In Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom this week, a few of Disney’s Imagineers and cast members held a test at Pooh’s Playful Spot, the playground located across from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh dark ride.
Pooh characters were made available for meet and greets, but new queueing rules were attached. Parents were instructed, via cast members and signs posted around the area, to wait in line to see the characters while their children were allowed to play nearby in the playground. When the parents reached a certain point in the line close to the characters, they were asked to bring over their little ones so they could enjoy the meeting with Winnie the Pooh and his friends.
We received reports of this test being run on Monday and Wednesday, with Tuesday being a day for Disney’s staff to review how the previous day’s test went and make changes for the following. Throughout the tests, Disney has been video recording and surveying guests to get their opinion on how the queueing system worked out for them.
Improving wait times for children wanting to meet their favorite characters sounds like a great idea, but I’m guessing that this test may actually be for something greater. When Disney announced the upcoming Fantasyland expansion at the D23 Expo in September, they revealed that there would be a number of permanent princess meet-and-greet areas throughout the expansion. These will each involve an interactive/play area in addition to the actual character meeting area. In the announcement, Disney also emphasized the fact that the enhanced Dumbo attraction will feature a queue-less waiting system of some sort. The notion of magic feathers being handed out like supermarket deli tickets has been rumored.
So perhaps this week’s tests in Pooh’s playground isn’t all about trying to improve the current state of meet-and-greets but rather a way for Disney to test for the future of Fantasyland’s character meetings and attractions.
Last week, we told you about Disney testing a queueless meet-and-greet system in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom in which parents would wait in line while their children played in a playground until it was time for everyone to meet a character.
Now it appears that testing continues this week but on a larger scale, taking place at the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Guests wanting to participate are given cards and invited to wait in a stand by area, rather than a stand by queue.
According to TouringPlans on Twitter, this area includes shade, a DJ, merchandise, and Guitar Hero video games and seems to be aimed at entertaining guests comfortably while they wait to ride. The comparison to how a supermarket deli works still stands, as guests are called by the letter-number combination on their cards.
Guests are not required to wait in the stand-by area but must report to the attraction within five minutes of their group being called or they will lose their chance to ride. The normal stand-by and Fastpass lines are still available during the testing.
I am excited for this on Dumbo. For WDW, this will work great with the fact it is a kids park. I would be against this idea at, say, SF Great America as it tends to be teen heavy.
Man, I wish the queueless queue for Rock N' Roller Coaster was there when I went (longest wait of day, 30 minutes)
(sings)If you want to be my Chang-y, doesn 't matter if your black or white, or brown, or blue, or green, or red, or orange, or mauve, or yellow... 2010 trips- Dollywood, SFGAm, maybe SoCal
I've said this on other forums and I'll say it again, I don't care much for it at all. It really looks complicated and unnecessary. What happened to just waiting in line? They've taken up almost all of the courtyard for this, which was a nice place to sit and relax.
^It mainly seemed like it was the best area to test it and get reviews. It would be awful to do on Rock and Roller Coaster. With that said, waiting in line for Dumbo right now is almost painful. There is nothing to do in line and capacity is just dreadful for Disney. They should give kids a break instead of standing in line for 1-2 hours for a 90 second ride. It really depends on how it is done with the Circus, but I have high hopes for it.
With the idea of just waiting in line, the days of it are gone. Fastpass was a great idea when it started. However, the lack of time enforcements have just killed the stand-by lines on the E-Ticket rides. Still, nothing is worse then the q-bot system. What better way for a park to say "F you" then going "you paid to get in, now pay more or be forced to wait in lines that are longer because the rich pay to skip lines."
I really like this idea. Disney World heavily caters to families, and waiting in line for and hour can be excruciating for young children. Hopefully Disney rolls out this new queue with more attractions.
I've said this on other forums and I'll say it again, I don't care much for it at all. It really looks complicated and unnecessary.
I completely agree with you, give me a well themed queue and a line that moves (no 80% of the line being fastpass garbage) and i'm a happy guy. But in this industry perception is reality, and the reaility is people dont like to wait in lines.
I do think that this is a great idea for meet & greets because those are the longest lines at Disney and traveling to Florida with your kids then waiting over an hour in line with kids just to meet charectors is just too much. Theres been times i've waited less than 10 minutes for Matterhorn then walked by Pixie Hollow and the line was over 45 minutes. I think for major rides its a bit much though. As a operations person I know there are some logistical problems that are naturally going to come with things like this no matter how well its pulled off.
http://themeparkcritic.com/scripts/profile/ViewProfile.asp?ViewID=2909 A furious storm once roared `cross the sea, catching ships in its path, helpless to flee. Instead of a certain and watery doom, the winds swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon!
well, locked machines aren't of much help. Rumor on the street has it that one machine is always (pretty easily visibly from the backside)unlocked allowing a button of some sort to spit out an unlimited number of fast passes without a ticket insertion.
Officially I have no idea what you speak of or how one would go about exploiting that vulnerability though
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
