With wait times as long as an hour for some of the Disney parks' most popular rides in the late 1990s, the corporation decided to test out a new service called the Fastpass. The Disney Fastpass was initially introduced at the Animal Kingdom park in Orlando, Florida, and upon proven performance was introduced as an option for park visitors waiting for the most popular rides at all of the parks.
The Fastpass allows guests at Disney theme parks to forgo waiting in lines with exceedingly long wait times. The guests are able to return to the ride at a later, previously determined time, with a shorter wait time, usually about five minutes.
If guests feel the traditional line for a ride or attraction is too long he simply enters his park ticket into a Fastpass distribution machine located at the entrance of an attraction, which prints a Fastpass voucher. The voucher provides the guest a specified time period, for example 11:00 a.m. to noon, in which he may return and enter the Fastpass line with little to no wait time.
Each guest intending on entering the Fastpass line must enter her ticket into the machine and receive a voucher. An entire family may not enter the line using only one voucher. A Fastpass voucher can only be used at the ride or attraction where it was received. Guests may only print out two Fastpass vouchers within a two-hour period for the popular Disney attractions. There are also no exceptions to the periods printed on the Fastpass vouchers. If a guest returns to the Fastpass line five minutes after the printed return time, the voucher is no longer valid and she will not gain entry into the line.
