Can we talk about how bad FastPass+ is?

[Disneylover99]

Oh and I don't think anyone should ever stop voicing their opinions because 'that's how it is now.' Pretty much anything can change. This system will inevitably change. All feedback is good.

Well said.

 

[fallen_angel727]

We don't mind it actually. We're here now and the past few days have been pretty slow so we can do most things without FP's. The only major snag we had was at Tower of Terror, I made the FP+ reservation an hour before our ADR at Sci-Fi. We got there on time and there was a line out to the entrance of RnR (almost) we asked about the wait, they said they weren't sure there were technical problems, we said we would try get another FP later as we had ADRs and didn't want to chance it. The cast member said not to worry and gave us a legacy pass and said to just come when we were finished eating!

 

[maxiesmom]

I like FP+. To me, it means less running around the parks. Before with standard FP you had to go to a ride in order to view the FP return time, and hope it fit in with your plans for the day. And even hope you could get a FP. Now, I know all of that ahead of time. No hiking to a ride to pull a FP, and then hiking back later when my time came up. You still had to be aware of time with FP, that is nothing new with FP+.

I do agree, that the OP seems to want to argue and stir the pot more than discuss the issue. But I still wanted to offer the reasons why I prefer FP+ over FP. Though it would have been nice if Disney could have done some sort of combo of the two, to try and make everyone happy.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I will say, FP+ works really well for non-rope drop people! I've had a hard time getting TSMM FP in the past (because they're usually gone when I get to the park), so either skip it or wait a realllly long time to ride it.

With FP+ I was able to lock it in before my vacation and I didn't have to stay up til midnight to do it. I agree with the other person that it gives you some peace of mind to have FPs for your favorite rides going in. I think Anna/Elsa is the only one you really need to stay up til midnight to do (and even then you may not get it!)

Because I went during a slow period, I also had no problem getting spontaneous FPs when I got to the park, even for popular rides like Soarin. I did lots of 4th,5th,etc FPs day of. I realize this may not be the case for busy season.

So I'm a fan!

 

[AmyB2006]

Because I went during a slow period, I also had no problem getting spontaneous FPs when I got to the park, even for popular rides like Soarin. I did lots of 4th,5th,etc FPs day of. I realize this may not be the case for busy season.

So I'm a fan!

Well really even with legacy FP it wasn't the case. During really busy seasons late afternoon or evening FPs were gone by mid day.

I think since they've added the ability to pull 4th, 5th, etc FPs, and since you can now park hop and get a FP in the new park, it has vastly improved since its first stages.

However tiering at Epcot and DHS still sucks. If we could just get rid of that.

 

[Indio]

We really like FP+! We leave next Thursday for a long weekend - just doing MK and Epcot. I booked FP+ YESTERDAY for both parks and got all 3 mountains at MK (we don't do princesses so no A&E for us) and got Spaceship Earth, Mission Space and TT at Epcot (we like the line better in Soarin so we're gonna do stand-by there). We were never the family that used tons of FP anyway. I don't think we have ever used more than 4 or 5 in a day and we never "cheated" either. We always used our FP within the time frame given so nothing has really changed for us except now we can get the FP we want without having to run and criss-cross the park.

Embrace it, use it, Love it! Look at it this way - at least it's still free and a fabulous perk! You could be paying $85 per person for it like over at the other place!

 

[Jennasis]

I've accepted it, but I don't like it. Used FP+ all last week and felt no benefit to it. All I felt was scheduled.within an inch of my life and completely stressed out...so much so that I was relieved when our 3rd pass was used and we didn't have to deal with FP+ anymore.

My solution will be to not use FP+ in the future.

We had a great trip despite the issues.

 

[FLchick415]

As a semi-local AP, FP+ is just fine for me. I was even able to get a SDMT FP well after my 60 day window opened. It's not going to work for everyone, and that's unfortunate, but it definitely isn't going away.

 

[DAZY3BYZ]

It's unfortunate that people can't be more respectful to each other when having differing opinions. While FP+ may work for some, it obviously does not work for others. We had our first trip with FP+ this past August. We have been to Disney many times, are very type A planners and were big legacy FP users. We loved it and were able to use it to its fullest. We pretty much never waited in lines longer than 20 min and this was traveling during the busy summer months. We were very reluctant about this new system. We had many meetings to plan this trip and were scheduling FP+ at 60 days out at midnight. The amount of advanced planning this system asks of you is extreme even for type A people like ourselves. That being said, there were elements of FP+ that we really liked. The bands were super convenient to use and having some big headliners scheduled with no worries that FP would be gone for the day was really awesome. However, I'm not sure those bonuses were worth the feeling of over scheduling that we had for the entire trip. We were slaves to our schedule, sometimes rushing thru meals to get to a ride before our window expired. Very little time to stop and smell the roses when you're trying to get to a FP before your window expires. Trying to reschedule them or get a 4th for anything worthwhile was just not happening when we were there. The kiosk lines were crazy and they had nothing worthwhile left by pretty early in the day. I changed exactly 1 FP+ during a 9 day trip. We had to change Tower because we weren't going to make it in time. I was changing it on my phone at 10:30 am and could only get 8:50 at night by then. I also didn't like being stuck on my phone so frequently and it was a lot of rushing around to get to our FP+ in time. Lines for attractions that always had reasonable lines in the past were now long. The crowds felt the most oppressive we've ever experienced before because of this. We love Disney and will go back but I think we'll be taking a break for a while. Never felt like this before.

 

[Seeker615]

My parents used the system and they were not fans of it at all. They felt they did actually more walking across the park to get to their reservations. They said they missed just starting from one area of the park and riding everything and then moving on to another section of the park. Instead they had to go to their one first fp+ and then cross over to the next area to make their second reservation and then keep an eye on the time for their next fp+.

 

[lugnut33]

Couple of observations:

1. In park FP+ reservations will become more difficult as FP+ teams are being disbanded within the parks. You will see less and less CM staffing the FP+ kiosks and the roving FP+ CM are being eliminated. I have a family member who was part of a FP+ team that was eliminated at MK.

2. Stop and smell the roses, they don't want you doing that. It's one of the reasons why you've seen a reduction in the live entertainment around the parks. Eliminating live entertainment (I'm not just talking about the recent changes at Epcot either) saves money.

 

[Kimosabe]

I was a hater of the new FP system before actually using it, as we had mastered the art of the old system. Of course, a significant piece of that "art" required my sprinting across the parks to various FP machines throughout the day so that the rest of my family could leisurely walk to rides, get snacks, browse shops, etc. We have now been twice under the new system and, so far, it has actually helped us relax a lot more. We still enjoy rope-drop to try to knock out several rides early without needing FP, but there are times that we just want to sleep in and now we can, without fear that all the Soarin' FPs will be gone before we get there (if that's one we've gotten in advance). With very few exceptions (e.g., A&E, SDMT, TSMM), most rides can indeed be secured within a few days of a trip (and often same morning, although time selections might be limited, admittedly) so planning several weeks in advance is mainly for those who enjoy the planning process (and there are plenty of those folks). I'd rather spend a half hour a few weeks in advance thinking about what I might like to guarantee as a ride on a given day than running through the parks trying to get paper FPs all day with no idea as to what timeframe I might be forced to oblige (e.g., showing up at a Soarin' FP dispenser at 9:30 a.m. to find out the first available FP is at 5:00 that evening). If the response is (or was, I guess), "well you should know that you have to get there earlier if you want to guarantee a decent FP," then we're back to planning in advance one way or another. Six vs. half dozen.

As for being tied to a schedule, the FPs give an hour window for the very purpose of NOT having to be stuck to a strict schedule. As already fought out earlier in this thread, three FPs back-to-back can be spread out over as long as three hours or pushed together into as little as an hour-ish. As for feeling rushed while eating to make a FP time, knowing well in advance what time a FP might be has helped us tremendously in this area, as more than once under the prior system, we'd have an ADR pre-scheduled but a FP time was subject to whatever time the machine told us to come back, so either we're gobbling down food and not relaxing during lunch or I'm standing at the FP machine waiting for the return times to move late enough that we wouldn't feel rushed. With the new system, I can plan for both meals and rides in order to avoid that potential conflict (more often than not...I can acknowledge there are kinks in the system). There's a lot more flexibility with FP timing that many people want to admit.

As for being tied to a phone/device, we're only as tied to it as we want to be. It's an addiction for most of us and we can't blame that on Disney. If you have the three FPs in advance, then you already know when they are and there is no need to look at a phone. You can't use the phone to get later FPs, so again, a moot point. Restaurant ADRs are no different than they used to be, so if you already have one, then no need to look at phone. If you want to find wait times or character locations, you can, but again, that is your own choice....but if you didn't care before the new system, then it really shouldn't matter now. The MDE app is a convenience that helps people plan their day, find their way around the park, etc., but it certainly isn't required to enjoy the day in the parks.

Frankly, I could take the new system or leave it, but we haven't waited in any line at WDW for more than 30 minutes in the last five years, and we are generally able to ride whatever we want with some reasonable degree of planning (whether rope-drop runs, FPs or otherwise) -- it's pretty easy to master either system. Yes, I would MUCH prefer being allowed to spread my three FPs across more than one park, as there are not three rides in Epcot that justify a FP, especially with the tiered system. Some have similar thoughts on other parks, I'm sure (like my wife re: DHS). In addition, it would certainly be nice for people making last minute trips (e.g., locals, especially) or people who simply don't want to do any advance planning whatsoever if WDW would hold back some "good" FPs for same-day, kiosk-only booking. But as most people put at least some effort into planning a WDW vacation in advance (way too much money not to do so, whether a first time, only time or 30th time), planning ahead for rides/attractions is really not so much an actual burden as an easy target for complaint...when we should really all be saving our complaints for things like Frozen going into Norway - ha!

 

[lugnut33]

We don't mind it actually. We're here now and the past few days have been pretty slow so we can do most things without FP's. The only major snag we had was at Tower of Terror, I made the FP+ reservation an hour before our ADR at Sci-Fi. We got there on time and there was a line out to the entrance of RnR (almost) we asked about the wait, they said they weren't sure there were technical problems, we said we would try get another FP later as we had ADRs and didn't want to chance it. The cast member said not to worry and gave us a legacy pass and said to just come when we were finished eating!

FP+ is the greatest system ever when the parks are dead. Then again, legacy FP was the greatest ever when the parks are dead.

 

[lugnut33]

So, I was a FP+ detractor - until I used it. Went to MK today. Stayed from RD until close at 9:00 P.M. Rode the following:


Splash Mountain (FP+)
Splash Mountain (FP+)
Splash Mountain (FP+)
Splash Mountain
.

LOL, I think I found somebody's favorite attraction!!!

 

[Cyrano]

Folks this is a reminder to play nice and respectful to all viewpoints

 

[PEC]

FP+ is the greatest system ever when the parks are dead. Then again, legacy FP was the greatest ever when the parks are dead.

There are lots of truths with this. Lots of examples of both systems that seem to fit at low crowd levels but not really when crowds are 8+.

 

[DisneyFive]

OP, your observations pretty much nail all the problems I have with FP+. Add the whole tiering thing too. Can't stand having to choose between Soarin or Test Track, or TSMM or RnRC.

I do like the benefit of being able to hit the headliners without needing to be at park open, and I also love being able to get good FP's for our arrival day. (they tended to be gone by the time we arrived before FP+ was implimented).

However, saying that, I would most definately go back to the old paper FP system given the choice.

Dan

 

[JMSMommy]

I was more "meh" about it until this past weekend when we realized that we would have the budget for a MNSHHP.

1 - the only party days we could attend are our arrival day, where we have FP+ booked for 7dmt and 3 A&E, making us have to be there at 12 and stay through the party with busy days beyond...AFTER having to get up early to finish driving in. Not to mention needing to unload the vehicle at some point.

2 - the day we are doing Universal...both parks in one day (we are going to be TIRED)

3 - the day we have 1900 Park Fare reserved at 7:20 (my 8 year old has had ONE request for years now - to meet Prince Charming).

In "old days" we would have said, okay, we leave a day earlier and arrive on Saturday. Do our "plan" for arrival day on Saturday and then go to the party on Sunday.

Our "old days plan" would NEVER have had us with fastpasses for a major portion of our trip (Elsa and Anna thanks to the 6.5 year old). Glad to have those, but I feel locked in and I can't change our plans at all! Thus, no extra night at Disney. No party.

We are still trying to make it work out, but it's much more stress now (and we are still trying to secure that 4th A&E fastpass for Dh to go with us to see the girls).

 

[Don Disney]

If you want to commiserate with posters who agree with you, I could give you a list of a dozen or so who have a total of about 300,000 posts and many of their posts over the last year and a half have said exactly what you have said over and over and over again.

As you have noted, most posters have moved on and decided to focus on how to use the system, but there are several who apparently are going to need a few more years to get there.

I'm one who will need more time to move on...I get the idea of FP+,and could probably use it well IF i wanted to.That being said,I wholeheartedly agree with the OP that started this thread,and all the points made.I love to plan our WDW vacations,but it has gotten way overboard.Cancelled our Nov. FD trip....could'nt justify spending that kind of money to be"scheduled"for my entire trip...

 

[CSchex]

We approach the FP+ system a little differently than most, I guess. We have no plans to get additional FP's so we don't feel the need to hurry up and use the first 3. I plan our FP's way spread out if they are in different areas of the park. For example we have a 11am-12pm fastpass for Space Mountain, and then a 3-4 pm for Thunder Mountain. That way, we have don't have to rush. We pick out the attractions that we know we must see. (A&E for the girls, and 7DMT for everyone). Those are the only plans we really make, so we just go with the flow and ride other attractions along the way. We rarely change anything, unless a ride is shut down. Here's hoping things get better for the people aggravated with the system.