Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Many guests are excited about sleeping late and utilizing their FP later OR they reason they can enter parks for early morns and get a lot done and then go back to resort for pool-time or naps and then use those 3 Magic FP's in the evening." These FPs work just like the current ones: they have specific return window times. You can, however, modify the reservation until you use the first FP.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I think people may be making this way more complicated than it actually is.
Originally Posted By TP2000 That may be true, Hans. And it probably doesn't help that this is unofficial info not subjected to Disney's polishing team. It just seems to fraught with problems. I saw on another board that in preparation for this rollout that WDW has now added a Fastpass entrance for the Teacups. The Teacups! And I'm supposed to reserve my boarding time to go on the Teacups 60 days in advance? Why??? Now see, I'm getting all worked up again! I should just step back and wait for this to get rolled out formally and see what happens. It might all be fine, and it might reinvent the theme park industry like animatronics did 50 years ago. Maybe it will all be just fine.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "I think people may be making this way more complicated than it actually is." We're Disney fans, that's what we do.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "Now see, I'm getting all worked up again!" Lol, just relax, and remember, nobody HAS to visit Disney theme parks if the experience becomes less than enjoyable.
Originally Posted By tashajilek I'm just happy Disneyland is my home park! Sometimes having the parks filled with locals can be a good thing.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Tasha, the NextGen stuff is supposed to roll out at DL about 18 months after WDW gets it. Of course, that's plenty of time for it to be a spectacular disaster and get cancelled, but given the investment thus far, I suspect they'll at least give it a shot for DLR.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Wow, I cant see Disneyland being able to pull this off. Even if it's a success at WDW Disneyland is a locals park. Oh well, good thing I'm already making major Disney parks cutbacks.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I have a friend who was just a part of a My Magic+ test weekend. They used the wristbands and they work for the Mouse so they have a good handle on a lot of this stuff. Here are some of the things they said: The loved the wristband. Loved that it opened their room at a Disney resort, loved that they could charge on it, loved that it worked as a FP. They were impressed that several times when they used it the CM called them by name. They went in thinking that they were going to hate it but ended up loving it. They said they loved the idea of leaving their stuff at the hotel and just using the wristband. Loved the idea of pre-selecting their FP. They said it worked great and they were very happy. They did say that other people doing the testing did not as good an experience as they did. Others encountered problems with their FP's and entry into the park and the CM's have not been sufficiently trained to handle those problems well. We discussed the whole idea of AP holders and day guests. They said their understanding was that regular FP's were still going to be available for day guests but probably at a reduced amount. They said that the system is most definetly geared towards resort guest who will love it but agreed that there could be issues for others who decide to visit at the last minute or are staying off property. We also discussed the fact that the system may be stretched when every resort guest and AP holder has access to the FP system 60 days out. They did concede that Disney also is unsure of a real time line for the roll out of the system. The original idea as I understood it was that it would roll out slowly over time but no seems to know it that is still the plan. It should be interesting to watch.
Originally Posted By HMButler79 No way in holy heck will FP+ fly at DL. It will make the Light Magic AP riots look like a quaint march. MyMagic+ stuff like the turnstyles? Booking restaurants on your phone? Yea maybe. But no APer is gonna plan 60 days before WHAT DAY and at WHAT TIME they gonna ride the Mansion. SoCale'ers do NOT plan DL trips. Colglazier better fortify TDA and City Hall if they try pull this.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Isn't this program more designed for overnight resort guests rather than locals?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Yes, it is designed for overnighters, and to encourage guests to extend their stay and/or pay to stay at one of Disney's hotels. While the hotels at DLR are consistently sold out, this program will (presumably) encourage guests to extend their stays, likely at one of the good neighbor hotels nearby. While I don't know the exact details of the agreement, I believe Disney gets some (small) cut of their profits for being associated with them Additionally, DLR has been trying to reduce the number of APers for years, since they tend to spend far less per visit than vacationers. While the DLR AP community has gotten a sense of entitlement (certainly in no small part because of Disney's pandering to them with countless special events and short-term promotions), they really don't do much to help the resort financially. I look forward to seeing how the NextGen system plays with the DLR crowds; I suspect it's going to be a spectacular disaster, which is always fun to watch from a safe distance! : )
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I look forward to seeing how the NextGen system plays with the DLR crowds; I suspect it's going to be a spectacular disaster, which is always fun to watch from a safe distance! : )" LOL. Actually Disney could easily win people over in Anaheim if they a) market it properly (ie: the DCA "relaunch"), b) get a buy-in from the fan base before the anti-Disney management bloggers pass judgement and put their negative spin on it, and c) do everything within their power to have relatively painless launch at WDW.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>b) get a buy-in from the fan base before the anti-Disney management bloggers pass judgement and put their negative spin on it...<< Too late. Pretty much everybody who has written anything on this so far has written something negative. The most positive reviews I've seen are the ones that are neutral and are taking a "wait and see" approach. For how very little information Disney has released on this billion dollar+ (see what I did there?) project, there's a shocking amount of negative secondhand info. That said, there's always a chance that they'll be able to turn it around. They're certainly taking their time in WDW to make sure they do it right there (your "C" point), so there is hope. I'm not sure what the marketing folks will be able to do to get the message out, but it seems like the hype machine worked much better for DCA's relaunch than it's done for most of the recent promotions
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Too late." Yep. Though not a Disney blogger, HMButler's post #31 is a case in point. "I'm not sure what the marketing folks will be able to do to get the message out, but it seems like the hype machine worked much better for DCA's relaunch than it's done for most of the recent promotions." I think in that case there was a concerted effort from the Disney Parks division to really get that one right - from the Parks Blog posts, to the periodic Youtube updates from a Disney cast member, to the Blue Sky Cellar exhibits - it was all dramatically different from the disastrous launch of DCA in 2001. There must have been enormous pressure to get it right the second time.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Very true, Hans. While they had a lot of great updates on the construction and such, I'll be interested to see what they're able to do with something much more intangable like the NextGen system. A handful of elements are easily visible (RFID readers, interactive queue elements), but most of it is a big databse somewhere that's just hard for us commoners to grasp the meaning of. And since the whole thing is designed to fix something that most people think isn't broken, I'm really interested to see how they approach it. Given how complex the impacts will be, I assume they'll give WDW guests plenty of warning before it's fully enacted; realistically, the full roll out is probably a minimum of 6 months away
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Kevin Yee over at Miceage has an interesting report on the latest FP+ wristband testing that happened last weekend with resort guests from the Contemporary and AK Lodge. He also talks about the destruction of the Spectromagic floats. <a href="http://micechat.com/34136-spectromagic-destroyed/" target="_blank">http://micechat.com/34136-spec...stroyed/</a>
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt The article is well worth a read, especially for those who have questions about the actual usage of the new system. From Kevin Yee: "They [the participants] were interviewed and focus-grouped intently… and I’m a bit surprised that the majority of them were happy with the results. Many were extremely happy. Three [Fastpass+ reservations] was apparently enough for these paying visitors from afar; something Disney has obviously known about via their heavy use of surveys tracking of Big Data the past several years. I would have expected more people to demand five or even ten FASTPASS reservations per day, but this is a good reminder that not everyone uses the parks the way we weekly visitors do." As for Spectromagic, I don't understand why so many people are upset by its demise.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "I would have expected more people to demand five or even ten FASTPASS reservations per day," Ten? He can't be serious. "but this is a good reminder that not everyone uses the parks the way we weekly visitors do." Weekly visitors use 10/day? I find that even less likely.
