Fastpass return or replacement?

[vicarrieous]

Anyone think information if coming today? With the Space 220 announcement I wonder if we will get some others positive news with the Genie/Paid Fastpass being the 4PM drop. Thoughts?!

 

[snowwhite84]

Anyone think information if coming today? With the Space 220 announcement I wonder if we will get some others positive news with the Genie/Paid Fastpass being the 4PM drop. Thoughts?!

I’m hopeful!

 

[cakebaker]

Did they fail miserably in trying to make your vacation magical?

Our trip wasn't horrible, but I should be able to say more than that for a vacation that cost thousands of dollars. It was in no way magical nor did it have that feel that all our other trips have had. It was stressful and just plain hard work to avoid long lines, congested areas and honestly, something to do besides just get on rides. My goal was to not disappoint my grandson and up until he got sick, it seems to have worked. Still, that's not a high enough bar by any stretch to do it again.

 

[PaladinButters]

What's common knowledge to us isn't necessarily common knowledge to a first time guest booking through WDW Travel. This levels the playing field. at the expense of regulars on Disney fan boards.

This is why us regulars will be here looking for the tips to get around it! All the threads will be : Genie inflates average wait time on X ride by Y minutes. Genie drops FP equivalent options for Z ride at 3:05pm every day. Everyone is suddenly flooding to rope drop and the sweet spot is now at 2. Whatever it is - we'll stick together and figure it out, right?

 

[Mac30188]

Our trip wasn't horrible, but I should be able to say more than that for a vacation that cost thousands of dollars. It was in no way magical nor did it have that feel that all our other trips have had. It was stressful and just plain hard work to avoid long lines, congested areas and honestly, something to do besides just get on rides. My goal was to not disappoint my grandson and up until he got sick, it seems to have worked. Still, that's not a high enough bar by any stretch to do it again.

Very sorry, and understand. Hopefully the combination of old stuff returning and new system it will continue to improve.

 

[Arym]

How many Disney oriented etsy sellers have Disney's permission? License use of Disney's IP

As @snowwhite84 said, Etsy creators picked up on things that we loved about the parks, that were not really on Disney's merch radar. I'm not talking about bootlegged Mickey images being printed on t-shirts, I'm talking about things like being obsessed with the People Mover, or classic snacks. Disney picked up on the popularity of themes they had not really exploited and started creating merch around them. I'm not saying Disney is wrong in doing so, rather that they spotted an opportunity to re-direct that revenue into their own stream, and they took that opportunity. So, not much different than seeing that guests are paying subscriptions to third-party touring plan creators, and deciding to introduce their own in-house planning system.

Agree! I have loved the elevated merch in the parks, particularly the explosion of Minnie ears designs!

Saying Disney merch artists have been influenced by current trends is a lot different than saying Disney artists have stolen from Etsy sellers, especially since Etsy sellers have directly stolen IP from Disney.

 

[snowwhite84]

Saying Disney merch artists have been influenced by current trends is a lot different than saying Disney artists have stolen from Etsy sellers, especially since Etsy sellers have directly stolen IP from Disney.

I didn’t mean with my comments that anything nefarious was taking place.

 

[Marionnette]

I tend to believe Remy's rumors that Disney got caught a little off guard, and they got caught in no-man's land this summer.

I don't think that they were/are intentionally withholding Genie. I think they are/were just finishing testing a very complex piece of software. They likely were too far enough away from Genie to implement, but too close to justify putting in Fastpass. If they implement Fastpass system, I very much doubt they are going to cancel a guest's confirmed FP+. They would have to set a Genie go live date way in the future and allow the Fastpass queue to clear. If they just put in the same code today that could allow up to 70 days of Fastpasses, that would mean the earliest they could go live is November. Not to mention it added an entire new level of perception issues.

Assumption number 2 I am making is they want something as close to October 1st as reasonably possible. I am assuming they didn't put in Fastpass because they thought they were close enough that it did not justify putting in Fastpass for such a short period of time or worse yet, it could actually lead to a delay in implementing Genie.

Unfortunately, software development is notoriously unpredictable when building something new. Were they hoping to already be in production? Maybe. We will never know because they played it so close to the vest and didn't give us any information. Did they fail miserably in trying to make your vacation magical? I truly hope not. I have not gone this summer yet myself. I just believe for the new system to be successful, it has to offer something that customer's will value.

I don't think they have intentionally withheld introducing Genie. I think it was not yet ready for prime time.

But there is no reason that Disney could not have instituted "day of" FP+ in the interim. They simply chose not to. Why? Because it is bad show to suddenly go from "hey this is free" to "hey, you gotta pay $10 pp for this".

 

[cakebaker]

I don't think they have intentionally withheld introducing Genie. I think it was not yet ready for prime time.

But there is no reason that Disney could not have instituted "day of" FP+ in the interim. They simply chose not to. Why? Because it is bad show to suddenly go from "hey this is free" to "hey, you gotta pay $10 pp for this".

Exactly. They were willing to sacrifice the guest experience all summer rather than bring back FP+ for no reason other than optics. So when someone says Disney only does what they do to enhance our experience, that's just absolutely not true. They could've made my trip and thousands of others, infinitely better with the flip of a switch and said nope, not doing it. And they continue up to this day making the choice to give guests a lesser experience.

 

[Mac30188]

I don't think they have intentionally withheld introducing Genie. I think it was not yet ready for prime time.

But there is no reason that Disney could not have instituted "day of" FP+ in the interim. They simply chose not to. Why? Because it is bad show to suddenly go from "hey this is free" to "hey, you gotta pay $10 pp for this".

It is also not the system they have in hand. Maybe it would be a trivial change? Maybe not. At minimum, you would need to perform analysis on where all the system would be impacted to make it "day of". You would have to make those code fixes. You would have to evaluate operational impact of everyone doing all their FP reservations day of.

I can definitely see Disney hitting major snags, realize they need 6 more months. Restart Fastpass+ with minimal to no changes.

I find it it less likely that they would take Fastpass+, alter the system, reimplement as a band aid, build a new system, replace an altered Fastpass system. It seems like that would be splitting your development and testing efforts.

 

[JoJoGirl]

I often wonder if there was easy-access social media to exchange complaints 20-40 years ago, would the tone of the posts still be similar to today? I think the 'old Disney' had issues, too. "Why are they doing away with these easy ticket books??? Everyone who enters the park can ride whatever attraction they want as many times as they want? That's crazy and will never work.......?"

Lots of discussion “back in the day” on RADP about Disney losing the magic. I’m talking 20+ years ago on Usenet.

 

[snowwhite84]

So when someone says Disney only does what they do to enhance our experience, that's just absolutely not true.

No, I agree. Disney does what it does to make money. I just still think Disney tries to find the sweet spot of offering a good experience in order to eke out as many dollars as possible from guests.

I think an argument could be made that bringing back FP+ momentarily only to take it away and replace it with something paid, would have led to even greater upset.

 

[Lewisc]

Seems to me that making the experience equally bad for everyone is just not the way to go. I would think elevating the experience for first timers to match that of repeat guests is a much better idea. Of course the only ones who know it's bad are those of us who knew it was good before.

It's like grading on the curve....a really bad idea.

This is why us regulars will be here looking for the tips to get around it! All the threads will be : Genie inflates average wait time on X ride by Y minutes. Genie drops FP equivalent options for Z ride at 3:05pm every day. Everyone is suddenly flooding to rope drop and the sweet spot is now at 2. Whatever it is - we'll stick together and figure it out, right?

Maybe we'll figure out 80% of the RotR Boarding Groups are allocated to pY. Free ones are gone in.a nano second.
We further discover in the evident of a temporary closure paid groups get preferred status. Free groups get bumped.

 

[cakebaker]

I think an argument could be made that bringing back FP+ momentarily only to take it away and replace it with something paid, would have led to even greater upset.

But that is exactly the reason they didn't bring it back- they knew that it would be easier to introduce a paid system with no system in place than it would be to introduce a paid system with a free system in place. So...in order to avoid bad optics, they sacrificed those guests who are affected by not having any system in place. That doesn't make their choice any better, only worse.

And there's more than a valid argument that not having any system in place for months ( it's been busy in the parks with complaints about waits since at least May) isn't "momentarily". It could easily be months before they ever do introduce a new system and they continue to sacrifice the guest experience.

 

[snowwhite84]

But that is exactly the reason they didn't bring it back- they knew that it would be easier to introduce a paid system with no system in place than it would be to introduce a paid system with a free system in place. So...in order to avoid bad optics, they sacrificed those guests who are affected by not having any system in place. That doesn't make their choice any better, only worse.

And there's more than a valid argument that not having any system in place for months ( it's been busy in the parks with complaints about waits since at least May) isn't "momentarily". It could easily be months before they ever do.

I see your point!

 

[ChipnDale79]

Our trip wasn't horrible, but I should be able to say more than that for a vacation that cost thousands of dollars. It was in no way magical nor did it have that feel that all our other trips have had. It was stressful and just plain hard work to avoid long lines, congested areas and honestly, something to do besides just get on rides. My goal was to not disappoint my grandson and up until he got sick, it seems to have worked. Still, that's not a high enough bar by any stretch to do it again.

how many times have you booked another trip while still onsite, or came back thinking, "man i cant wait to go back!"

that was us almost every trip, we either booked another one, or started planning another one.

We came back this time..."im not sure im ready go back to that for awhile"

 

[Bibbobboo2u]

I am thinking that with Genie, all FP choices will be made in the park that day. I don't think we will be able to make them in advance. There may be some no-charge ones offered by Genie depending on whatever factors Disney chooses, but after that, they will be offered based on a dynamic pricing model that will fluctuate day-to-day. Just a guess.......

 

[jade1]

Exactly. They were willing to sacrifice the guest experience all summer rather than bring back FP+ for no reason other than optics.

Yea I think your correct. And as others have mentioned, the new outbreaks in FL (among others and I have no idea how there hasn't been any breakouts tied back to WDW or US) might have got them dragging there feet even more-esp if it has reserved FP weeks or months out.

 

[jade1]

I am thinking that with Genie, all FP choices will be made in the park that day. I don't think we will be able to make them in advance. There may be some no-charge ones offered by Genie depending on whatever factors Disney chooses, but after that, they will be offered based on a dynamic pricing model that will fluctuate day-to-day. Just a guess.......

If that's the case it seems like it could be put in to place easier IF an outbreak slows things down again.

But even then I think they want to keep longer wait times (larger crowds/lines) to roll out to. Pretty sure that's what it's designed for.

I mean we walked on FoP many times last winter-what would be the point of Genie.

FoP is available for $50 ea, but it's a 5 min wait.

 

[cakebaker]

how many times have you booked another trip while still onsite, or came back thinking, "man i cant wait to go back!"

that was us almost every trip, we either booked another one, or started planning another one.

We came back this time..."im not sure im ready go back to that for awhile"

We've been going back at least once a year since 2000, usually twice or more. In that period of time, I have never had a time when there wasn't a reservation on MDE until Covid. I don't have one now and no plans to. I don't know how long it will be or if I ever will again. There's not much that would stop me from booking another trip with these exceptions: A FP system that will allow me some kind of access, whether paid or not, to the FP line and the shows, parades and character meets brought back. Those are the bare minimum requirements. If they don't ever come back, we never return. It's not an easy choice for us, but what exists now is not the place we love.

Our hope now is with DLR. Their Oogie Boogie bash seems to knock the socks off what Disney offers and they're offering dessert parties for parade viewing! They're actually doing things in both parks for Halloween. I haven't heard anything about what they plan to do about MaxPass there, info for DLR is not as easy to get as WDW. But still, from what I can gather, they seem to be offering much more than WDW is. We have a trip planned for October but now unsure due to Covid if we'll actually be able to go. I was hopeful a vaccine for kids would be out by then, but it's not looking too promising.

Bottom line is, we can't accept WDW the way it is now. I'm willing to pay more, but I'm not willing to get less. And I'm as pixie dust blinded as anyone- or at least I was. If they can alienate me......