I love planning, but hate the whole FP+ thing. Things I specifically dislike about FP+:
1. Planning that far out
2. Having to stay up late for when they "go on sale" (I loved that term in the article), just like buying tickets for a concert.
3. Navigating the terrible Disney website.
4. No flexibility when it comes to changing headliners, therefore no changing of park days unless you're willing to give up the headliners.
5. Long lines to get through first check point.
6. I feel really bad for people confused by the whole thing. Saw tons of people walk up to the touch points (after waiting in line) only to be directed to standby.
7. Creates a lot of tense moments at the first touch point when CM says, "No go".
8. If it's a busy time, don't even think about changing parks.
9. Creates long lines at attractions that didn't have long lines.
10. Has slowed down attractions, especially POC
11. Cannot gift my unused fast passes to a family.
12. Having to constantly check my phone to make sure I don't miss my FP+ time.
13. Slow internet in the parks, thus making it difficult to use the whole MME in the park.
14. Long lines at the FP+ kiosks.
15. System goes down too often
Pretty comprehensive list. Here's my take on them from our experiences...
1. I like being able to book so far out, and book before ppl w/o resort reservations. But I can see how this would not be good for someone who doesn't like to or doesn't want to plan.
2. You don't have to stay up late. Any time in your first few weeks is fine, unless you need A&E on a particular day.
3. Agree. Their website does glitch out from time to time, and the way in which your first 3 are picked is awkward.
4. Agree. But, I don't know how this could be fixed. This isn't Disney so much, as it is thousands of other guests booking up what I want, thereby limiting my choices to change popular attractions (darn them!)
5. I haven't seen this. First checkpoint was pretty quick for us. Only slow part of first checkpoint was where our kids had to be measured.
6. Disagree. More people use and understand FP+ than used and understood FP-. I actually wish fewer ppl would use it, like in the FP- days!
7. Tense moment? I can't relate here. I think our only "No go" was a CM at POTC that scanned us, looked at his screen, said oh you're 5 min earlier than it'll let you go, he punched some buttons, and waived us thru.
8. I agree here, it does lock you into your park choices more. But since our first visit we knew what parks we'd be in on which day so for us this isn't a huge change. If you used to pick day-of, this is more limiting.
9. We didn't experience this. We waited about the same as usual, rode as much as past trips.
10. Disagree. POTC isn't slower. Just half of its cars are being filled by FP instead of SB. I had no trouble getting POTC SDFPs, so this is a non-issue to us.
11. Agree, you can't. But this is not a big deal to me. There are enough other ways to be nice to ppl.
12. Disagree. Because FP- you had to do the same thing.
13. I didn't experience this. The internet worked well enough. Maybe it's getting worse as FP+ gets adopted by more and more ppl? We'll see this winter.
14. I didn't see this. I saw some pic out here on the web, but that wasn't what I experienced in the parks.
15. Disagree. The DVA site did go down for a week last month, but I haven't seen the Disney site do that. (knock on wood)
Skimming the first few, I thought we'd agree on more, since we were 50% after the first 4. But the rest I didn't see the same as you. Most of the things you find bad about FP+ either don't matter so much to me, or my experience was different.
Anyway, I don't feel like that at WDW. I see all of the awesome attractions and I want to do them all and more than one time lol.
? Yes it's frustrating if you're not computer or internet savvy. But if that's the case, then planning a WDW vacation isn't the only thing that frustrates you since most companies want you to interact with them through the internet.
