A few thoughts about FP+ and being offsite

[gonnago]

Let me start by saying I have no experience with FP+ as of yet but will be staying offsite next month so until then I have no hands on experiences with the system.

After lurking on the boards and reading all the very many posts,both negative and positive,I have come up with some thoughts on as to why Disney may not in the near future open up FP+ pre-booking to offsite guests.

When staying offsite and being allowed to pre-book selections how will Disney know if you actually make the trip.When staying onsite they have your reservation and payment before hand and know if you cancel and therefore cancel out your FP+ bookings,but if offsite they have no way to track this and if people do cancel their trips and do not cancel their FP+ selections this can cause alot of issues because there are alot of people who stay offsite.

I hope that most people would cancel all bookings but think from a business standpoint and fairness to all guests they may have to impose a fee to allow offsite guests to pre-book FP+. Maybe similar to the dining ADR's if you don't show you will be charged XX amount to try and deter this from becoming a problem.

I also think that if staying offsite once you have activated your tickets at a park and link them to MDE you should then be able to make your FP+ selections in advance for the rest of your stay cause they will have verification that your are actually there could also be another solution.

So are there any other issues that you can think of that would need to be addressed before they are able to roll this out to offsite guests and what do you think a good solution to those issues would be?

 

[morethananyonex]

I think they will end up requiring offsite guests to link their tickets to MDE and choose a "check in" date (their first day at the park). They'll be able to book for X number of days after that (14 possibly, like the length of time regular tickets can be used for before they expire).

If I'm not mistaken, offsite guests who are currently able to prebook all have ADRs that allow Disney to know when they'll be there. I'm not convinced this is how it will be in the long term. I don't think Disney wants to place too many barriers on booking FP+, as it is in their best interest for as many people as possible to book, especially offsite guests. Requiring tickets being purchased in advance is fairly straight forward and may lead to an increase in Disney days when a family sees ahead of time the low cost of adding an extra day.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I really don't think people prebooking FPs they aren't going to use is going to be a problem. It's not exactly easy or fun to prebook, it's a rather annoying process. I can't see someone buying a ticket and linking it just to do that with no intention of going. I'm sure APs don't sit there booking FPs they aren't going to use even though they have a 30 day window.

I think the important thing, from Disney's POV, will be getting the booking window right for their purposes. If they find that 99% of onsite guests prebook by 7 days ahead (or whatever number), then that is the point they will feel ok letting offsite book.

 

[gonnago]

I really don't think people prebooking FPs they aren't going to use is going to be a problem. It's not exactly easy or fun to prebook, it's a rather annoying process. I can't see someone buying a ticket and linking it just to do that with no intention of going. I'm sure APs don't sit there booking FPs they aren't going to use even though they have a 30 day window.

I think the important thing, from Disney's POV, will be getting the booking window right for their purposes. If they find that 99% of onsite guests prebook by 7 days ahead (or whatever number), then that is the point they will feel ok letting offsite book.

I am sorry I never meant to imply that I think people would pre-book with no intentions of going but rather trips get canceled all the time and that Disney has no way of knowing when an offsite reservation has been canceled.

 

[morethananyonex]

I am sorry I never meant to imply that I think people would pre-book with no intentions of going but rather trips get canceled all the time and that Disney has no way of knowing when an offsite reservation has been canceled.

Score 1 for the stand by line.

Any ride that is in danger of running out of FP spots has plenty of people in the stand by line to fill those spots. I don't know how much of an issue waste would really be if people have to buy their tickets in order to gain access.

Besides, Disney can see the number of no show FP over a period and adjust the numbers given out accordingly.

 

[Itinkso]

Score 1 for the stand by line.

Any ride that is in danger of running out of FP spots has plenty of people in the stand by line to fill those spots. I don't know how much of an issue waste would really be if people have to buy their tickets in order to gain access.

Besides, Disney can see the number of no show FP over a period and adjust the numbers given out accordingly.

And by giving access to Fp+ on MDE, there's a greater chance off-site guests will cancel using the app.

Last month, we had 3 "day of" Fp+ and because two of the rides were walk-on, we went back to a kiosk to cancel all 3. The CM stated the only way we could cancel was to go to Guest Relations... sorry, but we didn't go to GR to stand in line just to release the 3 Fp+ for others to use. We figured we decreased the wait at standby lines for those rides by a few seconds.

 

[jcbubba]

I wondered about this too...
Options
1) Resort guests can already FP+ for days they end up staying at the hotel or going elsewhere. So this already happens.
2) They can plan for the estimated number of no shows based on historical data.
3) They could penalize folks for creating FP+ and not being on-site within a certain number of days of that FP+. (1st and 2nd time email warning, 3rd time shortened FP+ window, 4th time even shorter, 5th time no FP+ in advance).
4) The time window may be short enough that there won't be that many no-shows. ADR no-shows happen when you make reservations 6 months in advance. If the off-site window is 30 days, probably won't be that many.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I am sorry I never meant to imply that I think people would pre-book with no intentions of going but rather trips get canceled all the time and that Disney has no way of knowing when an offsite reservation has been canceled.

Oh no worries! I didn't think you thought that. I was just thinking from Disney's perspective

 

[practicallyperfect77]

And by giving access to Fp+ on MDE, there's a greater chance off-site guests will cancel using the app.

Last month, we had 3 "day of" Fp+ and because two of the rides were walk-on, we went back to a kiosk to cancel all 3. The CM stated the only way we could cancel was to go to Guest Relations... sorry, but we didn't go to GR to stand in line just to release the 3 Fp+ for others to use. We figured we decreased the wait at standby lines for those rides by a few seconds.

IMO it is absolutely ridiculous that you can't cancel without going to GR. Who in their right mind is going to waste time to do so.

 

[Hawk]

I have come up with some thoughts on as to why Disney may not in the near future open up FP+ pre-booking to offsite guests.

How is this any different than WDW letting offsite AP holders book advanced FP+? I am an AP holder staying offsite and I can book FP+ 30 days out!

Tim/Hawk

 

[gonnago]

How is this any different than WDW letting offsite AP holders book advanced FP+? I am an AP holder staying offsite and I can book FP+ 30 days out!

Tim/Hawk

I believe that the chances are in favor of an AP holder keeping their offsite reservations for the fact their ticket is already paid for and activated.Also I believe that the number of offsite guests without AP's would be far larger than those with AP's. And although AP holders can book FP+ 30 days in advance onsite guests still get 60 days and also the ability to pre-book a FP for BOG lunch. I think that if and when it opens to everyone offsite the advanced booking window will probably be 30 days or possibly shorter so that AP holders still have some advantage over regular ticketed guests.

I hope advance FP+ opens up to everyone I was just merely stating some of the issues I believe Disney has already thought of and are trying to come up with solutions to try and minimize as many of the issues as possible before rolling it out to everyone.

 

[gonnago]

And by giving access to Fp+ on MDE, there's a greater chance off-site guests will cancel using the app.

Last month, we had 3 "day of" Fp+ and because two of the rides were walk-on, we went back to a kiosk to cancel all 3. The CM stated the only way we could cancel was to go to Guest Relations... sorry, but we didn't go to GR to stand in line just to release the 3 Fp+ for others to use. We figured we decreased the wait at standby lines for those rides by a few seconds.

Yes I agree the day of FP+ should be able to be canceled without having to stand in another line and waste more valuable vacation time trying to release them.

I am however glad for the information for when we go next month and if we do need to cancel our day of FP+ we will check with a CM at the kiosks but will not go to GR to do it so I guess again that would be another score for standby lines.It just baffles me how they intend to get accurate data from a system that obviously has its flaws,and use such data to implement changes to the FP+ system.

 

[Itinkso]

Yes I agree the day of FP+ should be able to be canceled without having to stand in another line and waste more valuable vacation time trying to release them. I am however glad for the information for when we go next month and if we do need to cancel our day of FP+ we will check with a CM at the kiosks but will not go to GR to do it so I guess again that would be another score for standby lines.It just baffles me how they intend to get accurate data from a system that obviously has its flaws,and use such data to implement changes to the FP+ system.

If you decide you want to cancel all 3 and hop to another park to use Fp+ there, the CMs were unsure if we could cancel and rebook at the second park. All they knew was that to cancel all 3, we had to go to GR.

This was all because we were using CM ticket media while at the same time we were paying full-price to stay onsite at AoA and had MagicBands. Our MBs were used to open the room door and charge our purchases. Whatever is decided for off-site guests should also be provided for CMs.