The fastpass concept was good in the original format. The new system allows reservations up to 60 days in advance. We were unable to find any open slots for fastpasses 48 hours in advance, meaning you have to book your entire Disney experience weeks in advance and are a slave to that schedule. No more just enjoying Disney as the day unfolds. Plan, plan, plan; schedule, schedule, schedule. A lot like being at work or school.............................the very thing Walt Disney wanted us to take a break from. Roughly our 10th trip to Disney in the past 20 years and likely our last!
Not pleased with the new fast pass system. Inefficient and encourages ppl to stand in long lines which isn't enjoyable at all. Go back to the old system please.
Talk about taking the spontaneity out of a Disney vacation. We weren't planning on even planning what park we were in until we woke up each morning. Ok so now forced to choose park days and ride times...that was awful! Then u for to the first ride and my selection which u showed the lady on my disney app did not match their system. Wish we would've made this a Universal Studio vacation instead. Won't be back to disney until they get rid of this.
The new fast pass system DisneyWorld has started in 2014 is HORRIBLE. We have been to Disney numerous times and the original system worked perfectly. We also visited 3 other area parks before Disney this trip and everything went perfectly. We got here and you have to go to specific spots in each park, stand in line, then choose only 3 for that specific park for the entire day. Then if you buy park hopper and forego a fast pass at the previous park, the system won't allow you to get a fast pass at the park you "hopped" too. Not only that, but if you have all of these people choosing fast passes instead of standing in line then aren't you essentially creating the original problem all over again???? We had the worst experience with this as it really doesn't even make sense. The limited options you are given at the park to choose fast passes from as far as time and attractions is just not worth the time. When we expressed our concerns, we were told it was still in the testing stages... Well why would you choose to go live with your "testing" when thousands of people have spent their hard earned money to visit your parks expecting perfection, not testing? We were also told they were trying to go "green" and asked to take a picture of the screen of our times. Couldn't we have done that with the old system? Time is money when you are at these parks, hiring people to teach you how to use the new system, then people to supervise the helpers has backfired as they should have left that alone and hired people to make sure our "dreams were coming true!" They need to figure it out and figure it out fast or Universal and Sea world will get every dollar I make instead of Disney. Forget Disney until they get it right.
This system needs to be eliminated. Perhaps if the system continues it should be a perk for resort guests only. But seems like mostly it's better to just be done with this system that is more frustrating that not.
I have found that the Fastpass system works really well, or is not useful at all. For rides such as space mountain, splash mountain and expedition everest, it works really well, but for rides such as Test Track, Rock 'N' Rollercoaster, Tower of terror and Dinosaur, it may become a waist of a fastpass as you end up waiting for a while anyway. (Due to going in rooms to watch introduction videos where there is no line system) Also, with rides such as Peter Pan, it causes the estimated waiting time to be higher, as this sort of ride, the cast members seem to let too many fastpass in all at once. The fastpass is mainly great and allows you to be able to get all the attractions done, but like everything, it isn't perfect and there are room for improvements, mainly down to the line systems within certain attractions (As mentioned) I would recommend a fastpass to anyone, although remember, in some attractions the lining up is just as good as the ride! ;)
I don't care for the fastpasses either. They slow the standby lines down, people become frustrated. The couple of times that we have used them, we were running from one side of the park to the other side, trying to meet our times. Also, a fastpass means get on faster but not ignore the others in line. I feel that lines should be every other one when letting guests in to the ride. One standby,one fastpass and so forth. Stand by should not be penalized because they didn't get a fastpass that ran out before noon. Or provide enough fast passes to accomodate your attendance for the day. Or provide fastpasses for each of the E-ticket rides with your ticket purchase. There has to be a better way to accomodate guests. I have not liked them since their inception into the parks.
Anything which can reduce the amount of time you're lining up in the boiling sun, or pouring rain sometimes, is an absolute God-send. I've been using the FASTPASS system since it opened and overall it has probably saved me about 2 days of waiting in the standard line. It is such a weight off my shoulders to have the fastpass safety-net to ensure that all those must-see E-ticket rides get ridden, so me and my family can take our time to enjoy the park and take everything in. If you don't like the FASTPASS system, don't use it! (Although I doubt all these people saying they hate the system do not continue to use it themselves)
I really don't believe in the Fastpass.. It just makes the lines alot longer and the areas around the rides harder to walk through while people stand around outside waiting. While people just think, "Oh, I don't have to wait in line," the real reason is obviously to get you out of line and into shops and restaurants while you wait. How clever! Disney's que lines have usually been entertaining by themselves anyway! Now people blow by all of the great work that used to go into pre-show theming. I guess it's also just part of the "I want everything now, I don't want to wait" attitude that goes with everything these days anyway. I used to love the time I spent with my friends and family in line; it was spending the day together. Now you just run back and forth trying to get Fastpasses and then wandering around stores while you wait. But even if you don't like them, you HAVE to use them now, or you will not be able to do hardly anything in your day, because the Fast pass has made most of the wait times double or even triple. But looks like it's not going anywhere....
Well, it will depend on when, where, and what you use it for. If you were there for Soarin''s grand opening, no doupt that the line was incredibly long, maybe over an hour. If you notice, it's very hard to even get fastpasses on grand openings. The guy above is partly right how more fastpassers board on more than stand-by wait. Don't use the fastpass on opening attractions, but it's GREAT to skip the 10-30 minute wait times! But whenever you get a chance, go on the single-riders line if the attraction has one.
Too true, but not in the way you might think. Fastpass distribution is the cause, IMHO, of the day time trouble of 'fully distributed' If you've ever been at the opening of the more popular attractions like Midway Mania or Soarin', you've been able to see how the system breaks down, and then in order to clear the crush of people at the distribution points, cast members will open the machine to manually dispense whatever the number of fast passes the individual shows tickets for. Unscrupulous guests will then have another member of their party join the line and get another set of fast passes. I've seen families of 4 collect 16 fast passes for the same attraction this way. I would say that if they could fix the distribution system, fast passes might last beyond noon. Fast pass was a good idea, but because it is in such wide use, it makes it impossible to enjoy the park in any real way. During an extra magical hours visit to DHS to ride Midway Mania, we spent a pleasant and surprisingly short wait (25 min) for the ride. Standby during the day, without a fast pass (unavailable unless you're there at opening - see above) was over 90 minutes. In my opinion, FP has made the lines longer, not shorter. Disney needs a better way to control this program, or eliminate it entirely
In theory, the FASTPASS system works. Guests use their park tickets to make a reservation for a return time (in the form of a ticket known as a FASTPASS), which guarantees them a short wait time of 10-20 minutes. However, at the most popular attractions (like Toy Story Midway Mania or Soarin'), these FASTPASSes just plain run out, sometimes before noon. Then, for the rest of the day, other guests feel cheated because they didn't have the opportunity to get a FASTPASS before they were gone. The FASTPASS is also responsible for those insane Standby wait times. Because FASTPASS has priority, the Standby line is held while a certain number FASTPASS guests move forward through the line. Then, a much smaller number of Standby move forward. Then, a much larger number of FASTPASS move forward, and so forth. If there was no FASTPASS, the Standby line would continue moving and the wait time would be significantly less. Thus, every guest is a VIP and has the same wait time, rather than some guests leaving with the feeling that they are not so much of a priority as those with a FASTPASS.