Some (Rare) Love for FastPass+

[MrPeetrie]

FastPass+ gets plenty of criticism and possibly deservedly so. I am not absolved from criticizing it. I've posted my share of complaints. But after a weekend at Cedar Point, I'm ready to give it some love.

I'm a huge Cedar-Point fan and as a family we LOVE its Halloweekends Events. Our family attended this past weekend. Weather was picturesque. Not one cloud in the sky all three days. On Saturday, the park was PACKED!!!

We purchased their Fast Lane Plus tickets at $149 apiece!!! (Ouch!) At first, it seemed like it was an efficient albeit expensive purchase. We got on the Maverick with only a five-minute wait when stand-by was at 1 hour. (OK. For the price, it worked as advertised.)

Our next ride was Millenium Force (my all-time favorite ride,) but the Fast Lane wait time was 20 minutes. Still not bad. Stand-by was 1.5 hours.

The Raptor FL had a 20-minute wait, as well, and then it got worse. Thirty minutes at Gatekeeper. Forty minutest at Top Thrill Dragster. Thirty minutes at Maverick. Sure, it cut the waits down significantly, but for $300 for two people, I feel fleeced.

I began thinking about FastPass and how it's part of the price of admission, not an additional purchase. I know it has it's limitations and sometimes the coordinating of ride times vs dining reservations is maddening. But it tries hard not to "over book" its rides or in the case of Cedar Point "over sell" its product! (Clearly, Cedar Point was selling as many FL+s as they could with no regard to quality of purchase.)

Before I post another critique of FP, I will use my past experience from last weekend and maybe soften my expectations. After all, on days when it worked as designed, it was really convenient.

What do you think?

[texas211]

I think some of the angst is over the last FP system was loved by so many (me included).

I like the for pay system Universal has. Works really well. I think the WDW system, I don't like all of the booking (especially w/ Fl weather).

On its own, if nothing else had ever existed, I think more people would like it. Though, I think if you compare it to Universal, it falls short (price aside).

[BadBoyBill]

I love FP+. Every time we go to Disneyland and rush around trying to get a coveted FP for Radiator Springs and other must do's I am thankful for the ease of booking our top three musts each day well in advance where we can sit and plan them so the times work with our schedules. We have even been lucky to get additional high demand FP after using our three. Now that they can be booked on MDE it is much easier. I only hope they allow for Park Hopping in the near future. I have heard that DL is working to get rid of the paper FP and move to a same day app based version of FP+. I think that will be the best option there but I love WDW's FP+ system and have rarely had a glitch.


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[baldburke]

We're fans too! Yes it's a drag having to plan so far out but we're been fairly luckly in adjusting schedules on the fly for changes. Like BadBoyBill we never licked running around the park just to collect paper slips. The only plus side to that was if say only half your party of four wanted to ride Everest then you could still swipe all four and ride twice. I just wish they could shorten the window. 60 days to four weeks onsite guests and maybe just two weeks for offsite guests. More perks for would be great for onsite guests would be great too (extra passes so you can really plan your day). It really is a pretty good system overall.

[Giggy]

Not tried the new FP+ system yet but I don't mind the idea of it, even though the old FP system worked relatively well for us, as a group we were relatively quick when we wanted to be.

Mostly I am just happy it didn't become a pay extra or an 'onsite only' system, leaving those that can only just afford to get in as second class guests. That said I've nothing against reasonable perks like onsite guests being able to book a bit earlier in advance as is currently the case.

[Biggeek]

$300 is a lot to spend, but when you do the math it's not quite as bad as it feels.. The FP+ system is deeply flawed. You would have spend twice as long waiting with FP+ for the same experience.
But don't get me wrong.. i am NOT a fan of pay for privilege passes.. just that FP+ provides a much lower guest experience.

Math wins.. FP+ is icky.

Using your estimates with FP+ you would have waited approx 8.5 hours:
Ride 1: 5 mins
Ride 2: 20 mins
Ride 3: 30 mins
Ride 4: 90 mins - standby line
Ride 5: 90 mins - standby line (assumed, using your highest posted wait)
Ride 6: 90 mins - standby line (assumed, using your highest posted wait)
Ride 7: 90 mins - standby line (assumed, using your highest posted wait)
Ride 8: 90 mins - standby line (assumed, using your highest posted wait)

But using their pass - you waited 4.25 hours - HALF as long
Ride 1: 5 mins
Ride 2: 20 mins
Ride 3: 30 mins
Ride 4: 40 mins
Ride 5: 40 mins (assumed, using your highest posted wait)
Ride 6: 40 mins (assumed, using your highest posted wait)
Ride 7: 40 mins (assumed, using your highest posted wait)
Ride 8: 40 mins (assumed, using your highest posted wait)

And don't get me started on the old pre-FP+ system:
Ride 1-10+: 15 min wait - half the wait again - giving you 2-3 times the rides in a day.
And yes, if you were smart about it, you could easily get 10-15+ fp in a day following all the rules, we did it very regularly.

[VWL Mom]

I like the new FP+ system and usually use it for booking afternoon rides. Our trip last week we did AK at opening, rode EE 2x's and safari. Wondered a bit and then headed for DHS; had a drink and then rode Star Tours, ToT, and RnRc. Did GMR standby and were back in the room by 3P. Not bad.

[1DisneyNut]

I hate FP+. I hate having to guess at what park I will want to attend on each day far in advance. I hate that people sit and wait for booking to open up and they may take up all the top tier attractions ( I am extremely busy and don't have the time and sure as heck don't have the patience to sit around waiting for booking to open up so I can try to quickly grab fastpasses). I hate having the FP+ times hanging above my head and stressing me out all day while at the park. I hate that I can only get 3 and then it has caused the wait times at the less popular rides to be far longer than they ever have been in the past.

Basically, I get far less done in a day than in the past all because of the jumbled up mess caused by FP+. Contrary to what some people think, it does not save you any time. It in fact costs you time and takes away from the experience. Sure you may only spend 15 minutes in line for each of 3 rides in a day but then the rest you are in forever long lines. Honestly, no fastpass at all would most likely be more productive than what we have with FP+.

I have been to WDW more times than I can count all the way back to when I was a small child in the early 70's. The paper fastpass system was the most productive but no fastpass was probably the most enjoyable for everyone because it was a level playing field with no stressful scheduling or running around like an idiot....you just showed up and picked a direction. Sure you stood in wait lines but we did a lot of talking with the family and met people from all over the country as well as the world. We went to Sea World this past summer and it was pretty good, just show up and start hitting the attractions.

On a side note, we went to Disneyland this past summer and it was the best experience we have had with a Disney park in the last 10 years. If it wasn't so far away, we would be back regularly.

[baldburke]

I love FP+. Every time we go to Disneyland and rush around trying to get a coveted FP for Radiator Springs and other must do's I am thankful for the ease of booking our top three musts each day well in advance where we can sit and plan them so the times work with our schedules. We have even been lucky to get additional high demand FP after using our three. Now that they can be booked on MDE it is much easier. I only hope they allow for Park Hopping in the near future. I have heard that DL is working to get rid of the paper FP and move to a same day app based version of FP+. I think that will be the best option there but I love WDW's FP+ system and have rarely had a glitch.


On a side note, we went to Disneyland this past summer and it was the best experience we have had with a Disney park in the last 10 years. If it wasn't so far away, we would be back regularly.

Wow! Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks I suppose?

[Roger's #1 Fan]

So I had my first, limited taste of FP+ during a short visit to F&W and MNNSHP last weekend.
While I was unable to get all the FP+ I wanted in our 3 day trip, I was able to at least do some of the top tier items (TT, Frozen, Jungle Cruise) but had to standby Soarin which was not so bad and didn't get to ride SDMR since the waits were all +90 min.

On the not so good side, I did see an "unnatural" increase in wait times on rides like Small World and Pirates which were usually 10-15 min and now are around 30 due to the need to have FP+ for these.

[BadBoyBill]

Roger I think it just fluctuates as I have walked on both Small World and Pirates in the past two years. It also depends on crowd levels.


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