A couple of tidbits from Dayton today!

[Tekneek]

http://www.mritty.net/disneyblog/?p=173

It was interesting to note that a couple more of the claims are now more accurate than they were in 2013, such as an expanded Muppets area and changes to the Stunt Show seem more likely than not.

[John]

Yes, SOME version of FP+ is coming to Disneyland. Tests are being run right now at Space Mountain. They have installed barcode scanners that are scanning FP tickets in lieu of a CM looking at them. Word is, FP+ will use smartphones and ticket media to provide electronic FP linked to your account and all the FP rides will be equipped with scanners. Additional FP rides will be added. Guests will only be able to make same day FP reservations while physically in the park via smartphone or in park kiosks.

Wow - old thread - anyway, just wanted to say that this is how I said things should work from the get go. Same day, in park, via smart phone OR kiosk.

[BrerGnat]

Wow - old thread - anyway, just wanted to say that this is how I said things should work from the get go. Same day, in park, via smart phone OR kiosk.

Yep, apparently Disneyland management uses their brains.

It will be interesting to compare this version to the WDW version. I wonder if WDW might consider changing theirs to work this way if it proves successful at DL.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Count me as someone who would be extremely disappointed if WDW went to strictly day-of in-park only FastPasses.

[BrerGnat]

Count me as someone who would be extremely disappointed if WDW went to strictly day-of in-park only FastPasses.

Why? That is how it used to be and it worked just fine.

[joonyer]

Count me as someone who would be extremely disappointed if WDW went to strictly day-of in-park only FastPasses.

Why? That is how it used to be and it worked just fine.

As long as everyone is on the same playing field, then "day-of" "in-park" FPs would be fine with me.

I'd also be fine with shorter advance times fro ADR's too. Like 14 days, for instance. I'd bet there would be more spur of the moment availability.

[BrerGnat]

As long as everyone is on the same playing field, then "day-of" "in-park" FPs would be fine with me.

I'd also be fine with shorter advance times fro ADR's too. Like 14 days, for instance. I'd bet there would be more spur of the moment availability.

I agree with you on the ADRs. People book restaurants "just in case" and then cancel them last minute. A shorter window would probably stop that behavior.

[Hammer]

Why? That is how it used to be and it worked just fine.

I didn't like it because it caused the "mad dash" to get FPs for the uber popular rides. Now it will be a mad dash on the phone. Also, make it be that we can book so long as we are on-property, not necessarily in the park. That I could live with if I could book while I have my coffee and yogurt in my DVC room.

If it was in park, my family will be back to basically not riding things like Space Mountain, Soarin and Toy Story Mania. We are not early risers, so FP would be gone by the time we would get to the park around 10 (we naturally wake up around 8-8:30) and good chance the wait times will be longer than we care to wait. Most other rides we were able to get FPs.

[Hammer]

I agree with you on the ADRs. People book restaurants "just in case" and then cancel them last minute. A shorter window would probably stop that behavior.

I agree on ADRs as well. We refuse to even think about booking where we want to eat until a month before our trips!

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Count me as someone who would be extremely disappointed if WDW went to strictly day-of in-park only FastPasses.

Why? That is how it used to be and it worked just fine.

No, it did not work just fine for all people, which is no doubt one of the many reasons the system was changed.

While I am not madly in love with either system, I do VERY much enjoy being able to book my first three FastPasses, for rides I know I am going to want to ride, well in advance of my vacation. I enjoy having some certainty set in stone, and I enjoy NOT having to do on-the-fly planning while I am in the park OR in my room. I enjoy being able to spend the morning swimming and spend the evening using my TSM and ToT FastPasses, and I like so many others are very grateful that the new system made this possible, where before it was IMPOSSIBLE. I am so glad to see the significant dwindling of the mad dash to FP machines at park opening, and not a day goes by that I miss that aspect of FPv1.

Like I said, it has its flaws, but overall I approve of FP+ over FPv1. I approve of the 60 & 30 day windows just like they are, and overall I would miss FPv2 if it were scrapped in favor of a FPv1 system. FP+ has some serious flaws at Epcot & DHS, but at MK (and even at AK for me) I was able to utilize FP+ as it exists now to have my cake and eat it too with both advanced FPs and for day-of FPs as well. In fact, I utilized a total of 11 FP+ reservations at MK In April 2016, which included multiple rides on all 3 Mountains, and so I just don't see anything to complain about.

Most of the problems with FastPasses running out are a simple consequence of the enormous amount of people that are coming to the parks each day, and FPv1 won't solve that problem.

[Tekneek]

I can see the benefit of being able to book at least 1 "must do" attraction ahead of time. Something that you are absolutely positive you want to do and want to do it on a specific day. An ideal arrangement would allow you to flag a bunch of attractions as "must do" attractions and then have the app ping you based on location data when you are (1) on property and (2) in that specific park with possible FP+ times. Once all of them are gone for that day, it starts offering you slots for the next day. For those who don't appreciate notification overload, this would be awful. For me, I would love that it knows my top attractions and is continuously making me aware of their availability (with a party setting that you can configure, perhaps on a time setting specified in the app settings as well). Wouldn't it be awesome if you just finished dinner and it tells you that a slot is available for some ride that evening, that you thought you might not be able to go on that day? Book it and go!

[Giggy]

Problem with any rule for FP is that it won't suit everyone. On the day booking is bad for late risers, advance booking is bad for those who like to be more spontaneous but resent the best FPs being gone by the time they get there.

A 50/50 split (or any other ratio) of FPs being available in advance and becoming available on the day could be a compromise. Some may still have problems such as not being able to book the ones they want in advance though. I guess you can't please everyone all the time!

Other potential thought: if a large number of FPs come online at the time of park opening and everyone logs in simultaneously will the computer system be able to take it? You just know it would only take one day of a systems overload before there was a complete meltdown by some guests at guest relations!

[Tekneek]

I think the better idea is to have a wishlist of attractions. You can book 1 ahead of time per day. More become available throughout that day as the unclaimed spots are opened to everyone and those who dump their reservations have those available to be claimed by others.

Ideally, since only 1 FP+ per day would be pre-booked, a really intelligent system would not generate FP+ slots if the queue waits never exceed some reasonable criteria. So, on a non-busy day for the park, or for particular attractions, there just aren't many FP+ slots because they are not actually needed. The same day FP+ can be used in the same way that some express lanes are managed in cities (the cost of entry goes up depending on the demand, so the number of FP+ options opens as demand increases).

What I envision would require some serious datamining by Disney to do right, and they probably laid off all of those people, but I personally think that would be awesome. On a day when regular standby is running efficiently, it actually screws things up to let hordes of unnecessary FP+ riders through.