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

[kaybird]

Did you change and start going to rope drop after the advent of FP+?

No, we have always been rope droppers. It has just changed the way we do rope drop. For instance, on an EMH morning at EPCOT, I can Ride Soarin, TT, Mission Space, etc all before the crowd even starts. Then maybe we grab a delicious breakfast and head over to Studios for our TSMM FP+, ToT, RnR single rider, and multiple turns on Star tours!!! The big change for us is actually being able to get FP for things like soarin, and TSMM, and having extra time to do multiples with rope drop. Rode EE last trip 12 times in a row before 9:30 am!

 

[mom2rtk]

Did you change and start going to rope drop after the advent of FP+?

Great question.

I see a lot of posters suggesting rope drop as the way to mitigate the down sides of FP+. Yet a lot of those posters are the same ones who disliked legacy FP because they didn't arrive sat rope drop and missed out on certain FPs.

 

[WillAustin]

Great question.

I see a lot of posters suggesting rope drop as the way to mitigate the down sides of FP+. Yet a lot of those same posters are the same ones who disliked legacy FP because they didn't arrive sat rope drop and missed out on certain FPs.

I noticed that too. If you couldn't get a FP for TSMM before, it was only because you weren't there at rope drop. They were always available, usually until around noon.

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

No, we have always been rope droppers. It has just changed the way we do rope drop. For instance, on an EMH morning at EPCOT, I can Ride Soarin, TT, Mission Space, etc all before the crowd even starts. Then maybe we grab a delicious breakfast and head over to Studios for our TSMM FP+, ToT, RnR single rider, and multiple turns on Star tours!!! The big change for us is actually being able to get FP for things like soarin, and TSMM, and having extra time to do multiples with rope drop. Rode EE last trip 12 times in a row before 9:30 am!

I like the way you vacation!

FP+ helps us out... as in, helps us ride things multiple times

Example: Everyone and their mom rushes to 7DMT at rope drop. Get to rope drop, ride 7D, with a FP for it later in the day as well. If you're fast, you can be one of the first people off the ride for the day, then immediately haul to frontierland and ride Splash and Thunder with literally no wait. The only thing I'd actually need a FP for is Space, and that's not a problem at all. Able to ride 7D twice (thanks to FP) and two headliners, without FP. When I was there in June, I rode 7D, Splash, and Thunder all before 9:30.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

Did you change and start going to rope drop after the advent of FP+?

Great question.

I see a lot of posters suggesting rope drop as the way to mitigate the down sides of FP+. Yet a lot of those same posters are the same ones who disliked legacy FP because they didn't arrive sat rope drop and missed out on certain FPs.

I've been curious about this, too. I wonder how many people have changed from not getting to RD before FP+ was implemented , to now making sure that they're at RD in order to avoid the long lines that build throughout the day. Since the availability of FP's is so limited, particularly in Epcot and DHS, the only alternative left is either to arrive by RD to avoid long SB lines or attempt just before park closing. At Epcot even RD presents a challenge now though, since I think more people are wise to the whole RD advantage. The day we went last month TT was swamped beginning in the first 30 mins, and never really let up until the end of the day. Soarin wasn't much better. It would be interesting to find out how many people missed RD in the past, but are now getting themselves to RD.

 

[WillAustin]

More than 3 trips before FP+, we had been unable to ride TSMM and Soarin' because of the lines and that FP- were always gone.

No, we have always been rope droppers.

How did that happen if you were always there at rope drop? Both of those rides always had FPs available until at least noon.

Since the availability of FP's is so limited, particularly in Epcot and DHS, the only alternative left is either to arrive by RD to avoid long SB lines or attempt just before park closing. At Epcot even RD presents a challenge now though, since I think more people are wise to the whole RD advantage.

That's the only way it works for us. We won't ever get in a line over 20 minutes. FP Test Track and rope drop Soarin' or vice versa is the only way for us to ride both in one day. Recent reports are showing that TT and Soarin' standby are already 60 minutes by 9:30am. Pre-FP+ we'd get multiple rides on either one before 10am easily. Not anymore. Now we actually plan more than 1 Epcot day to FP each one.

 

[mom2rtk]

That's the only way it works for us. We won't ever get in a line over 20 minutes. FP Test Track and rope drop Soarin' or vice versa is the only way for us to ride both in one day. Recent reports are showing that TT and Soarin' standby are already 60 minutes by 9:30am. Pre-FP+ we'd get multiple rides on either one before 10am easily. Not anymore. Now we actually plan more than 1 Epcot day to FP each one.

It really does seem like a much better fit if you can extend your trip to have more days, so more shots at scheduling FPs. But this rolled out at just the point where our trips have to get scaled back. With my daughter entering high school, we now get less days instead of more. There's just no way we could justify 2 days at Epcot or DHS just to do what we used to do in 1 day previously.

 

[WillAustin]

It really does seem like a much better fit if you can extend your trip to have more days, so more shots at scheduling FPs. But this rolled out at just the point where our trips have to get scaled back. With my daughter entering high school, we now get less days instead of more. There's just no way we could justify 2 days at Epcot or DHS just to do what we used to do in 1 day previously.

I'm lucky that the kids are still relatively young. Their priorities aren't yet above a WDW trip.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

That's the only way it works for us. We won't ever get in a line over 20 minutes. FP Test Track and rope drop Soarin' or vice versa is the only way for us to ride both in one day. Recent reports are showing that TT and Soarin' standby are already 60 minutes by 9:30am. Pre-FP+ we'd get multiple rides on either one before 10am easily. Not anymore. Now we actually plan more than 1 Epcot day to FP each one.

Adding a second Epcot day would be a big change for us, since we usually were able to accomplish so much more in one day pre-FP+. Besides, on our next trip to Orlando we plan to do a split stay between USO/WDW- so not as many days devoted to Disney in general. And that in and of itself will be the biggest change for us since the advent of FP+.

 

[WillAustin]

Adding a second Epcot day would be a big change for us, since we usually were able to accomplish so much more in one day pre-FP+. Besides, on our next trip to Orlando we plan to do a split stay between USO/WDW- so not as many days devoted to Disney in general. And that in and of itself will be the biggest change for us since the advent of FP+.

Deciding to get APs changed our strategy. Once we figure out how many days we can afford to stay, we can bounce around to wherever we feel like. It's different than before, but it's still fun so far. We started out with 4 commando days on our first couple of trips. Now we'll be there almost 2 weeks total and we know what we want to ride and where we want to eat. We definitely spend less time in the parks per day though and it's 100% a result of FP+. There is more room for fishing, sea raycers, and even Universal on some trips.

 

[mom2rtk]

Deciding to get APs changed our strategy. Once we figure out how many days we can afford to stay, we can bounce around to wherever we feel like. It's different than before, but it's still fun so far. We started out with 4 commando days on our first couple of trips. Now we'll be there almost 2 weeks total and we know what we want to ride and where we want to eat. We definitely spend less time in the parks per day though and it's 100% a result of FP+. There is more room for fishing, sea raycers, and even Universal on some trips.

Deciding to get APs changed our strategy even more...... since they are DLR AP's.

 

[itchin2go]

No, we have always been rope droppers. It has just changed the way we do rope drop. For instance, on an EMH morning at EPCOT, I can Ride Soarin, TT, Mission Space, etc all before the crowd even starts. Then maybe we grab a delicious breakfast and head over to Studios for our TSMM FP+, ToT, RnR single rider, and multiple turns on Star tours!!! The big change for us is actually being able to get FP for things like soarin, and TSMM, and having extra time to do multiples with rope drop. Rode EE last trip 12 times in a row before 9:30 am!

It's still not making sense to me. You rode Soarin multiple times at rope drop? We found that the standby waits for Soarin and Test Track were hefty, even at rope drop. And that was just to ride it once. And as the minutes tick by, the wait times just keep "soarin" (pun intended), so riding them more than once standby? Not us. We were willing to wait for one of them standby and use a FP for the other, but riding standby for both of them - even once? My family would balk. And sadly, they were spoiled by how easy it was to ride them with FP-.

So for us, we definitely use our FPs at Epcot, and definitely try to do more than one Epcot day. That way we can FP Soarin one day and wait in the Test Track line (which is long, but not as long as it will be in an hour), and then do the opposite on another day. And sadly, it still means we're riding Test Track and Soarin less than we were before. I blame that on tiering, and the fact that the FP windows are opening earlier than legacy FP windows did. I haven't found a better strategy, but I'm still looking!

 

[ryanhuey]

It's still not making sense to me. You rode Soarin multiple times at rope drop? We found that the standby waits for Soarin and Test Track were hefty, even at rope drop. And that was just to ride it once.

I found the same to be true. You can ride Soarin' twice at RD but you're waiting 20-30min the second time. UNLESS, you did an early ADR and were able to get on and off before RD.

Another thing that changed in our touring style is we did single rider for the first time ever on the rides we could.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We wondered about this approach as well.
We most often planned our 3FP approx.: 10am, 11am, and noon.

One small technique we devised was to hold off on using the first FP until the END of our time window, to max out the early a.m advantage. That also enabled us to use the 2nd FP just AFTER our first.

On departure day in 2014, we tried early FP. I don't think it was an advantage to book them so early, because all the good FP were gone by the time we finished using our 3. Using our 9:20-10:20 FP at 10:15am = Space Mtn both standby and our first FP. At 9am, the FP wasn't much of a plus, but at 10:15am it was. I think we managed 3 Space Mtn total including FP. Then buzz, and our 2nd FP BTMRR, our 3rd was Splash. (That was not so good plan because there was a big gap to fill. I'm not sure how we checked...I think we used the gap between 2nd and 3rd FP usage to look up alternatives, or to make Splash earlier. I recall though that all the mtns were gone by then, so we kept Splash.

To your second question...it depends on kiosk lines- I think. As FP+ progresses kiosk lines have been greatly reduced. When FP+ was new- the kiosk lines themselves were over an hour long. On our last visit in January, some kiosks still had healthy waits in the 10am hour. By noon no line, but down to tier 2 options in MK, like JC. Going for 4th FP in other parks not worthwhile, IMO.

One more experiment. That trip, we changed plans. One day we'd planned mostly non park day with later PM FP in MK, including 7D. We added HS, but didn't want to give up our primo MK FP. The night before I looked up HS FP options and not much available.

Just for info, we checked again in the morning via kiosk. By then, pickings in HS were very slim! Best options was late GMR. No RNRC, no TSMM, no Frozen sing a-long. Even GMR almost gone! About noon, the Animation class had 2+ hour wait!!!! YIKES! That's the worst I've ever seen! At that point, we gave up.

Thanks for the detailed response. What time of year were you there, i.e., was it crazy busy?

 

[cakebaker]

I noticed that too. If you couldn't get a FP for TSMM before, it was only because you weren't there at rope drop. They were always available, usually until around noon.

I agree with this and that was the problem- you HAD to be there early, no choice about it. The change fp+ has made for us is that we don't have to rope drop every single park every single day. We are at park openings a lot, but we want to park hop and FP+ allows us to enter parks in the evening and ride headliners. That could never happen at Epcot or HS before.

 

[mom2rtk]

I agree with this and that was the problem- you HAD to be there early, no choice about it. The change fp+ has made for us is that we don't have to rope drop every single park every single day. We are at park openings a lot, but we want to park hop and FP+ allows us to enter parks in the evening and ride headliners. That could never happen at Epcot or HS before.

I know TSMM occasionally ran out quickly making it helpful to be there early. Which other rides would that have been the case for? Soarin ran out early, but was usually available until at least noon. But even if you throw Soarin into that mix, that's just 2 days out of your trip, similar to how it is now.

 

[Jennytoon]

I agree with this and that was the problem- you HAD to be there early, no choice about it. The change fp+ has made for us is that we don't have to rope drop every single park every single day. We are at park openings a lot, but we want to park hop and FP+ allows us to enter parks in the evening and ride headliners. That could never happen at Epcot or HS before.

This is true. On our upcoming trip we have planned to see the evening entertainment at each park by spending our 4-5 hours of park time in the evening that day and having our out-of-park time in the morning. In the past we never did that (we just went for ADR+parade) because our kids couldn't stay up late enough past the parade / fireworks to get to the low-line time, and not caring if you re-ride headliners is not the same thing at all as wanting to go to a park for several hours and not caring if you ride only secondary attractions because you can't ride any headliners without a significant wait.

 

[cakebaker]

I know TSMM occasionally ran out quickly making it helpful to be there early. Which other rides would that have been the case for? Soarin ran out early, but was usually available until at least noon. But even if you throw Soarin into that mix, that's just 2 days out of your trip, similar to how it is now.

For us it wasn't a question of whether they ran out by noon, we never enter a park between 10 and 4. We're either already there or aren't going to be there till at least after 4.

So our need was for availability after 4.
Our experience with 8 or so trips under paper FP was that TOT, RRC, Soarin, TT, Space and TSMM would consistently be out by that time. It was at the very least that we could not plan on availability.

Now we know, barring things beyond anyone's control, that we can do these in the evening.

 

[mom2rtk]

For us it wasn't a question of whether they ran out by noon, we never enter a park between 10 and 4. We're either already there or aren't going to be there till at least after 4.

So our need was for availability after 4.
Our experience with 8 or so trips under paper FP was that TOT, RRC, Soarin, TT, Space and TSMM would consistently be out by that time. It was at the very least that we could not plan on availability.

Now we know, barring things beyond anyone's control, that we can do these in the evening.

OK, it looks like we have been disagreeing about 2 entirely different things and it explains a lot. You're saying you couldn't get the specific times you wanted or they were out after 4. And of course some major rides would have been out by 4.

That's different from saying they ran out too fast.

We are park open to park close people, so never cared what the return times were.

 

[cakebaker]

OK, it looks like we have been disagreeing about 2 entirely different things and it explains a lot. You're saying you couldn't get the specific times you wanted or they were out after 4. And of course some major rides would have been out by 4.

That's different from saying they ran out too fast.

We are park open to park close people, so never cared what the return times were.

Well they did run out too fast- for us. And some of those ran out faster than others- but it makes no difference to me if one ran out by noon or 4- out is out. Since we never have an issue getting FP+ for anything we want ahead of time, the problem is solved.

In all our trips, whether it was years ago when my children were young, when it was all adult or now when we have a toddler, we have never done open to close.

We have totally opposite touring styles - not surprising what fits you doesn't work for us and vice versa.