Sunday night I saw a YouTube documentary and Monday I had to do other things. By midnight I'll post the review of what I saw last night. For now, Disney's FastPass: A Complicated History, as seen here:
I can't believe I'm reviewing a YouTube documentary here but there are several reasons for me to do so. I try to avoid any discussion revolving around what is even allowed to be reviewed on Letterboxd as it just seems like a real rigmarole. As long as this is available for me to do so, let me discuss this 103 minute piece all about queues and lines at Walt Disney World. It would seem to be an esoteric subject must resonate with a lot of people and be accessible to those that aren't dorks like me, as it has had 3 million views while only going public two weeks ago! I have had an annual pass to WDW for many years now so I am quite familiar w/ the subject and I generally enjoy going there despite all the negative opinions I have of how Disney runs the parks... or how Disney does business in general. My pass is NOT an endorsement of their practices.
Anyhow, the creator of this (Kevin Perjurer) runs the Defunctland channel & before last night I did see several other videos from the account before, which deals with various theme park attractions and related content that is in fact defunct. To share my interests w/ others, I'll mention that I use YouTube on a daily basis and what I see there is NOT the most popular drivel that has zero interest for me. After all, just looking at the thumb nail for MrBeast videos is enough for me to NEVER watch due to the stupid expressions on his face-which I know is a common trend among the “popular” creators... even worse is knowing that he's gamed the system to become so popular, and that's enough for me to say, “F this guy” no matter how much he says he wants to clean up the oceans...
Anyhow, I avoid all the tools on the platform and instead my watches include but is not limited to:
Esoteric sports (for an American) like Gaelic football
New car reviews
Repairing old cars
Discussion of odd tech products
Repairing old computers
Classic pro wrestling matches/discourse
Sports stadiums
Movie reviews
Some odds & ends
Many different genres of music
So naturally I'd be interested in watching a feature length product all about services at Walt Disney World no longer in use.
Introduced a little more than 20 years ago, FastPass was an awesome idea: paper passes created daily which allow people to pick up early in the day and use at a later point, which would allow them to cut in line and join the regular line close to the point of entering the ride. It was great and I always used it. Then, they F'ed it up when the digital route was taken. Going digital wasn't the problem itself; rather, it became way convoluted and the average person was screwed over as mastering FastPass+ was a pain... and I did use it & otherwise had no problems with it. It became a monster out of control so I am sure Disney was glad that for all the problems COVID caused them (including shutting down WDW for 4 months), it was the perfect time to get rid of FastPass+ all together and introduce Genie.
It has been a thing for less than 2 months and I haven't used it yet, mainly because I only have been to the parks once, and that was last week. Genie is apparently buggy as hell so using it at all doesn't seem so appealing right now. Never appealing to me is the idea that now to cut in line at the most popular attractions, it'll cost you 15 bucks! As the one ride I went there for (Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance) was mostly inoperable-as typical-and the mobile option for ordering food (which is the only way to order food now at some spots) did not work for me for the first time ever... my opinion of WDW right now is not the highest it's ever been.
Be that as it may, it's not like I won't renew my pass in two months time, or not walk around there and do other things besides occasionally going on rides, which is my modus operandi whenever I visit the parks. Even if you've never visited a Disney park in your life, hopefully this review resulted in you learning a little bit more about me.
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