Curious how FP+ has changed your touring style, if at all?

[Jennytoon]

I think it's fair to say that one of the most touted benefits of FP+ is the ability to sleep in and still skip some significant lines, so I almost feel as though FP+ has arrived just in time for me. On our first trip 8 yrs ago, we had a 1 yr old. Since then we've been every two years but always had to work around nap / midday break schedules, so we rope-dropped as a matter of course. Two years ago the younger two still needed a break, but not really a nap, and so the timing was more flexible ... and there started to be grumblings about getting there at Rope Drop Every Day. Our touring style will be different this upcoming trip, but I kind of feel it's our style that wanted to change anyway, and FP+ just works better with the new version than legacy would have because we still won't spend all day in the parks routinely, that's never going to be our style.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

it doesn't, really, except now I can ride TSM if I don't get to the park before 10. So I've ridden it more in the past year than in all prior years.

 

[Bug&Boo]

We arrive at rope drop to ride the minor rides without wait. We have fast passes for mid-day for headliners. We don't ride as many rides as we used to, but we walk around the park a lot less since we don't have to dash around pulling fast passes. We do not eat as many table service meals because that is just too much on a schedule for us.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

Its removed the desire to have the park hopper option and made us think about whether we really want to ride something. It's just really hard to go places and see lines for attractions that have always been walk on. We've actually reduced the number of trips we're doing with Disney and are going to some other places so it's changed our check book in the positive.

 

[momof2n2]

Yes its changed my touring plan to Cancun Mexico next year!!

LOL. It changed us to SW/BGT/Aquatica last year!

Going to give it a try next year. Expecting to do less ADRs & not reride our favorites like we used to.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Please don't turn this into a FP+ debate. There are plenty of threads for that.


What has changed for you? What have you learned that makes the system work best for you?

Kinda hard to discuss without expressing an opinion, but..well...

It isn't JUST FP+ that changed our style. It's the whole ball of wax: crazy price increases, no show dining fees, lower customer service, FP+, reduced food quality, and ADRs.

1. No more extended family trips. We used to go once a year in a large group. Out of the question now.
2. We traded WDW trips for US and the rest of FLA. It was lovely to get high-end hotel rooms Easter week for under $150 a night!
3. We replaced our WDW AP's with US AP's!

A few years back, Universal was the ugly step sister (or maybe the drab Cinderella?) Now US is Cinderella at the ball, and -I never thought I'd say this - Disney has become the ugly, greedy stepsister.

Much of what we used to love about WDW is just gone. I applauded the initial promise of FP+, but the rollout and the way WDW has treated their loyal customers dashed my hopes.

The detail of Diagon Alley is amazing! VotLM is 1970's Scary Snow White. I love the songs, but that's not enough. The ride doesn't put me in the movie. DA puts us into the world of HPotter! Kids cast spells with wands, eat in the Leaky Cauldron, and feel the heat of dragon breath.

To me, 180 day ADR's aren't a solution, they are clear evidence of the problem. Why can't WDW provide enough fun dining capacity for guests to enjoy a spontaneous sit down meal? We have no problem getting enjoyable food at Universal.

I fear for the future of WDW.

 

[minnie mum]

Yes it changed the way we tour. We found that even though we were going during a slower time of year, we weren't able to ride as many attractions as we used to. We saved our FPs for late morning, early afternoon, so TS lunches were difficult. We found the standby lines for many of our favourite oldies were quite a bit longer now that they also had FP lines. The kiosks were sometimes a royal PITA due mostly to guests ahead of us who had no clue what they wanted or how to get it. The end result was that we often gave up and spent less time in the park. Shopped less. Had fewer TS meals. And have no plans to return anytime soon; which is a major change for us.

I'm going to DLR this summer for one last visit before FP+ rears its ugly head there. After that, who knows.

 

[irenep]

I find it much easier now to go to a park on arrival and departure days. Previously, our flight times meant we would arrive too late in the day to get on any worthwhile rides and our last day would be too stressful with packing and checking out so we would usually miss RD and again not manage any of the popular rides.
I can also now do DHS in the evening (love ToT in the dark) whereas before it was always a RD park for TSM.
Other days, if we can't do RD then it's the three FP+ rides in a row then out of the park for something else. With the old FP system we would be in the parks much longer shopping and eating (and queuing) while waiting for our time slots.

 

[ktlm]

We feel much more pressure and stress to get there before rope drop. Pre FP+, we would get to the parks "near" rope drop, which a lot of days meant sometime between 9:15 and 9:30. We were never at the front of the rope drop crowd (well except for at DL when we made the Anna and Elsa run last year). We never had trouble getting FP for TSM or Soarin- and the lines for the FP machines would be shorter as we were after the initial rush. We could pull FPs as we needed them during the day for most anything else. We don't go in high crowd times, so the standby lines for many things were manageable. Now, we feel like we have to be there before rope drop so that we can try to run to the things we don't have FP for and get as many in as possible. Our experience in 2 FP+ trips have been that the standby lines are much increased from what we are used to later in the day, especially in the afternoon- we have seen 1/2 hour lines for Small World, POTC, Haunted Mansion Nemo, and Figment, all of which we are used to walking on. As a result, now we feel that we MUST be there before rope drop. We are not morning people, so this is a change that causes us stress.

Also, our touring plan used to be to do areas. We would get there, grab the FP+ for the top priority most popular ride, and then go to an area and start doing everything there. We would not move on until we finished that area. For example, if we decided to hit Tomorrowland around 1:00 p.m., then we would first go to Space Mountain and check the line. If it was more than 20 minutes, we usually grabbed a FP. The FP would usually kick in around 1 or 2 hours later, so we would do everything else in Tomorrowland we were interested in including shopping until the time of the FP, and then we would stay in Tomorrowland after the FP to finish up if we weren't done. Now instead of starting by doing an area in the morning, we are rushing back and forth around the parks to things we think will have lines longer than we are used to later. Then we also feel like when we do try to do areas, we wind up having to rush off to get to a FP+. It is really cutting into my shopping time because the stores are what we are giving up when we rush around from place to place, or have to leave an area before finishing things. We just really feel like our touring is far more rushing from place to place than it used to be.

 

[Monykalyn]

2 trips now with FP+ - but didn't really use the old system much as were able to go in slower times previously (or as childless adults). Kinda agree with a PP as style changed more due to age of kids than FP+. We did utilize our hoppers more this trip than ever before- but I think that was partly due to staying onsite. Saved the FP for evening park and switched up evening parks a couple times (mostly between DHS and MK) and it was nice to have the headliners FP for MK (or really- any of the second parks). What FP+ has really done is highlight lack of options in other parks and that may have a bigger impact on touring than just FP alone. There is no way I'd ever dash for a legacy FP for TSM but had the opportunity to get FP for it 3 times this past trip so it was nice that way.

Also agree with PP that WWoHP is just amazing- but the express pass for other attractions that comes with staying onsite is great value when going during higher crowd times.

We did more lunch ADRs to start our afternoon break than evening meals though- as I didn't want chance of a meal going into a FP time- so that has been an impact.

 

[vinotinto]

My biggest change is a drastic reduction in ADRs and no dining plan. We used to get the DxDP and have 2 ADRs daily. On a 5-day, 4-night trip, I would typically make 9 ADRs. On our upcoming trip, for the second time, I only have 4 ADRs and no dining plan. I found that between FP+ and ADRs we had to be somewhere all the time.

 

[Mikie]

It's impossible to separate FP+ (or any park change) effects from the differences in my family itself as my kids get older and we'd change our touring anyway. My first trip with FP+ was an extended family trip. Because of multiple families and ages 2-67, it was going to be a lot of planning no matter what. Therefore, changes on that trip due to FP+ were only:
- made it to rope drop most days, where in the past we were usually 30-45 minutes after. Very unconcerned about it previously
- actually helped keep a big group on the move with a planned itinerary instead of "I don't know, what do you want to do next?"
- Never officially used a touring plan before, but spent much more time looking at maps and Mesaboy2's FP advice thread to lay out our plan for attacking the parks, instead of just choosing left or right upon arrival.
- didn't use FP a lot under the old style. Probably did 3 in MK each day (maybe less) and a couple in Epcot. No recollection of using them in AK. DHS we'd always try for a Toy Story, get an inconvenient time and use standby instead. I think we used a couple on Tower of Terror, though. So this particular trip we got more by using 3 per day.

My hubby has never laid eyes on the DIS, yet he sounds like a cliff's notes of the criticisms of FP+: who wants to plan so far ahead? no spontenaity! smaller attractions probably have longer lines (though he doesn't think we experienced this ourselves on our FP+ trip. We rode secondary rides at RD and still had short lines, but he assumes that won't be possible if we don't do RD in the future). Despite the fact that he's the main one who wants a sit-down meal each day, he gripes about the confinement to a schedule because of it.

Since we will not travel with extended family next time, and our kids will be all be teens and tweens for the first time, that will make our next trip considerably different. FP+ alone is not the cause, but family dynamic, talk of dropping benefits for onsite guests (EMH), rising prices may all just cause me to take a fresh look at the whole trip, rather than just assuming "this is Disney, we know what we're doing, let's just do what we've always done"

- I think we'll probably buy hoppers, which we've never done before. Prior to this thread, I had mostly heard that people found them MORE valuable with FP+, but now I'm not sure!
- Probably stop doing TS daily so that we only have FP reservations to worry about. Although I thought that grouping FP around our ADRs worked well last time and was kind of only 1 big reservation to make at the first FP then simply proceed through our FP, FP, meal, FP
- I'll be watching closely to see how the 60/30 day booking window seems to be going and whether it's sufficient to keep us tied to on-site resorts, where we've always stayed

 

[jen7233]

I haven't used it yet, our trip is next week. But I've had to do more pre-planning than in the past about rides and what parks to hit at what times on our park hoppers.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Yes its changed my touring plan to Cancun Mexico next year!!

We didn't go last year because of FP+.

We're giving it a try this year.

 

[pktbMouse]

I know some people just love to plan but not me...I spent 2 hrs this morning trying to get my fastpasses for the whole week by the end of it I was about tearing my hair out. Last night after midnight I started on the FPs...not a thing was left after 8.30pm..at 12.04 am !!! Now this I fail to believe that they were all taken..just dont know what Disney are up to..and yes I did go back in and try manage the times...still nothing left after 8.30. Totally blew our plans to bit on doing Universal by Day and MK by night. Not even started on ADRs, after this morning we are going to just going to get food where we land allbeit if its a quick service or TS. Vacations shouldnt be this stressful to manage...IMO If we do decide to do Disney next year we may fly to Paris or California instead...but I tell ya...a nice all inclusive in Cozumel is looking better by the minute.

 

[drnp]

Before FP+ we did rope drop at almost every park and tried to score pre opening ADRs. This last time we went, we didn't do rope drop on any day and I cancelled my pre opening ADR.

 

[larryz]

Considering I've postponed my 2013 trip into 2014, and then 2015 (now 2016 at the earliest) waiting for the turbulence to die down, I'd say it has severely cut into my park time...

 

[larryz]

I'm going to DLR this summer for one last visit before FP+ rears its ugly head there. After that, who knows.

That's what we did last September. We loved it.

 

[sharonped]

Hawaii this year instead of Disney.

 

[Angel Ariel]

We ended up park hopping more in November than we ever had on previous trips. The hopping happened mostly due to the nature of the trip (Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon weekend), but we noticed a significant difference in the overall day between days when we park hopped and days when we stayed in 1 park all day long. The days that we found FP+ to be most helpful were the days that we did *not* have full days in the park -

• Arrival Day
  • we arrived in MK at 12:30,
  • hopped to Epcot around 6:30 for F&W and David Cook concert
  • FP+ were in MK
• Day after the 1/2 marathon
  • entered DHS around noon, had FP+ there
  • hopped to AK, arriving around 7:30 for closing there at 8pm (wanted to see AK at night, and ride EE at night!)
  • hopped to MK for MSEP and Wishes

FP+ allowed us to get the popular attractions we wanted to get done accomplished in a shorter amount of time, which allowed us to do the hopping. In the past we would not have hopped that much.

That said, we did not find FP+ to be as helpful on the days we were in 1 park all day long.

• We found very little 4th FP+ and beyond availability, to the point that after 2 days of trying for 4th and beyond, we didn't bother anymore. I think that was in large part due to our error...scheduling our prebooked FP+ to end too late in the afternoon during party season.
• We also found that we criss crossed the parks, which we had never done before (we always picked a land and then went around the park in order from land to land from there). Also something that could be adjusted to an extent in the planning process, but was still frustrating at the time.
• RD was more essential, especially on the days that we spent the whole day in 1 park. We usually got there maybe 30-45 mins after RD...we'll be doing what we can to make it to RD now instead.

I'm sure there are other ways our planning was influenced as well, but those are the main ways I can think of at the moment.