Seasoned Disney goers confused

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I can see how it became a rough trip We will have hopper's so I hope that
gives us a fighting chance as we won't physically have much more time than you did. May 4th is the pun day for Star Wars May the FORCE be with you. We have only 1 TS ADR and that is during MNSSHP so hoping not too much time spent eating. We have also seen Fantasmic 3 x's so not planning on it again. Not sureif groups are there over Labor Day but I imagine it will be pretty crowded, guess we will see.

Yeah...I'm very familiar with the Star Wars pun. I just don't see what relevance the day had except for the theme name. I didn't see anything more for Star Wars than normal because the Star Wars weekends hadn't started yet. So I'm not sure why that would have been a busier day than the Daytona week we had last Feb or the Atlanta spring break we had last year mid April. Last year, we hopped 4 parks in a day and went back to one a second time and had dinner, and that was a Saturday too. We rode multiples and single rider. This May was the opposite. No single rider line, only re-ride was Mission Space, because even though we had a FP, we didn't need it. That's what's goofy about making reservations for a ride ahead of time. Other than Soarin, our EP FPs were just burners. We walked on to Nemo and did Mission Space before our FP even came up because it had no line and we needed something to ride.

Anyway, I used to tell everyone to book a 3 or 4 day and then have a day or two at the parks. After this week, I say, plan at least 4-5 days in the parks and then tack on a cruise. Even a 3 or 4 day was just perfect, I got off the 4 day Magic completely satisfied with that trip. The parks feel like majorly unfinished business. So I'm sure WDW will be happy with me when I say that you have to basically plan a week at the parks but you might not have any money left for a great cruise. Shame. Shame Shame.

As brought out, happily, my disney card is just as good at Disneyland. And then instead of taking a Land & Sea, some day I'll get a last minute rate on a week long Fantasy and skip Disneyworld. Land and sea was my favorite! Now I feel like you basically have to do them separately based on this last trip.

Phooey.

 

[barbmouse]

Thanks so much for all of your well thought out and insightful posts! I appreciate those of you that have shared your FP+ experiences! This is exactly the type of information that I was hoping for and knew the DIS was the place to seek it out. I will check out the links posted for even further information. I am aware that it is not rocket science (as was pointed out to me) but I like to read and research and know the latest information and strategies. I enjoy hearing how things have worked out for others: both positive and negative situations. I was confused and have gotten lots of helpful advice, clarifications, and information.

I am so glad to hear that many of you who visit DW frequently like FP+ and feel that you get as much done with it as before! That was one of my fears so this news is encouraging to me. I am always up for learning more and do not mind asking for advice. I feel that is the purpose of these boards. I hope that I will love FP+ when I visit again. As I stated in my original post, I love Disney and am always looking forward to another trip!

Thanks again for the input. More is always appreciated!!

 

[phillipsjp2003]

Very helpful thread. Thank you for your experiences. Since we have been many times before we are hopeful that FP+ will help us have a more relaxed pace to our trips. My DW and I are both teachers so we can only go during crowded times. In years past the legacy FP meant rope drop was a must if you wanted to ride TSM or Soarin. I often saw TSM instantly up to 7:00pm return times and gone by 11:00am. This year we plan to sleep in, enjoy the pool and go to the parks in the early evening knowing that the headliners and must do rides are booked. Also in the past we had many times that my family ordered a meal at say Pecos Bill while I raced across the park to SM and back only to find the return time was at the same time as our ADR for dinner. We plan to just enjoy and not worry about the number of rides we conquer. We've ridden them all before and I am pretty sure this will not be our last trip to WDW as it is our laughin place :0)

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Last year was perfection. Had the Disney Parks app so we didn't have to run to the attraction to see that the FP return times were during our ADR. The only drawback was that we couldn't see wait times in other parks until.we had hopped and signed in. Otherwise the app working with the legacy (or at least not tier limited) FP was the best of both worlds.