Any Reformed FP- Uber Users Who Have Embraced FP+ ?

[Rebekkap]

That must have been a very low crowd day to get BTMRR at 7:30pm with a return time 15 minutes later. My question is, did you really need to use fp+ that day? It sounds like most rides would have been a walk on anyways.

It wasn't a particularly low crowd day. Certainly none of the mountains was anything like a walk on. From memory BTMRR was around 50 minutes, space 60+. I don't know about splash as I don't really enjoy it so don't do it very often. Pirates and Haunted Mansion were around half an hour with no FP.

 

[Rebekkap]

I wish I could find all those threads from all those people who claim to prefer being able to make FP selections in only one park, not being able to pick two of their favorites in half the parks (tiering), and only being able to reserve three.

Because the last time I checked, everyone who claimed to embrace FP also include at least two of those three "yes, buts....."

You can make FP+ selections in multiple parks in the EXACT SAME WAY YOU COULD WITH FP-. By going to the next park where you want the FP after you've used your FP in the initial park. And before you couldn't reserve three - you could only turn up at the park and start pulling FP when it opened - three is more than before. You're not limited to three either - see my previous post where I had 11 FP+ in one day at MK. Tiering doesn't really bother me. Epcot I can ride Test Track single rider and FP Soarin - though I've also managed to get a fourth FP for TT. HS I really only want to ride TSMM of the tiered rides anyway. But as I've managed to get a fourth FP for TSMM I doubt I'd have too much trouble with one of the other tiered rides anyway. So there's no "yes, but" for me.

 

[DisneyKidds]

We generally were able to get a second set of TSMM with paper FPs......10:30--grabbed second set of TSM FPs. Return time was 6:00.

With an arrival at opening a second set of FPs for any ride was definitely possible, we did it many times ourselves. Your experience is right in line with what we always experienced. As to my previous comments, I was just a little surprised anyone could get a second set of TSMM FPs and have both return times be before 12:30. Ride TSMM 3x without waiting in a standby line and out of the park by 1:00.....I never would have thought that possible unless the park was dead, but I was wrong.

 

[BugsDaddy]

You can make FP+ selections in multiple parks in the EXACT SAME WAY YOU COULD WITH FP-. By going to the next park where you want the FP after you've used your FP in the initial park. And before you couldn't reserve three - you could only turn up at the park and start pulling FP when it opened - three is more than before. You're not limited to three either - see my previous post where I had 11 FP+ in one day at MK. Tiering doesn't really bother me. Epcot I can ride Test Track single rider and FP Soarin - though I've also managed to get a fourth FP for TT. HS I really only want to ride TSMM of the tiered rides anyway. But as I've managed to get a fourth FP for TSMM I doubt I'd have too much trouble with one of the other tiered rides anyway. So there's no "yes, but" for me.

See, there you go, stirring the pot by giving real examples of how FP+ worked.

 

[Disneylover99]

It wasn't a particularly low crowd day. Certainly none of the mountains was anything like a walk on. From memory BTMRR was around 50 minutes, space 60+. I don't know about splash as I don't really enjoy it so don't do it very often. Pirates and Haunted Mansion were around half an hour with no FP.

I don't think your experience is the norm with standby wait times that long. When we were there for 18 days during low/moderate crowds, we could get additional FP's after using our first 3 from 9-12pm. Then we were looking at 3 to 4 hour return times for anything else. Once 5pm rolled around, there wasn't anything available to FP on most days. And most kiosk lines were 20+ minutes as well.

 

[Disneylover99]

Pirates and Haunted Mansion were around half an hour with no FP.

Fp+ has really driven up the standby wait times on these twos rides. Before fp+ was implemented, these rides would most likely be walk ons during low/moderate crowds.

My point is, when you're getting FP's for rides that didn't need FP before fp+ was introduced, doesn't that defeat the purpose of FP+?

 

[Laketravis]

Fp+ has really driven up the standby wait times on these twos rides. Before fp+ was implemented, these rides would most likely be walk ons during low/moderate crowds.

My point is, when you're getting FP's for rides that didn't need FP before fp+ was introduced, doesn't that defeat the purpose of FP+?

Exactly. And to successfully shift customer behavior in such a manner as to cause customers to proclaim success in doing so is simply astonishing.

 

[Angel Ariel]

My point is, when you're getting FP's for rides that didn't need FP before fp+ was introduced, doesn't that defeat the purpose of FP+?

Actually, I think that was entirely the point of FP+ - to be able to direct crowds/people to the more underutilized attractions and maximize the capacity for those attractions as well as headliners.

 

[Disneylover99]

Actually, I think that was entirely the point of FP+ - to be able to direct crowds/people to the more underutilized attractions and maximize the capacity for those attractions as well as headliners.

If that's the case, then I guess it is a success since that is what fp+ has done.

 

[SuperTink]

If that's the case, then I guess it is a success since that is what fp+ has done.

Not for me.

 

[jeffbear]

Actually, I think that was entirely the point of FP+ - to be able to direct crowds/people to the more underutilized attractions and maximize the capacity for those attractions as well as headliners.

Correct ... and I really, REALLY fail to see why this is so hard to understand.

It's not FP+ that people hate, it's the management decision to make an effort to level out crowd flow throughout the parks that people have a problem with. An let's be honest here ... it was exactly the uber-users that were cranking out four and five rides on a major attraction in a day that bear the brunt of the new strategy. They're upset. That shouldn't surprise anyone.

Now if somebody wants to start discussing what impact ticking off these folks is going to have on WDW down the road ... please for the love of the Mouse, let's start having that conversation. I'm sick to death of this one.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Love Tink, in a futile attempt to explain this to you... AGAIN...

I'm not focused on getting the express pass! I am not even calculating the express pass. For a split WDW/Uni trip for us it would look like this:

Dec 4-10
6 days at All Star with 6 day park hoppers: $1511.34 or $251.89 per day
Dec 10-13
3 days at Cabana Bay with 3 day park to park tickets & parking fees: $820.80 or $273.60 per day
(Again, those prices are WITHOUT express pass)

Now, we would want to pick Pop Century to stay at but would have to go with an All Star to offset our USF costs. So I could spend over $2300 for a split stay OR I could just spend all 9 nights at Pop for under $2000. And before you say "but All Stars aren't as nice as Cabana Bay so you can't compare them". I don't care about the amenities, all I need is a clean room. In herein lies my point, Uni can not beat WDW value prices unless you want to stay longer than you need to.

Before you say " but you can't compare 3 day costs to 6 day costs". Yes I can! I absolutely will not pay to stay at USF longer than is necessary just to have lower ticket/room rates. There is reason USF gets so cheap the longer you stay... because there is not that much to do!
Honestly, I think 3 days is generous and pushing it. I am not much a fan of US and would rather spend my time and money at WDW. Bottom line, I absolutely do not want to pay more for USF than WDW.

There I'm done. I'm sure there's something you'll find to nitpick, assuming you even bother to come back to this discussion.

P.s. You have a mistake in your post, see bolded.

Disclaimer: I have you on my ignore list. Unfortunately, because of an AD glitch on the Disboards I had to enable private browsing. Which means I wasn't logged in at the time that I read this thread so your post wasn't blacked out. In the future, it would be great if you just ignored my posts as well.

But that's because both WDW and Universal front load their tickets. I have a hard time justifying a short trip to Disney because the per day cost is so expensive for trips less than 4 days.

 

[SmithSmith]

But that's because both WDW and Universal front load their tickets. I have a hard time justifying a short trip to Disney because the per day cost is so expensive for trips less than 4 days.

Hello fellow Whovian.

I'm aware.

I would never do a short trip to WDW for 2 reasons:

1. I travel with my dog and we drive so driving all that way for just a quick trip to WDW is never going to happen.

2. We would never be able to do everything we wanted in less than 6 days. That is why I've always said it never is economical FOR US. I am never speaking generally, only personally.

I would only need 2 days to do everything I want in USF, I was being generous with 3, so the per day cost is far more than WDW. It also would cost far more to do a split trip than a full WDW trip so that means I have to make sacrifices on the WDW portion to accommodate USF. I am not okay with that. I am not a theme park or amusement park fan, I am a Disney fan... and a Dr Who fan

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Correct ... and I really, REALLY fail to see why this is so hard to understand.

It's not FP+ that people hate, it's the management decision to make an effort to level out crowd flow throughout the parks that people have a problem with. An let's be honest here ... it was exactly the uber-users that were cranking out four and five rides on a major attraction in a day that bear the brunt of the new strategy. They're upset. That shouldn't surprise anyone.

Now if somebody wants to start discussing what impact ticking off these folks is going to have on WDW down the road ... please for the love of the Mouse, let's start having that conversation. I'm sick to death of this one.

Nice idea, but I think all roads lead to here.

 

[Josh Hendy]

Correct ... and I really, REALLY fail to see why this is so hard to understand.

It's not FP+ that people hate, it's the management decision to make an effort to level out crowd flow throughout the parks that people have a problem with. An let's be honest here ... it was exactly the uber-users that were cranking out four and five rides on a major attraction in a day that bear the brunt of the new strategy. They're upset. That shouldn't surprise anyone.

Now if somebody wants to start discussing what impact ticking off these folks is going to have on WDW down the road ... please for the love of the Mouse, let's start having that conversation. I'm sick to death of this one.

This is true but I don't think it's the whole story. There are unhappy non-ubers as well. People who have trouble with the web site or the smart phone app, or who have trouble linking different people in their party. Or they don't like selecting a park 2 months in advance, or don't like logging in at midnight 60 days before their trip out of fear that they'll miss an attraction. People who like to park-hop. People who stay offsite or who don't buy park tickets 60 days in advance and might be unable to get a FP+ for the date/time they want. People who don't like to carry their smart phone around and check it all day. People who don't like sitting around waiting for a FP+ window to open, to the point where they miss eating a meal or visiting other attractions.

You may consider the (former) uber-users to be rather selfish ride-hogs and therefore somewhat deserving of having their touring plans "leveled out", and you may be right ... but I don't think that you can place EVERYBODY who's unhappy with FP+ in the category of "had it coming to them".

 

[Rebekkap]

Fp+ has really driven up the standby wait times on these twos rides. Before fp+ was implemented, these rides would most likely be walk ons during low/moderate crowds.

My point is, when you're getting FP's for rides that didn't need FP before fp+ was introduced, doesn't that defeat the purpose of FP+?

I guess you missed the bit where most of my FP+ were for Space or BTMRR?

 

[Rebekkap]

I don't think your experience is the norm with standby wait times that long. When we were there for 18 days during low/moderate crowds, we could get additional FP's after using our first 3 from 9-12pm. Then we were looking at 3 to 4 hour return times for anything else. Once 5pm rolled around, there wasn't anything available to FP on most days. And most kiosk lines were 20+ minutes as well.

Maybe it's not. I can only tell you my experience, not anyone else's. We were there ten days, and never waited above five minutes for a kiosk in any of the parks. FP return times were later at Epcot - at around 12pm we got FP for test track at around 5pm. But MK seemed to just have FP for anything we wanted, other than the one day where we tried to get a FP for the fireworks mid afternoon - couldn't be done, but got a FP for the electrical parade instead and just stayed in our spot when they took the ropes down after the parade.

Like I said, I'm a convert. I was dreading it before we went, having been a few years prior and really researched how to maximise FP, and since done Disneyland and REALLY learned how to use FP to maximum advantage - I don't think I've ever waited for anything for more than 20 minutes at a Disney park (until I went to Tokyo Disneyland this week - 80 minutes for Pooh's Hunny Hunt, ugh, never again!) But the FP+ experience was completely different from the doom and gloom on the forums - at least for us - and I was so thrilled, particularly by the day at MK with two sit down meals and a bunch of rides with no waiting in stand by queues at all.

 

[Candleshoe]

To answer the OPs question I may be one. The real proof is in the pudding as I haven't even gotten to my 60 day window, but I'm the type of planner who has a good idea if something is going to work for me or not, and I think this will.

I was also in the ultimate FP camp where we would have multiple fast passes to use in the afternoon and evening and road everything many times. I do believe we'll be okay.

I've moved from absolutely hating it, to being willing to give it a shot.

 

[Suvadoo]

Exactly. And to successfully shift customer behavior in such a manner as to cause customers to proclaim success in doing so is simply astonishing.

Can you say MOOOO?

 

[Disneylover99]

I guess you missed the bit where most of my FP+ were for Space or BTMRR?

No, I didn't miss that.

But I also read that 3 or 4 rides you fastpassed were HM and POTC. So when you say, I got 11 fp+ rides in one day with fp+ And I couldn't have done that with legacy. I think of it as really getting 7 or 8 fastpasses with fp+ since you wouldn't have needed a FP for HM and POTC with legacy fp. KWIM?