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It becomes a full day park when you need the FP+ for FEA, TT or Soarin'. I think otherwise, it's the perfect park hopper park.

We always hit at least twice during every vacation as well.

All I ever do at EPCOT is eat and hit TT. The other attractions I’ll do on a whim. And I prefer soaring in CA. It’s a park I walk over to from DHS since until GE opened, the dining options were awful.
 
FP+ as it was set up, encouraged those domestic guests to spend their whole vacation inside the WDW bubble. The premium they would have to charge for a paid reservation system to make up for the other money they will lose will be through the roof. If I don't have to do seven days at the parks, buy park hopping and stay in WDW resorts to get everything done I want to...….I am not going to do it.

I am cutting my trip to six nights, I am going to buy Disney's express pass, doing only four days at WDW, I'm staying at one of the premier hotels at Universal and spending two days at Universal's parks. If Disney is charging $200 per person, per day for Disney's express pass..... that trip is saving me a small amount of money, but we are getting more done in less time. Disney is losing all the money that we would spend on seven days of park hoppers, breakfast seven days, dinner seven days, lunch four days and our stay for seven nights at one of Disney's deluxe resorts. Disney is losing out on over $2000 from my family on that trip with us paying for the fast pass express from Disney. That is with Disney charging 125% premium over what Universal charges for their express pass.

So I am all for a system like that, but that isn't the system that is coming because Disney can do math. Whatever is coming in the future isn't going to be anything like what people are thinking right now and I don't think it will be rolled out anytime soon. It will be something that discourages off site stays and doesn't encourage shorter stays.

My wild guess is that onsiters get a few "free" FP's and the opportunity through Genie to buy same day ones if they want more.

Off Site gets no free FP's and will only have the opportunity through Genie to buy same day ones.

But as you point out I can't see any changes really rolling out for a while. The demand just isn't there right now. And won't be for a bit.
 
My wild guess is that onsiters get a few "free" FP's and the opportunity through Genie to buy same day ones if they want more.

Off Site gets no free FP's and will only have the opportunity through Genie to buy same day ones.

But as you point out I can't see any changes really rolling out for a while. The demand just isn't there right now. And won't be for a bit.

I could see this, especially with possibly allocating numbers of free FP's based on resort tier... maybe 2 for value, 3 for mod, 4 for deluxe. Depending on the cost of the potential paid FP's, 1 or 2 additional free FP's might be enough to push people into splurging on a higher tier resort.
 
Oh man. I thought the spires were the last step. I guess I was foolishly thinking those walls (the ones around the fountain) would be down by our trip in 3 weeks.

The Disney social media posts just said "later this year".

As for Epcot, I think we wound up there at some point on 7 out of 9 days on our last trip. Had to get as many Illuminations in as possible before it ended.
 

I could see this, especially with possibly allocating numbers of free FP's based on resort tier... maybe 2 for value, 3 for mod, 4 for deluxe. Depending on the cost of the potential paid FP's, 1 or 2 additional free FP's might be enough to push people into splurging on a higher tier resort.

I am sure I'm in the minority given my hatred of FP+ but getting an additional 1-2 choices per day wouldn't be worth the hundreds of dollars a night premium for a deluxe. Unlimited FP would though. One of my main issues with FP+ is that all your choices had to be in the same park; the second was the tiering (although I understood why they had to do that to make it fair). Aside from MK which is headliner after headliner FP+ held no value for me because after I did 7DMT and BTMRR and Space Mountain I was still stuck waiting hours and hours in lines to finish what I wanted and couldn't make a "good" FP selection at another park until I had done so. So, it cumulatively saved me an hour or two but it wasn't the game changer for me that it was for other people who literally can't stand on a line without it and would rather spend $86/day to ride 3 rides with FP+ and then leave the park entirely and come back the next day for their next 3 FPs. Make it unlimited, and/or remove the restriction on it needing to be in the same park, and then we can talk.
 
I am sure I'm in the minority given my hatred of FP+ but getting an additional 1-2 choices per day wouldn't be worth the hundreds of dollars a night premium for a deluxe. Unlimited FP would though. [...] Make it unlimited, and/or remove the restriction on it needing to be in the same park, and then we can talk.


That's why I said depending on the possible price (and, of course, the specifics of the offerings attached) of a paid FP+ offering.

Of course 2 additional free FP's might not be enough for most people to go from All Star Music to the Poly.

If, though, going from, say, Pop to Riverside costs less per night than the hypothetical paid FP+ system, that could be enough to convince someone who knows they'll be content with just 3 free FP's per day because of their touring style to make the jump from value to mod, especially since that cost difference would also include the resort differences and could thus be a little easier to stomach. Especially if it's a guest that doesn't ride many things for whatever reason, or who knows how to maneuver the parks to optimize riding without FPs, the hypothetical guest in this scenario might see more value in {POFQ with 3 free FP's} than {All Star Music with 2 free FP's and a paid FP+ system}.

The endgame is to offer things in a way to increase revenue, so if they could offer justttt enough of a "free" incentive to hook the people who won't pay for paid-FP+ but would pay for a higher tier resort if the pot were sweetened slightly, then i could absolutely see them doing that. Maybe, to hook the guests like you described, they go even further and offer free unlimited FPs for CL guests.

This is all just a hypothetical, though.
 
I think the excessive planning for FP needs to go. 60 days is a little ridiculous. Make it when you check into your resort, you can then make FP (or whatever they rename it) for your entire trip. If dining is changing from 180 days to 60 days permanently, if/when a FP type system returns, I think the level of advanced planning for that will change as well. I think more BG style reservations should be made accessible for select E-Ticket attractions. I dont see the need for Rat to have one, but Guardians and Tron would probably benefit from having one.
 
I think the excessive planning for FP needs to go. 60 days is a little ridiculous. Make it when you check into your resort, you can then make FP (or whatever they rename it) for your entire trip. If dining is changing from 180 days to 60 days permanently, if/when a FP type system returns, I think the level of advanced planning for that will change as well. I think more BG style reservations should be made accessible for select E-Ticket attractions. I dont see the need for Rat to have one, but Guardians and Tron would probably benefit from having one.

This is why I opt for DL over MK.
 
I think the excessive planning for FP needs to go. 60 days is a little ridiculous. Make it when you check into your resort, you can then make FP (or whatever they rename it) for your entire trip. If dining is changing from 180 days to 60 days permanently, if/when a FP type system returns, I think the level of advanced planning for that will change as well. I think more BG style reservations should be made accessible for select E-Ticket attractions. I dont see the need for Rat to have one, but Guardians and Tron would probably benefit from having one.

I think the Genie service was originally supposed to be for the person who wasn't into the excessive planning. I actually enjoy that part of it, although I understand your point - it's not for everyone.

In terms of Boarding Groups or Virtual Queues, this is where I think they are going and what the FP+ queues will be used for.
 
Uh.... don't go suggesting single park hop tickets to Disney!

"Now you can add Epcot hopping for just $20 per day, HS for $50 per day, AK for $20, MK for $50, or for a amazing deal giving you the option of hopping to any of those parks for only $120 per day!!!"
Isn't that how hopping works anyways? It's an extra charge on a base ticket.
 
That's why I said depending on the possible price (and, of course, the specifics of the offerings attached) of a paid FP+ offering.

Of course 2 additional free FP's might not be enough for most people to go from All Star Music to the Poly.

If, though, going from, say, Pop to Riverside costs less per night than the hypothetical paid FP+ system, that could be enough to convince someone who knows they'll be content with just 3 free FP's per day because of their touring style to make the jump from value to mod, especially since that cost difference would also include the resort differences and could thus be a little easier to stomach. Especially if it's a guest that doesn't ride many things for whatever reason, or who knows how to maneuver the parks to optimize riding without FPs, the hypothetical guest in this scenario might see more value in {POFQ with 3 free FP's} than {All Star Music with 2 free FP's and a paid FP+ system}.

The endgame is to offer things in a way to increase revenue, so if they could offer justttt enough of a "free" incentive to hook the people who won't pay for paid-FP+ but would pay for a higher tier resort if the pot were sweetened slightly, then i could absolutely see them doing that. Maybe, to hook the guests like you described, they go even further and offer free unlimited FPs for CL guests.

This is all just a hypothetical, though.

If you are going to go to a system that you want to charge people for, you can't be giving them away to people staying in your 30,000 rooms. You aren't going to have enough left over to charge people for it to make it worthwhile and still have a situation where the person doesn't have to wait a considerable amount of time.

You don't get rid of FP+ in the situation you are describing. You just tier base it on resort and modify an expanded program of what you already offered to club level guests when it comes to buying additional ones. If FP+ is really done, what is coming is going to be totally different.
 
Isn't that how hopping works anyways? It's an extra charge on a base ticket.

Yes, but Epcot is normally a part of the base ticket.

I'm confused, but i think people are suggesting to remove it as part of a base ticket and make it an add-on? Like a water-park?

I personally would hate that. We easily spend two days in Epcot. But I may be misunderstanding what people are proposing.
 
Yes, but Epcot is normally a part of the base ticket.

I'm confused, but i think people are suggesting to remove it as part of a base ticket and make it an add-on? Like a water-park?

I personally would hate that. We easily spend two days in Epcot. But I may be misunderstanding what people are proposing.
Agreed. Epcot should stay as a “park” but I could see it become the first park that would allow afternoon or evening hopping as an add on price.
 
This is why I opt for DL over MK.

The system is simple, yet effective. Makes Park Hopping much easier too. Scan into Indiana Jones, make a pass for Guardians. Scan into Guardians, make a pass for Big Thunder. Obviously that method is time consuming, but the point is you can do it.

I think the Genie service was originally supposed to be for the person who wasn't into the excessive planning. I actually enjoy that part of it, although I understand your point - it's not for everyone.

In terms of Boarding Groups or Virtual Queues, this is where I think they are going and what the FP+ queues will be used for.

The Genie, imo, is for the people that dont do planning and its Disneys way of giving them the reservations that no one wanted in the first place. I’m going to break character for a second. For example Carpets of Aladdin. Not many people are booking that 60 days in advance.

Disney Genie surveys you. Oh, you like the movie Aladdin? Well we’ll book you for a ride on COA.

I like the planning, but its 3 in the afternoon and I’m still not even sure what I’m making for dinner tonight. My trip for June was the first time I’ve ever done FP+ the 60 days in advance, and of course I got all of the rides I wanted, and the trip was cancelled. Most of my trips are in the moment. Ill usually get FP+ for Splash, Space, BTM day of at MK, but for all the other parks I just wing it. Either standby or what’s available for FP right now. If they made it that I could book my passes as soon as I check in to my resort, and everything is still available, theres a much better chance of me actually making the plans.

This obviously isnt a one size fits all approach. Like you said, you enjoy the planning far out, a lot of people do. For me personally, I like to think about my trips when I’m actually there.
 
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