My experience with FP within assigned hour

[brymolmom]

I had no probably making my FP windows, unless the ride was closed, but then they just let you come back anytime it's open. I never stressed to make it, and some fastpasses I just never returned to and didn't use because it was too far from where I was.

This might be part of it...Unless we decide to leave the park - We NEVER do not use a FP. We consider that lost 'money' in a way. Plus my kids would kill me if they didn't get on RNR those additional times. So we get there even if it is stressful to do so.

I also wonder if the ones with little to no issues with it don't get as many FP's during the day as we do. It likely wouldn't be an issue with 4 or 5 FP's. But we usually get at least 6, sometimes 7.

 

[Angel Ariel]

This might be part of it...Unless we decide to leave the park - We NEVER do not use a FP. We consider that lost 'money' in a way. Plus my kids would kill me if they didn't get on RNR those additional times. So we get there even if it is stressful to do so.

I also wonder if the ones with little to no issues with it don't get as many FP's during the day as we do. It likely wouldn't be an issue with 4 or 5 FP's. But we usually get at least 6, sometimes 7.

We usually get 6-8 FPs/day, especially in MK, and we haven't ever had a problem returning within the window. We don't tend to cross the park, though.

If we get a FP for Space Mtn and the return time is an hour away, we'll ride Buzz (maybe a few times, depending on the wait), probably get some pictures taken with the castle, and maybe get a FP for something in FL when our window opens, and then head to Space to use our other one.

So we do move around lands, but we try to stay on the same side of the park. We haven't gone at crazy busy times lately, though, so we haven't had a problem waiting til the afternoon to get FPs for any of the mountains or anything.

 

[glammadiva]

I know our next trip is going to be very different. We are the type that get up for rope drop. Do all the headliners right away via standby. Collect fast passes as we go. Then take an afternoon break and come back in the evening and use the fast passes.

Guess we will have to change our style!

Maggie

This is my style and it also worked with FP+. I pulled my FP+ for my evening return and it worked out great.

 

[nkereina]

OP, I hear what you're saying. We will be going this November for the first time since FP enforcement. What we're concerned about is having to "kill time" before our windows open. If our RnRC window opens in 20 minutes and we are right by it, I can see us hanging out at a bench for 20 minutes waiting rather than running to somewhere else in the park to squeeze something else in. Either way, its stressful. Time is a precious commodity at WDW so I don't want to waste it while there.

 

[hookedonears]

Hi all.

Sitting here on my last night at WDW. I had quite a big break (for us) between trips this time around so this was our FIRST trip with the FP time enforcement. I thought I'd share my experience for those, like me, who weren't sure how significantly this would impact our touring and trip.

I'll start with a summary- YES, it did impact it and definitely not in a positive manner. But it wasn't quite the pain in my side I anticipated.

Honestly it just made my trip more stressful...I was SO CONCERNED with the exact time at all times (if you're like me and don't like to wear your phone right on you on rides - you might want to wear a watch - I CONSTANTLY had to be checking the time on this trip and calculating in my head - do we have time for a bathroom break AND walking over and doing Star Tours and gettign back before 1:20?). It was difficult to figure out what you CAN do in between rides. For example, you just get off TOT and your FP for RNR start time is in 20 minutes...We decided to walk over and do standby at Great Movie Ride. Great movie ride wait time is 35 minutes...By the time we got over there and on the ride...Assuming the estimate is either exactly right or too high...It meant hustling over (and checking my watch constantly to see if we would make it still) to make sure we got there in time for the FP's. We wanted to wait for the next show to do the Cowboy theme but would have been VERY close to missing our window so had to skip that. We ended up running across the park at least 3 times. I knew we'd end up criss-crossing more...and we did - I just didn't expect it to actually be tough to make it back in time as much as it was.

Ended up having to leave Nemo the Musical early....Was cutting it close with the end time of the show - then they had a few technical difficulties that delayed the show at the beginning by a few minutes...Between that and trying to get through the bows and getting through the crowd - we wouldn't have made it, so had to leave early to get to the Dinosaur FP's in time. We only had 2 Nemo shows to choose from that day because we had to leave the park for a lunch ressie.

Speaking of lunch - that was the other tough part. Since we get a lot of FP's in the morning...between trying to go get the next one and needing to use them within the time - Some days I found it tough to squeeze in lunch.

With the extra criss-crossing the park and needing to get somewhere to get the next FP's - I would say we were able to get almost as many FP's per day as our 'usual' - but it maybe went down by 1 fewer. But this is moot with FP+ coming around the corner anyway. I guess on the bright side when we're only getting 3 - 4 FP's per day there will be PLENTY of time to eat lunch and wait in long standby lines before the next FP window.

Definitely will take some getting used to.

We've been returning during the scheduled FP return period, ever since they were invented, and we've never ever endured the stress you talked about. Just simple planning eliminates the stress. We normally plan at least 2 half days in every park, 3 in some on every trip. If we don't get to do something one day, we plan to do it first the next, no big deal and no stress.