Miffy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2002
If 80% of the BGs were FP+s booked 65 days out, with the way things are now, the BGs would be gone in 2 or 3 seconds on day 65. Maybe 1 second. Things won't always be the way they are now, so WDW will probably eventually go to FP+s for this ride, although no one can predict when that'll be, if ever.I've been trying to catch up on this thread and it's certainly anxiety inducing. There has to be a better way to do this. A way that benefits those of us that prepare ahead of time and people that decide to go last minute. Maybe distribute 80% of boarding passes with fastpasses 65 days out. This lets you plan the day (and your 60 day fastpasses) knowing if (and having a basic idea of when) you are in HS. The other 20% could be distributed a week out via a lottery that you can only enter if you don't already have a boarding pass. This rewards people that plan ahead but still gives spur of the moment people (and those that get shut out at 65 days) a fighting chance.
As for me, I'll be there with my wife at the end of January for two days. 1st day is HS/Epcot, second is MK. We always get to the park before opening and usually do three or four major rides in the early morning, then switch to our fastpass park (in this case Epcot starting at 1pm). Looks like this (doing a bunch of rides in the morning) wont happen because of the amount of people at HS each morning. I guess we will adapt on the fly based on what (if any) boarding group we get. In a worse case scenario we don't get a pass, jump on Slinky coaster, wait for Millenium Falcon, then just do Epcot.
It seems to me that WDW wants to make sure that everyone who wants to ride RotR is in the park the day they want to ride. That way they're not distributing BG slots to people who may or may not show up on the day they booked. This reduces--not eliminates, but reduces--possible disappointment for people who are actually there.
Granted, it's super disappointing to be there and not get on a BG. (Incidentally, there's no such thing as a "boarding pass"--there are boarding groups that are assigned.) Right now, this attraction is reliably handling only so many people per hour and sometimes that doesn't work out either. There are still problems with the ride. And, btw, even rides whose kinks have been worked out go down occasionally. One evening while I was at DAK last month, FoP wasn't functioning and even people with FP+s were being turned away. The ride later went back up, but by then lots of people who had FP+ for it had already used those FP+s for something else. But that's beside the point.
The point is that as it stands right now, with so many people wanting to experience RotR, I think WDW has made a good decision to limit access to those people who are physically present in the park. Not people who are planning to be there or who might be there or who wish they could be there or who are trying to get a BG just for fun. If you could access a BG FP+ 65 days in advance, every person with an AP would be trying frequently and then seeing if they could book a trip to coincide with their BG. Just one example that I thought of immediately.
Let's hope, though, that by your end-of-January trip, the current situation will have calmed down and you'll be able to get on a BG with relative ease.