For us the old fast pass was better

ROMNEY · Sep 1, 2015

Returned today, from a great holiday, Magic bands were great for entering room/ parks, also going swimming at the hotel, no more, where do I leave my room key ?, its on your wrist, but , and it was a big BUT, for us.

We are a family, who like to take each day as it comes, get up see what the weathers doing, boiling hot go to water park, or as in most days in our August holiday water park morning, Epcot etc pm when thunderstorms came.

We couldn't get a fastpass to Soarin/test track, river rapids at Animal Kingdom, mine train,etc, where previously, go to ticket machine get your fast pass ticket and in an hour away you go. We were there 12 days, I even tried on our first day to get a ticket for our last day, no go

Work is regimented enough, so we didn't want to plan our entire trip day by day, but it almost seems with the new system you do, to top it off, on our last evening at Epcot, wait time at Test track was down to 45 mins, so we went for it, half way around the ride broke, we were escorted off through a back way(kids thought this was cool), Ironicaliy we were given a fastpass ticket for the next day, but we left for home at 8am.

We still love Disney though

PS No towel animals, bring them back !!

2Tiggies · Sep 1, 2015

We also preferred the old FP system. FP+ takes too much planning and is not as open to flexibility as they want you to believe.

Glad you had a great time though

Elise79 · Sep 2, 2015

I have to say even if the old FP system was in place there is no way you'd be able to get to MK at lunch time and get a FP for 7DMT a bit like you could never get one for TSM after 12 at busy times.

Having used FP+ a few times as long as you decide the day before you can get FPs for almost everything including Soarin & Test Track. On the day isn't going to happen now as people get to book 3 FPs in one go.

I now book a few days with our must dos and difficult FPs. The rest I do the day before once we decide what we want to do.

I don't miss running all over the park :rolleyes1

Oh and towel animals are down to the housekeeper and if they have time and skills to make them.

flortlebap · Sep 2, 2015

I also prefer the old FP system. Much more flexibility.

That said, during low season if you get there early it really isn't a problem

we also found some opened up during the day. Gone are the days of 13 passes in one day though - we managed 5 with FP+.

wayneg · Sep 2, 2015

Last time we did a Disney holiday the new system worked OK as we planned parks & meals every day.
This time was a non Disney trip but while there our CM friends gave us guest hoppers, we went into Epcot & MK, not a chance of making FP+ work for us, complete waste of time trying.
So its all down to type of holiday, plan and the new system is better, don't plan and the old system was better.
Unfortunately the only way we will go in for the foreseeable future is last minute, no planning.

We have only ever had 1 towel animal in around 100 nights at Disney resorts, that was the day we arrived at AK. Compared to the cruiseline where we have had 1 every single night onboard.

jothp · Sep 2, 2015

We have only ever used the old FP system at DLP but we would often walk across the park to a ride we wanted to get FP for, only to find that the return time didn't work with our other plans so we quite enjoyed the FP+ system where we could book a time we wanted in advance. I did book most of our FP+ at 60 days out but was able to change them around fairly easily for everything apart from Anna and Elsa right up to the day before our trip. Even while we were away I could change plans around fairly easily for the majority of rides up to the day before. I even managed to do some fiddling and get us FP+ for test track the same day and I didn't even start looking until 10.30.

pickers1982 · Sep 3, 2015

Personally I like elements of both systems.

We tend to do shorter park stints (pre school children) so it's quite nice to know we'll be able to go on midway mania without having to q for 3 hours or hang around for fp and similar for 7dmt.

That said I don't like being forced to plan! And whilst you can still be spontaneous it does make it harder in terms of having to rebook fp s etc.

I can see benefits of both systems. Shame they can't do both!

As another poster mentioned I don't miss however walking across the park to get a fp ticket only to walk all the way back again

Last time I went (feb 14) yew never booked extra once ours were used. Will be interesting how this works for us as all our bookings are for early morning

2Tiggies · Sep 3, 2015

pickers1982 said:
As another poster mentioned I don't miss however walking across the park to get a fp ticket only to walk all the way back again

But that's how I justified the dole hip floats I had for breakfast. And lunch. And snacks.

DLPDreams · Sep 3, 2015

I am on the fence - can't decide if I like or not, but don't think it's that bad. It certainly meant we were able to get on 3 rides without much hassle in the park (had to do a few 5 am starts to get A&E and 7DMT but we shaved off 3 hours of queuing time in one day getting those alone!). But, we tended to do mornings then head back to OKW for a nap, then back out again for pm. It was a pain not being able to book FPs for a park we were going to later that night, and not being able to do it on a device rather than at a kiosk. But, on the days we were going back to the same park, we sometimes managed to book a further FP for the evening before leaving for a rest.

I say sometimes as this wasn't the case earlier in our holiday as it was busy, but as the crowds got smaller in our last week, we were able to obtain more FPs if required. On our last day at MK we managed 5 FPs that day. But this definitely hadn't been the case earlier in the holiday. One day we decided to visit Epcot the next day rather than where we'd planned - I couldn't get very much at all a day out - just things that never have much of a queue anyway. The headliners were gone. I even tried to get BATB two days out at HS for one visit and couldn't.

On the whole though, I was thankful for the prebooked ones as that, along with doing mornings for early rides, really worked well for us. We managed 7DMT twice during our visit - my family were very thankful of my organisation when they saw queue times of 90 mins and we walked on! :rolleyes1

I think they could improve by allowing the booking of extra FP on your own device, as the kiosk queues were unbelievable most days!

2Tiggies · Sep 3, 2015

I think those who experienced both systems have more critics than those who have only tried FP+. It's easier to manage when you don't have comparative experiences from past trips as a measuring tool. There were days when it worked out OK for us, but generally t was a hassle and we felt the new system have us a lesser experience. That was staying onsite with a 60 day booking window. With FL Resident APs we aren't likely to even try pre booking. The whole idea of these passes is to allow you to spontaneous and I'm assuming Disney hopes to draw these pass holders into the parks as often as pussible, but in reality, it's had the opposite effect.

I do think that quieter days may help in trying to get additional passes. Last time we used pre booked FPs was last summer which coincided with Independence Day and that probably didn't help, but we aren't fans of the advance booking system at all.

With towel animals it can be hit or miss. We've had stays where we got them almost every day and there was one year where we had none at all. Not all the Mousekeepers are trained to make them though so sometimes you might just get someone who can't do them. I've read that they have to pay and take the course from the or own time and budget. Not sure if that's true.

disneyseniors · Sep 3, 2015

ROMNEY said:
Returned today, from a great holiday, Magic bands were great for entering room/ parks, also going swimming at the hotel, no more, where do I leave my room key ?, its on your wrist, but , and it was a big BUT, for us.

We are a family, who like to take each day as it comes, get up see what the weathers doing, boiling hot go to water park, or as in most days in our August holiday water park morning, Epcot etc pm when thunderstorms came.

We couldn't get a fastpass to Soarin/test track, river rapids at Animal Kingdom, mine train,etc, where previously, go to ticket machine get your fast pass ticket and in an hour away you go. We were there 12 days, I even tried on our first day to get a ticket for our last day, no go

Work is regimented enough, so we didn't want to plan our entire trip day by day, but it almost seems with the new system you do, to top it off, on our last evening at Epcot, wait time at Test track was down to 45 mins, so we went for it, half way around the ride broke, we were escorted off through a back way(kids thought this was cool), Ironicaliy we were given a fastpass ticket for the next day, but we left for home at 8am.

We still love Disney though

PS No towel animals, bring them back !!

So sorry for all this aggravation. Please write this to WDW or send an email ASAP. They need to know how the fp+ affected your very expensive trip(I would guess from overseas) If we don't all write to them with our concerns, then nothing will be resolved.

igk · Sep 4, 2015

2Tiggies said:
With FL Resident APs we aren't likely to even try pre booking. The whole idea of these passes is to allow you to spontaneous and I'm assuming Disney hopes to draw these pass holders into the parks as often as pussible, but in reality, it's had the opposite effect.
.

I hadn't thought of that. It must be a real disincentive to be an AP holder. I suppose the only think it does do is let you book a few non-headliners if you want to pop along one afternoon for example.

Jon84 · Sep 4, 2015

igk said:
I hadn't thought of that. It must be a real disincentive to be an AP holder. I suppose the only think it does do is let you book a few non-headliners if you want to pop along one afternoon for example.

The incentive to be an AP holder is to save money on multiple trips per year.

It's been mentioned elsewhere that WDW is not so bothered about keeping AP holders happy as there are much more international and once in a lifetime trips than there are locals. At DL it's a different story, they look after AP holders.

At WDW you never get asked if you have an AP to get discount on food or merch. In DL, you get asked everytime.

They know who is visiting the most!

wayneg · Sep 4, 2015

Jon84 said:
At WDW you never get asked if you have an AP to get discount on food or merch. In DL, you get asked everytime.

Made 2 purchases at DTD last month, 1 in World of Disney and 1 in TrenD both times they asked if we had AP's, DVC or any other discounts. I thought it was the standard question when you buy anything at WDW.

Jon84 · Sep 4, 2015

wayneg said:
Made 2 purchases at DTD last month, 1 in World of Disney and 1 in TrenD both times they asked if we had AP's, DVC or any other discounts. I thought it was the standard question when you buy anything at WDW.

Sounds pot luck then. I've always had to prompt them which sometimes makes them have to go back through the transaction as they've gone past the screen where they select the AP discount.

For us the old fast pass was better

ROMNEY

Earning My Ears

2Tiggies

Near to Tigger's House

Elise79

DIS Veteran

flortlebap

Disneyiac!

wayneg

Moderator

jothp

Going to wash my car in honour of the mouse.

pickers1982

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2Tiggies

Near to Tigger's House

DLPDreams

I am like a child in a sweet shop, hyper on sugar!

2Tiggies

Near to Tigger's House

disneyseniors

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igk

DIS Veteran

Jon84

wdwaddictuk

wayneg

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Jon84

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