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

[PeasandCarrots]

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

I'm curious how FP+ has changed your touring style if at all? Our first trip with FP+ was in November. It did not go well, so we made a few changes in April and it went much better.

We changed:

• Started ending each day at Epcot regardless of which park we started in (we went during a festival F&G) and enjoying World Showcase without worrying about lines. I know this is probably exactly what Disney wants - spending more money while riding less, but we really enjoy it and it's made the trip more relaxing. In fact we liked it so much I expect most of our future trips will be during F&G or F&W.
• We now stay longer in our first park of the day. We used to park hop right after lunch, but now due to needing to use the first 3 FPs in one park before getting a 4th in another park we tend to stay later in the afternoon in the first park. We found using a FP at rope drop to be a waste, so we save them for mid day - early afternoon and just do standby the first 2 hours. If we didn't have APs I'm not sure I'd pay to park hop anymore.
• We eat table service less. I find the schedule of the FPs plus having a dining schedule to just be too much schedule, so we are doing more QS and/or food kiosks at the festival. Makes the day a little less hectic.

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

 

[Kathryn777]

We've never park hopped so that didn't impact me. I found we stayed longer after lunch. When normally the lines , heat and crowds would overwhelm me, I was happy to do the fp. And we go in Oct, I can only imagine what I'd be like during a high peak season.

It has also opened up the option for going in the afternoon/evening after doing something else in the morning, instead of not wanting to go because the lines would be too long

 

[Oneanne]

I was surprised that FP+ has actually made my trips more relaxing. I generally book them late morning/mid-day, so I don't feel like I need to get up and out on a specific schedule and the later part of the day/evening is open to whatever I feel like doing. A couple trips ago I had a time gap between Turtle Talk and Soaring and I ended up spending time in The Seas just checking out the fishies... something I hadn't done in years. I'm a park hopper and rarely bother to get additional FP+ at the second park, I think I've only used the kiosks once or twice. And I've seen more parades with FP+ viewing... I used to run around and do rides while everyone else was queued up for the parade.

 

[pktbMouse]

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

 

[Alesia]

It actually hasn't changed how we tour at all.

 

[jolene63]

I love FP+. Our last trip seemed more relaxing then previous trips without it. I love that we don't have to get up early to get FPs for the headliners. It's great knowing that we can show up at the parks when we want and not worry about riding our favorite rides.

 

[bookbabe626]

We now actually have to plan in advance which park we're going to go to each day. We used to just have a rough idea of where we might end up and then wing it based on which bus arrived first, since we could get all the FP- when we got to our destination. Now, in order to get the FP+ I have to commit 60 days ahead...

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I find that we now feel more pressure to get stuff done at RD before the crowds really pick up, so our formerly leisurely mornings have disappeared. I find myself telling my kids we can't do certain things until after 11:00, which sucks. I also find more pressure to actually make our FP+ windows because of limited opportunities to change them to times that work better. We also skip more rides later in the day because the kids don't want to wait in lines that we were previously able to bypass with a FP. So, in general, it's made touring more stressful, less fun, and less spontaneous. Luckily, we're taking a Disney break after our October trip so I won't have to worry about it anymore.

 

[Lucius Best]

On our first FP+ trip in April, we did a lot of reading up on FP+ and lurking here to see how other people were touring. Our old style was commando, rope drop, as many FP- as possible, always get park hoppers. No comment on whether FP+ is better or not. Changes we made:

(1) Much more planning beforehand.
(2) No park hoppers. Our goal was to reserve FP+ 10am/11am/12pm and get as many additional FP as possible, as early as we could. Decided to save the money on hoppers, and not lose the time midday hopping between parks. We were also much less likely to change our day-to-day plans than on previous trips.
(3) Fewer table service ADRs. Part of this was due to not hopping to Epcot multiple nights. Part was wanting to maintain some flexibility/spontaneity in the afternoon/evening, and desire to not plan too many ADRs since we were already planning FP+ every day. If parks were less busy we stayed longer and hit closest CS for dinner whenever we were hungry. If parks were busy we left to eat dinner at a resort somewhere with last-minute ADR and maybe go back to the park or not.
(4) Full days at Epcot. On trips before FP+, we'd be hopping to Epcot many times during the week, either mid or late afternoon, maybe pull a paper FP and do a handful of rides before dinner, so we were never there in the morning. Since we weren't hopping, we did two rope drops at Epcot this trip.
(5) Purchased an external battery pack for our iPhones because we knew we'd be using the phones more for wait times, checking/modifying FP+, ADRs, etc.
(6) Easier to visit a park in the afternoon on arrival day with 3 FP+ in hand, we never would have gone to HS on arrival day before FP+.

 

[GoofyinBuffalo]

Our trip in August will be our first trip with FP+ so I haven't actually experienced using it yet. However I can already tell that my day will be spent doing less running around at the parks, as I was the one in charge of obtaining FPs the old way for our family. We would be at RD at Epcot and I would race all the way to Soarin to get our FP while the family took a casual walk to TT and waited for me to get there, then we boarded TT...me huffing & puffing and dying for some water and them ticked because the wait time went from 5 minutes to 15 by the time I got there. Or likewise I would hike it to Splash Mountain for a FP while the family sat in front of Haunted Mansion eating some popcorn while they waited. As for how we'll tour with FP+, with the old system I had a routine of which rides we would ride first and so on. How that will be altered based on the FP+ return times remains to be seen. I have 12 days before I can schedule them so who knows if there will be problems. But what a fun problem to have! Beats having a problem at work any day.

 

[loves to dive]

It hasn't changed mine at all.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I haven't been since FP+ was implemented but what I've planned is the same as last time.

RD, midday break at the pool, PM park. We will do our FP+ at our PM park.

I do have a few sleep in days where we hit the PM EMH park in the late afternoon with FP+ but I probably would have planned that with or without FP+ now that my kids are older.

 

[WillAustin]

We spend a lot less time in the parks than we did before FP+. We spread the park days out and do more things outside the parks. Some days all we do is ride the 3 FP+ rides and then leave.

We ride a lot less than we used to.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

I run places a lot less haha. That said, now that I go as an adult I do 0 early mornings lol. I find booking my times to be an annoyance, but I do it anyway. We do our Fps and get more and are flexible with what we do, so we end up using a lot of FPs.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

I find that we now feel more pressure to get stuff done at RD before the crowds really pick up, so our formerly leisurely mornings have disappeared. I find myself telling my kids we can't do certain things until after 11:00, which sucks. I also find more pressure to actually make our FP+ windows because of limited opportunities to change them to times that work better. We also skip more rides later in the day because the kids don't want to wait in lines that we were previously able to bypass with a FP. So, in general, it's made touring more stressful, less fun, and less spontaneous. Luckily, we're taking a Disney break after our October trip so I won't have to worry about it anymore.

This was the same for us on our trip a few weeks ago. Rope drop was essential, whereas in the past we rarely made it for RD. Also, we didn't spend the extra money on park hoppers this last time so we could maximize each day in the park we were in. We scheduled our FP's earlier in the day, usually starting around 10:00 so that we could try to get to the 4th earlier. This only worked well at MK. One of the biggest changes for us was the extent of the pre-planning.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Hard to say.

1. We still rope drop. Initially I was holding them for afternoon. But I have aimed for midday. We don't always want a 4th, but this facilitates it better.
2. I was not much of an "arrive later" type person. So this does allow that and we have used it to our advantage.
3. I HATE crowds. As such, sticking around for Wishes? I like to avoid unless we watch it off the beaten path somewhere. FP+ gives me a great location when I want to see it in its full glory. I loved it!
4. I don't "run" places any more.

Hard to say though how we fully changed as we still have young children and now old children and that seems to have a greater impact on changing our touring style. The older kids enjoy pre-selecting their attractions and going straight to them.

 

[maryandtyson]

Hasn't changed our touring at all.

 

[BigAforJ]

As parents of little people, I feel that our trips are far more structured and stressful now that FP+ is here. With little people, flexibility is key. So, the pressure to be somewhere at a specific time while, for example, one little person is hungry, another little person has a wardrobe malfunction, and yet another is throwing a tantrum, is just overwhelming. We have missed several FP+ times and have found that we have to space them out much more than before just to account for the unknown. It is just so frustrating. Maybe it works better for people who do not have small children, and I'm sure it is helpful for Disney staffing issues, but for those of us with small children it is just one more headache.

 

[wisblue]

It hasn't changed how we tour because we always get to the parks early and usually spend some time in the middle of the day outside the parks. We also usually have hoppers or annual passes. So, FP+ has allowed us to get FPs to ride 3 things later in the day that we wouldn't have done before because of long lines.

Because we have hoppers, and reserve our FPs for later in the day, FP+ does not force us to decide in advance where we will start the day.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Many trips since this was implemented. We travel during slow periods, so fast passes are not really a requirement when we travel for most rides. It also means that there are FP+ reservations available to all of the best rides the night before we enter a park, so we don't have to plan ahead any more now than we ever did. FP+ also allows us to sleep in later and still know that we will have a FP ride for Soarin' or TSMM.

For us, it has been a net positive. If I had to travel during busier times of the year, I wouldn't like it at all (relative to the FP- system).