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Oh wait now that I don’t work at Disney anymore, can I share my opinions of the Fastpass system???
I don’t think any of these thoughts will be all that groundbreaking to a lot of distwitter, but a lot of park fans I’ve ranted about this to are SHOCKED.
Ok ok so here are the reasons I think Fastpass is bad: A Thread
1. FASTPASS MAKES STANDBY QUEUES LONGER
Let’s say a ride has an hourly capacity of 1,000 guests per hour. That means that if 1,000 people are in the standby line, the wait time to get on the ride will be one hour.
Let’s say a ride has an hourly capacity of 1,000 guests per hour. That means that if 1,000 people are in the standby line, the wait time to get on the ride will be one hour.
Now let’s imagine the park gives out 250 fastpasses per hour. The ride capacity is still 1000 guests per hour, but now, 250 guests have priority boarding. The wait for 1,000 standby guests now goes up to 75 minutes.
This issue only gets worse as more fastpasses are added or operational delays occur. There’s a reason that the DAK safari’s fastpass queue is always backed up! It has a tremendous theoretical hourly capacity, but due to animal stops and other delays, it rarely hits that mark.
Like, one giraffe in the road (giraffic jam) would cause a huge backup for fastpass because the ride capacity suddenly dropped from (for example) 3,000 to, say, 2,500, meaning the fastpass yield is now disproportionate to the ride’s capacity.
Every attraction has a v specific ratio to follow at the merge point that determines how many standby guests to let in per FP guest. As the FP line gets longer, you must let in more FP guests per SB guest - for example, 10 FPs per 1 SB. This makes the wait for SB even longer.
This is precisely why Star Wars land attractions opened WITHOUT fastpass (Universal opened HP attractions without express pass too, but I'll get to express in a moment)
2. FASTPASS SLOWS THE FLOW OF STANDBY QUEUES
The ratio I mentioned above means that when FP guests are flowing through without stopping, it causes the SB queue to stagnate. This is especially bad because when guests are stuck in one place for too long, they abuse queues
The ratio I mentioned above means that when FP guests are flowing through without stopping, it causes the SB queue to stagnate. This is especially bad because when guests are stuck in one place for too long, they abuse queues
Guests will get bored and pick at paint carve graffiti, let kids climb on stuff, etc. when they're stuck in one spot for too long. If they have to sit in one spot for more than five minutes and aren't stuck near a trash can, they're likely to leave trash behind in the queue too.
(Looks directly at Flight of Passage queue)
Of course preshows also cause stoppage in queues but generally speaking they’re not particularly long, and have a regular rhythm to them that doesn’t result in the same sense of unpredictable tedium.
3. OVERCROWDED WALKWAYS
When a guest gets a FP for a ride, the idea is that they do all of their "waiting" for the ride outside of the queue. This is why park mgmt likes FP so much -
When a guest gets a FP for a ride, the idea is that they do all of their "waiting" for the ride outside of the queue. This is why park mgmt likes FP so much -
- instead of standing and waiting in the queue for an hour and not spending any $$, guests now spend that hour going into shops or buying a dole whip or whatever.
Where the queue would normally hold a bunch of people and keep them out of the walkways and out of the shops/restaurants, now there's a bunch of extra people milling around and killing time until their return window
This is honestly just fine in a park like DAK or magic kingdom because they're so huge and spread out...my beef with this particular thing is mainly based on what it's done to Disneyland
Disneyland is so teeny and cramped and old and the walkways are soooo narrow and ill-equipped to hold that many people just wandering around. Think about what Adventureland is like on a busy afternoon! Suffocating!
There are a lot of reasons for Disneyland feeling overcrowded and we can't totally blame fastpass here but the fastpass system certainly doesn't help.
4. FINAL POINT: 
CLASSISM
CLASSISM
Up until recently, Disneyland was immune to this criticism because the FP system was totally egalitarian. Everyone had a fair shake no matter what kind of ticket or vacation package you bought. (Except for relatively small pop. who got VIP tour guides)
NOW they have Maxpass, which is like $20 and lets you book fastpasses on your phone. This still doesn't bother me that much, because it's pretty affordable and there still is a fair shot at all available fastpasses every morning
WDW and Universal though...this is where my beef lies
Express Pass prices fluctuate wildly depending on the time of year you buy them. On low crowd days they can be somewhat affordable, but on busy days, they can cost as much or more than a park ticket! This is also their only FP-type system at the park.
So like imagine you're a family of 4 that has saved up to go to the park and can only go over the summer bc school/work. You have to spend $120/person for tix, plus flight/hotel/food/car/souvenirs/etc etc etc, and then.....EXPRESS COSTS EACH PERSON AN ADDITIONAL $100
Universal DOES offer express passes to hotel guests but GUESS WHAT! No free express pass if you're in a Value hotel! Only if you're in a hotel that's at least moderate or deluxe. (If this has changed pls let me know. I’m not as up to date on Uni)
Broke my own thread lol it continues here: https://twitter.com/mariamondloch/status/1335721476062732289
