Disney's NextGen Initiative

[Nick]

The price increase sucks yes, but it is what it is and I won't fight it. I buy my annual pass so I'll never have to worry about a $99 day pass, and most people won't either especially with FL resident deals for us.

That couldn't be more wrong. The high majority of walk-up ticket purchases at MK buy one day, one park tickets. Sure we all know better than the average tourist, but the number was something like 80% of walkups by that ticket.

 

[IzzyB]

That couldn't be more wrong. The high majority of walk-up ticket purchases at MK buy one day, one park tickets. Sure we all know better than the average tourist, but the number was something like 80% of walkups by that ticket.

But what % of people that go into the park on a daily basis are walk ups vs. already have ticket in hand. Because that is the more important number.

 

[Brian G.]

Guys.... off-topic.

http://www.orlandounited.com/forums/showthread.php/8817-Disney-Raises-Ticket-Prices-Again

 

[mebweb]

So, I had my first experience using FastPass+ as a day guest yesterday and I have to say it was a success. We arrived at DHS at park opening and went directly to the FastPass+ location near The American Idol Experience. We were able to get the coveted Toy Story Midway Mania fast passes as well as Tower of Terror for half our party, Great Movie Ride for the other half and Star Tours for all of us. We wound up doing five attractions and a character M&G all by 12:30 pm. Here is how the morning played out...

The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow (got right in)
Phineas and Ferb M&G
TSMM (FP+ was valid 9:35 - 10:35)
Backlot Tram Tour (5 minute wait)
TOT and GMR (FP+ was valid 11:10 - 12:10)
Star Tours (FP+ was valid 12:10 - 1:10)

Of course, the key was that we arrived right at park open.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Of course, the key was that we arrived right at park open.

That is the key right there. I used it for th past three days as a day guest and the first thing we did was head to the kiosks because if you waited till later the lines were horrible. We managed to get the rides we wanted for the times we wanted so that was nice but it did seem like the stand by lines were longer that they typically are for this time of the year.

 

[sierrak5]

I used it last week at Magic Kingdom. Arrived around 3pm. We got Winnie the Pooh at 3:50, Space Mtn 6:05, and Thunder Mountain 8:45. Not too bad of times. Had to take a picture of the tablet screen to remember our times though

 

[IzzyB]

I got an e-mail today telling me I can now do advance FP+ reservations and order my MagicBand. So either I was picked to test or they have sent this out to all passholders. I have to say I am excited to now be able to reserve things in advance, but the first time I am going, I am going with family who only have multi-day tickets, so I won't be able to use it that much. I might FP one of the key rides and we can do child swap since we both have kids. But we will have to wait until we get there to reserve the other ones. I wonder when they will allow multi-day passes who don't stay onsite to use the system. Maybe I should have them create a login and link their passes and see what happens.

BTW, it said 7 days within a 30 day period and I can reserve up to 30 days and up to 60 days if I stay onsite. And it is a rolling 7 days, so as you use one of them, you can book another within those 30 days.

 

[batsmouth]

Looking good, I just dont get why they haven't released it for everyone, seems unfair to make certain ticket holders queue for fastpasses. Hopefully annual passes and foreign passes will have the fastpass+ on the disney experience soon.

 

[Hockeyman55]

I got an e-mail today telling me I can now do advance FP+ reservations and order my MagicBand. So either I was picked to test or they have sent this out to all passholders. I have to say I am excited to now be able to reserve things in advance, but the first time I am going, I am going with family who only have multi-day tickets, so I won't be able to use it that much. I might FP one of the key rides and we can do child swap since we both have kids. But we will have to wait until we get there to reserve the other ones. I wonder when they will allow multi-day passes who don't stay onsite to use the system. Maybe I should have them create a login and link their passes and see what happens.

BTW, it said 7 days within a 30 day period and I can reserve up to 30 days and up to 60 days if I stay onsite. And it is a rolling 7 days, so as you use one of them, you can book another within those 30 days.

I saw on Twitter a bunch of people talking about being able to get their AP bands so if it is testing it seems pretty wide spread. I have yet to see the email but we got our bands a few weeks ago when we made a reservation for Pop and then ended up canceling after we got the bands (which wasn't a planned thing but worked out in our favor still)

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Looking good, I just dont get why they haven't released it for everyone, seems unfair to make certain ticket holders queue for fastpasses. Hopefully annual passes and foreign passes will have the fastpass+ on the disney experience soon.

They probably are just added APs and other in phases into the system so its not such a huge influx all at the same time.

 

[MrRoamer]

I got an e-mail today telling me I can now do advance FP+ reservations and order my MagicBand. So either I was picked to test or they have sent this out to all passholders. I have to say I am excited to now be able to reserve things in advance, but the first time I am going, I am going with family who only have multi-day tickets, so I won't be able to use it that much. I might FP one of the key rides and we can do child swap since we both have kids. But we will have to wait until we get there to reserve the other ones. I wonder when they will allow multi-day passes who don't stay onsite to use the system. Maybe I should have them create a login and link their passes and see what happens.

BTW, it said 7 days within a 30 day period and I can reserve up to 30 days and up to 60 days if I stay onsite. And it is a rolling 7 days, so as you use one of them, you can book another within those 30 days.

Its a long shot but once you have their passes you may be able to link them to your My Magic account as Family and then control reservations for everyone.

 

[IzzyB]

Its a long shot but once you have their passes you may be able to link them to your My Magic account as Family and then control reservations for everyone.

That's a good idea. I will try.

 

[ChrisM]

I'm an AP holder and have some FP+'S reserved for tomorrow so keep checking the app.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

Ordered my Magicbands and booked Big Thunder, Space Mountain, and Buzz for Sunday afternoon and there's still plenty of times left

 

[Nick]

Ugh. This whole system is just such a mess right now. I've personally never had too much of a problem with it, but my friends have been having a terrible time and you can tell CMs aren't too happy with it either. The whole thing is just needlessly overly complex. When talking about it, I always say it's a good idea in theory, but the execution just isn't there. For everything I like about the system it seems like there's at least 1 to 2 things I dislike.

Just an example of the overall frustration the bands seem to be causing: I had dinner with my family and some friends tonight (9 in total). Once we finished eating, everyone ended up talking about the bands and the faults of the system. I'm the only one in the group who actually knows the estimated costs so far and how much is riding on the bands with shareholders.

Yet everyone else was able to easily sense that this seems like a losing venture. Just my family has received 15 bands so far with 5 more on the way. That was their point of reference to saying that they are probably losing a lot of money from all the bands they are sending out and extra staffing. The consensus among everyone was they liked it better the old way. They said they feel like guinea pigs testing out an unproven product.

Everyone agreed in the end that they'll probably get it all figured out within a year or so, but I just think it's sort of irresponsible to roll everything out at once like this when there are parts that clearly are still not working as intended. They should have spent more time rolling out each individual part to try and make sure everything was working perfectly before continuing with the roll out.

 

[Brian G.]

So my fiance and I tried to experience the FP+ system...

So we're in el Reino de la Magia (MK) around 8:30pm. Some of the lines are little longer than we'd care to wait for, more specifically Buzz and Space. I see the FP Kiosks as we walk out of Tomorrowland and figured "Why not?" and went to see if we can reserve a ride time. So we walked up, filled out the pertinent info and looked through the rides. All gone. For everything. One of the CM's walks up and asks if we need assistance. I tell her "It seems that all the times are gone."

"Yes, they are." she replies.

"Well why did I just waste 5 min of my time? Shouldn't there be a notification at the initial screen that all the times have been reserved?"

She kinda blew it off at that point just by saying "Sorry" and moved on to the next kiosk. Not a big deal, and it's a little nitpicky, but still an inconvenience.

 

[Nick]

The one big thing I noticed from using the system this time around was that it was much harder to get on any rides if you didn't get a FP+ reservation for one in advance. With the Spring break crowds here now, it makes it that much worse. I find we end up walking around the park from place to place never riding anything for long stretches of time lately until we finally just end up on the people mover or something (if in MK).

The system is great for DHS though. Allows you to easily get on every major ride. Reserve FP+ for TSM, ToT and GMR (I find GMR is a much better use than something like Star Tours with what lines have been like), then do single rider on RNRC and stand by for Star Tours.

 

[Miketheboss]

"Well why did I just waste 5 min of my time? Shouldn't there be a notification at the initial screen that all the times have been reserved?"

That does suck. But that's like a customer telling me, "wow, these prices are high". And I as a cashier just being like ummm....sorry. There is no point in telling me, I hear it all the time. That lady probably has heard that too. If anything it should be told to someone higher up.

 

[Brian G.]

That does suck. But that's like a customer telling me, "wow, these prices are high". And I as a cashier just being like ummm....sorry. There is no point in telling me, I hear it all the time. That lady probably has heard that too. If anything it should be told to someone higher up.

I see what your getting at, but it's 2 separate things.

 

[IzzyB]

My family got to Epcot around 2 PM and fast track and soarin were gone by then. But around this time of year, they would have been gone with the regular system too. I could have done advance for my husband and I, but forgot to. There was FP available when I looked 2 days before for all the attractions. So the needing to book 60 in advance doesn't seem to be an issue. Same day seems to be the same as it was before, in that the good ones go early during busier times. The other rides seem to have no more or no less of a wait time. Mexico was 5 minutes, nemo & living with the land was a walk on, test track was 50, and soarin was 60. Actually, for early spring break crowds, I thought 60 throughout the day for soarin was very reasonable. I have seen that one at 90 or 120 many days.

I agree it is a buggy system that should have been tested without guests for a longer period of time. But other than that, the overall use of the system seems good and our fears of longer waits or not being able to get fast passes without reserving 60 days in advance do not seem to be coming true.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...alt-disney-world-resort-hotel-and-day-guests/

This week marks an exciting milestone for us in that we are now providing guests who might only be visiting for the day with the ability to fully engage in MyMagic+ before their visit. Guests can register on My Disney Experience online, reserve access to some of their favorite experiences with FastPass+ and also purchase MagicBands on-site, if they choose.

Any hope I had in the system is now gone. Adding day guests to the mix is going to make it a nightmare to get reservations.