Early reports detailing Walt Disney World’s NextGen Fastpass system – xPass – are starting to make their way into the Disney fanatic community. Opinions, and battle lines, are being drawn.
Imagine, if you will: Day one of xPass.
From what I can tell, there are basically three camps at this point: Haters, optimists and the wait-and-sees.
To be honest, I have no idea what to think – though I am leaning toward apprehension. Yeah, I know that’s rather wishy-washy, but I’ve learned to hold off on taking a hard stance on changes at WDW before I get a chance to actually experience it. (See: My stupid opinion after the announcement of “The Magic, the Memories and You.”) So I’d like to think it’s been thought through and will be a nice addition to vacationing at Walt Disney World.
I’m just not so sure though.
Evidently, xPass will allow guests to schedule times for attractions, meet-and-greets, shows and even parades before they even arrive. At face value, I loathe this. I don’t want to schedule every last second of my vacation. My Grumpy Old Man side yearns for the days when we could make trouble-free dinner arrangements before leaving the resort that morning. Obviously, we now live in a (Disney) world where ADRs are a must for most table service restaurants at exactly 180-days out. So the thought of having to schedule a time when I need to be at Small World is less than appealing.
I’ve learned to live with making ADRs six months early, but I’m not sure about scheduling every moment of every day. Although that’s probably a broad generalization. I can’t see every guest adhering to a hard-and-fast schedule, or Disney expecting people to spend their days like that.
Additionally, if we find it’s analogous to Fastpass, then it won’t really change how I tour the theme parks. Sometimes I use Fastpass, sometimes I don’t. It’s not a vital part of my touring plans.
What do you think? Do you like what you’re hearing?
Takes away from the spontaneity of being on vacation. Boo. Not boo-urns, boo.
I don’t mind making my ADRs 180 days out but I don’t want to plan anything beyond that until I get there. I hope this isn’t widely used or it could make it very hard for people who just want to play it by ear after they get there.
Oh, heck, no! If I even mentioned it to my family, my brother would never step foot in a Disney park again. He already thinks I schedule my entire day and, Bill, you’ve seen me travel. You know that’s not true.
I would make an exception for the night time shows and parade, because that’s already pretty ridiculous. I’d rather reserve a spot for myself in advance than wait for an hour to get a spot near the fence in Mexico. (Which sounds really weird when I put it like that.)
It would seem to lose the magic,excitement and anticipation of doing anything. Why would I want a ridgid schedule on my vacation?! Thats what I’m trying to escape from by going on vacation. I understand advanced dinner reservations but,Disney is losing its family fun and taking this too far.I think it’s a huge mistake.You are robbing people of so much by doing this.
First off…4 days until our next Disney Vacation (8 nights 9 days at Coronado Springs!!) and the 24 hour MK Marathon! O.K that said, I am on the fence about the next gen. fastpass system, on one hand i think it to be a good idea for the rides and entertainment that are important to you BUT, on the other hand, I do really, really hope that there is some kind of program put into place that will encourage people to cancel there reservation prior to there allotted time (eg. I love the new credit card required for the Signature dining restaurants, that forces people to actually cancel res. that they do not intend on keeping, therefore opening up more res. for people that DO want them, we are arriving Feb.28th and are still able to make ADR’s for sig. rest. even today 3 days out! (I am THE perpetual “tweaker” of reservations they can always be a little better) until the mandatory credit card res. people would make 10 res. a day and decide last minute which to use and ignore the rest with no repercussions. leaving others to swing in the breeze, standing outside Le Cellier hoping someone is a no-show so you can scoop up there seats. And as long as the new Fastpass requires the same sort of repercussions for a no show I think the system will work. Without it, the same thing will happen, people will make every res. possible and then last minute decide which to show up for therefore leaving (empty seats) all over the place and me upset that even though i have been trying to get that prime viewing location for Wishes for 2 months and failing, then being at the show and seeing 162 empty seats for “no shows” and no way to get in there! THAT would @&%$ me off. Disney Please REQUIRE a Credit Card for those Reservations, and Fastpasses!
P.S. How could i spell “their” wrong so many times? lol..Got my mind on the trip, is my excuse.
On paper it looks like a great idea. For someone who is familiar with the layout of the parks, knows exactly what they want to accomplish with their day and can execute proper time management the xPass makes sense. For someone like me~ who has a hard enough time remembering ADR times, likes to be spontaneous and change plans at the last minute this could be a nightmare.I can’t count the number of times I have given away a FP because something else came up. People (not naming any names here) are often late to ADR’s or skip them entirely as it is. Also for people unfamiliar with the layout of the parks I really think this could be awful.
I can understand the reasoning behind Disney’s decision to try such a plan. I may be wrong but i think that ALOT of visitors only have 3 or 4 day park passes and the bulk of those are 1 park per day tix. in that case you would HAVE to plan every moment of your visit in order to get as much in as possible. We don’t have that problem, we always stay at least 7-9 days and have park hoppers, which allows us to take advantage of EMH’s and get all the big rides in at that time. We very rarely need Fastpasses because of this. In all actuality i personally dont think i would be terribly impacted by the new system, with ONE exception, the Fireworks viewings. If they start taking reservations for a spot on the train platform at MK or along the railing in Epcot I can only imagine one of two things…Either cast members will have to triple in numbers (and carry pepper spray and Handcuffs..LoL) to make sure you are standing in your “designated” 1 square foot area, OR out and out fist fights amongst unruley guests. I better break out the heavy bag and start limbering up…haha
No comment until I give it a whirl.
Walt made his park for the average family to have fun. At $90 a ticket, we’ve already excluded lots of average families and this will make it far worse. I have stayed on every resort on property and have been a FL resident passholder for 8 yrs. Unless they’ve changed since the last time I read about it, I think just giving this option to resort guests should be a crime. What about AP holders? DVC? If you include those groups, the group that’s left without the privileges will never get on rides! And I agree with everyone about scheduling every minute and what about breakdowns/meltdowns of rides (and kids? Lol). Yes I love the credit card advance dining reservations too- implementing something like that could help but again, it’s the more affluent families having access. How about the extremely poor kid / family who saved for years to go??? (as a teacher ive seen it!)? Do they not get on rides or meet characters since their family can’t stay at a $400/night on property hotel?! Doesn’t seem like something Walt would do.
Me no likey…let me walk around and enjoy the park spontaneously (and thank you Mousejunkie Barry for making my day with that “Boo-urns” comment)
I agree with Chris about the “affluent” point but i am not recommending they charge $$ for the priveledge of reserving a spot to view or a fastpass, ONLY a $10-$15 “HOLD” fee charged ONLY if they do not show(free otherwise) this will eliminate most of the no shows accross the board and if your “poor” you would especially show up for fear of beaing charged $10 a head. Same as it is with the ADR’s which I am grateful for. But i do believe that they should NOT take those reservations for fastpasses DURING EMH’s If you are staying at Disney and take advantage of the EMH’s you need to have some kind of perks, reservations during EMH’s would eliminate the biggest perk from staying on Disney property(which I always have and always will).
I don’t like it at all…I’d like it to be the same…as Billy Crystal says in Princess Bride “Have fun storming the castle.” That’s how it should stay when getting ones Fastpass.
This topic certainly does stir up the negative mouse lovers. Without knowing what the program will look like how can you dislike it? Disney isn’t going to get rid of stand-by lines, so if you don’t use fastpass now you’ll probably be totally unaffected. I would love the ability to get a fastpass or two before I arrive. It would be great to not have to be in the morning stampede to get a toy story mania pass. If I have an ADR at garden grill at 12 then having an 11:00 fastpass for soarin’ would be very convenient. If staying on property gives you 1 pre-scheduled fastpass for each day do you really think it’s going to make a big change in how you tour?
I guess my question is how EXACT of a time will this require you to commit to? Will you have a window of time, say between 11:00 and 11:30, or will you have to show up exactly at 11:14? If this is simply replacing Fastpass, then I’m all for it. However, if this is going to require me to literally schedule out every minute of my time, that’s just too much of a headache. My husband already gets frustrated with me booking our dining reservations 180 days out, he will never want to go down to Disney if we have to book our ride times that way, too.
Mmm…I’m on the fence with the xPass proposal. As a bit of a WDW enigma, I plan our trips with a color-coded spreadsheet, often with time estimates for attractions and of course with dining reservation data. Then we get to the parks….and the spreadsheet goes in the backpack as we get all starry-eyed and enchanted. Happens every time and that’s ok, as long as we’re at our fine dining establishments 10 minutes before our reserved time. I think this xPass should be tested, perhaps allowing folks to select 1 a day, or 5 per trip, or 1 per park — whatever criteria. Test how folks adhere to the reservation guidelines (i.e. show up on time, have the same number of people as originally reserved, etc). And have a feedback mechanism in place (survey at the attraction exit, feedback app, whatever) to gauge the success/failure.
This sounds awful. I have been to WDW many times, and it is my favorite place on earth! Fastpass and ADRs have been great, but I think Disney has gone too far with this idea. What if I’m scheduled to ride something, it happens to be a rainy morning, and there are no other times available to ride that particular ride for the rest of my trip?!? That would be terrible. Taking away any spontaneity is truly a big mistake.