Fast Pass Not Returning - Confirmed

[lovewdw]

I know I'm going to be in a minority, however I'm very open minded about this.

Last visit I used Fastpass extensively, booked all my park days at 60 days out (thanks to the 1 night camping dodge). It worked well but I had to plan what I was doing on every day of my holiday at least 2 months ahead to get those limited fast passes to minimise time in queues.

IMHO
The big change here isn't removing fast pass, its the change to on the day planning (which i can imagine was the bulk of complaints disney received regarding fastpass from casual visitors).

If people use the 'complementary' genie app, disney have enabled a way to distribute demand across all of the attractions, restaurants and experiences in realtime minimising wait times for everyone while removing the need to plan months in advance.

By deliberately limiting 'lightning' access through making it chargeable, standby lines will be shorter for all. Couple this with the app spreading demand more evenly I think this could work for the benefit of everyone.

Time will tell, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this.

[trampslikeus]

Universal have been doing it for years, and people just accept it as a paid for benefit.
I am too tight to pay so just queue with my fellow tramps

[mickeyspal]

Originally Posted by lovewdw

I know I'm going to be in a minority, however I'm very open minded about this.

Last visit I used Fastpass extensively, booked all my park days at 60 days out (thanks to the 1 night camping dodge). It worked well but I had to plan what I was doing on every day of my holiday at least 2 months ahead to get those limited fast passes to minimise time in queues.

IMHO
The big change here isn't removing fast pass, its the change to on the day planning (which i can imagine was the bulk of complaints disney received regarding fastpass from casual visitors).

If people use the 'complementary' genie app, disney have enabled a way to distribute demand across all of the attractions, restaurants and experiences in realtime minimising wait times for everyone while removing the need to plan months in advance.

By deliberately limiting 'lightning' access through making it chargeable, standby lines will be shorter for all. Couple this with the app spreading demand more evenly I think this could work for the benefit of everyone.

Time will tell, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this.

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I see where you are coming from on this , if it works then that's great but for me it's still a pain in the bum to have to be reliant on your phone all day to keep track of stuff, I'm not the best when it comes to technology and theres people who are much worse than me .
Also for me planning 180 days or 60 days in advance was part of the fun, I cant remember how many times I've been awake all night waiting to get up and book my fast pass, and the smug grin I had on my face all day when I got everything I wanted

[Picalily]

We had our last trip to Disney in 2019, but never took my phone with me to the park and managed with the fast pass machines really well. This relies on you having a phone which I would really not be happy about.We just went to the counter for food and it was all very casual, now it's a military operation. Glad we can't afford to go anymore, we saw the best years.

[lovewdw]

Originally Posted by mickeyspal

I see where you are coming from on this , if it works then that's great but for me it's still a pain in the bum to have to be reliant on your phone all day to keep track of stuff, I'm not the best when it comes to technology and theres people who are much worse than me .

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I guess the hope is, if enough people use it so it manages to smooth the demand out you would still benefit from reduced standby line waits.

Originally Posted by mickeyspal

Also for me planning 180 days or 60 days in advance was part of the fun, I cant remember how many times I've been awake all night waiting to get up and book my fast pass, and the smug grin I had on my face all day when I got everything I wanted

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Me too, but I feel in reality we were gaming the system.

[Disney Jo]

Originally Posted by KBRB

OK I threw my toys this morning and contacted Disney directly using an email i had from previous complaint i will report back with the response. Just to note last time i did this they actually phoned me to hear the issues.

I think im going though the 5 stages with this.

Denial "they wont do it"

Anger "they have done it im not going back!"

Bargaining "maybe uk guests will get some kind of package"

depression "time to book of site Disney hates me"

and acceptance.

In all honesty while i get this isnt Disney's problem my DS is disabled as a result cant ride alot of the higher tier rides. Its dawned on me that his mum and i would use fp+ to go on rides he cant and swap out keeping is time waiting for us to a minimum.

Now i have a choice of standing in lines for hours while he has to sit and wait which probably isnt an option or stump up the fee.

Im gutted but i cant see how i can work around this short of not going or just accepting the costs.

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My DD is also disabled and in previous visits we have used the DAS pass but always ensured we also have 3 fastpasses booked. Has there been any news on how the DAS system will work alongside this or is it being taken away? Sorry to ask I just haven't seen anything yet and been trying to read through the forums to find out.

[aprilshack]

So this is just rides and not adr or savis? They can still be booked 60 days in advance?

[DisneyDaffodil]

Like many others, I feel this will mean that staying on-site has no real benefit now. We’ve booked 5 nights on-site for next year, with a one person £50 deposit for now, direct with Disney. I’m pleased we only booked 5 nights now as I would prefer to spend the money on an offsite stay and explore Universal and other attractions in Florida that we’ve not been to on previous trips. I feel it will be our last trip to Florida however as the extra charges puts it out of our budget.

I also feel it’s sneaky to make the announcements after tempting people with the offers for the 50th celebrations. We booked as it looked exciting to return for the 50th with an on-site stay and, hopefully, the return of on-site perks. Sadly, there seems to be no perks of staying on-site and simply a huge charge added to the price we’ve budgeted for.

[nth09]

Originally Posted by Picalily

We had our last trip to Disney in 2019, but never took my phone with me to the park and managed with the fast pass machines really well. This relies on you having a phone which I would really not be happy about.We just went to the counter for food and it was all very casual, now it's a military operation. Glad we can't afford to go anymore, we saw the best years.

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Interesting that you comment on the best years. For me the best years were the era of paper fast pass. The only “long” term planning was which park on which day. Other that that you just got there at rope drop went fast pass to fast pass (personal record was 9 in a day) and didn’t have to pay extra.

[Floridarules]

Interesting to see if this has any impact on sales. Strangely I doubt it, the appeal is too strong and I suspect that the additional costs will just be paid.