Could FP+ Ruin my experience?

[mom2rtk]

I agree, I think people will figure out all sorts of strategies and still manage to have some sort of an advantage. But, if there is a limit on FPs, there will be a limit on FP. There will be no way around that.

This is the part that concerns me most.

And how exactly do you access all this if you aren't on property or an AP?

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards ... 09/2010 CBR Pirate Room ; 11/2012 POR Royal Room ; Early 2014 CS in planning process'

You will be able to link your tickets to your account on MDX.

 

[UNCFanatik]

I am sure that at some point we will all figure out the advantage again like being up at 6AM on our booking day. Those people who Disney are now trying to cater to ( the 90+ min waiters for Splash Mt.) obviously couldn't be bother to either get up early on their vacation or learn a little about how FP works (heck it is on the TV station in their resort). What makes Disney think that FP+ will magically make that any different? If you don't wanna get up at 6AM on vacation, why would you magically wanna get up at 6AM 60 days out? If you couldn't be bothered to understand FP what makes Disney think that you can be bothered to figure out FP+? I don't mean to sound harsh, but that is how it is.

I can see Disney's train of thought here though. How many people do you really think make return visits to Disney if they are waiting 90+ mins in Splash Mt? Disney is thinking, if we can magically give those guys a FP+ for Splash which will make their experience easier, they will come back.

By your logic that people that do not "bother" to learn about FP system now then why would they learn about the new system. If this significant percentage of guests do not choose to prebook FP+ at 60 days out,then wouldnt that in and of itself stop the need to get up at 6am-7am to prebook FP+ ressies because of the amount of people calling?

 

[Nixie]

By your logic that people that do not "bother" to learn about FP system now then why would they learn about the new system. If this significant percentage of guests do not choose to prebook FP+ at 60 days out,then wouldnt that in and of itself stop the need to get up at 6am-7am to prebook FP+ ressies because of the amount of people calling?

Doesn't TSM still run out of FPs by say noon even with people waiting in a 120min queue??

 

[delmar411]

By your logic that people that do not "bother" to learn about FP system now then why would they learn about the new system. If this significant percentage of guests do not choose to prebook FP+ at 60 days out,then wouldnt that in and of itself stop the need to get up at 6am-7am to prebook FP+ ressies because of the amount of people calling?

Look at the number of ppl on this forum who can't even be bothered to read the threads about FP+ (but just want their question answered) or even believe what is stated. I don't see ppl booking FP+ until forced to and still they will take the path of least resistance and probably accept quick picks as the only choice for them.

When ppl dont make ADRs even though they buy the dining plan and are told over and over by CMs that they will be out of luck and unable to redeem their dining plan TS credits if they do not.... Why would anyone believe that if they don't make FP+ selections 60days out that they will be locked out of FP for headliners?

 

[lazer]

Look at the number of ppl on this forum who can't even be bothered to read the threads about FP+ (but just want their question answered) or even believe what is stated.

^^^^this! Throw in there people that don't know about DIS, "rope drop", touring plans, best times to travel, etc.

There will always be people that think waiting in long lines is just part of Disney. I just hope the FP+ lines aren't crazy long too

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

But what about Disney making quick picks for guest. Wasn't there some hints that this may be done. And if so, how many of these quick picks will be for headliners? Maybe Disney is going to give some of these headliner FP+s to guest that can't be bothered to plan. Then the question will be if they will even be bothered to try and understand what they have and to even use the quick picks Disney gives them.

How many of you have heard this conversation; "The FP return time is 3 hours away but the SB line is only 60 minutes. We should just get in line."

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

I know locals who want to make spontaneous visits feel alienated but as an international visitor last year I felt like I had no option other than to stand in long SB lines. My hotel shuttle never got us to HS in time for RD so I never really stood a chance of getting FP'S for TSMM...

What time did your shuttle arrive??? Unless you are arriving at the park well after noon, and outside of Chistmas week, it's unlikely FP's for TSMM were gone. Very late & possibly undesirable return times, definitely, but outside of extreme crowd days FPs tend to be available at least until early afternoon in *my* experience. We are hit/miss with RD but we've always managed to pull FPs for TSMM unless we get to HS at 3pm. I think it's an exaggeration to say that unless you hit RD you stand no chance of getting a FP for TSMM.

I wonder if the last minute trips problem will be solved by Disney offering a deal whereby you book tickets and a resort and DDP for example with some FP+ selections already preloaded for certain times on certain days. For example Monday I already have a default slot for SM if I want one at 9:00 am. They could do this at low season as an incentive. Ok they might not be exactly what I want but at least there is a window there. Also I heard GAC is changing I wonder if this is being tied into magicband somehow.

And see, for those of us with APs and TIW who plan day trips or last minute weekend getaways, this is "too" much of a package. What we need are really good FL resident or AP holder discounts on rooms, then we stay on Disney property 100% of our trip.

Since there's not really a true low season any longer I personally find the availability of discounted rooms to be fewer & far between & it made us start looking off site. So in our last 3 trips of 2-4 days each, we stayed off site for a huge discount over Disney's prices (even when we add back daily parking). Other hotels/timeshare facilities were thrilled to book last minute deals, Disney is too busy to care. They can/want to sell those rooms in a package (like you stated) and roll in all the extras like the DDP to really get the most bang for their buck per square foot, lol. We also ate more meals offsite than before & saved money there too. And bonus! We loved being able to grab a late night meal or snack at a fast food chain vs foraging for late-night food options at the parks or our hotel food court/restaurants.

It was also nice to get AWAY from people, lol. I never thought we'd enjoy staying offsite because part of what I loved so much was the feeling of being immersed in all things Disney..... but lately that has come to mean being immersed in higher crowds, more of the "Me 1st" attitude with things like GAC abuses, longer waits, more ride malfunctions & delays, etc. Sometimes (not always) but sometimes on recent trips we've had to work a bit at remembering the Magic instead of feeling it as naturally as before.

 

[Nixie]

Nope. One trip through our favorites would leave me disappointed and hesitant to schedule a return trip.

We plan our trips so far in advance (once per year) that we would likely go ahead with that trip, and do the running of the bulls to do it at rope drop. We at least have the advantage of not minding doing rope drop. But losing the FP ability on a favorite ride completely would be a huge takeaway for us and we would be more hesitant to return.

Even if I didn't plan to scrap our trip entirely, I might take a look at how our days are being spent. I might consider ditching AK or HS. I would definitely ditch Epcot without FPs for TT and Soarin. Universal would be the winner in these cases as we would likely go there instead.

I am with you on this. I could see myself just doing MK for 3 days and skipping everything else. Would I miss EP, HS, and AK? Sure, but if MK gets even harder for me and my family to do what we enjoy in it, I sure as heck am not going to be "wasting" my time (and money) on parks we are just "eh" about. I could see our family booking for 2 night/3 days at MK and moving over to Universal for the same. What used to be a week long trip to just Disney, would get split into a Uni and Disney trip.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

But what about Disney making quick picks for guest. Wasn't there some hints that this may be done. And if so, how many of these quick picks will be for headliners? Maybe Disney is going to give some of these headliner FP+s to guest that can't be bothered to plan. Then the question will be if they will even be bothered to try and understand what they have and to even use the quick picks Disney gives them.

How many of you have heard this conversation; "The FP return time is 3 hours away but the SB line is only 60 minutes. We should just get in line."

Man, that spells disaster to me. So they give 13-year old Johnny a FP for Space Mtn because he fits the demographic of those that love this ride (& they know because of his MB) but Johnny HATES roller coasters & could care less. Wasted FP+ for another park patron who maybe ONLY cared about riding Space.

 

[UNCFanatik]

I know, I was just there, but I mean the standby times will be even worse. If people weren't using the regular Fastpass (which is comparatively easier overall with not requiring preplanning past what time to get to the park in some cases), they definitely aren't going to use this. Nevertheless, all the FP+ slots will be taken by people thinking they could possibly go that day (some of which who won't). And the old fastpass probably evened out crowds more with potentially letting people have more of them per day than this will.

I do not understand what you are saying here or even if it will be possible.

Some of the concerns about the new FP+ system is how easy it will be for people to get a FP+. The position states that since the barrier of actually walking to a location to pull a FP is now removed then more people will use the system. Also, some of the FP opinions on the DIS are about how heavily Disney will market the FP+ system when guests first book their packages especially directly through Disney. As some have said, the guest may just be given a standard package of quick pick FP+ upon booking where they could adjust them and make changes if they so chose. This is a lot different than the current FP- system where guests had to of course be onsite to get FPs.

It remains to be seen what limits Disney will place on their AP holders as to how many FP+ ressies they can make. I have heard only 7 at a time but I havent seen that confirmed. Other guests would need a ticket to reserve FP+s. It will not be open to every guest that is just thinking about taking a Disney trip.

I do not see this as being as big as an issue as some would like to make because their are several assumptions at play.

I really would think that most who didn't know about the old system beforehand would research about it and then use it the next time they went to one of the parks. This however is not so easy to use, requiring extensive pre-planning. Everyone could use the old Fastpass, this is tougher for a lot to actually be able to use however. Maybe they should've just done a better job telling people about the old Fastpass then they wouldn't feel they have to change it now.

You don't need to be an expert to know about the old Fastpass or this, just do the research.

As I said above, they may not have to do research on the new system, it just may be directly offered to them at the time they book. I do not see how difficult it will be guests just to be assigned a selection of FP+s. The difficulty comes in how clunky or problematic it is to use MDE or a Kiosk to make changes.

You will not need to be an expert to use the FP+ system either.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

What time did your shuttle arrive??? Unless you are arriving at the park well after noon, and outside of Chistmas week, it's unlikely FP's for TSMM were gone. Very late & possibly undesirable return times, definitely, but outside of extreme crowd days FPs tend to be available at least until early afternoon in *my* experience. We are hit/miss with RD but we've always managed to pull FPs for TSMM unless we get to HS at 3pm. I think it's an exaggeration to say that unless you hit RD you stand no chance of getting a FP for TSMM.

And see, for those of us with APs and TIW who plan day trips or last minute weekend getaways, this is "too" much of a package. What we need are really good FL resident or AP holder discounts on rooms, then we stay on Disney property 100% of our trip.

Since there's not really a true low season any longer I personally find the availability of discounted rooms to be fewer & far between & it made us start looking off site. So in our last 3 trips of 2-4 days each, we stayed off site for a huge discount over Disney's prices (even when we add back daily parking). Other hotels/timeshare facilities were thrilled to book last minute deals, Disney is too busy to care. They can/want to sell those rooms in a package (like you stated) and roll in all the extras like the DDP to really get the most bang for their buck per square foot, lol. We also ate more meals offsite than before & saved money there too. And bonus! We loved being able to grab a late night meal or snack at a fast food chain vs foraging for late-night food options at the parks or our hotel food court/restaurants.

It was also nice to get AWAY from people, lol. I never thought we'd enjoy staying offsite because part of what I loved so much was the feeling of being immersed in all things Disney..... but lately that has come to mean being immersed in higher crowds, more of the "Me 1st" attitude with things like GAC abuses, longer waits, more ride malfunctions & delays, etc. Sometimes (not always) but sometimes on recent trips we've had to work a bit at remembering the Magic instead of feeling it as naturally as before.

Well on the positive side maybe the hotels and restaurants outside Disney will enjoy more business. We rent a car anyway so eating off world is no issue we come from the UK and places like the Olive Garden are wonderful to us. But we are DVC folk and do stay on world because we love it but I am not going to book SM at 60 days. That's no vacation for us. Disney will figure it out when we stop renewing our TIW and AP's and eyeball the lines at The Outback and Universal..

 

[epcotty]

I do not understand what you are saying here or even if it will be possible.

Some of the concerns about the new FP+ system is how easy it will be for people to get a FP+. The position states that since the barrier of actually walking to a location to pull a FP is now removed then more people will use the system. Also, some of the FP opinions on the DIS are about how heavily Disney will market the FP+ system when guests first book their packages especially directly through Disney. As some have said, the guest may just be given a standard package of quick pick FP+ upon booking where they could adjust them and make changes if they so chose. This is a lot different than the current FP- system where guests had to of course be onsite to get FPs.

It remains to be seen what limits Disney will place on their AP holders as to how many FP+ ressies they can make. I have heard only 7 at a time but I havent seen that confirmed. Other guests would need a ticket to reserve FP+s. It will not be open to every guest that is just thinking about taking a Disney trip.

I do not see this as being as big as an issue as some would like to make because their are several assumptions at play.



As I said above, they may not have to do research on the new system, it just may be directly offered to them at the time they book. I do not see how difficult it will be guests just to be assigned a selection of FP+s. The difficulty comes in how clunky or problematic it is to use MDE or a Kiosk to make changes.

You will not need to be an expert to use the FP+ system either.

Really? Then people who 1. Do not book a package (buying only tickets) and 2. Anyone who can't plan that much or that far ahead is screwed out of this.

This is part of the ultimate realization of Iger's administration: make a company that maximizes profits to the point that it no longer cares about guests' experiences and regularly makes some second class citizens at the parks by making unreasonable requests for many. Disney before he came along would never consider doing such a thing. It's also under his administration that ticket prices started running way past inflation.

 

[Rip]

It is interesting in another post that you challenge me on my speculation and now you are speculating about future FP+ reservation bookings. And if it turns out the way you are guessing then it will be a good thing and it will create more FP+ same day FP+ availability and there will not be the projected rush by some of people getting up 6am-7am to make FP+ ressies

No, it will not and cannot ever create more same day FPs.

There is a "rumor" that AP holders will not be able to make unlimited FP+ reservations. Also, as I have stated before, AP holders are not a monolithic group. They all do not have the same touring style or reasons for coming to the park. And yes, FP+ does alleviate it. It prevents people in the park from pulling excessive FPs because there will be a cap to the amount they can pull.




Not a straw man at all. Look at the original question that was asked. "What was wrong with the previous FP system?". Yes, Disney could have gone paperless before now but the fact remains that the system used a lot of consumables. It was a problem that could easily be addressed with use of technology.





It created crowd issues especially in DHS where everyone would rush over to TSMM to ride and/or pull FPs. This was especially seen in the days where they would hold everyone right outside the hat. By your constant admitting they could have fixed some issues without going to the FP+ system is a de facto admittance that there were problems with the previous system





It very well could. And it could also produce outcomes that may surprise and please the general public. This is why there is much speculation about all of this. Everyone has their own theories of what will happen.





OK, so not to drag up an area where we do not see eye to eye. We can both agree there was a time where Disney allowed people to use FPs past the window stated on the FP. That is the time period i was referring to.



Serious question, how would Disney design a system that would be better for ALL their guests? What about the guests that were unhappy with the previous FP system? Was that good for Disney?

And the money isnt all being spent just on the FP+ system. It is money for the entire MM program.

I'm not suggesting that any system would be beneficial to all guests, I'm suggesting that this system will be a net negative particularly from a cost perspective.

 

[lazer]

Weren't fastpasses just for hotel guests at one point? It changed, evolved and ended up working out. We don't know the metrics of how this will work. (% of no shows calculated in, fp+ availability depending on expected crowd levels, etc.)

I'm a skeptic of it too, but hopefully the feedback and experiences people sharing (including myself) during testing make if work well..for the majority of visitors.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

Weren't fastpasses just for hotel guests at one point?

I don't think so - it's always been attached to your park tickets in my experience. That what made it fair treatment for every person IN the parks on a given day - every one was treated equally whether you were staying on or off site, there for a day or a month, owned a DVC or not.

 

[jaykorf001]

Their opinions are relevant to issues with the booking process as a whole even though they weren't able to plan 60 days in advance. People had issues with various aspects of reserving, switching, and replanning their FP+s. These issues will be faced in real life so the feedback on different aspects of the overall system is very valuable to Disney to help them address different issues discovered in this round of testing before it gets released in "real life"

Again, there are many moving pieces to the FP+ system.

Yeah, I get why their feedback is important to Disney I just suspect once individuals can start booking 60 days out the user perception may change.

 

[lazer]

I don't think so - it's always been attached to your park tickets in my experience. That what made it fair treatment for every person IN the parks on a given day - every one was treated equally whether you were staying on or off site, there for a day or a month, owned a DVC or not.

I must have made that up...haha. Thanks for clarifying!

 

[One Hit Wonder]

Had to register just for this thread.

Am I the only one who has no idea what rides I'm going to be riding 60 days in advance?

I generally don't even know what park I'm going to be in the next day until the night before, let alone when I want to do what rides!

The spontaneity of saying, "Yea, I think I feel like going to Epcot today", or "I think I'm going to go ride Tower of Terror for an hour tonight" or "I think today I'm going to lounge by the pool for the morning" is the only way of keeping Disney somewhat relaxing and stress-free while enjoying all the great things there, IMO. I don't want to be tied down to my own plans on vacation!!!

Is Disney purposefully trying to make vacations to Disney World more stressful?

 

[lazer]

Had to register just for this thread.

Am I the only one who has no idea what rides I'm going to be riding 60 days in advance?

I generally don't even know what park I'm going to be in the next day until the night before, let alone when I want to do what rides!

The spontaneity of saying, "Yea, I think I feel like going to Epcot today", or "I think I'm going to go ride Tower of Terror for an hour tonight" or "I think today I'm going to lounge by the pool for the morning" is the only way of keeping Disney somewhat relaxing and stress-free while enjoying all the great things there, IMO. I don't want to be tied down to my own plans on vacation!!!

Is Disney purposefully trying to make vacations to Disney World more stressful?

I agree totally. And, I hate making ADRs. We park hop A LOT. Last year we went to magic kingdom one morning and it was so packed we left immediately, didn't even go in the gate.

This year we are part of testing and have free dining, so I booked some ADRs and fp+. But, I would doubt if we totally change everything while there. Heck I've already changed our plans 10+ times and we still don't leave for three weeks.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Had to register just for this thread.

Am I the only one who has no idea what rides I'm going to be riding 60 days in advance?

I generally don't even know what park I'm going to be in the next day until the night before, let alone when I want to do what rides!

The spontaneity of saying, "Yea, I think I feel like going to Epcot today", or "I think I'm going to go ride Tower of Terror for an hour tonight" or "I think today I'm going to lounge by the pool for the morning" is the only way of keeping Disney somewhat relaxing and stress-free while enjoying all the great things there, IMO. I don't want to be tied down to my own plans on vacation!!!

Is Disney purposefully trying to make vacations to Disney World more stressful?

Hi no me too. I have no idea what rides either. You aren't alone. Many of us are worried that our spontaneity is being kidnapped!