Honestly, I’m happy Disney has the FastPass system in place but now i feel like everyone is so stressed to get the right FP at the right time. We DID survive without it 
Yes, when nobody had fast passes. But now, if you don’t get one, your wait is longer than it would have been before fast passes. And really, nobody was waiting 3 hours like people do for FOP because no rides had waits that long.
I’d be happy with no FP system at all. But since it exists, of course I want to make best use of it. Nobody wants to wait in a long line if they don’t have to - do they??
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I would be happy to give up all the new rides if I could ride the rides as they existed in the 80s when I went as a kid and also have those wait times.
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I never went in the 80s! 1992 was my first trip. I can’t remember the wait times but we used touring plans from the UG so probably not too long!
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I know we went in October to avoid crowds. I think it was only busy during major school holidays and summer back then.
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We always go in summer. It’s hard to find 2 weeks to go otherwise.
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I have an idea. Let’s redo the system.
No FP or any advance items, let’s have five tiers for rides, A through E, with the most popular rides grouped in E, least popular in A. After the whole MB upgrade fiasco, let’s just have paper tickets Everyone would get a booklet of tickets, with maybe 4 A ride tickets, 4 B ride tickets, 3 C ride tickets and 2 each of D and E ride tickets. It would help allocate the crowd and get people to go to different attractions.
If you want more tickets you can buy them, It might look something like this:
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That’s long before my time! We used to have the same system at our nearest theme park - it wasn’t really a park, but bigger than a fair. I hated it. Even at 5 or 6 I only wanted to do the thrill rides.
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I remember going in July in 80’s (high peak season at the time) and it was a madhouse. Vivid memories of being miserable in the heat waiting over an hour to get on Jungle Cruise in a queue that snaked back and forth. The lines for Small World, Pirates and others were also much worse than they are now.
Now if you went at Christmas in the 80s … much better crowds than Christmas time these days.
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Just respond to your earlier post … now I see this one. I never went in October during the 80s … my parents wouldn’t pull us out of school!
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My experience was quite the opposite. While it is true the lines were longer, they were also much much faster. I remember being in BTMRR queue, both sides completely full, and getting on in less than 30 minutes.
Similarly, I remember getting in line for SM where it was backed up all the way into the entrance area with the RCA dog, and the line moved relatively quickly.
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Mine wouldn’t either. My school had a fall break with a Thursday and Friday off around the 3rd week of October. No holidays, and didn’t match up with the public school breaks. When we first went it was just 2 parks, so 4 days/3nights was plenty. I was too young to really recall what wait times were like, I just know my parents have later talked about comparing with my cousins’ family that went in the summer for a longer time and they weren’t even able to go on some rides because of the lines, while we were able to ride everything.
Even with only 2 parks, my parents used to take us for a full week. My kids apparently aren’t as lucky as me … now with 4 parks, I take them for 5 nights.
The A-E ticket system is similar to what my kids’ school does for its small carnival LOL. My son imagined Disney like that. He had no concept of its magnitude. Ironically, Disney used to be like that.
Back in the 70s when it first opened, there were long lines at some attractions - up to 2 hours. You want to guess for what? CBJ and HOP. My first trip was in 1975, right after Space Mountain opened, and if you didn’t get there first thing after RD, the line built to 2-plus hours rapidly, and stayed that way all day.
I remember a terrible wait in PoC with over an hour of snaking back and forth in a dank hideous dungeon underworld. My DM and I still talk about it and shudder. It must have been the 80s and really, I prefer FPP.
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We just got back from Disneyland Paris, and it was wonderful. No need for a touring plan or FP. We did rope drop but after that we just wandered from ride to ride with very little wait. I think I used one Fastpass while there. (The ticket kind)
Reminded me of days gone by when we used to visit Disneyland. Such a relaxing change from WDW.
I miss that!
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Interesting. It makes me wonder if it was the novelty of the animatronics. Rides, people had seen before. Animatronics were like I, Robot come to life or something! (The book, not the movie!)
Just guessing. But I think we’ve grown accustomed to the idea of animatronics and robots today that we aren’t as fascinated as we once were. (Although, gotta say the animatronic guy in SWGE is amazingly impressive, based on what I’ve seen in videos…although, I wouldn’t wait for the attraction just to see him!)
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This is precisely the reason. At the time of their debut, these were the most cutting edge AAs that Disney had ever created; broad actions for CBJ and amazingly lifelike subtlety for HOP. Also, at that time AAs were what distinguished Disney from any other parks; it’s what people went to Disney to see. I would argue, if viewed purely from the engineering perspective (and not how you feel about the show content), they remain the best AAs in the MK.
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It’s important to remember that crowds are significantly higher than they were before FP was introduced. It’s likely that without FP today, the standby lines would be even more intolerable…
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