Came across this article from an average guest

[Angel Ariel]

To me, the middle ground is picking a few FPs for some of our favorite attractions every day and then forgetting about them until the trip. And treating those FPs as opportunities to do some of our favorite attractions, not commands or sentences to appear at them at a specific time. If our plans change when the time comes, we will do something different. And I trust that, with our knowledge of the parks and the rides and how the crowds develop will enable us to do everything we want even if we do deviate from the original rough plan.

I don't disagree with this. That isn't what I was talking about, but I don't disagree.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Would you show up to a Broadway play with no tickets? No. So why do people think they can show up to the most popular vacation destination in the world without doing any advanced planning beyond hotel reservations?

I have actually gone to New York and purchased tickets for the show at the box office the day of the show. are they front row seats? No..but they aren't back of the theatre seats either.

We are almost at 60 days out for our DLR trip. We have nothing planned other than flights and hotel. When we went to WDW in 2007, we couldnt make any reservations until less than 2 months out. DH was returning from deployment, and I couldn't book anything until we had a definitive return date. We had no issues getting restaurants like Le Cellier. I planned a trip about 3 months out for a friend of mine last year - that's just how far out they decided to go. I had a very difficult time getting them dining reservations, and ended up getting quite a few only because of the cancellation threads here. It was nothing like planning our 2007 trip, in terms of ease and availability.

Wdw planning has gotten more involved as the years have gone - not just because of fp+ reservations or mm+, but free Ddining, more people knowing - thanks to places like the DIS - that they do need to book Dining at 180, making availability less as you get closer to the trip, etc. There are many reasons for it. But it hasn't always required a ton of advanced planning and research, so I do understand that some people just don't like it and some others don't expect it.

 

[Robo]

Oh come on. A Disney vacation is not for everyone. Some people want to just show up and do whatever they want whenever they want to do it with minimal lines. Disney is just not really conducive to that...

And, that fits my analogy that the party who sets up the stressful situation is, in fact, part of the stress.
Not completely "self-induced" by the one who is stressed.

I think the amount of stress people experience is completely self-induced. Don't blame Disney. Just my .02

 

[grimley1968]

I thought it was an interesting article. It did a good job of illustrating how a non-WDW and non-FP+ expert might reasonably view FP+. It reminds me of many conversations I've had with non-WDW experts about FP+, in which they express amazement at the ridiculousness of booking individual attractions before even arriving at a park.

To me, it takes planning too far. To someone less well-versed with WDW, it can seem downright crazy.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Comparing Disney to a firing squad? That says it all, I think!

 

[Robo]

Comparing Disney to a firing squad? That says it all, I think!

That's me. Anti-Disney all the way.

 

[SaintsManiac]

It was a bit tongue-in-cheek, because I have seen your extremely helpful maps and posts many times.

 

[DisneyOma]

OK, I found errors in the article. First one: FastPasses go on sale 60 days before you arrive. They are free.
Second one: miss her one opportunity to meet Anna and Elsa. They have the option of stand by, rope drop. etc.
Third one: if we don’t have a plan of action put in motion at 12:01am, we might as well not bother. Got same day FP for mine train after we park hopped in the afternoon!

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I just don't get being so stressed over a vacation. we don't do a ton of planning for our trips and still have a wonderful time. We often change fastpasses day of, and some days we don't even use FP. we ride everything we want to. We don't care too much about the dining options.Food doesn't get me excited. We are talking about cancelling all adr's for december and just doing CS/eat in room.

I'll say it again, you don't have to be up at midnight at 60 days to get FP. A&e and 7DMt will open up at some point. And if you don't get them, you can wait in line. yes, the lines are long, but you can still have fun. I have some great memories from waiting in line. Like watching the fireworks overhead with 7 year old niece while waiting on 7DMT, or DD(3) twirling like a ballerina while in line for the speedway (that sucker had a 45 minute wait!). Nothing wrong with waiting in a line, gives you a break from all the go-go-go.

 

[itchin2go]

I just don't get being so stressed over a vacation. we don't do a ton of planning for our trips and still have a wonderful time. We often change fastpasses day of, and some days we don't even use FP. we ride everything we want to. We don't care too much about the dining options.Food doesn't get me excited. We are talking about cancelling all adr's for december and just doing CS/eat in room.

I'll say it again, you don't have to be up at midnight at 60 days to get FP. A&e and 7DMt will open up at some point. And if you don't get them, you can wait in line. yes, the lines are long, but you can still have fun. I have some great memories from waiting in line. Like watching the fireworks overhead with 7 year old niece while waiting on 7DMT, or DD(3) twirling like a ballerina while in line for the speedway (that sucker had a 45 minute wait!). Nothing wrong with waiting in a line, gives you a break from all the go-go-go.

You are completely right. But a first time guest may not know that they can have a great trip without ADRs and "the perfect" FPs. They may feel like they're failing before they even get started.

 

[MrInfinity]

Except these days one is FORCED to plan IF they want to do ANYTHING other than walk around or shop at WDW. So far, you don't need reservations for that. I live an hour away and have AP's. I'm fortunate in that I can go anytime I like, but I don't. Our AP's were a huge waste of money this year. I can't just say to DH, "Hey, let's go to Disney today." Of course we could go, but we wouldn't be able to eat at favorite sit down restaurants, ride favorite rides, see favorite shows, etc. Why? Because I didn't plan 60 days out and everything we like has already been reserved by those who stayed up until midnight when their window of opportunity opened. Now, we even have to pre-book things like Candlelight Processional and Eat to the Beat Concerts. It's simply not worth the hassle. The solution for us is to simply not renew our passes this year--or ever.

Nope. Not forced.

We're back to you can't do ANYTHING but walk around or shop, huh?

If you bought me a ticket to WDW for tomorrow.... That is no 60-day planning, no 30-day planning, not even 2-day planning... I would go and have an AMAZING time. That would include, at a minimum, riding all 3 headliners (SM, BTMRR, SDMT), all the mid-rides (like POTC, HM, IASW), and have some fun food.

Look at that. Even on NO planning...
Plaza is available for 5:30pm. Great time and I love it there!
TTS and CP have good times as well!
Even BOG and CRT have 8pm-9pm times for TOMORROW!

You simply do NOT have to plan else be blocked out of everywhere! Sorry. You don't.

On last minute notice, I would FP+ Space, Splash, and BTMRR, ride SDMT at rope drop, grab a Plaza lunch, and if I was going w my kids, maybe snag that BOG or CRT late dinner, then plan to stay till close and hang out in Adventureland / Frontierland and get lots of ridings on BTMRR, POTC, and Jungle Cruise. I would hit SDMT and Peter Pan first, then ride some moderate rides midday when the lines are longest. We would use this time also to get ice cream, lunch, collect some Sorcerers cards, maybe see the MP or MI, and hang out.

Clearly everything is not booked, and almost everything is readily available!
Your argument about only being able to shop is just not the way it is.

On *no notice* and with *no planning* I could immediately come up w a way to do everything I want that is completely doable -- to ride practically every attraction there, eat where I want, and wait in almost no lines!

But hey your idea is good too, just don't renew your passes. It might be good, since it sounds like you go a lot. I try to appreciate our time there because we don't get to have annual passes.

 

[HappyDaisy]

Of course you can do most of those things without reservations. You can ride any ride you want without a fastpass you are just going to wait in line. You know, like the way you had to do it way back before legacy FP was a thing.

Again, you can't have it both ways. You can't not plan anything and also expect to be able to do whatever you want whenever you want to do it. Why would you think you could?

It's not that I expect to do what I want when I want, and I have no objection to standing in line. BUT, since FP+ went into effect, you could stand in reasonable lines of 40 minutes or less for most rides in a busy season. Exception would be the most popular new rides and those would be an hour or 90 minutes at most at certain times. Now, nearly every ride--including Spaceship Earth, which rarely had a line--has a line with waits of between 40 and 120 minutes. There are a few exceptions with waits of 15 minutes or so. They used to be walk on's at just about any time of day. This has been during any season.

My opinion is that FP+ is a terrible addition to Disney. I hate it. So, you can have my place in line. I won't be using it.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

While it's certainly the crux of the article, keep in mind that not every criticism aimed at FP+ is due to planning. Those "if you don't like to plan don't go to Disney" rebuttals are not unimpeachable silver bullets.

 

[MillauFr]

Disneyland is much easier and many of the rides are better. They should have just gone there.

 

[Aurora0427]

Nope. Not forced.

We're back to you can't do ANYTHING but walk around or shop, huh?

If you bought me a ticket to WDW for tomorrow.... That is no 60-day planning, no 30-day planning, not even 2-day planning... I would go and have an AMAZING time. That would include, at a minimum, riding all 3 headliners (SM, BTMRR, SDMT), all the mid-rides (like POTC, HM, IASW), and have some fun food.

Look at that. Even on NO planning...
Plaza is available for 5:30pm. Great time and I love it there!
TTS and CP have good times as well!
Even BOG and CRT have 8pm-9pm times for TOMORROW!

You simply do NOT have to plan else be blocked out of everywhere! Sorry. You don't.

On last minute notice, I would FP+ Space, Splash, and BTMRR, ride SDMT at rope drop, grab a Plaza lunch, and if I was going w my kids, maybe snag that BOG or CRT late dinner, then plan to stay till close and hang out in Adventureland / Frontierland and get lots of ridings on BTMRR, POTC, and Jungle Cruise. I would hit SDMT and Peter Pan first, then ride some moderate rides midday when the lines are longest. We would use this time also to get ice cream, lunch, and hang out.

Clearly everything is not booked, and almost everything is readily available!
Your argument about only being able to shop is just not the way it is.

On *no notice* and with *no planning* I could immediately come up w a one-day plan that is completely doable, to ride every attraction there, and wait in almost no lines!

Look, I agree that you can have a great trip with very little planning. But I also think that most people aren't multiple time visitors.... They go once. So for them, it IS really important to get those ADRs for those hard to get restaurants, because they won't be back next year to try again. Going to CRT truly is a once in a lifetime experience. However, I don't think not getting the fast passes you want is a big deal, because at the end of the day everyone is capable of waiting in line. Like we did in the days before fast pass!

I also think having a plan can be more important depending on when you are going. I think if you go between Christmas and New Years, a plan becomes more important. We are going Halloween week, and it's looking to be pretty busy, so I planned more for this trip than normal.

 

[HappyDaisy]

Nope. Not forced.

We're back to you can't do ANYTHING but walk around or shop, huh?

If you bought me a ticket to WDW for tomorrow.... That is no 60-day planning, no 30-day planning, not even 2-day planning... I would go and have an AMAZING time. That would include, at a minimum, riding all 3 headliners (SM, BTMRR, SDMT), all the mid-rides (like POTC, HM, IASW), and have some fun food . . .

Great! That's tomorrow. You still have to plan. Go ahead tell me what you'd to today with no planning or reservations or making fast passes prior to leaving? What if you had plans that fell through and time to go to a park. What would you do? And, we don't stay until midnight. We're early morning until evening types.

Actually, I just looked and I have to admit that there are some decent FP's available for later today. So, either today is a very quiet day, or something has changed since the last time we tried.

Even so, we're still not renewing for next year.

 

[Aurora0427]

It's not that I expect to do what I want when I want, and I have no objection to standing in line. BUT, since FP+ went into effect, you could stand in reasonable lines of 40 minutes or less for most rides in a busy season. Exception would be the most popular new rides and those would be an hour or 90 minutes at most at certain times. Now, nearly every ride--including Spaceship Earth, which rarely had a line--has a line with waits of between 40 and 120 minutes. There are a few exceptions with waits of 15 minutes or so. They used to be walk on's at just about any time of day. This has been during any season.

My opinion is that FP+ is a terrible addition to Disney. I hate it. So, you can have my place in line. I won't be using it.

Now this I agree with- journey into imagination had a 35 minute wait when we were there in early December 2014. Spaceship Earth had a 60 minute wait. On a recommended Epcot day. That is definitely a negative result of FP+.

 

[MrInfinity]

Great! That's tomorrow. You still have to plan. Go ahead tell me what you'd to today with no planning or reservations or making fast passes prior to leaving? What if you had plans that fell through and time to go to a park. What would you do? And, we don't stay until midnight. We're early morning until evening types.

All that was for tomorrow. What are you asking? What if plans fell thru... I've had our car break down and arrive a day late... we improvised. We've had ppl get sick and have to leave early in a day. Life happens. You deal.

You said that if you do not preplan, you could not get ANYTHING -- all you could do is walk around and shop. You even capitalized ANYTHING. I proved that to be completely false. You could get almost EVERYTHING and have an action packed day riding all the headliners with little to no waiting even on no planning. I was really pleased that every restaurant had some availability, even BOG and CRT. It's pretty cool really.

 

[larryz]

Comparing Disney to a firing squad? That says it all, I think!

New joke:

Q: What's the difference between visiting Walt Disney World and facing a firing squad?

A: With the firing squad, at least they give you a blindfold...

 

[Texas Mickey]

Personally I believe there needs to be a disclaimer on the Disney website.

Continue to this site if you are a seasoned family visiting Disneyworld and feel comfortable making your own arrangements. If not please call ### ### #### for assistance setting up your Disney vacation.