Let's see...just how surprised am I by this...
This might just go down as one of the biggest IT investment boondoggles in corporate America, or even the world, and I can't help but laugh, because a bunch of people knew it was coming and not a bit of attention was paid to them.
No... not even close. A SAP implementation almost shut down Hershey
Seriously, way worse projects have been attempted at large companies and have failed. This is nothing new to someone like me who works in the IT world. The only issue is since it is so public, people that don't normally see this clusterf*** are seeing it.
I mean... it's a Tuesday in January. Why? Fastpass +, that's why.
This was on the 21st, the day after a holiday. MK is ALWAYS packed the weekend of a holiday because locals and even some people far away (my cousin was in that weekend) allow the kids to take a couple days off of school and come down for an extended weekend. So this had nothing to do with FP+ Trust me, I was at MK the year before during that holiday and it was the same disaster.
All I know is im not so thrilled about this system after seeing some pictures on Twitter of some of the lines this week for those kiosks. Rope drop is going to turn into a mad dash to these kiosks now
I wouldn't worry about it. Go ride something and find a Kiosk back where you are riding something. I will post a summary of my experience below, but no need to rush to a kiosk at rope drop.
OK, so I have used the Kiosks several times now in AK, Epcot, and MK. The Kiosk line at AK was long, but an hour later there was no line, so it was probably bad timing on my part. The MK line didn't exist. I went to the Kiosk at the Mickey meet and greet and got right up to someone who could help me. At Epcot I also went the ones closest to the entrance and had to wait for a couple minutes. But they have a TON of people standing around that can make the reservations for you, so I never even made it to a Kiosk since in all cases they stopped me before the kiosk and did it for me or pulled me out of line to do it for me. So lines at Kiosks are not an issue. Keep in mind at AK we went on a very busy day as it was a holiday weekend.
Was I able to get the rides I wanted? Yes. Was the times good, the times were AWESOME. In all cases I showed up at the park 2 PM or later (AK 2, Epcot 3 and MK 4:30) and at AK we got Everest, Safari, and Little Nemo (never used that one). At Epcot we got Soarin, Nemo, and something else. Honestly Epcot was our worse experience since they have the tiered there. So I asked for Soarin and told them I didn't care about the other ones. Melstrom is the only other one we wanted and it is in the upper tier. I think over time this may change. MK I wanted Barnstormer, Peter Pan, and Pooh. I got LM, Peter Pan, and Pooh. I was surprised Barnstormer was sold out. The lady said it was because it was down for planned maintance on Mon, Tues, and Wed so this was the first time week long guests could ride it. Pretty understandable and we just went later in the night when the line was 5 minutes and road it 6 times anyways.
Now onto the times. At MK it worked the best, but at all the parks it worked similar. They really try to get it so that it works into your plans well. I will use MK as my example. We got a 4:50 LM time, so we went there first, we then had Pooh at 5:50, which was enough time to ride the carosel after LM and grab a quick snack. Then I had Peter pan at 7:20, so we did everything else in FL (Small World, HM, etc) and then rode PP right at 7:20 PM. Then after that we went down to the circus area and then over to tomorrowland. So we got to do everything we would normally do and didn't have to run all over the park trying to get FP and also trying to go back to a land we left because the FP was so late in the day. I was very impressed with the times they gave us at each park, it allowed us to flow thru the park and we did way less running around than we normally do.
Now this is coming from someone that never really used the paper passes like some of you crazies did. We would normally get FP for one, maybe two rides. We always had to do the running around because we would show up so late that all our FP would be for later in the day. So you run to the Kiosk, end up riding what you can but end up leaving the area and then have to come back. I also for a year and half didn't really need FP, so you have to factor that into it. But here is a perspective I can give you. I go to Disney a ton, way more than probably most of you. I also have waited in more FP lines than any of you since we had handicapped access. The FP lines are no longer if actually shorter than they were before. So they have managed to straighten that part of the system out. Sometimes you have to wait outside the FP line because people don't know how to scan, are coming to early, or coming to late. So that os causing some issues. The regular lines from what I can see are no longer. HM, PoTC, and small world were still walk ons. Later in the evening when the parade starts, everything starts to become walk ons like before. The big name rides are no longer than before (PP was 40, Pooh was 25) which is about what I saw last year during this time of year. So I think the longer line part is not coming true, in fact in same cases the lines looked a little shorter than normal even for off season. So I agree with others, don't knock it until you try it. Also, yes, there are MAJOR technical issues, but I guarentee you this is like any other major IT rollout. They will get the tech issues fixed, like any other company does. I think me coming from an IT background working in business systems, I have seen way worse issues. Trust me, the last thing you want to do is not pay someone at a major company that could get into a lot of legal issues. Try being under that pressure when you go live with a new system (My first job after being there a couple months I had to be part of the go-live crew and I ended up staying up 24 hours like all my co-workers including my pregnant boss) so this is nothing and will get fixed.