Epcot

[GrimGrinningGhost25]

9:15 and the standby line is 40 minutes and fast pass return is 5:55-6:55 On the bright side, I'm at Epcot! ddc4d

I love Epcot because visiting all the countries fascinates me. I also feel that it has the most to offer outside of the rides. Plus F&W is going on. Have you been yet? Do you have a favorite dish? I get on the red eye from Seattle in 11 days!!!

 

[Mr. Pig]

I know we don't know the answer but are FP- being replaced by a one to one basis with FP+? I could see FP- running out quicker if they are cutting back. But if the total FP count is remaining the same why is the standby line so much longer? Is it just that more crowded? If there are fewer FP total then the standby line could be longer but it should move faster.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Meet Disney's new MDE spokesperson.

I love this

 

[MarieA]

My DD was at WDW from 10/7 - 10/13. She had the MagicBand and used FP+. She did not like FP+ at all. She said the MagicBand was okay for certain things but did not like making FP reservations ahead of time and also did not like that you couldn't get FP's in more than one park each day. She said that standby lines were extremely long (she thought it was because of the Food and Wine Festival). We've been to WDW a couple of times during F & W and the only park that was ever really crowded was EPCOT on the weekends. I think the long standby lines are due to the FP+ system.

When she returned she had to fill out a survey regarding the whole MagicBand system. When filling out the survey, she let them know that she didn't like the FP+ system. Hopefully they will listen to guest feedback and make changes to the FP+ system.

I am hoping this is all resolved before our trip in May. We do not like to plan ahead of time and usually pick the park we are going to visit each morning at breakfast. My DH and I definitely will ask for cards instead of the MagicBand as neither one of us wants to wear anything on our wrists.

 

[Bouncin-Tigger]

We are here now and it is busy. Fast pass plus saved the day we were able to get soarin, test track, and mission space done early with hardly a wait. And we got a every ride we wanted to ride done in like 4 hours at MK yesterday. It's a great option to be able to change attractions on the fly. Only advice I have is STOP listening to touring sites for crowd levels and best park which day and do a little reading and you will easily be able to figure the best touring plan for u and ur family. Too many people read those charts like they are scripture.

 

[Itinkso]

Meet Disney's new MDE spokesperson.

For such a cute and loving character, she had the nastiest Glitch. Very fitting!

 

[wdwlovin'family]

Just out of curiosity, I just checked the MDE app for wait times and Epcot really didn't look all that bad. MK, on the other hand looked crazy. Us the app not that accurate?

 

[FLchick415]

Just out of curiosity, I just checked the MDE app for wait times and Epcot really didn't look all that bad. MK, on the other hand looked crazy. Us the app not that accurate?

Depends on which app you're using. LOL MDE has Soarin' at 80min, while UT has it at 120+ and WDW Waits has it at only 75.

 

[lindsroc]

I was just going to say, the wait times on the MDE app dont look that bad?? Is the app completely inaccurate or are people getting irrationally worked up over wait times/ FP+?

We leave Friday, we have 2 groups going- only one can do FP+ because the others are picking up military salute tickets when they arrive. We booked FP+ for those who are eligible and will try to just go with the flow. We havent been in Oct in years, we usually go in April and crowds arent bad at all- hoping it slows down a bit in the next few days.

 

[stinkpickle]

Depends on which app you're using. LOL MDE has Soarin' at 80min, while UT has it at 120+ and WDW Waits has it at only 75.

Yeah, I noticed that undercover tourist on facebook has Soarin' at 120+, Toy Story Mania at 120+, DINOSAUR at 45, Jungle Cruise at 60, and Haunted Mansion at 50. Yuck.

 

[FLchick415]

Is it still fall break for a lot of schools? Could that be what's causing the crowds? I don't think anywhere in South Florida has moved to this year round school or balanced schedule or whatever it is, so I know nothing about it.

 

[kmb584]

Well...

It appears that all of the hope I was holding onto for crowds to lessen for our trip this week just flew right out the window. It's going to be quite an adjustment for us beginning tomorrow!

 

[lindsroc]

Which app is accurate?

 

[GrimGrinningGhost25]

Well... It appears that all of the hope I was holding onto for crowds to lessen for our trip this week just flew right out the window. It's going to be quite an adjustment for us beginning tomorrow!

We were down in January for our wedding. I was convinced it was going to be the lowest crowds if ever seen. No way!! September/October and February (before school break) have been the lowest crowds I've experienced but I think that's changing too.

Is there a low crowd season anymore?

 

[SSR]

We were down in January for our wedding. I was convinced it was going to be the lowest crowds if ever seen. No way!! September/October and February (before school break) have been the lowest crowds I've experienced but I think that's changing too.

Is there a low crowd season anymore?

YES.

September 18th.

 

[livingthedream]

I feel everybody's pain. I'm sorry that there are such long waits.

However, I'm not sure if the right questions is - Is It more crowded? I don't know if this will get you to the answer of why there are currently longer fastpass+/standby waits than anticipated this time of year.

Yes, more school systems are out on holidays right now because of the "balanced school year". There are more people there right now than is typical, I'm sure.

What people are talking a lot about on these boards, though, is discovering that fastpasses are gone earlier. And one assumption is that the reason is because more fastpasses+ are pre-booked, leaving few legacy fastpasses available. So my question is - how many people are actually using FastPass+ compared to the number of people who used the legacy fastpass system?

Disney has created the extreme line-up situation - i.e. they've done this to themselves through an excellent education program to encourage full participation in the new FastPass+ program. Most people today, whether first time visitors, or veterans, are all signing up to use the FastPass+ system. Compare this to whatever the percentage was of people who never used, or understood, or even KNEW about the legacy fastpass system, and I think this will offer a clue as to why the fastpass+ lines are longer.

That is probably the biggest "oops" in the rollout....I am wondering if Disney didn't anticipate the high number of users???? Let me put that another way. Yes, they know how many people are registered in the resorts, so know approximately how many people will be using the new FastPass+ system. Perhaps what has happened is they over-estimated how many people used the legacy system.....my suspicion is that is the part they got wrong!

And yes, it sounds like they are playing with the actual number of fastpasses that are available per day at an attraction. They increased those numbers, and now it sounds like they are cutting back again - all in an effort to get the right balance. That said, they must remember that they haven't added people who are staying off-site yet, and the other large item that will impact long lines - increased crowds!

This is indeed a huge paradigm shift from the way things have been done in the past. Its not just one thing changing - giving people a chance to adapt because most other things stayed equal. This new system is a huge game changer, and I think even Disney hasn't yet anticipated all the secondary and tertiary consequences.

I for one am still predicting the demise of the rope drop advantage. I'm sure there will be many other previous advantages that will no longer apply. We just have to get busy figuring out what the new ones are!

 

[soar2014]

I know my opinion in the grand scheme of things mean very little, but I think WDW should keep FP+ to their resort guests only. It just makes sense to me.
You can't give a FP to EVERYONE, then the FP return line would be longer than the SB line.

 

[Michelina]

Given that this appears to be "the new normal" I'm wondering if we should change our FP+ selections... I had originally booked Soarin' because it's so popular and we don't love it enough to wait in a long line for it. But if we miss out on Soarin', we wouldn't be all that upset. We didn't book The Seas because it's usually such a short wait. We'd be very upset if we missed this ride due to a crazy long line. If it's got such a long wait now, I'm wondering if we should switch our FP+ to be for Nemo instead of Soarin'... this is crazy!

No! I definitely wouldn't do that! Even with the Seas line out as far as it was it was maybe 15-20 minutes... Being a continuos loader it goes fairly quickly. We waited about the same for Spaceship Earth and the line for it looked...daunting.

We're back at our (offsite, haha) resort now resting and will probably get back in time to use our 6:45 fastpasses! It's so hot today, the kids were wiped by 1:30.

 

[Michelina]

I love Epcot because visiting all the countries fascinates me. I also feel that it has the most to offer outside of the rides. Plus F&W is going on. Have you been yet? Do you have a favorite dish? I get on the red eye from Seattle in 11 days!!!

No, today was our Future World day . Our DS is almost 6 and he was DYING to ride TT. So I'm super happy that he could first thing this morning. Plus we got a baby swap pass because DD 2 is too little to go AND we have FP for this evening so he's going to get his fill
DD was thrilled to ride Living With the Land 3 times, lol!

Thursday is our World a Showcase day. DH and I are so looking forward to that. I've been looking at all the menus obsessively on AllEars. There's so much I want to try!

 

[kayemgi]

No! I definitely wouldn't do that! Even with the Seas line out as far as it was it was maybe 15-20 minutes... Being a continuos loader it goes fairly quickly. We waited about the same for Spaceship Earth and the line for it looked...daunting.

We're back at our (offsite, haha) resort now resting and will probably get back in time to use our 6:45 fastpasses! It's so hot today, the kids were wiped by 1:30.

Good to know! I know a line that looks as long as you described would normally scare us away, but that's good to know that it didn't take as long as it looked to get through. Thanks!