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If you head down to Disney World during tourist season, you’re bound to spend a significant portion of your vacation waiting in lines. In recognition of this problem Disney has introduced a couple different solutions: queue-less waiting systems currently being tested at the Hollywood Studios and soon to come to the Magic Kingdom with the Fantasyland expansion, and the more pervasive FASTPASS.
Introduced in 1999, the FASTPASS system allows Disney guests who pay a little extra to skip the line for rides. FASTPASS holders are given a designated time at which to arrive at rides, and if they show up on schedule they can hop on the ride right then.
Now for the first time the FASTPASS is expanding its repertoire beyond rides. Who better to usher in the introduction of something new to Disney World than its patriarch himself, Mickey Mouse?
The official Disney Parks blog announces that starting soon, guests will be able to purchase FASTPASS tickets to meet Mickey Mouse. No more searching through a labyrinth of rides, shops, and tourists to catch a glimpse of the famous mouse; now for an extra price you can purchase a specific meet and greet time with Mickey.
This FASTPASS option begins at an unspecified time in the spring of 2011. It’s part of the venture moving Mickey from his recently closed home at the Toontown Fair to his new permanent digs at the Town Square Theater.
The Mickey meet FASTPASS will work just like the ones for rides. Buy a FASTPASS and receive a one-hour window in which to come meet Mickey. If there’s a line of people waiting to take their pictures with the famous mouse, FASTPASS holders will get to jump the queue.
Disney Imagineers can’t just let a new opportunity pass without tinkering with it. In addition to a new meet-and-greet-Mickey home and a new FASTPASS opportunity, the Town Square Theater will also include elements of the recent queue-less waiting system.
Well, that’s not the exact phrasing the parks blog used. The Mickey area at Town Square Theater will include an interactive queue, which will likely resemble the one announced for the Storybook Circus: arcade style games and puzzles scattered throughout the area to entertain those who are waiting for the main attraction.
However, the theme of the area will differ from that at Storybook Circus. The new Town Square will be designed like a turn-of-the-century entertainment theater, full of vaudeville attractions. Mickey himself will join in on the theme; the mouse waiting to greet guests at the Town Square will be Magician Mickey.
While all of this sounds very cool, I’m a little surprised that it’s necessary. I always assumed that on any given day at Disney World there are dozens of Mickeys wandering around to delight guests. I bet it’s my Disney parks naivete showing; even searching for as popular and thus present a character as Mickey Mouse still probably has a needle/haystack quality to it, especially on busier days. Even finding Mickey doesn’t guarantee winning time with him, if many others want the same thing.
I’m sure even more details on the new FASTPASS and mouse residence will appear soon, hopefully including the date Town Square opens, so those interested should stay tuned.
Related Articles:
A Way to Beat the Disney Fastpass System?
What NOT To Do at Disney World
*(This image by dbking is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
