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Advanced Ride Time Reservations: The Next Generation Experience

Have you read what Disney Parks Chairman Tom Staggs was talking about at today’s investors’ conference? It looks like The Mouse has some pretty cool ideas regarding how to use modern technology to enhance the Guest experience at the Disney theme parks. (You can read all about it here.)

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I have already received some emails asking what I think about one particular concept: The idea of reserving ride times from home in order to make planning easier.

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Here’s what I think: It sounds like a great idea in theory. If you knew that you could walk on to Space Mountain at any time between 2:00pm and 2:30pm with virtually no wait, you’d be pretty happy and so would I.  What it really amounts to is a variation on FastPass where you reserve your ride time at home instead of going to the attraction, being assigned a time, and returning to ride later.

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Will it really help people plan their daily theme park itinerary? It could certainly cut down on the mad rush for FastPasses that occurs at rope drop as well as give people something to plan their day around, much like a dining reservation.  Will it allow people to plan their entire day from start to finish, step by step, without ever having to wait in a queue?  I’m not too sure about that and even if it were possible, I’m not sure that I’d recommend it.  While a good itinerary should be well structured, it also has to be flexible enough to allow spontaneous Disney magic to occur.

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I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

1 Comment

  1. Jordan

    I’m not sure how I feel about this. I enjoy planning a loose itinerary for my trips but don’t like feeling ‘locked down’ to a ton of plans and places I need to be. That’s why it’s a vacation! We also take a couple last minute trips each year. Would we be penalized for not reserving FPs 180 days out? This might save time for some people, but I wouldn’t be able to get my boys out of bed if they knew Toy Story FPs were already waiting for them! 🙂

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