LOVE or HATE FP+ Anyone's mind been changed ??

[tweak89]

I posted this on another thread:

With Legacy we could have a loose plan, a more structured plan, or no plan at all. When the unexpected happened, such as the weather changing, we could change our days on the fly. No big deal. With Legacy we had a clean slate every day while at Disney. The freedom this provided cannot be overstated.

FP+ ride appointments do not equate at all to a clean slate. Going at RD and maximizing the first hour or two before FP+ appointments kick in is also not a clean slate. Clean slate to me = no ride appointments before the day of= Legacy FP= freedom.

The "Clean Slate" is what I think I'll miss most. We just made our 60 days out FP+ reservations and hate that we are "stuck" with a schedule of sorts. Yes, I realize we can move things around once we get there, but does anyone realistically think headliner rides will still be available day of if we decided to switch parks on the fly?

I'm on the fence (leaning towards negative) but will reserve final judgement until after our March trip. I'll be judging its success compared to our previous trips and how many attractions we were able to ride/see each day.

If FP+ is as awesome as some claim, then we should at least match what we've been able to do previous. If not, then (for us at least) it will be a failure.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Love having a clean slate every morning to do whatever we want now with FP+. BY FAR THE BEST THING ABOUT FP+.

We can RD any park we want, or do any non park activities we want.

Thought we would Love FP+, turns out we LOVE FP+.

I don't buy airfare to Orlando to go fishing because I can do that down the street for free.

So I much prefer the *true* clean slate of old FP which allowed me to easily move park days around while i am there.

 

[larryz]

We are going on our 2nd trip in two months under the new system. I have stayed away from the FP+ threads for quite some time and was wondering what people think now that FP+ has been around a while. I was just booking FP's last night made my BRAIN HURT. I booked a few of our 9 day trip but I am still not a fan. SO I am still in the HATE them category. Just wished we could book MORE ahead of time at MK. That to me is the park that you need more and YES I know you can get the 4th, and 5th and so on at the kiosks but there was really nothing good left to choose from. I also KNOW that no one is forcing me to even book FP's but the standby option for the headliners is not gonna happen either. I am OLD SCHOOL I guess and loved the old system.

I've decided to FP+.

I just wish I could get as many as I could on the old FP system.

Hi. First post here and we just got back a few weeks ago. I read a lot of threads on these forums in preparation of our trip but didn't post because I did not want to get beat up for having something negative to say about the FastPass system.

Making the reservations in advance was both nice but tedious. Since we stayed off-site and started making reservations at 30 days some of the things we wanted to do weren't available. Yes they might have become available at some point but then it seemed rather silly to be logging in every day looking for those. I spend less effort grocery shopping but come home with a lot more.

The nice part? Having 3 things we didn't have to wait in line for. The bad part? Only having 3 things we didn't have to wait in line for. The rest of the attractions did seem to have longer lines then we remembered from past visits even though the crowds were about the same. We didn't feel like we accomplished a lot each day.

One mistake we might have made was that we didn't make our reservations for later in the day or night, so we were always standing in lines after 2pm and anything left in the kiosk was for silly things we didn't want to do anyway.

I'm not passionate enough about Disney World to "love" or "hate" anything, but it sure was different this time and I don't know if I want to spend that much money again on what we felt like was so little.

That was a great first post!

 

[PollyannaMom]

So far, I'm not a fan. (But we haven't actually been yet since the change, I've just experienced the selection process.)

I've always been a big researcher as far as vacations go, and a general planner but not a "minute-to-minute" planner. So it feels weird to me to be "locked into" a detailed itinerary so far in advance. (I know I can change things, but...)

But I have managed to get acceptable ADRs, and the rides we care about most, even though we booked on shorter notice than the official window. So I can't really complain - though it was very time-consuming.

One thing that is eating me is that you have to book the FPs in sets of three. In one or two cases, it's actually unlikely we'll make something we've booked. I don't dare just cancel that one because I can't add one back if our plans shift, but I hate to think I'm keeping somebody else from getting their favorite for something that's only secondary on my list. I wish there was a "place-holder" of sorts that you could leave blank and still be able to change the day of if something you want becomes available.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

Opposite for us, clean slate means we have the FP+ for late afternoon and/or early evening.

This leaves every morning and afternoon a clean slate. If its great weather-we may hit Clearwater Beach or a water park-maybe RD AK for a sunny Safari, if its cloudy we might fish or golf. If we stay out super late we may just sleep in and have lunch at the pool. One day we will decide to hit US/IOA and be back for an evening at DHS.

FREEDOM=Not having to hit the parks every single morning to obtain FP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNZcBgWSxs

In pre-Legacy days, and then after Legacy was introduced, everyone was on an equal playing field at the start of each day. Nothing had to be pre-planned (and for 1-2 months in advance). The day was free and clear. The essence of a clean slate is really just that: no appointments scheduled.

While you may like the aspect of FP+ for afternoon/evenings and having your mornings open, your day as a whole is not a clean slate. You still have those afternoon/evening ride appointments. What if due to unforeseen circumstances you have to lose valuable headliner ride appointments? With FP+ you’re out of luck in getting those scheduled at a different time. With Legacy you’d be able to without a problem.

The "Clean Slate" is what I think I'll miss most. We just made our 60 days out FP+ reservations and hate that we are "stuck" with a schedule of sorts. Yes, I realize we can move things around once we get there, but does anyone realistically think headliner rides will still be available day of if we decided to switch parks on the fly?

I'm on the fence (leaning towards negative) but will reserve final judgement until after our March trip. I'll be judging its success compared to our previous trips and how many attractions we were able to ride/see each day.

If FP+ is as awesome as some claim, then we should at least match what we've been able to do previous. If not, then (for us at least) it will be a failure.

Totally agree.

 

[jade1]

I don't buy airfare to Orlando to go fishing because I can do that down the street for free.

So I much prefer the *true* clean slate of old FP which allowed me to easily move park days around while i am there.

What about arrival day, check out day, US/IOA day, water park day, sleep in day, golf day, hang over day, sick kid morning day etc. Doesn't have to be fishing-but I can fish out my front door today if I want to drill through a foot of ice.

 

[ArwenMarie]

What about arrival day, check out day, US/IOA day, water park day, sleep in day, golf day, hang over day, sick kid morning day etc. Doesn't have to be fishing-but I can fish out my front door today if I want to drill through a foot of ice.

I will agree on arrival day.

On the hangovers and sick kid days...that is exactly what I miss. Ok not the hangovers since I don't drink.

But once you are there, things can go sideways...someone doesn't feel great, weather, a bad night of sleep. Back with old FP, it was easy to switch park days around as needed. Now, not as much.

Anyway, I can see that there are a few pros as you mentioned. For my family, we end up moving days and plans around once we are there for many reasons, so I miss being able to do that with a clean slate every morning.

 

[TLSnell1981]

We haven't been to the world, since May. FP and MB was a huge flop for us. Too many glitches and wasted time at GS. I dislike the inability to park hop too (with FP)

There are aspects that are good..like sleeping in if you want to do some big headliners later in the day I guess. I just hate the planning 60 days out, trying to make sure it all works out with ADR's too.

I wish, dining ressies and FP could be made at the same time. It's such a hassle, we have cut back significantly on TS. Actually, we've cut back significantly on our trips to Disney too....same reason.

 

[TXHauntedMansionFan]

While there are some drawbacks to the system, I really like the fact that I don't have to be at DHS/MK at rope drop just to join the mad dash to get a FP for TSM or 7DMT. I can remember many trips in the past where we'd get to TSM to grab a legacy FP around 10 am just to find they were already gone or were for late that night.

FP+ gives us the opportunity to insure that we are guaranteed at least one ride on the headliners during our trip or more if we choose to book them.

As far as being locked into parks due to FP+, I really feel that the ADR system is WAY WAY more restrictive to our touring plans. It feels like we are bound by whatever dinner reservation we had to make 6 months ago..

 

[JimmyV]

On balance, I am not a fan. Not because it severely impacts me. But instead because of how it impacts everyone in the aggregate. As fuzzylogic points out, I am a wise enough veteran to figure out how to use it. And when I do, I can ride TSMM without storming the Bastille. But what I don't like about it is how the system has created a whole new breed of super users which seems antithetical to the whole process. Even if I am one of them. With FP-, there were many people who weren't using the system because they either didn't know that they could, or couldn't figure out how. But let's be honest. If a newbie approached you on Main Street at 8:03 a.m. and asked for your help in explaining how FP- worked and what it could do for them, it would have taken you all of about 90 seconds to 3 minutes to explain the system and have them up and running. Imagine what that conversation would be like with FP+. So perhaps my sympathies are misplaced, but I truly feel for the WDW rookies. While I am using the system for all it's worth, many others are left in a glazed-over stupor. The Machiavellians among us like that, or perhaps don't care. Maybe I'm a sap, but I do care. I think it was an unwise move for Disney to isolate the newbies more than it had before.

I also don't like the fact that the system is designed to reallocate ride space in a manner that more or less guarantees that former commandos will get less done in a day. But as I age forward, this becomes less of a concern. Doing 30 things in a day isn't as important to me. Nevertheless, on balance, I don't like the fact that Disney has placed a governor on park pacing.

The final thing that I do not like about it is the timing of availability. One of the most common concerns is that people don't want to micro-book their vacations so far in advance. That is a very logical concern and one that can be wiped away simply by shortening the 60 day availability to something less severe. This is one of those instances that highlights how the system was done for Disney's benefit without fair consideration for what the public was clamoring for. Disney wants to "lock you in" so the longer the booking window the better. But when you move the window out too far, people complain about the loss of spontaneity. Some number of days between 0 and 60 would have struck a better balance. Finally, I absolutely detest the fact that the booking window opens up in the middle of the night. Again, there is no reason that this has to be the way the system functions. Now, people will say that you don't have to book in the middle of the night. But let's be honest. People cannot be saved from themselves. This goes back to what I wrote above that the system creates a new breed of super users. There are always going to be people who book at midnight, and from there, a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude prevails. Pretty soon, booking in the middle of the night becomes the norm and not the outlier. Move the "virtual Rope Drop" to 10:00 a.m. like Ticketmaster does with concert tickets and I think you'd eliminate one of the issues that people confront. It would be very easy to do.

Bottom line: FP+ has not and will not destroy my vacations or cause me to lose sleep. But in the aggregate, do I think it is helping or benefiting the average, typical, non-Dis'er family? No. To the contrary, it has added more layers of complexity and stress. Some of it self-inflicted, but it is there none the less.

Oh. And one last thing.....
Welcome Alfalfa!!

 

[Alfalfa]

Opposite for us, clean slate means we have the FP+ for late afternoon and/or early evening.

This leaves every morning and afternoon a clean slate. If its great weather-we may hit Clearwater Beach or a water park-maybe RD AK for a sunny Safari, if its cloudy we might fish or golf. If we stay out super late we may just sleep in and have lunch at the pool. One day we will decide to hit US/IOA and be back for an evening at DHS.

See that makes perfect sense to me. If we didn't spend so much time at Disney World when we go to Orlando I can see how the FastPass would be a great benefit. But we go to Orlando to go to Disney World, and we spend our entire day in the parks. At least we used to. It didn't seem like we were spending as much time in lines all day long. And if the old FastPass tickets were still available, okay great but we didn't run around the parks chasing them and if they ran out there were still attractions that we could walk on or had a very short wait.

But that doesn't seem to be the case now and spending all day in the park was very hard because we were either waiting in long lines or walking around looking for something that didn't have a long line. And we can't afford to go for a week or two our trips are more like 4-5 days and it was just so disappointing to get back to our hotel each night feeling like our days were wasted.

Maybe that is what we should plan on next time? Going to other places during the day besides Disney World and just going to the park in the afternoon or evening and using the 3 FastPass? But then I'm going to feel like I paid too much! And the other things will cost extra too unless there is a lot of other free stuff to do in Orlando?

 

[mom2rtk]

As far as being locked into parks due to FP+, I really feel that the ADR system is WAY WAY more restrictive to our touring plans. It feels like we are bound by whatever dinner reservation we had to make 6 months ago..

..... except that you can completely pass on doing any TS meals and not miss out on the value of what you paid for your park ticket.

 

[jade1]

In pre-Legacy days, and then after Legacy was introduced, everyone was on an equal playing field at the start of each day. Nothing had to be pre-planned (and for 1-2 months in advance). The day was free and clear. The essence of a clean slate is really just that: no appointments scheduled.

We reserved the night before a lot XMAS/NYE week.

While you may like the aspect of FP+ for afternoon/evenings and having your mornings open, your day as a whole is not a clean slate. You still have those afternoon/evening ride appointments.

Now your getting it.

Poor me, stuck with these pesky FP+'s. Just annoying.

NYE

MK NYE Preview midnight fireworks:

Oh and that dang XMAS Eve when we reserved these for XMAS Day. Yes we had a clean slate for XMAS Day even up until XMAS Eve.

What if due to unforeseen circumstances you have to lose valuable headliner ride appointments? With FP+ you’re out of luck in getting those scheduled at a different time. With Legacy you’d be able to without a problem.

Well since we never had them in the past (every valuable one was gone by the time we arrive) I wouldn't have anything to compare to. I will take my chances-and it hasn't happened yet.

 

[wdwcoltsfan]

We have had two trips with FP+ and have another one in 3 weeks. I can't say I love it or hate it, but it works well for us. There were things I didn't like about FP-, so it's not like I loved that either.

We do view it as freedom because we don't feel like we HAVE to be at a park early to get the difficult FP. DH and I will be there in February and we are doing some non park things during some the mornings/early afternoon, but I know we are going to watch F! on a particular night and we already have our TSMM FP booked. That isn't something we would have been able to do with FP-. Same with TT, we have it scheduled for late afternoon when we know we will be able to be in EPCOT. With FP-, by the time we made it into the park, we probably wouldn't have been able to get a FP for either Soarin or TT. This way, we know we have one ready to go.

Under the old system, we pretty much knew which park we were going to be in each day and we really didn't alter that plan. Months before going, I would look at park hours, AM/PM EMH, MSEP, Wishes, F! and our ADR's and that would pretty much map out our time spent in the parks. The only difference now is when I look at those same things, I schedule three rides for us to go on.

 

[jade1]

See that makes perfect sense to me. If we didn't spend so much time at Disney World when we go to Orlando I can see how the FastPass would be a great benefit. But we go to Orlando to go to Disney World, and we spend our entire day in the parks. At least we used to. It didn't seem like we were spending as much time in lines all day long. And if the old FastPass tickets were still available, okay great but we didn't run around the parks chasing them and if they ran out there were still attractions that we could walk on or had a very short wait.

But that doesn't seem to be the case now and spending all day in the park was very hard because we were either waiting in long lines or walking around looking for something that didn't have a long line. And we can't afford to go for a week or two our trips are more like 4-5 days and it was just so disappointing to get back to our hotel each night feeling like our days were wasted.

Maybe that is what we should plan on next time? Going to other places during the day besides Disney World and just going to the park in the afternoon or evening and using the 3 FastPass? But then I'm going to feel like I paid too much! And the other things will cost extra too unless there is a lot of other free stuff to do in Orlando?

We go to Orlando to combine one amazing winter get away, including far more than just WDW park touring-yet every day includes WDW park touring.

Our touring is not for everyone, and they can drop all FP's non peak weeks for all I care.

But if the parks are open from 7AM to 3AM-just when would visit? Can you go 20 hours a day?

 

[Laketravis]

On balance, I am not a fan. Not because it severely impacts me. But instead because of how it impacts everyone in the aggregate. As fuzzylogic points out, I am a wise enough veteran to figure out how to use it. And when I do, I can ride TSMM without storming the Bastille. But what I don't like about it is how the system has created a whole new breed of super users which seems antithetical to the whole process. Even if I am one of them. With FP-, there were many people who weren't using the system because they either didn't know that they could, or couldn't figure out how. But let's be honest. If a newbie approached you on Main Street at 8:03 a.m. and asked for your help in explaining how FP- worked and what it could do for them, it would have taken you all of about 90 seconds to 3 minutes to explain the system and have them up and running. Imagine what that conversation would be like with FP+. So perhaps my sympathies are misplaced, but I truly feel for the WDW rookies. While I am using the system for all it's worth, many others are left in a glazed-over stupor. The Machiavellians among us like that, or perhaps don't care. Maybe I'm a sap, but I do care. I think it was an unwise move for Disney to isolate the newbies more than it had before.

I also don't like the fact that the system is designed to reallocate ride space in a manner that more or less guarantees that former commandos will get less done in a day. But as I age forward, this becomes less of a concern. Doing 30 things in a day isn't as important to me. Nevertheless, on balance, I don't like the fact that Disney has placed a governor on park pacing.

The final thing that I do not like about it is the timing of availability. One of the most common concerns is that people don't want to micro-book their vacations so far in advance. That is a very logical concern and one that can be wiped away simply by shortening the 60 day availability to something less severe. This is one of those instances that highlights how the system was done for Disney's benefit without fair consideration for what the public was clamoring for. Disney wants to "lock you in" so the longer the booking window the better. But when you move the window out too far, people complain about the loss of spontaneity. Some number of days between 0 and 60 would have struck a better balance. Finally, I absolutely detest the fact that the booking window opens up in the middle of the night. Again, there is no reason that this has to be the way the system functions. Now, people will say that you don't have to book in the middle of the night. But let's be honest. People cannot be saved from themselves. This goes back to what I wrote above that the system creates a new breed of super users. There are always going to be people who book at midnight, and from there, a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude prevails. Pretty soon, booking in the middle of the night becomes the norm and not the outlier. Move the "virtual Rope Drop" to 10:00 a.m. like Ticketmaster does with concert tickets and I think you'd eliminate one of the issues that people confront. It would be very easy to do.

Bottom line: FP+ has not and will not destroy my vacations or cause me to lose sleep. But in the aggregate, do I think it is helping or benefiting the average, typical, non-Dis'er family? No. To the contrary, it has added more layers of complexity and stress. Some of it self-inflicted, but it is there none the less.

Oh. And one last thing.....
Welcome Alfalfa!!

Excellent points. It's difficult to find any aspect of the entire project that could be presented as being customer-centric. All of the objectives have their roots in primarily benefiting Disney first and being spun as a guest benefit second.

 

[sabrecmc]

We spent Thanksgiving at Disneyland with the old FP and Christmas at the World with FP+. So, I got to compare at relatively similar times and crowd levels. I have to say, for us, FP+ worked a lot better. I'm sure part of this is because we were staying onsite, so got to book at 60 days. We had 7 Dwarves and A&E on Christmas day with no problem.

What made it nice for us is not having to run all over the park to get FP after FP. Since it is just me and my DD(8), that was a lot easier. When we had a "runner" to do our FPs, it wasn't so bad, but with the two of us, FP+ is just so much easier. We were always there for rope drop, got tons done the first couple of hours, and then used our FP+ in the afternoon. This left the evening for dinner and parades, that kind of thing. Just really worked well for our kind of schedule. No doubt there are ways to improve it, but I did find that it really grew on me after doing it the old way and scampering all over Disneyland and DCA, not to mention literally running down Main Street for A&E as soon as they opened the gates. That was a nightmare.

 

[Alfalfa]

We go to Orlando to combine one amazing winter get away, including far more than just WDW park touring-yet every day includes WDW park touring.

Our touring is not for everyone, and they can drop all FP's non peak weeks for all I care.

But if the parks are open from 7AM to 3AM-just when would visit? Can you go 20 hours a day?

It's not about how much time we can spend in the park each day it's about the cost. Between airfare, hotel, food and park tickets we don't have much left over for anything else. So about the only choice we have left is to use our park tickets for Disney World. I'm glad it works the way it does for you but for us we can't afford anything else each day. And we felt like we had to spend more time in the park to get anything done.

 

[SuperTink]

The nice part? Having 3 things we didn't have to wait in line for. The bad part? Only having 3 things we didn't have to wait in line for.

We did EMH every morning and shortly after park opening still ended up standing in line for things we never had to wait for. So that was a straight bummer.

I did like having at least 3 rides reserved for our second park (we also always hop). And I really liked having 3 rides reserved on our arrival day.

The implementation of FP+ wouldn't dissuade me from returning to DW. The lack of rides will though, and next time we are in Orlando it will be to Universal. I'm not too excited about the theme of Uni and I will miss the charm of DW, but my kids are older and are ready for something different and something more...

 

[tonyolily]

On balance, I am not a fan. Not because it severely impacts me. But instead because of how it impacts everyone in the aggregate. As fuzzylogic points out, I am a wise enough veteran to figure out how to use it. And when I do, I can ride TSMM without storming the Bastille. But what I don't like about it is how the system has created a whole new breed of super users which seems antithetical to the whole process. Even if I am one of them. With FP-, there were many people who weren't using the system because they either didn't know that they could, or couldn't figure out how. But let's be honest. If a newbie approached you on Main Street at 8:03 a.m. and asked for your help in explaining how FP- worked and what it could do for them, it would have taken you all of about 90 seconds to 3 minutes to explain the system and have them up and running. Imagine what that conversation would be like with FP+. So perhaps my sympathies are misplaced, but I truly feel for the WDW rookies. While I am using the system for all it's worth, many others are left in a glazed-over stupor. The Machiavellians among us like that, or perhaps don't care. Maybe I'm a sap, but I do care. I think it was an unwise move for Disney to isolate the newbies more than it had before.

I also don't like the fact that the system is designed to reallocate ride space in a manner that more or less guarantees that former commandos will get less done in a day. But as I age forward, this becomes less of a concern. Doing 30 things in a day isn't as important to me. Nevertheless, on balance, I don't like the fact that Disney has placed a governor on park pacing.

The final thing that I do not like about it is the timing of availability. One of the most common concerns is that people don't want to micro-book their vacations so far in advance. That is a very logical concern and one that can be wiped away simply by shortening the 60 day availability to something less severe. This is one of those instances that highlights how the system was done for Disney's benefit without fair consideration for what the public was clamoring for. Disney wants to "lock you in" so the longer the booking window the better. But when you move the window out too far, people complain about the loss of spontaneity. Some number of days between 0 and 60 would have struck a better balance. Finally, I absolutely detest the fact that the booking window opens up in the middle of the night. Again, there is no reason that this has to be the way the system functions. Now, people will say that you don't have to book in the middle of the night. But let's be honest. People cannot be saved from themselves. This goes back to what I wrote above that the system creates a new breed of super users. There are always going to be people who book at midnight, and from there, a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude prevails. Pretty soon, booking in the middle of the night becomes the norm and not the outlier. Move the "virtual Rope Drop" to 10:00 a.m. like Ticketmaster does with concert tickets and I think you'd eliminate one of the issues that people confront. It would be very easy to do.

Bottom line: FP+ has not and will not destroy my vacations or cause me to lose sleep. But in the aggregate, do I think it is helping or benefiting the average, typical, non-Dis'er family? No. To the contrary, it has added more layers of complexity and stress. Some of it self-inflicted, but it is there none the less.

Oh. And one last thing.....
Welcome Alfalfa!!

Exactly. I couldn't agree more with this post!