DVDizzy Forum

The queues for this ride can go up to 90 minutes...and yet Disney has never given "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" a fastpass service in any of the five Magic Kingdom style parks. Does anybody exactly know why? I don't think that it has something to do with the type of ride, as the Aladdin equivalent at Paris' Walt Disney Studios ("Flying Carpets Over Agrabah") has a Fastpass service.

Because they'd rather have a large group of tiny children in line for 90 minutes than running rampant throughout the park?

Jane always wondered that as well, and given the area that Dumbo is in (at least at WDW MK), there's more than enough room for a fastpass.

On the other hand, why does a ride like Living with the Land have a fastpass service? It's the most educational, but at the same time most boring attraction in all of WDW!

Escapay

OK, so here's a wild theory. When guests see the Fast Pass service added to an attraction, that usually implies the attraction is popular. Seeing how popular [and crowded] Fantasyland already is with Peter Pan, Philarmagic and Pooh, my guess is Disney wants to attract families to the less-than-popular lands with the same ride design (hence the Fast Pass on Aladdin's spinner both at the MK and at the Walt Disney Studios).

And visa-versa for Disney's Living With the Land attraction. It probably costs quite a lot to maintain, and a revamp ain't happening soon (seeing how the attention is focused on The Living Seas pavillion). Add to that the fact that it's considered "boring" (I beg to differ) and you get an underused attraction. I think Disney's hoping that adding FP to it will increase its popularity.

It's all psycological with most guests, and Disney knows this all too well.

In Disneyland, I dont think there is enough room, without creating a blight and ruining the overall theming.

It could also be Fastpass does not work on slow loading rides.

Mr. Toad wrote:It could also be Fastpass does not work on slow loading rides.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Imagine how long the standby line would be if half of Dumbo's capacity were devoted to fastpass. Plus, with its limited capacity, fast passes for the day would be gone in about an hour.

Living with the Land NEEDS a fastpass. The line is usually 90 minutes. The reason? Because there can only be as many boats as there are employees to give tours and people who exit, or opt not to ride soarin' due to it's massive line, get in line for the Land. However, I heard that employees who gave tours for the Land ride are being relocated in Epcot and they are going to add a soundtrack to the ride, eliminating the host. This will make it possible to have boats constantly leaving the dock, instead of once every 3 minutes. I heard that once this is done, the line will move so much faster that they will remove the fastpasses. I'm no so concerned about Dumbo not having a Fastpass line, but when I was at the Magic Kingdom in early August, there was an hour wait for Pirates. I've never waited more than 20 minutes for it in my life! I think Pirates needs a fastpass line.

goofystitch wrote:but when I was at the Magic Kingdom in early August, there was an hour wait for Pirates. I've never waited more than 20 minutes for it in my life! I think Pirates needs a fastpass line.

For years pre-renovation, you could practically walk onto Pirates no matter what time of the year it was. The longest I ever waited for Pirates was probably about 10 minutes. But with the new renovations, it got a shot in the arm as people who normally skip the ride, now check it out to see how realistic Johnny is.

Escapay

Escapay wrote:

goofystitch wrote:but when I was at the Magic Kingdom in early August, there was an hour wait for Pirates. I've never waited more than 20 minutes for it in my life! I think Pirates needs a fastpass line.

For years pre-renovation, you could practically walk onto Pirates no matter what time of the year it was. The longest I ever waited for Pirates was probably about 10 minutes. But with the new renovations, it got a shot in the arm as people who normally skip the ride, now check it out to see how realistic Johnny is.

Escapay

I haven't been since they renovated it but I knew it was going to be drastically different. My friends who have gone said they line was out of the building! - which is unheard of!! I heard htey even have a small stage show outside of the Pirates ride now...maybe to suffice the people waiting outside for hours and hours? I think when we go back I'll hit that first thing in the morning.

Escapay wrote:On the other hand, why does a ride like Living with the Land have a fastpass service? It's the most educational, but at the same time most boring attraction in all of WDW!

Escapay

THIS IS LIKE THE BEST RIDE IN EPCOT! BETTER THAN SOARIN'!

NO LIE I LOVE THIS RIDE!! I'd be sad if they replace it with a soundtrack instead of a live tour guide.

Kram Nebuer wrote:

Escapay wrote:On the other hand, why does a ride like Living with the Land have a fastpass service? It's the most educational, but at the same time most boring attraction in all of WDW!

Escapay

THIS IS LIKE THE BEST RIDE IN EPCOT! BETTER THAN SOARIN'!

NO LIE I LOVE THIS RIDE!! I'd be sad if they replace it with a soundtrack instead of a live tour guide.

You love it because you're a food science major, Kram! Five years ago you would have fallen asleep!

Escapay

Escapay wrote:You love it because you're a food science major, Kram! Five years ago you would have fallen asleep!

Escapay

No I didn't! I paid rapt attention! I fell asleep during "El Rio de Tiempo" before. What you gonna say now? I don't like Mexicans??? Huh???


Dumbo doesn't need a fastpass line. It would make the regular line unneccesarily longer than it should be since they have to stop to let fastpass people in. In other rides, it's not much of a problem b/c it's a continuous ride. For Dumbo, you let people on, check they're all properly latched in, let it run for however many minutes, then wait for them to all safely get out and leave. Other rides, you just let them on and the vehicles keep moving. It'll take longer on Dumbo for standby with fastpass b/c people will have to wait for people from another line to get through before them and since ppl like to come on the dot of their fastpass, standby will probably have to wait several cycles before they can get on. By putting fastpass, you really are just making a second line.

It is possible to "overdo FASTPASS".

Having just returned from Hong Kong - a full report is forthcoming - they have quite a few FASTPASS functional rides, and in some cases they do need it. There, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Festival of the Lion King and Mickey's PhilharMagic are all FASTPASS attractions. For the most part, you really don't need it on the latter two, and on the days I was there, I walked straight on to Space Mountain twice. By comparison, their lines to Astro Blasters, the Teacup and Dumbo - not to mention the hugely popular new Stitch Encounter - were all quite lengthy.

However, rides like Dumbo are incredibly fast loaders to start with - with about 16 carriages making a possible 32 people through each load - and their carnival-style nature means that FASTPASS is probably not suited for them.

FASTPASS should be reserved for the major attractions. Dumbo is something you do while waiting for your FASTPASS window to Indiana Jones or something to come up!

I also think that FP would be problematic for Dumbo. The ride is crowded from open to close and it's a start-and-stop operator, so attempts to "redistribute" crowds would probably just result in two lines, neither offering much of an advantage. There is also the problem of space -- Dumbo's queue is cramped as it is.

-Aaron

Kram Nebuer wrote:

Escapay wrote:On the other hand, why does a ride like Living with the Land have a fastpass service? It's the most educational, but at the same time most boring attraction in all of WDW!

Escapay

THIS IS LIKE THE BEST RIDE IN EPCOT! BETTER THAN SOARIN'!

NO LIE I LOVE THIS RIDE!! I'd be sad if they replace it with a soundtrack instead of a live tour guide.

I wouldn't say better than soarin but I do like it..its relaxing especially if you're tired and need a break. I guess that really isn't appreciating the ride itself though.....

Another theory could be that the reason the lines are so crowded are BECAUSE of the fast-passes.

You see, once you get a fast-pass for a ride, you have a lot of time before you get to use it. Granted, Dumbo's lines have always been long even before Disney even thought of the idea, maybe fast passes could be what contributes times when the line get over 90 minutes long.

Wonderlicious wrote:The queues for this ride can go up to 90 minutes...and yet Disney has never given "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" a fastpass service in any of the five Magic Kingdom style parks. Does anybody exactly know why? I don't think that it has something to do with the type of ride, as the Aladdin equivalent at Paris' Walt Disney Studios ("Flying Carpets Over Agrabah") has a Fastpass service.

Fastpass is only offered at attractions that have a high ride capacity.

Dumbo's ride capacity is about 700 guests per hour, while other attractions, such as Space Mountain, cycle over 1800 guests per hour.

That's why fastpass is not available for Dumbo.

BTW: The Flying Carpets attraction has a ride capacity of 1400 guests per hour, which is why they can offer fastpass. Sadly they don't need it. Parc Walt Disney Studios at Marne La Vallee receives less than 3 million guests per year. They average about 7000 guests per day or less. Even without fastpass they can cycle every park guest through the attraction in about 5 hours (assuming every park guest wants to visit the attraction).