BIG change to FP+ today

[tnolan]

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.

Aunt Michelle, thank you so much for the solution to a problem I have had for weeks! I was able to release FP+s for Test Track and Mission Space, so if anyone wanted them and was unable to get them, hurry up now and see if the ones I released went back into the pool of available FP+s!

 

[mikek]

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.
...
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.

couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Angel Ariel]

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.

Concept: the concept of fp+ is really interesting. The idea of being able to prebook your fps is a good one overall.

Details: I think 60 days is way too far out. I don't like having to be that planned out that far in advance. A week or even just the night before would be better, imo. 3fps are enough for hs, epcot and ak, but not for mk. Also not being able.to use them for the same attraction is a downside.

System: I have very little faith in the infrastructure of this system. Disney seems unable or unwilling to design streamlined, easy to.navigate.interfaces for their customers. The WiFi in the parks is horrible. The app barely functions. These are all.critical to the success of mm+ as a whole, and yet little progress seems to be being made here.

 

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

Concept: the concept of fp+ is really interesting. The idea of being able to prebook your fps is a good one overall.

Details: I think 60 days is way too far out. I don't like having to be that planned out that far in advance. A week or even just the night before would be better, imo. 3fps are enough for hs, epcot and ak, but not for mk. Also not being able.to use them for the same attraction is a downside.

System: I have very little faith in the infrastructure of this system. Disney seems unable or unwilling to design streamlined, easy to.navigate.interfaces for their customers. The WiFi in the parks is horrible. The app barely functions. These are all.critical to the success of mm+ as a whole, and yet little progress seems to be being made here.

I think 60 days is ok but I do agree you are spot on for the quantity at each park. MK needs at least one more. I understand not being able to use for same attraction , that seems to be the point of all this to spread people out more !
I have complete faith they will pull this all together at some point. After all not so long ago they came up with this wacky idea for something called "fastpass" and that ended up working out pretty well !
By the way , my app works perfectly.

 

[J and R's mom]

The last thing I would worry about is getting FPs you don't want....

Worry? I doubt this registers as a "worry" to most of us. It's just an area WDW can improve upon in this "TEST" phase.


THANK YOU Aunt Michelle for providing us with some insight on how to cancel unwanted FPs. This was a very HELPFUL post!

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.

 

[wishesUT]

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.

I loved your summary of the system. We leave on Wednesday and I've been the planner for our group of 18. I think everyone but me will love it, because they get to just show up and experience the "magic." I, on the other hand, have spent many very un-magical hours trying to get everyone's fastpass reservations in order at approximately the same time so that we can truly enjoy a family vacation. I thought it was hard getting dining reservations for 18 people, but that pales in comparison to jumping through all the Fastpluss+ hoops.

 

[rebbyparker]

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.

THIS is exactly what I've been saying. The MB's should have been rolled out, tested and then as they started to perform the way they should, only THEN should additional details have been added, rolled out and tested, etc. For Disney to throw all the changes out there at once, then expect people to try to navigate through them with faulty IT, both onsite, on app and on the phone, is just ridiculous. Especially for a company that is supposed to define "customer service". Calling Disney this morning, the first wait time was 37 minutes. The second wait time (I'm at work) was some unintelligible language without any number minutes. Onsite chat gets you the message that the CM's are making magic with another customer and emails go mostly unanswered. And I wouldn't have to waste my time if their inept MDE would quit losing FP+ reservations! And this is the SECOND time! They basically just threw HUGE changes out there and keep making changes as they see fit. I don't have a problem with MB's, or FP+ or FP-, I will work around them. I'm just a little disgruntled that I'm not feeling the Disney love right now. Ok, done.

 

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

THIS is exactly what I've been saying. The MB's should have been rolled out, tested and then as they started to perform the way they should, only THEN should additional details have been added, rolled out and tested, etc. For Disney to throw all the changes out there at once, then expect people to try to navigate through them with faulty IT, both onsite, on app and on the phone, is just ridiculous. Especially for a company that is supposed to define "customer service". Calling Disney this morning, the first wait time was 37 minutes. The second wait time (I'm at work) was some unintelligible language without any number minutes. Onsite chat gets you the message that the CM's are making magic with another customer and emails go mostly unanswered. And I wouldn't have to waste my time if their inept MDE would quit losing FP+ reservations! And this is the SECOND time! They basically just threw HUGE changes out there and keep making changes as they see fit. I don't have a problem with MB's, or FP+ or FP-, I will work around them. I'm just a little disgruntled that I'm not feeling the Disney love right now. Ok, done.

Magic Bands are really same technology as KTTW card. Just in a wrist band instead of your wallet. Opens door , charges to your account and gets you into park. FP+ is new part.

 

[rebbyparker]

Magic Bands are really same technology as KTTW card. Just in a wrist band instead of your wallet. Opens door , charges to your account and gets you into park. FP+ is new part.

Agreed, however, people are STILL reporting problems/issues/glitches with the MB's. Those should have been perfected before throwing any other new changes into the mix. I could deal with MB problems, if that was it. I could deal with FP+/MDE issues, if that was it. I could deal with tiered FP+ issues, if that was it. Throwing all these changes at people with less than stellar IT/CM's, again, is ridiculous.

And I'm really not complaining, I managed to get everything I needed done. Except MDE is having a problem holding onto my daughter's FP+. They fixed it this morning, I'm good (as long as I don't have to do this AGAIN). Just feeling disgruntled at what I've had to go through for this upcoming trip. I planned a trip last year for 18 people with the DDP for 7 days and didn't have this many problems.

 

[mikek]

Magic Bands are really same technology as KTTW card. Just in a wrist band instead of your wallet. Opens door , charges to your account and gets you into park. FP+ is new part.

well sort of. It's the same technology as current KTTW cards which have NFC/RFID but not the same as the old KTTW cards which had magnetic stripe.

Also, I'm not sure they didn't change the back end system as the new KTTW/MB's can do things that the old ones couldn't like link to annual passes.

So that all should have been tested to death first.

and even being the same technology doesn't mean they dont need testing. When HDMI for tv's came out there were all different incompatibilities between certain bits of hardware. Bluetooth has been around for years now, yet it's still a crapshoot pairing a new cell phone to a new car.

sounds like somehow, something may be different between the KTTW cards and MB's. It's not giant widespread but there's more than a couple posts here about MB's not working and people using KTTW cards instead.

 

[bcrook]

Magic Bands are really same technology as KTTW card. Just in a wrist band instead of your wallet. Opens door , charges to your account and gets you into park. FP+ is new part.

And transmits a longer signal so photopass can gather pictures of you on rides, sensors can monitor your location, and provide interaction with rides and queues. But otherwise very similar to new RFID cards. RFID cards don't make your wrist sweat either.

 

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

And transmits a longer signal so photopass can gather pictures of you on rides, sensors can monitor your location, and provide interaction with rides and queues. But otherwise very similar to new RFID cards. RFID cards don't make your wrist sweat either.

AH true ! But prefer the bands over cards any day ! Always felt I would lose it (because I did one time lol)

 

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

Agreed, however, people are STILL reporting problems/issues/glitches with the MB's. Those should have been perfected before throwing any other new changes into the mix. I could deal with MB problems, if that was it. I could deal with FP+/MDE issues, if that was it. I could deal with tiered FP+ issues, if that was it. Throwing all these changes at people with less than stellar IT/CM's, again, is ridiculous.

And I'm really not complaining, I managed to get everything I needed done. Except MDE is having a problem holding onto my daughter's FP+. They fixed it this morning, I'm good (as long as I don't have to do this AGAIN). Just feeling disgruntled at what I've had to go through for this upcoming trip. I planned a trip last year for 18 people with the DDP for 7 days and didn't have this many problems.

well sort of. It's the same technology as current KTTW cards which have NFC/RFID but not the same as the old KTTW cards which had magnetic stripe.

Also, I'm not sure they didn't change the back end system as the new KTTW/MB's can do things that the old ones couldn't like link to annual passes.

So that all should have been tested to death first.

and even being the same technology doesn't mean they dont need testing. When HDMI for tv's came out there were all different incompatibilities between certain bits of hardware. Bluetooth has been around for years now, yet it's still a crapshoot pairing a new cell phone to a new car.

sounds like somehow, something may be different between the KTTW cards and MB's. It's not giant widespread but there's more than a couple posts here about MB's not working and people using KTTW cards instead.

I'm ok with ALL the changes at once instead of changes gradually over the next few years. I think a lot more are finding the whole experience is working better than thought.

 

[bcrook]

AH true ! But prefer the bands over cards any day ! Always felt I would lose it (because I did one time lol)

I don't mind the bands. The future interactive components will be like the Disney of old. Cutting edge. We have a long wait though...

 

[famy27]

As promised, I sent WDW a lengthy e-mail expressing concern about the tiered system. I received this in response. Apparently, in addition to headliners, Disney is also rationing the use of commas:

Thank you for choosing Walt Disney World® Resort as your magical vacation destination!

If you choose the FastPass+ option it is limited to three attractions all in the same theme park on each day of use and currently at Epcot® it is also a tiered system of choices but please be aware that
FastPass+ is an option, it is not a requirement, you can still use
Disney’s standard Fastpass® option instead if you would prefer where available. Each guest even in the same reservation, can choose FastPass+ or not, if it offered as part of the current test.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and realize that this is not necessarily the answer you were looking for.

If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us.

 

[bcrook]

As promised, I sent WDW a lengthy e-mail expressing concern about the tiered system. I received this in response. Apparently, in addition to headliners, Disney is also rationing the use of commas:

Thank you for choosing Walt Disney World® Resort as your magical vacation destination!

If you choose the FastPass+ option it is limited to three attractions all in the same theme park on each day of use and currently at Epcot® it is also a tiered system of choices but please be aware that
FastPass+ is an option, it is not a requirement, you can still use
Disney’s standard Fastpass® option instead if you would prefer where available. Each guest even in the same reservation, can choose FastPass+ or not, if it offered as part of the current test.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and realize that this is not necessarily the answer you were looking for.

If you have questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us.

And don't forget that you can ride any ride using our standby system...

 

[rebbyparker]

As promised, I sent WDW a lengthy e-mail expressing concern about the tiered system. I received this in response. Apparently, in addition to headliners, Disney is also rationing the use of commas:

 

[Planogirl]

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and realize that this is not necessarily the answer you were looking for.

At least they admit this. I sent a message asking about FP+ too and the answer I got didn't have anything whatsoever to do with my question other than the fact that it mentioned fastpass.

 

[aubriee]

At least they admit this. I sent a message asking about FP+ too and the answer I got didn't have anything whatsoever to do with my question other than the fact that it mentioned fastpass.

They didn't answer my question either, about when FP+ might be available to annual passholders staying offsite. In mine all they said was something about appreciating their annual passholders (even if we do choose to stay offsite and will not be able to use their FP+ system at this time). I didn't ask if we were appreciated, I wanted to know when FP+ might be available for us too.

 

[wesleybean]

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

That very well may be what ends up happening, but for now, those with upcoming trips can use it however they want. I have faith that Disney will make the customer experience the best it can be. This is the largest project Disney has taken on, and I doubt they want to lose visitors due to it. They are spending %1.5 BILLION dollars on this and they won't get it wrong. That being said, Disney has said some of the objectives of the project are as follows:


–By getting guests to plan more of their trips in advance, Disney expects they will spend more of their vacation time on Disney World property, instead of visiting Universal Orlando, shopping malls or other off-property attractions.

–By making food and souvenir purchases as easy as waving a wristband in front of a scanner — the same cash-free model that has been so lucrative for the cruise industry — Disney thinks guests will spend more money overall.

–By collecting more personal data about visitors, from their favorite characters to their spending habits, Disney hopes to develop more effective sales offers customized for individual families.

-Disney thinks MyMagic–will help in other areas, too, from luring more people into company-owned hotels to establishing a new souvenir line in the form of MagicBand accessories.


In the end, it may look very different from any of the tests, but Disney won't ruin their brand or make the experience any less magical.