Disney's FastPass: A Complicated History
Kevin deep dives into Disney's now defunct expedited queue service, FastPass and FastPass Plus.
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FastPass Tip Montage:
TheKingsJourney “Disney World FastPass Plus Tips You Need to Know” - • Disney World FastPass ...
Destination DeRo “Disney FastPass Plus Explained | Tips & Planning | Walt Disney World” - • Disney FastPass Plus E...
BRB Going to Disney “Walt Disney World FastPass Tips | FastPass+ Guide | FastPass Secret Strategy & Hacks” - • Video
Showcase theWorld “How to Walk on Slinky Dog (and other popular attractions without a wait) - Showcase the World Travel” - • How to Walk on Slinky ...
The Magical Miranda “FastPass+ 101” - • FastPass+ 101
Wonder Vault “Disney World Fastpass Tutorial: How to Book Disney World Fast Passes (Pro Tips for beginners 2019)” - • Disney World Fastpass ...
Disney Dad “2021 Disney World Fast Pass Plus 101 & TIPS !! Help SKIP The Lines On Your Next Disney Trip!” - • 2021 Disney World Fast...
Hannah Ricketts “WALT DISNEY WORLD- How To Plan Fast Passes 2020! Tips & Tricks” - • Video
WDW Magazine “PRO TIPS: FASTPASS+ AND ADR PLANNING” - • PRO TIPS: FASTPASS+ AN...
Orlando Essence “How to Get a Slinky Dog Fast Pass” - • How to Get a Slinky Do...
Jamie Thomas “Fastpass Plus DisneyWorld Guide, Tips, and Strategies to Get on Rides Faster 2018” - • Fastpass Plus DisneyWo...
DFBGuide (Disney Food Blog) “Disney World FastPass Tips The PROS Use; and You Should, Too!!” - • Disney World FastPass ...
Disney Planning Insights Podcast “Fast Pass+ at Walt Disney World - Disney Planning Insights” - • [Dated] Fast Pass+ at ...
Chasing Experiences - Travel Vlog “Best Hacks to Skipping Long Lines at Disney World (FastPass Strategies with Extra Tickets)” - • Best Hacks to Skipping...
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Someone in a Disney world line could watch this whole video and not be on the ride yet
that's what i did lmao
@@swirlingsun was flight of passage fun at least Buddy
Did you enjoy Rise of Resistance
@@swirlingsun hope you get to ride Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure soon
not disappointed in this reply section
I love how they went from “more fast pass is a bad idea” to “fuck it, fast pass on bathrooms” in record time
@@emperorgeorgethefirst674 You want to go to Universal?
@@MovieFan1912 if it means not having to deal with Disney’s nickel and diming, I think I can suffer through JK Rowling’s TERF-o-verse at universal
Almost like they took the fastpass on that line of logic
@@harrylane4 This is the best way somebody has ever described Harry Potter land.
Fr
i complimented a guy with a shapeland shirt at disney a few days ago, and he excitedly exclaimed “finally! someone got it!”
wait was that limited edition merch or something??
@@Spax_ There are a couple of shapeland t-shirts listed on the defunctland shopify (I found them by searching "shapeland shirt"), but both are sold out, so I don't know if they were limited or not.
@@Spax_ Apparently yes, if you type "defunctland shapeland shirt" on Google there's a shopify page for two shirts, "Shapeland: Acute place to shape memories in" and "I survived the Triangle at Shapeland". Both are sold out 😔
this is delightful
I see quite a bunch of those shirts while working at Animal Kingdom. I like to ask if they're enjoying their day at Shapeland as a result. One person stated that they rode the Triangle twice; that's impressive!
In the end it turns out, Disney's over complicated digital fast pass scheme did eventually cut down on wait times, by drastically reducing attendance to their parks.
And over charging on everything, pricing out the poor.
@@Enchie And the governor of the state scaring people away by being a creepy sociopath.
@@Enchieon the plus side, hooking Walt's rapidly spinning corpse up to a generator has saved them millions on power bills~
Thats why my family wont go and sadly once I have a family of my own I wont either if they keep it up
So if attendance is down... There's no real benefit in buying in!
“Things like this don’t happen to the dillons” PART 4: THE DILLONS Was comedy gold
We need an April 1st episode on the Dillons.
PART 7: *CLASS WARFARE*
There's so much informed historical tragedy in that one line. Jacob Dillon could write his family memories and win a Pulitzer.
Fr lmao
Honestly I was waiting to find out that some tragedy happened to the Dillons that caused them to change how their parts worked...
“A powerful rat named Charles Entertainment Cheese” walked so “because Shapeland is actually Animal Kingdom” could run.
plot twist of the fucking century man i was downright flabbergasted
A powerful rat... named... Meisner. "I love you"
SPOILERS
Immediately o
I was shocked!!!
Every Rollercoaster Tycoon player knows that all it takes to solve long queues is to have TVs lining every square meter of the wait area and a cast member in a panda costume stumbling around. That will magically make guests willing to wait for literal eons.
Disney will never learn 😢 I liked the Tiger personally 🐯
Oh boy you make me laugh out loud
I mean that's probably not a bad idea for alot of people these days, just have screens scrolling endlessly through tiktok 😂
Thank you for that core memory, lol
@@Ekrooool I'd rather die, tysm. 😊
"I know that some might disagree with this conclusion- there you are-" and then highlighting the very low part of the "Percentage of Guests" graph was very funny and underappreciated
It was so shady 😂
😅😅😅😅😅😅😮😅😅
Gods speed to that man who figured out how to ride 39 rides in one day
Not to that extent, but I have family that are those types of people and it really ruins the whole experience. It’s no longer fun, it becomes a task. I remember going to a theme park meant you wake up at 6 am, get breakfast and you’re at the park in line as it opens. Then you can’t leave until it’s closing time and they’re forcing people out of the park.
@@rickyrobby8133 Yeah, I don't really see the point of speedrunning what's supposed to be vacation time.
@rickyrobby8133 Another way of looking at a high ride count: My brother and I loved the Dumbo ride at Disney World when we were very little and rode on it, like, 5 times. There wasn't a line so just continually getting to be on a ride was my strongest Disney park memory. I don't think we could've done it over 20 times though. 😅
It was probably Triceratop Spin 39 times
@@snes90i had this experience going on splash mountain two or three times in a row and running through the empty queue area for the second two rides. It was minutes from closing
As someone who's never been to any Disney park, this just sounds like a dystopian hellscape
But they have Mickey shaped soft pretzels!!
But r2d2
Universal is by far better, in my opinion.
I think it's less dystopian and more a reflection of how important wonky things like logistics really can be. FP+ didn't turn the parks into horrific experiences for unprepared guests, but it did make the most anticipated days of some people's lives considerably less happy. That's not dystopian, but it is a very real impact on people's lives. The executive who pushed FP+ has his heart in the right place. He understood that logistics played an easily-underestimated role in people's happiness. But his only strategy was to throw money at the problem. His predecessor, someone with a degree and experience in logistics, created the original FP, which really was very successful. So I think that while talking about logistics in dry, mathematical terms, treating people like little machines on a conveyor belt instead of getting swept up in the sentimentality of it, isn't actually a dystopian way of thinking about things. Instead, it is the level of professionalism and commitment to science and math that really does work that results in systems that take stress out of people's lives.
Same never been, not realy interested in ever going.
Growing up at Disney parks I’ve always been in the “It’s your own fault for not educating yourself before coming…” camp, until Ratatouille opened at EPCOT and I watched family after family of international guests be turned away because there was no standby line AT ALL at first; there was ONLY a virtual queue. And by the time they found that out, there were no more available times for the day. That was awful; and I felt so incredibly bad for all of them. It really made me rethink my standpoint.
Consider this: Having to educate yourself on how to game the system on a vacation seems unintuitive as fuck That's like telling someone that they should've done their research on the best food to grab for value at a buffet before going, or telling someone that they should've done their research on which seats are the best in a stadium before buying tickets to a game. The idea that the average person should be min-maxxing their leisure time is fucking retarded, they might as well just take a stroll in an actual park for free by then.
I'm still in that camp to a degree. As much as the virtual queues system seems to not be fair, it also gives Disney a way to keep the queues for their newest and most popular rides manageable. Not every guest is going to have time to ride every single ride anyway, and while those families would've been able to ride it without a virtual queue, they also would've spent waaaaaaay more time in the queue. Before virtual queues, the waits for new attractions were into the 5-7 hour wait times. Even Disney, with their questionable decisions, isn't cruel enough to want their guests in a queue that long, especially when that means those guests are all jumbled out in regular park space. I think the virtual queue system has helped in a lot of ways and I also still believe that anyone planning a visit should know what to expect before they arrive. My second trip to WDW was completely different and so much better than my first trip because I chose to learn more about the things I failed to learn for my first trip. I fully regret not learning more about the parks and how to maximize for my first trip because I missed out on some great experiences and it was nobody's fault but mine. Disney is not hiding any info on how to have better experiences in their parks, so I honestly can't feel bad for people who don't do their research. Disney isn't cheap yet so many people could get more for what they're spending if they would simply do their research. With today's technology that creates the ability to have information so easily, there's no excuse for not knowing how to manage Disney's system.
@@basicleighdisney5643 It was the same for our two trips. Our second trip was 100% better because of what we learned (the hard way) on our first.
"It's always somebody's first visit" is usually the first thing park designers forget.
The fact that things were so complicated that people needed to make strategy guides for just how to get into lines for family theme park rides means there's a BIG problem.
I was a data analyst for Disney during the fastpass+ era and into the pandemic. All I can say is this video blew me away and made sense of so many different experiences I had while there. Incredible work!
If you're open to sharing, what kind of data were you analyzing?
Wait, so you were a data analyst and you didn’t ALREADY understand all this?? What the fuck were you even doing?
@@Supermoneygang12 Because Disney only has one data analyst at all times that has to analyze and understand all data one of the largest companies in the world collects.
@@Supermoneygang12 As someone who is not that guy but is in an adjacent field (operations analysis), there's a shit ton of data in the modern world. Studies these days tend to be fairly narrowly focused. I doubt they'd be interested in re-litigating the effects of fastpass+ after they already implemented it, since they're not going to care unless they're considering removing it, which wouldn't be on the table considering how expensive and ingrained the system has become. Should they know if their system sucks and is making everyone's experience worse? Yes. Will they actually be willing to pay someone who might tell them that their system sucks? No. Especially in a company as cutthroat as Disney, no director is going to greenlight a study that might prove they wasted a billion dollars. The sunk cost is too great to consider removing it, and even if the study never sees the light of day the risk of that information leaking to investors or executives is too much. They're more likely to care about things like "how would the addition of another attraction affect toy sales?" or "how is sales affected by rides that exit into gift shops compared to rides that exit adjacent to gift shops?". Of course, all this is assuming I even fully understand what kind of work they do, which is a pretty massive assumption. As in most fields, there tends to be a lot of variety when you get into specifics, so I might be projecting my experiences (mostly working with simulations) against somebody who may well be doing completely different work.
@@Supermoneygang12 To give the guy a break, he probably wasn't a data analyst specifically for queuing or wait times. Id imagine there is a ton of different things disney would want data collected and collated for and he probably just wasnt on this field
Honestly the logistics involved in trying to figure out a "vacation" like this made me think of Jim Gaffigan's Disney bit: "You ever go on a vacation as a kid and wonder 'Why is dad always in a bad mood?', Well now I understand."
I’m usually the one behind the logistics on family vacations everybody wants something but no one is entirely aware of the time and what to do if you want to do everything, so I’m usually the “not relaxed one” some years ago I have to stay behind for 2 days while my family was at the Disney’s Orlando resort, I know those parks incredible well, I gave them instructions on when to arrive. Where to go and when... did they listen NOOOO, when I arrived everybody was angry they did almost nothing, they didn’t eat well, etc. Next day when I convinced them to follow my lead every thing went smoothly every one was happy (tired but happy) and since then nobody questions the itinerary XD . This kind of vacations need another vacation just to relax from the previous one.
Just go to somewhere warm with sandy beaches. That way everybody can stop thinking after they arrive.
He was right! My personal favorite line from that bit: "If you've never been to Disney, imagine you're standing in line at the DMV.................and that's it"
@@beardlessdragon thats exactly it. Even when we went in the early 2000's. My dad kept saying this is worse then waiting at the DMV.
“My favorite ride was the air conditioned bus ride back to the airport”
Beginning of the documentary: "Disney implements fast pass" 90 minutes later: "Why isn't the beast eating those people?"
As someone who has not seen this video yet, I am confused and intrigued
I read this comment 10 minutes in and it made no sense, I came back to the comments after the video and nearly died reading this
Haven’t watched yet, that is so fucking confusing to read
This comment made me watch the whole fucking thing.
@@theAstarrr but why are they friends?
Was at Disneyland earlier this month. The queue for Radiator Springs Racers was 75 minutes. The genie pass system wasn't availiable because the ride had temporarily closed earlier in the day. So our group decided 75 minutes would probably be worth it. At the same time, Disney offered a $21 fast pass to cut the wait time down to 30 minutes. Because of the influx of people buying the fast pass, the actual time we waited in line was 2 hours and 20 minutes. This led to many moments of exitential crisis. Do we leave the line? No, we are already too committed. Should we have just paid more money to ride one ride? Where are the mid-queue wait time clocks? How big of suckers are we? It wasn't pleasent. The ride was fun when we got on it, but it was NOT worth the wait and mental strain.
lol, this is a great story. if you went to the parks before 2010, there truly was a sense of magic in the air. Kids thought they were in a Disney movie and parents got to experience is vicariously through their child. The focus of Disney on, not JUST making money, but making AS MUCH money as possible has truly decreased the magic of the parks. Imagine telling Walt this story. he would have a heart attack!
@@ConnorEverything1997 I would love to see a system in place that, more or less, garuntees your wait time if you choose the standby line. We definitely felt cheated for time when it was an additional hour and 5 minutes wait. We could have enjoyed ourselves elsewhere in the park had we not been inadvertently duped. I love the parks, but I'll be thinking a little harder on my decision to go back anytime soon. 🤙Take it easy
We went to epcot and waited in the line for ratatouillee for 2 HOURS. We went to universal studios island of adventure and was on a roller coaster 5 minutes after we arrived, with no fast pass.
That sounds exactly like the last time me and my family went to Disneyland tho the reason why the standby line was so slow was they were letting 20 lightning people to 1-4 standby.
@@seeaddy001i remember getting to universal when they opened, and rode the hull ride 4 times in a row before there was even a wait by the time i circled around
I screamed out loud, like after watching a game winning goal, when Shapesland was actually Animal Kingdom. I don't think I've gotten this hyped at a Documentary before.
literally felt like such a plot twist lmao
I'm watching this in the library and I had to actively stifle my surprise.
I was drinking water at that moment and when it was revealed I ended up chocking on it
I'm glad someone had the same experience as me because i nearly knocked over my desk chair
That’s seems pathetic
Oh, dear God. The descent from 'streamlined theme park experience' to 'grim Classist dystopia' was a wild ride.
It’s a slippery slope
HEY! did you use your fastpass for that wild ride?
Honestly they're only reintroducing what they had in the beginning with the booklet of tickets they sold in the early years of the park.
@@lucaswenzel1765 but it was free…
@@npcimknot958 Disney hotels were never free
I'm CRYING about that dude that got fastpass for the Triangle and rode the Octagon 39 times while waiting. Absolute legend.
Knows what he likes lol.
chadot is our king
That would have been me waiting for space mountain and riding Mr. toad’s wild ride.
Kings only
@@ZoraTheberge mr. toad is the better ride, actually.
okay but the opening sentence, "how much do you know abt lines?" followed by those fun little sounds still just gets me so excited and ive watched this video multiple times.
I like to say that phrase right before showing someone this video, as though it's a direct threat of education and existential horror
Fr. This is my favorite opening to any video ever. Sometimes I come back just to listen to that.
SAME I think about it so often
SO TRUE I LOVE THE INTRO
I heard something that reminded me of those fun little sounds, and after 2 days of listening to just the intro here I watched the full video again
Back before Fastpass was implemented, I visited Disneyworld with my great grandmother. She was going to wait for me at the exit to the Tower of Terror, and I didn’t see her when I got off the ride, so I figured I’d ride again (I was like 10 or 11). After about a dozen rides or so, I see park security waiting at the exit, and they pull me aside and take me to a security office where my grandmother was waiting. She was stressed as hell, but I got to ride Tower of Terror like a dozen times in a row, lol. From what I remember, the wait wasn’t any longer than the actual ride was, so I basically kept circling back through and jumping back on. After a few rides the attendants started recognizing me and welcoming me back to the “hotel”, lol.
"holy shit this kid *really* likes Tower of Terror"
Now that's good hotel services 😂
ayyy we found the octagon guy
I did this at the monsters inc ride at California adventure, Christmas day 2010(?) It was empty at 10 am and no one was going on it, my 4 year old sister liked it enough so my mom put up with us going on it god knows how many times before the crowds came in.
As someone who has been on that ride, i have no idea why anyone would go on it more tha once IN THEIR WHOLE LIFE but hey, at least ya had fun
I CANNOT get over the phrase "Things like this don't happen to the Dillons" something about it just paints such a vivid picture of the life this man has lived. I'm glad they got their golden fast pass.
I wonder if they can still use it...
They deserve Disney shares with that reaction damn
Plot twist: it was all a coma dream.
Dude, I low-key now kinda wanna know that history, ngl...
the transition into part 4, I had to stop the entire video. I have a huge ridiculous grin on my face
Planning 70 days in advance for a 5 minute rollercoaster ride is fucking insane. I used to get pissed I sat in line for an hour for a 5 minute ride. Cant imagine waiting 2 months
Lolol and the Corporations take cold cash you worked your butt off for months and its gone in FIVE MINUTES!!!!
That's the most batshit insane part of these Disney "adults" it's a corporation designed to suck them dry of every dime and they genuinely believe it's some magical place that's different from everywhere else... Literally gut churningly upsetting watching those clips of the planning videos where people are sitting with mouse ears 70 days in advance to speak to a guy in a Donald duck suit
@@analyticalhabitrails9857well that’s pretty much how everything we enjoy works. A lucky family saves up all year to go on a week long vacation.
5 minutes is pretty long for a roller coaster to be fair, most are like less than 3 minutes long.
When your spending thousands of dollars to visit a Disney park, you better bet they will work hard to get the most money out of it. When I had an AP, I would not bother planning. Just go, and if it was crowded, just enjoy life. Sadly I no longer live near a Disney park, so its a big event, and I will optimize the hell out of those days. Both styles are enjoyable ways to enjoy the park. At least now you have the option. Do work and research for a better experience, or just go and have a chill time. But dont be the latter, expecting the same experience as the former. You get what you put in.
It continually astounds me how many business-altering (and business-ruining) decisions are just handed off completely to the marketing and accounting branches. Like here, multiple entire branches of their business, branches literally responsible for every ounce of revenue they actually take in, are against an idea. But, because accounting and/or marketing okayed it, that's a cool *_billion dollars_* down the drain. It's baffling.
I've noticed this exact thing all over the tech industry, and it kills me. Hundreds of people who actually work on the product every single day could tell you everything wrong with some new idea in an instant, but because marketing decided it'd probably make money based on... vibes? it has to get implemented and maintained no matter what.
From their point of view, their job is to maximize shareholder value. "Experts" and people skilled in their field are a *corporate asset*, not something you listen to. Those people are usually holding on to archaic ideas like making 'guests' happier instead of seeing them in the proper light, as monetization opportunities. And something about maintenance, but they haven't listened to those complaints since 2019.
It knda makes sense, the marketings departments task is to sell stuff and ideas to customers, so it’s most likely also the department that is the best at promoting their ideas to upper management. Even if other departments say it the idea is flawed.
Honestly I think this has thoroughly convinced me not to go to Disney park. Fantastic and intriguing breakdown of the factors that go into queuing and Disney's development though.
Went to Magic Kindom and Epcot, and Animal Kingdom when I was 13, and again a year or so later. Pretty fun first time, but second time, when the mystery of what the attraction at the end of the line was like had gone away, not so much. You're not missing out on a whole lot honestly. Plus, add to that the fact you'd walk about 10mi/day, and yeah, not the greatest experience for such short rides.
Good! Thank god, I want shorter lines when I go so please stay away from
I had never wanted to go to Disneyland, but I was still a little excited when I finally got the chance. Waiting in line for _hours_ to ride the most popular attraction, while children were crying and screaming and I weas starving for lack of any actual food cause everything there was way overpriced, made me never want to go to any amusement park again, ever.
@@GippyHappy those all sound like good reasons for you to stay home!
Yes, very much so! I'm nowhere near wealthy enough to go even once, but it sounds like the park may be a circle of heck. I think this channel's analysis sounds very good and fair, I don't think Disney likely did any this out of spite, everybody involved has a long and famous record of insisting and delivering the best quality product for their customers. Not everything can be solved effortlessly, especially not in an enormous world-leading megacorporation. There's more people involved, not fewer.
Also, this video contains one of my favorite cinematic twists of the last five years: "It'd take an industrial engineer to run an accurate simulation of the effects FastPass had on Disney parks." "Oh, by the way, I hired an industrial engineer to run an accurate simulation of the effects FastPass had on Disney parks."
"Because shapeland is actually Animal Kingdom"
second to him revealing that shapeland is actually animal kingdom
@@cononodapotato6920 Exactly
As he was explaining it I was laughing so hard because I KNEW it’d end up with that twist.
@@lucasgarcia9330 this gave me chills lol
"Everyone wants to ride the Triangle" feels like a shirt idea in the making.
We need Shapeland merch
@@vysharra I'd pay $15 to skip a line to buy said merch
Please and thank you
Would wear the hell out of this shirt on my next Disney trip
I want the "I Heart Triangle" shirt seen on the enthusiast dot
So when Fast Pass was implemented, it's creator was firm that it must be free of charge so as not to create 2 tiers of guests. Nice to see that Disney is totally on board with creating multiple classes of guests now. The final conclusion is seems based solely on fairness to guests, and does not take into account the importance to the park of distributing guests out as evenly as possible. Distributing the guests out more also adds to guest experience in a much less tangible way than simply rides per hour or average wait time.
No matter how caring or fair a creator, their creations under capitalism will always fall prey to hurting people for profit. It's sad.
its like when robin williams agreed to be the genie and specifically asked the marketing to not revolve around him and then they did it anyway
I've been to Disney World 3 times: in 2008, 2012, and 2018. The latter had to be the MOST AWFUL experience and made me not want to EVER go back. Extremely long lines I'm talking 120 minutes for moderately popular rides; constantly refreshing the app everywhere we went; realizing people got fast passes for the Avatar rides MONTHS before we had our trip (so disheartening); I was completely exhausted physically and mentally and took a nap in a chair in star wars land. Going in another line felt like cattle being tricked into an assembly line. Such a nightmare. Thanks to your video I realize why.
The craziest part to me is that you found a chair in Star Wars land 😂 I remember there being NO WHERE to sit there! It was ridiculous.
I had to personally experience just how bad things had gotten last year, when I went back to Disney World for the first time in 4 years. The full timeline for my visits would be: 2007, 2013, 2014(Disneyland), 2018, 2022. So, pretty similar to yours. I have ADHD, so my family's always done the Fastpass. It was shitty in 2018, but it was ABYSMAL in 2022- not helping was the fact that this was my first and only time visitng the park during the summer, so not only was a lot of time spent waiting, but it was spent waiting in ~85 degree weather with high humidity. And I hardly wanted to be there in the first place, but Mom had a conference at the park so I was dragged along as she thought it'd help me and my sister feel better after our grandfather's passing earlier in the year. Anyways, we were able to go on two rides after hours thanks to an event related to the conference- the two Avatar rides specifically, as the event was held close to that area- so I guess that was pretty cool. Besides that, I remember we were able to get into a whopping TWO RIDES, the Guardians of the Galaxy ride and one of the two new Star Wars ones. We had arrangements to get into the other new Star Wars one, but they COMPLETELY screwed us over on that one- I don't remember the details- and we ended up just throwing in the towel and leaving.
It's impressive that you were able to find a place to sleep in Galaxy's Edge - er, "Star Wars Land", especially in 2018, considering it didn't open until the end of summer 2019.
And you were able to sneak in a nap
Comments like this are keeping us from going - thanks for sharing!
Disney’s evolution of its fastpass system feels like someone trying to quench their thirst with sea water
Or an urban planner attempting to solve the traffic problems of their city by endlessly adding more lanes to a freeway.
Or a nation trying to solve its poverty problem by printing alot of money.
@@drakep.5857 They aren't printing money to solve the poverty problem. It's a means to prop up the system that funnels money to the ruling class
@@inefffable oh yeah I agree, I'm a socialist and yeah that's true, just thought it was a funny example
@@drakep.5857 What kind of Socialist?
Ok, first off I never knew I needed an entire documentary on Fastpass, but here we are. Second, as a Cast Member who worked during all three eras of Fastpass (Paper, FP+ and now Genie+), everything you said was very accurate in regards to the CM experience with all three. I distinctly remember how rough the My Magic+ launch was back in 2014. One minor correction though. We did in fact have guest celebrations implemented into MM+. We could congratulate guests who were celebrating a birthday, wedding, anniversary, first visit or family reunion as they came through FP. Third, I am not only honored that you wanted to use my song I performed along with my current roommate and CP roommate (especially our bad 2010 music video version before I had any editing skills) but to call it the best Fastpass related parody song… better than ones Disney made? Highlight of my year. We actually did a 10 Year anniversary version last year during quarantine on my channel if you haven’t seen it… Outstanding work as always Kevin. I’ve loved watching your channel since the early days and the passion you have for preserving some of history’s theme park moments, both good and bad. I’m honored you wanted to use our song in such an awesome video.
How is this not the top comment. If this is real you're a genuine myth
You absolute legend
@@Jaded515 I appreciate the love from y’all so much. My current roommate, my CP roommate and I wrote and performed this parody song back in 2010 for the Disney College Program Talent Show, Night of Stars. It did go viral somewhat back then. We’ve always been proud of it ever since. It’s funny because I always thought it needed a follow up parody song and the right one never came to me… The renewed interest in the song kinda encouraged me to work on one. Yes, it does involve the new Fastpass replacement and yes, it is a parody of a popular song from 2015, but I’m thinking we might have something here… Anyways, thanks again to Kevin and Defunctland for letting this song be a part of such an amazing documentary.
@@missybarbour6885 Why thank you!
@@TheOtherBlue Thanks for the reassurance!
My family was lower middle class and never had the extra funds to get me emotionally attached to Disney theme parks with vacations there as a kid… As a 34 year old watching this entire video… I am RELIEVED. What in the world… are you kidding me? What a racket. Take me to the beach.
Excellent video, btw. Premium content- more effort than the newer attractions at Disney I think.
I don't care about disney nor theme parks and I'm also not American so this whole thing is a wild ride. Also wtf why is everything so expensive?? I didn't even grow up particularly poor but my parents would never spend that much for a day
Exactly what I say whenever my friends say "let's go to Disney!" In 2021 I went to Disney World with a group of 8. We planned out our fast passes 60 days in advance including our dinner reservations. The overall trip cost me over 1 grand in a combination of tickets, travel, and food. I could have rented a super nice AirBNB in an exotic place with a group of 8 shelling out $1,000 each
The closest I ever got to understamding Disney Parks was playing Epic Mickey, and I didn't even recognize 3/4 of the injokes/mechanics until I started watching vids like these lol
As a Canadian, I went to Disney once. My mother insisted, really. And it was cool, but I had no emotional attachment to any of the rides or IP, so it was more of a big theme park vacation. All I have to say is... thank *fuck*. Optimizing your trip to Disney sounds like a job except you're the one paying.
Was actually at animal kingdom on that day that avatar ride has the 400min wait. They (obviously) had to close the queue in the middle of the day to prevent it from getting bigger, however guaranteed the people who were already in line were going to be able to ride the ride. It took them around 4 hours past closing to get everyone on it.
That's insane that the wait was that long...
that's horrific :- 0
That ride is amazing, but I wouldn't wait 8 hours for anything.
Four biggest takeaways: 1. Disney created Covid-19 2. Disney took away KZhead dislike button 3. Shapeland is Animal Kingdom 4. Bathrooms may require FastPass in the future
The Dillons live simple and common lives, and it was rewarded
Rise up and seize the means of Triangle brothers!
I just left Disney a couple weeks ago. So much Covid.
Disney keeps a monster in a cage somewhere in the park
Bingo
You did it. You got people to watch a feature length film about lines 13 million times. I’ve never been so proud
KZhead autoplay keeps starting up this video at least once a day for some reason.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 with how views work on youtube you have to watch a few minutes of a video for a view to count.
@@wolfcub0545 There's videos under 1 minute and under 30 seconds on KZhead..
@@stroberies Yep. Those videos have different rules. Usually it's about half of the watchtime of those shorter videos. KZhead shorts probably count after a few seconds, but im not sure.
I once watched a 4 hour long video of a fractal without looking away from the screen. Acid is wild man.
I think the people I feel the worst for are the ground-level employees. Not only would they have to deal with the messy ideas of CEOs and park alterations, they get the """delightful pleasure""" of being the ground zero of irate park patrons when it was all first rolling out and suffering its worst stages.
Same. Couldn't help but think about the people on the lowest levels who have to put up with these awful corporate decisions and have upset customers yell at them all the time.
"And someone figured out how to do 39 rides in one day." Flashbacks to when my cousin and I went to Great America and rode the Drop Tower Zone 36 times in a row. By the time we went home, I was just experiencing a continuous, faint falling sensation.
Six flags is honestly way more enjoyable -more teen & adult oriented rides -cheaper -less stressful -more stuff to do
No matter our differences, I think we can all agree that "Shape Land is Animal Kingdom" is THE plot twist of 2021-2022.
the way I SCREAMED
i was shook
I was like 😧😧😧😧‼️
It SHOOK me
I was in animal kingdom only a month after the date that shape land was based on so I figured out the twist. That scenario matched my experience exactly
Defunctland did an analysis on Disney that a consulting firm would charge at least 1mm+ for and posted it for free on KZhead. This is insane
This is soooo true
IKR, I said more than once while watching this, Disney should be paying this dude!
@@ladyalfhildrforestofvioletmist im sure Disney knows all of this already, he just puts it in a condensed video form to show to the public. Disney could care less about PAYING him to do this.
@@GregInTechnicolor Exactly. Although the documentary was very well done, no one would be paying a million dollars to commission it. Several thousand dollars I could see but 1 mil...🤣
@@GregInTechnicolor I mean, that's the point Disney already pay people some BIG cash to get this kind of data
The difference between the old Fastpass system and Genie+ is enormous. I no longer have any desire to visit any of the parks, and I was a big fan of them before it's implementation.
100% agree
Maybe the fifth time hearing "How much do you know about lines?" and realizing that this video quite literally introduced me into class struggles and awoke my passion for sociology. Thanks, rollercoaster history man.
dissapointing.
@@SuperM789 bruh how??
hell yes comerade
Reddit moment
@@w34therBecause learning about and then gaining an interest in sociology from this video of all media is the most regarded ways of all time and I can only assume this is a child or some autistic thing
Ah, I see you decided to recreate Rollercoaster Tycoon to solve your issue. Good choice.
Ayyyyy huggbees
Huggbees has appeared
When do we get to see your voiceover version of this video? ;-p
Kind of surprised to see so many familiar faces were also interested in queues...
Are you ready to do a 100 Minute "An Actual Complicated History"?
This guy just talked about waiting lines for 1 hour and 40 minutes and I listen to him from stat to finish, mad respect
Bruh somebody could watch this whole video in a disney world line and still be in said line after the end of the video.
@@gilbert3672 And needing a piss.
Pshh once in a lifetime watcher? Shoulda utilized youtube's 1.75 FastPass
Pretty much yeah
Use fast forward like fast pass 🤷🏽♀️
I really loved the paper Fastpass system in the late 00s and early 10s. It felt like such a win/win. I didnt have to spend nearly as much time sitting in lines, and Disney got a lot more people shopping and eating.
They still have it in Japan and it works great! The crowds at Tokyo DisneySea were the biggest I’ve ever seen so getting there early helped me out a lot.
@@Red_Ryan_Red - Nice! My nephew went late last year, I'll have to ask him about it next time we talk.
I miss that, too... It really did trust guests to self-select. I live in the same state as Disneyland but could only afford to go every ~2 years. We'd grab fastpasses for our favorite rides (never once had them run out and yet we never rushed to get them), head towards our faster favorites, backfill empty rides once the parks started getting crowded, then by ~12-2pm it was time for our favorite ride! It always worked out fine with just some basic knowledge. Last time I went in April 2019, it was miserable. And we were always getting cut in standby because people would hold a spot in line for family/friends who they'd text to join them once they got close to boarding. One lady yelled at my little sister for getting mad at her hustling her 3 kids ahead in line to her husband at Pirates when we had been waiting forever. People were so deflated by waiting in lines that no one else had the energy to call her out.
Unfortunately, it never works like that, the moment higher ups see a chance to make money, or just to "improve" things for sake of improving the whole thing is doomed, regardless if it worked well in the first place. This applies to many things nowadays.
All I can remember about fastpass as an attendee in 2013 was that my sister and I found 2 fastpasses on the ground and we used them to ride Thunder Mountain at peak hours in 10 minutes.
As a once in lifetime visitor, I had just assumed FastPass was a kind of VIP ticket for rich people
Same
Its essentially paying someone to wait in line for you so really only rich people go to Disney anyways. Its at a minimum five thousand to go there not counting food or water
@@HowToDecomposeAhumanBody 5000 to see all the parks, most of which suck, while staying at an expensive resort you dont have to stay at
@@HowToDecomposeAhumanBodythat is the most perfect analogy of fast pass, paying someone to wait in line for you
@@Jourmand1r that's how much it costs? Wtf
are we not gonna gasp in awe and clap that this guy literally paid an industrial engineer to simulate this
I mean I did (admittedly after laughing because I wasn't expecting it)
It was a pretty big move, then again this channel tends to make one video every 6 months or so. Also you could probably hire some college kid to do it for pretty cheap. It is still by far more time and effort put into a video than nearly any other channel would do.
No
when he said they would need to hire an engineer to create the computer system i was like “yeah it kind of sucks that probably wont happen…” and then my jaw dropped
@@JustaGuy_Gaming idk man, im an undergrad student of IE and our queueing theory syllabus contains some basic equation and windows xp software(we literally have to emulate the xp). Or maybe my college just sucks
As a scientist, I'm envious of your ability to present so much and such complex data in a coherent and engaging way. It really is such a difficult thing to do. And it goes without saying that your documentarian skills are absolutely top-notch. A documentary that's this well researched and information-dense and fun to watch, yet doesn't speak down to its audience or use the typical condescending tropes is such a breath of fresh air. I've watched this feature-length video about queuing half a dozen times now, while most TV shows bore me so much I'd rather chew my own arm off than waste half an hour on them. That's the power of passion, when you actually care about a subject and about making other people informed and interested in it, as well, rather than simply churning out content to make a buck. I deeply appreciate you and others on this platform who use your passions (and time and energy and resources) to provide free education and entertainment. It really makes me feel more positive about our society and future.
It might sound weird but I wouldn’t want a “guaranteed experience”. With all the artistry that goes into theming the parks, it’s borderline nightmarish to think much of it would be ignored in favor of 1) constantly refreshing my phone to check fastpass availability 2) rushing through the park only to STILL wait in line for a ride 3) me having to choose what to see or not in a park I’ve never been to, based on rumors on the internet, or having me favor familiar experiences. Original fastpasses were great because they incresed flexibility. If i knew i had a fastpass for a ride I wanted to ride, I could wander around and see parts of the parks I never thought to explore, eat food I didn’t know was there, or ride rides i never would have considered. Or inversely, I could make the decision to not get a fastpass at all if the wait time was reasonable. I feel like the increase in flexibility lets the amazing design of parks be admired and fully experienced, instead of making the spaces in between popular spots essentially highways.
For me it wasn't that hard to get fast passes when utilizing Genie+. People are constantly complaining about having to "constantly check their phones." Which most people who know what they are doing should only have to refresh their phone to check for an earlier wait time no more than 5-10 minutes. 15 Max. But I never did it for longer than 5 minutes at a time. Being able to do this phone check at the same time you are waiting in line for the ride optimizes your time to use the Genie+ system. Realistically the time you are waiting for your Genie+ ride to start is about as much time one should be spending on the app itself, unless you are waiting in the standby line, in which case have at. You'd only want to utilize the Genie+ system to it's full utilization to ride basically every ride if that was the only factor in getting on rides. Rope dropping to get on a ride first thing and waiting no more than 30 minutes if you got on the first bus from your resort is super helpful. Doing this to ride the top tier attraction at Epcot, which was Frozen, on Thanksgiving I was able to ride every ride in the park that day. The longest wait being Remy because I didn't enter the skyway at that side of the park and by the time I got around to going over there the wait was over an hour.
exactly!!!! having to be staring at my phone and spending more money instead of experiencing the park sounds so horrible 😭😭
I absolutely love 57:00 where it’s “You would need to pay an industrial engineer to create this complex simulation” ….. “and I did just that”
I did the thing where you read a comment just as it is mentioned in the video
came down here in the comments to remark on just that - so funny & satisfying
Same here
"Shapeland was really Animal Kingdom all along" is gonna go down as one of the biggest twists of all time
Top anime betrayal
I honestly burst out laughing, in awe of how hard he just dunked on people who doubted his metrics.
Never thought a documentary plot twist would ever make me shout "HOLY SHIT" but here we are
I audibly gasped
Best plot twist of the Defunctland Cinematic Universe since the true identity of the farmer’s son.
You know it’s getting real when the parents are busting out the Excel Spreadsheets.
This does not make Disney sound like a vacation. It makes it seem like a stressful planning trip.
If you are feeling like doing something really passive agressive, you could watch this whole video while waiting in line for a Disney ride without the FastPass Heck you could probably binge this many times
If I ever go to Disneyland I'm totally doing this
This is genius
I did this while waiting in the space mountain standby line
We got lucky when we went, about 6 years ago. It was all magic bands and fast pass for a lot of things but somehow we hit a great time and never saw a single line over 1 hour. Fast pass was cool as hell though as you could sign up online the night before. Once everyone had a smart phone in their pocket this hit the big time.
you would probably finish this video before it's your turn
My favourite thing about KZhead is some guy can make a nearly 2 hour documentary on queuing and it doesn't have to get approved to be shown or anything. Like, mad long videoes on random stuff can be made and it turns out that it's all absolutely fascinating.
*videos
And then that video gets 12 million views lol love it
I didn't even realise this video was 2 hours long
This has nothing to do with KZhead... if anything, KZhead tries to inhibit it these days.
Yeah, @KZhead was not always a total dumpster fire of blatant greed and you could easily find quality content just like this all the time.... but that was before the over paid business people in charge decided they knew what we wanted to see, because they had a useless and broken from the beginning algorithm. I love how @youtube suggests I watch the same 20 videos over and over again when there are millions of videos on this shxt platform. I am personally waiting for a new and better service to happen.
I absolutely love the little detail at 1:23:01 where one of the dots pull another away from the pit
Also cool story (or not) I talked to my coding teacher in November 2023 about making a theme park through console coding (57:54), I showed her this video and we ended up watching the entirety of it. Fun times
"flight of passage?" "gone" "slinky dog?" "gone" "seven dwarves?" "gone" its like war casualties
As a former attractions cast member I will always miss the paper fastpasses, purely because I used to steal whole stacks of them and discreetly give them to families in standby when I visited the parks on my days off lol. I also used to give them to kids who were scared to ride the bigger attractions as a reward for being brave, or to any guest I saw being really courteous and kind. When mymagic+ rolled around guests honestly started getting really mean and impatient about the whole thing.
I had time for my leaders would just hand me a stack of fast passes and told me to go out and make magic. I really Hate that CM can’t do that anymore
Tbh Disney seemed so much more laid back and spontaneous overall back in the 2000's during the era of paper fast pass, now everything is structured like you're practically planning an invasion when you just wanna enjoy a day at the park. It feels like a competition just to get on the rides you want to, while it is a good system for people who really like to plan ahead, if you're a local that just wants to go there on the weekend or like after work, then not so much
@@fireisfire95 you are not kidding, this made me never want to go to Disney so i don't have to deal with such BS.
@@fireisfire95 local? Why do I have to fully structure a vacation though? Like, that honestly takes a LOT of work (hence the entire industry of planners and bloggers, etc.) but man… I can’t stand it. I’m in VA, near Busch gardens and not far from Kings Dominion (where I used to work!) and while those parks have a completely different vibe and no fast passes, it still completely boggles my mind that Disney, as excellent as it is, is still just a theme park. And people should be able to enjoy it as such. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go watch 1961’s 101 Dalmatians…
You truly are the same kind of god-tier person as the McDonald's employees who sneak extra nuggets into the boxes.
The secret to using fastpass is to have your friend drop her phone in the water and then the staff spend 30 minutes unsuccessfully trying to fish it out before giving your group free fast passes as compensation. edit: guys this was accidental lol we're not that smart
W
that's the strat
Sigma grindset
That's supposed to be our secret!
Omg
I feel like Kevin should revisit this topic now that genie + has become the monster again!
I'm not going to lie. My family, especially my father, was the planner type. We utilized the OG fastpass system to do almost all the good rides in one day. I'm glad we got to experience the smoothness of the system. I'm also glad we stopped going before they implemented the new fastpass systems.
I’m surprised Disney hasn’t declared bankruptcy after the Reign of the Bobs
Dude I was so excited to hear the story of the Dillons.
same 💀
I demand a video about the Dillons! Defunctland? No, this is now Dillonland!
I was getting ready for a story about how the Dillons were some secret, influential family, and stuff like this happened all the time.
Oh shit MAX! You're back!?
Genuinely thought there some dark secret behind them or what happened afterwards
It really is darkly ironic that one of the best-known roles of Robin Williams, a man who sued Disney for using his image without his consent for marketing, is now the face of an exploitative app which charges $15 a pop to skip lines, after a free system which did basically the same thing for everyone was replaced by inherently the same system - but worse enough to 'necessitate' this new app to some people in the first place.
Yeah… RIP. I wish that drunk was still around to lambast these exploitative jackasses. Edit: I also wish we could cure horseshit like Neurodegenerative diseases. It’s a goddamn shame so many people lose their mind as they get older.
Seconding your sentiments of disdain for the misuse of Robin Williams' image, I suspect that he'd be rolling in his grave enough to power all the Disneylands combined if he was even made aware of any of this.
I was about to comment the same thing. He'd be rolling over in his grave.
That's exploitative capitalism for you. Putting profit over everyone
Well, that marketing was for the movie specifically as I understand it. He didn’t want him/Genie to be the main marketing of the movie. But I get the sentiment of the post regardless.
I now have a lot more respect for my grandma and aunt. They somehow managed to get us on TONS of popular rides. I thought at first it was just kind of difficult, but I realize now how hard it is!
It's so fascinating to return to this video... Because I think we all agreed it was a masterpiece but none of us called it that It was still "just" a good KZhead documentary But I've seen many documentaries with a lot less to offer This is a masterpiece
"A man named Michael Eisner, who was the CEO of Disney at the time." Your ability to find new and clever ways of throwing shade at Eisner never fails to entertain.
He really left a stink on the company
@@TheMrfoxguy And yet somehow it's doing worse creatively now.
Eisner seems like a positively angelic figure these days.
@@rafaelmarkos4489 I hope Bob Iger replaces Eisner's place in these videos the day he retires.
@@JCBro-yg8vdIn my years of watching Defunctland, my judgement on Micheal Eisner is that he was a more morally good version of those super rich guys in Dubai: they both have the deadly combo of way too many ideas that were "okay" in quality, access to large amounts of money, the power to act out on those ideas, and they don't have a mental filter that refines the ideas down to be realistic. The thing that differentiates Eisner from the Rich Guys in Dubai and what makes it so I can't dislike the man, is that I fully believe that Micheal Eisner wasn't in his job as CEO just for the money and he had a genuine desire to make rides and attractions that he thought would be entertaining. One of my best examples for this is the Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter: as brought up in Defunctland's video on it, one of Eisner's first ideas was for the ride to be based on the movie Alien and for it to be a scary ride. I think it speaks to Eisner's character that when faced with the fact that the Alien ride would have been inherently too scary for Disney, he decided to make a less scary version of the ride based on another project instead of attempting to dull the terror of the Alien franchise. Another example is that of Pleasure Island: the whole island was filled to the brim with differing themes tied together by a creative backstory. Credit to the Imagineers in designing it, but the fact that Eisner was willing to risk the chance that Pleasure Island would have been too out there compared to the rest of the park for most guests, and therefore risk losing out on a large amount of money shows that Eisner was in it for much more than the massive amount of money the job brought.
That montage of Disney Vloggers explaining the process of getting fast passes for rides. Is a perfect example of how this has ruined the ‘magical experience’. No vacation should require a spreadsheet
Right??? I'm not American, and my first thought was "is it still like this? Cause if so I'm taking disney off my bucket list" no way I'm doing homework to go on vacation
@@notmocka it's literally just a card that says what time you have a fast pass and only the super popular rides really need it
@@notmocka I just got back from my honeymoon in Disney and it wasn’t horrible at all. You definitely don’t need a spreadsheet unless you are going in the dead of summer vacation. You do need to pay for the fast pass ability now tho which sucks
lol i was like you have some idea you made a freaking spreadsheet lol
Spreadsheets should be opt-in for weirdos like me, not a minimum required effort!
I was a "lead" supervisor at Universal lower lot for a few years in the early 2000's during college. We experimented with a "fastpass" type thing then but it was really just for customer relations. You would hand them out to people who were having a bad day, etc. Could skip any line. You can imagine what the employee's eneded up doing with them haha. At one point I had a very large collection! No idea what formal process ensued, but that system was actually fun and sustainable at the time, and lasted for over a year if I remember correctly.
Wow... the quality of this video is insane. Better than any Netflix documentary I've ever seen
Holy flip, a feature length documentary on queuing, YES
Why did I fully expected to Jon to just be here, I mean there were Spreadsheets involved so hmm🤔
Hey, you stole my comment. I made this same comment an hour before you...
This is the engaging content I come for!
@@fartknocker5708 Nah. You wrote: "Holy crap. A feature length documentary on queues and FastPass? Let me clear my schedule." You think those are the same?
Pff, the fact that I just finished this and now I end up seeing a video from one of the youtubers I’ve been actively getting back into over the last two weeks is funny to me
This feels like a math lesson but disguised as a history video
Best way to learn it: By showing how it is useful to know it.
This does something math class can't: not be boring.
@@StafkiGTNand it’s funny too because waiting in line is generally boring, but for some reason we all find it interesting to see how Disney handles lines even though it’s none of our responsibilities to know.
Best of both!~ Nice to see it being used in an entertaining and relevant way 😊👏✨❤️
@@carrevenger31 its fun to watch cause we like seeing how corporate screws up their operations and we're happy knowing we're not spending 1000s at Disney and waiting hours in lines in 40C hot sun lol
Gosh that online fast pass sign up system seems more stressful than trying to register for classes and make a schedule in university, and I cry almost every time I do that!
I went to disneyworld in the early 2000s and it seemed simple enough, go early, try and get the paper fastpass ticket for the popular rides asap, ride the less popular ones while waiting or go shop/eat, then come back. Hadn't been to the American parks since. In 2022, I flipped through a fairly recently made guidebook on exploring the disney parks. I was absolutely MINDBLOWN. You have to install an app? You have to buy a fancy gizmo to pay for things? The whole system basically needs you to pay money, pay more money, and then (wait for it) pay EVEN MORE MONEY to basically be able to experience the park?? Perhaps the conclusion is that if I ever visit the US again, I will be taking my family to explore other attractions the country has to offer, rather than disney themeparks...
That 'if you like it then you should've got a fastpass' song is the single most agressively 2009 thing I have ever seen. Incredible.
I know documentaries are far from a comedic genre but “part 4: the Dillons” is probably the best joke I think could be made within the format.
I was so ready to hear the entire history of the unlucky dillons whose only fortune was that fast pass
Also whenever the transition contradicts the last thing said like an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia title card.
I absolutely lost it with the transition, I think it may be the funniest bit in Defunctland history. I was 100% ready for a 25-30 minute tangent that would end in some huge revelation.
After the father said, "This doesn't happen to the Dillions", I instantly wondered why. Then Kevin launched into a supposed background and I thought "Wait, he's actually doing this?!" But when he stopped, I was disappointed. I kind of now need to know...just WHY doesn't such luck generally happen ti the Dillions? Sounds like their family may have been some kind of progenitor for A Series of Unfortunate Events with a sprinkle of Stanley Yelnats' infamous great, great, great no good grandfather from Holes.
To this day, getting fast passes is the ONLY noteworthy achievement of the Dillons
My family frequently visits WDW and has since my childhood. We definitely fall in upper area of the graph, we definitely optimize our experience… and we all still talk about how we preferred the OG Fastpass system. It was kind of fun to rush to the fastpass kiosks and none of us enjoy being forced to be on our phones on vacation
I grew up in Southern California in the mid 2000s, never had an annual pass but found enough free tickets in I probably went just as often. Between fast pass, single rider, and timing rides correctly it was pretty feasible to do every ride in the a single park in a day, provided you went during the offseason. Don't think this is even possible now with the huge year-round crowds. Honestly they need another location to cut down on crowds (and tbh the California park is in such a bad location, its impossible to expand it)
“Some of you might disagree with this conclusion. There you are.” The single greatest play to have ever occurred in Disney discourse
I first learned how to properly look down on the poor when my family and I got paper fastpasses and a decent cardio workout at the break of dawn on disney day seeing the data back this up gave me perverse satisfaction
@@asparagusoffice It does take a good amount of time & practice in order to properly look down on the poor. This is why old money families have disdain for new money and the "nouveau riche": an improper amount of expertise in looking down on poors.
I think the most important thing he says is when he points out that the original system was designed by operations, people who are trying to make the park work better, while Fastpass+ was designed by marketing, people who are trying to ring the most money possible out of the people who go to the park with no regard for what it will do to the whole experience. Truly a masterpiece video essay, with one of the most solid conclusions I've ever seen.
I wholeheartedly agree!
Sometimes a pair of fresh eyes helps with things. 🤷♀️ The first way was designed to deceit people because it was to "hide the line from sight" so idk why you're trying to make it seem like marketing is such an evil department lol I was in operations at first at my company and any department in the corporate would can have bad characteristics.
@@secretlyamazing ya but marketing is always evil and also a very much waste of money
@@secretlyamazing Chris' comment was pretty neutral regarding operations. It's pretty common knowledge that marketing tends to not understand what the fuck is going on in the thick of it - they're literally there to ONLY make money. Operations understands what's going on and while, yes, is trying to make money... they're doing it efficiently lol.
What gets me is the blatant lying. Makes you wonder what else Disney has lied about to make it seem like Captain Marvel box office numbers things are going as planned and everyone is happy
Holy cow that was really, really in depth! Well done. In the early 2000s, my son and I accidentally discovered that any ticket from any other DW park would allow you to get a fast pass... Even tickets from previous visits and in previous years. In those days we'd visit at least a couple times a year for a day or 2. We'd also pickup any used, discarded tix we might find. Towards the end we had amassed enough old tickets that we'd be able to collect enough fast passes that we never waited in a line from open to close. Fun times
This video makes my family’s trips to Disney World make a lot of sense! My parents took me as a kid 3 times, all during the early 2000s and during the OG Fastpass era (definitely no smartphones). I had a great time, and I don’t remember the lines being bad at all! Cue my younger cousin’s experience at Disney World just a few years later, where they had a miserable time and still complain about it to this day. I never knew just how much the differing Fastpass systems affected a guest’s entire park experience, but now, it makes total sense.
If you have to plan literally a month in advance to be able to ride a ride in a park, then perhaps the problem is not with the wait times, but rather the park itself letting in way too many people out of greed.
Agreed. But at this point, fuck Disney and their greed machine it’s become.
Thank You! Selling too many Annual Passes! Selling too many Admission Tickets! And raising the price of 1 Day Admission to the equivalent (or more than the) cost of a Knott's Berry Farm / Cedar Fair Pass!
The thing is people would then complain they can’t get in when they are taking their vacation
The only way to reduce demand to enter the park is to raise prices. Did you even watch the video?
@@bobguy6542 You could always ignore demand altogether though.
32:22 Hearing the xPass philosophy of "guaranteeing that guests will be able to eat at their favorite restaurants and ride their favorite attractions" is like foreshadowing. You can already see how the system they're trying to invent will be favoring those visiting the parks often, because the once in a lifetime vacationers don't *have* favorites, because they've never been there before
Exactly. One of my friends told me he went to Disneyland with his kids and said they did everything. Paid for genie+ and lightning lane and everything. Like, of course they did. They don’t go to the park every week/month. They’re once in a life time vacationers.
kzhead.info/sun/Y9iwdKmMn2iHlIE/bejne.html
I'm glad i decided to watch this again because the ending was like an m night syhamalan twist.
@@SMA2343 that’s actually set up correctly at Disneyland, where you can’t start claiming lightning lanes until you’re in the park. At Disney World you can claim your first few at 7am. Just went to Disneyland. I actually like it better than WDW, never thought I’d feel that way about it either.
@@williamfryman4360 It also helps that many rides at Disneyland do not offer Lightning Lane, so Standby always moves (Jungle Cruise and Pirate alone show the difference between Disneyland and WDW with how adding LL to a ride that really does not need it, makes the wait increase absurdly) and yes, Genie+ is better implemented on Disneyland.
I used to work at Disney during the paper FastPass era and my friends and I had a 4 park hopper program where we could hit all our favorite rides in a single day. It's not possible today.
As a person who's constantly gone to Disneyland and other Disney parks but haven't made a trip to Disney World yet, the 60 days planning gives me a headache already.
"It was like a MAGIC WRISTBAND! So naturally they called it Experience Band." I laughed way too hard.
“Allowing people to interact with strangers, back when people were into that kinda thing” Great line
8:12
Heh, "Great Line" I see what you did there
I just had my first visit to disney and this happened to me all of one time and it was during the rise of the resistance which i wanna say was 90 minute wait
@@Whistlingduckpro what did he do ? 😀
Still don't like lines.
Love this documentary. This whole fastpass experience sounds like a miniature model of monerary economics, to find the correct balance between an acceptable (park)life and an acceptable profit. So fascinating.
How, in the same world where queueing for Rise of the Resistance is $15 per person and Hulu is like $80/month, is this entire, feature-length, well researched and beautifully presented documentary, with novel science-driven data, available free on KZhead?!? You’ve done a beautiful thing, thank you for putting in the hours and the passion to create this kind of informative and crazy-entertaining content 👏👏👏
The fact you can finish this video and still be left in a typical Disney queue is astounding
The wait times for some attractions at Disney parks in the USA are absurd. Here in the UK, even the biggest rides at the biggest theme parks like Nemesis at Alton Towers or Stealth at Thorpe Park rarely have wait times over 2 hours, even in the busiest times of year like Easter & Summer holidays. But Disney parks can have queue times of 3, 4, or even 5 hours! It’s mental!
@@Jaxymann as an autistic person who can easily get antsy if I'm made to sit at a sterile office desk motionless for like an hour, I absolutely dread the thought of a 5 hour wait time. Christ, imagine that, that's half a day, half of 10 hours, we're awake and living through a day for about 12 hours, that's half a day, that's how long it can take to go from morning to evening, I'll never understand how Disney parks can be so popular when you got hellish wait times like that
The system is failing, and we're all gonna die.
@@henryapplebottom7231Speak for yourself. I'm more prepared than the average person, you should do the same. My biggest concern will be medication of some sort, like antibiotics and the like.
@@tedkaczynskiamericanhero3916 r/iamverybadass
Those Fastpass “experts” solidify it for me that Disney adults are terrifying.
Seeing so many people so desperately trying to get official Disney approval is creepy as hell.
They sound like any other nerds speaking with a group of like-minded nerds. I'm not surprised there are rollercoaster nerds who go around doing that. This is the Defunctland channel where adults talk about theme parks.
@@LucasCarter2 If you do any hobby a lot, you become good at it. And here the system was so obscure that people who were new to it had less chance to understand it.
They are weird and are usually couples
Yes, yes we are.... hahaha 🤣
My uncle is extremely talented in making activity planners for Disney it’s crazy. He will ALWAYS have a fast pass for us. I look forward when we get to go together because I know I never have to wait longer than 15 minutes per ride. (Even in a week long duration) He even started selling personalized activity planners for people looking to have the best experience possible. Planning ahead is everything
Wow, you uncle is hella cool. I'm really jealous. 😮
The reveal at 1:15:27 was a more impactful twist than any movie I've watched in the past decade. I don't even care about the content of that reveal that much, but the delivery and the music made my jaw drop. AMAZING execution
That plot twist had me slapping my knee and going "GOT ME AGAIN, DEFUNCTLAND!"
What plot twist?
@@stayedthread8822 Shapeland not being a simulation of a fake park. See around 1:15:20
it was so dramatic and unnecessary I absolutely loved it
Which one, there were several.
@@stayedthread8822 nothing some people just are desperate for thumbs ups for odd comments
We need a counter for all the times you've said "FastPass" lol. This is a very detailed and well organized explanation of the FastPass system...I truly did enjoys this.
He should add a counter to the video😆
Do we need to take a shot each time the term is mentioned?
@@KRobinson-ko1neonly a shot of water
this is the most insane video essay ive ever seen. with my hyperfixation on disney theme parks this blew my mind to bits. thank you for your hard work!
I've put off watching so many great movies because I don't have time, but I watched this and was fascinated the whole way through lol
When you find yourself watching the same thing as Andrew
Didn't think I'd see you here
I mean I watch every video at 2x so never feels long lol you should start doing that 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Oh hey ibx, glad KZhead has come together to watch this lol
Same lol
This video has given me a much greater appreciation and respect for my grandma, who under the convoluted genie+ system woke up every single day to get us on ALL the most sought out rides, even getting us on guardians of the galaxy twice. I knew it was kinda complicated, but now I know just how crazy of a feat that really was.
Now THAT'S a dedicated grandma.
!! absolutely dedicated !!
your granny is Amy from B99
Wow! Hats off to her.
Definitely all guests, employees, and management here are ideal candidates for the 'McDonalds experiment'. Somebody needs to work on that! I expect the conclusion can be found before the experiment takes place... much like the one demonstrated in this video. I'd never think to subject any member of my family to this brutal, hell-bound nonsense. I pity humans.
Has anyone told you this is one of the greatest things put on KZhead yet? Because it is. It's fascinating, passionate, and really entertaining.
Heard of this brilliant vid by word of mouth. The way you frame queueing issues to make them more tangible and interesting - the shapeland reveal, the FastPass issues as a monster literally eating guests - was outstanding. A+++
"Hotels asked for more fast passes" gives the same vibes as "how can a country be in a crisis when they can just print more money, lol".