Could FP+ Ruin my experience?

[RedHeadedFairy]

If I am being stupid here please forgive me because in essence I do like the idea of FP+ and booking a slot without having to get there for RD. but ( now here is the dumb question ) it's regarding the 60 window and when it might start. is it the first day of your vacation for the whole of your vacation there after or as each day comes up to 60 days? Because if it's the first day of your vacation for the whole vacation then a family going for 2 weeks lets call them family A will they have a head start on a family vacation of one week call them family B if family B go the second week of family A's vacation as they could book their second week the week before...So family B going high season might log on all confused thinking where have all the fastpasses gone?

Am I being stupid? Probably...

I asked essentially the same question in another thread & I'm not sure I ever got a clear answer. (IF there IS a clear answer at this point)

If Family A vacations from the 1st-14th; and family B from the 8th-14th

Family A begins booking FP+ at 60 days prior to the 1st for ALL 14 days of their trip.

By the time Family B's FP+ booking becomes available, Family A has had a full week's "lead time" in scheduling FP+ for the same dates.

I am assuming at this point that this is where staggering the release of FP+ amounts & time slots comes into play, but really who knows? And being up against this, what chance does my family stand at getting FPs with a decent return time for E-ticket rides if we decide on Wednesday to spend the weekend at WDW using our APs?

 

[mom2rtk]

I asked essentially the same question in another thread & I'm not sure I ever got a clear answer. (IF there IS a clear answer at this point)

If Family A vacations from the 1st-14th; and family B from the 8th-14th

Family A begins booking FP+ at 60 days prior to the 1st for ALL 14 days of their trip.

By the time Family B's FP+ booking becomes available, Family A has had a full week's "lead time" in scheduling FP+ for the same dates.

I am assuming at this point that this is where staggering the release of FP+ amounts & time slots comes into play, but really who knows? And being up against this, what chance does my family stand at getting FPs with a decent return time for E-ticket rides if we decide on Wednesday to spend the weekend at WDW using our APs?

But have we heard yet that people will get to schedule for their entire trip at 60 days out? 60 days before the 8th is still 60 days before the 8th. If they don't offer a 60+10 benefit like they do for ADRs then you'll both be scheduling for the 8th on the same day.

Which of course means getting up at 6 or 7 AM 60 days out for as many days as the length of your trip.

 

[UNCFanatik]

Again, it is speculation at this point that a person will have to get up 6am-7am each day 60 days out from their trip to get FP+ reservations. This is a worse case scenario that could come true but again Disney may be correct in the number of people that will actually make FP+ reservations 60 days in advance may be less than people expect. Especially given the amount of people that currently make last minute trips to Disney or trips with less than 60 days out.

It will be interesting to see the total percentage of FP+s reserved 60 days in advance.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

But have we heard yet that people will get to schedule for their entire trip at 60 days out? 60 days before the 8th is still 60 days before the 8th. If they don't offer a 60+10 benefit like they do for ADRs then you'll both be scheduling for the 8th on the same day.

Which of course means getting up at 6 or 7 AM 60 days out for as many days as the length of your trip.

I'm getting confused with all the FP threads, but I'm pretty sure someone posted that when their window for FP+ opened up they were able to book ALL dates of their trip.... otherwise, what? You would hit 60 days today for Day #1 of your trip, log in & select FP+ for Day #1 & then log back in tomorrow to make selections for Day #2, etc?

Again, I'm piecing together info from all these threads...

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I asked essentially the same question in another thread & I'm not sure I ever got a clear answer. (IF there IS a clear answer at this point)

If Family A vacations from the 1st-14th; and family B from the 8th-14th

Family A begins booking FP+ at 60 days prior to the 1st for ALL 14 days of their trip.

By the time Family B's FP+ booking becomes available, Family A has had a full week's "lead time" in scheduling FP+ for the same dates.

I am assuming at this point that this is where staggering the release of FP+ amounts & time slots comes into play, but really who knows? And being up against this, what chance does my family stand at getting FPs with a decent return time for E-ticket rides if we decide on Wednesday to spend the weekend at WDW using our APs?

Thanks for replying. Exactly last moment vacations using an AP forget it. I wonder what Floridian residents will get? The mind boggles. I can see people going in booking dummy slots just in case! I think 60 days is too much myself. They should just make it a week before for everyone.

 

[Nina1]

In a nutshell, this is first time in a lifetime of Disney love and Disney trips that I am filled with apprehension and sadness. Apprehension as to whether or not this whole FP+ mess is going to ruin future touring and sadness that we may seriously reconsider traveling to WDW depending on how this shakes out. I don't mind the expense of WDW because I love it and have always been able to do exactly what I wanted to do when there. If, during the one trip we are able to take per year, FP+ is going to dictate that we ride only 3 or 4 attractions a day without exorbitant waits and then spend the rest of our day wasting hours in standby lines, we will stop traveling to WDW. FP+ definitely, at this point, seems to reward those who take multiple trips per year (i.e. spend way more time in the parks per year than we do), and penalize the rest of us. Sorry Disney, not giving you that kind of control over our vacation and our hard earned dollars. As much as I will miss you, there are many places we still want to visit. So, I guess we shall see.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

But have we heard yet that people will get to schedule for their entire trip at 60 days out? 60 days before the 8th is still 60 days before the 8th. If they don't offer a 60+10 benefit like they do for ADRs then you'll both be scheduling for the 8th on the same day.

Which of course means getting up at 6 or 7 AM 60 days out for as many days as the length of your trip.

Yes that is exactly what I am wondering. If you get to book for the entire vacation you hit the 'it could be already booked' gotcha if you go for less than someone else but if it's 60 days before each day you have to go in each day as you suggest! As we come for 2 weeks those 14 days could get a bit tiresome lol...but we live in the UK so have the time difference at least I will be already up as we are ahead of time. not you poor souls!

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks for replying. Exactly last moment vacations using an AP forget it. I wonder what Floridian residents will get? The mind boggles. I can see people going in booking dummy slots just in case! I think 60 days is too much myself. They should just make it a week before for everyone.

AP holders will react by doing what they can. They will start booking ride slots "in case" they want to go. Even if that means booking them for every single weekend and canceling at the last minute.

On the up side, if a bunch of AP holders start doing that, maybe their last minute cancellations will provide a steady stream of same day openings on headline rides.

 

[Nixie]

60 days out from my vacation, I have to wake up at 6 or 7 AM to book BTMRR to make sure we can ride it sometime during our vacation or deal with a 90min standby. Sounds delightful!

 

[KatieCharlotte]

If I am being stupid here please forgive me because in essence I do like the idea of FP+ and booking a slot without having to get there for RD. but ( now here is the dumb question ) it's regarding the 60 window and when it might start. is it the first day of your vacation for the whole of your vacation there after or as each day comes up to 60 days? Because if it's the first day of your vacation for the whole vacation then a family going for 2 weeks lets call them family A will they have a head start on a family vacation of one week call them family B if family B go the second week of family A's vacation as they could book their second week the week before...So family B going high season might log on all confused thinking where have all the fastpasses gone?

Am I being stupid? Probably...

This is my biggest fear. It's exactly what happens to me when I try to book a weekend or a festival week at certain popular campgrounds first thing in the morning six months out. Not only do people taking a longer vacation get a head start, but people actually book longer than they plan to stay and then cancel the earlier days/weeks to get that head start.

I thought there was a 10+ rumor, which said that resort guests would be able to book FP+ for up to ten days at six months from the start of their stay, like ADRs. Off-site guests who purchased tickets could book six months ahead for each day. I can see that being a benefit of staying on-site, although I don't see how any of this would work out for local AP holders, unless they're given some sort of special access to fastpasses.

It just seems unlikely that they would require on-site guests to come back online each morning and book another day's fastpasses. I keep imagining an email sent to each person who has booked a resort/ticket package, letting them know how many days they have until they can log on and book those fastpasses for their favorite rides! I can't imagine it saying, "Tomorrow you can book FP+ for your first day, then in two days you can come back and book FP+ for your second day, and then in three days you can come back and book FP+ for your third day..."

Basically, my biggest problem is this is supposed to be fully implemented early next year and we don't know some pretty basic things about it, including this. I'm trying to decide right now how much of our spring 2014 Florida trip will be spent at WDW because this will determine whether we take a fall/winter vacation and I just don't have all the information I need.

 

[mom2rtk]

60 days out from my vacation, I have to wake up at 6 or 7 AM to book BTMRR to make sure we can ride it sometime during our vacation or deal with a 90min standby. Sounds delightful!

Just be careful to book during one of BTMRRs many down times.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

AP holders will react by doing what they can. They will start booking ride slots "in case" they want to go. Even if that means booking them for every single weekend and canceling at the last minute.

On the up side, if a bunch of AP holders start doing that, maybe their last minute cancellations will provide a steady stream of same day openings on headline rides.

Not necessarily - weren't they also talking about limiting the total # of FP+ an AP holder can pull over the course of 3 months? So in addition to daily limits on FP+, AP holders have quarterly limits as well. Or has that changed?

 

[mom2rtk]

Not necessarily - weren't they also talking about limiting the total # of FP+ an AP holder can pull over the course of 3 months? So in addition to daily limits on FP+, AP holders have quarterly limits as well. Or has that changed?

That first rumor was debunked (I think) some time ago. I haven't seen anything at all on the matter since then. But I could have missed it. Too many threads to keep up with these days.

 

[UNCFanatik]

IF the FP+ system advance reservation planning turns into a worse case scenario, something that rivals trying to get a BOG reservation, and people have to call at 6am-7am. What percentage of AP holders will be willing to going through that on multiple mornings to make reservations just in case for multiple sets of days?

And remember that AP holders are not a monolithic group with all the same touring styles or reasons why they go to the parks. Again, you would have to see what percentage of AP holders are adamant about getting FP+s reservations for their favorite attractions.

In all actuality, we are talking about a subset of AP holders here.

 

[Mad Hattered]

Not to mention, how would they handle all the missed FP+ reservations during such instances as last nights park-wide power outage?

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

That first rumor was debunked (I think) some time ago. I haven't seen anything at all on the matter since then. But I could have missed it. Too many threads to keep up with these days.

No kidding!!

I'm waiting to see how it all rolls out - I'm still expecting to see some of kind of restriction or limits on AP holders that, like UNC stated, really only affect a % of AP holders.

Since we live so close & our trips are often booked last minute, we may visit every month for 4 months & then not at all for the next 3. Other AP holders use them simply to plan trips 11 months apart & live thousands of miles away, so a last minute trips aren't on their radar or easy to pull off.

Not to mention, how would they handle all the missed FP+ reservations during such instances as last nights park-wide power outage?

I wondered about that too! It's one thing when a single ride goes down but everything at once like that? That's a lotta FPs!!

 

[jess1662]

Just be careful to book during one of BTMRRs many down times.

Ha!

 

[ArwenMarie]

delete

 

[ArwenMarie]

According to this story, none will be held back for same day use. It is from d23.

Oops! should have read the thread first~
Thanks for the link

 

[ttintagel]

I'm pretty sure that the long-term plan is that FP+ will eventually replace FP, whether they're saying it or not.