BIG change to FP+ today

[KatieCharlotte]

I am SHOCKED that a company in the entertainment business would do things to steer its customers into spending more time and money with them.

That would be like a company giving all of its guests at its onsite hotels passes for unlimited rides without waiting in line at its associated theme parks. Or designing its biggest attendance draw so that guests have to buy tickets to BOTH of its parks to experience all of it.

Ha. US was clever, wasn't it. Don't tell my kids but I'm glad we're going to IoA before the HP expansion opens.

I completely understand what you're saying in theory. The problem is that many of us have idealized Disney over the years. Feeling like it's a magical place, NOT just any other theme park, is what has drawn me back year after year. Slightly embarrassing but true. I wouldn't stop going if I couldn't ride the coasters. I may not ride any this trip. I went to Disneyland Paris when it was Eurodisney and the mountains hadn't opened. My favorite rides are the childhood classics.

I would stop going if it stops feeling magical. WDW is supposed to make me feel like a kid, not a cynical adult, darn it. I'm also concerned about families investing huge portions of their budget, time planning, and dreams into a trip to WDW and not having the magical experiences that my family has had in the past.

 

[doconeill]

We are AP holders from Iowa. We own a vacation home 15 min. from Disney. We fly down Nov. 15 and return home on Nov. 20th. My husband booked FP+ for us at HS and lunch at Brown Derby. We are staying at the house not on property. We were invited to FP+ system last trip 4 weeks back but we didn't participate. We booked the hotel 6 days or 7 days before we checked in. We saw no reason to try to book rides in MK at that short notice.

We are also going Dec. 26th through Jan. 8 or 9th can't remember exact dates. We do check into Poly on Dec. 29th and check out on the 4th I think. He has our trip booked with FP+ and our ADRs.

This drive over to HS and try out the system was his idea. He printed off the Disney web site our reservations (ADR for lunch and FP+).

Just that the system let him book for that one day tells us they are letting AP holders book off property. I will report back on how it goes. Maybe it was a glitch. I do know the ADR is good. We also do not have Magic Bands so the FP+ is tied to our AP's. I really have no idea what is going to happen when we show up. Maybe they just read our cards?

Kathy

I answered in the other thread (although you didn't mention a lack of MBs in the other one)...but to summarize, it is because you've already had a qualifying stay. Your MDX account is "FP+ active". Everything will work fine.

As for lack of MagicBands - the AP is tied to your account and is an RFID device, so it works fine for using FP+.

I'm surprised you don't have MBs though. Did you refuse them?

 

[myhouseofmouse]

I am SHOCKED that a company in the entertainment business would do things to steer its customers into spending more time and money with them.

That would be like a company giving all of its guests at its onsite hotels passes for unlimited rides without waiting in line at its associated theme parks. Or designing its biggest attendance draw so that guests have to buy tickets to BOTH of its parks to experience all of it.

Very Funny

 

[AmyB2006]

I am SHOCKED that a company in the entertainment business would do things to steer its customers into spending more time and money with them.

That would be like a company giving all of its guests at its onsite hotels passes for unlimited rides without waiting in line at its associated theme parks. Or designing its biggest attendance draw so that guests have to buy tickets to BOTH of its parks to experience all of it.

Love it.

 

[Peanut Giggleface]

I answered in the other thread (although you didn't mention a lack of MBs in the other one)...but to summarize, it is because you've already had a qualifying stay. Your MDX account is "FP+ active". Everything will work fine.

As for lack of MagicBands - the AP is tied to your account and is an RFID device, so it works fine for using FP+.

I'm surprised you don't have MBs though. Did you refuse them?

We're local AP holders with no MBs. We visited AK yesterday and tried using the FP+ kiosk to schedule a FP. No dice. Didn't work and was told by a CM it would soon be available, but not yet.

 

[AmyB2006]

We're local AP holders with no MBs. We visited AK yesterday and tried using the FP+ kiosk to schedule a FP. No dice. Didn't work and was told by a CM it would soon be available, but not yet.

I think he was talking about someone who already had a resort stay so their passes are FP+ active.

I have an AP but because I've stayed on site in October, I can schedule FP+ 60 days out right now with my linked AP. Even though I don't have a resort stay coinciding with it.

If you haven't had a resort stay then yes, AP holders are still waiting. :/

 

[PEC]

I will survive with the new plan (will just plan accordingly). However what good is it to limit users to 3 FPs and then not allow you to use the 3 on rides that actually require FP. I have done everything at EPCOT at least once and I do enjoy riding and doing a variety of rides but the reality of the situation is only TT and Soarin are absolute FP must. Maelstrom can have a little bit of a line during busy times as can Spaceship Earth and Mission Space but with a little planning you can do all of them with little or no wait. NExt how can this apply for EPCOT and not DHS (arguably AK)? Only MK has so many options that the FPs really get spread out. Bottomline if I am going to be limited to 3 FPs then let me pick the 3 things I want to do.
That said RD is a must now and if say I have a FP+ for Soarin I will bee line it to TT.

 

[robpa]

Yes on the touring method, no on the shorter trips, but we do spend a lot of time in the parks-just not mornings.

We have been stretching out closer to 12 days with this method. That will be a minimum of 12 headliners-prob closer to 25 or more, including arrival and departure days which were previously out of play completely. But again-its the rest of the trip we enjoy most.

All that said-I can say for a fact, If all headliners closed for 5 years-we would still do the annual (or more) trip to WDW no question.

Would you be ok with paying the same price for admission it this happened?

 

[doconeill]

We're local AP holders with no MBs. We visited AK yesterday and tried using the FP+ kiosk to schedule a FP. No dice. Didn't work and was told by a CM it would soon be available, but not yet.

I think he was talking about someone who already had a resort stay so their passes are FP+ active.

I have an AP but because I've stayed on site in October, I can schedule FP+ 60 days out right now with my linked AP. Even though I don't have a resort stay coinciding with it.

If you haven't had a resort stay then yes, AP holders are still waiting. :/

Exactly. The person I was replying to had a resort stay previously that enabled them for FP+, but they are also AP holders. Once enabled, you can continue using it, but they have not enabled AP holders in general yet.

The oft-mentioned "AP loophole" is to book one night at a qualifying resort to get the account enabled .Not sure why it is considered a loophole by some, as it seems valid to me.

 

[robpa]

I actually scheduled my FP+ at 60 days out. We are arriving on Saturday, Dec 20 and leaving Dec 24. I notice that the FP+ I scheduled for Epcot and Hollywood studios aren't showing up on my reservation page the way the ones for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are, so I can't print out a reminder of when my FP+ is scheduled. On Saturday (Nov 2), I was trying to get them to link, and I noticed the same thing for both the parks--you can schedule 1 FP+ from one group and 2 from another, which in general contains attractions, like Spaceship earth, which if you wait until later in the day (our flight arrives about 10 am, and so I don't think we are getting to the park much before 1, so, Spaceship earth will not be an issue). I also noticed that if I tried to schedule a FP just for Soaring, which is the only one we usually get a FP for, they randomly schedule two of the others. It seems like a way to waste FP for the attractions that in my opinion fall it the category "been there, done that, don't want to do again". I wonder what happens if you skip your first FP. Will they cancel the later ones like the airlines do if you miss the first leg of your flight?

You got Captain EO didn't you

 

[Sheilby]

Prob, but we have never charged anything to our room-I think we finally will with MB. I also think MB may be able to see more than currently. Pretty sure they do think your wonderful though.

Ha, thanks

Saw an interesting article tonight on miceage.com, which began with the following quote from Disney's CFO:

“We have known for a really long time that getting our visitors to Walt Disney World to make decisions about where they spend their time before they leave home is a powerful driver of visits per guest. When they get into the Orlando market and their time isn’t yet planned, they can be subject to everything you see down there, which is a lot of in-city marketing for all the many products that people have put there to basically bleed off the feed that we fundamentally motivate. So if we can get people to plan their vacation before they leave home, we know that we get more time with them. We get a bigger share of their wallet. So that’s one thing for you guys to think about.

And the second thing is, what happens to purchases when they become much more convenient and you don’t spend time queuing up for a transaction, queuing up to get in the park and you actually have more time to enjoy the entertainment and subsequently spend more money doing things other than standing in line which, of course, you can’t spend any money while you’re doing that”.​ - Disney CFO Jay Rasulo, on the 2013 2nd Quarter Earnings Call

From the article:

"Fastpass+ ... was not driven by guest demand – it was driven by the desire to keep people on property. The belief is that if a guest has multiple ride reservations scheduled, that has value to the guest. From Disney’s perspective, they believe the guest won’t want to concede their reservations in favor of visiting another Orlando theme park....Fastpass+ is a ruse to sell guests on what’s already there. Every component of it is designed to deceive guests into staying on property."

http://micechat.com/47066-leveraging-next-gen/

Sounds about right. Of course rides scheduled for Captain EO and Figment are not likely to keep me in the park.

I actually scheduled my FP+ at 60 days out. We are arriving on Saturday, Dec 20 and leaving Dec 24. I notice that the FP+ I scheduled for Epcot and Hollywood studios aren't showing up on my reservation page the way the ones for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are, so I can't print out a reminder of when my FP+ is scheduled. On Saturday (Nov 2), I was trying to get them to link, and I noticed the same thing for both the parks--you can schedule 1 FP+ from one group and 2 from another, which in general contains attractions, like Spaceship earth, which if you wait until later in the day (our flight arrives about 10 am, and so I don't think we are getting to the park much before 1, so, Spaceship earth will not be an issue). I also noticed that if I tried to schedule a FP just for Soaring, which is the only one we usually get a FP for, they randomly schedule two of the others. It seems like a way to waste FP for the attractions that in my opinion fall it the category "been there, done that, don't want to do again". I wonder what happens if you skip your first FP. Will they cancel the later ones like the airlines do if you miss the first leg of your flight?

Oh, no, they started tiers for HS too now? Just heard from a friend there who went to HS yesterday that they still haven't brought back reserved seating for FP+ for Fantasmic. Seems like a waste of a FP now, but I'm afraid to change it now and lose my TSMM and ToT.

 

[robpa]

I will survive with the new plan (will just plan accordingly). However what good is it to limit users to 3 FPs and then not allow you to use the 3 on rides that actually require FP. I have done everything at EPCOT at least once and I do enjoy riding and doing a variety of rides but the reality of the situation is only TT and Soarin are absolute FP must. Maelstrom can have a little bit of a line during busy times as can Spaceship Earth and Mission Space but with a little planning you can do all of them with little or no wait. NExt how can this apply for EPCOT and not DHS (arguably AK)? Only MK has so many options that the FPs really get spread out. Bottomline if I am going to be limited to 3 FPs then let me pick the 3 things I want to do.
That said RD is a must now and if say I have a FP+ for Soarin I will bee line it to TT.

If they let everyone schedule 3 of their choice a lot of people would get shut out of soarin and TT. Many of these guests probably wouldn't even bother going to Epcot that day or wouldn't hang around long enough to spend money if they did go.

 

[AmyB2006]

I will survive with the new plan (will just plan accordingly). However what good is it to limit users to 3 FPs and then not allow you to use the 3 on rides that actually require FP. I have done everything at EPCOT at least once and I do enjoy riding and doing a variety of rides but the reality of the situation is only TT and Soarin are absolute FP must. Maelstrom can have a little bit of a line during busy times as can Spaceship Earth and Mission Space but with a little planning you can do all of them with little or no wait. NExt how can this apply for EPCOT and not DHS (arguably AK)? Only MK has so many options that the FPs really get spread out. Bottomline if I am going to be limited to 3 FPs then let me pick the 3 things I want to do.
That said RD is a must now and if say I have a FP+ for Soarin I will bee line it to TT.

And that right there is the key, IMO. MK has plenty of attractions that people want to do. Epcot and DHS really only have a few major headliners or things that you need FP+ for. So everyone is picking those same three. I think they've realized they don't have enough to go around. JMO, though.

 

[lugnut33]

BTW, I've been told that this will be coming to the other parks. Apparently the test has been a success because "not many people are complaining about it".

My best guess is Hollywood Studios is next and it will be a choice between TSMM and Star Tours, or RNR and TT.

I was also told that FP+ and FP- are currently being done in a 50-50 ratio. That tells me that many many people are making their selections on-line. And as they bring more people into the FP+ fold they are going to be reducing the number of FP- available and increasing the FP+.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think limiting to Soarin or TT stinks. But clearly they just don't have the ride capacity.

The big question is, what is the point of prebooking FP+ at all if I still have to run to RD to ride the other big ride at Epcot? I had to do that before.

 

[MermaidMommy]

I am SHOCKED that a company in the entertainment business would do things to steer its customers into spending more time and money with them.

That would be like a company giving all of its guests at its onsite hotels passes for unlimited rides without waiting in line at its associated theme parks. Or designing its biggest attendance draw so that guests have to buy tickets to BOTH of its parks to experience all of it.

Of course Disney wants to make more money by steering its customers to staying onsite. They've done it before, and quite successfully, with Magical Express and the Dining Plan. However, unlike FP+, both ME and the DDP (in its early iteration), were beneficial to both Disney and their guests. FP+ is something that Disney came up with to maximize their profits, and now they're trying to spin it to make it sound like something that's benefical to guests, too. But, it's not.

 

[disneygal55]

My DH and I tested MB's from 10/19-10/24 and were able to choose up to 3 major rides per day. Everything went well and we did not have to use FP-. I will be very disappointed if they keep Epcot(or any other parks) at one headliner per day! I loved the old FP- system and I think that once the entire population gets access to FP+ the system will shut a lot of people out once people start reserving at 60 days. If they limit the headliners to one per day, then they should still allow FP-. Even though we liked having all of our passes booked in advance, we found that we spent less time in the parks because it gave us much less flexibility and we spent less time shopping (are you reading this Disney?).

 

[granmanh603]

My DH and I tested MB's from 10/19-10/24 and were able to choose up to 3 major rides per day. Everything went well and we did not have to use FP-. I will be very disappointed if they keep Epcot(or any other parks) at one headliner per day! I loved the old FP- system and I think that once the entire population gets access to FP+ the system will shut a lot of people out once people start reserving at 60 days. If they limit the headliners to one per day, then they should still allow FP-. Even though we liked having all of our passes booked in advance, we found that we spent less time in the parks because it gave us much less flexibility and we spent less time shopping (are you reading this Disney?).

I agree, the system as it was worked fine why change? New way of course like you is not to our liking and now that I think about it we have just not gone to the parks or gone back more on this trip than in the past. Just too much planning and aggrivation. Unlike others we have had issues, just yesterday all our FP+ disappeared from our MB and other problems.

 

[AmyB2006]

I agree, the system as it was worked fine why change? (

Because it didn't work for a lot of other people.

ETA... Nevermind I thought you were talking about regular paper fastpass. Or maybe you were. LOL I can't tell now.

 

[Jennasis]

Because it didn't work for a lot of other people.

The only reason for the change was to make it "work better" for Disney. Can't fault em' for trying. They are a business and have a responsibility to their shareholders to turn as big a profit as possible.

The FP+ rollout is not some magnanimous attempt to level the playing field.