News Round Up 2019

[TheMaxRebo]

Maybe some good points made here...

https://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney...tar-wars-galaxys-edge-just-isnt-that-popular/

I agree. One element that I don't think is factored in enough to that article is the fact the land isn't complete - you are still missing the #1 element / attraction. So that combined with the other factors I think further motivates people to wait. I just think the group of people that would schedule a trip just for an incomplete land was smaller than they anticipated and most Disney Fans are excited to see the land on their next regularly scheduled trip but aren't making a separate trip for it

 

[tlmadden73]

I wouldn't want them to add a FP to Smuggler's Run right until wait times are consistently above an hour. No ride that is averaging a 30-40 minute wait needs FP attached to it.

Tell that to every show at DHS.

 

[Brianstl]

If anything, I think the wait time sof rSR show that perhaps more rides should also NOT have FP

This is so true

 

[Anthony Vito]

So, from what I've seen, Smuggler's Run has a functional ride capacity of 1,500/hour. At 30 minute wait, that would mean there are approximately 750 people in line. From what I've seen/heard on a few different sites/podcasts, it is thought that Disney allots 80%-90% of a ride's hourly capacity to FastPass+.

So, if it's 80%, then that means 20% of the hourly capacity would go towards the standby line. That would mean that standby at Smuggler's Run (if there's FP+) would allow 300 people through an hour, with 1,200 going to FP+. So, in theory, if the same # of people were in the standby line as currently there for the 30-minute-wait (750), then the standby wait would balloon to 2-1/2 hours. Now, obviously a number of those 750 would get FPs and would go at that time, but nevertheless, that's the idea.

I don't entirely understand how not having FP+ actually makes it substantially better, since in theory the same # of people are riding each hour, although I would guess that it's a bit more efficient with only one line, increasing the functional capacity and getting it closer to the theoretical one. It also likely improves the experience for a greater # of people, since there is more freedom of when to ride involved, etc., etc.

 

[tlmadden73]

I agree. One element that I don't think is factored in enough to that article is the fact the land isn't complete - you are still missing the #1 element / attraction. So that combined with the other factors I think further motivates people to wait. I just think the group of people that would schedule a trip just for an incomplete land was smaller than they anticipated and most Disney Fans are excited to see the land on their next regularly scheduled trip but aren't making a separate trip for it

Good article. I enjoyed the heck SWGE but I am that sweet spot of Star Wars fan and Disney Parks fan.
I also like Star Wars souvenirs, so I will (and did) spentd money there.

But I agree ... having this in BOTH coasts just overdid it because the fans the land is for WILL make the special trip. I would have planned a DL trip if it wasn't in Florida.

I think the casual fan just may find it fun, but not excited about the immersion. -- The immerision may be too much and the immersive souvenirs are probably less appealing than a $20 t-shirt or $25 plastic lightsaber you can find in Tatooine Traders or the Launch Bay.

I wonder if Star Wars Galaxys Edge underperforms if this Star Wars hotel will continue forward? The way it is being sold (as a 2-3 day cruise LARPing experience) the target audience for that is very small . and of that target audience who will want to drop the rumored price tag on it?

 

[scrappinginontario]

If anything, I think the wait times of SR show that perhaps more rides should also NOT have FP

I didn't think I'd ever say this but after seeing this ride in action, I'd agree with your statement. Yes, I'm shocked to hear those words come out of my mouth!!

 

[JETSDAD]

If anything, I think the wait times of SR show that perhaps more rides should also NOT have FP

I disagree. I would not be happy at all if I had to wait in 30+ minute lines. We rode SR twice during EEMH in the first week but probaly won't bother again until there are FP's. I'm not sure why people are happy settling with 30-60 minute waits rather than getting FP's and basically walking right on.

 

[mikepizzo]

So, from what I've seen, Smuggler's Run has a functional ride capacity of 1,500/hour. At 30 minute wait, that would mean there are approximately 750 people in line. From what I've seen/heard on a few different sites/podcasts, it is thought that Disney allots 80%-90% of a ride's hourly capacity to FastPass+.

So, if it's 80%, then that means 20% of the hourly capacity would go towards the standby line. That would mean that standby at Smuggler's Run (if there's FP+) would allow 300 people through an hour, with 1,200 going to FP+. So, in theory, if the same # of people were in the standby line as currently there for the 30-minute-wait (750), then the standby wait would balloon to 2-1/2 hours. Now, obviously a number of those 750 would get FPs and would go at that time, but nevertheless, that's the idea.

I don't entirely understand how not having FP+ actually makes it substantially better, since in theory the same # of people are riding each hour, although I would guess that it's a bit more efficient with only one line, increasing the functional capacity and getting it closer to the theoretical one. It also likely improves the experience for a greater # of people, since there is more freedom of when to ride involved, etc., etc.

You sort of made your own point, no? It's not the number of bodies that goes through the line an hour...it's which bodies go through at what time. If Smuggler's Run had FP+, the 750th person in line waits much longer than if there was no FP+.

Assuming all FP+ are gone for the day, 1,200 bodies go through FP+ line an hour and 300 bodies go through standby queue. That means that (using 750) 450 bodies are still waiting.

So now let's go to the second hour. Another 1,200 bodies go through FP+ line (and these are 'new' bodies since they didn't have to wait at all), another 300 'old' bodies go through standby queue. That means that 150 'old' bodies are still waiting in the standby queue.

Our person who has 750th in the standby line just became the 3,150th person in line.

I understand what you mean about the same number of people going through an hour, but when you think about the time at which people enter the line, it makes it pretty clear, no?

I disagree. I would not be happy at all if I had to wait in 30+ minute lines. We rode SR twice during EEMH in the first week but probaly won't bother again until there are FP's. I'm not sure why people are happy settling with 30-60 minute waits rather than getting FP's and basically walking right on.

I mean, different people have different thresholds. In most cases, if the standby queue is longer than 20-25 minutes, I'm not getting in line.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I disagree. I would not be happy at all if I had to wait in 30+ minute lines. We rode SR twice during EEMH in the first week but probaly won't bother again until there are FP's. I'm not sure why people are happy settling with 30-60 minute waits rather than getting FP's and basically walking right on.

well, for me it is more that rides like Pirates and Haunted Mansion and other high capacity/omnimover style rides can handle lines very quickly and so instead of having 30-40 min standby could be a 5-10 min wait for everyone

Also, as we usualyl stay off property and often have larger groups it isn't easy for us to get FPs for the most popular rides so we are left with standby, so it is a bit of a biased veiew, for sure

But I also would rather wait ~30mins each for 5 rides vs getting on 1-2 with FPs and then not going on the other because they have 2+ hour waits

 

[Tigger's ally]

I disagree. I would not be happy at all if I had to wait in 30+ minute lines. We rode SR twice during EEMH in the first week but probaly won't bother again until there are FP's. I'm not sure why people are happy settling with 30-60 minute waits rather than getting FP's and basically walking right on.

Thing is, FP's are no longer "basically walking right on". We spent half an hour in the fast pass line at FOP in May as well as Slinky Dog. We actually "walked right on" TT at epcot using the single rider line though.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I disagree. I would not be happy at all if I had to wait in 30+ minute lines. We rode SR twice during EEMH in the first week but probaly won't bother again until there are FP's. I'm not sure why people are happy settling with 30-60 minute waits rather than getting FP's and basically walking right on.

I don't believe the OP is saying that FPs should be removed all together, just removed from some current FP options.

I will say that when I'm booking Epcot FPs, my tier 2 FPs are basically 'throw away' FPs to use them up so that I can look to book another Tier 1 FP. I can't think of many Tier 2 FP options at Epcot that are necessary. They can save me time at 'Living with the Land' when it's busier and once I even saved time at Figment but often they're not needed.

The challenge with decreasing/eliminating some of the FP attractions is that if they system stays as it is (must use all 3 before booking a fourth) it would mean the fewer FP attractions would have longer lines. Guess the system is working as intended to spread out crowds.

 

[rteetz]

News

Marvel Drops Official Trailer for Disney+ Series “Marvel’s Hero Project”

 

[tlmadden73]

I don't entirely understand how not having FP+ actually makes it substantially better, since in theory the same # of people are riding each hour, although I would guess that it's a bit more efficient with only one line, increasing the functional capacity and getting it closer to the theoretical one. It also likely improves the experience for a greater # of people, since there is more freedom of when to ride involved, etc., etc.

The main problem with FP is there is no control of when and how many people show up within their hour. What if EVERYONE who has a 11:00 - 12:00 p FP all show up at 11:15 am. And everyone who had an 11:15 -12:15 FP show up at 11:15 too? The wait time for standy (for those ALREADY in line) just increased greatly in just a few minutes without their knowledge. So I guess Disney inflates wait times to accommodate for that.

 

[rteetz]

News

Southbound Victory Way Closed Nightly Through October 4 at the Walt Disney World Resort

 

[rteetz]

News

Overnight Rehearsals and Tests to Take Place Through Early November at Magic Kingdom

 

[rteetz]

News

Merchandise Events Scheduled to Take Place at Epcot Throughout October 2019

 

[JETSDAD]

well, for me it is more that rides like Pirates and Haunted Mansion and other high capacity/omnimover style rides can handle lines very quickly and so instead of having 30-40 min standby could be a 5-10 min wait for everyone

Also, as we usualyl stay off property and often have larger groups it isn't easy for us to get FPs for the most popular rides so we are left with standby, so it is a bit of a biased veiew, for sure

But I also would rather wait ~30mins each for 5 rides vs getting on 1-2 with FPs and then not going on the other because they have 2+ hour waits

I'd rather ride 10 rides with FP instead of 5 rides with 30 minute waits. Even though we stay onsite we almost always end up changing most of our FP's during our trip as we change our plans to go with whatever we're in the mood for. We still ride the top rides multiple times. Even with a party of 7 last December we were able to get SDD multiple times same day and FOP night before. The other rides weren't really difficult at all by simply overlapping groups of 3&4 if needed.

 

[crvetter]

Assuming all FP+ are gone for the day, 1,200 bodies go through FP+ line an hour and 300 bodies go through standby queue. That means that (using 750) 450 bodies are still waiting.

This relies on the fact that the 750 in the original Standby line wouldn't get FP or a fair amount of them would not. Really the question is how many people that get a FP for a ride wouldn't ride the ride without a FP. Ultimately this is the real question. But mathematically if everyone that rode with a FP entered the standby line the wait times would be identical.

Some of the touring sites have shown the lesser rides have had an increased wait time (marginally) while the bigger E-ticket rides have had shorter wait times (marginally). All the studies of course didn't show any statistical measures of the differences. But FP and more specifically FP+ was designed with the specific intention to divert crowds to different areas of WDW based on realized waits/capacities. Another big design point for Disney is that it frees up time to Merch and Food shop for those with FP because their effectively "waiting" for the ride outside the physical line.

The bigger issue with FP is if a ride breaks down for a majority of the day Disney does honor those FP on other rides or that ride later that day. When they need to they take no one out of standby from the broken down line until they clear the backlog of FP. This happened at DCA 2 weeks ago where Radiator Springs was down for 70% of the day but randomly they kept giving out FP for it, thus in the evening they were taking 80 parties out of the FP line with 1 party out of the standby (which had a 200 min wait with about 100 people max in line). So the downtime is likely a reason they didn't offer it on a newer ride this time around.

But overall I find my trips to WDW and DLR much more enjoyable with FP+ and MaxPass then I ever did with paper FP or when FP didn't exist.

 

[Anthony Vito]

You sort of made your own point, no? It's not the number of bodies that goes through the line an hour...it's which bodies go through at what time. If Smuggler's Run had FP+, the 750th person in line waits much longer than if there was no FP+.

Assuming all FP+ are gone for the day, 1,200 bodies go through FP+ line an hour and 300 bodies go through standby queue. That means that (using 750) 450 bodies are still waiting.

So now let's go to the second hour. Another 1,200 bodies go through FP+ line (and these are 'new' bodies since they didn't have to wait at all), another 300 'old' bodies go through standby queue. That means that 150 'old' bodies are still waiting in the standby queue.

Our person who has 750th in the standby line just became the 3,150th person in line.

I understand what you mean about the same number of people going through an hour, but when you think about the time at which people enter the line, it makes it pretty clear, no?

I agree about the impact on the standby line, and I was really making more of a point about the "lower" wait times not being comparable to the rides with FP+ - that if the same # of people are in the standby line without FP+ as with it, the wait times would be vastly different.

I understand completely how FP+ makes it much better for those in the standby line, I was stating that, overall, in the big picture, I don't see how it makes that much of a difference over the course of a day. It just changes who benefits - the person in the standby line (if no FP+) or the people who likes to stay on property, plan heavily, and plan around their FP+. I've just heard narratives that no FP+ makes it so much better and more efficient, I just question if that's really the case or if it's just shifting things around. I'm not really sure how I feel one way or another about with/without FP+.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'd rather ride 10 rides with FP instead of 5 rides with 30 minute waits. Even though we stay onsite we almost always end up changing most of our FP's during our trip as we change our plans to go with whatever we're in the mood for. We still ride the top rides multiple times. Even with a party of 7 last December we were able to get SDD multiple times same day and FOP night before. The other rides weren't really difficult at all by simply overlapping groups of 3&4 if needed.

well, you are better with FP than I. We've never gotten more than 5 FP in a day ever and only have gotten FP for SDD once and that was when staying onsite with only 2 of us. Other times we couldn't get anything. Off site we've never gotten FoP, SDD, or 7DMT - so we are left with only standby if we want to wait well north of an hour for each (although we got lucky with SDD and only a 35 min wait)

So yeah, i'd rather wait 30 minutes for 5 top rides than only get one a few non-top choices and not get on some key rides because we couldn't get FP for them and standby was 2+ hours long