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

[mom2rtk]

Just addressing this- Missing Peter Pan won't happen on our trips because it's traditionally the ride we always do first and it's my absolute favorite in all of WDW. If I could only ride one thing, this would be it. If there's a way to ride it, we ride it no matter what else has to be sacrificed. I'll admit it's probably not that important to many people.

However, if you haven't seen the queue, I'd highly suggest either putting up with the lines that seem to never lessen during the day or doing it at rope drop. A FP+ will bypass the queue.

I totally agree about not missing the queue. We went around midnight but still had about a 20 minute wait.

Rope drop is very important. But it can't solve everything. There's only so much you can do at rope drop, especially with FP return times starting at park open now (instead of the 40 minute delay they used to have). If you want to repeat anything, the answer is rope drop. If you want to do headliners you couldn't select in your first 3, the answer is rope drop. If you want to do the secondary rides without a long wait, the answer is rope drop. The truth is that I feel you need to pick and choose a lot more than in the past.

 

[MrInfinity]

Of course you can make changes to your schedule, but like you mention here, your changes can be limited with FP+. On our recent trip (first with FP+), our final MK day looked like rain. We had a choice to make: go to MK on the potentially rainy day with our 7DMT FP and hope for the best, or swap park days and do MK on a different day knowing we wouldn't be able to get a FP 7DMT. On previous trips, we knew we could change our entire schedule and still pull paper FP at rope drop. With FP+ we knew that if we made last minute changes, there wouldn't be FP+ available for 7DMT and possibly TSMM too, that definitely influenced how quick we were to change our plans.

I'd add to this... Although something like SDMT might be hard to change if you wake up sick and need to go into the park at noon instead of 9... FP- afforded no more flexibility. If SDMT had ever been on FP-, you would be just as much out of luck. Using another ultra-demand ride like TSMM as an example, all the FP-'s to it would be gone. Just sayin. For anyone claiming that FP+ isn't flexible because A&E and/or SDMT sell out, think of how little availability there was for A&E in the past. 6-hour lines come to mind. Now, at least you can get a FP+ for A&E, and if your plans change, so be it.

As to the swapping an entire day... why not just book both days at the MK, then cancel the one when you're there and hit up the AK since pretty much anything there you can get same-day? Seems easy enough to meet your objective there with FP+.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'd add to this... Although something like SDMT might be hard to change if you wake up sick and need to go into the park at noon instead of 9... FP- afforded no more flexibility. If SDMT had ever been on FP-, you would be just as much out of luck. Using another ultra-demand ride like TSMM as an example, all the FP-'s to it would be gone. Just sayin. For anyone claiming that FP+ isn't flexible because A&E and/or SDMT sell out, think of how little availability there was for A&E in the past. 6-hour lines come to mind. Now, at least you can get a FP+ for A&E, and if your plans change, so be it.

As to the swapping an entire day... why not just book both days at the MK, then cancel the one when you're there and hit up the AK since pretty much anything there you can get same-day? Seems easy enough to meet your objective there with FP+.

But if you were sick and decided to go to the parks the next day instead of today, every single fastpass for every single ride in WDW would be available.

 

[cakebaker]

I totally agree about not missing the queue. We went around midnight but still had about a 20 minute wait.

Rope drop is very important. But it can't solve everything. There's only so much you can do at rope drop, especially with FP return times starting at park open now (instead of the 40 minute delay they used to have). If you want to repeat anything, the answer is rope drop. If you want to do headliners you couldn't select in your first 3, the answer is rope drop. If you want to do the secondary rides without a long wait, the answer is rope drop. The truth is that I feel you need to pick and choose a lot more than in the past.

As long as we're not talking about SDMT and A&E, we found we could get a lot of rides done in those first couple of hours after park opening. We did PPF first because we've found that line builds faster than any other. But on one morning using rope drop we got the following done:

PPF
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpets
Haunted Mansion
BTMRR
Splash
BTMRR
Woody M&G
Train to FL
Barnstormer x's 2


Splash Pad
Lunch
Return to Resort


While there are rides on this list not everyone would want, we have a 3 yr old in the mix. We got this done earlier than we anticipated and that's why we added the splash pad time in. It was too early to eat lunch. This was done without FP+ and we were done with rides by 10:30 with an 8am opening.

We didn't get much experience with 9am openings this trip, but we found in previous trips that the lines stayed light for about the same amount of time- a couple of hours. It just didn't make a difference really- we had a good 2 hours after any park opening to ride without long lines. The only change we made on a 9am opening was to get the more popular rides done first as they would build quicker- but the more secondary rides still stayed light.

 

[Writer325]

The only change is that I do not even bother making my touring plan until I get my fast passes. If I try to plan them in advance, it makes fast pass day all that more stressful. I still use a touring plan app as a back up to make sure my trip is realistic.

 

[Angel Ariel]

As long as we're not talking about SDMT and A&E, we found we could get a lot of rides done in those first couple of hours after park opening. We did PPF first because we've found that line builds faster than any other. But on one morning using rope drop we got the following done:

PPF
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpets
Haunted Mansion
BTMRR
Splash
BTMRR
Woody M&G
Train to FL
Barnstormer x's 2


Splash Pad
Lunch
Return to Resort


While there are rides on this list not everyone would want, we have a 3 yr old in the mix. We got this done earlier than we anticipated and that's why we added the splash pad time in. It was too early to eat lunch. This was done without FP+ and we were done with rides by 10:30 with an 8am opening.

We didn't get much experience with 9am openings this trip, but we found in previous trips that the lines stayed light for about the same amount of time- a couple of hours. It just didn't make a difference really- we had a good 2 hours after any park opening to ride without long lines. The only change we made on a 9am opening was to get the more popular rides done first as they would build quicker- but the more secondary rides still stayed light.

We found the above to be true in MK specifically because A&E and SDMT take the brunt of the RD crowds, leaving Adventureland and Frontierland pretty much empty. AL and FL were deserted on our Nov trip from RD through about 10:45am. Fantasyland was not deserted, however..lines there built up a little more quickly as people got out of their RD A&E or SDMT, or decided to get out of line. At 9:30am, Fantasyland felt pretty crowded, whereas AL was empty.

On our trip, we felt that experience was pretty MK specific due to A&E and SDMT. I'm not sure how it would hold up in the other parks. And if the time comes that A&E and SDMT aren't pulling the brunt of RD any more, that MK situation could easily change as well (I am wondering how the A&E M&G in Epcot opening will affect the MK RD demand for A&E).

 

[itchin2go]

But if you were sick and decided to go to the parks the next day instead of today, every single fastpass for every single ride in WDW would be available.

Yeah - that's it. My SDMT days were set at 55 or so days out.

So when something crept up that prevented us from using one of those FPs, it wasn't as easy as just starting over the next day.

As far as how that changes your touring, I would recommend getting FPs for things like that (SDMT and A&E, chiefly, but maybe Soarin, Test Track and TSMM, also?) on multiple days if they're important to you. That way, if something unwelcome does interfere with your vacation, you have a spare. If we hadn't already ridden SDMT a few days earlier, losing that 2nd FP to weather would have been more disappointing.

Other things have more short term availability, so you would have a better chance of booking them for a different day.

 

[itchin2go]

We found the above to be true in MK specifically because A&E and SDMT take the brunt of the RD crowds, leaving Adventureland and Frontierland pretty much empty. AL and FL were deserted on our Nov trip from RD through about 10:45am. Fantasyland was not deserted, however..lines there built up a little more quickly as people got out of their RD A&E or SDMT, or decided to get out of line. At 9:30am, Fantasyland felt pretty crowded, whereas AL was empty.

On our trip, we felt that experience was pretty MK specific due to A&E and SDMT. I'm not sure how it would hold up in the other parks. And if the time comes that A&E and SDMT aren't pulling the brunt of RD any more, that MK situation could easily change as well (I am wondering how the A&E M&G in Epcot opening will affect the MK RD demand for A&E).

That was our experience too! I actually love that Fantasyland is pulling so many guests. As far as a "zig when they zag" strategy, it's pretty effective.

But you're right - that's only in MK. Rope drop enabled us to ride Soarin or Test Track (whichever we didn't FP+) with less lines than they would have later in the day, but it was still a longer line than we waited in pre-FP+ (and no multiple rides either, except on different days - no single rider for us). Maybe Soarin and Test Track will get a bit of a break when the new Frozen ride opens? A girl can dream .....

But yes, if you like BTMRR and Splash, I highly recommend heading there at rope drop. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[MrInfinity]

But if you were sick and decided to go to the parks the next day instead of today, every single fastpass for every single ride in WDW would be available.

So? That's not a selling point. If you get sick and can't go you're not going to get your airfare back either. Nor will they guarantee you a flight the next day just because your plans change. Is there some reason you feel you should be entitled to ride the most desirable rides without waiting when you're changing plans on a dime over others who had this day planned out for months? It's almost like you're suggesting you don't want others to be able to plan, so that if you have to change your plans you can.

And yes, every single attraction in WDW, save for maybe 2, would have some availability.

Really if the most important thing to you is to have flexibility of days on which you can choose to ride the SDMT or not, then just book all your days (or a few extras) at the MK and change the ones on the fly that you won't be there. It's foolproof and will get you that option to pick day-of when you want to go to the MK. Would that not meet your needs of hedging against getting sick and missing your MK-SDMT day?

And... you can always just go ride it. Mornings have short waits, and then pick your FPs to other things you like which do have availability. It'll save you only marginally less time doing it that way. You just improvise when you get sick.

 

[Angel Ariel]

The fact that the clean slate each morning is gone has definitely caused us to change how we approach fastpasses and touring in general. It doesn't make as much of a difference at MK, where we do get 2 days in, but with only 2 other days to visit the other 3 parks, and not having had much luck finding same day FP+ for headliners in the other parks, I wouldn't risk relying on same day availability in the other parks. There's just not enough time when you only have 4 in park days to take that risk, for us.

 

[MrInfinity]

As long as we're not talking about SDMT and A&E, we found we could get a lot of rides done in those first couple of hours after park opening. We did PPF first because we've found that line builds faster than any other. But on one morning using rope drop we got the following done:

While there are rides on this list not everyone would want, we have a 3 yr old in the mix. We got this done earlier than we anticipated and that's why we added the splash pad time in. It was too early to eat lunch. This was done without FP+ and we were done with rides by 10:30 with an 8am opening.

We didn't get much experience with 9am openings this trip, but we found in previous trips that the lines stayed light for about the same amount of time- a couple of hours. It just didn't make a difference really- we had a good 2 hours after any park opening to ride without long lines. The only change we made on a 9am opening was to get the more popular rides done first as they would build quicker- but the more secondary rides still stayed light.

Definitely. We try to mix it up, having some days where we target those less popular rides first. This is a strategy that will only work if your group has little kids that want those rides of course. Things like the Barnstormer and Dumbo, Astro Orbiter, Speedway... all those "seconds" have pretty slow moving lines midday. They're also cheaper rides, w not as much cover and less interesting queues. I don't mind standing in a cool line like Test Track or Rockin Rollercoaster for an hour. It's cool inside, and you're building up to a great ride. In comparison waiting 40 min for the Barnstormer or Astro Orbiter is not very pleasant.

 

[itchin2go]

So? That's not a selling point. If you get sick and can't go you're not going to get your airfare back either. Nor will they guarantee you a flight the next day just because your plans change. Is there some reason you feel you should be entitled to ride the most desirable rides without waiting when you're changing plans on a dime over others who had this day planned out for months? It's almost like you're suggesting you don't want others to be able to plan, so that if you have to change your plans you can.

And yes, every single attraction in WDW, save for maybe 2, would have some availability.

Really if the most important thing to you is to have flexibility of days on which you can choose to ride the SDMT or not, then just book all your days (or a few extras) at the MK and change the ones on the fly that you won't be there. It's foolproof and will get you that option to pick day-of when you want to go to the MK. Would that not meet your needs of hedging against getting sick and missing your MK-SDMT day?

And... you can always just go ride it. Mornings have short waits, and then pick your FPs to other things you like which do have availability. It'll save you only marginally less time doing it that way. You just improvise when you get sick.

Not the person you're replying to, but here's my 2 cents.

No, I'm not entitled to special treatment. We were just discussing how FP+ has changed things, and how we do things differently now. Well, one of the few differences we found was when we couldn't get to a FP due to weather. In the old days, every day was a new day. Not so anymore. Better? Worse? I don't know. It's just different.

I wouldn't agree that every other attraction would have availability. Depending on how short term the change, I would think Soarin, Test Track and TSMM might have issues too, probably others.

If you just booked MK fastpasses, I think you'd lose out on several other attractions, namely Soarin, Test Track and TSMM, off the top of my head.

Yes, there's always standby and believe me, we utilize standby to the best of our abilities. I can only speak for me, but the standby waits at A&E and SDMT are prohibitive for us. Everyone has a different threshold. We braved the Soarin/Test Track waits. They were manageable, but not ideal.

 

[Lucius Best]

I'd add to this... Although something like SDMT might be hard to change if you wake up sick and need to go into the park at noon instead of 9... FP- afforded no more flexibility. If SDMT had ever been on FP-, you would be just as much out of luck. Using another ultra-demand ride like TSMM as an example, all the FP-'s to it would be gone. Just sayin.

I wasn't talking about getting sick and going to the park at noon instead of rope drop. If you read my post, I was specifically referring to weather/rain. If I was sick, like I was one morning a few years ago with FP-, I wouldn't go to HS in the afternoon. I went to MK that afternoon.

As to the swapping an entire day... why not just book both days at the MK, then cancel the one when you're there and hit up the AK since pretty much anything there you can get same-day? Seems easy enough to meet your objective there with FP+.

So you're saying that if 7DMT FP+ are important, but I want to keep the flexibility of not having to decide which day to go to MK, then I should book 7DMT FP every day?

 

[MrInfinity]

Not the person you're replying to, but here's my 2 cents.

No, I'm not entitled to special treatment. We were just discussing how FP+ has changed things, and how we do things differently now. Well, one of the few differences we found was when we couldn't get to a FP due to weather. In the old days, every day was a new day. Not so anymore. Better? Worse? I don't know. It's just different.

I wouldn't agree that every other attraction would have availability. Depending on how short term the change, I would think Soarin, Test Track and TSMM might have issues too, probably others.

If you just booked MK fastpasses, I think you'd lose out on several other attractions, namely Soarin, Test Track and TSMM, off the top of my head.

Yes, there's always standby and believe me, we utilize standby to the best of our abilities. I can only speak for me, but the standby waits at A&E and SDMT are prohibitive for us. Everyone has a different threshold. We braved the Soarin/Test Track waits. They were manageable, but not ideal.

Well, one thing we did in the past... on our first trip (pre-FP+) we'd book 6 days, plan out the first 5 (2-MK, 1 at each other park) and then have the last day to be whatever we wanted to do. So now with FP+, you are better off picking a park than not... so I'd probly pick the MK, and arrange an SDMT FP+. It's gotta be the hardest thing to book otherwise. And then if there was something else that was a must-do that I thought we might miss out on, like say, TSMM, I'd plan the HS day earlier in the trip. That way if we have to change plans, we'd have 2-3 days of a jump on getting that TSMM FP for that last day. Etc, etc. Just having even one flex-day where you book a backup would protect you from missing out on something that would break your trip if you couldn't do it. Tho really, if we happened to oversleep our FP+ to the SDMT, it's not like we'd just go "oh well guess we can't ride it". We'd find a way.

 

[MrInfinity]

I wasn't talking about getting sick and going to the park at noon instead of rope drop. If you read my post, I was specifically referring to weather/rain. If I was sick, like I was one morning a few years ago with FP-, I wouldn't go to HS in the afternoon. I went to MK that afternoon.

So you're saying that if 7DMT FP+ are important, but I want to keep the flexibility of not having to decide which day to go to MK, then I should book 7DMT FP every day?

Depends how important it is to you. Booking it every day might be overkill. But if the SDMT is so important to you that you ~must~ ride it in order to have your trip be successful, and you ~will not~ wait standby for it, nor be willing to ride it at rope drop on another day, then you are self-creating a pretty limited flexibility scenario. In that case in order to prevent the situation where you are completely disappointed, I would have at least a backup day with an SDMT booked. So your first SDMT day gets rained out. Then what? You can do a 2nd day at the MK at the cost of missing out on HS or AK or something, but that's a tradeoff you'd have to make no matter what.

 

[mom2rtk]

So? That's not a selling point. If you get sick and can't go you're not going to get your airfare back either. Nor will they guarantee you a flight the next day just because your plans change. Is there some reason you feel you should be entitled to ride the most desirable rides without waiting when you're changing plans on a dime over others who had this day planned out for months? It's almost like you're suggesting you don't want others to be able to plan, so that if you have to change your plans you can.

And yes, every single attraction in WDW, save for maybe 2, would have some availability.

Really if the most important thing to you is to have flexibility of days on which you can choose to ride the SDMT or not, then just book all your days (or a few extras) at the MK and change the ones on the fly that you won't be there. It's foolproof and will get you that option to pick day-of when you want to go to the MK. Would that not meet your needs of hedging against getting sick and missing your MK-SDMT day?

And... you can always just go ride it. Mornings have short waits, and then pick your FPs to other things you like which do have availability. It'll save you only marginally less time doing it that way. You just improvise when you get sick.

If you see this as an entitlement issue, that just tells me that we should probably pass on having this discussion.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We found the above to be true in MK specifically because A&E and SDMT take the brunt of the RD crowds, leaving Adventureland and Frontierland pretty much empty. AL and FL were deserted on our Nov trip from RD through about 10:45am. Fantasyland was not deserted, however..lines there built up a little more quickly as people got out of their RD A&E or SDMT, or decided to get out of line. At 9:30am, Fantasyland felt pretty crowded, whereas AL was empty.

On our trip, we felt that experience was pretty MK specific due to A&E and SDMT. I'm not sure how it would hold up in the other parks. And if the time comes that A&E and SDMT aren't pulling the brunt of RD any more, that MK situation could easily change as well (I am wondering how the A&E M&G in Epcot opening will affect the MK RD demand for A&E).

I wish we could have taken advantage of that! On our sole rope drop MK day, we rushed to 7DMT along with the rest of the herd, because we only had one FP+ for that ride for the entire trip (I missed my 60 day window opening up). We will definitely look to use your contrarian strategy when/if we go back next year. Thanks for that, Angel Ariel.

 

[mom2rtk]

So you're saying that if 7DMT FP+ are important, but I want to keep the flexibility of not having to decide which day to go to MK, then I should book 7DMT FP every day?

I bet there are a fair number of people doing this already. Heck, people still do it for restaurant reservations, so I'm pretty sure they're doing it with 7DMT and A/E.

 

[Lucius Best]

In that case in order to prevent the situation where you are completely disappointed, I would have at least a backup day with an SDMT booked. So your first SDMT day gets rained out. Then what? You can do a 2nd day at the MK at the cost of missing out on HS or AK or something, but that's a tradeoff you'd have to make no matter what.

Well I never said that I would be completely disappointed, or even was disappointed at all. I was just pointing out a scenario from our trip a few months ago. Because we had rain forecasted, we had a choice: MK in the rain with 7DMT FP+, or swap days and do MK different day with no 7DMT FP and reschedule FP+ for those two days. This was a decision we had to make touring with FP+, which was not an issue at all before FP+ because we could get to any park at rope drop and pull a paper FP- for whatever ride we wanted. I suppose booking 7DMT FP+ for multiple days is an option, but for our first trip with FP+, we did not know what to expect and did not want to risk being unable to get FP at the times we wanted for TSMM/Soarin'/Safari/etc.

 

[MrInfinity]

Well I never said that I would be completely disappointed, or even was disappointed at all. I was just pointing out a scenario from our trip a few months ago. Because we had rain forecasted, we had a choice: MK in the rain with 7DMT FP+, or swap days and do MK different day with no 7DMT FP and reschedule FP+ for those two days. This was a decision we had to make touring with FP+, which was not an issue at all before FP+ because we could get to any park at rope drop and pull a paper FP- for whatever ride we wanted. I suppose booking 7DMT FP+ for multiple days is an option, but for our first trip with FP+, we did not know what to expect and did not want to risk being unable to get FP at the times we wanted for TSMM/Soarin'/Safari/etc.

Based on my experience w the forecasts I would probly not change days around based on an Orlando weather report that says it'll be rain today and dry tomorrow. Best thing is to have a floater day then... in which you book whatever it is that you'd most want to not get rained out of. This isn't really an issue for us cuz it's not like we'd change our plans around even in the FP- days... It's not like you can just switch a BOG or CRT so for us the addition of rides to the plan is really a non-factor once you have any ADRs.

Curious, has the SDMT actually been closed for a full day? If it was my only MK day I'd pretty much stay till close to get to ride it at least once, even if we got rained out for our FP slot.