BIG change to FP+ today

[bcrook]

It would be interesting to separate out the complaints about the CONCEPT of FP +, the DETAILS of how it is being implemented ( number of FP available, tiering, ability to make FP+ reservations in more than one park,etc.)' and the SYSTEM for making reservations.

I suspect that people who don't like the concept are more likely to be unhappy with the system, whereas, people who are happy with the concept are more likely to be tolerant of the system.

Here is how I classify myself:

Concept: I am somewhere between indifferent and happy about the concept. We have never been big FP users; we get to a park early, take a break, and usually hop to another park. But, because we often have to visit at busy times because of family schedules, I think FP+ will allow us to do some more attractions at our second park of the day.

Details: A limit of 3 is fine with me and, although I would love unlimited availability, I can understand why tiering is necessary to give more people a shot at the biggest headliners. I would also like the option of choosing to make reservations in more than 1 park in a day. But, I also understand that the details will always be subject to change, so I'm not going to get too worked up about them.

System: The system for making reservations is not as efficient as I would like but, because I generally like the concept, I will deal with the inefficiencies and hope for them to be improved as the system develops.

This is intriguing. I would like to explore that too.

For me:

Concept: love the idea of being able to schedule fastpasses for the times I want. Dislike the idea of booking rides weeks in advance. I really like the magicband technology and the upcoming interactive elements of rides - pandora could be very cool using the technology.

Frustrated Disney had the opportunity to improve the fastpass legacy system by making it more fan friendly by allowing us to use it the same way as before - pull one fastpass every two hours via a phone and save the running through the parks and pick your time. But instead Disney decided to capitalize on the fastpass as a marketing tool.

Details: no hopping, no repeats, tiers, three limit bad. Booking headliners in the evening and having reserved seating for wishes, skipping the enchanted taes with belle line good.

System: I find the itinerary section of the app and the maps to be amazingly good. Managing friends and family, booking FP+ very klunky. Making dinner reservations - pretty easy.

Everyone in my travel group came back aglow with the new system two weeks ago. I took care of all the bookings, reservations, and planning. They showed up, enjoyed themselves and loved everything about magicbands and fastpass+. I on the other had spent hours messing with the stupid app, on the phone with tech support, dealing with CM at my resort trying to fix everything. I was exhausted. And I am well schooled. I don't want to do it again.

If it is just my wife and I fine, but big groups are on their own, and I am not sure my group would have liked any of it if they were forced to deal with it.

So I think there might be something else at play more than just attitude. Complexity of trip might play a role in it.

 

[Tekneek]

The concept is a good one, but it has way more potential for guest experience improvement than I suspect Disney wants.

If you have park-hoppers, and Disney knows you have them, you should be able to book attractions at any of the parks.

A lot about this program, like some issues with the ADR system, appears to be Disney taking shortcuts to make it easier for them (while making the system more difficult for guests). One of the signs of bad customer service is making things easier for yourself and passing the buck to your customer. Disney does this more often than they should, but seems to be getting away with it so far.

 

[snowwite]

I'm so bummed out.
We got the magic bands but I discovered we cannot use them to book any fast passes or additional things like BOG because our passes cannot be loaded onto the system. DD is a CM and is singing in the Candlelight shows and we are going to spend Thanskgiving with her. She can get up to 4 additional people in on her pass so we will have a paper ticket. I'm worried that all of the standby lines will be huge and all of the FP tix will be gone thanks to FP+ so we will not be able to do anything.
I'm hoping to take advantage of extended hours and maybe do a few things before it gets mobbed.
We will be able to use the bands for the room and for charging. Pooh.

 

[Sheilby]

Concept: love the idea of being able to schedule fastpasses for the times I want. Dislike the idea of booking rides weeks in advance. I really like the magicband technology and the upcoming interactive elements of rides - pandora could be very cool using the technology.

Frustrated Disney had the opportunity to improve the fastpass legacy system by making it more fan friendly by allowing us to use it the same way as before - pull one fastpass every two hours via a phone and save the running through the parks and pick your time. But instead Disney decided to capitalize on the fastpass as a marketing tool.

Details: no hopping, no repeats, tiers, three limit bad. Booking headliners in the evening and having reserved seating for wishes, skipping the enchanted taes with belle line good.

System: I find the itinerary section of the app and the maps to be amazingly good. Managing friends and family, booking FP+ very klunky. Making dinner reservations - pretty easy.

Everyone in my travel group came back aglow with the new system two weeks ago. I took care of all the bookings, reservations, and planning. They showed up, enjoyed themselves and loved everything about magicbands and fastpass+. I on the other had spent hours messing with the stupid app, on the phone with tech support, dealing with CM at my resort trying to fix everything. I was exhausted. And I am well schooled. I don't want to do it again.

If it is just my wife and I fine, but big groups are on their own, and I am not sure my group would have liked any of it if they were forced to deal with it.

So I think there might be something else at play more than just attitude. Complexity of trip might play a role in it.

You pretty much nailed exactly how I feel about the whole thing. We go in another 3 days and I'm the one who has spent hours on the site linking and scheduling everything. For the most part it has gone smoothly, but it still takes far more time than it should. I planned trips for a few of my friends who were there this past week. They bought their tickets separately and I had more glitches with their accounts than I did with mine, not sure if it is related. IT is pretty useless if you call them.

Like you I would just like to pull fastpasses from my phone in the 2 hour time slots like the old system did. This would allow me more freedom day of while still keeping me from having to run all over the park. It also "rewards" people who spend more time in the park and makes hopping easier.

 

[wisblue]

So I think there might be something else at play more than just attitude. Complexity of trip might play a role in it.

This is a good point.

Because our trips are almost always with just some subset of our immediate family, and we don't do split stays, we don't have to deal with a lot of that complexity. Frankly, a trip with a larger group is a pain in the neck to me regardless, because it is next to impossible to get everyone to agree on anything, such as when to get up, where to go, what to do, when and where to eat, etc. So, everyone has to sacrifice something to the group.

I question whether it would be possible to develop an automated system that would allow a large group of people to do things in a harmonious way. Even with the old FP system, I'm not sure how often everyone would agree what they would want to do.

 

[butterflygirl812]

We should also separate discussions about magic bands from those about FP+. Especially now that I tried it for a couple of days, I like having the magic band for park entry, MDE, charging to the room, Photopass, etc., totally apart from FP+. I wore the band right below my watch and didn't think anything about it, and it was nice not to have to fumble through pockets or bags for MDE booklet, park and FP tickets, room key cards, Photopass card, etc. I also find the RFID technology to be more efficient for park entry than the old magnetic stripe, which tended to wear out. FP + is just one feature that is being implemented through the MB. It isn't a necessary feature of MB and could be implemented (albeit less efficiently) without a MB.

Disney tried to do too much at once. They should have made the switch from KTTW cards to magic bands FIRST. Once those functioned properly, then they should have added the photo pass capabilities to the bands. Once that worked, then they should have implemented the FPP idea. They are trying to do too much at once, and everyone is confused about everything now.

 

[butterflygirl812]

If they want you to book them that far in advance, refusing to provide any kind of guidance is a recipe for angering guests. Even if you have no guidebook or planning experience, you can gauge demand when on-site under the previous system. 60 days out, with nothing beyond what MDE spits out, is guaranteed to cause irritation. Poorly designed program if the purpose is to satisfy guests.

They also need to clarify what the FPP will get them....specific to shows and parades.....some get you a preferred seating/viewing sections, others just get you in the door. If I have a FPP for WISHES, and get a great reserved viewing area, I'm going to expect the same thing with a fantasmic FPP, but that is not the case.

 

[robpa]

They also need to clarify what the FPP will get them....specific to shows and parades.....some get you a preferred seating/viewing sections, others just get you in the door. If I have a FPP for WISHES, and get a great reserved viewing area, I'm going to expect the same thing with a fantasmic FPP, but that is not the case.

They are trying to confuse everyone into submission.

 

[wesleybean]

When I went last month, I was able to use FP+ to pick my FP attractions, then they gave me the "normal" tickets to get additional FP at the park. Worse case, and if you are really upset with FP+, just don't use it and use FP the old way...

 

[letsgoreds]

I'm so bummed out.
We got the magic bands but I discovered we cannot use them to book any fast passes or additional things like BOG because our passes cannot be loaded onto the system. DD is a CM and is singing in the Candlelight shows and we are going to spend Thanskgiving with her. She can get up to 4 additional people in on her pass so we will have a paper ticket. I'm worried that all of the standby lines will be huge and all of the FP tix will be gone thanks to FP+ so we will not be able to do anything.
I'm hoping to take advantage of extended hours and maybe do a few things before it gets mobbed.
We will be able to use the bands for the room and for charging. Pooh.

I will trade you your free tickets for my FP+ reservations

You might be able to book same day FP+ since you have MB? I would post a separate question to see if anyone has been able to do this...I don't know if once you use the ticket if they could be associated with MDE (which is how you will be able to secure your FP+ reservations).

 

[robpa]

When I went last month, I was able to use FP+ to pick my FP attractions, then they gave me the "normal" tickets to get additional FP at the park. Worse case, and if you are really upset with FP+, just don't use it and use FP the old way...

Rumor is that once system is rolled out completely normal fastpass will no longer be available.

 

[Aunt Michelle]

How exactly did you get it to cancel at least one of the FP+s? All I can get is modify experience or modify time.

Sorry for the delay, I wanted to verify a couple of things;
(1) the FP+ I canceled is reflected in both apps
(2) the remaining 2 FP+ are still reflected in both apps
(3) play around with the iPad MDE App to see if I can duplicate the functionality - I did not find a way to do so.

From the desktop MDE App I did the following:
(1) Select FastPass+ from the MDE Menu
(2) Scroll to the date of the FP+ I want to cancel - at this point I get a menu screen for the date with four options: Select or Replace, Change, Copy, Cancel
(3) I select Cancel, then "Next"
(I'm not sure how to get a screen shot in here - apologies)

(4) The next screen says "Cancel FastPass+ Selections" with the date for me (I assume it would list others if they were on this trip). Each current FastPass + has a "Select" next to it.

(5) I chose the one I want to cancel by clicking "Select" and "Next."

(6) The next screen shows the FastPass+ I am cancelling - in this case "Living with the Land" with a warning symbol and message that the FastPass+ selection will be canceled. On this screen I clicked "Done."

(7) The app returns me to my Itinerary page for the date of the FastPass+ I have canceled and shows that now I have only two FastPass+ scheduled for that date.

(8) I cancelled a second one and verified on both apps that now for Monday, December 16th I have only one FastPass+ scheduled for Soarin' from 1:50 - 2:50 (so I can hit Soarin' before DVC Member Merry Mixer!).

I hope that all makes sense. I'm disappointed that the iPad App doesn't appear to give me the same flexibility, but glad to know that the functionality is coded into the MDE software meaning it could find its way to the iPad App in a matter of time. Hey, I'm an optimist.

 

[ArwenMarie]

It would be interesting to separate out the complaints about the CONCEPT of FP +, the DETAILS of how it is being implemented ( number of FP available, tiering, ability to make FP+ reservations in more than one park,etc.)' and the SYSTEM for making reservations.

I suspect that people who don't like the concept are more likely to be unhappy with the system, whereas, people who are happy with the concept are more likely to be tolerant of the system.

I like the concept, am 50/50 on the details, and hate the system.

Concept: I like the concept because I don't like having to be there for rope drop.

Details: The details are fine with me with two exceptions...

1) I loathe the tiering at Epcot and hope it doesn't spread. Pick a lane here Disney, and I don't want to have to make two trips to Epcot for one ride each on Soarin and TT. And if the answer is come at rope drop to ride the other, then let's just stick with the paper. 2) There are not enough for MK. If the other parks have 3, there is no way MK should have only 3 as well.

System: I hate hate hate the system. All I want is one screen per park per day, where I can see the rides I picked and all of the times available and then just pick the three times I want.

The ghosts in the system are also making the app useless to me as far as keeping track of where I am supposed to be each hour.

 

[wisblue]

I'm so bummed out.
We got the magic bands but I discovered we cannot use them to book any fast passes or additional things like BOG because our passes cannot be loaded onto the system. DD is a CM and is singing in the Candlelight shows and we are going to spend Thanskgiving with her. She can get up to 4 additional people in on her pass so we will have a paper ticket. I'm worried that all of the standby lines will be huge and all of the FP tix will be gone thanks to FP+ so we will not be able to do anything.
I'm hoping to take advantage of extended hours and maybe do a few things before it gets mobbed.
We will be able to use the bands for the room and for charging. Pooh.

Just out of curiosity, what day or days are you planning on using the CM pass to get into the parks? I assume you have already cleared this, but there are some "blackout days" (usually around the holidays) when at least some CM tickets cannot be used for guests.

If you aren't going right around Thanksgiving Day, the crowds shouldn't be that big and you should be able to do a lot.

 

[doconeill]

Just as an fyi, the security guard at IG this morning (and of course take this as you would any CM comment...a lot of what he said he claimed was publicly announced which wasn't true...)that the while system would be done in "2016" and you would need it to do everything...including parking at resorts. They are trying to close all the loopholes.

 

[AmyB2006]

Just as an fyi, the security guard at IG this morning (and of course take this as you would any CM comment...a lot of what he said he claimed was publicly announced which wasn't true...)that the while system would be done in "2016" and you would need it to do everything...including parking at resorts. They are trying to close all the loopholes.

LOL, someone else a while back posted about a CMs comments at IG.... might this be the same CM??? Hmmmm....

 

[ckelly14]

Well, it was a security guard that made the previous ludicrous comments..

 

[AmyB2006]

Well, it was a security guard that made the previous ludicrous comments..

Yes I remember!! LOL

 

[elgerber]

LOL, someone else a while back posted about a CMs comments at IG.... might this be the same CM??? Hmmmm....

Yep, I'm guessing it's him. I have had the pleasure (NOT) of listening to him.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I realize cm's are often not in-the-know, but that seems reasonable to me. It would keep them from having to man the security gates at resort parking.