State of Fast Pass Return (or replacement)

[amdphenom]

Don't forget a $10 Monorail/Ferry ticket....one way of course

But remember dreamers, walking is always free!

 

[Lewisc]

Is Disney working with Chase to increase guests credit limits?

 

[shairpdrh]

Are you forgetting the paid Express Transportation for park hopping they tried a few years back?

I might get slammed for saying this, but that was one of the best deals I have ever gotten at a Disney Park! Scheduled buses without having to got though security was worth every penny. I am all for options for FP that allow for a hybrid of options paid and free. That is what the express bus option allowed (buses were free at the front of the park, but you could pay for the perk of express bus). I completely understand why others feel differently.

 

[Bibbobboo2u]

Given the price of a Disney Vacation and the crowds in the park, I would rather cut into food, shopping, or length of stay costs then stop using some Fastpasses for E-ticket rides.

This is what many people will do, which is the opposite of what Disney appears to aiming for. I think out-of-touch Disney executives think that most people will gladly just pay more to play, as they want greater average spending per guest. In reality, many of us have a vacation budget, and if one cost goes up, such as whatever version of pay-to-ride they plan to use, another cost will need to go down. That could include a shorter vacation, less expensive hotel (on or off-site), lower-cost meals, fewer or no souvenirs, etc. Just because Disney wants more money from each guest doesn't mean people always have it to spend or in other cases that they will choose to spend more if they do have it. Their business, their decisions, my money, my choices. Some will pay-to-play and others can't or won't. Our current plans are to not renew our AP's and to take only one WDW vacation per year and spend time and money traveling to other places. We cut out a couple of WDW trips this year already and replaced them with trips we are excited about. We still enjoy Disney, but for us it will be more magical if we don't go as often. Let's hope for a system that has some kind of benefit for everyone who loves Disney.

 

[Rowlf the Dog]

It may be stress free for you as you and many others that have trained meticulously for years for all the hoops that need to be jumped through between advanced bookings for ADRs and FPs (so you need to know exactly what you'll be doing down to the hour 2 months out, and hope what you want is what you get works out).

Every time I sit down with a friend who is trying to plan their first Disney Vacation and start walking them through all of this, they look at me cross eyed and say "what what?!?!? I have to micro-manage all of this stuff?". And then even worse they say "We're going because we want to go to 'Star Wars Land' and you're telling me there's a good chance I won't get to ride the best ride???".

This system might be great for those in the know who go often and have been indoctrinated into the system, have gotten good at it, and it's just accepted that it's what you need to do. But to the average vacationer just trying to plan a stress free and fun family trip, to them it's a confusing and stressful set of hoops.

I think for my first two trips I was an average vacationer. Heck I'm from Germany, my first trip was christmas 2015 and did book it 45 days before my first day. I only read some infos on the homepage and my travel agent recommend me to book my fastpasses in advance and give me some tips according rides. That was all and I had a blast. During this trip I learned per coincidence (trial and error via app) of same day fastpasses, but didn't use it until my second trip in 2016.

Friends also didn't have any problems after I gave them some tips, and this didn't take hours or needed a university-degree ;-)

 

[Remy is Up]

I think for my first two trips I was an average vacationer. Heck I'm from Germany, my first trip was christmas 2015 and did book it 45 days before my first day. I only read some infos on the homepage and my travel agent recommend me to book my fastpasses in advance and give me some tips according rides. That was all and I had a blast. During this trip I learned per coincidence (trial and error via app) of same day fastpasses, but didn't use it until my second trip in 2016.

Friends also didn't have any problems after I gave them some tips, and this didn't take hours or needed a university-degree ;-)

We never prebooked fps. Due to refresh, drop windows etc, we could generally pull whatever we wanted in a reasonable amount of time. So I'd be all for return of fp+. But, no company after a shutdown is leaving money on the table

 

[tigger2002]

OK here is the answer: At 30 days they give out 70% of the Fastpasses to onsite guest (three(3) per day). At 15 days everyone else gets the other 30% (three(3) per day). Just like the old system when you use your three you can try for more. Anytime the Fastpass line is less than say 15 minutes long at a certain ride more Fastpasses are made available for that ride. That way they can use the same software/hardware. Doesn't have to be 70/30 could be 50/50 or whatever those AI engineers decide.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

This is what many people will do, which is the opposite of what Disney appears to aiming for. I think out-of-touch Disney executives think that most people will gladly just pay more to play, as they want greater average spending per guest. In reality, many of us have a vacation budget, and if one cost goes up, such as whatever version of pay-to-ride they plan to use, another cost will need to go down. That could include a shorter vacation, less expensive hotel (on or off-site), lower-cost meals, fewer or no souvenirs, etc. Just because Disney wants more money from each guest doesn't mean people always have it to spend or in other cases that they will choose to spend more if they do have it. Their business, their decisions, my money, my choices. Some will pay-to-play and others can't or won't. Our current plans are to not renew our AP's and to take only one WDW vacation per year and spend time and money traveling to other places. We cut out a couple of WDW trips this year already and replaced them with trips we are excited about. We still enjoy Disney, but for us it will be more magical if we don't go as often. Let's hope for a system that has some kind of benefit for everyone who loves Disney.

I have so many thoughts on this. On one hand, I can't believe that Disney execs are so out of touch that they don't realize the majority of their clientele aren't working with an unlimited vacation budget. If they choose to go this route, it's because they think it's going to make them a bigger profit. I've been thinking for awhile that maybe they are intentionally trying to pigeon-hole guests into shorter, but more expensive stays. Maybe they don't want to be a family's annual vacation destination - maybe they'd rather be the once-in-a-lifetime destination, because people are more likely to throw out ALL THE CASH for their once in a lifetime, where repeat visitors don't feel like they need to blow it all on one go. On the other hand, I doubt they want people staying off-site, which is what's going to happen when guests start having to funnel their hotel budget into fastpasses instead. Because when people STAY offsite, they also eat and shop offsite, and Disney gets less and less of their money.

And then there are people like me, who will wind up just going elsewhere altogether. Because for me, it's a slippery slope and my logic is this: I go to Disney for a VACATION. To me that means an extended time, not just 3 or 4 days. If I'm paying to fly my family somewhere (which we do for Disney), then I am staying there for at least a week. That means shortening my stay is not an option I like. Currently we stay deluxe vie dvc rental, because we like staying at resorts where we can walk/boat/monorail to the parks instead of taking buses. If we need to buy fastpasses and reallocate our budget to that, then maybe we could stay moderate at CBR instead and use the skyliner. Except moderate prices are actually not all that much cheaper than deluxe prices through dvc rental, so nevermind. Okay, then we could stay value. At which point, we're busing everywhere anyway an I may as well stay off site and lyft/uber over, and save myself a buttload of money in the process. EXCEPT I don't really want to stay off-site at all. Which means the choices I actually like at WDW are now..... none. In which case I will be going somewhere else and avoiding all this BS.

 

[Remy is Up]

OK here is the answer: At 30 days they give out 70% of the Fastpasses to onsite guest (three(3) per day). At 15 days everyone else gets the other 30% (three(3) per day). Just like the old system when you use your three you can try for more. Anytime the Fastpass line is less than say 15 minutes long at a certain ride more Fastpasses are made available for that ride. That way they can use the same software/hardware. Doesn't have to be 70/30 could be 50/50 or whatever those AI engineers decide.

Ap and dvc have to be accounted for as well

 

[Jo2019]

But remember dreamers, walking is always free!

For now ;-)

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

But remember dreamers, walking is always free!

Actually, even walking inside a park isn't free

 

[palmettostatemom]

I think some folks are misunderstanding me.
I don't think paying $10 for one ride ONCE per day would work at WDW. There's just too many rides. It's just too big.

I DO hope we'll have something along the lines of free FPs for on-site guests and PAID FPs for off-site guests.

offsite

We stay offsite & cost for a week at an awesome resort + three 5 day parkhoppers cost about $1800 the last time we went (2019) so I'd be ok paying for some FP since we save so much staying offsite, depending on how it worked & if we even needed them if we went at a less crowded time.

 

[SweetJulia23]

Are you forgetting the paid Express Transportation for park hopping they tried a few years back?

I did forget this!! I never got to try it. They cancelled it just before my trip. Was it $50 for length of stay? I really wanted to skip the bag check lines and see all the backstage areas.

 

[Nabas]

Look, it was bound to happen. Disney's two biggest competitors are Universal and Cedar Fair and they've both had a paid access program for years now. It just is what it is. But like I said, they aren't just competition against their business contemporaries here- they're competing against their own VIP programs.

Yes, Universal and Cedar Point, the gold standard in theme parks.

A second-rate operation like Disney really should strive to match industry leaders like Universal and Cedar Point.

 

[TommyJK]

I did forget this!! I never got to try it. They cancelled it just before my trip. Was it $50 for length of stay? I really wanted to skip the bag check lines and see all the backstage areas.

It was a single-day for $19 or $29 for up to seven consecutive days.

 

[lukemorenus]

This is what many people will do, which is the opposite of what Disney appears to aiming for. I think out-of-touch Disney executives think that most people will gladly just pay more to play, as they want greater average spending per guest. In reality, many of us have a vacation budget, and if one cost goes up, such as whatever version of pay-to-ride they plan to use, another cost will need to go down. That could include a shorter vacation, less expensive hotel (on or off-site), lower-cost meals, fewer or no souvenirs, etc. Just because Disney wants more money from each guest doesn't mean people always have it to spend or in other cases that they will choose to spend more if they do have it. Their business, their decisions, my money, my choices. Some will pay-to-play and others can't or won't. Our current plans are to not renew our AP's and to take only one WDW vacation per year and spend time and money traveling to other places. We cut out a couple of WDW trips this year already and replaced them with trips we are excited about. We still enjoy Disney, but for us it will be more magical if we don't go as often. Let's hope for a system that has some kind of benefit for everyone who loves Disney.

That could be exactly what they’re aiming for… $10 spent on FP is (essentially) $10 in profit… where $10 spent at a store or restaurant is maybe $4 in profit… but I hope it stays the same

 

[samsonjs]

Look, it was bound to happen. Disney's two biggest competitors are Universal and Cedar Fair and they've both had a paid access program for years now. It just is what it is. But like I said, they aren't just competition against their business contemporaries here- they're competing against their own VIP programs.

cedar point is a one day trip though. I don’t know anyone that goes for more than one day. I know many people that go to wdw for 5, 7, 9, even 14 days. It would completely change the way people would vacation at Disney if they are spending $400extra a day for fast pass access. My family could afford that for a one day trip.Certainly not our 7 day trip at Disney.

 

[TommyJK]

Yes, Universal and Cedar Point, the gold standard in theme parks.

A second-rate operation like Disney really should strive to match industry leaders like Universal and Cedar Point.

Universal's attendance growth has heavily outpaced Disney's for about a decade now.....

 

[focusondisney]

I did forget this!! I never got to try it. They cancelled it just before my trip. Was it $50 for length of stay? I really wanted to skip the bag check lines and see all the backstage areas.

It was a single-day for $19 or $29 for up to seven consecutive days.

But who knows, it could come back at $50 a day.

 

[Jonfw2]

Yes, Universal and Cedar Point, the gold standard in theme parks.

A second-rate operation like Disney really should strive to match industry leaders like Universal and Cedar Point.

Not sure why the snark...the fact is they know how their competition is making money.