So how exactly is Disney World’s new xPASS system supposed to work?

Jim Hill

12 years ago

If you look around the Web, you can see that the reaction
(among Disney theme park fans, anyway) to the xPASS-related articles that I’ve written so far seem to
have been pretty negative. With the gist of their comments being that “I
would never ever pay for a service like this” and “booking ride times
for attractions weeks in advance would rob my WDW vacation of
spontaneity.”

Addressing the latter complaint first … Let me blunt here:
A Walt Disney World vacation is hardly an
exercise in spontaneity. For most people, just in order to get to Orlando
involves buying a plane ticket and/or driving for hundreds of miles. Then — if
they’re planning on staying in the area for a couple of days in order to
actually experience the Parks — these people are going to need to find a hotel
room as well as purchase some theme park tickets.

More to the point, if
you’re planning on visiting a Disney theme park, these places have definite
operating hours. So if you show up at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 10 p.m. on
a night when that park closes at 9 and then say “I wanna go ride Twilight
Zone Tower of Terror” … Well, that’s just too bad.

You get what I’m saying here? The people who are now griping
about how xPASS will possibly rob them of the opportunity to have a truly
spontaneous WDW vacation are — at best — being insincere. I mean, if the vacation spot that you love to take your family to has a parade scheduled to step off every
day right at 3 p.m. and/or requires you to make dinner reservations 6 months in
advance in order to guarantee seating at that Resort’s most popular eateries
… We’re not exactly talking about the spontaneity capital of the world, now
are we?

More to the point, how is being able to have the ability to
book (at most) four xPASSES per day per park weeks in advance going to ruin
your Disney World vacation?

You see, that’s how this NextGen system is really supposed
to work. How far in advance you book your WDW vacation and/or buy your Disney
World theme park tickets will then determine the number of xPASSES that you’ll
be able to reserve for yourself and your family. A typical scenario: If you book at least six weeks out, you
should then be able to go on the xPASS website and reserve four experiences
(EX: two attraction ride times, an exclusive meet-n-greet with a Disney
character as well as a viewing spot for the nightly fireworks).

Now multiply that by the four WDW theme parks and you’ve
then got 16 different instances where people vacationing at Walt Disney World
can actually avoid a line. That’s a huge Guest satisfier. Not to mention being
able to use the xPASS system to avoid lines at the Parks’ Quick Service Dining
locations by ordering your meals in advance using your iPhone & Smart
Phones (That’s another aspect of xPASS that we’ll get to in an upcoming JHM
article. So hang in there, folks. There’s lots more info to share yet about
this NextGen project).

And given that Disney Parks & Resorts now no longer
plans on making people pay for xPASS (That’s right. This newly enhanced version
of the Company’s virtual queuing system — just like FastPASS before it — will
be a freebie. Available to all WDW Guests in some way, shape or form) … Well,
how can Disney theme park fans (who — let’s be honest here — have a tendency
to initially be negative about anything
new that’s proposed for the Parks. Invariably trotting out that same old tired
“Walt wouldn’t have done it that way” argument that they always use.
As if anyone could actually accurately predict what
Disney would have done in any one situation more than 35 years after the
company’s founder has passed away) now find fault with that?

That said … It is worth noting here that — under the
current plans for the xPASS system (which now looks to be rolled out during the
first quarter of 2013. After more of the in-park infrastructure that is needed to
support this radically enhanced version of Disney’s virtual queuing system is
actually in place) — the further in advance you book your vacation package /
buy your theme park tickets, the more xPASSES you’ll then be able to book. So
six weeks out, you should be able to book 4 experiences per day. Two weeks out,
we’re talking two or three. Day of? The way I hear, we’re now back in typical
FastPASS country. Where — depending on how many people are in the Park that
day / Guest demand — we’re now talking one, maybe two … depending on
availability.

Beyond that … Let me toss one final little tidbit of news
out there. Which is that — when xPASS debuts in 2013 — it’s unlikely that
this NextGen version of Disney’s virtual queuing system will still be called
xPASS.

Why For? Because according to the survey work that Disney’s
marketing staff has done, the xPASS name has been testing poorly. So as of
right now, Disney’s looking for a better handle for this
service.

And now — to get to the particular sticky question of where
annual passholders, DVC members as well as Disney World cast members fit into
all this, what sort of xPASS privileges can these folks expect to have access
to … And the answer is: Disney doesn’t know yet. Even though this NextGen
virtual queuing system project has actively been in development for over 5
years now, they still don’t know quite what to do with the Company’s own
employees and/or its most loyal & dedicated customers.

As of right now, it looks like — due to the anticipated
increased Guest demand for FastPASSES / xPASS experiences — anyone using comp
tickets will allegedly not be eligible to use this virtual queuing system to
book anything in advance. Which means that WDW cast members and their friends
& family will only be able to book their experiences on the days that they
actually visit the Parks.

Whereas annual passholders & DVC members … Recognizing
that these people are among Disney’s most passionate customers … Well, the
Company’s obviously got to come through for them in a large sort of way, at
least as far as xPASS is concerned. But that said, there’s still a delicate
balance that needs to be struck here between servicing the day Guests at WDW’s
theme parks, sending them home satisfied as well as making annual passholders
& DVC members feel like they’re special.

And then there’s the whole issue of which attractions should
actually be included in the FastPASS / xPASS inventory. (EX: The Magic Carpets
of Aladdin. For 9/10th of the year, this Adventureland spinner has absolutely
no problem meeting Guests’ expectations.
Every person who comes to the Magic Kingdom and then wants to experience
the Magic Carpets will have the opportunity to ride this spinner. It’s only
during those extremely busy times of year at this theme park [EX: The week
between Christmas and New Years, February school vacation, Easter week, the height
of summer] that Guest demand exceeds this ride’s capacity. So is it really
worth it to make the Magic Carpets of Aladdin a FastPASS / xPASS ride for those
four weeks out of every year? Or would it be wiser in the long run to make some
other, more-in-demand attraction at the Magic Kingdom part of this virtual
queuing system?)

Long story short, folks:
At this point, we’re still at least 10 months out from xPASS (or
whatever new name the Company eventually hangs on this
NextGen version of Parks & Resorts’ virtual queuing system) debuting. And
given how fluid this situation still is,
it’s entirely possible that other significant changes will be made between now
and the first quarter of 2013.

So my advice here is to be a bit patient. More importantly,
don’t listen to the doom-and-gloomers who are calling xPASS the death of
spontaneity (at least when it comes to WDW vacations). Because based on Disney
World’s own internal survey work, Guests who make use of the FastPASS system
during their vacations come away from that experience with a far more positive
impression of the time that they spent in Orlando. These people love anything
that then gets them out of a line / allows them to board a ride and/or
experience an attraction ahead of the other Guests.

So with xPASS potentially allowing these people to walk into
a Disney theme park knowing that — even before they push through those
turnstiles — that they get to jump the line for four different experiences
over the course of their day in the Park … That’s a huge Guest satisfier.
Something that these people are sure to talk up once they get back home.

Which is just what the Company was looking to do when they
initially put xPASS into development back in 2006 or thereabouts.

So now that you have a somewhat better understanding of what
xPASS is / how this NextGen virtual queuing system is supposed to work, what
other questions do you have? Based on the info that I have in hand / the
sources that I have within the Disney Company, I’ll do my best to answer your
questions in the coming weeks. So fire away.

Your thoughts?