A newbie's experience with FP+ booking

[Baklava]

Sometimes the information on the DIS can be a little overwhelming and confusing for newbies. This is my experience (as of last night) using the FP+ booking system.


First, if you haven't. go here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

The first couple posts are invaluable! However, the thread is almost 200 pages. Some of what I say here might be in there but it's not reasonably accessible. I didn't have time to scour 197 pages for some of these things and search didn't work well.

I got online at 9PM (Midnight Eastern). It was nice to have the timing work in my favor on this one because for ADRs it meant being up at 3 am! So if you're worried about an advantage to one coast or the other... they balance out.

I found the first phase of FP+ pretty intuitive. Pick a day and park, pick the party members you're booking for and then go to your list of options. Here's where it got a little confusing. I thought I was choosing one, then another, then another for the same day. Turns out you choose all three for that day and *then* hit "done" or "next." So I picked Anna and Elsa and it gave the that and two random choices. I had to go back and change them for the other things I wanted. Not a huge deal for me booking in the slow season, but it I was booking for July or Christmas it would have cost me valuable time.

Something that's NOT obvious is that when you enter your three choices it assigns you times but those times are often oddly selected. I thought the 5:00 PM Anna and Elsa must be the earliest available slot, because why would they pick that otherwise, right? Well, I don't really know why, but I looked at the options and was glad I did.We are now meeting Anna and Elsa at 1:30 and could have gone earlier. Check the options! Don't assume the computer knows something you don't.

Where it got a little dicey is that I have a daredevil 5 year old and a self-avowed chicken 17 year old. He needed different FP+ for several of our choices. He's not going to the Frozen Sing-Along and his response to Tower of Terror is. "Nope. With a Nope Sandwich and a big bucket of Nope sauce on the side." So changing his was our next step.

You have to tell it you want new FastPasses, not update. That wasn't super intuitive for me, just how my brain works. I went in, chose his name instead of "select all" and plunged ahead. In order to change his FP+ it seems like I had to change ALL his FP+ for that day. Again, slow season paid off. On the day that we were doing Great Movie Ride, Tower of Terror and Star Tours I was able to swap out his GMR and ToT but it also wiped his ST. We were able to get him an overlapping time with the rest of us, but it might not be quite so easy in high season. If there's a better way to change just one or two of one person's FP+ I have not been able to find the information easily.

We did very well. None of our choices were "sold out" and if we didn't get the exact times we wanted we still got times that worked well. No 10 PM meet and greets, no mad rope drop dash for 7DMT. Also, I found that the system was good about telling me what was closed. (Note for January visitors- Kali appears to be closed for a long stretch. While posters here warned me to expect that, none of the blog sites including the DIS had any indicator of that one. We're disappointed because we wanted to compare it to Grizzly River Run, but it isn't crushing. We got lucky. Nothing that's closed is a huge deal for us.)

FWIW I just went in to make FP (which I will not keep) for a non-park day we have scheduled for Jan 10. I was able to get Anna and Elsa, 7DMT, Wishes, FoF parade, Buzz... there are still good FPs. MSEP is showing that "they've all been selected" but I'm not sure if that actually means they all got taken or if they're actually just not available. Maybe it's down that week.

 

[BrianL]

Sounds like you did well. One thing about MSEP is sometimes the parades aren't listed a the 60 day mark, so if you want one keep checking.

 

[larryz]

Sometimes the information on the DIS can be a little overwhelming and confusing for newbies. This is my experience (as of last night) using the FP+ booking system.


First, if you haven't. go here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/

The first couple posts are invaluable! However, the thread is almost 200 pages.

Which is why I've taken on the self-assigned mission to keep that thread on the first page as much as possible. Someday, I believe, it will become a sticky.

Thanks for posting your experiences. I'm about to launch into my own first-time FP+ adventure and find insights like yours and mesaboy2's invaluable planning material.

 

[hiroMYhero]

You have to tell it you want new FastPasses, not update. That wasn't super intuitive for me, just how my brain works. I went in, chose his name instead of "select all" and plunged ahead. In order to change his FP+ it seems like I had to change ALL his FP+ for that day. Again, slow season paid off. On the day that we were doing Great Movie Ride, Tower of Terror and Star Tours I was able to swap out his GMR and ToT but it also wiped his ST. We were able to get him an overlapping time with the rest of us, but it might not be quite so easy in high season. If there's a better way to change just one or two of one person's FP+ I have not been able to find the information easily.

Using the App and "Modifying" would have allowed you to change only ToT and only for your son.

You always want to Modify chosen FPs so that you don't lose any of the initial 3 that you have booked.

Mesa includes this link in the OPs: http://www.easywdw.com/forums/showthread.php?21568-New-Examples-of-Booking-and-Modifying-FP

 

[kj2mom]

We went in July and were off site making our FP+ at 30 days but traveling with on site guest who made theirs at 60 days.....I was a nervous nelly but everything worked out perfectly. What I did with the times was if the rides I wanted were all listed as an option (gotta watch that because sometimes they change them up on you) then I took them no matter what the time. I didn't even look at the times, just the attractions. Once I knew I had the attractions fully secured that I wanted the pressure was off and I went back in again to play with the times. We got everything we wanted, when we wanted it with no problem. Glad it worked out well for you!

 

[Baklava]

We went in July and were off site making our FP+ at 30 days but traveling with on site guest who made theirs at 60 days.....I was a nervous nelly but everything worked out perfectly. What I did with the times was if the rides I wanted were all listed as an option (gotta watch that because sometimes they change them up on you) then I took them no matter what the time. I didn't even look at the times, just the attractions. Once I knew I had the attractions fully secured that I wanted the pressure was off and I went back in again to play with the times. We got everything we wanted, when we wanted it with no problem. Glad it worked out well for you!

Yeah, that's pretty much what I did. If that evening Anna and Elsa was all I could get I was keeping it!

 

[hiroMYhero]

We went in July and were off site making our FP+ at 30 days but traveling with on site guest who made theirs at 60 days.....I was a nervous nelly but everything worked out perfectly. What I did with the times was if the rides I wanted were all listed as an option (gotta watch that because sometimes they change them up on you) then I took them no matter what the time. I didn't even look at the times, just the attractions. Once I knew I had the attractions fully secured that I wanted the pressure was off and I went back in again to play with the times. We got everything we wanted, when we wanted it with no problem. Glad it worked out well for you!

In the future if you travel with onsite friends, make sure they link you to their MDE and they can book your FPs for you at their 60-day window.

@mesaboy2 has this in his OPs:

The only exception to this is if an offsite guest is linked to or listed on an onsite guest's MDX reservation--then that guest is also eligible for the 60-day window (booked by the onsite guest).

 

[Sunnywho]

You can change one person of a group's fastpass using update with 2 steps: first, click "change time" and choose a different time and unclick all the boxes for other members of the party so that only one person is selected; second, now that the one person is isolated with the same ride at a different time, you can click "change experience" and get a different ride for that person

 

[kj2mom]

In the future if you travel with onsite friends, make sure they link you to their MDE and they can book your FPs for you at their 60-day window.

@mesaboy2 has this in his OPs:

Yes, you tried to help me with this when we were booking (greatly appreciated, thank you) but even though we were linked my friend kept saying she couldn't do it so I just waited and made mine each night when the time came (there was a little bit of tension at that time because we had paid for a time share to stay together then she decided to stay on site so I had to send her money back and stay alone so I just let the whole FP thing go as to not cause a feud).

 

[mesaboy2]

Which is why I've taken on the self-assigned mission to keep that thread on the first page as much as possible. Someday, I believe, it will become a sticky.

Thanks for posting your experiences. I'm about to launch into my own first-time FP+ adventure and find insights like yours and mesaboy2's invaluable planning material.

I may request that Part III become a sticky if we ever make it to 250 pages on Part II, it's been limping along lately. Part III, which I've already written, is better organized and covers even more ground.

ETA: I need to start a competition with @yulilin3 to juice Part II. At this rate her 3-month old thread on SWW is gonna pass it by December 18, otherwise known this year as Geek Christmas.

 

[Jennytoon]

1) It should be possible in the desktop (not the app) to modify only your son's FP and only the one choice. However, I know that when using both the app and the full browser there have been points where I had to have faith that the right thing was going to happen if I continued, because it looked like it wasn't doing what I wanted to.

2) If you make your FP at the 60 day window and aren't the most-possibly-satisfied-ever after all your tinkering, check back the next day. I found many more times available the following morning to adjust my FP to than I did during the original booking. I suspect this is because there are enough people online booking at midnight to block out whole time periods as they are being held between the time that Options A,B,C,D flash up for the user and the time the booking is completed, and therefore are not available for you to book.

 

[Perdita&Pongo]

I may request that Part III become a sticky if we ever make it to 250 pages on Part II, it's been limping along lately. Part III, which I've already written, is better organized and covers even more ground.

Just curious: what was in Part I?

 

[mesaboy2]

Just curious: what was in Part I?

Older info, current at the time. The forum software also required that threads that reached 250 pages be closed. Part II is just an updated version that is at 200 more pages now.

 

[Baklava]

Thanks to everyone who has added information here. It is being helpful to other newbies and we all appreciate it.