Alright, I'll grant that technically the title of this message is false. Theoretically any day-use visitor can go up to the express machines and get an express pass. However, I was at USF 4/20 thru 4/22. Saturday was incredibly busy (Spiderman had an 80 minute wait; even Kong had a 45 minute wait). Sunday was moderately crowded. Monday was empty. There were no express passes available on Saturday when I arrived at about 2:30PM. On Sunday the express passes seemed to be mostly given out by late morning and certainly by early afternoon. Even on Monday, when the parks were relatively empty, the Express passes seemed to run out. It seems to me that Express pass has VERY LIMITED availability (how else could USF guarantee a less than 15 minute rate and put NO limits on hotel guests' use of Express pass?)
The purpose of this message is not to inflame the USF die-hards. I myself also had an AP last year and have renewed my AP for another year. I definitely think USF/IOA are great parks! I only want day-users to have an objective opinion (well as objective as I can be). Most likely, if you are going at a busy time of year and are not staying at a USF resort, you will get NO value from express pass whatsoever.
I am not saying don't go to USF if it is busy; I am saying don't depend on Express to plan your day if you aren't staying at a USF resort. A much better route to take (if you can) would be the single-rider lines when available and to get to the parks EARLY.
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Enough of the advice, now for the debate.
Does anyone else remember the original concept of Express? Do you remember how it was going to be so much better than Disney's Fastpass? Does anyone else remember that on the initial rollout of the Express machines you could hold 3 passes at a time? Then it made sense to have the interactive screens. Now that you can only have 1 pass at a time, what is the point in the interactive screens? Who would choose a later time when it would lock you out from having an additional pass? (Though in my experience because the passes run out so fast you can only get 1 or 2 passes anyway) The interactive machines now have pointless additional steps. They could still be used to select multiple rides from a single location, i.e. save USF from having to expend money on individual machines for all rides, but the procedure needs to be re-thought if park-users are only going to be allowed single passes.
The Royal Pacific is slated to open shortly. The Loew's website says that it will have over 1000 guest rooms. The Loew's website also says that HRH has 650 rooms and that PBH has 750 rooms. By my estimation , that puts between 4800 and 10000 visitors at the park with FOTL. In a worse case scenario (at least for a day-user), there are 10000 visitors with FOTL, if they all choose to use FOTL twice per attraction that would be a perceived 20000 visitors with FOTL from a day-user's perspective. Do you think that Express can handle this? What will this do to the stand-by line?
Here's a question for long-standing USF patrons: Has USF always deeply discounted their day-passes? I have only been going to USF since mid-2000 so I don't know. I initially chose a FLEX ticket which seemed to be a good deal but was about $160 or $170. Recently, USF has had such offers as 5 days for $100. What I wonder is has the value of a USF day-pass gone down since FOTL has been offered to resort guests? Regardless of whether, day-users have really been treated as less valuable, it is perception that counts. If day-users perceive the level of service as having diminished, then they won't be willing to pay the same premium that was once expected. Disney is still commanding $50/day. As far as I know, there aren't many discounts from that price. (Let me know if you know of any, PLEASE!) The cheapest pass I know of for Disney are the discounted passes from Ticketmania ---that being $221 for a 5-day park-hopper. So that's about $45/day for a discounted Disney ticket. Why must USF give their passes away for as little as $20/day? Is this an economic issue only or is it a perceived lack of value? Do day-users perceive themselves as second-class? I will be the first to say that USF rides are every bit as good as Disney rides, and any many cases exceed the quality of the comparable Disney rides. (I do think that Disney shows tend to be better than USF shows---that may be just personal preference.)
Ultimately, I don't fault USF for any decisions they make. They are ,after all, a business. If they get more revenue by offering UNLIMITED FOTL to their hotel guests at the expense of day-users, I say good for them! I will continue to go to USF ---just not at busy times of the year (unless I can get a good rate at the resorts). You can't beat USF restaurants! They are a whole class above Disney restaurants.
Maybe you guys on this board can come up with a magic formula to determine when a person not staying at a USF resort should go to the parks. Maybe it would be calling reservations and checking for availabilty for discounts at the USF Resorts. If there are no discounts available for your dates, maybe that indicates a full house and to shy away from the parks. How's that? Any better ideas?
The purpose of this message is not to inflame the USF die-hards. I myself also had an AP last year and have renewed my AP for another year. I definitely think USF/IOA are great parks! I only want day-users to have an objective opinion (well as objective as I can be). Most likely, if you are going at a busy time of year and are not staying at a USF resort, you will get NO value from express pass whatsoever.
I am not saying don't go to USF if it is busy; I am saying don't depend on Express to plan your day if you aren't staying at a USF resort. A much better route to take (if you can) would be the single-rider lines when available and to get to the parks EARLY.
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Enough of the advice, now for the debate.
Does anyone else remember the original concept of Express? Do you remember how it was going to be so much better than Disney's Fastpass? Does anyone else remember that on the initial rollout of the Express machines you could hold 3 passes at a time? Then it made sense to have the interactive screens. Now that you can only have 1 pass at a time, what is the point in the interactive screens? Who would choose a later time when it would lock you out from having an additional pass? (Though in my experience because the passes run out so fast you can only get 1 or 2 passes anyway) The interactive machines now have pointless additional steps. They could still be used to select multiple rides from a single location, i.e. save USF from having to expend money on individual machines for all rides, but the procedure needs to be re-thought if park-users are only going to be allowed single passes.
The Royal Pacific is slated to open shortly. The Loew's website says that it will have over 1000 guest rooms. The Loew's website also says that HRH has 650 rooms and that PBH has 750 rooms. By my estimation , that puts between 4800 and 10000 visitors at the park with FOTL. In a worse case scenario (at least for a day-user), there are 10000 visitors with FOTL, if they all choose to use FOTL twice per attraction that would be a perceived 20000 visitors with FOTL from a day-user's perspective. Do you think that Express can handle this? What will this do to the stand-by line?
Here's a question for long-standing USF patrons: Has USF always deeply discounted their day-passes? I have only been going to USF since mid-2000 so I don't know. I initially chose a FLEX ticket which seemed to be a good deal but was about $160 or $170. Recently, USF has had such offers as 5 days for $100. What I wonder is has the value of a USF day-pass gone down since FOTL has been offered to resort guests? Regardless of whether, day-users have really been treated as less valuable, it is perception that counts. If day-users perceive the level of service as having diminished, then they won't be willing to pay the same premium that was once expected. Disney is still commanding $50/day. As far as I know, there aren't many discounts from that price. (Let me know if you know of any, PLEASE!) The cheapest pass I know of for Disney are the discounted passes from Ticketmania ---that being $221 for a 5-day park-hopper. So that's about $45/day for a discounted Disney ticket. Why must USF give their passes away for as little as $20/day? Is this an economic issue only or is it a perceived lack of value? Do day-users perceive themselves as second-class? I will be the first to say that USF rides are every bit as good as Disney rides, and any many cases exceed the quality of the comparable Disney rides. (I do think that Disney shows tend to be better than USF shows---that may be just personal preference.)
Ultimately, I don't fault USF for any decisions they make. They are ,after all, a business. If they get more revenue by offering UNLIMITED FOTL to their hotel guests at the expense of day-users, I say good for them! I will continue to go to USF ---just not at busy times of the year (unless I can get a good rate at the resorts). You can't beat USF restaurants! They are a whole class above Disney restaurants.
Maybe you guys on this board can come up with a magic formula to determine when a person not staying at a USF resort should go to the parks. Maybe it would be calling reservations and checking for availabilty for discounts at the USF Resorts. If there are no discounts available for your dates, maybe that indicates a full house and to shy away from the parks. How's that? Any better ideas?
