MyMagic+ Rollout to be accelerated.

[mickclub1955]

.
MyMagic+ rollout to accelerate in early 2014 with reworked 'My Disney Experience' and expansion of off-site FastPass+ use

Jan 02, 2014 | 7:38am EST


Now that the busy holiday period is over, the Disney NextGen team will turn their attention to the final rollout of MyMagic+ in this first quarter of 2014.

Although recent reports and reviews from guests using MyMagic+ are becoming increasingly positive, Disney recognizes that there are still some issues with the system. During the next couple of months a reworked version of the 'My Disney Experience' web site and mobile apps will be launched, aiming to resolve one of the most frequently reported problems with MyMagic+, the slow access and response of the online platforms.

Continuing from the test that began in late December 2013 at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the use of FastPass+ by offsite guests will be expanded to the remaining parks, paving the way for elimination of legacy FASTPASS and to have all guests using FastPass+ by the Spring of 2014.

Assuming the test and adjust period is successful, the entire MyMagic+ project with all its components will be fully deployed and in use by all Walt Disney World guests by Spring 2014.

[rjmdds]

I really hope they change the FP+ tiers and park limitations. That to me is the biggest issue.

[AndrewJackson]

I guess the delay announce back in November wasn't much of a delay afte all.

[Ms. Mode]

We used the FP+ and Magic Bands the week before Christmas and found that it has many advantages. Hopefully once EVERYONE is playing by the same rules we will see much shorter standby times at all the attractions. In any case, it sure was nice not having to go digging for the tickets all the time.

[JMTStone]

I'll let you know what I think.

I have all my FP+ arranged. I had to do two days at EPCOT as you can't do two parks in one day and I can't imagine Soarin without also doing Test Track.

Then I also got FP+ for Wishes Rose Garden Viewing. That should be neat. We'll see how that goes.

I'm hopeful. But then again, I'm escaping sub-zero temps to my first runICOT/runDisney event so I'm easy to please.

See you at Jellyrolls!

[dnickels]

Yeah I'm not a big fan of FP+ in general, but they really need to get everyone on the same playing field so in that sense I'm glad they're going to make it happen.

They current system where some people are able to double dip with the FP+ and their KTTW cards while other guests are limited to only FP+ is the biggest source of problems right now.

[Jillirose]

Is there a timeline/schedule being posted for the dates of regular FP elimination in the parks (MK DHS EPCOT)? It seems like our FEB stay will be in the midst of the changeover.

[Gator]

Looks like those unused FP tickets that I've kept from over the years are really going to become a collector's item.

And speaking of the death of FP tickets, how are people who don't have smart phones going to remember all their FP+ times? Bring their own pen and postcard note with them? Someone above said they were glad they didn't have to fish for their tickets anymore. Now they'll have to fish for that elusive Star Trader's receipt where you wrote down your times. Yet another thing I don't like about FP+.

[Aurora]

I'm pretty reasonable and have been in lots of posts about FP+, My Magic, etc. In general, I'm not happy with the new FP restrictions and the planning it involves, but I can understand why some people might like it. However, this post got me boiling mad. Why?

Because everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong with my brother's January trip planning using My Disney Experience. Including changes he made TODAY. And he's leaving in less than three weeks.

I wrote before about the glitch in his reservation that I had to call about to get fixed -- we needed to add middle initials to two guest names who have the same first and last names. Without making this change, both names, even though they were on the room reservation, didn't show up in My Disney Experience. It took 20 minutes on hold and another 20 minutes for two initials to be added. That was the first time-sucker. Since then, it's gotten worse.

My brother made FP+ ressies weeks ago. He recently made FP changes and had the same attraction come up with two different times on the same day, and other attractions not appear at all. He's cancelled restaurant reservations and had the reservations continue to appear (without knowing whether he would be considered a "no show" and be charged for them).

Yesterday, while making all his changes, the first time he hit the submit button, he got a message that said, Sorry, we're updating our data system at this time, please try again later. He had to go in and make all the changes again. In all, it took him three hours.

And after spending all this time trying to use the system, he finally had to resort to making another phone call to make sure everything is the way it needs to be.

Now, we're talking about someone who's visited many times since childhood, the most recent being January 2012. He's also a computer engineer. To say he's beyond frustrated is putting it mildly.

And here I read that they're going to accelerate the rollout and concentrate on the "slow access and response of the online platforms"? Man, I sure hope they fix all these glitches in the process. My brother's biggest advantage right now is that he's going in the supposed slow season, because unless things go smoothly during his and his family's vacation, he won't be back for a long time.

[AndrewJackson]

From another website:


The MyMagic+ 'MagicBand-only' testing is set to expand from the Pop Century and All Star Resorts test to include all Walt Disney World Resort hotels by the end of January 2014.

With 'MagicBand-only', guests will be given a MagicBand in place of the Key to the World Card for all MyMagic+ functions, including park admission, touch-to-pay, touch-to-enter, and FastPass+.

Key to the World cards can still be requested, but are not available for regular FASTPASS use. This means that by the end of January 2014, all Walt Disney World Resort Guests will be using FastPass+, and will not have access to the legacy FASTPASS system.

The rollout for 'MagicBand-only' is as follows.

Jan. 6 – Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
Jan. 7 – Disney’s Port Orleans Resort
Jan. 8 – Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
Jan. 9 – Disney’s Old Key West Resort and Disney’s Saratoga Spring Resort & Spa
Jan. 10 – Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Jan. 13 – Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts
Jan. 14 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Jan. 15 – Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
Jan. 16 – Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Jan. 17 – Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and Disney’s Polynesian Resort
Jan. 20 – Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground

[Tekneek]

So much for Disney listening to all the complaints, I suppose. Hard for me to believe that most of the complaints were about the website and app being slow. The biggest issues are the design limitations in FP+. With a few exceptions, the performance of the app was about what I had expected once on site. It would seem that what I see as design flaws in FP+ must be intentional and is "working as designed."

[JerseyDad]

So much for Disney listening to all the complaints, I suppose. Hard for me to believe that most of the complaints were about the website and app being slow. The biggest issues are the design limitations in FP+. With a few exceptions, the performance of the app was about what I had expected once on site. It would seem that what I see as design flaws in FP+ must be intentional and is "working as designed."

...well ...let's get out the old scale and weigh the impacts here:

On one side of the scale = guest complaints and concerns

vs.

...the other side of the scale = Disney $2 Billion expenditure.


.....which do you think will tip the scale more dramatically?

[WiltonJohn]

On one side of the scale = SOME guest complaints and concerns

The complainers being loudest and most visible in certain locations does not necessarily mean that they are in the majority.

Time will tell.

best,

.................john

[Aurora]

Update on my DB's planning:

-- The two guests with the same first and last names and different middle initials are no longer both showing up on the My Disney Experience app -- only one, even though this error was already fixed once. The names do both show up on the My Disney Experience website accessed on my bro's desktop.

-- Bro continues to get "unexplained error" messages.

-- Bro got one error message on the app that said "you cannot use this app; you must make changes on the website." Same reservation and sign-in as he's been using the whole time.

All the poor guy is trying to do is make reservations for his vacation. It's just glitch after glitch.

[AndrewJackson]

On one side of the scale = SOME guest complaints and concerns

The complainers being loudest and most visible in certain locations does not necessarily mean that they are in the majority.

Time will tell.

best,

.................john

I've been reading reviews on other websites from folks who used the Magic Band and FP+ recently! and they are mostly positive. I would venture about 90% positive experiences. The biggest pro, for what I've read, is the ability to a FP late in the day without having to be at the park.

I agree that planning to ride an attraction 60 days out is difficult, but it appears most folks are able to make changes the day of. We will see if this holds up once all guests are using FP+.

[AgentC]

I've been reading reviews on other websites from folks who used the Magic Band and FP+ recently! and they are mostly positive. I would venture about 90% positive experiences. The biggest pro, for what I've read, is the ability to a FP late in the day without having to be at the park.

I agree that planning to ride an attraction 60 days out is difficult, but it appears most folks are able to make changes the day of. We will see if this holds up once all guests are using FP+.


I think it totally depends on the type of park visitor you are. I was at a wedding last week and saw a friend I hadn't seen in some time. Her first question to me was "Have you used the magic bands yet and aren't they great?"
Her family are annual pass holders and she goes over almost every weekend. They booked a stay on site last year just so they could the bands. She loves them. She does use them for FP+ but not very far in advance. I do wonder how many people there out there like her.


On both of my last visits I was at resorts not testing, so I have not used it yet myself. I will be using it for the first time next week and I've only reserved FP+ one day at DHS so my kids can ride TSMM. I am very interested to see how my stay is going to go.

[goofy for pluto]

She loves them. She does use them for FP+ but not very far in advance. I do wonder how many people there out there like her. I wonder if she was in the group who were able to double dip. I read a lot of people were very favorable during that time, seeing as how not as many people had the bands yet and they were also using traditional fast pass as well.

[JerseyDad]

I wonder if she was in the group who were able to double dip. I read a lot of people were very favorable during that time, seeing as how not as many people had the bands yet and they were also using traditional fast pass as well.

....kinda' think that if the ability to "double dip" was available ...then there would be few complaints ...because you could do one park with FP+ and, multiple added FP's with the KTTW card. And ...you could still park hop with the ability to get FP's in 2 parks (FP+ at one ...Legacy FP at the other)


....but, when the "touring style" of some are now forcibly revised due to no more KTTW card ...there may be some altered opinions due to the 'tiered' FP+ options ...limited availability to access all featured attractions, and the loss of the attractiveness to do park hopping (without the ability to get those Legacy FP's at the second park)

....I think it'll all come down to guests deciding if they are getting or have gotten the most bang for their buck.

...and, it'll likely be a while before the "jury" is in on this ...with the jurors being guests that have experienced the new system.

[CanadianWDWFan]

We went down to WDW for a pre-Christmas trip and I was wary of the whole negative aspect of the bands and FP+ that I was hearing about here on INTERCOT. I was also worried about not having roaming data on my phone so I could access the My Disney Experience app. Once I got down there I was able to hook up with the Disney Guest Wi-Fi with no issues, speed was pretty good as well. Sure the app was a bit slow, like everyone was talking about, but there was an update available for it and it did increase the speed a bit. One thing that confused me about the app was that it really didn't know where I was. I wanted to see there here and now in the parks but it kept telling me that I was not in the parks, even though I was using Disney Wi-Fi and had the location on my phone turned on. Minor issues really in the big scheme of things. Even being there around Christmas time wasn’t bad even with the FP selections I was able to get. We were able to experience things like we always have had in the past and really didn’t consider our trip negatively impacted by the Magic Bands and FP+ issues.

What we saw were a lot of CM with Ipads and stations set up around the parks to help folks out with their FP selections or Magic Bands. They are trying to help people out. But really what it came down to was that I really liked the bands and how simple they are to use. We were able to utilize the no bag entrances at the parks since we didn’t need any bag/purses to carry all of our stuff.

Using the bands for purchase/charging was really simple, you would choose a pin at check-in and use it for all purchases and dining charges. We asked at the front desk periodically for charges on our room and were given a printout of them, we then paid for them in cash so our credit cards wouldn’t be charged. We did this multiple times over the course of the week so we would have a BIG surprise at the end of our stay.

For us I think the bands and FP+ will make it an easier trip in the future.

[AgentC]

I wonder if she was in the group who were able to double dip. I read a lot of people were very favorable during that time, seeing as how not as many people had the bands yet and they were also using traditional fast pass as well.

I don't think she was double dipping. She said they generally didn't use more than 3 Fast Passes in a day so the restriction didn't bother them.

I don't think she does much park hopping on her day trips either, so that was not a factor for her. I know for myself we are much more likely to park hop when we are staying versus visiting for the day.

[AgentC]

. . . One thing that confused me about the app was that it really didn't know where I was. I wanted to see there here and now in the parks but it kept telling me that I was not in the parks, even though I was using Disney Wi-Fi and had the location on my phone turned on.

That has been my biggest complaint with the app too. It happens to me all the time!

[Ian]

On one side of the scale = SOME guest complaints and concerns

The complainers being loudest and most visible in certain locations does not necessarily mean that they are in the majority.

Time will tell.

best,

.................johnMy wife is a Disney travel agent and I'll have to admit that most of the folks she books like the program.

Now of course not all of them have anything to compare it to (because they're first-timers), but since that's the group Disney seems to care most about I guess they're getting what they aimed for.

[Melanie]

Now of course not all of them have anything to compare it to (because they're first-timers), but since that's the group Disney seems to care most about I guess they're getting what they aimed for.


I find that so sad. And to be honest, beyond frustrating. But hey, whatcha gonna do? Well, I know what I'm going to do. :D

[JerseyDad]

I find that so sad. And to be honest, beyond frustrating. But hey, whatcha gonna do? Well, I know what I'm going to do. :D

....wonder if they get enough feedback related to the FP+ being in only one park (not really lending itself to park hopping) ...if they would possibly modify it and do it like a restaurant menu:

One Park = 1 major ride + 2 minor

Two Parks = 1 major in one park + 1 major in park #2

or

Two Parks = 1 minor + 1 minor (over two parks)

....anything is possible if they are still tweaking or open to revisions.

[snowflakegirl]

I've been reading reviews on other websites from folks who used the Magic Band and FP+ recently! and they are mostly positive. I would venture about 90% positive experiences.

A coworker of mine visited the second week of December and the first thing she said to me when she got back was: "Jen, they have these amazing things, these bands...they're fabulous." She loved the FP+ and they didn't book their FP in advance, and she loved the ease of use of the magic bands.

[Crow]

supposedly gonna let park hopping w it....but maybe only 3 total FP+. that was one of the things I didn't like on my trip. only being able to book 3 FP on a day. and the way they limited things

[PopPhan]

Maybe I am being naive, but why couldn't they allow 1 "E-ticket" in each park per day pre-planned and have unlimited on-site FP using kiosks or machines at each attraction?

This would allow for everyone to get one "major" attraction covered, allow for park hopping, and allow for more than 3 total FP per day.

They seem to be treating this whole this as "rocket science" when it really isn't. The old FP system worked pretty well (even if there were those who abused it).....The old system with the new technology could have been great!

[JerseyDad]

Maybe I am being naive, but why couldn't they allow 1 "E-ticket" in each park per day pre-planned and have unlimited on-site FP using kiosks or machines at each attraction?

This would allow for everyone to get one "major" attraction covered, allow for park hopping, and allow for more than 3 total FP per day.

They seem to be treating this whole this as "rocket science" when it really isn't. The old FP system worked pretty well (even if there were those who abused it).....The old system with the new technology could have been great!

.....from a "guest perspective" ...that makes a huge amount of sense. It allows for some "free will" choices to be made regarding where, when, how .....as part of a person's "touring style"

....but ....unless the "store owner" (WDW) wants to go that route ...and discard or modify the "crowd control" aspect of the system ...I don't know if that will happen.

....the basic premise of the system is to control where the guest is / will be ...as part of crowd management ....and of course ...income management by spacing out the attraction reservation times ...and having a guest spend in gift shoppes / food shoppes ...etc ...in the 'down time' between rides & attractions.

....that one "E-Ticket" ride / attraction per park would be the carrot-on-a-string to get the guest to the park(s) ....and the pot of gold would be that ride itself. Perhaps if there was that one "major attraction" per park ...then the allure of park-hopping remains intact?

....I'm not sure that they'd keep the "unlimited" ....aka 'Legacy" FP system alive ..because that gives the guest too much free-will ...and I don't think at this point WDW would want to relinquish that much control ....because then the crowd management aspect of the 'system' doesn't work.

....maybe one "E-Ticket" + 1 minor attraction per park, per day, could be that reasonable balancing point between owner's desire for control/profit ...and the guest satisfaction? Usually, in business, one variable takes care of the other ...meaning, a satisfied & happy customer (guest) ....will always work in favor of a business (WDW) being profitable.

[Ian]

....the basic premise of the system is to control where the guest is / will be ...as part of crowd management ....and of course ...income management by spacing out the attraction reservation times ...and having a guest spend in gift shoppes / food shoppes ...etc ...in the 'down time' between rides & attractions.I still believe this is a fundamental flaw in the entire goal of this project. I believe that, by and large, the vast majority of guests have a budget they're going to stick to when they're on vacation. I truly see no logic in thinking they're magically going to spend more money just because they're not waiting in lines. They'll do what I do ... go on more rides.

This is why I always have and always will forecast an epic failure when it comes to the ROI on this program.

[mickclub1955]

I still believe this is a fundamental flaw in the entire goal of this project. I believe that, by and large, the vast majority of guests have a budget they're going to stick to when they're on vacation. I truly see no logic in thinking they're magically going to spend more money just because they're not waiting in lines. They'll do what I do ... go on more rides.

This is why I always have and always will forecast an epic failure when it comes to the ROI on this program.
I totally agree with you Ian. I am heading out of my door now. The money I have in my pocket is the money I am spending on this trip. No more. I am going to give the rest of this a fair shake to see how I like it. I am looking forward to trying out the bands and the FP+. Hopefully, no ride will get left behind.

[Donald Duck]

I just got back yesterday.
I was there 12/27/13 to 1/3/14, the most crowded week of the year.

I made my FP+ in advance and before the tier rule.

If it wasn't for the old FP, we would have only seen 3 rides per day.
Test Track and Soarin had a 4 hour wait, Toy Story Mania was 3 1/2. Space Mt, Splash Mt, BTMRR all were over 2 1/2 hours.

3 rides per day is ridiculous.

They have to get rid of tiers and limiting FP+ to one park per day.

No one in their right mind would ever get a park hopper again.

Also, we had a FP+ for Fantasmic.
There isn't a reserved section for FP+ only those with dinning package. Dinning package had great seats in the center.
We were told to sit anywhere.
Don't waste a FP+ for Fantasmic.

[WiltonJohn]

I still believe this is a fundamental flaw in the entire goal of this project.

How do you know this (what you are quoting above) is a goal of Disney Management's for the program?

best,

.............john

[JerseyDad]

I still believe this is a fundamental flaw in the entire goal of this project. I believe that, by and large, the vast majority of guests have a budget they're going to stick to when they're on vacation. I truly see no logic in thinking they're magically going to spend more money just because they're not waiting in lines. They'll do what I do ... go on more rides.

This is why I always have and always will forecast an epic failure when it comes to the ROI on this program.

....funny you say that ...because that was our basic rule (mind the budget!) regarding our trip this past August. "

"We can't spend it if we don't have it, and if you don't need it ...then why buy it" ...because money for this trip was much tighter than in other prior vacations.

....other than food ...we "went light" on buying extraneous items ...a few gifts were purchased for friends for when we got home ...and actually, the snacks and other various "yummies" in the parks were pretty much passed over. (we didn't even get desserts with meals 90% of the time ....which was frugal ..and somewhat healthy ...I suppose).

...but ...in the 'doldrums' between going to the Haunted Mansion and PotC ...and then to Space Mountain and maybe Carousel of Progress ...I never found myself saying: "Hey ...we're bored and doing nothing ...let's go spend money"!!

....that kinda' makes me wonder too ....is the income that WDW makes from non-food item sales in the parks ..."down"?

[Gator]

Maybe I am being naive, but why couldn't they allow 1 "E-ticket" in each park per day pre-planned and have unlimited on-site FP using kiosks or machines at each attraction?


This would be great! It would finally make the FP+ a real plus. I still don't like the idea of a no-FP ticket system, but this would be a vast improvement.

[DisneyGiant]

We're going in July & seriously considering not paying extra for park hopping. Why bother to do that - if your chances of getting on an attraction at the afternoon\night park are between slim and none?

This means we'll need to do Epcot in the morning - FP Soarin & wait on line for Test Track in order to do that in one day.....

Normally we go to parks in the morning, take a swim break in the afternoon & then go back out to a park at night. Usually we switch parks for variety - but now we'll just have to go back to the same park. Not that big of a hardship.....

Also - going in July - I can't wait to see how FP+ works with those tour groups. You get in their window & the fast pass becomes a slow pass very quickly.......

[Ian]

How do you know this (what you are quoting above) is a goal of Disney Management's for the program?

best,

.............johnWell to be fair, I don't. However, I can't come up with another way in which they could expect a 19% ROI on the program so I think it's a safe assumption.

Also, I do know that this was a goal for the original FP program. Given that it doesn't seem like too much of a leap.

[Mousemates]

We just got back from an eight day stay (four days in the parks) at Fort Wilderness and initially found the Fastplus+ to be somewhat of a hassle. There were difficulties in linking our tickets (which we purchased after our arrival through our daughter who is a cast member) to our room keys and magic bands (they gave us both).

There were also difficulties that arose out of the fact that both my wife, daughter and I each have our own "my Disney experience" accounts. There were also issues with getting the pre-scheduled fastpasses to show up on everyone's app.

As we tried to sort through the problems we were bounced from concierge to a help line to guest relations. No one seemed to be fully trained on the system (or that is what many of the CMs said to us) and the response to any problems was never "Oh, this is how to fix that" but "let me try this and see if it works."

In the end it took the better part of a half a day to get everything resolved. Frustrating.

However, once we got the issues worked out the system worked out well for us...especially given that for the time being you are still allowed to use the old card fastpass machines as well. We were there at what is essentially the busiest time of the year and were able to ride all the mainliners through a combination of fastplus+, early arrival, and paper fastpasses.

So with all that being said in the end I give our maiden voyage into the new system a C-.

[Ms. Mode]

Well everyone, I keep reading all your posts and I just can't help but think that if you continue to look on the dark side all you will see is the dark side.

Once the full roll out is complete and the legacy FP is gone I believe you will see shorter standby lines (with the exception being holiday crowds) and the whole thing will become something excellent.

I personally don't think it's some dastardly plan of Disney to make me spend more money in the stores...I spend plenty there already. Maybe they should just do away with FP all together?

[MizMissy]

Well everyone, I keep reading all your posts and I just can't help but think that if you continue to look on the dark side all you will see is the dark side.

Once the full roll out is complete and the legacy FP is gone I believe you will see shorter standby lines (with the exception being holiday crowds) and the whole thing will become something excellent.

I personally don't think it's some dastardly plan of Disney to make me spend more money in the stores...I spend plenty there already. Maybe they should just do away with FP all together?

To me, it's not a matter of looking on the dark side and only seeing dark side .... it's the simple fact that I am NOT in the mood to micro-manage and plan that much for my vacation. And, I am also NOT in the mood to stand in really long lines for things other than my three chosen rides a day, if I actually went to all the trouble to plan and micro-manage my vacation. Add to the fact that WDW has not really added anything new, great or must-sees/can't misses to the parks since the last time I visited ... I, the true Disney lover in our house, keep saying no when my kids suggest we plan another trip to Disney.

The only Disney trip I would consider right now is a dream trip to Disneyland.

[joonyer]

. . . .

I personally don't think it's some dastardly plan of Disney to make me spend more money in the stores...I spend plenty there already. Maybe they should just do away with FP all together?[/COLOR][/FONT]

OK, maybe they aren't trying to get YOU to spend any more. But it is definitely their plan to get everyone else to spend more money in their stores. It's every business's plan to get its customers to spend more $$$.

You want fries with that? How about dessert?

[Ian]

Maybe they should just do away with FP all together?That would be just fine with me. The parks lasted 30 years or more with no Fastpass and people got along swimmingly.

[JerseyDad]

Well everyone, I keep reading all your posts and I just can't help but think that if you continue to look on the dark side all you will see is the dark side.

Once the full roll out is complete and the legacy FP is gone I believe you will see shorter standby lines (with the exception being holiday crowds) and the whole thing will become something excellent.

I personally don't think it's some dastardly plan of Disney to make me spend more money in the stores...I spend plenty there already. Maybe they should just do away with FP all together?

....I'm sure this has been addressed here before ...but, when Bob Iger is talking about the roll-out of My Magic Plus in their 5/7/13 earnings report conference call ...and says: "You can expect that it will create a better experience, and with that we believe people will spend more time at our parks and ultimately deliver more business per guest.

And the Disney CFO Jay Rasulo says the following in response to the above:

"We have known for a really long time that getting our visitors to Walt Disney World to make decisions about where they spend their time before they leave home is a powerful driver of visits per guest. When they get into the Orlando market and their time isn't yet planned, they can be subject to everything you see down there, which is a lot of in-city marketing for all the many products that people have put there to basically bleed off the feed that we fundamentally motivate.

So if we can get people to plan their vacation before they leave home, we know that we get more time with them. We get a bigger share of their wallet. So that's one thing for you guys to think about. And the second thing is what happens to purchases when they become much more convenient, and you don't spend time queuing up for a transaction, queuing up to get in the park, and you actually have more time to enjoy the entertainment and, subsequently, spend more money doing things that are other than standing in line, which, of course, you can't spend any money while you're doing that."

.....it's definitely a plan to manage YOUR time ...to get you to spend more of YOUR MONEY.

...and this is not my opinion ...I just cut & pasted the transcript passages.

...don't know if I'd call the truth "dastardly" (it reminds me too much of that snickering cartoon dog) ...I'd just say that the truth about the system is just that ...the truth ...as pretty clearly stated by those in charge.

[DisnIse]

I was so angry about FP+ when I first heard about it. As an AP holder, not being part of the roll out really bothered me, and I felt like we were going to be gypped.

Because we booked three nights at FW over New Years, we were able to be part of the test group. I REFUSED to make plans for rides ahead of time, so we did all of our reservations on the day of our visits to the four parks. We were never UNable to get the fast passes that we wanted. We were able to make changes on the fly and adjust our FPs if the stand by lines weren't too bad.

There were some technical glitches where some of our kids' bands would disappear from our planning tool, but that's just a glitch.

We were also annoyed with the limit of 3 fast passes per day, but I have to say, even at the very busiest time of the year, we were able to get on every ride/attraction that we wanted to get on each day.

My biggest complaint about the magic bands is that the Jibbitz decorations fall out too easily on the kids' bracelets. We lost about 5/8 of those little suckers!

Truly, I was so cynical and dying to hate FP+, but I have to say it was pretty cool.