Fastpass+ discussion

Follow this link to a WDWMagic.com forum thread in which the topic is the new Fastpass+ system. As you probably know, this system allows people to reserve Fastpasses several months in advance of their visit to WDW, and this has generated a lot of different opinions.  This particular thread starts out by someone posting about a lead designer of the FP+ system giving a talk at a University of Florida product design class...

One of the most interesting points he touched upon was just why Disney has decided to implement this program and allow Fastpasses to be reserved so far in advanced. The reason? Parents who were surveyed about their experience and perception of the Disney Parks "overwhelmingly" said that it was "the most terrifying experience of their life." These are the words he used, unaltered. Parents said this because they know they will have to split up their family in a park of thousands, having people do other things while Mom gets Fastpasses and Dad goes to wait in line to get something to eat with the kids. This creates a vacation of nothing but stress, and Disney (World, more than anywhere else) has been in a sort of crisis-mode trying to figure out just how to handle this. Thus, the implementation of My Disney Experience, Fastpass+, and Dining programs which allows you to have things planned far in advanced, thus allowing the family to stay together.

So this kicked off many pages of discussion which makes for interesting reading.  There's something odd about the above quote, namely that families splitting up is their decision and not a requirement.  Families can (and do) wait while one member gets all the Fastpasses, and this generally only takes a few minutes.  The idea of having to split up while someone gets the Fastpasses seems puzzling, especially if this causes a lot of stress.

 There's a bigger picture here, which may be partly explained by people's expectations of WDW if they are making the "trip of a lifetime" and think they have to make every minute count, as opposed to the way veterans of WDW approach it.  Even so, if many people find going to WDW "terrifying", this points to other factors that have little to do with Fastpasses.  You can form your own opinion of what these other factors might be.