Actual Experiences Needed of using MDE app, FP+ and Magic bands

[ccorcora]

Hello,

We are heading to Disney World next week and wanted to get advice/feedback from recent visitors regarding managing their Fast Pass + reservations via the My Disney Experience mobile app. Our hope is that we can make changes to our FP+ selections while in the park if we are able to ride some rides early in the day. We realize that this depends on the FP+ availability that day, but most of our questions deal with how well the technology worked. Note: All our family is listed under one Disney profile so we are able to manage them all at once.

1) Did the MDE app work well while accessing it while in a Disney Park? Was the app fast and could edits to the FP+ be made quickly?

2) If changes where made - any issues with those changes linking with your Magic Band? Any delays from when making a change on your MDE to your Magic Band synching with the information? Anyone have issues when attempting to use the FP+ at the actual ride if a change had been made recently?

3) Any difficulty using the feature to transfer a FP+ selection to another family member? If the other family member already has 3 reservations (but at least one is unused), will it let you transfer the FP+... and let you select which one to replace it with?.... Or does the family member receiving the FP+ need to first cancel a FP+ so they have a open FP+ spot?

4) Any feedback regarding what FP+ times were available for the popular rides on the "day off"? Were they 2 hours / 4 hours / 6 hours later?

5) Anyone try making changes via the Kiosk? Were their long lines? Was the kiosk easy to use to revise/edit FP+ changes?

6) Any other advice / suggestions?

Thank you in advance for your guidance. Disboards has been very helpful as we prepare our trip.

 

[redsbe]

I was in MK last week, was able to link my day ticket to ME app, could select my FP+s when waiting for RD, but could not get app open later to change FP+s. Fortunately that was mid morning and FP kiosks were not busy and well staffed so CM made FP+ change for me via his tablet. CM mentioned that there continue to be problems with ME app.

 

[redsbe]

And as to availability and lines at FP+kiosks, look at park planning calenders, if parks are going to be busy those days then "day of " availability will be limited (especially for TSM in HS, TT/Soarin in Epot and the mountains in MK) and kiosks will also be very busy, RD is your friend, highly advise to make use of for getting SB quickly for many rides before noon and also booking and changes of FPs+.

 

[redsbe]

Oh and next week is going to be one of the busiest weeks of the year at WDW with many schools on Easter Break. So I would plan and book FP+s now (if you have not ready), make use of RD and not expect the ability or availability to make FP+ changes on same day. May be possible early in day, but availability could be an issue for many attractions.

Once there and in the park, chances may be that changes and availability will be possible, but I would go in with the anticipation that they will not and consider it bonus of they are.

 

[flipcar]

we used MDE app in january and it went very well. we could change experience or time on my iPod or wife's iPhone easily. only restriction is that can only do one tier one a day and must be in same park for all fp+. If you already used tier one and want to change to add another tier one it won't allow that. also depending on what fp+ experience and times are left. No option to transfer existing from one member of party to another. you can cancel or change experience as you inquire about new time or event but don't have to change for entire party just one who wants to change. you also have chance to review any new options before you cancel. sometimes we found ones we had were better than changing as day went later.

 

[Ocean]

We were there during our spring break - March 8-15. I'll answer your questions based on our experiences at that time. As a point of information, we scheduled FP+ options several weeks before our trip.

Generally the app worked well for us in most theme park and hotel (Boardwalk Villas) areas. We only made changes to our FastPass changes a couple of times. The first time we tried to make changes (in Epcot), the app returned errors a few times. We didn't want to take a chance on causing problems with our Soarin' FP, so we waited until after the ride and then went to a FP+ cast member who made some changes for us. Later in the trip we made changes in the app ourselves with no problems. We were a party of three, and a couple of times one person changed her FP to a different attraction at a different time. When she did that, there were no problems with the other two FPs.

However, I would say that in my opinion the app is still rather slow. I was especially surprised at how slow it was with things like park hours. It seems like the app is refreshing content every time you use it rather than caching data for future use. For example, I would prefer that the app check and store park hours the first time I use it for the day, and then just use that stored data for the rest of the day every time I look at the park hours. It MAY be doing that, but it seemed like it was looking it up live every time I checked the hours.

We had absolutely no problems with FPs being linked to Magic Bands. However, if I made changes using the MDE app, my wife sometimes couldn't see the updates on her phone. She had to force the app to close, and when she re-opened it she could see the changes.

We didn't try transferring FPs to another party member. With only a couple of exceptions, we did most things together.

When we wanted to make changes to existing plans, we generally were able to schedule something between 1 to 3 hours later. I should note that we did not try to change any of our top tier attractions like Soarin' or Toy Story Midway Mania. The things we changed were attractions like Living with the Land or the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

We did not use self-serve kiosks, but we did get help from one of the cast members. On one of the podcasts I think it was suggested that guests avoid the first kiosk they see upon entering the park - especially if it looks busy. Some of the other kiosks might be less busy. When we were there though, all of the kiosks looked pretty busy.

I've heard that changes are on the way, so by the time you make your trip there may be some more flexibility in the program. My suggestion has to do with attractions like Soarin' and Midway Mania. I would suggest booking those very early in the day. Be in line before the park opens, go straight to the attraction, and ride it without the FP while the line is short. Then ride again with your FP. We often spend our afternoons at the pool or water parks, so early morning FPs work well for us.

As one other general observation, I would say that if you are a somewhat regular Disney visitor, you'll probably observe some of the same late afternoon-early-evening-nighttime patterns. For example, during the peak of the day, the wait time for Spaceship Earth or It's a Small World may be 25 minutes or more. Later in the day they drop to walk-on status (or at least they did throughout our trip). So just go into it knowing that if you have FPs for some attractions late in the day, you may not actually even need a FP by the time you get there.

Have a blast!

 

[cvjw]

We were at the parks the 1st week of April, and used the MDE app a couple of times with no issue.

I will tell you that on one of our days, we tried to change our FP+ reservations right before lunch, and there wasn't one time available the REST of the day for any of the mountains or Peter Pan at the MK.

If I were you, I would have my FP+ reservations planned before I left since you will be there during a crazy busy time, and I am sure that availability will be very limited day of.

Also, keep in mind that if you are trying to copy FP+ reservations from one member of your party to another, it will only allow you to IF all of the attractions still have FP+ time slots available. I also tried to copy reservations a couple of times during that week, and could not because all of the FP+ reservation slots were already taken.

 

[BelleKer]

've been reluctant to post on Magic Band/FP+ topics. As I think I am one of few that have had almost no problems. The app in the park is very slow, definitely don't jump on Disney wifi if you want it to load quickly. I'm disappointed with their WIFI, as I am an AT&T iphone user, and I just don't get how they don't realize they don't have the capability yet to allow everyone to be on it, and use it in the parks.

I have made changes in the park to my Fast Pass (changed Splash to Space Mountain), and had no problems. It appeared in the app right away. I just couldn't use Disney wifi. Sometimes the app does mess up. One visit it showed a fast pass for Space mountain 8:30 - 10:30, big thunder 10:30 - 10:30, and splash 10:30 -11:30. I knew it was supposed to be big thunder 9:30 - 10:30, we should up between that time, and it was fine.

I have never had issues with the FP+ Wait Times. However I always visit MK at night, or early morning.

I was apart of the original testing phases for MONTHS. I have had Magic Bands since September, and have been a total of 8 times since. I have had no problems with them. My sister visited with us from NY in March, and she loved how easily we could plan our trip together using MDE and making fast passes. She was so excited that we were able to pick rides ahead of time, and since we went to MK at night (open to 2am the night we went), we were able to get on almost every ride. I think we missed POTC, Dumbo, and Aladdin.

Overall I love FP+, but I also have the benefit of living so close, so as a previous poster stated I don't rush my trips either.

 

[disfanforlife]

Hello,

We are heading to Disney World next week and wanted to get advice/feedback from recent visitors regarding managing their Fast Pass + reservations via the My Disney Experience mobile app. Our hope is that we can make changes to our FP+ selections while in the park if we are able to ride some rides early in the day. We realize that this depends on the FP+ availability that day, but most of our questions deal with how well the technology worked. Note: All our family is listed under one Disney profile so we are able to manage them all at once.

1) Did the MDE app work well while accessing it while in a Disney Park? Was the app fast and could edits to the FP+ be made quickly?

2) If changes where made - any issues with those changes linking with your Magic Band? Any delays from when making a change on your MDE to your Magic Band synching with the information? Anyone have issues when attempting to use the FP+ at the actual ride if a change had been made recently?

3) Any difficulty using the feature to transfer a FP+ selection to another family member? If the other family member already has 3 reservations (but at least one is unused), will it let you transfer the FP+... and let you select which one to replace it with?.... Or does the family member receiving the FP+ need to first cancel a FP+ so they have a open FP+ spot?

4) Any feedback regarding what FP+ times were available for the popular rides on the "day off"? Were they 2 hours / 4 hours / 6 hours later?

5) Anyone try making changes via the Kiosk? Were their long lines? Was the kiosk easy to use to revise/edit FP+ changes?

6) Any other advice / suggestions?

Thank you in advance for your guidance. Disboards has been very helpful as we prepare our trip.

We were there and used FP in November 9-16 and also March 15-21. It worked perfectly for us in November, but we also had the luxury of the old FP too. In March, we only had one small issue. Our first day on our first ride Space Mountain only my DH and my MB worked for FP - CM said our two daughters were blank. He still let us on the ride. We went to a kiosk and I showed the CM my printout (which I brought with me just in case) she couldn't figure out why our DD's werent there, but gave them both the same FP as us for the rest of the trip. The Kiosk line was not long when we were there but it looked much longer on the other days that we saw and we were happy that we didn't need to go. No other problems. We did not try to change and after that. Sorry I can't answer any other of the questions.

 

[TimothyG]

My last trip to WDW was about 3 weeks ago. I have an iPhone 5S that I used in the park.

1) Did the MDE app work well while accessing it while in a Disney Park? Was the app fast and could edits to the FP+ be made quickly?
The vast majority of the time it was very fast. Sometimes it got stuck and I had to quit the app and start it up again.

2) If changes where made - any issues with those changes linking with your Magic Band? Any delays from when making a change on your MDE to your Magic Band synching with the information? Anyone have issues when attempting to use the FP+ at the actual ride if a change had been made recently?
Nope. Not at all. It was very quick.

3) Any difficulty using the feature to transfer a FP+ selection to another family member? If the other family member already has 3 reservations (but at least one is unused), will it let you transfer the FP+... and let you select which one to replace it with?.... Or does the family member receiving the FP+ need to first cancel a FP+ so they have a open FP+ spot?
Didn't try that.

4) Any feedback regarding what FP+ times were available for the popular rides on the "day off"? Were they 2 hours / 4 hours / 6 hours later?
Most of the time when changing, I had a large selection of times. I changed a FP several times and got a time slot 5 minutes away. It did get a little more challenging at night because there were a lot fewer possible time slots but, then again, by that has always been an issue with FP.

5) Anyone try making changes via the Kiosk? Were their long lines? Was the kiosk easy to use to revise/edit FP+ changes?
Kiosks had very long lines in the beginning of the day and at the front of the parks. Venture into the parks a little bit or use in the early afternoon and you'll be fine. I had no wait the 2 times I used the kiosk.

6) Any other advice / suggestions?
Don't use a FP+ entitlement if you are happy with the standby line. Try and change it out on your phone. I did this for every attraction that had less than a 30 minute standby line. I found the posted times were on the high end and usually the actual waits weren't nearly as long. I was able to really stretch the 3 FP+ entitlements this way.