Advice, please! FP+ fear and SB waits may be killing the magic for me!

[realhousewife]

Hi, We have not been to WDW since 2011. That trip we strategically used the FP system, park hoppers, and really rode a lot of rides by getting to parks at rope drop, napping in the afternoons, and hitting whatever park was open latest at night since we are night owls by nature. We also had a character meal every day (kids love them). At that time our kids were 11, 9, and 3.

We wanted to go again in early November (before Jersey Week crowds start and during free dining), but with all I am reading about the new FP+ system and how it is driving up SB times, it seems like we will not get to ride as much or repeat the rides we love, like Buzz Lightyear and Pirates. We have always enjoyed riding them over and over.

I was originally thinking that we would save $ this time by skipping park hoppers, and choosing one park per day. We stay at ASM in a family suite so the hotel pool isn't such a big draw for us. We come to ride rides. Also, we are pulling our high schooler out of school, so we are only going to have 4 1/2 park days ( in 3 parks, we are skipping AK this time.) We live in Ohio, so we aren't down to Florida much and this will likely be our last family trip before my kid goes to college.

Can anyone offer advice on if I should get park hopper option and the SB lines?

I am worried that this trip won't be as much fun because of how limiting the FP+ system has changed things. Universal is looking better and better

TIA for your input, Dis-boarders

 

[mesaboy2]

Hi, We have not been to WDW since 2011. That trip we strategically used the FP system, park hoppers, and really rode a lot of rides by getting to parks at rope drop, napping in the afternoons, and hitting whatever park was open latest at night since we are night owls by nature. We also had a character meal every day (kids love them). At that time our kids were 11, 9, and 3.

We wanted to go again in early November (before Jersey Week crowds start and during free dining), but with all I am reading about the new FP+ system and how it is driving up SB times, it seems like we will not get to ride as much or repeat the rides we love, like Buzz Lightyear and Pirates. We have always enjoyed riding them over and over.

I was originally thinking that we would save $ this time by skipping park hoppers, and choosing one park per day. We stay at ASM in a family suite so the hotel pool isn't such a big draw for us. We come to ride rides. Also, we are pulling our high schooler out of school, so we are only going to have 4 1/2 park days ( in 3 parks, we are skipping AK this time.) We live in Ohio, so we aren't down to Florida much and this will likely be our last family trip before my kid goes to college.

Can anyone offer advice on if I should get park hopper option and the SB lines?

I am worried that this trip won't be as much fun because of how limiting the FP+ system has changed things. Universal is looking better and better

TIA for your input, Dis-boarders

I recommend reading up on the existing FP system and making the most of it, there is still plenty of fun to be had at WDW.

 

[tweak89]

Answer from group A) FP+ is awesome and better than everything! We had no problems.

Answer from group B) FP+ ruined my vacation! I only rode Space Mountain once!!

Reality: There is no right/wrong answer or response. Everyone's experience is their truth, no matter how much the opposite camp wants to argue about it.

I can't give any advice, but I'll find out for myself when I go in March (first time since the FP+ system was implemented). The poster above has the best advice. Know before you go!

 

[soniam]

Your best bet for riding stuff multiple times, especially in a row, is to go at AM EMH. We went in July and rode Buzz twice with FP+. We used an advance one and then got another one in the park later in the day. We could have ridden more, probably all with FP+, if we had wanted.

I would not let it stress you out. Worrying about FP+ and it ruining your vacation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By worrying about it, you have already ruined it yourself. We had a good time and road a lot, and we had been previously and used old FP too. We're gearing up for our second FP+ trip during Spring Break.

As for park hoppers, we hopped to AK in the afternoon, went straight to the kiosk and got an FP+. This was after lunch, maybe close to 2pm, so the pickings were not excellent. There was safari, but it was at 5:30pm or 6pm, and we weren't sure if we would be in the park that long. However, there was still Dinosaur, Primevil Whirl (debatable usefulness), and Expedition Everest. I still think park hoppers are worth it, especially for AK and DHS, which are half day parks for us now.

 

[Laketravis]

I think you'll be fine in early November. The strengths/weaknesses of FP+ don't really kick in until the parks start to get crowded, and in early November you are still looking at low to moderate crowds. There won't be as many very late EMH for night owls but AM EMH should work well for at least a couple of hours. Since you "go to ride rides" I would definitely keep the park hoppers so you still have the flexibility of changing parks later in the day. Make your FP reservations for afternoon/evening in the park of your choice and try to maximize your riding with rope drop.

And with your kids then being around 15/13/7 it might be a perfect time to break away for a day or two and try USO as well.

 

[DebbieB]

I was there Oct 18 to 24 last year. I didn't get at FP+ for Pirates, I rode it first thing with a 5 minute wait. I planned my fastpasses at 10:00, 11:00 & 12:00. That gave me time before my first fastpass to hit some short standby lines. I also did HM early standby. Then used FP+ for 7DMT, PP & Space Mt.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I think you just have to have reasonable expectations. As long as you commit to RD, you'll definitely get re-rides in. RD is just as useful now as it was in the past, maybe even moreso, because it seems less people are motivated to get up early since they have ride reservations for later in the day. We were just there in December, and we got a TON done in the first 3 hours of park operation (with 8 a.m. openings). One day, we rode BTMRR 4 times and Splash twice--in the first hour!

But that early morning success doesn't hold throughout the day, and you really have to expect longer SB lines than in the past for certain rides, like POTC and HM, especially as the day wears on. In the past, we'd ride POTC over and over again (I think our record was 5 in one day)...on our last trip, we rode twice the whole week because we couldn't justify the wait times (also, it was down A LOT during our trip).

There are also some former legacy FP-enabled rides that seem to have shorter lines than before for whatever reason, particularly Pooh and Buzz.

I don't like FP+, but I don't think it "ruined" our trip. It has made us have to adjust expectations for how many times we can do re-rides, though.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My best advice is to CALM DOWN. It is a vacation. Not heart transplant surgery with a risk of dying.

That said--steer clear of the FP+ ruined my vacation threads. They will not help your worry at all. And to be fair--skip all the FP+ is awesome and my trip was perfect threads. You don't want to set your expectations by this perfection and when they fall short realize your fears came true. So basically--avoid the extreme threads.

Read up on tips to maximize your experience. We went the first week to December and SB lines were not the horror that has been advertised. I imagine the first week of November won't be bad either.


My personal strategies that have served me well over the years (pre-legacy, legacy, and FP+) are that rope drop and EMH are your friend. I did not like it when park hopper became an extra. We toured with that once during legacy, but we had no real complaints.

But I am finding that the majority of "early" arrivals seem to happen between 10 and 11am as that is most often when I have observed a bloom in visitors. That easily gets you and hour or two or more with EMH of lighter crowds.

If you are not an early person, the flip side of closing down the park may be to your advantage. I am not a late person and don't really ever use evening EMH. But I do know that there is a mass exodus after the evening shows (parade/fireworks or equivilant). So that does improve your wait times.

From our December trip--the only long lines that we encountered were Soarin', Test track, space mountain, TSM, RNR---and then not as bad, but long TOT. While thee lines may be however many minutes longer than before--I Found their wait times consistent with legacy days and pre FP days. They are just LONG. So strategies that include FP+ and rope drop help a lot.

While onsite--we used our MDE app to check wait times before heading over. We were able to make plans on the go. Also, if we found that a FP+ was not necessary when we arrived at an attraction, we switched the FP+ for something else.


Enjoy your trip!

 

[soniam]

Another thing you can do if you find an FP+ to not be necessary is to ride on standby. When you get out, if your FP+ is still valid, the wait will probably be longer, so get back inline and ride with your FP+. We did this on Soarin and got to ride twice with less than 10 minute waits both times in July. This requires you to get there at the beginning of the window though.

 

[Stoneham92]

Once you finish your three fp+ where do you find the kiosk in park to get more, how would I know availability at other park if I decided to add hoper

 

[Brian Noble]

We have not been to WDW since 2011.

There are going to be two main differences for you. The first is that return times are now enforced---you cannot use a fastpass "late" like you used to be able to in 2011 and earlier. The second is the new FP+ system. Enforcement of return times, to me, was a bigger deal than the switch from FP to FP+.

Your trips will probably be a little different now, but they will still be fun. Since the switch to FP+ I've been during spring break and even during Christmas, and smart touring, taking advantage of rope drop, etc. is still 90% of the battle.

 

[Suvadoo]

Once you finish your three fp+ where do you find the kiosk in park to get more, how would I know availability at other park if I decided to add hoper

There's kiosks located in different areas at each park. Unfortunately, you are only able to check availability in the park you're in, not the one you're hopping to. So if you're in MK , you can see attractions in and MK and book attractions in MK. But idf you're hopping to DHS, you will only see FP+ availability once you arrive.

 

[SillyInventor]

Is availability visible in the mobile app for all parks on the same day?

 

[Suvadoo]

Is availability visible in the mobile app for all parks on the same day?

Nope