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Thread: Fastpass+

  1. #1
    Florida Expert
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    Fastpass+

    Disney recently introduced days the fastpass+ system which means you can book 3 fastpasses for any one park on any one day up to 30 days before your visit. You log onto My disney experience, link your tickets to your account then get the fastpasses. I just wanted to alert you to potential problems that we discovered. We have old non-expiry tickets and because they were not the right type, they didn't have a QR code (or so my son tells me it's called!), we had to take the tickets to guest services to get new ones issued before we could use them on the system. We did this on the first day of our holiday and then logged on to get fastpasses. We wanted to try out the seven dwarfs mine train but there were no fastpasses left for that for ANY day of our 2 week holiday!
    So be aware and as soon as you get your tickets, decide when to go to Disney and book your fastpasses for those days!


  2. #2
    Florida Expert Gerry Reed's Avatar
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    I am not a fan of the new system, it seams to have made the queues even longer for the rides you do not have passes for and as you say unless you decide which days you are going to which parks 30 days in advance you can't get fastpasses for the popular rides and just have to queue. We usually only decide the day before if we are going to a park and so have no chance of getting on the big rides now. We used to be able to get on with a wait of an hour or so at busy times but no longer.

    Sue
    Gerry and Sue




  3. #3
    Florida Chatterbox Tony G's Avatar
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    I believe they keep a portion of Fastpasses to be issued on the day, so even if you can't get advance fastpasses for the attraction you like, try again when you get to the parks.

    You'll have to have used your pre-booked fastpasses before you do, but it might still get you to the front of the queue for the attraction you wanted.
    Tony G



  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gerry Reed View Post
    I am not a fan of the new system, it seams to have made the queues even longer for the rides you do not have passes for and as you say unless you decide which days you are going to which parks 30 days in advance you can't get fastpasses for the popular rides and just have to queue. We usually only decide the day before if we are going to a park and so have no chance of getting on the big rides now. We used to be able to get on with a wait of an hour or so at busy times but no longer.

    Sue
    I suspect that this may turn out to be a case of technology being deployed at the expense of the experience. It seems that increasingly a trip to enjoy the magic of disney requires a military like planning process, a whole heap of added pressure before hand to get all the right fast passes and then a schedule to meet once in the parks. Is this going to get in the way of the fun, spontaneity and exploration?

    I am sure that Disney have invested a fortune in setting this up and believe that it will enhance the customer experience, but I wonder if time doesn't end up showing that, on average, it has a different outcome.


  5. #5
    Super Moderator florida4sun's Avatar
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    The same was said when Fastpass first rolled out all those years ago. To be fair the 'old' Fastpass did used to get snapped up during busy days. I remember trying to get passes at 10am once and they had all gone. Fastpass was overwhelming popular and Plus is just an enhancement on that. The feedback we are getting for Fastpass Plus is looking the same way. Busy periods will always be problematic with or without Fastpass Plus. Also Fastpass gives you a one hour window to join the queue. So plenty of room for flexibility.

    Quote Originally Posted by FraserLynn View Post
    I suspect that this may turn out to be a case of technology being deployed at the expense of the experience. It seems that increasingly a trip to enjoy the magic of disney requires a military like planning process, a whole heap of added pressure before hand to get all the right fast passes and then a schedule to meet once in the parks. Is this going to get in the way of the fun, spontaneity and exploration?

    I am sure that Disney have invested a fortune in setting this up and believe that it will enhance the customer experience, but I wonder if time doesn't end up showing that, on average, it has a different outcome.


  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by florida4sun View Post
    The same was said when Fastpass first rolled out all those years ago. To be fair the 'old' Fastpass did used to get snapped up during busy days. I remember trying to get passes at 10am once and they had all gone. Fastpass was overwhelming popular and Plus is just an enhancement on that. The feedback we are getting for Fastpass Plus is looking the same way. Busy periods will always be problematic with or without Fastpass Plus. Also Fastpass gives you a one hour window to join the queue. So plenty of room for flexibility.
    Fair point, I just wonder if there is a point where the technology starts driving / dictating the experience rather than supporting it....


  7. #7
    Florida Expert Gerry Reed's Avatar
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    Maybe they should limit the number of fastpasses so that the queues stay under say 90min in the quieter times. I know it would be longer in August etc.
    It is not just at busy times there are problems. We had problems in Jan and also in May, most of the fast passes had gone by the time we got to the park (9 ish), just a few left late in the evening. As we had very young children with us, we needed to leave around 5pm so no good for us.
    When on holiday, I like to have fun and be spontaneous, not a military campaign, organised down to the last minute weeks in advance.
    Gerry and Sue




  8. #8
    Gold 5 Star Member Lyn's Avatar
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    While there we organised the Fastpasses well in advance for all 4 parks. We did get on Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios, which we had never managed before because of the queues, and fastpasses having all been issued before we arrived in the park. However I did not like feeling tied to the days we visited, it was raining heavily on the day we were going to Magic Kingdom and tried to change our fastpasses to the following day but none of the ones we wanted were available. I also think that the fastpass is now the wrong name for it as the fastpass line can also be very long.
    Lyn


  9. #9
    Florida Chatterbox freddiehollie's Avatar
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    We love the FP+ system.

    No more "Fast Walking" (Running) at rope drop (I'm on holiday, I want a lie in) to get the old FP before they ran out.

    No more arriving at 10am to find the return times for FP 6.30/7.30pm. (or later)

    Book our FP+ for whatever time we prefer, (at the 60 day window) have a lie in, lazy breakfast, sound in the knowledge we will get on the ride we want:-) (subject to breakdowns)

    As has been said. When FP first rolled out, the complaints were loud, probably the same ones now complaining about FP+ ;-);-)

    If we decide not to go to the FP+ park on the chosen day, go online & change our FP+ picks for a different park:-) (subject to availability)

    The last time we changed our FP+ picks, we were still able to get the rides we wanted.

    Oh & (for the moment) it's still "free". Unlike Universal:-(
    mike


  10. #10
    Gold 5 Star Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by freddiehollie View Post
    We love the FP+ system.

    No more "Fast Walking" (Running) at rope drop (I'm on holiday, I want a lie in) to get the old FP before they ran out.

    No more arriving at 10am to find the return times for FP 6.30/7.30pm. (or later)

    Book our FP+ for whatever time we prefer, (at the 60 day window) have a lie in, lazy breakfast, sound in the knowledge we will get on the ride we want:-) (subject to breakdowns)

    As has been said. When FP first rolled out, the complaints were loud, probably the same ones now complaining about FP+ ;-);-)

    If we decide not to go to the FP+ park on the chosen day, go online & change our FP+ picks for a different park:-) (subject to availability)

    The last time we changed our FP+ picks, we were still able to get the rides we wanted.

    Oh & (for the moment) it's still "free". Unlike Universal:-(
    Have to agree , we used them for a couple of days earlier in the year and meant we could spread soome time, hubby was joining us at around 3 so when we organised fastpasses we made his for later in the day to coincide with ours and probably wouldnt have got on many. As it was my borther and I used our fastpass + for midway mania at around 1pm and then walked off and were able to get another for about 30 mins later, by 3 pm all the fastpasses were out though.
    You can keep your options open to a degree if you play the system. If you have for instance a 14 day pass or have more days than you are going to use. You can book Fastpass+ for up to 7 days (30/60 days out) so you could book the same plan for MK for say 3 days and when time gets closer and you have decided exactly what you want to do then cancel the others. If you have a 5 day ticket you can only book 5 days for example.

    We found it worked really well for us as hubby is limited to amount of walking he can stand so rather than hop around the parks for tickets we can plan it from home and plan our day accordingly. Also means if we say ant to go to Fantasmic we can plan to arrive later at the park and do a few rides before so dont need to spend 14/15 hours in the park to guarantee what we want to do.
    Babblin Boo


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