FASTPASS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FASTPASS is a system created by The Walt Disney Company, introduced in 1999, that allows guests to avoid long lines at its theme parks. At an attraction featuring FASTPASS, guests can use their park admission pass to obtain a FASTPASS ticket (essentially a reservation) with a return time later that day (an hour-long window) printed on it. If the guest comes back to the attraction during the specified return times, the guest can wait in a shorter line and be on the attraction within ten minutes, or often much more quickly.
FASTPASS tickets are dispensed by machines outside each attraction that uses them. A guest inserts a park pass and a FASTPASS ticket (or other informational ticket) is printed. At first, a guest could only hold a single FASTPASS at a time; if a guest tried to insert a park pass into another FASTPASS dispenser before the time shown on their previous FASTPASS, the dispenser would generate a ticket with a message printed on it stating that it was not yet time to obtain another FASTPASS. Since the initial rollout of FASTPASS, the rules have been relaxed a bit, and now additional FASTPASSes can be had sooner after one another, but still only one per attraction per park pass.
Vacations to Disneyland which are booked through AAA Vacations in 2006 come with park admission passes which can be used to collect FASTPASS tickets from multiple attractions at one time. Under this exclusive program, a guest can hold multiple FASTPASS tickets per park pass for multiple attractions.
A bug in the first implementation of FASTPASS allowed guests to get a pass for anything with a magnetic stripe that they inserted into the dispenser, even credit cards or passes for other parks. This has been corrected; a ticket will come out stating "This card has not been scanned for admission".
Epcot's Mission: SPACE was the first attraction built with FASTPASS in mind, with a specific queue area for it. Earlier attractions were given FASTPASS by rerouting the queue area to allow a shorter line near the boarding area.
FASTPASS is used mainly on the most popular park attractions, such as Test Track and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror; therefore, which rides offer FASTPASS varies over time. Smaller attractions do not need FASTPASS.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Disney's FASTPASS Service. Disney. Retrieved on August 26, 2006.
- FASTPASS. AllEarsNet. Retrieved on November 17, 2005.
- Where is FastPass Available. Orlando Vacation. Retrieved on October 16, 2006.
- Method and system for managing attraction admission - Patent #6,173,209. US Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved on November 17, 2005. - Patent for the FASTPASS system
