to others...
Fast pass does not help in Tokyo they definitely need to figure out a better system for wait times there. 😭 all of the passes are exhausted for 9pm by 9am, so if you go get one you can’t get another all day basically! Was such a shock to me when i went to Anaheim and there were wait times under 2-3 hours and i could go on more than 1 e-Ticket a day 😂
As a former CM, it is. Time is wasted trying to get counts and instead of just trying to get all guests through quickly, FP can never be long. So we have to nearly hold up standby in order to accommodate. It's a flawed system that inflates wait times.
Yup, I worked an attraction right after it got FP and daily standby waits went from 5-10min to 40+ bc the system always distributed too many fp. What once was a fun ride you could always depend on having minimal waits turned into another fp headache
FP is trash - thanks for commenting- far too many people crying for FP+ to come back make me wanna pull my hair out
Loved the original Fast Pass. The current system of booking 6 months out is why I stopped going to Disney World and went to universal where I don’t have to book meal times so far out along with rides.
Disney's Fastpass+ is a plague on guest experience. Anecdotally, a full Seven Dwarves Mine Train queue (without social distancing during parties) is about a 45 minute wait. Compare this to the regular day time with 3+ hour waits. I'm quite positive that Disney releases a disproportionate amount of fastpasses to purposefully and artificially inflate their lines. Like you said, the less people are in line, the more likely they are to dine and shop. Even on days that seem to have low guest attendance, wait times can seem ridiculously high, again being artificially inflated. I also strongly suspect that by making the parks look busier, they can justify price increases by saying that it's necessary to create lower crowds. This is definitely a problem in Disneyland, but in World, I believe it's an artificial problem that Disney created on purpose. It's definitely something that has only happened within the last few years, and while I understand that previous to 2020, Orlando was seeing record numbers of tourists, the wait times still didn't match up with less busy days.
The “if you’re getting on more rides with fast pass, someone else is getting on fewer rides” is really interesting. I grew up going to Disneyland all the time and Fastpass was how we did everything.
The new fastpass and the old fastpass are different. You couldn't get that piece of paper at the hotel. Or even at the gate. You had to get that paper to mark your spot in line.
Now you can be in the shower at home getting ready in Georgia and getting your rides in California as long as you had a ticket for that day.
I say go back to the old, non mobile way. Disney should be making people put their phones away, not making them weld it to their wrist.
@@hobinrood710 Thankfully, the Fastpass+ system was only ever in place in Florida. California never truly dropped the legacy system since it (along with Maxpass) essentially work the same, but but the tickets themselves are managed digitally.
Honestly a couple of months ago I would have said of course Fastpass is a good idea. However having recently been to the parks during social distancing and no passes, I would be happy without them. I liked how I could just walk around and not have to worry about being at a ride at a certain time. It almost makes you feel limited, if you enter one queue, you might not make it time. Also if you want to go to another park you can’t. You have to stick to the park to wait for your fastpass time. Either get rid of it entirely, unlikely, or scale it back for only a few rides.
I also just went in January and I hated the waits- the times at so many rides were routinely over an hour and without Fast Pass to fall back on there was nothing to do but just stand there and wait.
Ugh, who the hell wants to plan their day at a park 60 days in advance? I miss classic FP so much. You didn’t have to stress months beforehand. Just show up and have fun!
The only winners with Fastpass are those who work the system most efficiently. This turns vacation time into a competition where people are zigzagging through the park trying to optimize their time. It doesn't lead to a relaxing vacation. To lower wait times they need to reduce the attendance in the park. This would mean higher ticket prices and less annual passes.
Just say you hate poor people and go
I hate it too. When I went to Disney I absolutley hated it. So many people, so much Stress, you need to plan EVERYTHING in advance. It was a nightmare.
@Brandon True There is a thrill that comes with getting that hard-to-get attraction.
I come from a family of planners and honestly the year they introduced fastpass plus was the most relaxing Disney vacation my family had in YEARS. I don’t mind planning in advance and most people who frequent the parks (especially in Florida) don’t either. It’s worth it when you can do pretty much everything at your leisure during the trip with only a few time sensitive things in between
@@adrimartinez4714 I'm a big planner too and we did a road trip to Disney World from all the way up here in Saskatchewan. We were taking our girls there for the first time and another family was flying down to meet us. My plan for Magic Kingdom worked perfectly but my plan for Animal Kingdom was thrown completely off because our bus was late in the morning. This was a huge trip for us and we only had one day in Animal Kingdom. We made it to the things we wanted but it wasn't smooth. For people who can go to the parks on a regular basis that's probably not a big deal but it affected our experience negatively.
Disney could give a big discount and make everyone happy to guests willing to book tickets 50 years ahead of time.
I haven’t been to Disney in ages but universal’s system just seems so much simpler, why reserve a time, just get in the designated line whenever...
single rider and express are noice
Except that Universal’s system costs.
The nice thing about no fastpass is the line constantly moves You may wait an hour but you are always moving so it doesn't seem as bad.
But the bottom line is they need to add a lot more attractions to absorb crowds and not increase overall park capacity.
If the park is crowded you can't do it all if most of your time is spent in lines. You will spend more money to come back. With online shopping, and ads on the app, your still paying money there, so restaurants are the only place else they get you. Money Money.
A few years back, I had a fastpass+ for Star Tours (Hollywood Studios), and the fastpass line was 3x the size of the standby line! I just hopped in the normal line and ended up riding it twice in a row without even using a pass.
One day they will do away with lines and you will need to make a reservation for every ride and attraction you want to see. They will come up with an app where you put in everything you would like to do at the park and the app will book your whole day for you with times (your reservation) to be at each attraction.
i haven't been to the parks since covid, but I do prefer the original fastpass system versus the fastpass+ system. The cool thing bout the original is that you just needed a ticket, you didn't need to be tied into this app that tracked your entire vacation. I remember on a rainy day, we waited out the storm and returned when the storm was letting up. It was the early evening, and a bunch of people were exiting Disney Hollywood Studios. One guy went up to my dad ad said "here, have these" and gave him a bunch of fastpasses to the new at the time toy story mania attraction. My family of 4 got to skip the 90 min wait time and hop onto a really fun ride. when we got off, my dad said, "did you kids like it?" and we were like "yea!" and he was like "do you wanna go again?" and we were like, "yeah, but it's not worth waiting 90 mins." and he was like " well i got these" and he pulled out two more fastpasses. turns out the guy who gave him the tickets had a family of six. so me and my sister rode toy story mania for a second time in a row while my parents waited outside basking in their achievement. (or rather their luck) so yah i might be a bit nostalgic over the older fastpasses, but if people knew they were gonna be wasted then they'd pawn them off to other people and they weren't totally gone. yeah, the new system lets you use the fastpass in a future occasion, but it's not as magical.
Disney just needs to lower park capacity in order to increase guest satisfaction
This. There has been a 25% increase in attendance since 2000. It is crushing the experience.
@@charlesdebarber2997 you know us peasants should unite and start a social media campaign for disney to lower park capacity
@@dylan9382 I think Disney tried that... They up the prices and more people want to come. I'm not sure if that is a lesson in marketing.
Just get rid of the annual passes, problem solved
@@charlesdebarber2997 it is... there is a case study on it. Because it’s more expensive it gives the illusion of being the better park...
I hope that Disney just quietly kills off fastpass+ even after COVID ends. My biggest gripe is how it inflates waits on rides that don’t really need fastpass, like Spaceship Earth, Alien Swirling Saucers, and Peter Pan’s Flight
Peter pans flight doesn't have long lines????
In February 2020 I went to the Magic Kingdom for a day on a whim while I was in Orlando for a week, it was an off day I'll admit but despite being in line for Seven Dwafs for two hours I managed, through cheesing it with the fast pass system, going on rides with short lines and strategic placement at rope drop and during the fireworks managed to ride every ride once, two rides on Thunder Mountain (including one during the fireworks which was an incredible experience) and three rides on Space Mountain (my first experience being in the front seat). The system certainly worked for me, a guy who went alone on a slow off season day and refreshed the hell out of my phone's mobile data.
Honestly..I don’t want to plan what rides I’m going to go on 60 days in advance. I don’t even know what park I’m going to be at on any certain day. It’s too structured and I like the flexibility to do whatever.
That's how it used to be. Now it's just a stress test of how much stress can one take in a day...
Having been to the parks during the pandemic without Fastpass, despite the wait times the lines move consistently
The upcharge pass has been the model in the main UK theme parks for as long as I can remember. The Merlin Entertainment parks (Alton Towers Resort, Thorpe Park Resort, Chessington World of Adventures Resort, Legoland Windsor Resort) all each have different packages, varying on the number of different rides, selected rides, amount of times you can use the pass and an "ultimate" pass which offers the unlimited rides on all fast-track (our version of fastpass) available rides on a day.
The only time you ever get a free fast-track pass is if you stick-it-out in a queue when a ride has broken-down for more than 1/2 hour or you've been stuck on that ride for any period of time outside of expected normal operation.
Wait times have always been similarly affected though; it's often you see maybe 2 - 4 stations worth of guests being allowed through the fast-track line before maybe 1/2 a station of regular guests are allowed through.
I used to love Disney even in the 90s when there were schools of children visiting from South America and when you saw the dreaded matching T-shirts you knew you were in for a long queue. Then they introduced fast pass and we loved it we could enjoy the day with a minimal amount of planning and preparation and feel like you got value for money. The digitisation and monetisation of fastpass is one of the reasons I no longer go to Disney despite being a DVC member. The idea of planning which ride I want to go on six months in advance feels more like work than a holiday also morally I don’t believe fun should be locked behind a pay wall.
without watching this yet, the answer is yes quite so, after experiencing the lines without fast pass, its insane how fast the lines move without. if fast pass didnt exist theyre wouldnt be a need for it, the lines actually move and when a 40min wait is moving along its not that bad
I just attended Disney World this January without the Fast Pass system- "due to Covid" - and it was the first time I had and frankly as far as rides it sucked. I spent by far more time in well over hour long lines (and this is January off-peak) for a 3-4 minute ride experience than anything else. With Fast Pass I would typically go and attend things like Carousel of Progress, Mickey's Philharmagic, People Mover or other easy on rides while waiting for the Fast Pass to come due or I'd eat or check out shops or try to catch street entertainment. As it was I did almost zero shopping (probably a good thing, lol), I ate mostly at my resort and caught random YT entertainment on my I-Phone or stared at the ground ahead of me in line. It was boring and after the ride wildly unsatisfying. I mean there were some great things like the Skyliner transportation system and the Epcot Arts Festival and Star Wars as a land overall was great- the cast members were great as always too but overall I'm not encouraged to go back, which you know, so what Disney probably won't care and will probably still have plenty of guests but there it is. I'd rather just not have the stress of knowing I paid a hundred buck to get in and wait in line for a total of six hours of my day. There's too many other things to do out there until Disney gets Fast Pass back online.
I can't stress enough how much more enjoyable the parks have been without fast passes. Getting to slowly meander around the park has been amazing! The stress before of having to get up early to book them 60 days in advance, and then spend all day waiting to ride just those three rides, and barely riding anything else since the waits are always ridiculously long made me question if I even wanted to go to Disney any more. The only people I see that are clamoring for them to return either haven't visited the parks in the past year or are experts at gaming the Fastpass+ system.
Great informative video! This is great content. Keep up the fantastic work!
I forget where I was but the park gave a free fast pass's every like 2 hours to everyone and I thought that worked great
FP is still free.
As a life long passholder I KNOW that they make the lines longer. The longest lines you waited for on a regular but busy day before fastpasses were usually 45 minutes, maybe an hour if that happened to be the busy ride after a parade or something. Ever since the fastpass started, or the "No Wait Pass" as it was called when they tested it at Dinosaur when I was a kid, the lines have grown steadily longer. It wasn't long before the lines started increasing to 90 minutes, 120 minutes, and longer all the time.
It was OBVIOUS that the ulterior motive was to make people think they were getting some great advantage not waiting in line, but since the other lines were now also longer, you could rarely if ever go to another ride for fear of missing your "fast pass return" time... so all there was to do now is SPEND $$$$$. People are so impatient now and need instant gratification that they don't realize standing around with fastpass times not "waiting" in lines only lets them do a handful of things all day versus waiting in 20 or 40 minute lines and getting to do all the attractions.
Add that they gave hotel guests the option to plan the best passes 6 months ahead of time leaving passholders with whatever is left, and the fastpass line intersecting and slowing down the standby line even more, and the whole system is a complete mess that takes away the freedom of just going to the park and having fun, relaxing, and getting a full day of attractions.
People like to claim they don't care cause they "know the system", LOL, before the system I could do twice or more as many things in a day than them, spontaneously and freely, without having to adhere to some schedule like you have a nanny dragging you through the park telling you to BE ON TIME!
This is very true. I went to Disney World during typically low crowd times (January after the holidays and March before/after spring breaks.) We stayed off property and didn’t utilize fast pass at all and did everything we wanted. When I’ve returned during busy times fast pass actually really limited what I could do and even made it so I couldn’t do certain rides. Especially with the tier system where you can only pick one “premium” attraction
You guys should do a podcast on this issue. There are so many different ways to look at this topic with pros and cons.
Just an idea, I have no clue if this will work.
How about when you exit an attraction after waiting in the stand-by queue, you get the 'right' (probably some kind of paper ticket or a QR for mobile) to get a fast pass. This would only apply for attractions which have a fast pass service, eliminating people doing a small attraction just to get a fast pass.
This way you are forced to do both stand-by queues and fast pass. Rope-droppers can't snatch all passes in the first few hours and the amount of passes available is based on the lenght of the line.
A big flaw with this system: the amount of available passes is not controllable by Disney, since everyone gets fast-passes, so there is no ratio is basically 1 to 1.
The only FP experience I was okay with was Disneyland's original paper version. It felt like the most even playing field. WDW FP+ takes the fun of spontaneity out of a trip since i have to scramble to get one two months before a trip if I want any chance to get on some attractions. Not to mention how ripped off I feel about the MaxPass being an added charge at DLR ON TOP of a $150 entry ticket. It's all money money money to them.
In Universal Studios in California you literally pay as much money for the fastpass as you pay for the ticket itself. It's totally worth it, considering a line of 2 hours for a Harry Potter ride became just 15 minutes with the fastpass. But still, they're trying to take more money in the part for a "better experience".
Omg! Those stupid ‘magic bands’ and fast pass ruined my trip! You were so right, I did not want to have my nose stuck in my phone the whole time, but that what happened. And we still only got to use 1 out of 6.
Fascinating. Never thought about it that way before but now that you mention it it makes complete sense: Guests can't spend money while they're waiting around in queues for hours, so remove that time and they may well give Disney more of their cash....
Universal use too or maybe still has an EXPRESS PASS you could buy for differing prices for different days on top of your regular admission ticket. It basically doubled the price of ticket but allowed you to skip straight to the front of any line while those in line grunted and spit at you while you (me) would hold my sack and walk through, chest out, head up, lol!
I’m torn- I just got back from Disney World and those waits were like a normal one AT BEST, if not longer than average. The parks are only at 35% capacity last I heard so it makes me shudder to think what’s gonna happen when they bump it up. More importantly, on every line I waited in I saw outright vitriol from people in the stand-by line towards people with the DAS pass, who were the only people to get some sort of line skip privilege. Didn’t matter that they were literally pushing children past who had visible mental disability, some adult or another had to turn to the person letting them through and go “oh, so I can’t use a Fastpass, but SoMe PeOpLe JuSt GeT tO sKiP?!?!?”
Also for some reason Animal Kingdom broke me harder than any other park, probably because it doesn’t have enough interesting rides to keep the lines short. That “eight ride rule” definitely applied to me that day. Magic Kingdom could EASILY get away without fast passes because they have enough rides to eat enough people.
I also feel like part of the problem with it is how few actual ride disney world has at the secondary parks. It's easy to see mine be so long when you have less the ten rides and the big E ticket ones get booked up so fast. Expanded the rides at these parks will mean people will spend more time there and will not be required to spend a second day a magic kingdom just it get the basic must rdo rides done.
13:45 Dr. Who called. They want their intro back from that elevator, Disney.
I was just at WDW 2 weeks ago. We rode Mine train (35 min), Slinky dog (30 min), Flight of passage (20 min) and Mickey &Minnie (30 min) waits. This was with the distancing. The lines all looked longer than what they were. So I’m happy that fastpass is gone .
Interact with the employees on the jungle cruise, they carry fast passes to hand out to guests.
I was the designated fast pass getter! I would run to the back of the park with like 8 tickets in hand to grab fastpasses for the whole family. They would grab a coffee or something, I'd get back and we would all ride something, and then by that time our fastpass would be ready! We could finish any park in like 5 hours and then split up for whatever. Disney used to be great! Goddammit!
Love Maxpass at Disneyland. No ahead planning needed and it works like the legacy fastpass system only digitally
Max Pass at Disneyland actually worked. When I went it was $15 a day and with plenty of time choices. You could ride stuff multiple times. With it was able to ride Space Mountain 5 times in one day. You also got 1 fast pass reserved seating for the nightime shows which really helped. Plus Photo Pass was included! I barely had to wait in lines. The longest I waited.was 45mim for smugglers run (no fastpass on that when I was there)
My wife and I went to Florida a year and a half ago and found the fast pass system at Disney to be brilliant.
These days it's second nature to use a variety of apps and sites to plan your holiday, we used a couple of apps that forecast how busy each park will be day by day and planned our visits accordingly. From that we booked our three fastpass tickets, we had to refresh regularly but managed to get all the high demand rides without much trouble. Limiting the passes to three per person and having people use them before they get more felt fair as it's open to all park guests.
Sure, it may sound convoluted but is it any more difficult or different to whatever else we use our smart phones for?
I've never had a problem with fast pass at any Disney park. I've always been able to get either the fastpass I want through forward thinking. I've never waited more than 30 min in a line at any Disney park and still got to ride everything I wanted.
I don't get the complaints
People have kids and are bad at planning their time
@@patrickn8355 That's kinda on them then. It's because of people like THAT that means I get to have an even better day! I've said it for years - Disney parks are a MUCH better experience without kids!
@@tulinfirenze1990 Disneyland's target demographic is literally families with kids.
@@tulinfirenze1990 never said I thought differently lol. If you plan your time it's fine...much like all of life...
@@magic75450 The boss built it for everybody. That being said, you'll be able to do more and have more freedom of movement without kids.
I was just watching your MickeyVille video, then you guys uploaded!!! What a great Friday!
the only time I ever went to Disney world with my dad, he got all of us a fast pass each and I would be lying if I said it wasn't great to cut in front of others >:) still had a great time, took our time to do everything since we stayed for longer than a week
YES!!!! People think they are quicker, and yes if you have fast pass tickets you do get to move ahead fast, but before fast passes the lines used to shuffle (move fast). It might look like a long line but it moved so fast you enjoyed the lineup as you where never waiting in one spot while in line. The fast pass system went down one day when we were in the park and the lines started moving fast again. It was great. On top of longer line ups, it sucks that on rides you don't have fast passes for you get to watch people legally bud infront of you. Lastly they do make money off it. You get more fast passes if you stay at their hotel and spend more money, and again if you purchase the extra fast passes. I say get rid of them!
OMG where do you get the clip from 2:55 this just unlocked a deep memory!!! I used to watch it all the time
I hate fastpass. I remember back before it was added to Haunted Mansion here in Disneyland I would wait 15 minutes MAX on a peak day in the summer. Now when I go during the slow seasons it's a minimum 45 minute wait but I've seen it just to over 90 minutes which is why I'm glad Disney decided against adding it to Pirates when they had originally planned because it would wind up taking me at least two hours to get on my first two rides of the day when I go. I genuinely hope Disney never brings it back when the parks are fully reopened and back to normal because it ruins my trips and causes massive anxiety spikes for me in what used to be the one place I never had to worry about that. If Disney switches to an all paid fastpass system I genuinely think I would just stop going because it would make it impossible for me to actually enjoy my day and would most likely price me out of being able to go.
Which is their plan. Price us out in the long run and makes the same money by hitting those who CAN afford it more and hit them harder with food and "experiences" with their found time
I've been saying this for years- FP isn't always efficient particularly in WDW where there are more attractions on FP. I find that FP is better in Disneyland where there are less FP offerings (even though DL has more attractions than the Magic Kingdom) and you get can them roughly every 2 hours- you can get way more done in a day. I've never not ridden what I've wanted in DL using FP, whereas in WDW due to the FP+ system (which is more complicated IMO) I've been unable to get FP for the rides that really need FP and I wind up missing rides because the stand by is insanely long or wasting FPs on rides that really don't need a FP, so I can attempt to get another FP+ later in the day
I did traditional Fastpass. And it helps me keep track for my time and enjoy it before I return to attractions like Space Mountain and more.
I think the best system is to let people "plan their entire day" at the moment of buying their tickets. If the most popular attractions are taken people can decide not to buy their tickets and come back on a quieter day. Eventually spreading people over the year, increasing revenue and consumer satisfaction.
I like this idea. It would give a lot of security and avoids disapointment
Yes they do make the lines longer. Since Fastpass was suspended for everyone (excluding annual pass holder or other Fastpass available status) it does bring the lines to be worked on more efficiently. When I recently went to Epcot, Fast track did not went to it's average 110 minute wait time. It averages around 60 minutes which isn't that bad actually. On Animal Kingdom, Flight of Passage, the like used to average 80 minutes, but now with Fastpass suspended, it averages to 65 minutes. Big difference. I think Disney should scrap Fastpass overall and keep it to pass holders.
The clips you used of the past pass example was from the Disney theme park video I watched over and over as a kid 😂😂
Vacation Planning DVDs were always the best way to survive between trips! - Luke
I'm old enough to remember life pre-FP, and I think that all of us visited post-FP, pre-Genie+.
Of course the standby waits are longer.
FP, FP+, and Genie+ all blow.
Best content for the video so far. Keep it up
10:45
wait, 2 HOURS to ride some 5 minute attraction?
That's just poor management, selling too many tickets.
I went to DL Paris a couple of years ago, ready to get that fast pass for Big Thunder mountain. But the system was down. Never queued longer than 45 minutes for any ride, and it was a more relaxing visit over all. Skip the queue passes are silly.
I had the opposite experience, all the big ticket rides had 60min+ queues and even the other rides were 30+. Fast passes gone in the morning. Spent the whole time stressing about missing out! I personally preferred booking in advance, its a pain having to be so planned but at least I can relax knowing I'm not gonna miss out! And tbh it was kinda fun getting passes in advance, kept up the excitement for the holiday keep checking 🤣
I miss fastpass the original way.
We are annual pass holders and I can say that the experience is far better with lower crowds, so ironically we buy the cheapest pass that only allows us to go when It isn't crowded, which is the only time we want to go. We also monitor websites that predict low crowd sizes. Add fast passes and we can do the park pretty efficiently. I feel bad for families with kids who have to go in the summer when it is crowded and spend thousands of dollars to go. Hot and crowded. Yuck! You could not pay me to go to Disney at peak times in the summer. We go several Times in October November and first two weeks of Dec. Also, don't go between Christmas and New Years.
Back in the days of the paper fast pass my mama had that system locked down we had like no down time bc we where always riding
Also there's like no way my fam would return to Disney if they added paid fast pass
Time to boycott
I've always been indifferent about FastPass at Disneyland because it wasn't useful for APs coming to the park later in the day. Good luck ever getting a FP for Racers :-( I did like MaxPass even though it was an added expense on the AP. Being able to just grab a FP on the app rather than walking all the way to the ride kiosk was great. We were always able to score more FPs that way then with the traditional system. What I'm not a fan of is the reservation system they were using for Rise of the Resistance. I wish they had just put FP in place for it. I would've waited in line for that ride when it first opened, no matter how long the wait was.
I do like the old one. We could often only get 3 fastpasses, but some lines were short. It is fine and makes you feel satisfied. Get a fastpass, do a different ride, skip one line.
But with paid fastpass, you clogg the lines until you are unable to enjoy the park without.
Last time I went to a park (not Disney, but still an amazing park) it was at only 5% capacity. I think I did 15ish attractions/rides and some of those multiple times. No waiting lines whatsoever, and got discounted tickets that were below 40 euro, including parking fee. And to imagine paying that amount of money just to ride 3 rides.... boy that seems discouraging.
Also, at themeparks I don't want to witness class struggles. I'm there to take a day off from the normal world.
It is just a matter of time they introduce something like Maxpass to WDW or something similar to an Express Pass/Flash Pass/Fastlane/Quick Queue, etc. Free fast pass+ will disappear or they will offer it only to guests staying on site like the upcoming early entry access
I hope all Disney parks take a page out of Shanghai’s book with Disney Premier Access
I like Legacy Fast Pass and Single Rider Lines
At Coaster Con we get special ride times for Ace members
Does anyone know if the algorithm in the app secretly allocates more desirable fast passes to guests who stay at deluxe resorts and have a record on file of having paid more money? I suspect it does....
Maybe they should extend opening hours each way or open 24hrs fri-sat-sun.
On big thunder mountai, yes it makes normal wait longer
Universal did their express pass with justice compare to this abomination
My family managed to get through every ride that we wanted at all the Disneyworld Parks - and quite a few we did twice. Without using Fastpass. Except one - I think it was for Peter Pan and we got it because the ride broke down. Everyone in line got one. I can't imagine the time people waste running from one end of the park to another and back again because that's how their passes are timed.
When did you go? If the crowds were light for you , then that conquers all!
@@RoyalFizzbin It was midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
unpopular opinion but I like fastpass+. I went to disney with a large amount of children and it made it easier to split them into groups and plan the day out. It’s easier to get younger kids to wait when they know exactly what they’re doing and how long they have to wait with fast pass. I woke up early to get the day of fast passes but honestly I didn’t feel like I spent the vacation with my head in a phone, maybe it’s because i’m younger lol. I also went with a band trip while injured and it definitely made things easier to meet up with classmates and plan out the rides we wanted to go on. I do agree some things didn’t need fastpass though. There were rides at disney world that rarely had long lines but now do.
Also I think most fast pass systems essentially creates a system where only rich people can enjoy the park to its fullest most people can’t afford to pay for another ticket on top off the already inflated price it takes to go to disney.
I liked the original fastpass, and absolutely hate the idea of the WDW Fastpass+ system it was bad enough to get a restaurant reservation months in advance, it's even worse to get premium ride access that far in advance too, I honestly haven't been back to WDW since they switched over. And if they want to go super greedy and put a paid fastpass like at Disneyland Paris, then I'm simply going to stop going at any time when there may be crowds which pre-pandemic was still most all the time, I've seen what a paid priority system has done to other parks and it's not good. So last laugh that Disney, you can't get me to spend money if I refuse to go to your park.
The frozen ride at Epcot must always be on phase 3
As a tourist from Australia I am happy to pay for a fast pass that I know is going to allow me to ride all rides when I want and multiply times a day during my visit so i get the most from my holiday. And if paid fast pass becomes a standard sign me up. If i fly to Shanghai and Tron has over an hour wait time and i can pay $9 for example to skip that wait...... duh! take my money. If i have to pay $150 for unlimited fast pass line skips for a day.... duh! take my money.
I budgeted for two days for two people of the Universal Studios Japan fast pass tickets, i think around $500 ish total for the two days, and it made such a difference to the visit overall.
It just sucks you cant leave the park and re-enter as we were staying at the hotel right opposite the park entry and its an official hotel. Dumbest rule ever!
At Tokyo Disneyland/Sea we were fast pass gods during the visit and made sure to get a fast pass at park entry and kept note of the next available time we could get another. (normally a two hour window, sometimes shorter, some were even 30 mins in early morning) We collected the next fast pass ticket the second the time ticked over, then we made our way to the now active fast pass of the previous ride within the next hour. We held 3 fast pass tickets at once for Space Mt, Monsters INC, Thunder Mt. Photo to prove it :)
We were able to complete every single ride, some more than others across the two parks in the four day visit with no longer than a 25 mins wait.
And would not ride a ride if it had over a 25 mins wait like Peter Pan or Pinocchio, Snow White, Roger Rabbit, Haunted Mansion for example as i knew the lines would die off later at night when the locals went home after parades and fireworks around 8-8.30 and had the park till 9-10pm
My trip to Toyko Disney was awesome because we planned, we stayed on site (15 min entry helps) and we knew what to do to in essence of "game the system" to the best effective use.
Get rid of it. It makes lines longer. I’ve been to various e-ticket attractions where they just let 3-4 standby groups go and let 10-12 fastpass groups after. Rinse and repeat.
Fast pass are kind of dumb but idk, I kind of like having to plan my schedule around them. Like on grad night, it was fun to just go get a fast pass to space mountain, then go on another ride, get a fast pass, go on another ride, etc
Great channel!
I HATE waiting in line. I would rather walk onto half as many rides than to wait in line for twice as many. I like Disney's standard FP+ system, but I do wish that there was no "first come, first serve, jump on it quick" aspect to it, and that they could instead come up with a system where everyone had time to enter their interests into a pool, and then a system would randomly distribute FPs accordingly. Like instead of having 100 FPs available for a ride and the first 100 who show up get them, people could have a couple days or more to enter in that they want to ride X ride between the hours of 10-12 and 1-4 on a given date, and then once everyone's had a chance to enter, the system randomly picks 100 people to get each time slot. It wouldn't be that hard for them to set up.
I also think they should remove stand-by lines completely and replace it with something more like classic FPs, where you can be signed up for exactly ONE ride at a time, day-of, and are just in line behind everyone else who wants in, and it lets you know when it becomes available. The old line-up queues would be converted to air-conditioned seating.
As a prior attractions cast member, those phase numbers are VERY wrong! Don’t spread incorrect information. 1 to 99?? It’s 1 to 10!
Surprised you didn’t mention the Epcot Tiered Fast Passes. No offense?
It's quite obvious that these fastpass systems are ways of Disney to offer a better experience for the guests who are willing to pay.
It results in a worsened experience for the quests who are not paying the premium for fastpass solutions ( Also indirectly by not staying at Disney resorts).
The regular entrance fee offer value is directly reduced by purchasable fastpasses reducing ridespots.
I am looking forward to the democratization of high end theme parks that will be sprouting up in major cities all over the world as Virtual and Augmented Reality gets better. I foresee Costco sized warehouses filled with robotic chairs that one can sit in and experience any ride ever made and those never possible. This will bring theme parks to those who cannot afford to travel to a Disney or Universal park. Think Disney Quest, but actually delivers on the concept. Sure they will need Fast Passes however. That future is already starting as in a matter of weeks, I will be releasing a very high quality Dark Ride for the Oculus Quest and other headsets called "Into the Metaverse" that truly feels like a real theme park dark ride. This is only the beginning.
MaxPass is the best so far. It's relatively inexpensive and works very well. I really want them to bring it to Walt Disney World. FastPass+ requires too much pre-planning.
I feel like Disney could resign the system. Instead make fast pass a virtual queue. That way every guest has the option to not physically wait in line. The merge point would be adjusted based on the waits in both lines and in theory the wait time should be the same weather you go in line physically or virtually.
When’s the podcast coming back
To be honest they should lower capacity to match d and e ticket attractions raise ticket prices and add a new gate. When deman exceed s again add more attractions or a new gate
I would like a Monorail fastpass...
This is gonna be a good video
It absolutely makes the line longer.
I know it’s not the best financial interest of Disney to do so but I think to increase guest satisfaction they should lower the park capacity to reduce crowding. The last time I visited Disneyland I felt claustrophobic with the crowds. It kills the experience.
The more I see these things, the more I dread going to a Disney park. I want to one day take my kids there to experience the Disney magic, but I don't want to have go thru this.
I really like the paper fastpass system at Tokyo Disney, but that might also be due to the Japanese themselves. As long as I got it before someone else I was good to go.
For sure! 100%. I hate the Fast Pass+ (used in WDW) nowadays. Bring back the old general lines. It’s more fair. Do you want to go in more rides? Arrive early.
I think if they introduce a payed fastpass its just them being honest lol, but if they significantly reduce the amount they're giving I think they can still make a huge profit while decreasing wait times around the park. Maybe taking FastPass away from a lot of attractions permanently.
It’s weird to watch this now and hear “the introduction of paid fast passes may be even nearer.” It’s like a ominous warning of Genie+ on the horizon.
I've never been a fan. It creates a class system of access.
Those who don't know the system, and those who can game the system: often younger and able to run to the FastPass kiosks faster to get their time slots.
Access to attractions should be first-come, first-served given the cost of admission. It should not be a gamble if you have access to an attraction or not.
The Ultimate FP is basically "let them eat cake" snub to the plebes who have to wait in line.
Pretty much, for some rides if you showed up more than hour after opening the fastpass is unavailable, and now with Rise of the Resistance's reservation system if you did not have your ticket scanned and were in the park before they opened up the whole park (pre-pandemic times) you literally can not get on the ride.
First come first serve, and let me make that choice if I see a 120 minute wait chances are I'm not going to want to ride that ride, and figure people in that line are not going to be in front of me for 120 minutes in another line.
Went to Tokyo Disneyland 6 years ago and was horrifically confused, wait times were insane and all the fast passes were gone before we found out what they were. Completely foreign concept to me. The next day we went to DisneySea and it worked great, but when we came back 2 years later we saw the crazy line situation for midway mania, and the fastpasses weren't nearly as useful, they all sold out a lot quicker so we must have gone on a slow day.
That being said, paid for the paid fast pass thing at Universal Studios Osaka and being able to skip the lines was well worth it. If you're a regular it'd be a huge pain, but $100 extra wasn't insane when you've already paid to go overseas. I wouldn't bother buying one for movieworld here as I've already been here, but if I was an international tourist I absolutely would.
Before the parts and Walt Disney World became really crowded you could do 10 rides and not worry about it
What is disneyland .. make it once a year entrance for each individual... That means... Each individual is allowed to go Disneyland once a year... thus reduce frequent guests... Less wait time... Also to give chance to others...
Fast pass does not help in Tokyo they definitely need to figure out a better system for wait times there. 😭 all of the passes are exhausted for 9pm by 9am, so if you go get one you can’t get another all day basically! Was such a shock to me when i went to Anaheim and there were wait times under 2-3 hours and i could go on more than 1 e-Ticket a day 😂
3:24 this aged well