Over the past week, there's been a lot of talk on Disney-related discussion boards about the policy change that the Walt Disney World Resort now has in the works when it comes to FASTPASS return times.
To be specific: Starting on March 7th, Guests who arrive 5 minutes ahead of their ride reservation return time will now be allowed to gain entrance to that show or attraction. Likewise WDW visitors who show up 15 minutes past the return time that's actually printed on their FASTPASS will be allowed to enter. But outside of this 80-minute window, these FASTPASSES will no longer be honored.
If you talk with WDW insiders, they'll flat-out admit that this new rigid-FASTPASS-return-time policy is being implemented next month to help with the roll-out of XPass (i.e. that soon-to-be-announced Disney World vacation package program which will — among its many perks — allow Guests to book a full day's worth of FASTPASS ride times for a particular theme park weeks & months in advance). Another less-talked-about aspect of the coming XPass roll-out is the installation of new FASTPASS machines all over property (EX: the system that's in the process of being installed at Epcot's "The Seas with Nemo and Friends" pavilion). Which will then make it that much easier for XPass purchasers to pre-book their rides on many of the WDW theme parks' high profile / more popular shows & attractions.
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"So when is Disney Parks & Resorts going to officially announce that XPass vacation packages are officially available for booking at select WDW Resorts?," you ask. Back in December, the scuttlebutt was that this program would officially be unveiled at the Company's annual meeting of shareholders. Which will be held on Tuesday, March 13th at the Westin Crown
Center in Kansas City, MO. With Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa being selected as the initial test site for this next generation Guest experience.
But nowadays … I've been hearing that certain higher-ups at the Walt Disney World Resort would like to push back the official XPass announcement for at least a month or two. Just to make sure that — by the time this enhanced Guest experience goes live — that enough of the NextGen perks that are supposed to be the heart of this new vacation package are actually operational. With the hold-off-on-officially-announcing-XPass-for-a-while argument being that you only have one chance to make a great first impression. And if the first people who book XPass vacation packages find the initial version of this NextGen Guest experience wanting, in this age of social media, that news will fly around Facebook and Twitter like wildfire. Which is why veteran WDW managers want to err on the side of caution here.
On the other hand, the members of senior management at the Disney Company who actually authorized the estimated $1 billion that has (to date) spent on the development & implementation of all of this NextGen stuff …. They'd like to see the Company start to get a return on this huge investment. Which is why they're pushing from their end to have XPass announced as soon as possible. So it's going to be interesting to see which set of insiders ultimately wins out here when Bob Iger takes to the stage next month in Kansas City and then reveals what the Mouse has in the works for 2013 & beyond.
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One point that's worth noting here is that — while online Disneyana fans are mourning the coming end of the "Come-back-anytime-after-your-FASTPASS-window-has-expired.-Your-pass-will-still-be-honored" era — 99% of Disney theme park visitors actually believed what what was written on their FASTPASS. So when these people would get a ride reservation for Splash Mountain which stated that they needed to be back between 1:25 – 2:25 p.m., these Guests would then move heaven and earth in order to get back to that thrill ride in time to ride. I've heard stories from veteran servers who work at super-hard-to-get-it WDW eateries like Cinderella's Royal Table at the Magic Kingdom about Guests who would bolt their meals, blow off the chance to have their pictures taken with the characters, frantically gesturing for a check … All because these people had a FASTPASS for Space Mountain that they didn't want to expire.
So for these WDW Guests, Walt Disney World tightening the return window for FASTPASS isn't really going to have all that big an impact. But for those Disney insiders who have been gaming this ride reservation system for a dozen years now, who have been taking advantage of the Company's lax enforcement / relaxed attitude when it comes to FASTPASS return times … This policy change (much like that $10 per-person cancellation fee for missed WDW dining reservations which was put in place back in October 26th) will have its biggest impact on those WDW veterans who regularly read all of the Disney discussion boards and believe that they now know every possible trick when it comes to cutting corners / working the system.
And speaking of that recent change to Disney World's dining reservation policies … Though you'll never ever get anyone in WDW management to go on the record about this particular policy change, I'm told that the Resort's Food & Beverage staff are absolutely thrilled with the positive impact that this $10-per-person-in-your-dining-party cancellation fee has had on some of Disney World's most popular eateries. Now that WDW Guests are required to give a credit card number in order to make reservations at popular places like Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary Resort (More importantly, that these same people will be charged a $10 fee should they opt not to show up), the no-show rate at WDW's signature dining experiences or
character meals has dropped from a high of 25 – 30% to a low of 5 – 10%.
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Disney's hoping that next month's change to the FASTPASS return policy will have the same sort of PR footprint that October's $10 cancellation fee announcement had. In that — after some initial grumbling on various Disney discussion boards around the Web — there was a nary a ripple about this WDW dining reservations policy change out in the real world. Though given the millions of theme park visitors who have taken advantage of this ride reservation system since FASTPASS was first introduced back in 1999, one wonders how Disney World veterans are going to react when they learn that the Resort's previous your-FASTPASS-can-be-used-all-day policy is being replaced by a 80-minute-long window.
Your thoughts?
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was reworked on February 13, 2012 to clarify the new FASTPASS return times. Which will actually be 80 minutes long, rather than the 20 minutes long mentioned in a previous draft of today's story.