It's not just fastpass+ that bothers me

[chukdotcom]

From the same source - and the explanation is a bit funky - after your initial three reservations, you can get a fourth in the same park, but *only* if the first three were pre-booked. Apparently you can't get four same-day reservations.

If I understood correctly, the fourth one would be available once you've used your first, the fifth once you've used your second, and so on.

Caveat again - these things can be changing rapidly. But for the moment, that's how it's working. (And, again, I believe these additional reservations have to be made at a kiosk.)

So in a nuthshell, it sounds like you can only have 3 "active" at a time from the 2 "sets" of FP.

 

[AJPPGH]

They definitely need more rides and should update existing ones. My kids did not get the 80s and 90s references (like 90210) and the 90s stars as ride emcees. Its cute for us but whole generations are clueless. And the ride technology feels old also. The rides at Universal are definitely more interesting and exciting at this point.

I also have to say that the new 7 Dwarves ride seems like it is going to be really similar to the Thunder Mountain ride-hope I am wrong.

 

[sorahl1]

They have already reported to shareholders that Magicband wearers on average spend more than non-Magicband wearers. It's financial, not a perk for guests.

how is this? what about the bands make you spend more money?

thanks,

john

 

[chukdotcom]

how is this? what about the bands make you spend more money?

thanks,

john

My guess is the ease of swiping vs paying cash, etc.

 

[DisneyDad222]

I agree with the general premise of this thread completely. I'm one of those Disney travelers that is trying the FP+ system for the first time this year. My wife and I have been 8 times since we met in 2003. We've taken our kids (ds5 and dd2), 3 times in the last 18 months. The best part of the Disney experience to me has always been the strategy. I love picking the resort (we always have a different one), choosing the park to go to each day, mapping out our sit down dinners for each night, choosing one or two special experiences to do as well (fireworks cruises, tours, etc..). But my favorite part of each trip is testing park strategy. How do you tour the park to maximize your experience? I've been going for 8 years and I've enjoyed every trip because they're always different. The best part is the adjustment - you see a line, you do something else, you double back when you can. You fast pass pan then ride 4 rides and head back. You have 20 minutes before your return time and use it to try a new cupcake at the Cheshire cafe. Those are the moments that make my trips, and those are the moments that I think I won't get with the new system.

This time around, I'm finding that I'm resenting the planning. I don't want to choose 3 rides to go on...I don't even know what times to book them. What if my kids get tired and want to go back to the resort? What if my wife wants to spend an hour people watching? There's no room for adjustment. Your park plan has to be made 60 days out. With two young kids, the fp's for early and mid day are gone by the 59 day mark. In Epcot, I can't even pick a second tier b fast pass because every one of those rides is a walk on. There's a fast pass for Figment? Why?

I don't dislike the new system, I just hate the fact that it's changing the game for people like me. The days of walking into mk and saying ok, let's go right are gone. It's now all about trying to fit in the haunted mansion at 2:30 and then rushing to splash before my 2-3 o'clock FP runs out and then I've got to try to keep my son from seeing the sign for pirates because then we're going to have to go on and skip the trip back to the resort to clean up before we go to downtown for our 6pm reservation at raglan road, because if we miss that, it costs us $10 because we made those reservations 6 months ago and we're only running late at this point because I got held up in a longer than average line at gaston's tavern at 10am so my wife could have a cinnamon roll. And now I'm mad at my wife for two days because her cinnamon roll kept my son from seeing pirates and the whole trip is ruined . You really have to think about things like that in advance at this point and that's kind of ridiculous.

 

[sorahl1]

think part of the reason we don't like it as much as Disney is because it's not as family oriented. Nearly all of the rides are thrill rides. We did enjoy the simulators like Transformers and Spiderman, but the coasters we could do without. And I know, different strokes for different folks. But for us, Universal is still missing that "something" that Disney hits on.

That's what my wife and I found when we did a 'day' at US on our first trip.. We just didnt' like it, the rides were ok.. but things were not organized the same.. I figured out why - US is an Amusement Park... where WDW is a THEME Park.. PLUS the Disney method (even in it's current much reduced format) is still the best customer service model... You feel valued at WDW, at US you are just another turnstile #.

john

 

[anna08]

None of those attendance figures account for a single bit of impact from MM+/FP+ yet.

Check in a couple years. Trips and scheduled and far in advance. Lots of folks are giving it "one last try". Legacy FP was just pulled in January. All I want to see long about now is the rate of bouncebacks booked compared to this time a year ago.

This is exactly what I have been saying to those who are showing the latest figures and showing how great they are - they all pre-date the complete transition to FP+. Even the Dis Podcast group incorrectly said the figures for the "first quarter" were excellent - how do you get figures for the first quarter back by Feb 25th?

We are in the many who have another trip planned and will see how things go, but even just the planning stages of this next trip have been tedious. For the first time in 10 years, we are planning the majority of our vacation trips outside of Florida completely.

I hope to be pleasantly surprised, but somehow doubt a bunch of irritated CMs and offsite guests are going to provide the atmosphere we've grown accustomed to. I don't blame anyone but management. Complete disconnect with the public.

All I can say is that I am letting my money do the talking, and all the WDW advice I've handed out to families for years has stopped completely. This is a marketing problem that I wouldn't want to have tackle at this point. I think they do fear the future numbers - why else would they raise prices now??

 

[ScrampShopper]

I'm here right now, and this is my second trip with FP+. The first time was last Sept when legacy FP was still available. I left that trip being indifferent towards FP+ for the most part - didn't totally hate it, but didn't like it either. This trip I was thinking was not going to be much of a problem since I can't ride a majority of the big rides. I was wrong. I now absolutely HATE FP+. DD and I have been here since last Monday, very low crowds, and still the lines for rides like Haunted Mansion, Nemo, Spaceship Earth have been ridiculous. I expected problems for this week, but not last week.

I tried several times to change some FP+ experiences or times last week, and for stuff that is not the major headliners, and it only worked a couple of times. Half the time I got a message that there was a blip in the system, and to try again later. When I did get through, most of the time I got the message that there were no FP+ experiences available, or no other time slots available. I could live with the slots all being taken when I try to change something, but I am sick and tired of being so scheduled on this trip. Legacy FP system never made me go rushing to the park to get on a ride, and I never had to go running through the parks to collect legacy FP's either.

This weekend brought in a lot more people, and the ability to change FP+ on the fly has become even more limited. I think a big part of the problem is requiring you to book 3 FP+'s whether you want all 3 or not. I tried to cancel some FP+'s after using the 1 or 2 that I wanted for the day, and I couldn't figure out how to do it. I'm not willing to stand in the FP+ kiosk lines that I have been seeing to get help with that problem. I've had some changes not show up at all even though MDE said the changes were made. MDE still needs a lot of work.

To top it off, I had a weird check-in experience. I did online check-in like I have done lots of times in the past. The person goes over several things usually, including telling me my balance for my room only ressie, confirming that my credit card is set up for charging to the room, and a few other things. This time, the CM handed me my packet and gave me directions to the elevator, and there was no other person behind me waiting to check-in. I figured everything was set up on MDE so she didn't have to go over anything and I went to my room. Little did I know that a lot of stuff was messed up with my check-in (including charging), and it took 4 times of going to the front desk to get it all straightened out.

Before coming on this trip I was trying to talk DH into letting DD and I upgrade our tix to AP's again, and come back in the fall. I have changed my mind on that now, and will not be returning until next year. I'm not gonna quit coming to WDW altogether, but it will be a lot less (Would not be fair to the 2nd kid, if his sister got to go so many times, and he doesn't get to go at all). Disney got me used to a great system, and I'm not happy they took it away.

All hasn't been bad. I have managed to get my DD (will be 4 in July) out of a stroller. She has done 11 and 12 hour days (7 in a row so far) without a nap and without a stroller. This solves my problem of having to find the perfect double stroller when we come with an infant next time. We also have the perfect room to watch Wishes from my bed at the Wilderness Lodge. Also, I can only recall one grumpy CM in the past 8 days. The CM's have been great.

 

[jecon]

I agree with the general premise of this thread completely. I'm one of those Disney travelers that is trying the FP+ system for the first time this year. My wife and I have been 8 times since we met in 2003. We've taken our kids (ds5 and dd2), 3 times in the last 18 months. The best part of the Disney experience to me has always been the strategy. I love picking the resort (we always have a different one), choosing the park to go to each day, mapping out our sit down dinners for each night, choosing one or two special experiences to do as well (fireworks cruises, tours, etc..). But my favorite part of each trip is testing park strategy. How do you tour the park to maximize your experience? I've been going for 8 years and I've enjoyed every trip because they're always different. The best part is the adjustment - you see a line, you do something else, you double back when you can. You fast pass pan then ride 4 rides and head back. You have 20 minutes before your return time and use it to try a new cupcake at the Cheshire cafe. Those are the moments that make my trips, and those are the moments that I think I won't get with the new system. This time around, I'm finding that I'm resenting the planning. I don't want to choose 3 rides to go on...I don't even know what times to book them. What if my kids get tired and want to go back to the resort? What if my wife wants to spend an hour people watching? There's no room for adjustment. Your park plan has to be made 60 days out. With two young kids, the fp's for early and mid day are gone by the 59 day mark. In Epcot, I can't even pick a second tier b fast pass because every one of those rides is a walk on. There's a fast pass for Figment? Why? I don't dislike the new system, I just hate the fact that it's changing the game for people like me. The days of walking into mk and saying ok, let's go right are gone. It's now all about trying to fit in the haunted mansion at 2:30 and then rushing to splash before my 2-3 o'clock FP runs out and then I've got to try to keep my son from seeing the sign for pirates because then we're going to have to go on and skip the trip back to the resort to clean up before we go to downtown for our 6pm reservation at raglan road, because if we miss that, it costs us $10 because we made those reservations 6 months ago and we're only running late at this point because I got held up in a longer than average line at gaston's tavern at 10am so my wife could have a cinnamon roll. And now I'm mad at my wife for two days because her cinnamon roll kept my son from seeing pirates and the whole trip is ruined . You really have to think about things like that in advance at this point and that's kind of ridiculous.

Trust me- I had the same exact reservations about the new system and it turned out to be really great. I almost feel like I had such low expectations that I ended up being pleasantly surprised by what a positive experience it was. It is actually much more flexible than old fast pass. For the most part, rides could be changed very very easily (besides the major major ones like soarin, toy story and Peter Pan but those were like that before too!)

 

[jecon]

We had a week stay at yacht and beach club booked for September...after reading about fastpass+ in its present form, we are going to universal for that week. We are rd/fastpass people who have no interest in waiting over 15 minutes for porch or haunted mansion. That's just us. Originally my husband insisted on a monorail resort. Last time we were at disney, the monorail was so packed, it was uncomfortable. And that was with only bay lake towers...grand Floridian and Polynesian villas weren't built. The grand Floridian made the courtyard pool smaller by taking deep end out and most of the pool looks ankle deep. That is not a fun pool experience for me. Same for Polynesian...they filled in quiet pool and I think it's 4 feet now. Not to mention how horrible bus service is. But as the hotels add DVD, it seems they aren't changing anything. Just adding. So it lucky for us that we love universal and were spoiled by loews hotels. And we spend a lot of money every year and have decided it's just to much work to go to disney. We need a vacation after we take a disney vacation.

It is totally up to you how want to vacation but I was there last week and it was great. I never ever had to wait for any ride for more than 20 minutes (just space mountain once) because we went at rope drop and scheduled our fastpasses for later in the day. I bet it will be even better later this year bc I am sure they will make adjustments. They do need to do something about park hopping and it's up to people like me to write guest services and give them feedback.

 

[cigar95]

So in a nuthshell, it sounds like you can only have 3 "active" at a time from the 2 "sets" of FP.

As far as I can tell, you have it right.

Now, what happens if you hop to a *third* park?

 

[ZoZo]

I just got back from a seven day stay at Art of Animation. I was quite worried about how FP+ was going to affect our trip. I am what I would describe as a "power user" of the legacy FP system, often getting five or six per day (or more!).

While I still like the legacy FP system much better, I felt the new FP system was better than I expected. I definitely don't like the limitations of 3-per-day, only-at-one-park, can't-repeat-a-FP-for-the-same-ride. But I found a way to make it work for me. I was able to repeat my favorite rides by either arriving at rope drop (and using a FP+, too), using a single-rider line, or by park-hopping in the afternoons and "saving" my FP+ to ride my favorites on a different day.

One thing that I found out, though, is that it's really helpful to have a smart phone to access the MDE app if you want to change your FP+s on the fly. Otherwise, you have to seek out a FP+ kiosk (or find a CM with an iPad) to make any changes. And if the machines were slow (or not working), it would be a pain. I don't have a smart phone, but the friend I was traveling with did, so it was easy to make changes.

So I would encourage people to give the new system a try. I can't say I'm in love with the new FP+ program, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.

 

[Rheinhold]

For the past few years me and my teenage son have gone in the summer and done a split stay. Four days at Disney and three days at Universal. I don't want to say I prefer either but I think Disney hits it for the family atmosphere and the feeling that I'm a kid again and Universal hits it for that feeling of being a teenager again rotfl and experiencing thrills. I thinks that's why my son still likes to go to Disney: He likes feeling like a kid (I know a 15 year old is kinda a kid but tell him that!)

As far as adventure goes Disney really has nothing on Universal. Spiderman, Transformers, Harry Potter, even the Mummy...each one is worth the price of admission. And the kicker...even in the high occupancy summer months, Universal's Express Pass is the greatest. I think 20 minutes was the most I waited on a line last summer. That was for Minion Mayhem when the Standby was 90 minutes. But that was it. Most other rides were walk ons.

This year, we decided to go to Disneyland during the winter just for a change but I'm kinda glad we planned it that way. It's not really because of the FP+ either. I don't think we used more than 5 FP's a day in Disneyland and I believe we could get by with three. It's the talk of the Disney World long lines on rides that generally were walk ons before. Figment Thirty minutes? Come on! Will there be a line for Tomorrowland Transit Authority too? I'm waiting until the summer of 2015 to try Disney World again. Hopefully they will have their act together by then. Until then, we have a 4 day vacation planned for September for Universal. Can't wait to see the Harry Potter Expansion and of course we're staying on site!

 

[flutterby3744]

I agree with the general premise of this thread completely. I'm one of those Disney travelers that is trying the FP+ system for the first time this year. My wife and I have been 8 times since we met in 2003. We've taken our kids (ds5 and dd2), 3 times in the last 18 months. The best part of the Disney experience to me has always been the strategy. I love picking the resort (we always have a different one), choosing the park to go to each day, mapping out our sit down dinners for each night, choosing one or two special experiences to do as well (fireworks cruises, tours, etc..). But my favorite part of each trip is testing park strategy. How do you tour the park to maximize your experience? I've been going for 8 years and I've enjoyed every trip because they're always different. The best part is the adjustment - you see a line, you do something else, you double back when you can. You fast pass pan then ride 4 rides and head back. You have 20 minutes before your return time and use it to try a new cupcake at the Cheshire cafe. Those are the moments that make my trips, and those are the moments that I think I won't get with the new system. This time around, I'm finding that I'm resenting the planning. I don't want to choose 3 rides to go on...I don't even know what times to book them. What if my kids get tired and want to go back to the resort? What if my wife wants to spend an hour people watching? There's no room for adjustment. Your park plan has to be made 60 days out. With two young kids, the fp's for early and mid day are gone by the 59 day mark. In Epcot, I can't even pick a second tier b fast pass because every one of those rides is a walk on. There's a fast pass for Figment? Why? I don't dislike the new system, I just hate the fact that it's changing the game for people like me. The days of walking into mk and saying ok, let's go right are gone. It's now all about trying to fit in the haunted mansion at 2:30 and then rushing to splash before my 2-3 o'clock FP runs out and then I've got to try to keep my son from seeing the sign for pirates because then we're going to have to go on and skip the trip back to the resort to clean up before we go to downtown for our 6pm reservation at raglan road, because if we miss that, it costs us $10 because we made those reservations 6 months ago and we're only running late at this point because I got held up in a longer than average line at gaston's tavern at 10am so my wife could have a cinnamon roll. And now I'm mad at my wife for two days because her cinnamon roll kept my son from seeing pirates and the whole trip is ruined . You really have to think about things like that in advance at this point and that's kind of ridiculous.

This sounds like one of those Comcast commercials that go from bad to insanely horrific. Switching to dish makes you a homeless tuba playing window washer. Haha!

 

[peaches00]

I'm watching disney special on hotels now and I'm hopeful that they fix fastpass+ I will book trip at yacht club next year. If it's fixed. If we could get fastpass at 2nd park same day, that might do it for me. We will see.

 

[ats360]

I'm just the type of person who goes to Disney for Disney. I would rather stay home than waste money on a US vacation. More power to the people who get the same joy from both parks, but in my eyes, US isn't even a blip on my vacation radar.

I totally agree with you. I have zero interest in US. Disney is the definition of vacation in my book... Though my wife is wanting to possibly do something different this summer vacation. Fingers crossed for some kind of July/early August promo/discount. That'll make it or break it this ywar