When guests arrive at their favorite Disney theme park for a day of fun, many of them make a straight shot for the ride they know will have the longest line in order to grab a FASTPASS for the ride. The FASTPASS ticket kiosks, located outside many of the most popular attractions, prints out a ticket for guests giving them a time frame to come back to the ride and wait in a much shorter line than park guests who have opted not to pick up the FASTPASS ticket.
The problem Disney has found with this system is that many of the FASTPASSes are distributed in the morning, leaving guests who come later in the day disappointed that they cannot get into their favorite rides faster because there are no tickets left in the kiosks. Even more disappointing for these guests is that they may have wasted a lot of time in the park traveling from the entrance all the way to the ride only to find out about the lack of tickets available.
At Disney’s the Animal Kingdom, the theme park is now testing a centralized FASTPASS distribution system, so that guests don’t have to trek all over the park to get the tickets. Currently the centralized FASTPASS distribution system is only in its testing phase and it is not clear whether or not it will hit more parks than just the Animal Kingdom.
Disney has also implemented a new birthday FASTPASS to annual passholders. this means that there are a certain amount of FASTPASS tickets held at the kiosks, even when the normal FASTPASS tickets are sold out. Annual passholders who arrive at the park on their birthday can put their membership card in the kiosk and out will pop a ticket – which leads to the disappointment of many of the onlooking guests who can’t get tickets.
Any thoughts on how Disney should handle all of this drama with its FASTPASSes?
Image Via Flickr
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I think when people book their trips to Disney they should have an “iteniery” printed out showing what time to be at what attraction. That way they can get a chance to see everything in a timely manner and people wont miss out or stand in long lines. If people (residents etc) just show up on a whim, they will have an itineray generated for them when they purchase their tickets.
I think they should do what Universal does. When you stay at any of the onsite resorts you should get fast pass in your room key.
Mileyfanforever says:
October 4, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I think they should do what Universal does. When you stay at any of the onsite resorts you should get fast pass in your room key.
Universal has only three hotels while Disney has dozens. That type of system would back up pretty quickly.
If guests want to take advantage of the Fastpass feature, they need to get to the park early enough to get one. Trekking to each individual ride for the Fastpass is part of the adventure and Why should someone that gets to the park when it opens be penalized?