Got in the FastPass line for Test Track at 11:05 this morning......

[wisblue]

Sounds familiar!! We were in Epcot yesterday with the same problem. Nothing wrong. We all rode TT first thing in the morning. It used to be my favorite ride in all of Disney. I was done after one time. I know the ride itself is pretty much the same, but I don't like the new set up. DH had fast passes for 3 more times during the day because DS7 just loved it. All three times he waited at least an hour in the fast pass lane. It was totally ridiculous. I don't know if the stand by line was moving faster, I doubt it, but having to wait hours for your fast pass time and then still wait an hour in line is too much.

I don't think anyone is questioning that this happened. But, if FP+ by itself is causing it to happen, wouldn't it be happening all or most of the time?

 

[AmyB2006]

Was the car in a different time zone? Or a DeLorean?

 

[rebbyparker]

Ok, know that I'm so gonna get stomped for this but I, for the life of me, do not get the TT thing. Maybe it's growing up in Michigan and having the GM Lake Orion proving grounds a half hour away from me but I just don't get the fast car thing. Luckily that just means that all I have to worry about is Soarin.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We were just at WDW from Nov 30th, returning today. We used most of our fp+ at night and pretty much walked to the front of every line, even TSMM. Test Track was just a little slower, but I don't think it was more than 15 minutes from start to finish.

 

[aml3679]

It is very crowded for this time of year. Wait times on some rides are 110 minutes.

 

[Denise W]

We had FP+ for TT today at 9:10. We walked in and were assigned a spot for the design room within 1 minute, then stood in line for the design room for about 2 minutes. The design room lasts 4-5 minutes, then the lines merge with standby. We waited for about 5 minutes for our car. So it took about 13 minutes to get into the car. We will probably do single rider from now on because we have no interest in designing the car.

Denise

 

[tndisneyfan]

Did you experience these longer waits in the morning or in the afternoon?

We normally rope drop, so I would say that we tried to use our FPs anywhere from 10:00 until about 2:00 in the afternoon. I know our TSMM FP was for 10:36 and we arrived right about the time it kicked in. The Buzz Lightyear FP were on the later end, probably between 1-2.

 

[davidl81]

Here is a question, would not fast pass plus help lower the fast pass time in the future with the tier system and only being able to pull one fast pass per ride per day?

 

[Shaden]

Here is a question, would not fast pass plus help lower the fast pass time in the future with the tier system and only being able to pull one fast pass per ride per day?

Possibly,

BUT, at the same time possibly not. IF it drives more people into the headliners and into the Fastpass lines, then no, particularly if this starts earlier in the day and the line builds earlier, and is sustained throughout the day. Of course, it would be possible then to decrease the number of FP offered, but that doesn't sound like a great solution either.

Its also possible it has to do with the readers. A few people have noted that it takes considerably more time to use the RFID readers than it did to have CM's grab your stack of FPs and let your group on. Now, you can imagine a few seconds per person 1-5, not to bad. But compare that with a group of 5 people. Before it was, Hand the stack to CM, walk in, 2-5 seconds total for the whole group. Now if everyone has to scan, 1-5 seconds per person, possibly 25 seconds. Multiply that delay over and over again .... eventually it can add up to a significant delay at the gate.

That being said, I think the general idea was to shorten the FP line, or have no change, and I think TT is an animal all its own. What this does to standby lines, particularly at previously non-peak times of day, that's another story.

 

[JUANOLAS]

I dont think fp+ can cause that.
I am sure fp+ is great i love it.
Some ppl claim got cured of cancer wearing the magic bands... you know they are magic... and hi tec.
I also belive in technology all technology is good you have to get used to it or just kill yourself.... i heard enriched plutonium is hi tec... i think disney should incorporate some in the bands.
.
Do you think disney spend all that money in mme and bands just because.??. is in testing i am sure that once is rolling will end up beeing a hit as all disney do. You know lemings do suicide.... fp+ is great.

Are you sure??

Maybe you are schizoprenic and hallucinate the queue.

Maybe andy was around and all toys freeze.

Are you in a conspiration to destroy disworld.??

A woman gave birth on the ride??

It was 4 am and disworld was closed??

I am sure there is a logical explanation.

 

[The Hub]

A couple of questions/comments.

First, this sounds like an unpublicized guarantee. I don't think I've ever seen anything that specific in print anywhere. Is this more like a policy or practice, like when return times weren't enforced?

Second, 10 minutes seems awfully short, especially considering how some rides load. This thread has already gone through the process at Test Track that involves waiting to get into a design room, the design room itself, and then getting out of the design room and placed in a vehicle.

At Soarin, after you get through the second and final checkpoint, where the line merges with standby, you still have to wait in the corridor area before getting assigned to a specific spot in one of the boarding areas where you see Patrick's boarding instructions. It would seem like 10 minutes from the first checkpoint until actually seated in the attraction would be almost a minimum.

Same thing for RNRC where you have to wait to get into the preshow, view the preshow itself, and then wait for a few minutes in the alley to get assigned to a car. Ditto TOT with the library and the boiler room area.

Yes, this is an unpublicized guarantee. If you may have noticed, we have been sending a considerably higher number of FLIK cards (red wait time cards) through the FastPass Return line, every hour. It used to be 4-6 an hour, but in my area, we have been sending 10-14 each hour. This is not a policy or a practice, it allows for operational consistency across the entire Walt Disney World Resort.

Ten minutes isn't short at all. The reason we subtract ten minutes from the standby wait time when issuing a DAS return time is simply because we don't expect guests to wait more than ten minutes when using our alternate entrance. Sometimes there are ride stops, sometimes we have a downtime without evacuating and sometimes we have intrusions that all will delay both lines, as the attraction isn't operating.

The design room takes about 4 minutes and you will spend a little more than 2 at the preshow grouper position. Up until safety issues were brought to the area leaders' attention, FP return had a stripped down version of the vehicle design. This was to help keep our guarantee.

At Soarin', the preshow is not included in our wait time because of how grouping is. There are six different grouper Cast Members. Concourse A: Grouper 1, Grouper 2, Grouper 3; Concourse B: Grouper 1, Grouper 2, Grouper 3. Grouper is considered a safety critical position, therefore the Cast Member cannot leave their position. The boxes to scan FLIK cards would be too far away from the actual location the grouper needs to be in.

At Coaster and Tower, the preshow is included in the posted wait time. At Coaster, grouper will scan the FLIK card on the box in between the single rider line and front row line on the wall. At Tower, the FLIK box is to the side of the elevator.

Most attractions that have a grouper position will have the grouper scan the FLIK. Most omnimovers will have Load 1 scan it. Most shows will scan it in preshow. Some attractions, like Stitch, have an always posted wait time.

Test Track is the only attraction that I think has trouble keeping up with the FP guarantee, simply because of redesigning the queue. Most MagicBand issues take place prior to going through the first touchpoints and cannot be used to calculate the actual wait time. There has been a much higher number of paper FastPasses distributed at ALL attractions over the past week and a half, in addition to a much higher number of FastPass+'s.

Pretty soon though, our FLIK cards will be going away, thankfully. They don't work half of the time and only beep once, instead of twice. Most of them are disgusting and they need to be cleaned. To replace the FLIK cards will be high-range RFID scanners for MagicBands. Over the past few months, we have been testing FastPass+ wait times using the MagicBands and as you *may* be able to see at the FP Merge podium, there will be an average wait time of the time it takes for the MagicBand to be scanned at the first touchpoint to the second touchpoint. As the wait times need to be updated, it will detect a guest's MagicBand and once that same MagicBand is about to board the ride, the next RFID scanner will be able to calculate the time in between being scanned.

 

[JUANOLAS]

I dont think fp+ can cause that.
I am sure fp+ is great i love it.
Some ppl claim got cured of cancer wearing the magic bands... you know they are magic... and hi tec.
I also belive in technology all technology is good you have to get used to it or just kill yourself.... i heard enriched plutonium is hi tec... i think disney should incorporate some in the bands.
.
Do you think disney spend all that money in mme and bands just because.??. is in testing i am sure that once is rolling will end up beeing a hit as all disney do. You know... lemings do suicide.... fp+ is great.

Are you sure??

Maybe you are schizoprenic and hallucinate the queue.

Maybe andy was around and all toys freeze.

Are you in a conspiration to destroy disworld.??

A woman gave birth on the ride??

It was 4 am and disworld was closed??

I am sure there is a logical explanation.

 

[bjakmom]

Yes, this is an unpublicized guarantee. If you may have noticed, we have been sending a considerably higher number of FLIK cards (red wait time cards) through the FastPass Return line, every hour. It used to be 4-6 an hour, but in my area, we have been sending 10-14 each hour. This is not a policy or a practice, it allows for operational consistency across the entire Walt Disney World Resort.

Ten minutes isn't short at all. The reason we subtract ten minutes from the standby wait time when issuing a DAS return time is simply because we don't expect guests to wait more than ten minutes when using our alternate entrance. Sometimes there are ride stops, sometimes we have a downtime without evacuating and sometimes we have intrusions that all will delay both lines, as the attraction isn't operating.

The design room takes about 4 minutes and you will spend a little more than 2 at the preshow grouper position. Up until safety issues were brought to the area leaders' attention, FP return had a stripped down version of the vehicle design. This was to help keep our guarantee.

At Soarin', the preshow is not included in our wait time because of how grouping is. There are six different grouper Cast Members. Concourse A: Grouper 1, Grouper 2, Grouper 3; Concourse B: Grouper 1, Grouper 2, Grouper 3. Grouper is considered a safety critical position, therefore the Cast Member cannot leave their position. The boxes to scan FLIK cards would be too far away from the actual location the grouper needs to be in.

At Coaster and Tower, the preshow is included in the posted wait time. At Coaster, grouper will scan the FLIK card on the box in between the single rider line and front row line on the wall. At Tower, the FLIK box is to the side of the elevator.

Most attractions that have a grouper position will have the grouper scan the FLIK. Most omnimovers will have Load 1 scan it. Most shows will scan it in preshow. Some attractions, like Stitch, have an always posted wait time.

Test Track is the only attraction that I think has trouble keeping up with the FP guarantee, simply because of redesigning the queue. Most MagicBand issues take place prior to going through the first touchpoints and cannot be used to calculate the actual wait time. There has been a much higher number of paper FastPasses distributed at ALL attractions over the past week and a half, in addition to a much higher number of FastPass+'s.

Pretty soon though, our FLIK cards will be going away, thankfully. They don't work half of the time and only beep once, instead of twice. Most of them are disgusting and they need to be cleaned. To replace the FLIK cards will be high-range RFID scanners for MagicBands. Over the past few months, we have been testing FastPass+ wait times using the MagicBands and as you *may* be able to see at the FP Merge podium, there will be an average wait time of the time it takes for the MagicBand to be scanned at the first touchpoint to the second touchpoint. As the wait times need to be updated, it will detect a guest's MagicBand and once that same MagicBand is about to board the ride, the next RFID scanner will be able to calculate the time in between being scanned.

Thanks for that explanation, helps it makes sense to me now. I am not a fan of the new TT, but last month DGrD10 LOVED it (due to the added design part) and so we rode it once during the day with FP+ with what I considered a long wait of about 15 min. to the design room and several times the night of the 1/2 marathon after-party with no wait until you hit the design room. I decided that I now need to consider that I am technically "on the ride" once I hit this room, even though there is another wait room after it - and in fairness, it now is part of the ride experience.

Interesting to hear confirmation that they have indeed increased FP- and FP+ recently - it is what I have observed my last two visits and always assumed they would do to make this work (for them). I wonder if this is something they can now just adjust quickly and easily for crowd control, or if it will be a permanent increase.
DGrD will miss being picked to deliver the FLIK card - she always thought it was such an honor. LOL Good thing I never thought about how germy that thing must be.lol

 

[MCFADDEN5]

We rode test track 4 times yesterday. Once with fast pass, 1 ride stand by was 50 mins and it only took 15 mins

 

[Magpie]

Was the car in a different time zone? Or a DeLorean?

I was TIRED!

Anyway, based on our experience (10 minutes to design, 10 minutes to ride, noonish), I can only assume the OP experienced a ride breakdown.

 

[Ana~n~Joseph]

It took us about 35 min yesterday at TT with FP+. The line for FP started outside!!!

 

[nkereina]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I've seen some speculation that it's been busier than usual right now due to the shortened time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We essentially lost a week due to a late Thanksgiving. No one knew what to expect from crowds, but guessed it would be busier than usual.

We were there the week before Thanksgiving and TT was definitely the longest wait of all the FP lines we used. Partially because designing that car takes up so much time. If they have you line up on the dots just as another group is going in, you know you will be stuck there for another 5-10 minutes until you're allowed into the design room. And then there's always a bottleneck and delay once you're allowed to the other side of the design room to go up the ramp. Took us forever each time, and it wasn't even busy then.

 

[skier_pete]

WE did Test Track with a FP+ on November 14th around 5 PM, and we were in and out of the building in under 30 minutes. (We did the ride all three ways that trip, standby at rope drop, FP+ and Single rider.) The Standby/FP lines merge after the "design the car" room, so I think there's no way to get away without 10-15 minutes of wait there.

My guess is if you are waiting 55 minutes in a FP line, there is something wrong with the ride, either it is down, or it just came back from being down. It is unlikely that the effect is due to the FP+ system.

Can I tell people if you can convince your family to do it, single rider is always the shortest. You skip designing the car, but the line AFTER designing the car is way shorter than the combined FP/Standby line. We did single rider one evening and the wait wasn't 5 minutes from us walking in the building to getting on the ride.

 

[boricualisto]

Fastpass for Testtrack? Sounds like it should all be switched to be Testpass at Fastrack. There aren't getting passing grades on this test.

 

[JUANOLAS]

Busy times and fp+ is not helping