Came across this article from an average guest

[Planogirl]

I've actually been staying onsite for the past few years, having stayed for many, many years in condos offsite. Next time I'm going back to the condo. My biggest issue with the new system and staying onsite is that it doesn't encourage you to go to other parks and places around Orlando. I actually cancelled a whole day of fastpasses and ADRs last trip in order to "squeeze" in a Universal visit. Next time I'm only getting a 3 day pass (though planning to only use 2 - +1 extra for good measure) while allowing time to visit Universal and Sea World, plus have a couple of stop and smell the roses days like we used to.

We stayed at POFQ the last time we were onsite and we kept coming and going in our rental car to visit Universal and some offsite restaurants and so on. Once we got back quite late and the guard was clearly suspicious. I guess that he wasn't used to onsite visitors being elsewhere until a late hour.

We only had 2 day passes this year. That was enough for us.

 

[Flight]

We booked a few times using the Communicore kiosks. We went to the old Akershus each time and thought that the whole experience was amazing. Now not so much.

I remember that! You would use the Communicore kiosk and talk to someone to make your reservation for that day. You would actually see that person on a TV screen while talking with them. Very futuristic and very cool!

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I've been sort of trying out for the next vacation. I haven't bought the tickets yet, but I go on and pretend I'm at the park and check to see what ADRs are available for the next day, or 2 days from now. I know last visit we cancelled Akershus and Be Our Guest (dinner - which pained me very much) to clear out time for US. Which meant, there were some very happy people who tried to get last minute ADRs for these places. Since I had done the 7 am thing, I had great times for both (ressie for 6). Not to mention the fps I cancelled (one was for MSEP in the hub). I'm doing this because I truly plan to stick to my 1 planned day rule. (BBB am, lunch at CRT, dinner at BOG, only fps I want are Rapunzel M&G and FoF parade

 

[SaintsManiac]

I've been sort of trying out for the next vacation. I haven't bought the tickets yet, but I go on and pretend I'm at the park and check to see what ADRs are available for the next day, or 2 days from now. I know last visit we cancelled Akershus and Be Our Guest (dinner - which pained me very much) to clear out time for US. Which meant, there were some very happy people who tried to get last minute ADRs for these places. Since I had done the 7 am thing, I had great times for both (ressie for 6). Not to mention the fps I cancelled (one was for MSEP in the hub). I'm doing this because I truly plan to stick to my 1 planned day rule. (BBB am, lunch at CRT, dinner at BOG, only fps I want are Rapunzel M&G and FoF parade

I was doing this earlier! We have 6 days of tickets and left 2 days wide open to do whatever. No ADRS or FP in advance for those days. I am excited about winging it and planning. I think it's fun to do both

 

[GreatLakes]

I totally disagree with this I think the obsessive planning is not necessary. Room requests are not essential, ADRs are not necessary in advance most restaurants are available the day of. FP+ can be got same day from the desks. There is absolutely no need for the obsessive planning people put themselves through

Planning because it is fun is one thing but if it is becoming a chore cut it back and go with the flow more it can be done I know because I have done it and on a busy week too

That has been my experience as well. I was down there for a week this past June and on my 5 park days I had exactly 2 ADRs total and one was the Luau at the Polynesian. We still managed to eat where we wanted. We usually go in February and don't bother with ADRs on park days.

I have had many good trips to Disney and never obsessively plan my days out, even after the implementation of FP+. On this trip we only loosely planned our park days based on expected crowds and didn't stick to the plan on more days then we did. We just changed our FPs that morning and still got on everything we wanted to, even if it meant waiting in the standby line.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I was doing this earlier! We have 6 days of tickets and left 2 days wide open to do whatever. No ADRS or FP in advance for those days. I am excited about winging it and planning. I think it's fun to do both

I'm excited about it, too! If we don't get to see something because of a long line, then oh well. There's plenty else to do! Or, we'll just leave and go swimming.

 

[Jey12]

I agree and disagree with this article. You don't HAVE to do these things. The author said the reason they are going in November is for shorter lines, so fast passes were not part of the initial planning process. It seems it was something they found out about and decided to take advantage of? One way to avoid a lot of these issues is to go through a TA. Let them know what you want and let them put together a plan of action for you. Let them get your fast passes and ADRs. Let them set up an alert and try to get the ADR you really wanted even though you're past that 180 day mark. What I love about Disney is you probably aren't going to get to do every single thing you would like to during your trip, but the alternatives are just as great. I guess I really don't understand why planning what day you want to be in what park is that much trouble ahead of time? The schedules are out months in advance. We're going in Oct. so planning a MK day around the Halloween parties dates can be tricky, especially when you only have tickets for 4 park days and no park hopper. The electric parade is a must see for us, so I started there and planned the rest of the trip around that. Our Epcot day isn't my first choice because the concert that night is Fuel vs. the person I wanted to see. Oh well now I can ride another ride instead of going to the concert. I really didn't want to buy MNSSHP tickets for a Friday night, but that's how it worked out. It doesn't matter that I made those choices 3 months ahead of our trip vs. the day of. Results are still the same and now I won't have the stress and wasted time the morning of or the night before figuring out what park. While I do understand the point the author is trying to make and the reasons and I do agree with some of them, I guess for me there are so many easy ways to avoid having to worry about it yourself or alternatives that I don't even consider it to be an issue. I mean it took me 10 minutes to get our fast passes. I knew what parks we wanted and had a list of our top 3 choices with 2 alternates and plugged them in and went to bed. I could have easily just emailed that same list to our TA and woke up to the same results in the morning.

 

[Minniesgal]

Most restaurants having day of availability is not what our experience has been. If we'd had that experience, I would feel similarly to you I'm sure. But that kind of availability just hasn't been there on our trips.

I guess it depends where you want to eat but I have been monitoring it for most of this year. I use the app and just look for dinner today and most places we would eat are available. Our Next trip is 14 nights but I'm only going to book 5 dinners as we want to eat at specific times the rest we will book on the day

 

[Minniesgal]

Depends on what you mean by "most," I guess. (And, when.)

When I look for dinner today I find only 3 or 4 obvious places are not available the rest all have slots open for dinner

 

[DisneyOma]

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.

We were there earlier this month, walked on to Spaceship Earth twice, walked on to Nemo, walked on to Living with the Land twice, did Figment with an unneeded FP as no one was ahead of us, waited 5 minutes for the Mexico boat ride, FP+ Soarin' one day and TT another day - although we got day of FP+ for TT one day too!

I think that the author of the article was just using an expression when they mentioned the sale of fastpasses. I got the impression that everything was already arranged and I would bet that they would have noticed actual payment if it occurred.

That aside, you can NOT just walk into most restaurants all throughout the year. It depends on when you go. In fact you never could and it has gotten worse.

People not familiar with FP+ who read that article will think they have to pay for them. Big error IMO. Also, we walked in to CRT once, (actually the CM said 'go watch the show and come back, we'll have a table for you') Garden Grill twice, and BOG too. We had a 10 minute wait at Crystal Palace when we walked up to the host station there. Tony's has been a walk in for us (nasty food, I see why) and so was the Sci-Fi diner. Disclaimer: these are meals over the past few years or so, not this last trip

 

[Angel Ariel]

I guess it depends where you want to eat but I have been monitoring it for most of this year. I use the app and just look for dinner today and most places we would eat are available. Our Next trip is 14 nights but I'm only going to book 5 dinners as we want to eat at specific times the rest we will book on the day

When we come, we only have 4 park days (armed forces salute tickets). Perhaps it's also a little easier to leave flexibility like you are when you have a longer trip. I don't say that as a bad thing - I'd love to spend 2 weeks at WDW. It's just not feasible for us for many different reasons. I don't doubt your experience, but your experience is just not what ours has been re: dining availability day of. If we had personally found that experience, I'd feel similarly to you I'm sure.

 

[AP1209]

I just did a quick look to see what not available for dinner tonight at 6pm. These are the only places NOT available: 1900 PF, BOG, The Boathouse, CRT, House of Blues, Le Cellier, Ohana, Rose & Crown, Rainforest, Sci-Fi, TREX, Tusker House, Tutto Italiano, Vic & Alberts, Yak & Yeti.

I think there is some decient availability even at the late time in the day. I dont know if this would be considered slow season or not. I would also assume Tusker House is not available because AK is closed?

 

[Robo]

I would also assume Tusker House is not available because AK is closed?

Yup.
And, Yak & Yeti is inside DAK, too.

 

[sarahrdh]

I personally love the planning but that's just me. Sometime Id like to just show up & see how it goes but my Type A will probably never allow that!

 

[Aurora0427]

I just did a quick look to see what not available for dinner tonight at 6pm. These are the only places NOT available: 1900 PF, BOG, The Boathouse, CRT, House of Blues, Le Cellier, Ohana, Rose & Crown, Rainforest, Sci-Fi, TREX, Tusker House, Tutto Italiano, Vic & Alberts, Yak & Yeti.

I think there is some decient availability even at the late time in the day. I dont know if this would be considered slow season or not. I would also assume Tusker House is not available because AK is closed?

Or maybe the fact that there's a tropical storm headed to Orlando has crowds lighter? I don't know. We are going the last week of October, which is looking to be very busy. I'm going to check the app while we are there the day of, out of curiosity!

 

[100AcreWood]

I agree with this article. I used to find the planning part of the trip a lot of fun, but it's turned frustrating and aggravating and takes up way too much time with trying to stay up until 12 am 60 days out for fastpasses or whatever just to have what you want not availabe and book it anyway and then go back and change it and so on and so on. I've cancelled a WDW vacation 2 years in a row (went to DL instead and enjoyed the "old" fastpass system) because of all the problems my friends have had with the new systems. I'm currently planning to go next year and I've noticed the prices have gone WAY up so now you get to pay more for the extra aggravations. SIGH. I do love Disney, but after next year - I guess I'll be one of those who get the suggestion "if you don't like it, don't go" because NO I don't like it.

This is our first trip using the new system. How bad is it if you don't stay up at 12:01am? We're staying offsite so that's 5 nights of staying up to 12:01am.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Or maybe the fact that there's a tropical storm headed to Orlando has crowds lighter? I don't know. We are going the last week of October, which is looking to be very busy. I'm going to check the app while we are there the day of, out of curiosity!

Free dining also hasn't started yet, I don't think. That plays a significant role in fall adr availability, IME.

 

[Aurora0427]

This is our first trip using the new system. How bad is it if you don't stay up at 12:01am? We're staying offsite so that's 5 nights of staying up to 12:01am.

As long as you don't need Anna or Elsa or 7DMT, you don't need to stay up. Parade and firework FP go quickly too, but I don't think they're needed.

 

[AP1209]

Free dining also hasn't started yet, I don't think. That plays a significant role in fall adr availability, IME.

Yeah, need to do it when free dining starts. I'm curious if their will be a big difference. I wish we could live in a world without ADR's but I think without them there would still be problems.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Free dining also hasn't started yet, I don't think. That plays a significant role in fall adr availability, IME.

I avoid Free Dining like the plague. I'm currently doing a chart of all the past free dining events WDW has had to try to determine the date I want to go. Of course, like last year, if you manage to avoid the free dining, Disney will throw a 30% discount or an incentive for countries outside the US. Still, I'd be happy just to avoid the FD.