Fastpass changes???

[WEDFan]

Thanks for the info, Zazu. A wealth of information as always. When I was told that I was allowed to come back any time after the begin time, nothing was ever mentioned about it being related to rides being 101. Now I feel badly for all those times I came back late.

[shilohmm]

The problem with any kind of selection, though, is the group that stand around debating what time is best.

Yah, hubby is prone to this sort of thing. Most of the kids don't follow his lead, but he's perfectly capable of dithering all by himself if presented with choices he hadn't considered beforehand. As the Designated Disney Expert of the family, I would totally tell him that the FastPass system had been changed to the point of unworkable in order to prevent that. :whistlng:

Given that some attractions go 101 several times a day, these rotating FP cast tended to assume that all attractions had previously been down, so permitted all late FPs.

A reasonable approach. I've always felt that the fact that you could use a FastPass late was for either that or Disney Dining dawdling; either way, it was to cover Disney's screw ups, and not really meant to be a free ride for everybody, so you should honor the time if you could. But that's easy for me to say since it was never pertinent for me; never planned more than one FastPass ride a day, and always just did that one first instead of FastPassing.

Having obscure tastes can be a real benefit sometimes. :D:

[Goofyernmost]

I worked in attractions during the first several years of FASTPASS. I was advised by management that *if* the attraction had gone 101 for any period, then that particular attraction could accept FPs from before the return to service for the rest of that day; subject to CM discretion and guest service recovery policies.

This was at a time when FP operators were a separate department, rotating among the FP attractions with CDS. As a result, they may not know if the attraction had gone down, nor when. Given that some attractions go 101 several times a day, these rotating FP cast tended to assume that all attractions had previously been down, so permitted all late FPs.

Now that FP positions are again attached to the attraction, there's no excuse for such sloppiness, but because guests had become accustomed to the policy in prior years, enforcing the policy would have been hazardous to their health.

This is why the Company is having to make a big deal of reimposing the policy -- to deal with such guest entitlement issues. (Understandable though they are in this particular case.) Sadly, I predict that we will once again see CMs assaulted by guests, as happened when FP was first introduced. It won't be pretty, and I'm glad I won't be there for it.

And yet another solid reason for me to believe that Fastpass was a serious mistake made with the best intentions...just wasn't thought out or if it was, upper management didn't care enough about either the CM's or the guest that didn't have a Fastpass and couldn't get one. I hate Fastpass. Always have...always will! I will enjoy it a touch if they do enforce the windows now as long as the CM's are backed up strongly.

[GaTechGal]

Just wondering - have late FPs really become a problem and messed up queues a lot? Any time we used a late one, it didn't seem that the FP line was particularly long or held up standby more than normal FPs did.

[DisneyMom]

Just wondering - have late FPs really become a problem and messed up queues a lot? Any time we used a late one, it didn't seem that the FP line was particularly long or held up standby more than normal FPs did.

I envision more complaining by Guests who came back at their window time and *still* have a short wait..... and enforcing the end time sounds like it will be miserable for CMs due to the entitlement issues of so many SGs....ask anyone who is trying to convince a customer, "We are CLOSED!"15 minutes after the fact...

Whatever the FastPass line is now when we hit it, I don't complain, Disneyland has been so kind (and flexible) to give me that spot....

[GaTechGal]

I totally agree. I'm just wondering what preciptated the enforcement unless things had started getting out of hand.

[5th Dimension]

And the new contender is Xass, I mean, XpAss! Yeah, Xpass...

http://www.screamscape.com/html/wdw_-_epcot.htm

Interesting little changes are taking place at Epcot this week. The Epcyclopedia reports that queue reconfigurations are in progress at The Sea with Nemo & Friends and Spaceship Earth attractions. The scope of the work involved makes it fairly clear that Disney is adding some kind of FastPass style direct access queue pathway into these attractions, though capacity wise, neither attraction truly is in need of a true FastPass access system.
Going back to previous rumors suggesting that Disney is on the verge of launching the “XPass”, a higher tier version of FastPass reserved in advance for premium for guests who purchase premium Disney Resort packages. The first step in order to make room for the introduction of the rumored XPass was to start enforcing the closing window time on all FastPasses.. which will now begin in March. Once they work out the bugs there, I think we can perhaps expect to see a test of the XPass sometime over the next three months. Either way, it is starting to appear as if Epcot could very well be the testing ground for many new “NextGen” features Disney has been planning. For example, back in mid-November Epcot was testing a new RFID chip based ticket system, combined with a special turnstyle free entrance portal with ticket scanners.

[Darksin]

Frankly I've always thought FastPass was a bad idea and I've seen the consequences up close and personal. I worked at RnRC during the first year of it's opening so they had us being VERY strict with the FP return times, it was a nightmare. People who got away with late returns at other rides would have a fit when it didn't work suddenly at a new attraction, thus resulting in cast members putting up with a LOT of abuse from guests who knew how to work the system. Our managers wouldn't even deal with the situation most of the time so our only recourse was to send them to Guest Services. It was bad, I HATED being on outside track.

People will lie if they think it will get them a single extra 'goodie' and they don't care who they screw over to get it. This is going to be a mess and I wouldn't be surprised if someone gets seriously hurt as a result.

Personally I never use the FastPass system myself, the last time I think I did it was because we where given a set from a very kind Bus Driver who saw our Anniversary pins. It's never been a problem for us, we're never in the parks during the busy seasons and we're not opposed to *GASP* waiting in line the whole 15-30 minutes for a ride. We know how and when to work the parks so we've never really run into a situation where we NEED them for anything.

...but that's just us.

[KingsIslander]

I'm more upset about the hole being cut in the Living Seas mural. The plastic fish cut-outs were bad enough.

[Mr. D.]

It is sad that this is even needed.




Lets look at this.

Return ANYTIME between 10:05 and 11:05.

So ANYTIME between that HOUR. Not to mention this pass was issued at 9:03, so you now have 2 full hours to plan your return. How hard is it to do this? We did this with a group of 3 adults and one toddler, and never missed a FP time. Heck most the time we got to the attraction about 3-5 mins before the time. 9 times out of 10 the CM would let us on, but one did not. We understood and waited our turn.

As the OP said. I can see a 5 min grace because some times stuff happens. I also think it should be up to the CM. They are the ones working the front lines of defense. They know the traffic for that ride for the day, shift, the last hour, ect.

I wonder how many guest get a FP for s ride at MK, then hop the monorail to EPCOT, and hope to get back to MK in time.