Anyone else not doing FP+?

[JimMIA]

We just got back from WDW. I would use the FP+. We had no issues with ours and were able to make changes by phone without issue. The return times for FP- were typically for many hours in the future if available at all.

As much of a hassle as MDE currently is, posts like this should convince thoughtful readers that they NEED to bear the burden of getting FP+ set up.

When people say they have no problem making multiple same-day changes at the parks (and there have been quite a few of those reports) and that FP- times are either non-existent or very late in the day -- that should tell you something. It should tell you that almost all of the FP availability is in FP+, even to the point of holding large quantities of available time slots in reserve.

If you think about it, you'll see why. Disney is giving FP+ only to onsite guests at this time. Many of those guests don't know a thing about FP+ and will not sign up until checkin. Disney has to keep large numbers of available FP+s in reserve for those folks -- they can't have ONSITE guests unable to use FP.

 

[LisaS]

Am I the only one who likes to plan? LOL feeling alone!
I LOVE the ADR and FP+ I HATE waiting! When on vacation what city do you go to where you can just walk in with only a 10-20 min wait. Try 2 hours in NYC or Dallas, etc. NOW that is what makes me mad on vacation. So for me ADR and FP's are perfect! Plus I enjoy sitting on my couch looking at menus, planing which park day, etc. Seems to start the vacation early!

Just wondering if I am alone?

I don't like to plan but it makes our vacation go so smoothly that I force myself to do it. You said it all -- being able to get into one of our favorite restaurants or onto a ride with a minimal wait is worth the time spent putting a plan together well in advance of our trip. And as non-commando, non-rope drop types, FP+ worked great for us and made our latest trip more fun.

 

[granmanh603]

FYI just yesterday they changed the rules at EPCOT fP+ selection you can only pick 1 from Sorin,TT, maelstrom, and fireworks. That's it 1 from that 4, then your other 2 from other attractions. And when we tried to book in the Morning they were not offering any Soarin at all.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

FYI just yesterday they changed the rules at EPCOT fP+ selection you can only pick 1 from Sorin,TT, maelstrom, and fireworks. That's it 1 from that 4, then your other 2 from other attractions. And when we tried to book in the Morning they were not offering any Soarin at all.

And that makes FP+ way worse than the old system for us. These other attractions don't need FP's. We used FP to ride the most popular. I already did not like planning way in advance but to now know that if we want to ride more than one "E" ticket attraction we'll be waiting in line is extremely disappointing.

 

[granmanh603]

And that makes FP+ way worse than the old system for us. These other attractions don't need FP's. We used FP to ride the most popular. I already did not like planning way in advance but to now know that if we want to ride more than one "E" ticket attraction we'll be waiting in line is extremely disappointing.

Right now you they still have the old FP machines but rumor has it they are going away. but now you can use them with a AP or KTTW credit card type thing. That is what happened yesterday we walked over to ride the land boat later after we ate lunch on Boardwalk and there were regular FP so we got one of those amazingly? at like say 2 o'clock. return time was 7:50 . the week before they were gone by 11AM this week was much slower. but do not know why there were NO FP+ at 9:30 AM? I do not think they know what they are doing. and can you imagine when AP owners are added. It didn't work that good without them.. glad I am not going to be here for the Holidays.

 

[rkold]

We used FP+ on our Oct trip and I admit we had a few reservations we missed. I really wish they gave you the option of banking FP+ times because we tend to not need them for Epcot or AK, and need more for MK.

We're in an unusual situation. I like rides, DH and my mother do not, and DD just turned 3 and is very petite. So for us, unless I have someone else in the park with me to watch DD, I'm not going to be riding Sorain' or TT, and even when I do ride on TT, I can do single rider. At AK, I always do single rider for Everest and I don't think I've ever waited more than 10 minutes.

For us the major plus of FP+ was we could pre-book Belle's Enchanted Tales and FairyTale Hall. I didn't see a regular FP for those 3 attractions and if you've never done character lines, they can be just as bad or worse than TSM. We also tested FP+ for Be Our Guest for lunch. I'm glad we had the chance so we could try eating there, but am not going to be struggling to FP+ it or do the wait anytime soon.

I'm hoping to start picking FP+ for our Jan trip soon. >>;

 

[JimMIA]

FYI just yesterday they changed the rules at EPCOT fP+ selection you can only pick 1 from Sorin,TT, maelstrom, and fireworks. That's it 1 from that 4, then your other 2 from other attractions. And when we tried to book in the Morning they were not offering any Soarin at all.

It will be interesting to see whether this is actually a new policy, or just an adjustment they make with same-day FP+s when supply gets scarce. I can see some logic for limiting the premier attractions in that situation to give everyone a chance to get at least one thing they really want.

If it's a permanent policy change, that's really going to stink.

 

[Buckalew11]

We were there the 18th thru 23rd. The bands were great for the room, charging, and some FP+s. We did find many of the lines longer (FP return lines) and sometimes the machines worked and sometimes they did not. There seems to be FP+ for everything. The parks were so crowded. I'm talking a line for CoP and a corralled line for TTA!

It was nice to be able to go to the pool every morning and still have FPs in the afternoon and evenings.

It was nice to NOT have to go through bag check! Basically, everything I needed was on the band so I did not even carry my bag into the park!

 

[granmanh603]

We were there the 18th thru 23rd. The bands were great for the room, charging, and some FP+s. We did find many of the lines longer (FP return lines) and sometimes the machines worked and sometimes they did not. There seems to be FP+ for everything. The parks were so crowded. I'm talking a line for CoP and a corralled line for TTA!

It was nice to be able to go to the pool every morning and still have FPs in the afternoon and evenings.

It was nice to NOT have to go through bag check! Basically, everything I needed was on the band so I did not even carry my bag into the park!

If that is all you brought you are lucky you had no trouble with the band working because we did and needed ID and if you wanted a discount AP again picture I'd and also need it and card for TIW. And we had a lot of trouble the first week with bands at entry until we went off property without band and tried to get back in room with KTTW and it didn't work and had to go down to front desk and have 2 Disney people come to room and re set bands then they worked better( they were reset multiple times at entry)

 

[AdamsMum]

I was in WDW from October 13-20 and tested the fastpass plus, no problems with anything. Charged to my room for food and beverages at the F&W, used my magic band for the few fast passes that I actually achieved, entry to the parks no problem, opening the room no problem.

My only issue was that between dining reservations, and fast pass reservations, I was crisscrossing the parks and I just found it was too much to try to be in all those places on time.

After a couple of days I gave it up, and just went at my own pace. It was starting feel like I was at work and not on vacation.

I guess I must be getting old.

 

[LisaS]

My only issue was that between dining reservations, and fast pass reservations, I was crisscrossing the parks and I just found it was too much to try to be in all those places on time.

Do you usually use FP or did you use it for the first time on this trip due to FP+? Just curious because we found with FP+ we did less crisscrossing of the parks. For example, we didn't have to walk all the way into Soarin' to get a FP then head out to do other things in Epcot, then go all the way back into Soarin' hours later to use the FP. Also, I tried to select FP+s near where we would be at the time. For example, I selected rides in Future World during the time of day we were doing F&W seminars at the festival center, then picked a ride in the World Showcase around our ADR time.

 

[Tamar]

I was all set not to like FP+, but in reality, it is like a new perk. Even if you only do one FP+ a day, it's a win. It does not preclude getting additional FP at the same or a different park. Gotta admit I liked it better when I could preschedule both Soarin and Test Track around our F&W deminars, but today, for instance, we have a 3:50 FP+ for Soarin' (right after our 3pm deminar ends, and we got a regular FP for Test Track on our way to Sweet Sundays and used it right after the event.

 

[granmanh603]

I was in WDW from October 13-20 and tested the fastpass plus, no problems with anything. Charged to my room for food and beverages at the F&W, used my magic band for the few fast passes that I actually achieved, entry to the parks no problem, opening the room no problem.

My only issue was that between dining reservations, and fast pass reservations, I was crisscrossing the parks and I just found it was too much to try to be in all those places on time.

After a couple of days I gave it up, and just went at my own pace. It was starting feel like I was at work and not on vacation.

I guess I must be getting old.

I agree with you it seems like work and not on vacation. More issues today again with the MB not having on selected FP+ visiable on them for entering the ride. Showed up at kiosk
s but not rides.. just to much running around and planning.

 

[aan1701]

I just did 10 nights. I must say I loved the MagicBands. I made FP+ reservations for my when trip and after about two days there I cancelled all remaining ones. I found that as nice as it was knowing I would get to for sure do the attractions I love, it just took away the fun of "oh I want to do that". I was feeling like I had to go at a particular park at a certain time. I did not like that. I did use some same day FP+ and that worked fine but I not a fan of the pre reserved ones.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

 

[Anal Annie]

I think that by skipping FP+ you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Especially when you can still get FP- with your PAP and KTTW card. Why not have a few FP's a day in your back pocket?

I was actually just searching for an answer to this. We have AP's that I linked to my MDE and someone told me that they thought if we get the MB's and use the FP+ with those that we can then no longer "double dip" for the regular FP's. Which way is it? Can we use our AP's or KTTW cards or whatever to get reg. FP's or are we stuck with this 3/day limit with the MB's????

I was considering trying to find out if there was a way to UN-link our APs if we will be screwed out of the reg. FP's.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I was actually just searching for an answer to this. We have AP's that I linked to my MDE and someone told me that they thought if we get the MB's and use the FP+ with those that we can then no longer "double dip" for the regular FP's. Which way is it? Can we use our AP's or KTTW cards or whatever to get reg. FP's or are we stuck with this 3/day limit with the MB's????

I was considering trying to find out if there was a way to UN-link our APs if we will be screwed out of the reg. FP's.

When are you going? Rumors are coming out that the paper fp's will be going away in early Dec. Even if they don't many of the major attractions don't have fast passes for very long in the morning. But I've seen a recent report that people were still able to get the paper fp's with both room keys and ap's.

 

[Anal Annie]

When are you going? Rumors are coming out that the paper fp's will be going away in early Dec. Even if they don't many of the major attractions don't have fast passes for very long in the morning. But I've seen a recent report that people were still able to get the paper fp's with both room keys and ap's.

We are going in January, over MLK weekend. I thought I'd heard that the paper ones would be around until after they worked out all of the kinks with the new system?! Still sounds like there's a way to go to me...

But so assuming that the paper FP's are still around when we go, linking our AP's to the MB's would not prevent us from using both the FP+ and the old paper ones simultaneously?? I was thinking the better strategy would be to use the old paper ones at our first park of the day and save the new FP+ ones for our afternoon / evening park. (I really don't like the 1 park / day restriction.)

 

[tjkraz]

The instances I was referring to were not "threatened." They were real cancellations handled, and reported, by Disney CM's.

But I agree that a lot of people consider things they don't actually do. I was in that boat yesterday myself, actually (not threatening) considering canceling our upcoming trip because of the MDE unworkability. (There is a limit to how hard I will work to give some company my money!)

A diligent and highly-skilled Disney techie actually saved our trip...and saved Disney some lost revenue.

Of course, the inverse is true as well. There are people who have specifically booked a Disney hotel stay because they wanted to activate their My Disney Experience account and receive MagicBands.

Over the long haul, I'm sure this is something Disney envisioned as adding more business than it takes away. Whether that proves to be the case is still unknown. But some growing pains were unavoidable.

I agree that all of the pre planning removes the joy of a WDW vacation. The already killed TS dining with DDP and ADRs.

Not sure I agree that walk-up dining with excessive waits is any improvement over what we have today. Anytime demand exceeds supply, the capacity has to be divvied up somehow. Reaching the podium at Chef Mickey's and being told that there's a 90 minute wait is less desirable than pre-booking ADRs in my opinion.

As for MB given those who for variety of reasons don't have tickets before arrival you are excluded until it's too late. We loop our AP ever other year late to early vacations in August. This is our off year so we loose our.

Tickets can be easily purchased before arrival and added to the MDE account. Even Annual Passes. Even DVC-discounted Annual Passes.

And lastly I don't want to wear a RFD tracking tag. I don't want my data surveillance charted with all of the masses of guests so that I cans be groomed for profits .

Like another poster said, you're kidding yourself if you think they couldn't track you without MagicBands. Between APs, KTTW card, credit cards (they have your numbers on file), TIW, ADRs, and a variety of other means, they could build a pretty thorough database even before MagicBands come into play.

They could tell when you leave and enter your hotel room. They could tell when you enter parks. They could tell when you get FastPasses. They could tell when you shop, where you shop, when you dine, where you dine and much more.

MagicBands could make that job much easier, but it's not like anyone is sitting in a back room thinking "hmmm...let's see what Bill is up to now..." Most of the data will be aggregated to help streamline park operations.

And even if they DO happen to start targeting offers to specific guests (e.g. "let's send a 20% off coupon to everyone who hasn't entered a gift shop today"), you could easily discover that you benefit from said offers.

 

[Anal Annie]

I just saw a post on a blog somewhere that said AP holders do not get to use the MB's / FP+ system. Is that true? When do we think that will change? If we have AP's I am worried over using the new system for no good reason because it doesn't apply to us??

 

[DMKEDM]

I have an AP which I linked to My Disney Experience and customized and got our magic bands and reserved FP+ rides/times for 5 of the 6 days we'll be there next week.

So no, I don't think it's true. At least at this still pre-trip point in time, it appears my AP linked just fine and I'm "in the system." I guess I'll find out "for real" when we arrive at WDW next week.