Disney's Hollywood Studios to test more Fantasmic! FastPass+ entry streamlining

Rob562Aug 03, 2015

Is it possible that the practice will be "one one in the party scans at the first set of posts, but the entire party must scan at the second"? I've seen them handle it like that on Safari, where the line entering the FP+ queue has backed up down the walkway. They clear the jam up by only having one person scan. Then you scan everyone at the merge point. After all, the first scan is just to check to see if they're allowed into the FP+ line. The second touchpoint at Merge is the one that actually redeems the FP+ and marks it "used". (Of course I've also seen them only scan at the entrance to the Safari FP+ queue and not use the touchpoints at Merge at all...) -Rob

aka_emiliciousAug 01, 2015

I just assumed this was testing for what they will do for Rivers of Light. THAT is gonna be an interesting operations adventure.

DisneyDebRobAug 01, 2015

I'm guessing they liked what they saw from the previous test to continue with this. Very rarely do they test twice. Usually they test and either go with it or bag it. My guess is this is coming.

RSoxNo1Aug 01, 2015

This has been something people have wanted for a while to speed up the bottlenecks at attractions. However I do see abuse for this because it's not checking that the people walking through the Fastpass+ queue are the ones that actually have the Fastpass+, I'm guessing it's just doing a count of guests. That abuse would be no different than standard practice using the legacy Fastpass, but still probably something they'd want to avoid if they can. Alternatively they may look at it as, the amount of abuse relative to the time savings for guests makes it something they're willing to accept. To better explain what I'm talking about. Say my wife and I go on a trip. We each book 3 different Fastpass+ reservations with a different friend. She scans at her 3 attractions and I join her, and I scan at my 3 attractions and she joins me. The other person isn't necessarily in the park, just a friend of ours on MDE. If they can account for people not in the park it would help curb this.

DreamTogetherJul 31, 2015

If that is the reason, I think that's a poor idea. Ideally, they would want to do it somewhere where they could see how it improves efficiency to get a good idea of if it would help or not and to what extent.

YodaManJul 31, 2015

I think the differnece is the computer system itself. When rides enact "one per party," they don't actually change anything at the podium. It's just a way to try and speed up the line and making sure that someone in the party (and therefore probably everyone in the party) has a valid fast pass. But then it messes with the numbers since they can't actualy verify how may people truly came through the fast pass line for that hour. With this test, though, the count will accurately go up for the total number of people in the party when just one person scans. My only question is: Why? There are 9 FastPass kiosks and each one has 2 touch points. When you have 18 touch points to accommodate about 2500 guests in a 90-minute window, there is barely any line at all. The only time there is a "line" for FastPass is when the theatre isn't open to guests. As soon as guests can pass freely through the touch points and into the theatre, there is no line. Not really sure what this test is for. EDITED TO ADD: Unless I just answered my own question and this test has nothing to do with Fantasmic. Mayhaps they are trying out the "one per party" at Fant because they know it won't effect efficiency, and plan to use the results to see if the test can be used on actual rides where efficneicy could be improved.

tissandtullyJul 31, 2015

They've been doing this for a while when long lines form outside the FP+ queues, I had them do it for BTM for me a few months ago, just scanned one band, and also for KS in DAK.

Next Big ThingJul 31, 2015

The thing about the "1 person and whole group enters" is that it impacts nothing. FP+ guests enter at the same time as people who don't have FP+. Anyone who wants to get in will get in anyway, so this is really just to speed up entry. Now if they started to apply this to actual rides, then they would potentially start running into issues and that's where I think it'd be a horrible idea.

officialtomJul 31, 2015

I don't like the sounds of this! Sounds like trouble.

TheScreedJul 31, 2015

Perhaps not asking for it, but at least ignoring the reality. Why even bother testing a system that is pretty much guaranteed to break down?

omuriceJul 31, 2015

They're just asking people to abuse the "1 guest gets a whole group in" FP exploit, aren't they?

DreamTogetherJul 31, 2015

I'm excited about this. I think this will really help when it comes to shows with large audiences. Way too much pile up

afar28Jul 31, 2015

How did the test last week go? Also, glad to see Disney trying to fix the logjam of trying to get into this show. Hopefully this work well