XPass - You may never tour Walt Disney World the same way again ...

[HauntedGabe]

I agree...it seems like a brilliant plan - turn over tables faster yet the guests will love it because it saves time...but I have a feeling that it's not for the table service meals, but rather the counter services...much like ordering from a kiosk rather than standing in a line and having order issues due to communications.

We just had an awful mean at San Angel, both entrees seemed to have been on a keep warm tray or similar, not nearly freshly cooked. If they went to the pre-order your food I can see this actually happening more. And if I am going to pay almost $100 for 2, I really have some expectations, silly me.
I'd have to have more meals at Teppan Edo.

Speaking of QS Kiosk, I did not bump into those touch screen, order your own meal kiosks podiums this time. Did they go away or did I just miss them?

[doconeill]

Speaking of QS Kiosk, I did not bump into those touch screen, order your own meal kiosks podiums this time. Did they go away or did I just miss them?

I forget where, but I thought some place at DTD was trying them out...I've seen them tried at random locations in the past 20 years or so, but in no case did they ever last long.

Then again, no place tries to handle the volume that WDW does.

[HauntedGabe]

Peco's greeters seemed to have added some measure of order to that QS, so some changes do work.

The greeter at Columbia House on the other had was just creating kaos. Her attempts to tell Guests which line they must stand in to order was not working and if you didn't follow the guidance 'cause 3 people were in one line and zero in another, she got testy. Requesting another cocktail sauce also threw the QS servers too. The food was excellent though.

[doconeill]

Peco's greeters seemed to have added some measure of order to that QS, so some changes do work.

The greeter at Columbia House on the other had was just creating kaos. Her attempts to tell Guests which line they must stand in to order was not working and if you didn't follow the guidance 'cause 3 people were in one line and zero in another, she got testy. Requesting another cocktail sauce also threw the QS servers too. The food was excellent though.

I seem to remember similar chaos at CHH last time. Pecos Bills was kinda chaotic last time we were there, but that was before some of the changes with the greeters, etc. And I think some of the chaos was from guests raiding the toppings bar as if it was free food...

[HauntedGabe]

I seem to remember similar chaos at CHH last time. Pecos Bills was kinda chaotic last time we were there, but that was before some of the changes with the greeters, etc. And I think some of the chaos was from guests raiding the toppings bar as if it was free food...

Pecos now has a holding pen area. After you receive your food you proceed to toppings or to the PEN, it is the small area near the restrooms, where there is a door to the outside. Closing it as an entrance made way for the pen where family members wait for food before they are allowed by stationed CM's to proceed to the table and chair areas. No food order, no admittance. There is only one entrance now, other doors are exits and CM guarded as exit only. I saw at least 6 CM's on door/PEN duty.

[supernova]

I'm not too crazy about this. I like the idea of spontaneity on my vacations.

Same here. I wake up and decide which park I'm going to visit that day. It's entirely a mood thing, or based sometimes on how crowded a particular bus is at the time. Or if a bus happens to be waiting, I'll just jump on. I don't want to plan out meals much less which rides I'm going to hit that day. Go with the flow.

[doconeill]

Looks like this is coming sooner than later...
Disney World to Test FASTPASS+ NextGen Technology at Magic Kingdom in May

Other sites are saying the same thing.


Gate readers have been installed at many if not all FP attractions, and special screens have been installed at Stitch, Jungle Cruise, Philharmagic and Splash that appear to be geared to at least display the user's itinerary, if not allow in-park selections. Aside from Splash, they seem to have chosen three of the lightest-usage FP kiosks, so I can see them using these as something like "central hub" machines that can allow access to all the FP attractions and not back up the FP lines at the busier ones.

[HauntedGabe]

Boy your right there, everyone seems surprised it is being tested. Also the settlement in the class action lawsuit involving guests with sight disabilites lists out the NextGen XPass as a solution for the future in many of the areas of the lawsuit. That kinda sealed it.

This was from WDW Magic....

"Next generation FASTPASS system to begin guest testing this week
Apr 30, 2012

Disney is set to begin guest testing of portions of the next generation FASTPASS system this week. From May 1 to May 15, random guests will be selected prior to their arrival at the Magic Kingdom to take part. The system is expected to work like this:

1. Guests in the trial will choose a FASTPASS itinerary for the entire day before they arrive at the park.
2. The FASTPASS itinerary will be emailed to the guest and encoded onto a RFID FASTPASS card which will then be used to gain FASTPASS access to the attractions chosen.

The significant point here is that this system is allowing the guest to book their entire day FASTPASS itinerary BEFORE arrival at the park, and therefore eliminates the current system of only holding one FASTPASS at a time, and having to wait for windows to become available. It is expected that this system will eventually become part of guests vacation planning when staying at a Walt Disney World Resort, and will be rolled out to all parks and most attractions. Also gone with this test are the paper tickets, and are replaced with next generation RFID chips on a single ID card, much like those used in the EPCOT turnstile trial a few months ago. Disney is investing heavily in RFID technology, and expect to use it in almost all areas of the guest experience, from FASTPASS, to park entry to room entry and charging."

[TXTaylors5]

The future is now here . . .

Some friends are at WDW right now and were chosen to "test" xPass!!!!!

[TXTaylors5]

From Travel On A Dream Blog:

Testing Out the xPass System

Posted May 11, 2012 by travelonadream

Between May 1 – 15, 2012, select guests visiting Disney World are taking part in a test of the next generation of FastPasses at Magic Kingdom, currently called the xPass. Clients of ours were selected when they arrived at the Magical Express Welcome Center at the Orlando airport last week. They told us all about the experience plus offered us to use their second set of passes.

While they were at the Welcome Center, they were pulled aside by a castmember with a tablet to ask them some questions. They selected dates for the trial and then were offered four fastpasses for each day. There were two groups of four rides each. They had to choose two from each group. Then they needed to say if they wanted to tour in the morning, afternoon, evening or all day. This allowed the system to select the appropriate times for the ride. They supplied an email address and were sent a confirmation of the times for their rides. They were given plastic FastPass cards that they would use for the trial.

Your email will spell out the times that you have xPass times for. The nice part was how the rides were organized. Instead of criss-crossing around the park, you started on one side and then moved your way across the park, saving time between rides. If you forget the times when you get to the park, you can take your xPass card to certain machines at the FastPass attractions to see your times.


When your ride window is open, you go to the FastPass return line as before, but those with the xPass have to do one of two things, depending on the ride. Some have a ball with a Mickey silhouette that you tap the card upon. This will light up green if you are within the hour window. Otherwise, it will light up blue showing that it is not time for you to ride. The other possibility is that the xPass card will be scanned by a castmember with a tablet computer. We arrived early for our second ride and the castmember told us we had 17 minutes until we could ride.

In both cases, our cards were checked a second time when we got closer to the start of the ride. Where the castmember would usually take your FastPass, with the xPass, you either tap another ball with the Mickey silhouette or just show your xPass to the castmember, since you will need the card for the rest of your day.

I can see good and bad with the xPass. The good is that you are able to select the rides and approximate times of the rides in advance so you know that you are able to get on the rides you want without running around trying to get FastPasses or wait in lines. The longest time between the end and beginning of ride windows was an hour, but in most cases it was less than 30 minutes. This gave us the time to go on other attractions along the way and still get to our next ride. This will take some stress out of the planning.

The problems I see are for those that will change their minds as they actually approach the day they will go to the particular park. We don’t like to set up dining reservations far in advance because we never know when we want to eat at certain restaurants or when we want to be in certain parks. Sometimes we don’t even know until the morning of. If we have to plan months in advance, that will be difficult.
Next is the weather. What if the weather is bad on your day that you are touring the Magic Kingdom so you decide not to go and take an easy day doing other things. What if you can’t get new times for the day you want to go instead? All your months of plans could change and leave you with no options but to stand in lines.

For some, planning a long time in advance and sticking with the plans is not a problem. For me it is. I’ll be very interested to hear how this is going to work with DVC and Annual Passholders. I also wonder if this is something that those staying off property will be able to purchase, like with the front of the line access at Universal Studios.

Time will tell. Rumor has it this program, whether it is still called xPass or is renamed something else, will be started in early 2013. I’m cautiously optimistic that this will be a good change.

[doconeill]

Yeah, been seeing a lot of reports of people selected for the test. It's hard to tell what is just simplified as part of the test vs. how it will work in the end, but from what I've seen it appear to be more about testing the in park operations part of it more than the guest booking experience.

They do appear to be grouping attractions in to two lists as with the Birthday/Give A Day Fastpass cards, although I don't have a complete breakdown. This does portend that there will be similar divisions in the end, limiting how many FP+/xPASS selections you can make. I do expect better selection of times in the end, subject to availability.

They are also just calling it "FASTPASS" as part of the test.

[WDW4Ever]

The only thing I'm cautiously optimistic about is that it won't be as bad as we all thought. Still though, I'll be an unhappy camper if I can't just walk up to an attraction and not be able to get on because that time, seat, date has been "reserved".

[TXTaylors5]

Found this information ontouringplans.com:

This is what the test xPASS FASTPASS looks like . . .



As reported by touringplans.com, the following attractions are currently being offered:

• Splash Mountain
• Space Mountain
• Jungle Cruise
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Haunted Mansion

It looks like the Magic Kingdom is the currently the only park being tested. I am sure this will be tested in all the parks over the next year, before it's "officially" rolled out in 2013.

[prickle]

Sounds to me like it is very restrictive. I like other posters here, enjoy spur of the moment decisions, based on multiple factors. I understand the concept of the pass but I have a feeling its about making more money and not for the enjoyment of the guests.

[JNota0005DakMC]

i am going to be looking into this for my trip in august, and i will see how it goes... though i am not thrilled with this initiative i will not kill it until i see it in action...