1st wk of Feb here's my report w/honest FP+ eval

[onelugnut]

Please be patient with my typing, grammar and spelling. (too long of a rant to proof read, so pass over if you want)
I am now done with DW but want to get a report on here to possibly help people on these boards who have given me so much help in my many trips.

First the good.
Port Orleans Riverside was awesome, the room was perfect, all new, clean, people were great, and Bob Jackson will always be one of my favorite things at DW, and i dont think you can call yourself a disney expert if you have not experienced his show.
Magic Bands, I am fine with, actually like em. even with the few snags here and there, its a nice touch, opening doors, charging etc. all good.
Meals, were all great, not a bad one that i can think of
my favorite is still Ohana's. The counter-serve at BOG was great too.
nice improvement to MK food, which they really needed.

and now....
I have been critical of the new FP+ system over the last few months.
If i knew about this change when i planned my trip a year ago i probably would have went somewhere else.
but everyone says, it will be fine. it wont be so bad.
So i went with an open mind. After all, my best vacations have been DW and i was looking forward to another one. besides we were going first week in February, who needs any FP that week anyway right?

First of all, the first week in February crowds were way under estimated.
I dont mind the tours from Argentina, they were fine, but the parks were just plain crowded.

now on to the great change, the FP+. As I thought it would be, this is the deal changer for us. I dont know who thought taking away fastpasses would go by without a problem.
I have never had so much trouble riding rides.

i scheduled all my FP+ months in advance with my best planning knowledge i could. (and i am one of those planning nuts)
Well, thats a waste of time. We changed every one of them.
(which by the way, is the only good thing i can say about the new system, is that you can change them)
that is, as long as you have wifi, which they neglect to tell you is only in parks and resorts. Didnt they think bus stops and monorails would be a useful place to have wifi?
so if you change your choice of park at last minute, due to weather, or dining ressie, or whatever, you have to change your fast passes as your walking into the park. Well then be prepared to take scraps of what FP+ is left over (if any) Yes, FP+ do run out too and often.
well, only for the popular rides. but this is the whole point right? Disney pushing us to riding rides we dont like so they dont have to build more of the ones we do.
also, the program still has many bugs, or should i say "Blips". Get ready to see the phrase "Blip in the system" about a million times during your vacation.
thats their way of saying "its not working"

all that, is bad enough, but my all time most hated part of the FP+ is the teiring. and even worse, teiring with the one park rule.
This has made Fastpasses at epcot a waste of time. if you do, you get Soarin or Test track but not both, so that means you have FP what? maelstrom? Seriously? Mission to mars? come on. So as a result, you would have to be crazy to waste your meager 3 FP+ opportunities at epcot where you would really only be getting 1 true fast pass. So result is no FPs at Epcot and so, waiting in 60 minute lines at soarin and testtrack.
So i am forced to use it on my morning park, say Dis Studios.
also teired, great. again one or the other but not both.
Great so now i get to FP movie ride? seriously? MY KIDS DONT WANT TO RIDE THESE THINGS! BTW, now with everyone only having 3 FPs, the standby line is impossible.
I noticed on Friday as we waited for our last ride ever (space mountain)
yes it was our second time that day (we already burned our FP earlier in the day, and wanted to go again, we are very bad people)
it was marked with 40 minute standby, longer than i like to, but i thought this is the new disneyworld and i would have to get used to it.
well, on a Friday (which was the recommended park) i waited more like 70 minutes to board that 40 year old coaster. and to make it worse, they only had the one side open for standby riders, with the other side devoted to the FP+ only!!!! So follow this, they cut your FP to only 3 forcing you to do standby, and then cut the amount of ride opportunities in half by taking away half of space mountain coasters.

I made my concerns known to the many FP+ CM drones standing around at the FP+ kiosks and with their almost prerecorded responses to my concerns.
they put me back in my place. When i really pressed about how i got screwed for buying hopper passes and only getting FP's for one park, i finally got one to admit they were looking at changing that. WELL THATS GREAT, not for me of course who saves for 2 years for this trip. I am just out of luck as we are told that we should be patient as they work the kinks out of this new plan.
Well i think the plan needs a lot of ironing out, and it was done at the expense of my family bi-annual vacation.

I love DW, i have had some the greatest memories of my life there.

I really feel they have discarded my family, and so, I will find us a new vacation.
I will also, (since i am the "Disney Nut" in my circle) will not be referring DW as the best vacation you could hope for anymore.
Instead, i will warn that if you want plan every minute of your day 6 months in advance, only to change it the day of and end up in fustration. with "blips" or missed FP reservations.
And to ride only 3 "good rides" per day. Then Disney is your place.

well as you can see, i could go on forever, but i think i got some honest points across. if anyone wants some honest answers, feel free to hit me with a private message.
if you want to contest my evaluations, i don't really care to debate them.
as i said, i am done.

i know disney has the "right" and they have to "make money" and blah blah blah. I wonder how long it will take them to bilk the billion dollar expense of this system out of the remaining customers who dont mind this overplanning, long lines and aging rides.

seriously, between FP+, Cruise Ship mishaps, and "Black Fish" i think i am going to go buy some stock in the univeral parks.

 

[crostorfer]

I'm really sorry you had a bad experience. I wish you well on your travels to other places.

I do want to thank you, and other people like you, who have reported these things. I think you've really helped me decide the best allocation for my FP+ reservations. I think I'm only going to use my FP for the Magic Kingdom, and I'm going to make evening reservations, with the exception of one DHS day to do the RNRR and ToT. We'll do Test Track at RD and not bother with any FP there, and I have an early Tusker House ressie in the AK to be at Everest at RD to ride that. Everything else in the AK is expendable to me, and we really just do EPCOT to eat. Your report here helps solidify that FP is wasted in EPCOT. Thanks again!

 

[rmom50]

Sounds exactly like mid Nov. - thanks for update.

 

[wdwlver]

Ugh. Sorry about your experience. It sucks to spent lots of $ and invest so much time and energy planning and anticipating only to be disappointed. For us it's simple, as dvc owners and park hoppers we are paying more and getting less and until that changes we'll take our vacation dollars elsewhere.
And you're right about Epcot. It's really like getting only one Fp + there. You don't need them for anything else besides soarin and TT and tiering makes that impossible.

 

[Mickeynutty]

I am right there with you. Just got back and I feel the same way. Here's to many exciting and NEW vacation destinations!!

 

[Dunnb5]

I hear ya! Just got back from DW. Stayed offsite so I had to do the FP+ at the kiosks in the park, no big deal. It was fine for the first 2 days I was there, got to ride everything I wanted, but on the third and last day of my Disney weekend, my boyfriend and I wanted to sleep in a little bit since we had stayed at Magic Kingdom until 1 am the previous night, we were not happy when we got to AK. It was around 11 am, the FP+ kiosks lines were incredibly long so we went to Primeval Whirl where they had another kiosk with less people. When selecting our FP we were only able to get one FP that we really wanted (Kilimanjaro safari).The earliest Everest time they had was 4:00 pm. AK isn't my favorite park so I wasn't planning on staying there all day. So if you don't get to the parks early (if you're stay offsite) you might just luck out with the FP.

 

[Footnotegirl]

This seems like different strokes for different folks. Our trip was also the first week of February (3-6) and granted, we were only at the Magic Kingdom this time (short trip with 2 year old, it made the most sense). We did not find the crowds to be particularly over estimations I had seen.
Loved the Magic Bands/FP+/MDE app. Luckily we had our smart phones on us so we had access to the app even without wifi which I knew was notoriously spotty on WDW property. Our family is not a fan of pinballing around the park to get fastpasses and scheduling our day around what the return tickets say. I far preferred getting my day in order ahead of time so that I could have the experiences I want when I wanted them. I also liked being able to change my fp time on the fly, as in the old system, I would have lost a fastpass due to our lunch running late, but I was able to reschedule it for later that day. To me, that's pretty awesome and far more useful than getting to ride the same thing several times in a day.

 

[rastuso]

Do you think people will be able to change FP+ in the middle of the day, for an E ticket, when crowds ARE heavy?

-Jason

 

[Footnotegirl]

Jason-
Probably not? Another one that I considered changing (a princess meet and greet) was not open to changing. However, you could not change them AT ALL previously, so having any sort of option where that option wasn't available previously is a bonus, no?
It's quite possible that with the tracking allowed by the magic bands/fp+ system, in the future they will be able to keep better track of when fastpass lines are light and open up more fp+'s based on real time information. It's also quite possible that they will be doing (or possibly are doing) what most theaters do with tickets... make some fp+'s available in advance and some only at the door.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[onelugnut]

agreed Footnotegirl,
but if i may say, you are in the Disney "sweet spot" right now. (i am jealous)
little kids are easily entertained, and though i am sure you wont believe it, it will get harder to entertain your kids as they get older.

How i miss the days where i could watch parades or fireworks and be happy with a single ride on each of the rides, and then a stroll around while the kids make messes with their mickey pops. Seemed hard then, but not as hard as ropedrop every day and waiting on 60+ minute lines for all the rides till closing now. It has become an endurance test, and one that has just been made more difficult with FP+. Some say that it is better, and that may be.

i can see where the FP+ could work well for a younger family, or a family not so focused on the "good" rides, but not mine.

 

[Footnotegirl]

I think when/if my daughter becomes more enamored of cool, exciting rides than the whole Disney experience (and probably before then because I like exciting rides too) I'll be more likely to take her to the much cheaper Cedar Point, where there's a new state of the art ride every other year.
Of course there, as at Universal, you have to pay for the option of fastpassing any rides at all.
But I think we'd still alternate with Disney because nothing else has quite the same immersive environment and customer service. We don't go to Disney 'for the rides' (because the rides are, seriously, not anything earthshattering, nothing like say,the maXair, the Top Thrill Dragster, the Wicked Twister or the Gatekeeper at CP) we go for the whole package, of which the rides are, yes, an important part, but not the end all, be all.

 

[onelugnut]

right

 

[pktbMouse]

Thank you so much for your honest review OP...we usually go to Wdw every year end of May and are planning to go June this year but after reading many reviews including yours we are thinking we will go ahead and just purchase Universal Studio Tickets now along with the Express Pass and try Legoland or Busch Gardens with a express pass. I have one kid who cannot stand in the heat/sun due to medical reasons and a 5yr old that will not stand for longer than 30 mins max ( me neither for that matter!! lol )
We always relied on the old FP system before to get us through the day and are sure this new system is just NOT for us at all. We also now do not see the reason to stay onsite either...a first for us in 10 plus years! but why should we if we are not doing Disney. Its a sad day for us but its just too much money to waste on not being able to ride more than 3 rides in the whole day for us
Im sorry you guys had to find out the hard way...that just sucks.

 

[smitch425]

It's a shame your trip is over. Tiering seems to be off at the moment. Not sure if it will remain that way or not, but you may not want to give up on Disney just yet. The system isn't even fully rolled out to everyone yet, and FP- hasn't even been gone for a month. There will be many changes before the final product is determined.

 

[Mickeynutty]

It's a shame your trip is over. Tiering seems to be off at the moment. Not sure if it will remain that way or not, but you may not want to give up on Disney just yet. The system isn't even fully rolled out to everyone yet, and FP- hasn't even been gone for a month. There will be many changes before the final product is determined.

Yes, we'll see. It STINKS that so many of us have had to Be their test market participants with no perk or benefit!!

 

[Bothepro24]

Please be patient with my typing, grammar and spelling. (too long of a rant to proof read, so pass over if you want) I am now done with DW but want to get a report on here to possibly help people on these boards who have given me so much help in my many trips. First the good. Port Orleans Riverside was awesome, the room was perfect, all new, clean, people were great, and Bob Jackson will always be one of my favorite things at DW, and i dont think you can call yourself a disney expert if you have not experienced his show. Magic Bands, I am fine with, actually like em. even with the few snags here and there, its a nice touch, opening doors, charging etc. all good. Meals, were all great, not a bad one that i can think of my favorite is still Ohana's. The counter-serve at BOG was great too. nice improvement to MK food, which they really needed. and now.... I have been critical of the new FP+ system over the last few months. If i knew about this change when i planned my trip a year ago i probably would have went somewhere else. but everyone says, it will be fine. it wont be so bad. So i went with an open mind. After all, my best vacations have been DW and i was looking forward to another one. besides we were going first week in February, who needs any FP that week anyway right? First of all, the first week in February crowds were way under estimated. I dont mind the tours from Argentina, they were fine, but the parks were just plain crowded. now on to the great change, the FP+. As I thought it would be, this is the deal changer for us. I dont know who thought taking away fastpasses would go by without a problem. I have never had so much trouble riding rides. i scheduled all my FP+ months in advance with my best planning knowledge i could. (and i am one of those planning nuts) Well, thats a waste of time. We changed every one of them. (which by the way, is the only good thing i can say about the new system, is that you can change them) that is, as long as you have wifi, which they neglect to tell you is only in parks and resorts. Didnt they think bus stops and monorails would be a useful place to have wifi? so if you change your choice of park at last minute, due to weather, or dining ressie, or whatever, you have to change your fast passes as your walking into the park. Well then be prepared to take scraps of what FP+ is left over (if any) Yes, FP+ do run out too and often. well, only for the popular rides. but this is the whole point right? Disney pushing us to riding rides we dont like so they dont have to build more of the ones we do. also, the program still has many bugs, or should i say "Blips". Get ready to see the phrase "Blip in the system" about a million times during your vacation. thats their way of saying "its not working" all that, is bad enough, but my all time most hated part of the FP+ is the teiring. and even worse, teiring with the one park rule. This has made Fastpasses at epcot a waste of time. if you do, you get Soarin or Test track but not both, so that means you have FP what? maelstrom? Seriously? Mission to mars? come on. So as a result, you would have to be crazy to waste your meager 3 FP+ opportunities at epcot where you would really only be getting 1 true fast pass. So result is no FPs at Epcot and so, waiting in 60 minute lines at soarin and testtrack. So i am forced to use it on my morning park, say Dis Studios. also teired, great. again one or the other but not both. Great so now i get to FP movie ride? seriously? MY KIDS DONT WANT TO RIDE THESE THINGS! BTW, now with everyone only having 3 FPs, the standby line is impossible. I noticed on Friday as we waited for our last ride ever (space mountain) yes it was our second time that day (we already burned our FP earlier in the day, and wanted to go again, we are very bad people) it was marked with 40 minute standby, longer than i like to, but i thought this is the new disneyworld and i would have to get used to it. well, on a Friday (which was the recommended park) i waited more like 70 minutes to board that 40 year old coaster. and to make it worse, they only had the one side open for standby riders, with the other side devoted to the FP+ only!!!! So follow this, they cut your FP to only 3 forcing you to do standby, and then cut the amount of ride opportunities in half by taking away half of space mountain coasters. I made my concerns known to the many FP+ CM drones standing around at the FP+ kiosks and with their almost prerecorded responses to my concerns. they put me back in my place. When i really pressed about how i got screwed for buying hopper passes and only getting FP's for one park, i finally got one to admit they were looking at changing that. WELL THATS GREAT, not for me of course who saves for 2 years for this trip. I am just out of luck as we are told that we should be patient as they work the kinks out of this new plan. Well i think the plan needs a lot of ironing out, and it was done at the expense of my family bi-annual vacation. I love DW, i have had some the greatest memories of my life there. I really feel they have discarded my family, and so, I will find us a new vacation. I will also, (since i am the "Disney Nut" in my circle) will not be referring DW as the best vacation you could hope for anymore. Instead, i will warn that if you want plan every minute of your day 6 months in advance, only to change it the day of and end up in fustration. with "blips" or missed FP reservations. And to ride only 3 "good rides" per day. Then Disney is your place. well as you can see, i could go on forever, but i think i got some honest points across. if anyone wants some honest answers, feel free to hit me with a private message. if you want to contest my evaluations, i don't really care to debate them. as i said, i am done. i know disney has the "right" and they have to "make money" and blah blah blah. I wonder how long it will take them to bilk the billion dollar expense of this system out of the remaining customers who dont mind this overplanning, long lines and aging rides. seriously, between FP+, Cruise Ship mishaps, and "Black Fish" i think i am going to go buy some stock in the univeral parks.[/QUOT
I couldn't agree more, I'm an annual passholder who visits DW several times per year, I am a die hard park hopper who likes to wing it, but they are taking this away, I will take my dollars elsewhere.