New Family Fastpass

[MOJoe]

I just read on the UG's site that Disney is testing a new "Family Fastpass", where only one ticket is issued for your group. The attraction being tested is Killimanjaro Safari, at AK.
Does anyone have any info on this? 'Cause i got some questions.
Do you still have to have all of your groups park tickets? If not, could this allow you to enter the park alone and get Family Fastpasses for others in your group who arrive later?
Let's get some info!!!!! :thumbsup:

[Pop Centurion]

Don't know about the rumor but a family or group FP would be a good idea to save paper. I'm all for it as longs as there's no way to cheat the system and let friends that you ran into in the park jump in line with you.

[LoriMistress]

How would they be able to determine that? So if everyone in your party got a "Family FP" so everyone in the party would be able to ride it 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. times in a row? I don't think this could work.

[JPL]

The FP System is alot more sofisticated then people think. There are lots of variables they can program in. I would Imagine a group would choose if they wanted the Family Fast Pass or not and then be given a special card to access it and it would disable FP on the other tickets for certain attractions.

[just2mickey]

I have not heard anything about it but I would use it. I think that it would be cool to have one and maybe you would only get that one pass but everyone in your party (or those that wanted to) would go at the same. Now that I rethink it, that is basically what you do with a regular one. I wonder though if they did this, would they still allow for individual fast passes?

Hmmmmm. that would be neat if you could get your fastpasses as individuals and maybe two per day as a family pass. That would elimate the situation where say my husband and my daughter want to ride a ride and I do not, then I could fast pass another ride that they do not want but we could still ride another one as a family withpout waiting for all of our different times to expire on the fastpasses.

[Pop Centurion]

How would they be able to determine that? So if everyone in your party got a "Family FP" so everyone in the party would be able to ride it 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. times in a row? I don't think this could work.I'm sure there's a way that your KTTW could be encoded to show how many guests are booked for that room and list the amount on the FP. So when you go through the FP line the CM will look at the ticket and make sure the amount on the ticket corresponds to the amount in your group. Also it would only allow one family FP at a time per room instead of per key.

[Figment!]

There is currently a pilot test for new FastPass machines going on at Kiliminjaro Safaris, however; I have not found any other references to this particular feature.

The features that have been reported by multiple sources (most claiming to be close to the test) can be found in Tidbits May 2007 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=103538)

The added barcode could be the means for the use of this feature or other similar enhancements.

[disneyfan369]

There is currently a pilot test for new FastPass machines going on at Kiliminjaro Safaris, however; I have not found any other references to this particular feature.

The features that have been reported by multiple sources (most claiming to be close to the test) can be found in Tidbits May 2007 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=103538)

The added barcode could be the means for the use of this feature or other similar enhancements.


What does "the near term" mean?

[TiggerRPh]

Sounds okay...but the only issue that I have with this is....we have 4 of us and sometimes not all of us want to go on a ride....but I use all of our tickets so two of us can go on twice.

I don't have a problem with it on something that we all like though like the Safaris.

[Mickey91]

They should leave it like it is or allow interaction to let you pick the number of passes you want up to the number of members in your room.

[Wells]

This is not officially confirmed information, but......
After the "Year of a million dreams" ends, there may be several new fast pass related options avaiable to Disney resort guests. This MAY include family fast passes for certain attractions that are provided as a part of a vacation package, as well as other fast pass access perks for Disney resort guests.......

[BelleBeauty]

Among other things, I'm just excited that this will cut down in paper! Less things to carry, less waste.

There are always glitches and problems and loop holes with every system. Family fast passes would be great and I'm sure they will eventually work out the kinks so you can interact and choose the number you want on the fast pass.

[TIdoubleGR]

Maybe I'm being skeptical, but I see a lot of potential issues with this (not staying at a Disney resort, parties meeting at WDW that don't check in together, buying individual tickets at the gates, etc.) I'm all in favor of cutting down on the paper and things to carry, but there just seem to be too many different variables in the mix to effectively keep track of.

There may be something I haven't thought of, but from the information that is available I think it would be hard to make it work, unless they were to turn FastPass into what Universal Studios has, where it's a premium on top of your admission. (Please, no!!!)

[psychotekkie]

Ok, as well as being a Disney freak, I am also a computer geek (can you tell from my name)? It sounds to me like you could set it up relatively easily. If I were to build this system, I would make it so that it works EXACTLY like it did before where you go to the machine with your key-to-the-world (and possibly also the keys of your dear family memebers) and swipe those keys that you want fastpasses for. The only difference would be that instead of it printing off a ticket stub for every swipe, you could just keep swiping cards, and press a button to say "finished" when you are done so it gives you just one ticket stub with a "Number of Tickets:" printed on it. Just like using an ATM! That would work really easily and would have the same safeguards against cheating as you had before. Just less paper mess, and less little things to lose.

[CM~Mserrano]

I had the same thoughts as psychotekkie. I think that would work out perfectly. I always thought they should do something like that, because when I worked there there were always times that people would come up in large groups missing one fast pass. Normally we could let it slide, but this would help, and if one person forgot to add theirs, no problem, just get one for one person. If that's the way it's going to work, then it's a great idea!

[rsumrall]

WDW Radio had a show on this issue this week.

Evidently, there are a myriad of FP options that are right around the corner. It sounds like Disney is going to be adding some perks for certain resort guests in way of FP options. Sound like a dicey subject to me...

[battle beast]

I would use. it, definatly. Does Disney Recycle the fastpasses it collectS?

[Bruegge]

Just what Disney needs.. (sarcasm intended)

More confusion/options for just getting on a ride.




Scott

[Mousefever]

This is not officially confirmed information, but......
After the "Year of a million dreams" ends, there may be several new fast pass related options avaiable to Disney resort guests. This MAY include family fast passes for certain attractions that are provided as a part of a vacation package, as well as other fast pass access perks for Disney resort guests.......


Is the Year of a Million Dreams ending at the end of this calendar year? I know that their "year" can be longer than 12 months. Does anyone know the official date?



:dory:

[CM~Mserrano]

I would use. it, definatly. Does Disney Recycle the fastpasses it collectS?

They don't sad to say. At the end of the day they get counted and discarded. However the rider-switch passes or the readmissions do get saved and used again the next day as each attraction only gets so many a month.

[sly1]

To me the fastpasses have become almost useless during the busy season. Everybody goes to the popular rides early in the day and get them. I have seen space mountain run out of fastpasses early in the day. During the busy season I have had days when I only managed to get 2 fastpasses and then still had to wait in line 45 minutes (at rocking roller coaster). I myself would rather see them change it to an add on to your package with an extra charge. They could then very easily control the amount of fastpasses by number they release or just simply the amount they charge.
I have thought about it often while standing in line and I believe I would prefer they just go back to running two regular que lines and do away with the fastpasses altogether. Think about it you throw away time everyday running around the park trying to get fastpasses, usually just manage to get a few in a days time and then you have to wander all over the park out of sequence using them. I have not seen where it saves us any time at all. Its just nice to "occasionally" get on a ride in 20 minutes instead of an hour.

[psychotekkie]

However the rider-switch passes or the readmissions do get saved and used again the next day as each attraction only gets so many a month.

(Sorry to get a bit off topic)... Does this mean that by the end of the month, they sometimes run out of rider switch-offs? We rely on these because of our DS3.