Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
I like a lot of the choices Disney makes, but they are totally enablers of all that Toddlers & Tiaras ####.
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Disney Vacation (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter DOVCommish
- Start date
AcerFC
Footballguy
there is a great cinderella dinner at 1900 park fare (I think that is it)Cinderella, step sisters, step mother and prince charming. Have a video of my little girl dancing with prince charming. Much better overall experience than the castle. But the castle is the castle so......
Bob Sacamano
Footballguy
For a company that's known to worship the almighty dollar and cash in on their characters so well, they really miss the mark on some things they could readily capitalize on. You have a New Orleans themed restaurant in Downtown Disney. If only there were a New Orleans based princess (whose dream of owning her own restaurant seems to have recently come to fruition) you could use to better make that a true Disney experience. You could have a La Ratatouille or a Gusteau's out there. I mean, they're mostly crap restaurants anyway. If you're not paying for the food, why not at least theme them up.
The lag between Frozen's success and anything in the park other than "Meet Anna & Elsa" is kind of staggering. Especially merch. They had like 6 things with those princesses on them. Similarly, somebody should have come up with a great use for all the stuff Phineas and Ferb have whipped up over the years. A ride might be too far for a show that could be off the air sooner than later, but there's got to be some way to use all those inventions and all that imagination in one of those parks.
I'm sure it's a tough balancing act between deploying capital to put together something that will be out of favor in a few years and keeping things timely and fresh, but there just seem to be some obvious things they're missing out on right now.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
This is very good information. That sounds like character interaction usually reserved for the Halloween and Christmas parties.
parasaurolophus
Footballguy
Off to a shaky start this trip. Magicbands once again not working. Literally every single time now we have stayed on property they don't work. They suck with the annual passes. They give you new bands every time even though we have like 6. Every set of new bands never works. When we came in april we had no problems because we stayed off property and just used the prior bands.
Now I am sitting in my usual place waiting for wife and son to finish rock n roller coaster. Except I am without my diet coke because none of the soda machines have been turned on yet. They are electronic now. Extra magic AM hours are always very underwhelming and understaffed. This will probably be the last time we do them.
Now I am sitting in my usual place waiting for wife and son to finish rock n roller coaster. Except I am without my diet coke because none of the soda machines have been turned on yet. They are electronic now. Extra magic AM hours are always very underwhelming and understaffed. This will probably be the last time we do them.
glvsav37
Footballguy
sorry to hear!! We are AP's and will be there in 2 weeks.
1st time magic band users and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't somewhat scared of them. As it is, we have 3 sets already and have not set a foot in the parks since they started this process.
1 set is for our APs
1 set is for the 1 night cash stay
1 set is for the remaining part of our trip which is DVC.
Knowing disney's IT like I do, I doubt all 3 sets are as interchangeable as they claim they are.
I'm a hard core diz nerd and DVC member, but this MB and FP+ trip may be a nail in the coffin if it does not go smooth. We spend 2 weeks there each summer and a decent chunk of $$, but every year things seem to get less and less guest friendly and more and more $$. We are doing a pool this year and my wife said maybe it was time to skip WDW for next summer.....she may be right. I still love it, but shake my head at some things they are doing.
Hope the rest of your trip goes better!!!!
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
They just announced something for Studios. "Frozen Summer of Fun" starts this Saturday and runs through Sep 1.
Deranged Hermit
Not cool & Pissed
Damn, we're going at the end of Sept, so we'll miss this. My daughter and niece would love all that.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Thanks! Looking forward to breaking down the FP+ options as Selection Day approaches.In other WDW news, the Extra Magic Hours schedule got altered. Seems to be the same amount of EMH, just moving them to different days of the week at different parks. Not a huge deal in trip planning, but does affect park traffic a little, especially at the satellite parks.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Looking at that Frozen news reminded me of a previous discussion in this thread about how Disney makes sure their princesses run the gamut of men's tastes as well as for the kids. Elsa covered the previously ignored albino fetishists. Updated chart:
You like blondes? Cinderella, Aurora, Rapunzel, Alice.
You like brunettes? Belle and Snow White.
You like brunettes with stripper streaks? Anna.
You like redheads? Ariel and Merida.
You like spinners? Tinkerbell, Rosetta.
You like albinos? Elsa.
You like exotic princesses of color? Jasmine, Pocahontas, Tiana.
You like the Asianed? Mulan; the queue for just about any ride or attraction
You like blondes? Cinderella, Aurora, Rapunzel, Alice.
You like brunettes? Belle and Snow White.
You like brunettes with stripper streaks? Anna.
You like redheads? Ariel and Merida.
You like spinners? Tinkerbell, Rosetta.
You like albinos? Elsa.
You like exotic princesses of color? Jasmine, Pocahontas, Tiana.
You like the Asianed? Mulan; the queue for just about any ride or attraction
Yankee23Fan
Fair Tax!
My theory - beyond this which is good and it's also correct - if you make them hot and give us varying degrees and choices the dad's wont' mind having to stand in line to take pictures with them and act all stupid while their daughters spend a fortune. Because, to be honest, if Belle and Jasmin walked up to me together, I'm just handing them my wallet and going along for the ride. I hope.
That all being said, my theory is that they are making a concerted effort to have a princess for every area of the Disney World parks for marketing reasons. World Showcase specifically. If each county has it's own princess, and then each section of the Magic Kingdom has a princess that could call home there, and you throw in a few that can be the focus of certain areas of the Studios - and then you add Avatar land to Animal Kingdom (not to mention a few others I am sure) you end up with a great marketing tool to make sure little girls want to go all over the parks and not just stay in Fantasyland.
Bob Sacamano
Footballguy
SFBBruce Dickinson
Footballguy
After the last family trip to Disneyland, I nearly added "whomever is portraying Ariel at Disneyland California Adventure at this moment" to my List Of Five.Absolutely. Not an accident that the Frozen Summer shows Disco Stu posted about today are at DHS. Two more reasons to stay another day and add DHS to the itinerary.
Also with Frozen in particular... elements of the kingdom Elsa/Anna rule in Frozen seem lifted directly from the Norway section of World Showcase. It's as if they used photos of the park in the concept art for the film.
What you're describing is also true on the California side. In Disneyland California Adventure, there's a play area/challenge trail modeled to look like the forests of northern California. The space was originally branded with Brother Bear, but that movie was a steaming pile of bear excrement. So when UP proved durable, they re-branded the space as Wilderness Explorer Adventure or whatever that scouting troop the kid from UP is a member of. Kevin the exotic bird from UP is also a character to be tracked and found on the adventure, too.
parasaurolophus
Footballguy
Wait was zero minutes yesterday. Standby sign literally said "0". We walked right on to our own boat. Tier 1 is comical. Happy Maelstrom is out of there though. Love that ride for some reason.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Living With The Land Tier 1? It's not the worst attraction at Epcot, but listening to Disney pat itself on its back over its sustainability efforts is a bit much. I can't decide if some Epcot exec wants to shut it down and needs data to prove it, or is trying to drum up excitement for it by moving it up to the Tier with Test Track and Soarin', kinda like putting a velvet rope around a Port-A-Potty.
ETA: IIRC, during TOAL my wife referred to Living With The Land as "that ride you settle for when you discover the FastPasses for Soarin' have run out".
Re: Maelstrom: The list of log flume rides that can throw it in Reverse is pretty short. It's also a welcome change of pace from the sun and walking/standing during a summer day at World Showcase.
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Yankee23Fan
Fair Tax!
I love the Land ride. But there is almost never a line. Can't see it as tier one.... unless their plan is rotate the tiers on occasion to control the flow of rides a little more.
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
They like to have a completely tame tier one option for families with little kids. Maybe the Character Spot wasn't cutting it, so they're giving this a shot.
Maelstrom was one of the few attractions we skipped in March. Never saw the wait less than 30 minutes. I don't like it enough to stand in that terrible queue for more than 15 minutes. Would definitely use a tier two FP+ on it though.
Maelstrom was one of the few attractions we skipped in March. Never saw the wait less than 30 minutes. I don't like it enough to stand in that terrible queue for more than 15 minutes. Would definitely use a tier two FP+ on it though.
NIU Kicker
Footballguy
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Candlelight Processional narrator names/dates are rolling out. So far we've got:
Jodi Benson: Nov 28-29
Whoopi Goldberg: Dec 5-6
Sharon Stone: Dec 15-17
Ana Gasteyer: Dec 18-20
Marlee Matlin: Dec 21-23
Steven Curtis Chapman: Dec 28-30
I was planning on skipping this event on TOAL II: EPB. However, if Stone shows up for this in the same outfit from the interrogation scene from Basic Instinct and drops a, "What are you gonna do, Pilate? Charge me with smoking?" I may have to rework the schedule.
Jodi Benson: Nov 28-29
Whoopi Goldberg: Dec 5-6
Sharon Stone: Dec 15-17
Ana Gasteyer: Dec 18-20
Marlee Matlin: Dec 21-23
Steven Curtis Chapman: Dec 28-30
I was planning on skipping this event on TOAL II: EPB. However, if Stone shows up for this in the same outfit from the interrogation scene from Basic Instinct and drops a, "What are you gonna do, Pilate? Charge me with smoking?" I may have to rework the schedule.
The Ref
Footballguy
Sweet - have fun! If you see a bald headed slob drinking his way around EPCOT this Saturday come over and introduce yourself.
Premier
Footballguy
I was there last week and it was so insanely crowded that we ended up on It's a Small World.
So I asked the lady after if the ride shuts down at night ("no it never stops") or if the music ever shuts off. She said some mornings the maintenance crew HATES the music so they shut that off.
But the dolls keep dancing and mouthing the words.
She said it is legit the creepiest thing on earth.
So I asked the lady after if the ride shuts down at night ("no it never stops") or if the music ever shuts off. She said some mornings the maintenance crew HATES the music so they shut that off.
But the dolls keep dancing and mouthing the words.
She said it is legit the creepiest thing on earth.
Quez
Footballguy
I wonder why it never shuts down? Must be like an old engine or something...I'm researching the annual passes right now, and noticed the blackout dates for the cheaper passes are this time. I guess all those summer camps & kids out of school really packs the place. I don't want to be any wear near the interior of the state in June, July, Aug. The other blackout dates are the end of December & April. Basically, all the times kids are out of school.
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RBM
Footballguy
That is creepy. But you don't need to make any excuses for going on Its a Small World.I was there last week and it was so insanely crowded that we ended up on It's a Small World.
So I asked the lady after if the ride shuts down at night ("no it never stops") or if the music ever shuts off. She said some mornings the maintenance crew HATES the music so they shut that off.
But the dolls keep dancing and mouthing the words.
She said it is legit the creepiest thing on earth.
The Ref
Footballguy
I was going to buy a 4 day resident pass for my one day trip this coming weekend and use the other three days this fall..... I was very surprised that this is considered a blackout period. I'd figure they would beg for attendance during the dog days. My wife is already starting to complain that it's going to be too hot this weekend.
Premier
Footballguy
I hate that ride so much.That is creepy. But you don't need to make any excuses for going on Its a Small World.I was there last week and it was so insanely crowded that we ended up on It's a Small World.
So I asked the lady after if the ride shuts down at night ("no it never stops") or if the music ever shuts off. She said some mornings the maintenance crew HATES the music so they shut that off.
But the dolls keep dancing and mouthing the words.
She said it is legit the creepiest thing on earth.
Premier
Footballguy
I've always wanted to do this since we rarely go in the summer, but they black out all the good Christmas dates if your family is into that. So it's a no-go for us.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
After watching that Diagon Alley NBC special a couple times, the Mrs. has requested looking into adding a couple more Universal days at the front end of our December trip, which would mean annual passes for Universal would be cheaper than buying daily tickets. Also looking into Disney annual pass, annual passholder room discount & Tables In Wonderland instead of free DDP.
I'm beginning to think we should just move to Orlando.
I'm beginning to think we should just move to Orlando.
The Hank
Footballguy
Wow, Disney must've lowered its prices, it used to be an arm and a legSome dummy lost two fingertips on Pirates of the Caribbean a few days ago. Must not have kept his ruddy hands inboard.
Drifter
Footballguy
We had a good time on our Disney (Land) trip. We actually got to open the park on Sunday the 6th. My little girl was #1 through the turnstiles.
Although, I had my doubts about the costs and my feelings about Disney in general, after seeing her reaction to meeting "real life" princesses, it was all worth it.
Although, I had my doubts about the costs and my feelings about Disney in general, after seeing her reaction to meeting "real life" princesses, it was all worth it.
NIU Kicker
Footballguy
If anybody needs me, I'm the fat guy running towards test track!
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
How tall are the boys expected to be in February? Have they shown thrill-seeking tendencies?
The answers to those questions will help figure out what rides they can/should hit.
Are the boys into any TV shows or movies owned by Disney properties? Classic Disney characters, Disney Channel, Pixar, Star Wars, Muppets, Indiana Jones.
A family with girls there to see the Princesses and Pixar might not give Animal Kingdom much consideration, but the safari and dinosaur stuff might be a big hit for the boys. The "it's Tough To Be A Bug" show at AK is fun and difficult to reproduce at other amusement parks. And if the boys like The Lion King even a little bit, the "Festival Of The Lion King" show is paced well and kid-friendly.
You're going in February. The good news is that's a relatively slow period for the parks so the lines won't be too bad. The bad news is it's also in the heart of the maintenance schedule, so some rides and such will be shut down.
Also to keep in mind... Your friends' girls will probably want to meet Anna and Elsa from "Frozen", and the wait for that could take hours. So plan on alternatives for your boys, unless they also want to wait hours to meet the Frozen girls.
AcerFC
Footballguy
what if tf wants to see Anna and Elsa
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
A lot depends on their height and "braveness". Some good info here. My son already loved most of the big rides when he was 4 (almost 5). He tried everything available for 44" and under. Once was enough for Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest, but he loved Space Mountain and Mission Space.
The safest way to do it is start with Thunder Mountain (and now Mine Train) and ramp up from there if they like it. Soarin should also be a safe bet. I also highly recommend Star Tours. The new version can be ridden repeatedly, since there are several different scenes and many possible combinations. Time to introduce them to the movies if you haven't already.
And plan on Splash Mountain being closed. It has to be refurbished every winter.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
The fall room discounts just released. Some blackout dates over Halloween and Thanksgiving, but there are some 30% off deals to be had on some great rooms.
ETA: Link to offer. 30% off at Wilderness Lodge.
ETA: Link to offer. 30% off at Wilderness Lodge.
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Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
WDW has realized the Anna & Elsa queues are out of control and no sign of reducing. So they are experimenting with a new system the next three days.
Once the Anna & Elsa line fills to the 30-minute wait mark, the line will be considered closed. Guests who want to wait will be redirected to Magic Kingdom Park support, where they will receive a slip of paper with a return time, a 30-minute window to re-enter the Anna & Elsa queue through the FP+ line.
If this system sounds familiar, it's pretty much how the old FastPass system worked, except you got your return time through an automated machine at the queue instead of waking somewhere else to get one from a person.
Plan is to have about 80 of these return slips available per hour. (The FP+ supply is reported to be 9 per hour. That's right. 9.).
WDW also may try this system with other standby lines that frequently hit 60+ minutes, like Test Track and Toy Story Mania.
Once the Anna & Elsa line fills to the 30-minute wait mark, the line will be considered closed. Guests who want to wait will be redirected to Magic Kingdom Park support, where they will receive a slip of paper with a return time, a 30-minute window to re-enter the Anna & Elsa queue through the FP+ line.
If this system sounds familiar, it's pretty much how the old FastPass system worked, except you got your return time through an automated machine at the queue instead of waking somewhere else to get one from a person.
Plan is to have about 80 of these return slips available per hour. (The FP+ supply is reported to be 9 per hour. That's right. 9.).
WDW also may try this system with other standby lines that frequently hit 60+ minutes, like Test Track and Toy Story Mania.
glvsav37
Footballguy
got back friday after a 13day stay at bay lake tower next to the Contemporary. Overall, great trip.
Some highlights:
• 7 Dwarfs train is a lot of fun. Yes, overall it is a kids coaster (38in tall to ride), but it was fast enough to hold our attention. My little guy (4) was all over it. Waits were easily 90 mins all day, FP+ or GTFO
• This was our first trip where my 4 yr old hit the 40 inch mark (with some Dr Sholls help in his sneakers—I was NOT going to live with him for another year if he couldn't get on those rides and his older sister did.) It was great to see the excitement in his face as he got the all clear from CM's when getting measured, and the joy of those first rides and new experiences. He loved every minute of it.
• Be Our Guest was AMAZING, both lunch and dinner.
• Did a JetSki tour one morning that left from the contemporary marina that went around Bay and Crescent Lakes that was a lot of "non-park" fun. As it turned out, I was the only one on it, so it was just me and the tour guide. Very cool guy and we spent a lot of time BSing along with the tour info.
Lowlights:
• The rain sucked ###. Our 1st 3 days were almost washouts. We were able to get some stuff done in the AM, but by 11am, it was monsoon level rain that lasted the remainder of the day. And if the sun did come out, everything stayed soaked. I had shorts that did not dry for 3 days. I know some people can enjoy the rain, but not me and not this rain, it was insane. Luckily it cleared by day 4/5 for most of the trip, and i was happy I had the amount of days there that I did to salvage a lot of plans, but I felt bad for folks (esp the ones we met on the plane on the way down) where it was their 1st trip ever and were only there for a few days.
• It was GD HOT! I know, a bit of a bad whine after the point above, but when it wasn't raining, it was sahara level hot...and muggy. Either way I was always wet.
• The parks were crowded!!! We go every summer and this was the most crowded I've ever seen it at every park.
MagicBands/FP+...my take.
I was very leery of the whole MagicBand thing leading up to this trip. I am a Diz veteran and original FP commando, we knew how to maximize the system.
MBs:
• They were more comfortable then I expected. When we first got them, I did not like the feel, but I got use to them pretty quick. It was only annoying when I tried wearing a watch, /c it was doubled up on my wrist. I tried moving the MB to my other wrist, but found myself tapping my watch wrist out of habit to the kiosks.
• We had tech issues with ours which resulted in about 3-4 trips to the main desk and about 2 hours total invested in trouble shooting.
--1 instance was in a restaurant (our dining plan was not showing up) and the staff was great at doing the troubleshooting for us while we ate. They called the hotel, got confirmation that we had credits and adjusted everything behind the scenes manually. They were great!!
--My wife's bands then stopped working as a room key and charge acct. We spent the bulk of our time there with hotel staff. Even left them at the front desk for a day to be 're-set' but no luck. Finally after 2 hours with a staff member, she found a small check box that got turned off (???).
On the MBs, one equally cool, but annoying issue was that we had 3 sets of them for each person for this trip. 1 for our annual passes, 1 for our 1-day cash night, and 1 for our DVC stay. It was cool b/c we got a few different colors, but from everything I had read, MB screw ups were mainly with folks who did not have 'regular' reservations—like us. So I expected some trouble. Its amazing that the park can create such a complex network (even you photos show up on your Photopass acct on rides automatically by scanning your bands somewhere on the ride), but they couldn't realize that our 2 concurrent trips were the same person.
FP+s
We made all of our FP+s at the 60 day mark. Tried to spread things out, but we did do multiple of the same ride (like 7DMT) b/c I knew we were not getting on it any other way, and it might be the only roller coaster my little guy could ride. Overall, the system worked well. No lost FPs or anything.
Modifying them was pretty easy via the app, but I have some major UX issues with the way its done. For instance, it you wanted to look into replacing a FP for another attraction, they take you through it, and then at a certain point, the attraction is replaced w/o letting you see the available times——it just replaced it in your system. Ad there were times we were just curious to see what was available, but were afraid to go to far for fear of flat out losing the original FP. So we had to be sure it was something we were ok dropping b/f we did it.
IMO the biggest downside to the whole system was that it did not allow us to be a flexible as we normally were. We kind of felt that we 'needed' to be in a park b/c we had FPs booked. We built in pool days and cool down time into the trip, but the rain at the start of the trip really limited those days. We found ourselves trying to modify our days to make up for the rain, or redo pool time but had to decide if the pre-book FPs were worth dropping. In one instance, we really needed the break, but that day we had the coveted Anna and Elsa FP booked which we knew there was no way of ever replacing. Same held true for most of the other headliners, and we were left with picking FPs for attractions with normally low standby wait. I really don't like being that tied to a schedule on vacation...Disney is hard enough to do AND still get to relax, and this just makes it harder.
I'm sure I'll have more to add as the fog of my vacation lifts in the next few days.
Some highlights:
• 7 Dwarfs train is a lot of fun. Yes, overall it is a kids coaster (38in tall to ride), but it was fast enough to hold our attention. My little guy (4) was all over it. Waits were easily 90 mins all day, FP+ or GTFO
• This was our first trip where my 4 yr old hit the 40 inch mark (with some Dr Sholls help in his sneakers—I was NOT going to live with him for another year if he couldn't get on those rides and his older sister did.) It was great to see the excitement in his face as he got the all clear from CM's when getting measured, and the joy of those first rides and new experiences. He loved every minute of it.
• Be Our Guest was AMAZING, both lunch and dinner.
• Did a JetSki tour one morning that left from the contemporary marina that went around Bay and Crescent Lakes that was a lot of "non-park" fun. As it turned out, I was the only one on it, so it was just me and the tour guide. Very cool guy and we spent a lot of time BSing along with the tour info.
Lowlights:
• The rain sucked ###. Our 1st 3 days were almost washouts. We were able to get some stuff done in the AM, but by 11am, it was monsoon level rain that lasted the remainder of the day. And if the sun did come out, everything stayed soaked. I had shorts that did not dry for 3 days. I know some people can enjoy the rain, but not me and not this rain, it was insane. Luckily it cleared by day 4/5 for most of the trip, and i was happy I had the amount of days there that I did to salvage a lot of plans, but I felt bad for folks (esp the ones we met on the plane on the way down) where it was their 1st trip ever and were only there for a few days.
• It was GD HOT! I know, a bit of a bad whine after the point above, but when it wasn't raining, it was sahara level hot...and muggy. Either way I was always wet.
• The parks were crowded!!! We go every summer and this was the most crowded I've ever seen it at every park.
MagicBands/FP+...my take.
I was very leery of the whole MagicBand thing leading up to this trip. I am a Diz veteran and original FP commando, we knew how to maximize the system.
MBs:
• They were more comfortable then I expected. When we first got them, I did not like the feel, but I got use to them pretty quick. It was only annoying when I tried wearing a watch, /c it was doubled up on my wrist. I tried moving the MB to my other wrist, but found myself tapping my watch wrist out of habit to the kiosks.
• We had tech issues with ours which resulted in about 3-4 trips to the main desk and about 2 hours total invested in trouble shooting.
--1 instance was in a restaurant (our dining plan was not showing up) and the staff was great at doing the troubleshooting for us while we ate. They called the hotel, got confirmation that we had credits and adjusted everything behind the scenes manually. They were great!!
--My wife's bands then stopped working as a room key and charge acct. We spent the bulk of our time there with hotel staff. Even left them at the front desk for a day to be 're-set' but no luck. Finally after 2 hours with a staff member, she found a small check box that got turned off (???).
On the MBs, one equally cool, but annoying issue was that we had 3 sets of them for each person for this trip. 1 for our annual passes, 1 for our 1-day cash night, and 1 for our DVC stay. It was cool b/c we got a few different colors, but from everything I had read, MB screw ups were mainly with folks who did not have 'regular' reservations—like us. So I expected some trouble. Its amazing that the park can create such a complex network (even you photos show up on your Photopass acct on rides automatically by scanning your bands somewhere on the ride), but they couldn't realize that our 2 concurrent trips were the same person.
FP+s
We made all of our FP+s at the 60 day mark. Tried to spread things out, but we did do multiple of the same ride (like 7DMT) b/c I knew we were not getting on it any other way, and it might be the only roller coaster my little guy could ride. Overall, the system worked well. No lost FPs or anything.
Modifying them was pretty easy via the app, but I have some major UX issues with the way its done. For instance, it you wanted to look into replacing a FP for another attraction, they take you through it, and then at a certain point, the attraction is replaced w/o letting you see the available times——it just replaced it in your system. Ad there were times we were just curious to see what was available, but were afraid to go to far for fear of flat out losing the original FP. So we had to be sure it was something we were ok dropping b/f we did it.
IMO the biggest downside to the whole system was that it did not allow us to be a flexible as we normally were. We kind of felt that we 'needed' to be in a park b/c we had FPs booked. We built in pool days and cool down time into the trip, but the rain at the start of the trip really limited those days. We found ourselves trying to modify our days to make up for the rain, or redo pool time but had to decide if the pre-book FPs were worth dropping. In one instance, we really needed the break, but that day we had the coveted Anna and Elsa FP booked which we knew there was no way of ever replacing. Same held true for most of the other headliners, and we were left with picking FPs for attractions with normally low standby wait. I really don't like being that tied to a schedule on vacation...Disney is hard enough to do AND still get to relax, and this just makes it harder.
I'm sure I'll have more to add as the fog of my vacation lifts in the next few days.
glvsav37
Footballguy
not sure I'm a real fan of this idea. Disney parks needs 'volume sucking' attractions where pockets of guests are committed to attraction lines. If they did this for all the large headliners and got them off the lines, I could not imagine how unbearable it would be to navigate the streets/walkways during peak times.
Plus, WDW needs to figure out what they want...FP booking well in advance, or day of "FPs" (what this essentially is). If I was up at midnight at my 60 day mark, fully organized and planned out, booking my FPs...and then some random family walks up the day of and gets the same FP I worked for, I'd be pissed. Not that I want anyone's enjoyment ruined, but why did I have to jump through hoops? Honestly, I hate having to being this organized, but WDW has made it a place where you have to be.
But I could see it being a benefit for certain situations (like my rain scenario above) if the math did work out. But 9 FP+ per hour seems real low....I would put that number closer to 100 or so for character interactions, and more for rides.
There have been studies conducted, where adding FP guests have increased standby wait times substantially (look at Pirates for example). I think a program like this would be counter productive, b/c adding more guests to the FP line, would only make the 30 min to standby line closure happen more often.
As it is, 30 min is not an unbearable amount of time there. WDW has always been about waiting in line and if you were willing to do it, so be it.
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Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Been a long time since I left programming, but I think UX = "User eXperince", how well the thing works not from the programmer's POV, but the person using the thing.
glvsav37
Footballguy
Yes sorry. UX = user experience.
the main example was when we were looking to change a FP attraction via the app.
It takes you though a series of step screens, starting with selecting the pre-booked FP you want to change out of > then selecting from a list of available attractions that what you want to move to.
I expected the next screen to be a list of the time windows that were available for the new selection so we could hone in the selection or decide if it did not work with our plans and go back to the previous screen. But once you made the attraction selection, it went in and swapped it out, removing the FP you were looking to change.
Granted, this is in theory what I wanted to do originally, but when making a major modification to any system preference, there should be a few fail safes in place before the change is made final. Especially when the experience differs from the way the FP was made originally (select attraction > select from a list of times available).
They need to institute the ability to select the time along with the new experience along with a 'Back" feature so you can back out if the times do not jive. Also, it would be smart to have a confirmation screen "You are about to modify this FP experience. Click Yes to continue". The way it is now, you can easily make a major modification to, and lose a hard to get FP by some curious clicking around.
the main example was when we were looking to change a FP attraction via the app.
It takes you though a series of step screens, starting with selecting the pre-booked FP you want to change out of > then selecting from a list of available attractions that what you want to move to.
I expected the next screen to be a list of the time windows that were available for the new selection so we could hone in the selection or decide if it did not work with our plans and go back to the previous screen. But once you made the attraction selection, it went in and swapped it out, removing the FP you were looking to change.
Granted, this is in theory what I wanted to do originally, but when making a major modification to any system preference, there should be a few fail safes in place before the change is made final. Especially when the experience differs from the way the FP was made originally (select attraction > select from a list of times available).
They need to institute the ability to select the time along with the new experience along with a 'Back" feature so you can back out if the times do not jive. Also, it would be smart to have a confirmation screen "You are about to modify this FP experience. Click Yes to continue". The way it is now, you can easily make a major modification to, and lose a hard to get FP by some curious clicking around.
parasaurolophus
Footballguy
Just finalized all our plans for August. We added an extra day and are arriving pretty early on the first day making this our longest trip to Disney. Split stay. Half at Boardwalk and half at saratoga springs. We are getting a very late start on a couple days in the middle, which is something we wouldnt have done with the old fastpass system since being there early was always so key.
