Should front row seats be a premium add on

[flyingguitar]

It's a capitalist business at the end of the day. Management's job is to balance the delight of their customers with the delight of shareholders - albeit to maximise returns for shareholders. It's a symbiotic relationship

Disney/Universal not only make big bucks from various FP schemes, from £30 for 3+ rides to £200-£400 for a one-time for each ride - and then £500+ for VIP/front of line experiences. They also use the benefits to sell their really expensive hotels. If you get rid of these FP options, shareholders expect the money to come from somewhere else - and that's every other customer!

yes, our points was that they are really bad for other people and not fair.

disney were (not sure how it is now) a good example of this, at disney they used to opperate with up to 100:1 ratio of fast pass to non paying guests, essentially turning the rides into required paid attractions (to put that to context, a ratio of 10:1 (less, but I recall seeing 100:1 was the max) would make big thunder mountain (~3000pph) would be like 200pph, this is worse than rita at 1 train (I times about 3 min dispaches, with 20 rides, that gives about 400pph))
This was shown during covid when fastpass was closed, from start to ride snow whites queue (which during fastpass was about 2-3 hours) was 40 mins, the queue skipping features decimate the normal queue's throughput, and at disney it has destroyed the day for people who were too late to book, or didn't pay for it

 

[Bowser]

yes, our points was that they are really bad for other people and not fair.

disney were (not sure how it is now) a good example of this, at disney they used to opperate with up to 100:1 ratio of fast pass to non paying guests, essentially turning the rides into required paid attractions (to put that to context, a ratio of 10:1 (less, but I recall seeing 100:1 was the max) would make big thunder mountain (~3000pph) would be like 200pph, this is worse than rita at 1 train (I times about 3 min dispaches, with 20 rides, that gives about 400pph))
This was shown during covid when fastpass was closed, from start to ride snow whites queue (which during fastpass was about 2-3 hours) was 40 mins, the queue skipping features decimate the normal queue's throughput, and at disney it has destroyed the day for people who were too late to book, or didn't pay for it

Sorry for the slight tangent but it sounds like the Disney parks differ massively by location? What you describe certainly isn't how Disneyland Paris operates so is this purely a US issue?

 

[Benzin]

Sorry for the slight tangent but it sounds like the Disney parks differ massively by location? What you describe certainly isn't how Disneyland Paris operates so is this purely a US issue?

It'll be the way WDW operates. Where you seemingly have to book you entire holiday 6 months in advance else you won't get to do practically anything.

It's really off-putting.

 

[flyingguitar]

Sorry for the slight tangent but it sounds like the Disney parks differ massively by location? What you describe certainly isn't how Disneyland Paris operates so is this purely a US issue?

yes, sorry each park has (or had, not sure if disneyland has matched WDW's latest ones) a completely different fast pass system, DLP was quite good, with very few people using. I was refering to WDW one, I think disneyland also has (or had) a differnt system called the maxi pass?? it was like $30 or so and worked similar to how the system worked before fastpass + similar to old AT (where you go to ticket places in the park, then do it there)

It's really off-putting.

yeah, it has changed I believe but they have changed the fast pass system so many times, I have lost track of how their charging, or how it is working
the last time I properly knew how it worked was gene+, where you payed something like $30 per day to get access to the same fastpass + system, which would be fully booked so people ended up booking it on stuff like winnie the poo

 

[Smiley]

Sorry for the slight tangent but it sounds like the Disney parks differ massively by location? What you describe certainly isn't how Disneyland Paris operates so is this purely a US issue?

Yes DLP is a bit different. Bear in mind a single day ticket to Disney USA is nearly £200 (we get a really good 7/14 day deal in the UK)

It doesn't change the facts. Some people are cash rich and time poor, and will pay to save "time". Businesses will exploit this. It's not a new thing. Adding £5 to the ticket price won't change the FP queue, but it will reduce the normal queue as some people will be priced out. So the rest get shorter queues - which is exactly the same, albeit on a smaller scale.

Not saying it is fair, not equitable, but the system is what it is and we all exploit it to the best of our ability/advantage.