Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>What negative affect does it have on Disneyland? -- Creates more crowds in the park because fewer people are in the queue areas. -- Creates a system whereby only people "in the know" actually receive the benefit. Most one-day visitors don't even understand FastPass and, as a result, have to wait in longer lines. -- People who don't show up first thing in the morning are screwed because they have to wait upwards of ten hours for their ticket to come into effect.
Originally Posted By JuiceMonkey Correct me if I'm wrong, but FastPass was designed for WDW. It seems to work very well there because of its size and numbers of people willing to do the "research" for a one or two day visit to a single park. But at Disneyland it seems to be counter-productive in the long run.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo I wonder if they have managed to do a cost/benefit analysis of FP in the past year or so. One of FP’s primary designs was so that guests would be roaming stores and foods facilities while they waited for the FP time to come due which would generate additional revenue. Yet, most people I know would simply stand in line for another attraction. On the other hand, FP does cost DL a lot too. Attractions require additional staffing, something DL is currently hurting for. Staffing is a huge concern right now as OT is at a very high level. The FP machines also costs tens of thousands in maintenance and re-fills each year. I wonder if they decided FP wasn’t financially worth it anymore.
Originally Posted By danyoung >-- Creates a system whereby only people "in the know" actually receive the benefit. Most one-day visitors don't even understand FastPass and, as a result, have to wait in longer lines.< Sorry, but I've never bought this. People see FastPass advertised in the entryway and on their maps, and ask about it right off the bat. It's not that hard of a system to figger out. Sure, some people are just dumb and blind and try to muddle through their day without thinking. But I've always thought that by far most people can easily learn about this easy system. >-- People who don't show up first thing in the morning are screwed because they have to wait upwards of ten hours for their ticket to come into effect.< How is that any different from any other park attraction? If you show up early in the day you get the advantages. Show up at noon on a summer day and you'll have to wait longer for everything. The early bird always gets the advantages in a Disney park, and FP is no exception. I do agree, though, that FP increases the crowds in the walkways, slows down the standby lines, and increases the lines for other attractions (instead of standing and waiting in line for Splash, you get a FP and then go stand in some other line, effectively being in 2 places at once). And the attractions with the cool queues are shortchanged as people rush past the Indy caves or the Star Tours droids. Still, with all of the shortcomings, I really enjoy using FP. It wotks very well for the few times I'll use it. Getting an Indy ticket and then going on with my day sure beats 60 to 90 minutes of waiting in line on a hot day. I hope they don't get rid of it completely.
Originally Posted By Rivkah86 I agree that Indie is one ride that does not need fastpasses. I rode yesterday, and it was at the most a 25 minute wait. And what was really cool was that since usually you are rushed through many of the chambers in the line, you do not get a chance to read the Mara Script! I enjoyed being able to do so this time around.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< >-- Creates a system whereby only people "in the know" actually receive the benefit. Most one-day visitors don't even understand FastPass and, as a result, have to wait in longer lines. >>> Great argument, except for the fact that it's almost completely the opposite of reality. Guest satisfaction figures for FastPass among single-day, occasional visitors is extremely high. Those guests don't have the experience to know what it used to be like, or think things through like missing out on time spent in the immersive queues of some attractions. All they know is that they saw a big line on 1, 2, or 3 attractions that they got to wisk past because they had a FastPass. <<< This is my first day here (this is a great website), but I have to know, why is it that everyone is against the fastpass? I feel that the fastpass is a great system that shortens time in line. What negative affect does it have on Disneyland? >>> Almost all of the anti-FP sentiment is from annual passport holders that are upset that they can no longer come into the park at the end of the day and ride their favorite attractions with little wait. Working back from that point of view, many come up with arguments such as "it's not fair" and so on.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice I'd hate to lose FP on Splash and Space Mountains, but the really bad one would be Soaring... The pre-boarding queue (the long dark hallways beyond the History of Flight stuff) even with FP is a complete drag... Standing there in a warehouse. Everything else, though... No biggie. The queues are fun and the lines aren't that bad.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros At least those halls are exciting, because you know the ride is coming, and you can hear the jets fly by. The outside queue is just plain dull. There is no reason to be excited, because you still have another 20 minutes after you get inside, and there is absolutely nothing at all to look at. Maybe they could fix that and then get rid of FP there...
Originally Posted By wonderingalice I must be deafer than I thought... *LOL* I've never heard anything but silence and/or people talking in those hallways. I enjoy the photos in the outer queue, but can see those easily from the short FP line. ;-)
Originally Posted By LogDog >>Guest satisfaction figures for FastPass among single-day, occasional visitors is extremely high. Those guests don't have the experience to know what it used to be like, or think things through like missing out on time spent in the immersive queues of some attractions. All they know is that they saw a big line on 1, 2, or 3 attractions that they got to wisk past because they had a FastPass.<< Source? You can't make a statement like that without one.
Originally Posted By berol It shouldn't be shocking that that demographic realizes about fastpass, uses it and loves how it gets them on all the big rides in their 1-day visits, no source necessary.
Originally Posted By tinkerbelle I LOVE fastpass. I don't buy the argument that people "just don't know and it's not fair". If you are visiting an amusement park for the first time and really don't know about it wouldn't you think to read up about it - even a little? Or if you are in the park and see people with little tickets zooming past you in line, wouldn't you ASK someone how they are able to do it? I'd like fastpass to stay but I do see how much of the great que is missed when using fastpass. (On Indy anyway.) Oh, and SuperDry - I am a passholder.
Originally Posted By JuiceMonkey >>>>Guest satisfaction figures for FastPass among single-day, occasional visitors is extremely high. Those guests don't have the experience to know what it used to be like, or think things through like missing out on time spent in the immersive queues of some attractions. All they know is that they saw a big line on 1, 2, or 3 attractions that they got to wisk past because they had a FastPass.<<<< >>Source? You can't make a statement like that without one.<< That statement seems to be common sense, though. If anyone didn't know anything about the crowd-management problem that FastPass creates, it would seem like a great thing. I do enjoy, though, how one poster decided to shoot down the fairly well thought out arguments against Fast Pass by saying that we who want it gone are essentially "just bitter." Whatever... I think it's a good idea in theory, I just don't think that it works the way it's supposed to at a park that is as small as Disneyland. I keep trying to think of some sort of scenario where it really works the way that people envisioned it. For example, if the idea was that people would use the wait time at restaurants perhaps it would be a food idea (?) to have a FastPass at the end of the meal be a nice way to take a bit of the sting off of the price of a sit down meal...something like that. Just thinking out loud, here. I'd hate to see it removed completely because I don't like waiting in line, either. But the net effect should be that it actually reduces wait times throughout the entire park and it works to reduce crowds as much as possible. To me, so long as it doesn't accomplish these things, it's actually counter-productive and should be removed asap. However, if it does accomplish these things (now or in another incarnation), I welcome it - even if it means that I don't get to run on attractions at the end of the night or whatever it was.
Originally Posted By Moon Waffle The solution is not to eliminate FP, but should be to design the ride queues so that those who don't use FP can enjoy the queues themselves. I never understood why they couldn't load FP people from the exits, or a completely different area, or something creative like that. Then, on a ride like Indy, you've still got the immersive queue experience if you don't use FP. That's the tradeoff you get from using FP: get on the ride quicker, lose the queue experience. At the same time this idea also gets the standby crowds out of the main walkways and the heat. Am I missing something here? Why would this not work?
Originally Posted By JuiceMonkey Moon Waffle, I think that the other part of the problem is that with Fast Pass people that would otherwise be kept out of walkways and other lines simply aren't. With FP, you can essentially be in two places at the same time. The up side to this is that you can hold your place in line one place but the part that some people fail to grasp is that this creates an artificial second person that leaves the very real original person free to add to the wait time of another ride - or to jam up the walkways. Multiply this by a few thousand people in a park where "capacity" is less than 100,000 people and while it might not convert you to the "anti-FP" camp you might at least see that, yes, there is a numbers problem to be looked at.
Originally Posted By dr jones I think they should really try and plus some of the less than stellar ride queues, so if you are in a long line at least it's entertaining. I remember riding Indy for the first time, within the first month it was open. We did in fact stand in a two and a half to three hour line, but everyone was blown away by how awesome the queue was. Standing in a maze of chains, railings and cement under a canvas canopy doesn't quite transport the imagination.
Originally Posted By AeroBond007 What is the average wait time during the summer months for Indy without the FP?
