Get rid of fast pass?

I’m just going to put this here. Talk amongst yourselves

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I’ve heard the ‘fast pass makes the rest of your waits longer’ argument before, and while that’s probably not true for liners or any serious planners, it’s almost certainly true for the average guest. But then who goes to WDW without planning? I have a plan when I go to my local theme park, I’ve never been to WDW without using the Unofficial Guide and a touring plan even on our first trip in 1992.

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As with any system those that take the time to study how it works will benefit significantly. Those people are the minority so the majority complains.

Personally I would love for Disney to bring back the paper FP system as I much enjoy maneuvering around the park quickly. :smirk:

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It doesn’t make standby lines longer. Touring Plans did an analysis a few years ago with all of their data that showed that standby wait times on average across all attractions stayed about the same before there was FastPass vs after. For individual attractions, some wait times went up a little, some down a little, most stayed the same, but it all averaged out.

This is because if not for FastPass, those guests would be in the line. So the physical lines would be longer. Now the physical standby lines are shorter, but they take about the same amount of time because of the FastPass line.

In regards to getting rid of FastPass, I don’t think I’d go to WDW if FastPass didn’t exist.

Edit: Here’s the blog post:. How FastPass+ Is Affecting Your Wait In Line – An Update | TouringPlans.com Blog

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Dude. I have a plan when I go to the grocery store! I couldn’t even comprehend going to Disney without planning.

DH says the same thing all the time. He thought it was more “fair”.

It makes sense.

The part that I found interesting was about how the FP system affected the crowd level in the park because people aren’t standing in the queue.

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He’s surmising that but I’m not sure how valid it is. A certain percentage will do that (not be in line) but others will just be in other lines / on other rides while they wait for their FastPass return window. It allows you to get more rides in in a given day.

Re the paper system, I am past the days of wanting to run around the park collecting FPs… I like being able to do it on my phone. Maybe the way they do it in Disneyland where it’s still on your phone but you can get only one at a time, day of… No 30/60 day booking.

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Wouldn’t the FP system also help distribute guests to rides more evenly throughout the day? Without them, guests might take a couple hours to get to the rides deeper in the park, for example. Or everyone might descend on one ride at the same time of day.

Allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll those people in the FOP standby line (for example)

A lot, really.

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There are two things (maybe two sides of one thing) about ride capacity the article misses. It is correct that you can’t change the daily capacity of a ride so Fastpass just takes rides from some people and gives them to others. However, it also allows some capacity of the ride to be accessed without physically being in a line. I feel like that’s a huge win, even at the cost of crowded midways. It also means that a lot more people have a lot more choices about the rides they can do and how much they are willing to wait. Unlike pure standby, I can now ride my 3 FP rides, look at a bunch of 60 min. queues and leave. Or do the “infinite” capacity rides like the shows or people mover.

If everybody did the same thing with FP that they were going to do before FP, it is true as the article says that you’d end up spending about the same amount of time in line (a few very short FP lines, many slightly longer standby lines) but I bet most people don’t do that. I bet most people will skip the now longer standby lines and I bet they feel better about their day too.

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It does - it takes some of the crowds from the peak times of day and distributes them to non-peak times.

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My point being, if they are daft enough not to plan, they deserve to wait in long lines. If you’re spending thousands on a holiday and don’t even bother to find out the basics I have no sympathy.

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Maybe it averages out but rides that used to be a walk on now have lengthy standby waits, I’m thinking especially of Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth but I’m sure there are other examples.

Totally agree

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I have analyzed this and came to the conclusion that the Fast Pass merely gives people the impression it is helping them. In actuality, it does very little and shifts waits around…but you end up waiting overall the same.

I want them to get rid of the FPP, personally. But as long as they have them, you MUST use them or else you end up waiting more than usual.

Whether there are FPP or not, making use of a TP will still be beneficial. And the only reason that FPP is even a smidge beneficial now is because of those who don’t use them. If everyone uses their FPPs, then it becomes a zero sum game.

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That has less to do with FPP itself and more to do with increased attendance - attendance has skyrocketed in the last decade, and they haven’t opened many new attractions. Luckily that’s changing.

I’d be curious to see what you figured, because I came to the opposite conclusion. Even if you just use your 3 FPs you wait in less lines than you used to because standby times are roughly the same as they used to be (when factoring in attendance increases) and FP allows you to skip the standby line in several places (it basically places you in a virtual line). I don’t see how it could be a net positive… And that’s just for normal usage. Factor in grab and modify and it can be a huge time saver.

That’s the fallacy. For every person who goes through the FP line, it lengthens the wait in the standby line that much more. For those in SB, they wait longer. But eventually, the person who uses a FP in line X will be in SB for ride Y, so now their wait time increases. It all balances out.

Now, that isn’t to say there aren’t ways to utilize the system. But most if the time, your perceived benefit is just that. A perception. Not reality.

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No it doesn’t. Those waits rocketed up within weeks of FPP being introduced.

Gotta disagree with a lot of points here. My parents took us to Disney twice when I was a teenager. I remember my mom, who had never been to DW before, knowing information about the parks and attractions before we went. She had planned what attractions and shows to see and knew how to set up reservations for restaurants, which were done in park at that time. This was all before the internet and planning websites. For as long as I have been going, planning has been a part of DW. I think it is a shame that there are a lot of park goers that aren’t even doing basic research. The information is there, but they aren’t willing to do it.

FPs have not increased my waits. Instead, they have decreased them. Before FP, my family (my parents, sisters, and I) waited in hour or more long lines to get on Pirates of the Caribbean. Last trip, the longest attraction we waited for was 20 minutes. We had spontaneity within our planning, getting side tracked by something the kids want to do, or exploring WS.

This article sounds a little whiney to me. If you don’t want to plan, don’t go in with expectations that everything is just going to fall in place.

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Yes this. Which is why people who understand how to work the FPP system are still not waiting in lengthy lines but casual visitors are.

But that’s not the case. Because the people in the FastPass line would have been in the standby line otherwise. The number of people in the park is the same before and after FPP - so the number of people who can be in a line doesn’t change. Look at the link I posted above - TouringPlans looked at the data and saw that standby line times stayed roughly the same pre and post FPP.