Originally Posted By sjhym333 My son and I went out to the parks today and decided to try the new FP+ Kiosks and see how it worked. Here are my observations both good and so-so. We arrived at the MK not too long after it opened and went directly to a FP+ Kiosk location next to Tony's. It really isn't a kiosk (many of the places we saw weren't) but rather a group of CM's with tablets. There were a lot of CM's there to help and we basically walked up and got to talk to a CM almost immediately. The CM was very helpful and asked for our tickets. She scanned the tickets and then asked which attractions we wanted to used FP for. She prefaced our choices by saying "Don't let the time that show up scare you. We will make changes as we go" which was good since all the times were for evening. We had decided to FP mostly lower capacity attractions that we normally wouldn't ride due to wait times plus one large attraction. We chose Space Mountain, Little Mermaid and Peter Pan. Our wait times ended up being 9:35, 10:35 and 11:35. The choosing was very easy and the CM was extremely helpful. The park was fairly slow because of the rain and we actually headed directly to Space Mountain to use the FP+. Using the FP was easy (though taking out our cards and holding them because they had to get scanned at two points was a minor annoyance) and the people who were using MagicBands also got through quickly and easily. We tried to change a FP reservation when it turned out the Little Mermaid had a 10 min standby wait but both Splash and Big Thunder were closed. Splash is in rehab and Big Thunder for weather. We also decided to grab lunch today at Be Our Guest. Let me start off by saying the place is great to look at inside. That was the good news. The so-so news was that the whole experience was kind of odd. The person at the gate handed us a menu as we walked up (there was no line outside yet) when we walked into the doors we got stopped and asked about FP+, MagicBands and such. When I said we just walked up we were told to go wait outside. Ummm, ok. We waited outside a few minutes and then were let in to a line inside. We made our way up to a podium where we were handed a "rose" then waited again to be assigned a kiosk. After waiting on line at the kiosk we made out selections then found a table in the Ballroom since the other rooms were full. We waited a bit for our food which was good but the whole time I kept thinking that was an awful lot of steps to grab lunch and boy is this place labor intensive. Very labor intensive in fact. I am glad we did it, not sure I would rush back to do it again. By the time we left there was a line down the sidewalk almost to the Little Mermaid attraction. After using our last FP at Peter Pan we decided to head to EPCOT. Long waits there for Soarin and Test Track of course AND long waits for people making FP+ reservations at every kiosk location we came across. Having already used a FP at the MK we were not allowed to use any at EPCOT. So here are my feelings about FP+: We loved the idea of making FP reservations. We got everything we wanted in a time span that worked in our day. I expect that if we wanted to change our FP times we could have done that easily. All the doom and gloom of FP+ seems overblown. Every attraction at the MK had a FP time available. And at EPCOT at 1pm they were still offering Soarin and Test Track The CM's were great. Very friendly, very helpful. Every location at the MK had tons of CM's and a couple of guest relations CM's there to help. The Guest Relations CM told me that the current testing that included some AP holders was the largest to date and tole me that AP MagicBands were coming very soon. We hated the fact the we couldn't get FP's at EPCOT. My son on two occasions said that the 3 choices were great but we should be allowed to do 3 in any parks we wanted. For instance 1 in the MK and 2 at EPCOT. I now understand why Disney has designed the system the way they have. It helps keep guests from doing a lot of park hopping, especially if your FP times are spread out and the one park option ensures that FP's are available at all the parks throughout the day. I can see why people are enjoying the MagicBands. We saw them used at the turnstiles into the park, for FP entry and to charge stuff on. It made those guests life pretty easy. I still think that some would need to be careful about overspending if they aren't watching but all in all I think the the MagicBands are going to be a hit. We talked to several guests who had the MagicBands or were making FP+ reservations. Everyone had only positive things to say about them We agree. I think a lot of the gloom and doom come from people who haven't used them. I honestly can't understand why anyone who has used them didn't like them (except the non-FP park hopping thing). The CM's were helpful in explaining the system and answering questions. Very impressed overall. Now the question becomes...what color to choose when AP holders can get them.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> It helps keep guests from doing a lot of park hopping, especially if your FP times are spread out and the one park option ensures that FP's are available at all the parks throughout the day. << Not sure I still see why they want to curb park-hopping, unless the thinking goes that you can't spend money while you're traveling between parks. Not sure guest satisfaction numbers will be higher if you feel compelled to spend a full day at DHS or DAK. But beyond that, they could've just raised the price of the parkhopper add-on, and that would've probably decreased the numbers, too. I'm most curious to see how FP+ works out during Spring Break and summer. Do you think when the parks are busy that the kiosks will be nightmares to deal with?
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I think that FP+ seems labor intensive. There were a lot of CM's at each location. Yes I could see that FP+ kiosk lines could get very long during very busy times.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: In that case getting in line for the purpose of obtaining a Fast pass seems to defeat the purpose of having a fast pass. While you can spend less time in line for the attraction you have a fast pass for, the long line you waited within to even get a fast pass in the first place means you still ended up wasting precious time in a line. ORGOCH: I still says they should git rid a fast gas an' go back ta the way things was when Uncle Walt was still alive an' kickin'!!!
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>ORDDU: In that case getting in line for the purpose of obtaining a Fast pass seems to defeat the purpose of having a fast pass. While you can spend less time in line for the attraction you have a fast pass for, the long line you waited within to even get a fast pass in the first place means you still ended up wasting precious time in a line.<<< Guess I don't understand what you are saying. Didn't you always run the chance of standing in line to get the old Fastpass? What is the difference? What I noticed immediately was that I could get my three with one stop. Never had to go back to get one for another ride. The advantage to those of us that are regulars are enormously obvious. For one thing, we know what attractions require Fastpasses. First timers do not have that advance knowledge and will literally waste their FP+ on a ride that really doesn't require one. >>>ORGOCH: I still says they should git rid a fast gas an' go back ta the way things was when Uncle Walt was still alive an' kickin'!!!<<< Totally agree with that statement, but, then again I was one that went against the popular sentiment when Fastpass was first introduced. One of the few times in my life when the future seemed obvious and negative.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: What I think you're missing, Goofyernmost, duckling, is that the new way of getting a fast pass could potential take longer than the previous way you received a fast pass. The previous method involved inserting a ticket into a slot which then spit out a Fast Pass. This new way involves wating on a Cast Member to make a reservation for you--which involves talking and negotiating, etc., etc., which means it takes longer to secure a fast pass. The time spent on obtaining a fast past defeats the purpose of getting one at all. More time is involved--especially on crowded days at the parks.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: Yeah an' ya knows how some folks just lollygags around, havin' ta git things explained to 'em an' that could really make lines as slow as molasses in the winter time!!!
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Sure ORDDU, but wouldn't that time be more then made up by not having to make and walk to three separate kiosks to get three FP's. I knew nothing about it and I was one that required a quick explanation, but I was there more then three or four minutes. Slow season, yes! We will have to wait and see. Additionally, before everyone that wanted a FP to anything had to go to the kiosk. Wouldn't literally thousands of those people have already signed up for Fastpasses long before they ever get into the park?
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Sorry, think faster then I type... should have read that I was there... NO more then three or four minutes.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It sounds like your overall experience was similar to mine earlier this month (except we were staying on property so we didn't use the kiosks). We also used the system to get onto attractions that we wouldn't have even attempted otherwise, like Peter Pan, so that was a fun unexpected bonus Also unexpected, the FP lines moved much slower than they used to. Instead of one group member handing the CM a stack of paper tickets, each person needs to scan their band/card individually, which takes a moment. There are 2 scanners at each location, but it's often difficult to access both of them at the same time, especially if someone in a different group is having an issue. This was especially problematic on attractions like TOT and Soarin', which move a bunch of guests at the same time (for the libraries or theaters), rather than ones that have more of a continuous trickle I agree that it's odd that ParkHopping with FP+ isn't an option right now. I'm not sure if it's because they're still "testing" the system and haven't added it yet, or if they don't want to encourage hopping any more. Since our time in the parks was somewhat limited because of the early morning races, we ended up not using the hopping feature; unless FP+ changes before next year, we aren't planning on buying Hoppers in the future. Disney's loss on money from us (though I suppose they'll be able to use fewer transportation CMs as a result); we certainly won't be buying extra stuff in the parks just because we're not sitting on a bus We did notice that they seemed to use FP+ to distribute crowds through the parks more evenly. Even though we knew that it wouldn't help us any, we dutifully showed up to our late-evening FPs at SSE and Living with the Land, and were directed into the (non-existant) standby queue. I imagine that this will happen a lot more in the future as they play with the algorithms How did you keep track of your return times? I printed out our itinerary before we left home, and used that. It's a wonder that they seem to expect people will remember their times, especially when they booked a week's worth of FPs months in advance. It would also be nice if they sold a watch add-on for the Magic Bands. Each person in our group tried to use theirs to check the time at least once a day, so there's definitely demand for it. I have no interest in the character add-ons, but a timepiece would be great, especially since so much of the stuff related to the Magic Bands is time sensitive
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>The time spent on obtaining a fast past defeats the purpose of getting one at all.<< Yes, the new kiosks will take longer than the old machines, but they're also mor conveniently located so it saves you time in that way. Instead of walking all the way to Big Thunder to get a FP and then having to return to the attraction again to ride it later, you can just get the FP from any number of locations (or online if you're staying on property) and only go to the attraction when it's time to ride >>Additionally, before everyone that wanted a FP to anything had to go to the kiosk. Wouldn't literally thousands of those people have already signed up for Fastpasses long before they ever get into the park?<< Surprisingly, this doesn't really seem to be much of an issue. I think part of it is solved by the attraction tiers at Epcot and the Studios (you pick one of the A-list attractions, and 2 of the others), which limits a guest to only one of the in-demand FPs for each day. At MK, there are enough attractions (assuming they're not all closed at the same time) and a wide enough demographic that they distribute fairly evenly between them. I know a lot of people in the past who used multiple FPs for the same attraction on the same day, or collected piles of FPs to be used later; with the new system, it eliminates a lot of the individual hoarding In a way, the new system actually seemed to make the park time seem less stressful. Instead of needing a plan of attack, we knew we had certain things that we were guaranteed to get. And we viewed them much like how I view the parades: if we want to use them, they're there for the taking, if not, no hard feelings. I think we only skipped one FP completely (late evening for SSE), but we always knew that the option was there to rearrange our schedule if we wanted
Originally Posted By sjhym333 After we made our FP+ reservation the CM suggested we take a picture of the confirmation times to remember them, which I did. However, I noticed later in the day that the FP times were on the My Disney Experience app on my phone so the picture was unnecessary.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: Gotta take a picture a the time, now? What if'n ya don't have a cam'ra er one a them cellulite phone things? Sheesh!! This is gittin' more complicated than it was befer!!! Might as well just stay home in Morva and hunt fer frogs there!!!!
Originally Posted By hopemax I'll piggyback my experiences. I was in FL Jan 14-28. Because my family and I got sick, we only spent 5 days at the park. My family are locals, so I was off-site, no Magic Bands or anything like that. We arrived before park opening, so we were always able to get into a kiosk line with either no one in front of us or only one or two parties, so our wait was minimal. We never experienced a blue Mickey at any ride. So since it was that "easy" for us, you would think we would think it was great, right? Not really. We did experience some issues. First, at the Studios despite arriving at opening, and being one of the first people to arrive at a kiosk we could not reserve Tower of Terror. The first time we tried we were told, "since it's technically before 9AM, it's not available." Every other ride was available, so that seemed weird. So we chose Great Movie Ride and planned to change it after 9. We rode TSMM standby and then went back to a FP+ person near the hat, about 9:15. This time we were told the no availability was because they were only running one half of the ride and so FP must have run out. Annoyed at the different information, we continued with our touring, which meant making our way to RnRC standby. It was then we saw what we assume was the "real" reason there were no Tower FPs...the ride was not operating. So at that point, I started watching the app. When we were back by Muppets, it finally showed the ride was operating but with a 40 minute wait. We couldn't find a FP+ locations back in that area, so we had to walk across the park until we could find one, at which time we were told still no Tower FP. But in the time we had walked from where we were, the line had jumped to 70 min. The rest of the day it went between 90-120 minutes. On a very slow day in January. I wish I knew if the reason we were never able to get a FP was because they "ran out" due to being at 50% capacity, or if we weren't able because of the ride not being operational and then they made it not available, to handle the on-site people that had reservations that they weren't able to use when the ride was down. The problems here were that each CM had a different answer for why no FP's were available, and none of them knew that the ride was not even operational (apparently, their datapads didn't show that info). Plus, under the old way if the ride was temporarily down, the FP machine would still have been dispensing FP, which we could have picked up when we were down in the Tower area and then used if the ride came back up before we left the park. And it was frustrating to know that "better" guests (onsite) would have their FP and didn't have to deal with going to a kiosk 3 different times to try and get a FP for a ride. It was also inconvenient that FP kiosks weren't really evenly distributed throughout the park (this is even a worse situation in Epcot where there is extremely limited access in World Showcase). It was easy to make our initial choices, but there were several times we realized our schedule would not work out with where we stuck our FP's, so we wanted to change them. But there are areas in the Studios and Epcot in particular, where there were never any rides in that area that had legacy FP, so no kiosks, no people with Datapads. So in order to make changes you would end up walking a lot. Or in the case of Epcot, we just ended up not using two of our reservations because it was inconvenient to change them. It was also frustrating in the Studios that when we first came in, we were told we couldn't use one set of FP kiosks because they were from Swan & Dolphin guests only...he thought, maybe, and then never gave any direction of where we COULD go. Continuing down the street, we found another set of people with datapads, but they wanted us to walk all the way around Keystone Clothiers to enter the queue properly (there were a dozen people, with no one that they were helping), so we ended up at the closer Tip Board location which also had no line. Over at AK, when we were leaving, a girl entered and came up to the first CM she saw to ask where they were supposed to do their Fastpasses, and showed off her Magic Band. It happened to be a janitor, who had absolutely no clue at what she wanted, and was basically doing the "don't speak English ignore," so I directed her to the Tip Board. No, the janitor shouldn't be able to answer intricate FP+ answers, but just like being able to direct someone to the nearest restroom, they should be able to know enough about the biggest change in Disney park touring to direct someone to the Tip Board. At Epcot, we overheard CMs in the FP+ kiosk operations needing to ask for assistance on if people could make their FP reservations for the MK from Epcot. FP returns were mostly ugly. One guy, got his rides confused so was in the Peter Pan line not Ariel, one group had a reservation, confirmed by a pic on their phone, but were still coming up blue Mickeys, people didn't understand what a return time really meant, one family managed to make their reservations but were obviously unsure what the ride was and if their young daughter could ride (it was Buzz). The last one was interesting to me, because with young children you can never be sure how they are going to react to the overwhelming situation of a theme park. Up until now, first time guests would be able to see a ride, maybe talk to a CM before they "committed" to a ride. I'm not sure how this will change people's perceptions of the day. After about 1 hour after opening, lines at most kiosks were in switchbacks. Yes, this new way will take longer. How many times have you been in a food line, and seen the family get to the register and then announce "what does everyone want?" Imagine that with a family of 5, making that decision only after they get to a kiosk, and then only being able to have 3 choices. Goofyernmost, you at least have the advantage of knowing what all the rides are, and a general idea of what you want and which rides you should get because the lines will be too long otherwise. Old ways, people already made the decision to ride when they approached the old machines. No negotiating which rides would make the cut, no figuring out that even though everyone wanted to ride Pirates, they should take Storytime with Belle instead. Based on the number of CM's that Disney had available, and the length of those lines in the off-season, I have real concerns when the busy season starts. I'm not sure how long Disney is committed to this level of staffing. Yes, now because its new, but there is going to be a continual stream of newbies coming to WDW who are going to need a lot of help. Some CM's were helpful. One asked if we were planning on park hopping, presumably to inform us that we wouldn't be able to get FP in our 2nd park. Not a FP+ specific help, but in Epcot the first thing we did after making our reservations was to go to Universe of Energy because we hadn't done it in years. The CM's there were telling people to go to Test Track then come back. They didn't want people to come off of the 45 minute attraction and find out that they had screwed themselves for the rest of the day with 80 min Test Track lines. So to sum up my concerns. I don't feel like the CMs are really properly trained, and have the proper resources available to them. Even with the massive increase of staffing I do not think it will be enough, kiosks are not evenly distributed, and you can find yourself in a dead zone and not be able to make changes when you want to. And one more thing. For the first time in quite awhile, I rode Pooh, Soarin and met some characters. I had FPs, so we used them. In the future, I'll probably do other things I don't usually do like the Speedway and Belle. But after who knows how many trips, I didn't NEED to experience them to have a successful park day. It's not like Soarin has empty seats during its operational day, so if I rode, some theoretical person didn't. I guess they should have just planned better, but multiply that out by other rabid, online, theme park knowledgeable guests getting FPs for things they don't really need to enjoy their day, but get because they can, and it starts to add up. Despite Disney's probable thinking, I think this system will primarily be to the uber planner's benefit and clueless newbies, will be at even more of a disadvantage trying to visit a Disney park. Disney has massively increased the "points of failure" and I think first time guests, especially off-site first time guests, will be so overwhelmed that I can't imagine it won't affect their decision to return, or word of mouth.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>How did you keep track of your return times? I printed out our itinerary before we left home, and used that. It's a wonder that they seem to expect people will remember their times, especially when they booked a week's worth of FPs months in advance.<<< Since I was offsite, I could only do them for the day I was there. All I did was take a picture of the screen with my cell phone and that was that. Could have just as easily just used the provided selection card and quickly written down the times for each. The phone was just handier.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost ORGOCH, you are just trying to make this complicated aren't you? No camera? There is this new high tech apparatus, some kind of new fangled thing called a pen. It takes perhaps 15 seconds to write down the FP times and your on your way. It seems the simpler things get the more complicated they seem to be. ;-)
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Plus, under the old way if the ride was temporarily down, the FP machine would still have been dispensing FP, which we could have picked up when we were down in the Tower area and then used if the ride came back up before we left the park.<< I'm not sure how WDW handled it, but I know that when rides went down at DLR they temporarily halted FP distribution for it, to prevent people for possibly getting a FP for an attraction that could be closed for the rest of the day
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I'm currently going through the My Disney Experience to plan things for a quick trip in a couple weeks, and have a few more observations: The default date for any new reservation (dining or FP+) is always today's date. That's convenient if you're in WDW, but not for people planning a trip that's several weeks/months away. The calendar highlights the days that you have hotel reservations; why can't it just skip ahead to the first day of your visit as the default? The whole MDE thing is just really slow to load. I know that my computer is old and slow, and Disney's websites are always slow, but this brings things to a whole new level. I wonder how many people get started and just give up because of the speed Even though I had already recieved my Magic Bands, when I ordered park tickets, they had to mail them to me; they couldn't just apply them to the existing media that I had. I just got them in the mail, and had to manually link the into my account. For being the big selling point of this huge tech upgrade, it's really not that intuitive to use (especially considering you need a ticket before you can make FP+ reservations) I did an online chat with a customer service rep when I was ordering them, and he indicated that this was the long-term plan for how they would handle ticket purchases, though in the future there will be some expectation that you'll reuse your Magic Band It's also frusterating that you can't control the times of your FP selections. After you pick your 3, it tells you to rank them, and then generates 4 sets of options. As far as I could find, the ranking adjusts the timeframes, but it's not especially logical. It would be great if I could say that I wanted my FPs in the morning, afternoon, or evening, rather than attempting to do it with some random attraction rankings. With all of the reservations I've made, there has been availability so I'm not sure why they care about the ranking
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<In a way, the new system actually seemed to make the park time seem less stressful. Instead of needing a plan of attack, we knew we had certain things that we were guaranteed to get. And we viewed them much like how I view the parades: if we want to use them, they're there for the taking, if not, no hard feelings.>> That is the way I would view FP+ also... no need for it to seem complicated or stressful. When we visit next fall we'll get our FP reservations... if it is convenient to use the reservations we will, if not; no big loss. I don't see the inability to get FPs for more than one park as a problem. The only time I park-hop is at the end of the day when other parks close early... I'll go to Epcot to finish my day with a glass or two of wine in France while I view Illuminations. No reservation required. Other than that it just isn't worth it. By the time you've walked to the park exit, waited for transportation, arrived at the next park and gone through the entrance queues, you've taken 60-90 minutes out of your day. No thank you.
