Fastpass+

Hey there Nerds,
So if you hadn't already heard, Disney has been working on a massive kinda secret project generally referred to as "Next Gen." Their hope seems to be centered around attempting to personalize your experience in a Disney park so that characters, animatronics, and attractions recognize who you are, as opposed to the cattle like herd mentality that currently prevails.

Central to this system seems to be electronic wristbands loaded with RFID tags that will store your personal information, including your name, the people you are traveling with, your dining reservations, your theme park tickets, your fastpasses, and any other information Disney can use to catalog you and differentiate you from the herd.  An early test of the wristband system is underway at Walt Disney World, as well as some of it's RFID enabled systems.

One of the other major components of the Next Gen push is an upgrade to the Fastpass system dubbed "Fastpass Plus" or Fastpass+.  The idea is to move away from the current, ticket based Fastpass ride reservation system and instead store your ride times on your wristbands.  Also rumored to be a component of Fastpasss+ is the ability to book your Fastpasses online in advance of your trip to the park, in addition to booking times at kiosks at each individual attraction.

It's the addition of the book in advance Fastpass feature that has many regular Disney park visitors more than a little concern.  In theory, tourists that plan their vacations months or years in advance will have the ability to schedule every aspect of their vacation.  From dining reservations to ride times, to seating at shows and parades, every part of your Disney experience will be practically perfect in every way.  It's an over-scheduled mom's dream.

For the casual theme park goer, it is a little more worrisome.  Attraction capacity will not change.  There will still be around the same number of Fastpasses available each day as there are now, only in this possible future, more of those Fastpasses will be taken early by those who have pre-planned their vacations, leaving less for the casual visitor who pops into their favorite park for the day on a whim.  In addition, vacation tourists who don't know the wonders of Fastpass, let alone that you can book them in advance, will arrive to a busy park shocked that they spent thousands of dollars only to find there are no more Fastpasses for Space Mountain when the park opens.

There are a lot of passionate opinions about the possibilities of the new Fastpass+ system.  Parker and I get into a bit of a heated discussion about it.  Watch us lose our minds a bit.

What are your thoughts?  Is Fastpass the best thing ever invented or the end of theme parks as we know it?

--Mike