Disneyland’s Attendance Issues Summer 2019

[boomerthom]

What park you doing today? I’m at the Jazz Kitchen having a big beer and lunch.

At DL right now with some family.

Maxpass is straight up nutty. I’ve gotten into current fastpass windows and skipped like 25 minute lines for zero effort. This feels like cheating.

 

[Nick]

Disneyland really did well by implementing Maxpass... Honestly it feels like a value for what you get.

At DL right now with some family.

Maxpass is straight up nutty. I’ve gotten into current fastpass windows and skipped like 25 minute lines for zero effort. This feels like cheating.

Shhhhh..... don’t tell them or they’ll raise the price.

 

[boomerthom]

It’s worth noting I haven’t been paying attention to the time where I can get the next fastpass at all. Pretty much right after entering a fastpass queue I go to get another one and it’s let me do that every time. WAT

 

[MrBlonde]

Max Pass feels like it's hacking or something, but it's such a game changer. I did it when I went to DLR last year and it's so much better and fair than getting up at 6 AM to hope for prebooking rides and food up to 6 months out.

 

[boomerthom]

Welp, I'm done (until tomorrow) and my legs hurt (and will prolly hurt tomorrow).

Attendance issues or not, this felt like a true off season day in the best way - the way that's getting more and more rare at WDW. If I had been surveyed about the ease of getting on attractions today, I probably would have given a perfect score. We did twelve (suck it, seven!) rides total between DCA and DL from about 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, most of them D/E tickets, and the average wait with or without FP was maybe 10 minutes aside from Smuggler's Run (posted 35, felt like less). And that was also with an hour long lunch break at Blue Bayou (dat atmosphere...dat bread), not rushing our pace, and taking some pictures along the way. Single rider lines were mostly empty (Space Mountain's had one person in it around 4:00 pm) so I prolly could have looped Indy, Space and Splash until I hated those rides. We literally only left because of fatigue and knowing we would be back tomorrow anyway (single rider spamming shall commence).

Thing is, even though DL tickets are very expensive (a two day parkhopper with Maxpass for one person is over $300), I'm actually (gasp!) pretty ok paying that price if I know I can easily do as many things as I did today. Maxpass absolutely feels like an unlimited ammo cheat for short wait times. This was the best day I've had at a theme park resort in who knows how long.

 

[Stryker]

Maxpass is straight up nutty. I’ve gotten into current fastpass windows and skipped like 25 minute lines for zero effort. This feels like cheating.

Max Pass feels like it's hacking or something, but it's such a game changer. I did it when I went to DLR last year and it's so much better and fair than getting up at 6 AM to hope for prebooking rides and food up to 6 months out.

When I got hooked up with unlimited Fastpasses (not available to the public) in June, my wife and I kept saying that it felt like cheating or something. Since it was loaded on to our tickets and valid for any ride/attraction at anytime, we didn't even have to use the app to request our next FP. Just walked to the FP entrance of any ride at anytime, scan our tickets and we were good to go. It allowed us to do every single FP ride for both parks. That was an epic day.

The only difference between that and MaxPass is that we didn't get the PhotoPass that normally comes with MaxPass and that we had to physically go to the distribution kiosks to get reservations for World of Color and Fantasmic.

 

[Scott W.]

When I got hooked up with unlimited Fastpasses (not available to the public) in June, my wife and I kept saying that it felt like cheating or something. Since it was loaded on to our tickets and valid for any ride/attraction at anytime, we didn't even have to use the app to request our next FP. Just walked to the FP entrance of any ride at anytime, scan our tickets and we were good to go. It allowed us to do every single FP ride for both parks. That was an epic day.

The only difference between that and MaxPass is that we didn't get the PhotoPass that normally comes with MaxPass and that we had to physically go to the distribution kiosks to get reservations for World of Color and Fantasmic.

Realistically, a paid system for unlimited FP is going to come to WDW like they have in Paris.

 

[boomerthom]

Realistically, a paid system for unlimited FP is going to come to WDW like they have in Paris.

That would be so frustrating. Maxpass is brilliant because of its simplicity - no one has to refresh the app or fight over a finite amount of FPs. WDW could have unlimited FPs but what happens when a family purchases that option for DHS but Slinky doesn't have any FPs left to book? That would have to feel awful.

 

[Scott W.]

That would be so frustrating. Maxpass is brilliant because of its simplicity - no one has to refresh the app or fight over a finite amount of FPs. WDW could have unlimited FPs but what happens when a family purchases that option for DHS but Slinky doesn't have any FPs left to book? That would have to feel awful.

Technically, they wouldn’t have to book anything. They would just go straight to the FP queue as many times as they want.

Not only does it limit availability for the hotel guests booking early but it would be virtually impossible for anybody not staying on site plus it would see an increase in standby wait times across the board making it more essential to pay for FP.

The ironic thing is that if everybody pays for it, it’s no different than if nobody has it and would revert to how it was before FP and the queues would probably move better.

 

[Stryker]

Realistically, a paid system for unlimited FP is going to come to WDW like they have in Paris.

I'm not really too familiar with Paris or WDW's FP+, but from what I've read here, it seems FP+ can be complicated and a disaster to plan ahead for. Sounds like you can probably spend more time planning ahead than you would waiting in the actual standby queue. FP at DLR is pretty straightforward and MaxPass is a decently priced upcharge for the convenience of not having to run around the parks to get your next FP, not to mention unlimited PhotoPass.

If WDW implements an unlimited FP option, I wonder if they'll phase out FP+ or offer it concurrently.

 

[Scott W.]

I'm not really too familiar with Paris or WDW's FP+, but from what I've read here, it seems FP+ can be complicated and a disaster to plan ahead for. Sounds like you can probably spend more time planning ahead than you would waiting in the actual standby queue. FP at DLR is pretty straightforward and MaxPass is a decently priced upcharge for the convenience of not having to run around the parks to get your next FP, not to mention unlimited PhotoPass.

If WDW implements an unlimited FP option, I wonder if they'll phase out FP+ or offer it concurrently.

Once you know it, it’s fairly simple. If I remember correctly, if you’re staying on site, you get 2 months to book your FP and if you’re not staying on site, you get 1 month and basically get the scraps that are left.

Add in the 6 months you get for dining reservations for staying on site and it’s the same issue.

The real problem is that you lose all flexibility. Every day of your trip is completely locked into one park and once you use your FP, your options for the rest of the day are limited and if you can only get a FP for later in the day, you’re screwed.

 

[Stryker]

Once you know it, it’s fairly simple. If I remember correctly, if you’re staying on site, you get 2 months to book your FP and if you’re not staying on site, you get 1 month and basically get the scraps that are left.

Add in the 6 months you get for dining reservations for staying on site and it’s the same issue.

The real problem is that you lose all flexibility. Every day of your trip is completely locked into one park and once you use your FP, your options for the rest of the day are limited and if you can only get a FP for later in the day, you’re screwed.

I guess what I meant to say is FP+ can be more complicated due to its initial learning curve compared to DLR's FP system where no advanced planning is needed. Not to mention the different tiers for FP+ which needs to be taken into account. I prefer being able to be a little more spontaneous during my visits and it seems FP+ doesn't allow for that much. As much as I try to map out my plan of attack for a visit, things always derail from my original touring plan, especially with young kids.

So with the lower than usual crowds, have you been able to do everything you wanted in the last two days? Where else are you visiting on your trip?

 

[Ron101]

I had friends visit DLR recently and they didn't get ANY FastPasses because they didn't want to pay the extra $15 dollars. I then explained to them that the $15 was just for the ability to get the FP on your phone (MaxPass). FP kiosks at the ride entrance are free and have always been. They only did stand-by and single rider the whole day.
It goes to show that a majority of the guests still think FP is an add on like Universal Express and guests can get confused seeing the MaxPass advertisements and not knowing the traditional kiosk way is still free. It's good for the people that know how FP works at Disneyland since less people will reserve times:grin:.

 

[Mad Dog]

I had friends visit DLR recently and they didn't get ANY FastPasses because they didn't want to pay the extra $15 dollars. I then explained to them that the $15 was just for the ability to get the FP on your phone (MaxPass). FP kiosks at the ride entrance are free and have always been. They only did stand-by and single rider the whole day.
It goes to show that a majority of the guests still think FP is an add on like Universal Express and guests can get confused seeing the MaxPass advertisements and not knowing the traditional kiosk way is still free. It's good for the people that know how FP works at Disneyland since less people will reserve times:grin:.

and that was one of the good things about the 'paper' fastpass system at WDW. Large percentages of people either didn't know it existed, or were too confused to understand the concept, so they didn't use it.

 

[Scott W.]

and that was one of the good things about the 'paper' fastpass system at WDW. Large percentages of people either didn't know it existed, or were too confused to understand the concept, so they didn't use it.

It was also nice when you could give your ticket to somebody else.

 

[boomerthom]

It was also nice when you could give your ticket to somebody else.

Oh god why didn’t I think to do this

 

[Mad Dog]

It was also nice when you could give your ticket to somebody else.

Yes....I gave out tickets quite often when we decided to leave earlier than expected. Plus, we received a good number also from people doing the same.

 

[JoeCamel]

Yes....I gave out tickets quite often when we decided to leave earlier than expected. Plus, we received a good number also from people doing the same.

It became a thing to hand out unused passes to those in line from what I saw.

 

[Ron101]

Well the FlexPass is already going down in value. Just noticed there are a few days in October already fully reserved. Also, this coming Friday and Saturday are already gone.

 

[SailwiththeTide]

Well the FlexPass is already going down in value. Just noticed there are a few days in October already fully reserved. Also, this coming Friday and Saturday are already gone.

Disney god giveth and taketh