Fastpass+ is Lowering Your Wait
blog.touringplans.com/2014/06/23/fastpass-low...
blog.touringplans.comPosted Jun 23, 2014, 10:45 PM UTC
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blog.touringplans.comMy engineer's heart just goes all a flutter when I see well-done statistical analyses.
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With the exception of the top 3, none of that is a significant change, and it doesn't really help. I'm not going to wait SB for TSMM no matter what. I don't care if it's only 110 minutes instead of 120. But having to wait 5-10 minutes longer for rides that used to be almost walk-ons that you could just ride over and over IS a big deal.
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Which rides were previously walk-ons? I feel as if I missed a golden age of DW where no one had to wait in line and people rode Soarin 6 times in a row. Granted, ive aways gone in the summertime in the worst crowds, but pretty much nothing was ever a walk on. If pirates or haunted mansion is less than 20 minutes I consider myself lucky. I also waited 2 hours for Toy story but I think it was the first year it opened. At least the line has a bunch of photo ops.
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HM, Pirates, Small World, Jungle Cruise, and a few others used to be 5-10 minute waits during the slow times of the year. Obviously rides like Soarin' and TSMM were not.
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Even during slow times it is EXTREMELY rare to see wait times that low during the middle of the day. At 8pm? Sure. But people seem to forget most of those rides would have a ~40 minute wait during the day, even in not peak times.
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I almost never see a 40 minute wait for small world even now during peak times...
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Great post!
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Very interesting for the nay sayers
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Yes. I'll take the newer study that actually takes park attendance and other factors into account, rather than just looking at wait times on random days of years.
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I'm gonna have to disagree with you there, pal.
First off, if you read the post more clearly, you would know that the wait times were from the first 65 days of 2013 and 2014 - Same dates, same numbers. They were not random.
Second of all, I could understand if there was a big difference between the dates the studies were published - let's say, 2004 data vs. 2014 data. But a 3 month difference isn't enough to make one study automatically better than the other.
Third of all, the way you worded the title makes it seems like FP+ is lowering your wait for every ride, but the full title is "FastPass+ Is Lowering Your Wait at Popular Disney World Rides," which is exactly what the author of the website in the link said. TouringPlans also says that wait times have gone up for secondary attractions, specifically those that didn't offer FP before (e.g Pirates of The Carribean and Spaceship Earth). This, once again, represents both the data and the conclusion from the easyWDW link.
And finally, your logic in this quote baffles me.
But with the new Fastpass, you can go on more rides without waiting in standby lines, resulting in less line waiting in total. So the real facts here are: people that can't figure out the new fastpass system end up waiting in line, while the ones that do don't wait in standby lines.
So what you're saying is that FP+ decreases wait times.. for the people that use it? If so, then of course you're going to wait less. You have priority boarding. But what about the ones that don't? What about the ones that have to wait in standby? The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of The Carribean, for example, were attractions that did not have priority boarding. This meant that everyone had to wait in the stand-by line, eliminating the need of people in SB to wait for a FP user to board. However, now that they do need to wait for them to board before them, the SB line has gotten longer, thanks to the implementatipon of FP+. Before, everyone was in fair and equal condition on attractions like those. Now, they are not.
Please follow up on this. I am curious as to what you have to say.
TL;DR - Different sites, different data, different methods. Same conclusion. Plus, priority boarding makes all the difference.
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Great reply! My first post was quickly written so I'd be happy to expand upon it.
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You're essentially right on this point. The EasyWDW does use the same sample set, but my main issue is that it doesn't take any other factors into account when comparing dates. The Touring Plans study takes holidays into account, as well as an increase in park attendance. Obviously there's going to be longer wait times in 2014 if park attendance is higher than in 2013.
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The 3 month difference comes into play for a number of reasons. I think the biggest one is that in April, additional fastpasses went into effect, which greatly increased the number of fastpasses being distributed to guests. EasyWDW's study ended in March, so none of those additional fastpasses were taken into account. On the Touring Plans study, at least it covered some time of additionals. Also, the percentage of guests using Fastpass+ has increased over the months, as people start to understand it and figure out what it is. Earlier in the year a much smaller percentage of guests were pre-booking/not using it at all. Now, both numbers have gone way up.
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Correct, I just pulled the title from the study and made it shorter. I can see how its misleading.
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Again, another hastily written response but what I meant referred to an individual basis and not park-wide wait times. Getting fastpasses requires that you don't have to wait in standby lines. With the new system, its entirely possible to go to the park and not have to wait in line at all(in MK at least, tiers in other parks make it a little tougher).
So the comment I was replying to complaining about having to wait more, if you use Fastpass+ efficiently, there really is no need to wait in any lines. Obviously not everyone is going to be using Fastpass for everything, but that is your choice to wait in line instead of grabbing a fastpass for that ride.
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The rides I used to take a FastPass for still have the longest lines, albeit a bit shorter. The rides I never took a Fastpass for (or that didn't have FastPass) are now longer. Now tell me how this is a good thing: the average Joe might now enjoy shorter waits when he foolishly decides to join the standby-line for Space Mountain at 2pm, but everyone else will just have to wait longer on average for all other rides you choose not to use FastPass+ for. I know this isn't in Touring Plans best interest to point this out explicitely, but facts are facts: experienced WDW Travelers are now waiting longer than before FastPass+. Thanks Disney!
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But with the new Fastpass, you can go on more rides without waiting in standby lines, resulting in less line waiting in total.
So the real facts here are: people that can't figure out the new fastpass system end up waiting in line, while the ones that do don't wait in standby lines.
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