Paid FP options coming soon to WDW?

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Doberge said:
Adding coal to the fire:

Len Testa teased on today's Disney Dish podcast "if people are upset about [the new stroller policy], wait until they see what's in store for fastpass, and I will leave it at that."
Click to expand...
I just finished listening to this week's episode! He didn't sound like he was joking about it....
 
All depending how this is implemented, I wonder if this will hurt sales of extras like Dessert parties or Early morning Magic.

If you have to pay for a fastpass (but are guaranteed one of those high demand ones) .. I could see people cutting costs for those fastpasses by cutting ParkHoppers, and other hard-ticket events from their Disney trip budgets.

There is only so much money in most families travel budgets.
 
tlmadden73 said:
All depending how this is implemented, I wonder if this will hurt sales of extras like Dessert parties or Early morning Magic.

If you have to pay for a fastpass (but are guaranteed one of those high demand ones) .. I could see people cutting costs for those fastpasses by cutting ParkHoppers, and other hard-ticket events from their Disney trip budgets.

There is only so much money in most families travel budgets.
Click to expand...
While I agree with you, just looking at it from another side, people who suddenly feel they 'need' to purchase FPs to get the rides they want, might suddenly entertain the thought of a morning or evening add-on that they otherwise would not have been willing to pay for.
 
SaintsManiac said:
Right??? And just when I thought I would be doing every dessert party Thanksgiving week...
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lol yup! And I have already planned on springing for a MNSSHP dessert party if the new fireworks news turns out to be true, so this trip (which wasn’t even originally planned...the surprise dropping of Free Dining back in January was too much for me to pass on) may do a bigger number on my bank acct than originally anticipated lol
 
tlmadden73 said:
All depending how this is implemented, I wonder if this will hurt sales of extras like Dessert parties or Early morning Magic.

If you have to pay for a fastpass (but are guaranteed one of those high demand ones) .. I could see people cutting costs for those fastpasses by cutting ParkHoppers, and other hard-ticket events from their Disney trip budgets.

There is only so much money in most families travel budgets.
Click to expand...


It will be a choice for me to make. Without knowing how much FPs will cost I am not sure how much I have to trade off.

We've ridden everything we love so many times that it will come down to what's more important.

I've already cut deluxe resorts and character meals out of our budget. What's next??? I love extras and don't want to cut them out.
 
scrappinginontario said:
Do you know something 'official' we don't know or just trusting your gut?

I believe it's coming and am at the point where I'd just like them to announce what it is and when it will start as I'm pretty confident it will affect our September trip.
Click to expand...

Right? Like just tell me so I can plan, I have 2 trips booked for this year and I want to know what I’m dealing with.
 
In 2013 and early 2014 the discussion was all about how Disney was just so sick of people getting shut out of TSMM FP they needed a program like FP+ to make things fair. The people who feared this coming were paranoid and FP abusers who just didn’t want to share. Anyone else remember that? Now in 2019 FP+ has been around for 5 years, and Disney is supposedly just sick and tired again and trying to make it fair for the poor guests who still haven’t grasped how to use their system. So now they’re going to complicate it more and charge for it to fix the problem. That should do it! In another 5 years will people finally realize it has always and will always be about squeezing the most money they can out of guests? Make no mistake, this isn’t because the Smith family stays offsite and misses out on headliners at 30 days, or the Brown family arrives at 3 PM and can’t get a 4th FP. Unless of course we’re talking about the Smith and Brown families and their willingness to pay for more. Then Disney is listening. On that note, I totally disagree with the notion that people who don’t research and plan are entitled to the same results as those that do. In this day and age there’s no excuse for showing up somewhere blind, unless that’s what you want.

Crowds are a problem. Whether the problem is being made worse intentionally by Disney is a fair question, but I guess that’s a discussion for another day. What I think is the biggest crowd control measure and one Disney is not using properly is the park hours. It is absolutely insane, IMO, how many we’ve lost in recent years. I can remember about 10 years ago being in MK for EMH that went from midnight to 3 AM. This was either in spring or summer, and was not a crazy busy time of year. That’s a regularly scheduled midnight close. Even more frustrating than shorter hours is how many hours we’ve lost to paid events.

And that brings me to the boiling frog analogy, which I think perfectly fits here. They’ve been warming the water slowly over the years with hard ticket parties, after hour events, morning events, dessert parties, and finally the CL FP+. They’ve been conditioning us to pay directly for what was previously included for years. Nobody should be surprised this is coming, nobody should be doubting this rumor and even if it’s not yet accurate as far as a timeline goes no doubt it’s where we’re headed. How anyone can deny that after not only all the paid events but the CL FP is beyond me.

I disagree with those who have said throughout this thread (yes I read it all) that Disney’s obligation is to maximize profitability for shareholders without question. As a shareholder, why would I want them to aim for short term profits at the expense of goodwill built up over decades? Maybe that won’t happen, I don’t put it past them to know what their base will take in terms of increases, but short term profit is not the only consideration. I also strongly disagree with those who lament that Disney doesn’t care about middle class and repeat guests, and is only going for wealthy guests or first timers. I think they realize that they still have a strong hold over many repeat guests who are those boiling frogs, who do you think is attending all those hard ticket events, paying for what used to be included? I would sooner guess first timers and wealthy guests balk at paying for that kind of thing than the repeat, obsessed, fans. I think we, the repeat guests, are a big part of the reason Disney can go in this direction.

On a personal level, I’m super bummed. We usually don’t go often (3-4 years between, although this year will be an outlier and we are going 2 years in a row). We were one of the lucky ones to go in early 2014, right after legacy FP had been completely removed but before the 4th FP came into play. I’m disappointed and feel like we’re going to find ourselves in a similar scenario come October. We don’t go often enough to be okay with a trip where kinks are being worked out and strategies haven’t been figured out. We are point renters though and can’t move a trip later, so it is what it is and we’ll make the best of it.

That ended up being ridiculously long. For only $50 per day, I can summarize my long winded rants for whoever wants me to. Thanks for reading!
 
DGsAtBLT said:
In 2013 and early 2014 the discussion was all about how Disney was just so sick of people getting shut out of TSMM FP they needed a program like FP+ to make things fair. The people who feared this coming were paranoid and FP abusers who just didn’t want to share. Anyone else remember that? Now in 2019 FP+ has been around for 5 years, and Disney is supposedly just sick and tired again and trying to make it fair for the poor guests who still haven’t grasped how to use their system. So now they’re going to complicate it more and charge for it to fix the problem. That should do it! In another 5 years will people finally realize it has always and will always be about squeezing the most money they can out of guests? Make no mistake, this isn’t because the Smith family stays offsite and misses out on headliners at 30 days, or the Brown family arrives at 3 PM and can’t get a 4th FP. Unless of course we’re talking about the Smith and Brown families and their willingness to pay for more. Then Disney is listening. On that note, I totally disagree with the notion that people who don’t research and plan are entitled to the same results as those that do. In this day and age there’s no excuse for showing up somewhere blind, unless that’s what you want.

Crowds are a problem. Whether the problem is being made worse intentionally by Disney is a fair question, but I guess that’s a discussion for another day. What I think is the biggest crowd control measure and one Disney is not using properly is the park hours. It is absolutely insane, IMO, how many we’ve lost in recent years. I can remember about 10 years ago being in MK for EMH that went from midnight to 3 AM. This was either in spring or summer, and was not a crazy busy time of year. That’s a regularly scheduled midnight close. Even more frustrating than shorter hours is how many hours we’ve lost to paid events.

And that brings me to the boiling frog analogy, which I think perfectly fits here. They’ve been warming the water slowly over the years with hard ticket parties, after hour events, morning events, dessert parties, and finally the CL FP+. They’ve been conditioning us to pay directly for what was previously included for years. Nobody should be surprised this is coming, nobody should be doubting this rumor and even if it’s not yet accurate as far as a timeline goes no doubt it’s where we’re headed. How anyone can deny that after not only all the paid events but the CL FP is beyond me.

I disagree with those who have said throughout this thread (yes I read it all) that Disney’s obligation is to maximize profitability for shareholders without question. As a shareholder, why would I want them to aim for short term profits at the expense of goodwill built up over decades? Maybe that won’t happen, I don’t put it past them to know what their base will take in terms of increases, but short term profit is not the only consideration. I also strongly disagree with those who lament that Disney doesn’t care about middle class and repeat guests, and is only going for wealthy guests or first timers. I think they realize that they still have a strong hold over many repeat guests who are those boiling frogs, who do you think is attending all those hard ticket events, paying for what used to be included? I would sooner guess first timers and wealthy guests balk at paying for that kind of thing than the repeat, obsessed, fans. I think we, the repeat guests, are a big part of the reason Disney can go in this direction.

On a personal level, I’m super bummed. We usually don’t go often (3-4 years between, although this year will be an outlier and we are going 2 years in a row). We were one of the lucky ones to go in early 2014, right after legacy FP had been completely removed but before the 4th FP came into play. I’m disappointed and feel like we’re going to find ourselves in a similar scenario come October. We don’t go often enough to be okay with a trip where kinks are being worked out and strategies haven’t been figured out. We are point renters though and can’t move a trip later, so it is what it is and we’ll make the best of it.

That ended up being ridiculously long. For only $50 per day, I can summarize my long winded rants for whoever wants me to. Thanks for reading!
Click to expand...

I'm with you. I don't understand how people think a new system is going to be less complicated and easier to understand when it will be built on top of the current system.

I also don't get the optimism of hoping they sell anytime fast passes. That would seriously reduce Disney's ability to control crowds. That's just not going to happen on a large scale. Doling them out as treats and whoopsies here and there doesn't affect much, and they likely still have data on where those typically get used.
 
tlmadden73 said:
All depending how this is implemented, I wonder if this will hurt sales of extras like Dessert parties or Early morning Magic.

If you have to pay for a fastpass (but are guaranteed one of those high demand ones) .. I could see people cutting costs for those fastpasses by cutting ParkHoppers, and other hard-ticket events from their Disney trip budgets.

There is only so much money in most families travel budgets.
Click to expand...

It's hard to speculate on the impact until we know what the changes are. All we really know at this point is changes are coming to the FP system. Everything else is speculation. We have no idea what the changes are and what cost will be involved.
 
SaharanTea said:
I'm with you. I don't understand how people think a new system is going to be less complicated and easier to understand when it will be built on top of the current system.

I also don't get the optimism of hoping they sell anytime fast passes. That would seriously reduce Disney's ability to control crowds. That's just not going to happen on a large scale. Doling them out as treats and whoopsies here and there doesn't affect much, and they likely still have data on where those typically get used.
Click to expand...

There won't be anytime FP's. I'm not sure who is hoping and dreaming for that.

Whatever paid options are coming I'm sure they will have to be booked just like a current FP.
 
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