3 FPs not enough for MK

[ArwenMarie]

Just finishing my final ADRs/FPs for our upcoming November trip. Everything seems fine so far. Ok, totally glitchy, but I'll ignore that for now

But it became so obvious to me that 3 FPs a day is no where near enough for MK. 5 minimum would be great, but even 4 would be better. Especially once you start adding in parades and fireworks. I think that putting tiers in would be fine too, if it means that you could get more in general (in other words, some way that people wouldn't book the Mountains 5x, etc).

The other parks seemed fine with 3 pre-reserved.

 

[PrettyFlower2]

Just finishing my final ADRs/FPs for our upcoming November trip. Everything seems fine so far. Ok, totally glitchy, but I'll ignore that for now

But it became so obvious to me that 3 FPs a day is no where near enough for MK. 5 minimum would be great, but even 4 would be better. Especially once you start adding in parades and fireworks. I think that putting tiers in would be fine too, if it means that you could get more in general (in other words, some way that people wouldn't book the Mountains 5x, etc).

The other parks seemed fine with 3 pre-reserved.

I agree and think hopefully when this fp mess is fixed mk will have at least 4. Here's hoping...

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I agree. When booking our FP+, we went for the mountains as the most logical thing to do. But there is so much more in the way of attractions at the MK that we're bound to be standing in some long lines. It was a hard choosing.

 

[bdklein]

I think 3FP+ wouild be ok if FP- was still around. But if FP- goes away, I'm not sure if it would be enough. Unless for some reason the standby lines get shorter.

 

[Orsino]

To some degree, choosing FP options should be difficult. In other words, Disney should be offering many FP options that are worthwhile so that choosing a subset is not a trivial task. That way That the MK has these options is a good thing. The bigger problem, I think, is the lack of decent choices in other parks to the point where FP priority are pretty much going to be the same for all families.

That said, I do agree that the MK could probably support more than 3 FP+ and still function properly. Well, at least now during a relatively slow time. At Christmas... who knows?

 

[JanaDee]

I agree (here now). If FP-goes away, 3 is not enough for MK.

 

[Masiri]

This is what I just posted in my trip report:

All in all, I really loved FP+ and the magic bands. We were able to make and change things around without a lot of trouble. I DID wish I could have maybe one or two more in the magic kingdom, and definitely could see how limited HS and Epcot especially were in "fastpass-able" rides. Strangely, while I didn't see many FP-able rides in AK, it didn't seem to have the same problems with everyone bunched up on the one or two rides that were worthy of a FP that HS and Epcot did.

I think 3 is not enough for MK, but it actually may be too much in the other parks to allow for switching around once the system is REALLY rolled out to everyone.

I think a better system might be pre-booking 1 in the other parks, and allowing day-of for the rest (as many as you can get, per the current FP- rules, just on the bands now), and pre-booking 3 in MK, with the same day-of possibilities (current FP- rules, just a band, no papers) would be a great compromise.

 

[mcd2745]

You people do realize that you can experience an attraction without a FP (+ or -), right?

 

[YCFAN]

I also believe this may be a way for Disney to encourage longer stays. We are planning 2 and a half days at MK. 3 FP+ per day and that gives us 9 pre-planned opportunities to ride the major attractions with little or no wait. The rest of the time we can do early morning touring or fill in with less popular attractions, shopping, and dining. Our total trip is 11 days. It actually makes the longer stay less stressful without HAVING to be up at the crack of dawn if we choose not to.

Remember, Disney is a business and they have already stated that the purpose of MB and FP+ was to keep people on property to get their vacation dollars instead of sharing it with others.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

You people do realize that you can experience an attraction without a FP (+ or -), right?

Get out! You mean that I can actually arrive at park opening, get a head start and knock out multiple headliner attractions before needing a FP? Or God forbid, stand in a standby line?

Sent from my IPad using DisBoards.

 

[maxiesmom]

I guess my family must be in the minority, because I can't think of a time we have used more than 3 FPs in one day, ever. We pull FPs for super important rides, and then just ride whatever else we can.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I guess my family must be in the minority, because I can't think of a time we have used more than 3 FPs in one day, ever. We pull FPs for super important rides, and then just ride whatever else we can.

Different strokes, different folks We easily pulled 5-7 FPs in MK during Spring Break. We arrived at rope drop, rode things with short waits, and used FP throughout the day as it was convenient. It didn't take any effort to get that many throughout the day.

 

[daytondisney]

I think if Disney offered more than 3 there would be a huge amount of unused FPs. People now are saying they had to book 3 when the really only wanted 1, so the just let the 2 expire.

Maybe a reload opportunity at the park after 2 of them are used...

 

[Angel Ariel]

I think if Disney offered more than 3 there would be a huge amount of unused FPs. People now are saying they had to book 3 when the really only wanted 1, so the just let the 2 expire.

Maybe a reload opportunity at the park after 2 of them are used...

Or perhaps Disney could alter the system so that people do not *have* to schedule all of the FPs they are allowed.

 

[daytondisney]

Or perhaps Disney could alter the system so that people do not *have* to schedule all of the FPs they are allowed.

or let them sell FPs on craigslist

 

[redsbe]

Different strokes, different folks We easily pulled 5-7 FPs in MK during Spring Break. We arrived at rope drop, rode things with short waits, and used FP throughout the day as it was convenient. It didn't take any effort to get that many throughout the day.

During Spring Break MK was open long enough to pull 5-7 FP even though you can not pull another FP until window closes on previous one? And with those crowds FPs were still available through the day and did not run out? 7 seems like a lot of FP to be able to pull on a busy park even with using RD. Plus all the time fighting through the crowds back and forth to get FP then return to use.

I think the issues with the supply of FP are more an issue with DS and TSMM and in Epot with TT and Soarin as even before FP+ issues, and not visiting during peak crowds, I have seen those FPs gone within a few hours of park openings, very hard to pick more than 2-3 FPs in those parks in on day, harder in the future during crowded parks with FP+.

Again if relying on multiple FPs (more than 3) and riding the same attractions 2-3 times during your day in a park is part of your strategy during crowded dates, you better have a back up plan or alter you expectations.

 

[Angel Ariel]

During Spring Break MK was open long enough to pull 5-7 FP even though you can not pull another FP until window closes on previous one? And with those crowds FPs were still available through the day and did not run out? 7 seems like a lot of FP to be able to pull on a busy park even with using RD. Plus all the time fighting through the crowds back and forth to get FP then return to use.

I don't remember how long MK was open, but I know we left not long after Wishes. I think Wishes was at 10? We went to the dessert party that night, so we were only grabbing FPs from about 9am-9pm.

I had 3 FPs at one time w/i 10 mins of entering the park. 1 for Mickey (disconnected), 1 for Dumbo (a bonus FP given when I got the Mickey FP), 1 for the Princess M&G in TST that was only an hour out. I know we got at least 1 set of FPs for Space, and at least 2 sets of FPs for Buzz Lightyear, possibly 3 (my younger nephew's favorite ride). We had some SB waits in there for Buzz too. I want to say we had at least one other FP in there somewhere too, but I can't remember what..maybe LM.

Buzz rarely runs out of FP early. The SB wait was low, FP return times weren't overly far out, and we spent a good amount of time in tomorrowland..no need to waste time criss crossing the park.

I think the issues with the supply of FP are more an issue with DS and TSMM and in Epot with TT and Soarin as even before FP+ issues, and not visiting during peak crowds, I have seen those FPs gone within a few hours of park openings, very hard to pick more than 2-3 FPs in those parks in on day, harder in the future during crowded parks with FP+.

Right now, people are lucky if FPs for those rides are lasting for 30 mins after park opening.

 

[sonofanarchy]

I think 3FP+ wouild be ok if FP- was still around. But if FP- goes away, I'm not sure if it would be enough. Unless for some reason the standby lines get shorter.

This has been my whole point all along. We've gone days where we've gotten 7 or 8 FP at Magic Kingdom, and STILL stood in line. 3 is not going to cut it there. The other parks - No problem.

 

[nansmama]

I guess my family must be in the minority, because I can't think of a time we have used more than 3 FPs in one day, ever. We pull FPs for super important rides, and then just ride whatever else we can.

I don't think you're in the minority. Many Disboard people pull WAY more FPs in a day than average visitors because they're obsessively planning and working the system to get in as many rides as they can with the shortest possible wait time. We only use 1-3 of the old style FPs per trip, because we only pull them if a line is crazy long and we really want to ride something and know we won't get back to it at a good time. We don't care if we have to wait for 20 minutes, even enjoy some of the queues.

I'm sure Disney didn't just pull a number out of their you-know-where. They probably looked at the habits of the AVERAGE guest and that's where the 3 per day number came from.

 

[MulingAround]

I don't think you're in the minority. Many Disboard people pull WAY more FPs in a day than average visitors because they're obsessively planning and working the system to get in as many rides as they can with the shortest possible wait time. We only use 1-3 of the old style FPs per trip, because we only pull them if a line is crazy long and we really want to ride something and know we won't get back to it at a good time. We don't care if we have to wait for 20 minutes, even enjoy some of the queues.

I like waiting. More quality time talking.
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