Is the Lack of Magic Bands hurting UOR's Overall Image?

[IzzyB]

That's from a week or two ago. Touring Plan's predictions have been off by a lot this year, most especially the past three months, so they're doing an in depth analysis of the line & fastpass plus system and revising stuff. WDW lines have been significantly longer. The ratio of fastpasses issued compared to standby is a little over 80%, which Disney adjusts according to the crowds. I was surprised by those percentage numbers since I never realized they were so huge. Those are according to communications between Touring plans & Disney. And the cast members are supposed to follow those general percentage guidelines. You might want to read the blog articles on TP dating back a couple of weeks. There's about 6 or 7 different articles, including each park and the resort as a whole. You might also want to read the customer comments since a lot of people were upset the predictions weren't the same as actual crowds and a lot of people spent way more time in lines than predicted. We were there the first two weeks in October and I'd say more than half of our fastpass lines, and I only got them for E ticket type attractions, were twenty to thirty minutes long. I would think the percentage of people in Universal Express lines are significantly small, nothing like those Disney percentages. Which is one reason I love hotel express since its really a true front of the line pass.

Based on those numbers, yes, there would be more fastpass than express. It is interesting because my BIL/SIL were there yesterday and said the park was really busy. It took them an hour to get from the park to their car because they had to wait in a really long ferry line. I think they said they got on the 4th ferry. So it is higher attendance or high % causing the long lines? I thought their predictions were wrong for Uni too. I thought it was from people changing their vacationing patterns more than the FP %. Our friends were at DHS on Saturday and they said at some point they closed down the park and started directing people to Epcot. They had buses taking people to Epcot because DHS couldn't handle more people. That is just insane.

But yes 80% is just insane. They should not have those kinds of percentages. It is also insane to wait 20 or 30 minutes in FP. I guess I have been lucky when I have gone lately, because the longest FP line was 10 minutes which was ToT and I think it had broken down a little bit before we got there because the stand by was 80 minutes and rockin was only 45 lol But everything else was pretty much walk on from Fast Pass. Well walk on to the merge point that is.

If you use express, express is always going to win. I don't dispute that. But if you don't buy express, I think FP is always going to win. Like you said, they two systems are so different you can't compare, but I am sure everyone has a preference based on their family and how you do parks. That was my point. I think

 

[Mad Dog]

Based on those numbers, yes, there would be more fastpass than express. It is interesting because my BIL/SIL were there yesterday and said the park was really busy. It took them an hour to get from the park to their car because they had to wait in a really long ferry line. I think they said they got on the 4th ferry. So it is higher attendance or high % causing the long lines? I thought their predictions were wrong for Uni too. I thought it was from people changing their vacationing patterns more than the FP %. Our friends were at DHS on Saturday and they said at some point they closed down the park and started directing people to Epcot. They had buses taking people to Epcot because DHS couldn't handle more people. That is just insane.

But yes 80% is just insane. They should not have those kinds of percentages. It is also insane to wait 20 or 30 minutes in FP. I guess I have been lucky when I have gone lately, because the longest FP line was 10 minutes which was ToT and I think it had broken down a little bit before we got there because the stand by was 80 minutes and rockin was only 45 lol But everything else was pretty much walk on from Fast Pass. Well walk on to the merge point that is.

If you use express, express is always going to win. I don't dispute that. But if you don't buy express, I think FP is always going to win. Like you said, they two systems are so different you can't compare, but I am sure everyone has a preference based on their family and how you do parks. That was my point. I think

Yea, they've been a bit off on OU also, but not as much. They've only been doing Universal for a few years so I don't think they really have a solid statistical base to judge them. They've never been real accurate on Universal anyway......Right now TP is still investigating the WDW numbers but they're saying it's looking like a combination of attendance gains, lots of closed attractions and less entertainment, plus whatever is happening with more people utilizing fastpass plus. Of course, you can't just tell by looking at people in line sine the fp line will move four times faster than the standby. Example: if an attraction has a capacity of 1000 people an hour, 800 will ride fastpass, 200 from the standby line will ride. Disney has had steady, but not necessarily large percentage gains, for the past few years, so their lack of new attractions and closing so many is probably catching up with them causing these capacity problems.

 

[s8film40]

I think the Universal parks are also way better balanced. Both parks have a fairly good mix of attractions and one park doesn't really stand out more than the other too much as the one to go to. Disney right now is a mess in this regard. The bulk of the attractions are at MK. DHS has a few key things that people will want to hit, same with AK. Epcot is other than walking around WS or if your taking the kids to the Pixar rides has very little to offer. As a result MK gets overcrowded and many people seem to be spending partial days in the parks to to spend more time at MK. I think this is why the current Magic Band system tries to discourage park hopping. Park Hopping used to be something Disney encouraged.

 

[bob albert]

Is the qbot system still around? I forgot about it. I know it was a charge but maybe it could be a test towards something like it for free. As long as the express is unlimited vs the timed reservations, they could use the same lines already set up.

 

[Mad Dog]

Is the qbot system still around? I forgot about it. I know it was a charge but maybe it could be a test towards something like it for free. As long as the express is unlimited vs the timed reservations, they could use the same lines already set up.

I think the purchased Express Passes are limited. Hotel Expresses are unlimited.Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Blue]

I think the purchased Express Passes are limited. Hotel Expresses are unlimited.Correct me if I'm wrong.

Not sure about in the park, but you can purchase unlimited passes on their website as well.

 

[Macfr3ak]

I think the lack of technology

I think the purchased Express Passes are limited. Hotel Expresses are unlimited.Correct me if I'm wrong.

i believe that is correct

 

[IzzyB]

I think the Universal parks are also way better balanced. Both parks have a fairly good mix of attractions and one park doesn't really stand out more than the other too much as the one to go to. Disney right now is a mess in this regard. The bulk of the attractions are at MK. DHS has a few key things that people will want to hit, same with AK. Epcot is other than walking around WS or if your taking the kids to the Pixar rides has very little to offer. As a result MK gets overcrowded and many people seem to be spending partial days in the parks to to spend more time at MK. I think this is why the current Magic Band system tries to discourage park hopping. Park Hopping used to be something Disney encouraged.

But that is the thing, it isn't just MK that is busy. Which MK has the best Capacity and allows the best uses of FPs. It also doesn't have closed rides like Epcot or DHS. It is all very interesting. Because DHS was packed because it is the last year of the lights, which then pushes people to Epcot which was on its last weekend of Food and Wine, so that park is already busy. But where the heck are all these people coming from when early November is normally a slow period? Locals trying to catch things before it gets busy? It was the last weekend that comp passes from hotels could be used, could it be that? I mean catching the 4th ferry out is summer like crowds. So in the same weekend there was reports of DHS not letting people in and busing people to Epcot and MK having crazy waits and taking forever to get out of the park. This is more than just FP causing this issue. I think this is a combination of a bunch of stuff including people changing their vacationing patterns and locals changing their patterns too. I also agree that Epcot and DHS have capacity issues. Animal kingdom not as much because of the Animal things. I think Pandora will overload that park too though.

I really see why Ops is pushing then to shorten the timelines. This is just insane.

 

[GAcoaster]

Catching the 4th ferry out is also a case of being down to two ferry boats instead of three with one in drydock for rehab for the past 3 months, plus an unreliable, aging fleet of monorails. When the transportation network has a problem it makes things seem worse than they are. Also, the days when there is no Christmas Party are always busier because people paying more than $100 a ticket want as much time as they can get. The days with the parties are much lower attendance (but two crowds a day).

 

[IzzyB]

Catching the 4th ferry out is also a case of being down to two ferry boats instead of three with one in drydock for rehab for the past 3 months, plus an unreliable, aging fleet of monorails. When the transportation network has a problem it makes things seem worse than they are. Also, the days when there is no Christmas Party are always busier because people paying more than $100 a ticket want as much time as they can get. The days with the parties are much lower attendance (but two crowds a day).

This was a day of the party and they were leaving at "closing" at 7 PM. Also, mine train was 110 minutes. They said it was very busy all around. I went on a day of a Halloween party and left a little after closing since I was in the Mine Train line. But I had zero issues catching the monorail or getting to my car. Mine train never went above 50 minutes and I waited 20 for it. So obviously my experience was much different than their experience on a party day. Like I said, I wonder if had to do with comp passes having to be used up that weekend. But Saturday Epcot and DHS were packed too. So who knows what is causing these insane crowds. Don't these people know nothing new opened in any park in Orlando this year?!? lol

Oh and I have left the park at closing with two ferry's running many many times and never have I had to wait for the 4th ferry, 2 max. But this was all 2 years ago when the parks were not this busy during off season.

 

[Mad Dog]

These crazy crowds is what I keep telling everyone about. You would have sworn it was July peak time when we were there for those first two weeks in October. Busy crowds every park every day. And I park hopped to so I saw a pretty representative slice of things. Long lines, long waits for everything. If I didn't know how to navigate around that stuff on my own it would have been a horrible two weeks. I pity the regular run of the mill tourist. The two days we drove down to Universal were like a return to sanity. Even though it was the Friday & Monday of Columbus Day week, it was sane compared to the insanity that was WDW.

 

[IzzyB]

These crazy crowds is what I keep telling everyone about. You would have sworn it was July peak time when we were there for those first two weeks in October. Busy crowds every park every day. And I park hopped to so I saw a pretty representative slice of things. Long lines, long waits for everything. If I didn't know how to navigate around that stuff on my own it would have been a horrible two weeks. I pity the regular run of the mill tourist. The two days we drove down to Universal were like a return to sanity. Even though it was the Friday & Monday of Columbus Day week, it was sane compared to the insanity that was WDW.

You had express at Uni, right? Because I went the Tuesday and lines were really long at Uni. Express would have been nice and would have allowed us to enjoy the parks more. But at $200 a person for my sister and BIL there was no way they were paying for express and honestly I don't want to pay either.

 

[deathcab4cutie]

but that is why universal express is so balanced if it was affordable to everyone they would either always be sold out or be unbalanced like Disney free system. also dont forget universal used to have a free express system like Disney but Disney threatened to sue so universal started charging

 

[rhino4evr]

but that is why universal express is so balanced if it was affordable to everyone they would either always be sold out or be unbalanced like Disney free system. also dont forget universal used to have a free express system like Disney but Disney threatened to sue so universal started charging

is this true? I don't remember hearing that.

 

[Mad Dog]

You had express at Uni, right? Because I went the Tuesday and lines were really long at Uni. Express would have been nice and would have allowed us to enjoy the parks more. But at $200 a person for my sister and BIL there was no way they were paying for express and honestly I don't want to pay either.

(We were Friday & Monday Columbus Day)No Express for one of the few times since we were staying at Caribbean/WDW. We used lots of single rider , since we still get to stay together in line until the ride (Once on Gringotts they let both of us ride together anyway). Stayed away from Despicable Me. Plus we got there at 9:00 in the morning and saved the afternoons for the shows and went back on the rides after 5:00 PM. That's the way to tour without Express. Universal felt like moderate levels, nothing like the 9 & 10 WDW level crowds.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

is this true? I don't remember hearing that.

Lol, no not even close.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

(We were Friday & Monday Columbus Day)No Express for one of the few times since we were staying at Caribbean/WDW. We used lots of single rider , since we still get to stay together in line until the ride (Once on Gringotts they let both of us ride together anyway). Stayed away from Despicable Me. Plus we got there at 9:00 in the morning and saved the afternoons for the shows and went back on the rides after 5:00 PM. That's the way to tour without Express. Universal felt like moderate levels, nothing like the 9 & 10 WDW level crowds.

I don't understand your point. If you get to Disney right at opening and save their shows/less attended attractions for the afternoon too, you'll have a similar experience.

 

[IzzyB]

(We were Friday & Monday Columbus Day)No Express for one of the few times since we were staying at Caribbean/WDW. We used lots of single rider , since we still get to stay together in line until the ride (Once on Gringotts they let both of us ride together anyway). Stayed away from Despicable Me. Plus we got there at 9:00 in the morning and saved the afternoons for the shows and went back on the rides after 5:00 PM. That's the way to tour without Express. Universal felt like moderate levels, nothing like the 9 & 10 WDW level crowds.

That is the big difference between my family and yours, we can't do single rider. If we could, we would and did prior to kids. Without single rider on busy days the waits seem awful compared to Disney to me. I would never wait more than 30 minutes for any Disney ride, but every ride except MIB was way over 30 minutes and we had to wait unless we only wanted things like Shrek or Twister.

 

[captainmoch]

That is the big difference between my family and yours, we can't do single rider. If we could, we would and did prior to kids. Without single rider on busy days the waits seem awful compared to Disney to me. I would never wait more than 30 minutes for any Disney ride, but every ride except MIB was way over 30 minutes and we had to wait unless we only wanted things like Shrek or Twister.

Isn't that pretty much like Magic Kingdom, though? Every ride except the Carousel, Tea Party, and Stitch almost always has 30+ waits. While MK does have fastpass, they also have many more attractions then Studios.

 

[Mad Dog]

I don't understand your point. If you get to Disney right at opening and save their shows/less attended attractions for the afternoon too, you'll have a similar experience.

If you read my earlier postings in this thread you'll see I said that's what we did at WDW to try to avoid the long lines. And, as I said it worked to a degree, with the exception that the fastpass lines were long also and there's very few single rider lines to utilize. And the evening lines were long too so we couldn't save time that way.Additionally food lines were long and the park was overly congested for all of the normal events. And I said that it would be tough for the normal tourist that didn't know how to adapt to a park that was way more crowded than predicted. We were able to work around it but the parks were like summer crowds. We go off season to avoid that kind of stuff.