My FP+ Park Strategy WILL SAVE ME ALMOST $20,000!!!

[Angel Ariel]

Agreed. The introduction of FP+ has forced many of us to go back to the drawing board with our trip plans. We previously had it all down to a science. Magical Express + onsite stay + dining plan + length of stay park hoppers = a great trip. Once you decide that is no longer going to add up to a great trip, it's time to evaluate all the pieces of the equation to maximize outcomes. Sometimes (as in LT's example) Disney comes out on the losing end of the equation.

Yep...I'm already trying to think of how to plan for our November 2015 trip. We're going to have 9 people (at least, possibly 11)- ages 3-65. 3 kids in that number - a 3y/o, almost 6 y/o, and a 9 y/o. I'm honestly a bit concerned/slightly afraid of being the coordinator for this trip, entirely because of FP+. Last time we went with my brother and his family, my brother would take my older nephew to one place while SIL took the younger one to another. We'd also pick up FPs for rides we could all do together (even headliners, as DD was 8months and we had RS). It was a very go-with-the-flow type trip, as the splitting up was all decided in the moment. Now I have to figure out what's getting FP+'d for which people - all together? or accounting for splitting up like last time? Or a mix of both? And how to factor in using DD"s FP+, as she will have a ticket this time (do we FP rides we can do with her, which may or may not need FP? Or do we use hers in conjunction with RS to allow 2 adults to ride with the 2 older nephews on a headliner a second time (basically so DH and I could ride with them))_

So many questions/configurations to consider...honestly, it makes my brain hurt. But no one else in my family is going to coordinate the entire family's trip...so, it's up to me. I'm already planning y first chat with everyone for the end of the month to decide where we're going to stay.

 

[mellyf]

Will we miss staying on-site? I don't know for sure. Maybe. But that "bubble" that we've enjoyed for 40 years is slowly being burst by outside influence anyway. And when we were at USO we realized that they've got a pretty good "bubble" effect as well and they aren't nearly as big.

My husband and I just experienced USO's bubble and can't wait to go back. We were there for only four days, and for the first two, I was still thinking that I would rather be at Disney (even though the first glimpse I got of Hogwart's, I got tears in my eyes...huge HP nerd here. But I STILL couldn't break the Disney bubble til this year.) I don't know what changed, but the third day we were walking to City Walk again to get coffee on our way to early entry at IoA, and I realized how much I was enjoying everything. Walking to the parks, rather than taking buses or driving; walking or taking the train between parks, the wonderful theming, and express pass, of course.

I love Disney, and I have no doubt that we will be back some time, although I really would like to go to Disneyland first, but I really want to start planning our next trip to USO.

 

[MrInfinity]

Agreed. The introduction of FP+ has forced many of us to go back to the drawing board with our trip plans. We previously had it all down to a science. Magical Express + onsite stay + dining plan + length of stay park hoppers = a great trip. Once you decide that is no longer going to add up to a great trip, it's time to evaluate all the pieces of the equation to maximize outcomes. Sometimes (as in LT's example) Disney comes out on the losing end of the equation.

Mom, why is it so hard to adjust? Yes, we had it down to a science. It was great. But it isn't "not-great" now. Really. FP+ works fine. If I can take my family of 6, and ride tons of rides in a day during moderate to busy times including all headliners multiple times -- then seriously what is the deal. It's really fine. It's just a ride-queuing system. And it has some pretty awesome benefits that offset the changes.

Yeah. It happens to most benefit those people who can figure out how to master a system, and therefore be one step ahead of the masses. Like... Oh yeah... us! Most of the Dis! The company we sit among are the best tourers who have figured out the best ways to use FP-. Why is it so inconceivable to think about finding similar ways to master FP+?

Lake, I'm glad you found a way to make FP+ not only successful, but even save you lots of money. I really hopes this works for you. We found a way to transition from FP- to FP+, but we prefer to spend our days powering thru rides and fun, and we don't have the luxury of taking the kids out of school for weeks at a time. It's really important for us to do lots of rides in the context of enjoying the Disney magic, so staying offsite would not be an option. It seems you're finally giving it a good look over how you can tour instead of how you used to tour to get perhaps even a better experience than you did with FP-! It never saved you that much money. That is pretty awesome.

BTW. This was my 1000'th post. How neat.

 

[Planogirl]

You are way behind me on this one. We've been staying offsite as much as on and now I can't imagine bothering with onsite any time soon. We still do things we love but if I were to list the things that Disney has done that turns me off I might be here all night.

My plan now is to spend a few days or partial days at the Disney parks and that's about it. I'm excited about a lot of other experiences that tend to cost less and for me are way less annoying. I suppose that I should thank Disney too.

 

[Mikie]

I don't doubt you'd still save a bundle anyway, but isn't this total a little like a store doing a brief price spike and then declaring "50% off sale!!" I don't recall how long you said your trips used to be, but I thought 2 weeks was a new, longer trip caused by FP+ (needing more days to get the same amount done in the parks). So your 2 week trip total is your brief FP+ spike, not your pre-FP+ spending, right? I think it's still a saving, but not quite as high as you calculated. Your title was quite a tease, though . . . Of course I want to save $20,000 too! But the math isn't the same for me (less frequent trips, fewer days, and I really love the disney bubble) wanna send me a piece of your savings?

I hope this works out great for you!

 

[Laketravis]

I don't doubt you'd still save a bundle anyway, but isn't this total a little like a store doing a brief price spike and then declaring "50% off sale!!" I don't recall how long you said your trips used to be, but I thought 2 weeks was a new, longer trip caused by FP+ (needing more days to get the same amount done in the parks). So your 2 week trip total is your brief FP+ spike, not your pre-FP+ spending, right? I think it's still a saving, but not quite as high as you calculated. Your title was quite a tease, though . . . Of course I want to save $20,000 too! But the math isn't the same for me (less frequent trips, fewer days, and I really love the disney bubble) wanna send me a piece of your savings?

I hope this works out great for you!

We used to go for a week at a time but increased that to two weeks for the last couple of years as FP+ gained steam. Disney's strategy was innocuous over that time as we did find it taking longer to accomplish what we wanted to so we increased the lengths of our visits. But I think the math still works for shorter duration because no matter how I look at it a night at CSR is a couple hundred while a night at a 2-bedroom condo is a hundred. We were probably in the minority in finding the dining plan worth it but that's only because we figured out how to derive the maximum possible value from it in order to save a few bucks a day. So rather than $175 a day we'll spend less than a hundred and eat at places like Capitol Grill.

I'm going to do a cost analysis and try to determine where the break-even point is in terms of nights on site and meals but my gut tells me the payback is pretty quick even after just a couple of days. It's the AP part that is a little more fluid, but I see that as an opportunity - I could use points for airfare and rent a cheap little car for a couple of day so the cost of arriving on Friday and leaving Monday morning wouldn't be much more than what we spend over a typical weekend in Austin anyway. Doing that a half dozen times a year over and above the four weeks total results in slight incremental cost but larger increase in value.

And that's where the FP+ will shine - like Jade's examples of his NYE FP's, we could have 3 already setup for Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. Half day WDW, half day USO, and it's a DS9's weekend fantasy.

I know that doesn't bode well for Disney, that's a lot of displaced spending while consuming even more, but that's the risk a business always takes. Like a lobster buffet, I'm not going to stuff myself with bread.

My goal is to see just how cost effective an efficient touring strategy can be - cheap air, cheap lodging, cheap eats; all at a level of quality equal to or exceeding on-site but at substantial savings while still maximizing "touring". All thanks to FP+

It's gonna be an interesting year!

 

[ArwenMarie]

I get your point. I think that happened to us too...Because all of the chaos with FP last year, we were encouraged to try UOR onsite. Now we like onsite there better and will only do WDW from offsite. It's like by shaking up the whole thing, they made us start thinking "Is this really worth it?"...

 

[Laketravis]

You are way behind me on this one. We've been staying offsite as much as on and now I can't imagine bothering with onsite any time soon. We still do things we love but if I were to list the things that Disney has done that turns me off I might be here all night.

My plan now is to spend a few days or partial days at the Disney parks and that's about it. I'm excited about a lot of other experiences that tend to cost less and for me are way less annoying. I suppose that I should thank Disney too.

I agree. There was a time up until not long ago where we would never even had considered staying off-site and not eating meals at WDW. But there comes a point where even being fully immersed has a dollar value, and once it's exceeded the other options that weren't even visible before are shining brightly.

We got to be pretty good at planning out our days at WDW, getting the most possible regardless of what was thrown at us. But now it's time to try something else and see if we can maintain an acceptable park strategy while saving a substantial amount of money.

 

[Laketravis]

Lake, I'm glad you found a way to make FP+ not only successful, but even save you lots of money. I really hopes this works for you. We found a way to transition from FP- to FP+, but we prefer to spend our days powering thru rides and fun, and we don't have the luxury of taking the kids out of school for weeks at a time. It's really important for us to do lots of rides in the context of enjoying the Disney magic, so staying offsite would not be an option. It seems you're finally giving it a good look over how you can tour instead of how you used to tour to get perhaps even a better experience than you did with FP-! It never saved you that much money. That is pretty awesome.

BTW. This was my 1000'th post. How neat.

Congratulations

The school thing is another factor that FP+ impacted. As DS gets older we really can't take him out of school much anymore either (we already started getting flak last Thanksgiving for having him out an additional week) so more and more of our visits now have to be at busy holiday times or the summer. Which introduces peak season prices, longer lines, higher crowds, etc. We can no longer cherry pick the times we go. It'll be a couple of weeks over Christmas/New Years and a couple of weeks in the summer, with several weekend trips when he's out for those Monday teacher in-service or holidays. We'll use a strategy of two park systems (WDW+USO) that relies on the three FP's at WDW in the afternoons or evenings so we can do those AND a parade and fireworks. I'm not going to pay for EP at USO so we'll have to figure that part out but you can't use it on HP attractions anyway and believe me - those are worth the SB wait.

 

[MrInfinity]

I know that doesn't bode well for Disney, that's a lot of displaced spending while consuming even more, but that's the risk a business always takes.
My goal is to see just how cost effective an efficient touring strategy can be - cheap air, cheap lodging, cheap eats; all at a level of quality equal to or exceeding on-site but at substantial savings while still maximizing "touring". All thanks to FP+

I think this bodes just fine for Disney! Really. If it is good for you, and makes you happy, then surely it is good for Disney. You're still paying admission, but instead of riding a bunch of headliners in a day, you're only riding 3. Then since you leave quickly, you make room for other guests to ride the rides you used to ride, so it's probably actually even better for Disney -- and other guests. They can give out the rides you used to ride to other guests who are paying more staying onsite. This in turn drives resort sales. So not only are you happier, but other guests are too. Even other commandos are happy because you are not competing with them for a 4th FP, nor are you competing for any high-demand rides at 60 days. It seems like a win win win.

 

[HopperFan]

I think with you at four weeks (we do 5-6 weeks a year) you can find some value in the Tables In Wonderland card to help you still enjoy some of your favorite eats and beverages. We stay 60/40 on/off site and it's getting harder and harder to stay onsite after being spoiled at Bonnet Creek and other spots. We eat breakfast in no matter where we stay, we like to pack a nice lunch to take to parks half the time to avoid the cost/crowds and we use the TIW so we can enjoy some nice table service.

We enjoy staying onsite but the only things that we truly miss when offsite is Extra Magic Hours (night) and 60 day FP+. There is SO much to do in Orlando and so much under construction right now, I think you are going to find lots of fun outside the bubble.

 

[Laketravis]

I think this bodes just fine for Disney! Really. If it is good for you, and makes you happy, then surely it is good for Disney. You're still paying admission, but instead of riding a bunch of headliners in a day, you're only riding 3. Then since you leave quickly, you make room for other guests to ride the rides you used to ride, so it's probably actually even better for Disney -- and other guests. They can give out the rides you used to ride to other guests who are paying more staying onsite. This in turn drives resort sales. So not only are you happier, but other guests are too. Even other commandos are happy because you are not competing with them for a 4th FP, nor are you competing for any high-demand rides at 60 days. It seems like a win win win.

The problem with that, though (and I'm putting my stockholder's hat on now) is that I'm instigating cost while contributing little if anything to revenue. There are a couple of analyst articles floating around about how AP's are Disney's biggest threat to profit. Each time I use it, I'm worth less to Disney from a financial standpoint.

In fact there's an old joke about that - you know what you get when you give everybody at WDW an annual pass?

Answer: Six Flags.

So while we may find this new strategy works for us we also have to hope a lot more don't try it either.

 

[supersnoop]

You didn't. You should try again. I've heard about that core math, though, so maybe that's what you're doing. The fact is no matter how you want to spin it the savings is almost $4K a year, each year, for five years. We still have to eat so you can't eliminate food costs entirely. And we still need to sleep somewhere so you can't eliminate lodging completely.

Appreciate your comments though. Especially the insulting ones.

I assumed your three family members are all adults, so the dining plan math is:
3 people times $60 times 28 days times 5 years = $25,200.

There's where the majority of your "savings" comes from.

 

[Laketravis]

I assumed your three family members are all adults, so the dining plan math is:
3 people times $60 times 28 days times 5 years = $25,200.

There's where the majority of your "savings" comes from.

Only if we don't eat. But we have to eat. You've also neglected the $100 a night savings in lodging, which is actually where the "majority" of the savings comes from ($80 versus $100). Isn't that common core math insane?

Love you too.

 

[Mikie]

The problem with that, though (and I'm putting my stockholder's hat on now) is that I'm instigating cost while contributing little if anything to revenue. There are a couple of analyst articles floating around about how AP's are Disney's biggest threat to profit. Each time I use it, I'm worth less to Disney from a financial standpoint.

In fact there's an old joke about that - you know what you get when you give everybody at WDW an annual pass?

Answer: Six Flags.

So while we may find this new strategy works for us we also have to hope a lot more don't try it either.

I'm on cold medicine and foggy, so forgive me. . . Why do AP's turn Disney into a Six Flags? I'm guessing it turns them into day guests vs resort guests, but I'm not sure how that negatively affects the parks themselves (this is assuming you meant a comparison to six flags as a slam, which is how I took it)

 

[supersnoop]

Only if we don't eat. But we have to eat. You've also neglected the $100 a night savings in lodging. Isn't that common core math insane?

Love you too.

You really need to work on comprehension. I though Eanes schools were suppose to be good. If you said you saved $20k, and I said the $25k savings was the "majority" of your savings, then I already took into account your $14k food budget. Otherwise I would have said it was "more than" your projected savings.

 

[Jennasis]

Technically, FP+ has changed our vacations too. We bought DVC so we could go more often and do less on each trip. Instead of every other year and commandoing the parks as we always have, we will go once or twice a year, do the parks way less (sometimes not at all).

 

[Angel Ariel]

Perhaps "obnoxious" would have been a better word for him. The purpose is to even out wait times. You can still do just as many rides in a day as before; sometimes more.

I won't argue that one can accomplish the same *number* of rides, but I do believe that whether or not that number comprises the *same* rides is up for debate.

For example, we may have had a similar number of rides done at DHS this year, but instead of 2 rides on TSMM we had 1 (fp+) for tsmm, and then 1 LMA. Instead of 3 rides on star tours, we did 1 (sb), and saw Indiana Jones and characterpalooza instead of 2 other rides on ST. Why not a second ride on tsmm or star tours? No fp+ left, and long stand by lines - not the conditions we experienced under similar crowd levels in previous years.

So yes, we did the same, or similar, # of things, and we DID enjoy them - but it was not the same experience as pre-fp+. We altered our touring to adjust for the differences and enjoyed ourselves (characterpalooza rocked!), but did miss the opportunities we used to have as well.

 

[flicx]

I too am saving thanks to the new system. We continue to abstain from Disneyworld due primarily to fast pass plus.

 

[Laketravis]

I'm on cold medicine and foggy, so forgive me. . . Why do AP's turn Disney into a Six Flags? I'm guessing it turns them into day guests vs resort guests, but I'm not sure how that negatively affects the parks themselves (this is assuming you meant a comparison to six flags as a slam, which is how I took it)

An AP for Six Flags with free parking can be had for as little as $7.50 a month and is good at all parks in the US. Throw in another $7.50 a month for their Meal Plan and you get lunch and dinner every day you are in your home park. More people buy Six Flags AP's than day tickets. They also tend to be younger, live within a 50 mile radius of the parks, and average (from what I remember) 25 visits a year. It's the 2015 equivalent of the mall from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. That's slightly more than $7 a visit or $1 an hour in the parks. Just about covers the employee sweeping up their trash.

I live in between two Six Flags parks, one in DFW and the other in San Antonio. We have AP's to Six Flags as well but it's a Saturday afternoon for us to catch a few thrill coasters while we are in the area doing other things. It's hard for us to spend more than 3 hours in those parks.

Our AP to WDW is going to become like that to us - something we do that afternoon or evening while in Orlando doing other things. FP+ makes it even more attractive because we can reserve a few attractions with no wait.

But we don't want everyone to be WDW AP holders.