Originally Posted By TDLFAN The last few visits I'ver made to the MK and EPCOT Center, I am seeing yet again a pattern of unjust conduct in the part of both guests and cast members. Four times so far (twice today during my visit) I noticed the parties in front of us were getting a blue light color light when attempting to access the Fastpass+ line. CMs have stopped the guests and instructed that their time window has either expired or has not started yet, and after some BS explanation or blatant LIE about changing their reservation's time or attraction experience, the guests are being allowed to enter the line manually, effectively letting them cut ahead of stand by guests, dismissing the situation with a simple "will let you do it this time but please don't use the Fastpass line again if your reserved time is not in effect." Again, how is this fair to all guests when the integrity of the system is not being administered by those who should make sure guests are not abusing the system? Are CMs that afraid to deny a guest entry into the fastpass lane when their reservation is not effective yet? I have sung the glories of the new Fastpass+ system here but if Cast and guests alike are going to once again start mismanaging the system the way the old system was, then I will have no choice but to vigorously complain to Guest Services, with the specific offending Cast member's name in hand. This is just not fair.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Oh and forgot to say that problem happens yet again when the same guests have to re-touch their tickets/magic bands at the second set of fastpass scanners, causing yet again more delays and headaches for CMs at that spot before boarding the ride. It needs to stop.
Originally Posted By LuvsDsnyTrips You cannot be surprised....if there is a way to get around things...people will find it Self entitlement .....
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Also probably not a good idea to publicly announce a way that people are playing the system. Watch the incidents increase now. Not blaming you TDLFAN, Disney needs to get off their lazy butts and enforce their own rules that are originally designed to improve everyone's visit not just that of the classless. I understand... low pay, under motivated CM's, not worth the hassle, but, dammit if they are going to take a job and accept the paycheck... DO YOUR DAMN JOB! Life even within a Disney Park, is not automatic Pixie Dust. It requires doing ones job completely to make that happen, the good and the bad.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I wonder if this is going to have to end up with the CM guarding the FP entrance having a PDA that will display the reason for the blue light: is it too soon? too late? wrong attraction? already used? With the old system, those are all failure modes that were all easy to determine and discuss with the guest in a way that was hard to refute, but now, nobody knows why the light is blue (unless the guest is purposefully gaming the system). And, we also have new failure modes: the guest is falsely remembering their FP schedule, or there is some sort of system problem. It's too much to diagnose with just a "Check Engine" light.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***the guest is falsely remembering their FP schedule*** How does that work, anyway? Do you carry around a print-out or something?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< How does that work, anyway? Do you carry around a print-out or something? >>> That's one of the complaints. If you have a smart phone, you can link your MagicBand to your online account (which may or may not be limited to on-site guests today, but eventually will be available to everyone) and then display your FP schedule in a Disney-provided app, and even make changes there. But if you can't link, or don't want to carry your smartphone, or run out of battery, then it's up to you to write it down. This of course is prone to error. Some people say that especially if you use an in-park kiosk to manage your FPs, you should be able to print out a receipt or schedule of your FPs. Even if it's clearly marked FOR REFERENCE ONLY - NOT VALID FOR USE, some small piece of paper you can hold on to would eliminate the problem of not being able to remember your exact times, and especially of falsely remembering. I think that Disney's stance is that within a small number of years, the vast majority of guests will have smartphones that can run the Disney app. This may be true, but I have to think that at least some people have the attitude of not wanting to carry their phones with them when in the parks. These are all things that will have to work themselves out over time.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Is anyone else starting to get disgusted about how we have to babysit society now? Is no one responsible for anything that involves themselves. If they write it down incorrectly or lose the list, why should that be anyone else's problem but their own. Does anyone wonder why there is so much entitlement? It's because we do everything we can to make sure everyone gets a trophy no matter whether they deserve one or not.
Originally Posted By LuvsDsnyTrips YES to all of your questions...Goofyernmost Don't have the answers Wait until someone beats the crap out of someone that doesn't find it convenient to "remember" the correct time
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Maybe we should just all stand in line. That seemed to work for a long time.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN To answer SuperFry... >>>I wonder if this is going to have to end up with the CM guarding the FP entrance having a PDA that will display the reason for the blue light: is it too soon? too late? wrong attraction? already used? With the old system, those are all failure modes that were all easy to determine and discuss with the guest in a way that was hard to refute, but now, nobody knows why the light is blue (unless the guest is purposefully gaming the system).<<< I don't think that's a correct statement. First of all CMs are standing at the first set of band/ticket scanners, and they have a PC right there next to them where they can see the reason for the blue light and even the guest's name. The people in front of me were clearly told that they had a fastpass at that time for another attraction. The lady argued with the CM that their entire party of 8 had changed their original ride to the one we were about to go on. THAT WAS INCORRECT. The CM did take the time to check all their tickets against the scanner and it turned out that only ONE person in the party of 8 had changed the fastpass ride, and NOT all of the 8 people. Still, the CM allowed them all to ride. To me that meands either they didn't know how to work the system or simply LIED to the CM. THAT IS WHY I AM RATING ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE CM SHOULD HAVE HELD HER GROUND AND REFUSE ENTRY BUT STILL ALLOWED THE FAMILY TO ACCESS THE LINE EVEN IF NOT LEGAL TO DO SO. THAT IS MY PROBLEM WITH THIS ISSUE. The system works well. Blue means NO GO. CMs need to enforce that 150% of the time. Period. >>>That's one of the complaints. If you have a smart phone, you can link your MagicBand to your online account (which may or may not be limited to on-site guests today, but eventually will be available to everyone) and then display your FP schedule in a Disney-provided app, and even make changes there. But if you can't link, or don't want to carry your smartphone, or run out of battery, then it's up to you to write it down.<<< That is correct. >>>This of course is prone to error. Some people say that especially if you use an in-park kiosk to manage your FPs, you should be able to print out a receipt or schedule of your FPs. Even if it's clearly marked FOR REFERENCE ONLY - NOT VALID FOR USE, some small piece of paper you can hold on to would eliminate the problem of not being able to remember your exact times, and especially of falsely remembering.<<< Are you saying that the park kiosks are able to print out a schedule? Because that was the first question that CM asked that family yesterday, if they had something to show as proof that they changed their attraction. Every time I have used the kiosks, the CMs have suggested I took a picture of the schedule on the screen, but I can see my fastpass reservations clearly on the app on my Iphone, and it always updates when changes are made. So the more I think about it the more I realize some people are full of crap and playing the system. Like I said before, if this continues I will turn in the offending CM's names to Guests Relations. >>>I think that Disney's stance is that within a small number of years, the vast majority of guests will have smartphones that can run the Disney app. This may be true, but I have to think that at least some people have the attitude of not wanting to carry their phones with them when in the parks. These are all things that will have to work themselves out over time.<<< If this was the year 2000, I would believe you but now a days, everyone has a phone that can work on the parks' wifi signal even when airplane mode is on. But IMO.. the only stance that Disney has is to save $$$$ on costly paper and machines that required attention and reloading, while making the availability of Fast passes more manageable and convenient. I love the system and I wish it came to all the parks in the world, especially TDR. But the system's rules and limitations have to be enforced at all times. One more thing SuperFry... get a haircut.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN And Goofyestmore, I only have to babysit CMs who don't do their job well, not society as a whole. But I should be given a trophy for putting up with unruly tour groups from Brazil and improperly dressed British tourists, that's for sure!!!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I think that a big part of the problem is that the app still isn't as intuitive as it should be. In the example listed above, it's entirely possible that the group thought they were changing everybody's FP, but didn't select them all along the way. There's a huge learning curve to add in with the new system, and for the guests who think that one park is Disney and the other is EPCOT Center, they're going to have a really tough time adjusting I think the biggest problem with the system (on a holistic level) is that it requires all guests to have some sort of knowledge before they ever get to the park. With the old system, they could wander around and do what they thought looked fun (even if they were getting a FP for it later in the day). With the new one, they're assuming that all guests have some familiarity with the attractions, or are willing to read all of the barely-descriptive captions on the WDW website and make decisions from there. The system expects that guests are willing and able to make all these decisions in advance, and that they won't encounter any errors along the way. And that's a lot to ask from the people who have to ask when the 3 o'clock parade is
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Maybe we should just all stand in line. That seemed to work for a long time." Seems to be working even better now. Most people don't like standing in line.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Seems to be working even better now*** Seriously? If that's true, it's a VERY intriguing side-effect. It'd pretty interesting if some hardcore visitors (like our LP crew, for example) would go through the parks with identical agendas (including showing up for big attractions at the same time so as to compare FP vs. standby directly), and see just how much of an advantage the system as it stands today really is, compared to the old ways. By the way SuperDRY, thanks for the explaination. I understand now, and it does seem to be rather picky of them...not a big deal if you HAVE a phone, but if you're an international visitor like a Japanese person with a non-compliant phone or if you simply don't WANT to carry the thing around on vacation (like for folks who are tied to their phones 24/7 in real life, who wants to even feel it in their pocket on vacation right!?), not to mention dead batteries which happens all the time - well then, you've got a problem. Do they provide pencils and paper at least?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >> Do they provide pencils and paper at least? << No, they don't. And I think it's a real problem with their system. I don't have a phone that works with the MM+ app, so to access my information I would need to log in to the web page, which is painfully slow on a real computer with a hardwire connection, making it effectively useless (though luckily we didn't see many long lines at the kiosks, other than toward the front of the park early in the morning) On my visits with MM+, I printed out our itinerary before the trip and carried it around for reference, but it was a little unwieldy. It was a bit of a hassle in a group of all adults; I can only imagine it would be worse with kids in tow
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub No offense but i have to laugh at the idea of TDLFAN taking the time to stand in the line at Guest Services to register a complaint... Unless it is scheduled on your FP+ Magic Band , it could be a long long line. I am guessing the cast members have been instructed to practice some common sense and choosing to Not send a large party backwards thru the line was the chosen alternative. Have you not noticed they have been instructed to "hold" table reservations system-wide due to all the construction??? If you walk up to a restaurant they will tell you flat out Not taking walk-ins and you see a lot of empty tables... they are holding them open ... cause of all the construction the busses are having to manipulate on property plus they have the $10 No show fee to cushion the cost.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <Maybe we should just all stand in line. That seemed to work for a long time.> Yep
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost <<<Maybe we should just all stand in line. That seemed to work for a long time.>>> FROM THIS POST TO GOD'S MONITOR! I'm assuming here that God has a desk top because all the flowing robes he seems to be pictured in, do not have pockets for a smart phone.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost ***>> Do they provide pencils and paper at least? << <<<No, they don't. And I think it's a real problem with their system.>>> I'm not there this very moment but they certainly did have a very nicely printed list of all FP+ attractions with blank space to list return times. The CM's had pencils and when you were assigned a return time, you just jotted in the times next to the attraction and it was done. No smartphones needed, but if you had a camera or camera phone you could also take a picture of the screen and save it to look back at later. There is no excuse for saying that they had to remember the times. I did both the note and the photo. Honest to God, it really cannot get any easier unless they assigned a personal CM to remind you of your next window.
