A day-tripper's gripe

[Kren]

Thanks everyone for the (sometimes) sympathy and advice to get tech'ed up. It's not that I'm completely out of touch, but I do agree with the posters who pointed out that spontaneity is no longer really advisable.
We come at most once a year, for one day. Never more. Sometimes not even that. I will look into buying something in advance next time.

 

[kniquy]

If you have a ticket linked (no resort stay), you can book FP for 30 days out -- correct? So if you only had a one day ticket then you could book FP for one day. I guess in this scenario, if you had an idea that next month you might visit you could buy your ticket, link it, and pick a day to book your FP. If your plans change then I am guessing you could cancel all the FP (pretty easy to do) then re-book for a different day. If you don't actually end up going for some reason, then at least the tickets are linked to your account for future use.

This would help to eliminate the wasted time at the kiosk to try and get FP at the park.

So if this scenario works then just a small amount of planning will help get a few rides in. I agree it seems as though WDW is not set up to welcome day trippers and those who don't or just don't know you have to plan at WDW. I have seen a number of threads of people who had a terrible time because the did no planning. Disney is a breed of its own.

 

[toonaspie]

In all fairness, not every smartphone can support the Disney apps efficiently. I have a Cricket phone and even if I accessed the desktop version of MDE the text comes out all wonky (settings adjustments does NOTHING to fix the problem). I almost had to resort to bringing my tablet into the parks so I wouldn't have this problem.

 

[abooch]

If you're a Florida Resident and think you'll go at least 3 times a year... just get an annual pass. You'll wind up going more It's worth it.

 

[Robo]

I would have spent the first hour of EMH riding the rides that I wanted to instead of trying to get a fastpass to the same rides.

The OP could not attend the EMH.
They were "day guests" not staying at a WDW resort.

It was an EMH day, and we bought our one-day ticket at the park and were at the rope at 8:10 a.m. for a 9 a.m. opening.

AM EMH opened at 8AM that day, but the OP's party could not enter until Epcot's regular hours opening time.
So, they went into Epcot about 9AM at which time the park was already full of WDW resort guests who were in already in lines for the E-ticket attractions.

 

[DekrRini]

The fp+ system really penalizes last minuters. While not a popular opinion, I believe the old fp system was the most fair system. You get to ropedrop, grab a fastpass to something and ride something else, redeem your fp, grab another one. The ability to preplan has taken away the advantage that the go getters use to have.

And those of us who aren't able to run to a kiosk to get a paper fp find the FP+ system more fair. It's all a matter of perspective. I do agree it makes things much more difficult for day trippers though. At least a bit of planning has become almost imperative. Sorry you didn't enjoy yourself, OP.

 

[Sydney2977]

I think it's silly to complain about not getting a fp+ for the premiere rides when clearly you have been able to ride these before. It's not like missing out on a fp+ means you can't ride it at all, it just means you have to wait longer. I may feel a little bad for the guests coming that aren't informed about fp+ and think they have to pay extra, or didn't know they could have made fp+ picks 30-60 days ago on their computer or phone.

Our trip March 2016 was the first with the kiosks and a lot of times we saw longer lines at those than at the actual rides! The trip before that- Nov. 2013- was when they still had paper fp but we were at one of the resorts testing magic bands, so we had our fp picks on those- what a nice break that was. With a little pre-planning we could stroll into parks when we wanted- no more running from ride to ride. We also loved the wait times posted to the app.

The trip DS and I just got back from was a whole other kind- and showed me that even without planning you can have an awesome trip!

We were with his high school band- 70 kids and 15 adults. A tour group did our plans. We stayed offsite at the Rosen Inn- even that got changed four times in the last 3 days to make sure our groups of rooms were as close together as possible. We had Thu. at MK (along with marching in their own parade), Fri. at DHS (that literally got decided that Tue. and it was between that and AK), and Sat. at Universal and IOA. The band director wasn't given everyone's ticket numbers until around noon on Wed. so we were sitting in the band room waiting to board the bus creating or adding to MDE accounts. (Another crazy thing was that our kids were planning to leave around 1:00 and miss that half day of school, but severe weather was coming through so they changed all schools to half day. That pushed our departure back to 1:30 since we had to wait for all the kids at the school to get out at 1:00!)

I made my picks for BTMRR, Splash Mt., and Space Mt. The only other thing I would have added if I could was 7DMT, and I know I've seen people who couldn't get that at 30-60 days out. I was so happy! Sometime during the bus ride DS swiped my phone and had his friends get times for the same rides while adding himself too. He's on my account and made sure we all 6 could ride together. We ended up giving up BTMRR for Jungle Cruise. Talking to people afterwards some didn't do fp+ and just waited in line for what they wanted. We got in to MK around 9:45, the kids had to meet at 4:45 to get ready for their parade and weren't back in to the park till about 7:15, we definitely weren't running around like crazy, and we left at 11pm closing. The group I was with- only one had been before besides DS and I, and they all had a blast. We did BTMRR (I did it twice stand by), PotC, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mt., rode the railroad, It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Space Mt., and 7 Dwarves twice (thanks to a special CM we know- but we would have just stood in line), lunch and dinner, watched Wishes in a prime spot right in front of the Castle, and looked in every gift shop possible. Could my family and I have gotten more done?- yes. But seriously even without fp+ we could have gotten more done as well.

They did our DHS fp+ picks on the bus the day before going to MK. We scored for RnR and ToT. Seriously?!? The only hitch was that two of the group couldn't get at the same time for ToT so they went with another group at a later time. Arriving around 10am we got in The Great Movie Ride, the Frozen Sing Along, Star Tours, Launch Bay and meeting Chewbacca and Kylo Ren, The Indiana Jones show, Toy Story Midway (waited standby for 45 min), RnR, ToT, again every gift shop possible, eating twice plus and ice cream break, and Fantasmic!

Since we've been before I was less focused on how much we could do versus making sure the kids that hadn't been had a good time and got to experience what they wanted- DS did a great job making sure that happened for his friends too. As a day tripper and one who has been before try to focus on that next time. If there are things that you want to experience but not wait for- make those fp+ picks. Then check the wait times and fit other things in where you can. Example- I love Peter Pan, but I am not waiting over an hour for it so we skipped it this time. I will however wait that long for BTMRR. Knowing I didn't have a fp+ for it, I made that my first stop when I saw the wait time that morning was under 30 minutes.

 

[Roxyfire]

Do you have a computer at home? Or a reliable family member with one? If you think you might be going, even if it's the next day or later that week, go ahead and buy the ticket. I believe if you buy online it's a little less. Then once you buy it, it's linked to your account and you can pick your rides in advance. Even if you don't go, you still have that ticket to use another time. Just a thought. Not quite the same as waking up and deciding to go to Disney World today. But it still helps your issue and you don't have to get a fancy phone to do it.

 

[Robo]

Do you have a computer at home? Or a reliable family member with one? If you think you might be going, even if it's the next day or later that week, go ahead and buy the ticket.
1. I believe if you buy online it's a little less.
2. Then once you buy it, it's linked to your account and you can pick your rides in advance.

1. Nope.
2. Correct.
Ordered tickets can be linked to a MyDisneyExperience account.
If they are purchased via an MDE account they are usually automatically linked, instantly.

 

[Three]

Multi- day ticket (3 days and more) are less expensive online, but the 1 and 2 day tickets are the same price online as at the gate.

 

[aviva5675]

The only hiccup would be if they were deciding last minute when to go. Its one thing when you can plan ahead and get the ticket, link it, FP, but if they, or someone, decides hey lets get up and go to Disney! then its another story. If that's the kind of trip they (in general people, not necessarily OP) plan, then they have to be aware that they aren't getting on the big rides with out a wait or a late day SDFP. As a somewhat recent Fla resident I now plan at least a month out to be able to get FP or even ADR. But at this point I dont go intending to hit all the rides and be there all day.

 

[mousefan73]

You did get your park ticket that same day so you couldn't have made your FastPass reservations 30 days out. Your one day ticket would have cost the same if you bought it 30 days before but if you didn't know you were going, then you couldn't have linked the ticket to your MDE account and gotten the FastPass reservations.

Should Disney have a certain amount of FastPasses available for one day only guests? I would wonder how they could know how many to set aside. How many other one day guests were there with you? If you don't know, how could Disney know? If they set aside 1% of FastPasses per day for day only guests but there's only a .5% interest, where do the other FastPasses go? Are they wasted so no one rides?

My husband and I have gone numerous times ourselves and our biggest "complaint" is we park hop so we end up at Epcot every night. But, we can't get FastPasses there because it's one park per day for those. So, just adjust and adapt and do what we need to do.

Oh there are alot of same day purschases. I have always seen lines at MK specifically. Since there is no incentive to order early online most pay cash when arriving.

 

[hoosll]

Old person, old phone, bad eyes. I try to avoid apps. I know, we're dinosaurs and soon we'll be extinct. So there's that dynamic as well.

Me, too. I refuse to get a smart phone (may be on my gravestone) and I resent that the world has rushed to making them indispensable. As a result, I have not been back to WDW since they introduced the new system which isn't FastPass+, rather it is Disney now using meta-data to staff and artificially control crowds while charging crazy prices for tickets and food. Disney and airlines are at the top of my list of things to avoid in the 21st Century.

 

[mom2rtk]

Me, too. I refuse to get a smart phone (may be on my gravestone) and I resent that the world has rushed to making them indispensable. As a result, I have not been back to WDW since they introduced the new system which isn't FastPass+, rather it is Disney now using meta-data to staff and artificially control crowds while charging crazy prices for tickets and food. Disney and airlines are at the top of my list of things to avoid in the 21st Century.

We have smart phones so that's not the issue for us. But I absolutely agree the entire system was set up for them to gather that data and adjust staffing levels to widen profit margins in the parks.

 

[Roxyfire]

1. Nope.
2. Correct.
Ordered tickets can be linked to a MyDisneyExperience account.
If they are purchased via an MDE account they are usually automatically linked, instantly.

Oh I thought I saw there's an extra charge for gate purchased tickets. Must've been mistaken.

 

[Robo]

Oh I thought I saw there's an extra charge for gate purchased tickets. Must've been mistaken.

They add $20 to the on-line price of 3-day or longer Magic Your Way tickets at the gate.

But yesterday, we could not use Fast Pass. It was an EMH day, and we bought our one-day ticket at the park...

One-day tickets cost the same, on-line, or at the gate.

 

[Robo]

Disney created something that they really didn't think through... with FP+.

 

[Roxyfire]

They add $20 to the on-line price of 3-day or longer Magic Your Way tickets at the gate.

One-day tickets cost the same, on-line, or at the gate.

Good to know!

 

[disnut8]

Oh there are alot of same day purschases. I have always seen lines at MK specifically. Since there is no incentive to order early online most pay cash when arriving.

I don't disagree. My point was asking just how many FastPasses should be set aside for same day purchases and for what and all that.

 

[Marshel]

They could print out a brochure explaining in simple terms how to go about downloading the app and linking the ticket to it and give it to people who buy one day tickets.