Go West, Magic Kingdom FastPass+ User
I’m working on an update to the Magic Kingdom chapter of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. A lot of it is fact-checking, which, in a book like the Guide, is a pretty big task. But it’s also a chance to find new ways to explain how the park is changing.
We do a section in the chapter that describes how FastPass+ affects traffic in the park. I adapted the latest standby wait data from our statisticians, to a map of the park. Here’s the result:
Green attractions are those where standby waits are lower with FastPass+; orange attractions are those with higher average standby waits. So what FastPass+ is doing is moving people from Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, to Adventureland and Liberty Square, maybe with a quick stop along the way.
If this was a map of migration patterns in the United States, we’d say people were leaving Newark and Philadelphia for Phoenix, Palm Springs, and Denver, by way of Louisville.
You May Also Like...
-
Sometimes it is fun to just take it all in while you're at Walt Disney World. Recently, we spent an afternoon…
-
One of the most popular special activities that people take advantage when visiting Walt Disney World is the Disney Early Morning…
-
It's always a magical time when we visit Magic Kingdom. This weekend, our team arrived early to enjoy a morning at…
-
If you know the perfect Disney parents, or see yourselves as such, you'll want to head to Magic Kingdom to pick…
So Len you’re showing us that a major point to Disney’s FP+ is working as intended?
Yes, and I think it’s worth noting. We say in the next edition of the book that it’s one of the great Ops Research projects of the decade.
All of the attractions with lower average standby waits now (i.e. green) used to have paper FASTPASS, and all of the attractions with higher average standby waits now (i.e. orange) didn’t have paper FASTPASS. It’s just that most of the paper FASTPASS rides were in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.
If I’m right, a map with legacy FASTPASS rides Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain in the west and the new FASTPASS rides Mad Tea Party, Tomorrowland Speedway and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor in the east would show the crowds moving the other way.
Yeah, so are the BTMR and Splash wait times a wash with FP+?
My assumption was that FP+ would allow Disney to engineer crowds more organically throughout the day – if wait times are lower at Pirates, then make it the first FP+ option that shows up if someone is booking intra-day fastpasses at a kiosk or an app.
Would be curious to know, Len, if you have attempted to extrapolate how the addition of a fourth FastPass+ would further affect wait times, considering potential tiering of the fourth FastPass+. etc. Thanks for all your hard work over the years!
Any comments on wait times at BTMRR? My personal experience is that wait times have definitely increased. Plus, it’s in keeping with your “West”ern theme. Great analysis, thanks!
Thanks for the laugh 😉