FP+ Why only 3 options?

[DebbieB]

Our last trip was in February, so maybe the additional FP+ were not available then?

I think it started in March.

 

[kmb584]

My problem there is if you have a FP for SM for 10-11 and BTMRR from 11-12 your next FP+ can't happen till a 12-1 window. Any chance of a good 4th FP+ is now completely shot.

If they'd let you book 30 minutes apart you could FP SM at 10, BTMRR at 10:30 and something else at 11, which when you get done riding means you're now attempting #4 at 11:15ish.

Not necessarily. If someone is expecting the major headliners then they are more than likely out of luck but in May our 4th (up to 8th, the most we were able to use) FP+ included attractions like BTMRR, SM, Splash, Pan, PoC, JC, Star Tours, and KS. In most cases we also had our choice of times.

 

[aristocatz]

I guess FP+ is going to take some getting used to for me, as I only have one trip worth of experience using it. I enjoyed the paper FP's and being able to be a bit more leisurely about it (aside from running to Soarin or TSM).....but I do like that FP+ has alot more attractions to choose from-just seems a bit more rushed than I would prefer. I'm curious to see how this will all pan out by the time our next trip rolls around.

 

[sethschroeder]

The problem is by the time you get to your 4th, the headliners are booked up for the day.

I have no problem with the limit of 3, just wish they'd allow more than one per hour. There is no way I couldn't do BTMRR at 11 and make it to SM by 11:30, that way I'd have a better chance at burning through my first 3 and having a shot at securing a good 4th.

To do this you would do something like this:
Schedule BTMRR at 10:30-11:30 (enter at 11am)
Schedule SM at 11:30-12:30 (enter at 11:30am)

Schedule another ride anytime later in the day but once you enter SM at 12:30 get on the app and move up your later FP+ time to as quick of a turnaround you can get for the ride you want. You could also schedule the 3rd FP+ for early in the day and just skip it so you could always get a repeat of BTMRR or SM...

 

[Laketravis]

... And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

 

[brerrabbit]

Like any other modification Disney has ever made, how good or bad it is for you and your family is based on your touring style. We just got back and had no problems with the system. In my humble opionion what the system has allowed is an opportunity for non planners to get on some of the headliner rides with a FP.

The key is if you are a resort guest your window opens up 60 days in advance and you can plan and get your FP+ for early in the day. This allows you to use them quick and start using more. AP's start 30 days out with booking I think and then comes everyone else. When we were there some people were not even getting their three passes till 5 in the afternoon because they did not even understand the system and were mad because they could not get Seven Dwarves Train at that time.

As for the reason that the number of FP+'s you can book being three, I think I read somewhere that when Disney looked at attendence for a day and the number of FP's used a day the number worked out to each guest using about 1.3 a day. So the felt 3 was fare. Reality is in the old system 20% used 8 plus a day while a large percentage used none.

My observation based on the fact that we were there the same week last year and this year (assuming similar attendence figures but not knowing for sure) was that the new system has significantly increased the number of people in the standby lines by spreading FP+ users out to more rides and attractions. In the old system I think more people stuck to the headliners by getting a FP then riding standby till FP time and then repeated. Now they seem to spread out further and wider to more rides.

 

[Brian Noble]

spread out across all attractions, fireworks shows, & meet & greets, it just doesn't seem like allowing a few more per day would really mess up the ease of FP+ lines,

Folks who have done the math have concluded that there isn't enough capacity for *everyone* in the park to have a fourth on a typical day. That's why the current model works the way it does: there is room for everyone to get three, and a few people who are "in the know" can visit a kiosk to get the leftovers for 4th/5th and beyond. (Note that the 4th and beyond are not at all well-advertised...)

 

[puffkin]

We just got back (were there last week).

We rode so many more rides than ever before, it was awesome. I am a HUGE FP+ convert. It will be even better once it gets on the app for the 4th and beyond FP!

Contrary to the doom and gloom on these boards, we still noticed really short lines the first 1-2 hours at each park. Since we didn't have to do the FP dash we could ride a lot of stuff SB with walk on or minimal waits. Our strategy was to do headliners we didn't get a FP for (because of tiering), headliners we wanted a second ride on and then 2nd tier attractions. By 11-noon the lines on everything were building and that is when we used our FP+ reservations. We did AK over 2 mornings. The first we did FP+ for the headliners. The second morning we rode a bunch of stuff SB and did the shows. We saved our FP+ until the evening at DHS. Worked great. Very minimal waits. Another day we did Typhoon Lagoon in the morning and Epcot at night. IT was awesome knowing we could still do the headliners even though we didn't get there til 5 since we had FP+ reserved. The other attractions were walk ons.

We got tons and tons of immediate FP for MK. THat is the only park that really seemed worthwhile for the 4th and beyond passes. We could pretty much get anything except A&E and 7DMT through the day. We loved it.

Finally, there are people here who think you can only ride a ride with a FP. I don't know if it is a sense of entitlement or what, but I can tell you we rode so much stuff SB because waiting 15 minutes in a line is really no big deal. These same people would spend hours criss crossing a park collecting FP to save them 10 minutes over a 15 minute SB line. I don't get it. Also, the vast majority of the guests in the parks are not using the FP system and just hop in a SB line. With some careful planning of our FP+ times/attractions for the ones we made in advance, getting to the parks at rope drop most days and then utilizing the 4th and beyond fast pass plus riding SB where it made sense, I'd say we easily doubled the attractions we got on this trip. It was just so much more relaxing and nice for us!

 

[brerrabbit]

Thanks puffkin!!

You put into words pretty much what our experience was on our trip from 6/13 to 6/20. The FP+ worked for us. Initially I was a little bummed that the best FP I could get for 7DMT was at 8:15 PM but it turned out that was our seconf time to MK on the trip and on that day we took it easy and scheduled all our FP's for later in the day, was there early to ride some good rides standby and then let the park for a break to go to the monorail resorts and shop and look around. Back to Tony's for dinner and then FP's for the evening. It took a lot of stress out of the day.

The one thing I will say about the new system is if your family is a thrill junkie and wants to stay on the headliners and get multiple rides a day this system does not work well for that. When our kids were younger the challenge was how many times in one day could we get on ToT and RNRRC. This system makes that difficult. But now that the kids are grown and it's just DW and I this system fits pretty well because it allows use to get those rides but at a more leasurly pace.

On our first MK day of the trip we had FP+ that were all before 1:00 pm. We got ther early rode SM standby and Buzz standby and then started our FP's. One they were gone we wound up going back and getting 6 more FP's for the day, one at a time. We would walk to a kiosk pick one, walk to the ride and it was our time and standby was 20 to 30 minutes, walk past them ride the ride and walk back to a kiosk. We did it over and over. We were not getting SM or BTMRR, or Splash Mountain, but we did Pirates, HM, Pooh, Peter Pan, IASW, and Buzz. We covered everything we wanted plus and the only thing we did not do that day was 7DMT. But it was okay cause we came a couple days later with a FP for it.