Do you like the Fastpass+ system?

[Texans_loyal]

We didn't realize how much we preferred FP+ till our DL trip.

Same! didn't think it was a big deal till i stepped foot into DL. completely different situation!

 

[bdarling]

I like the planning, so FP+ works for me. I also use the Touring Plan app that incorporates the FP times and that was a big help on our first time to each park. The second time through we just winged it.

I agree with a big group it can help corral the cats to say "we have a FP at this time in this place"

With the old system, my DH who is not a thrill rider would be the runner with our tickets, his ticket and our disabled son's ticket so we would get multiple rides.

We still did that a bit with FP+ when we booked DH for ToT. The cast member commented to my daughter that he had just seen her in the FP line. I said that her dad is generous in his FP gifting and the CM chuckled a bit.

 

[tlmadden73]

This is my first trip to WDW since they started with the FP+ system.
Is it just me, or does this make planning MUCH more stressful and less fun?
I feel like:
1. I'm not doing it right
2. There's too much planning now (and I used to LOVE planning for WDW)
3. There's too much to read about strategies
4. feels like all we're going to accomplish is 3-5 rides a day at best, and it seems like we're going to be waiting in line much more than back when there was regular fastpass.

Is it just me?

I enjoy it, but I have been going with a preschooler on my trips since FP+. So ANY line you can skip is great for a toddler/preschooler. I enjoy knowing there are 3 rides (even a "big" one) I can just walk on rather than waiting it yet another long line.

It definitely makes the standby lines longer and it is "awkward" to use at parks like DHS and Epcot where there aren't enough attractions to justify the FP system.
At MK it works great though.

As for the planning, it does feel overwhelming to try and "plan" your day and have set schedules. That's why I try and schedule all my fast passes close together and just have the rest of the day flexible rather than having awkward times where you don't have enough time to go on another ride without missing yuor next window.

The issue i have is the "sense of panic" you get when you are waiting in line (say at Test Track) that is going longer than you expected (because it breaks down) and you will miss your FP window for another ride (say Soaring). I just got back from a trip where my friend and I and our boys ran across the park to get to Soaring.
Luckily they let us on despite being a few minutes late. If we hadn't made that, we would have wasted a long time in line.

Unfortunately it is a system you almost HAVE to use or you simply are wasting your time waiting in longer lines.

 

[margot31]

I actually like it. While yes it takes up time of my life a bit trying to plan things I like how much more relaxed I can be at the park. I don't feel I need to run all over the place to get the ticket. I can say ok we have this, this and this at this time and between those we can do other things.

 

[jmcdonnell04]

First, I definitely prefer the old Fastpass system. We love to plan but now it is too much planning. Picking parks and restaurants 60 days/6 months in advance eliminated the spontaneity of trips. Some days we would play park roulette and jump on the first bus that arrived at the resort depot. The tier system prevents you from getting Fastpasses for the all the major rides which was never a problem for us with the old system. They also put Fastpasses on Attractions that never needed fastpasses which increased the length of standby lines. Lastly, you can never get a 4th fastpass for a good attraction. The one good point of the new FP+ is having the ability to have fastpasses on your ARRIVAL/CHECK-IN day.

My family has adapted and overcame the set back of FP+. First, we save money by not purchasing park-hopping features. Can't go to a second park if you can't get fastpasses. Secondly, we do rope-drop now to get on the major attractions. We return to the resort for napping and/or swimming in the afternoon. We return to the same park to use our 60-day made in advance FP+ and enjoy our TS dinner with the ADR we made 6 months in advance.

We are blessed to be able to go to Disneyworld once or twice a year. We have the ability to skip things or take short cuts because of park knowledge. For many this is a once in a lifetime trip and I am sure many have left disappointed because of crownds, overwhelmed with choices, long lines, missing major attractions and the inability to get into restaurants. Yes, the FP+ system also helps those vacationers who want to sleep in on vacation. My suspicion is that the FP+ system was also created to help Travel Agents make those plans for their clients especially for international visitors.

Looking forward to our upcoming trip with our high school senior daughter next month. Have a great day!!!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

This is so true. On our last trip, we went to Universal for a day for the first time in more than a decade. It was painful to make the choice of either spending $350 more than necessary on a hotel room or spending $400+ on express pass. But we knew that we were only spending a day there, and we needed express pass to make sure we got everything in that we wanted to see. So, you bite the bullet and do it, but then you appreciate a little more that FP+ is free.

We have Universal AP's. We were able to stay at Royal Pacific and Hard Rock for about the same price as discounted Disney moderate resort and Express Pass was included with our stay. We hardly had to make any plans in advance and so relaxing compared to Disney.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We have Universal AP's. We were able to stay at Royal Pacific and Hard Rock for about the same price as discounted Disney moderate resort and Express Pass was included with our stay. We hardly had to make any plans in advance and so relaxing compared to Disney.

That assumes one was going to stay at a Moderate resort at Disney in the first place..plus at what discounted rate for the moderate WDW resort during what time of the year.

It's not as simple as saying "just stay at a Universal resort that gets you the EP included" there are other factors at play.

I agree on the planning part with USO.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

That assumes one was going to stay at a Moderate resort at Disney in the first place..plus at what discounted rate for the moderate WDW resort during what time of the year.

It's not as simple as saying "just stay at a Universal resort that gets you the EP included" there are other factors at play.

I agree on the planning part with USO.

I used moderate resorts as an example because that is where we usually stay. It ends up being the best fit between our budget and preferences. I was comparing it to our stays in October and December. There are also still plenty of days where EP at Universal is not needed. We only saw a few lines longer than 30 minutes on our Universal trips. But that's probably getting off topic.

 

[Noles2002]

I personally HATE the new system. Planning my entire vacation 30-60 days out? It was such a pain. I wish they would do it maybe like 5 days in advance. Then at least you could get a grip on weather conditions. We had planned for a day at the pool and planned all our FP on the other days. Well, the day we picked to relax and hang by the pool turned out to be the crappiest day. Overcast, rain, cooler temps. If I had known, I could have planned a little more accordingly and picked a park on that day and the pool for the day that it was in the 90's! And dinner 180 days? I don't know what I'm having for dinner tonight, let alone in 180 days!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I used moderate resorts as an example because that is where we usually stay. It ends up being the best fit between our budget and preferences. I was comparing it to our stays in October and December. There are also still plenty of days where EP at Universal is not needed. We only saw a few lines longer than 30 minutes on our Universal trips. But that's probably getting off topic.

I totally hear ya. I was just responding because in the comparison to Disney's FP+ system and Universal's Express system cost is a large factor. It makes perfect sense if you are already going to stay on Universal's property and are already going to stay at X place that will get you the Express Pass but if not then you have to do more calculating if you feel the need to get Express Pass. Not to mention you have to count on being able to get that discounted rate.

 

[edk35]

Totally disagree. We go more than once per year now, when we have AP. But before we moved, we only went once every 2 or 3 years. I still think FP+ is far superior to the old system. To me, the old system sucked. Why would you have to sit around and look at details because of the new FP+ system?? That just makes no sense to me. Almost without fail, we can easily get on at least 7 rides between about 9:15am and 12:30 or 1:00pm, and never wait in a line longer than 30 minutes. As others have said, it's not hard at all to roll the 4th FP+ over and over and over, which guarantees you're not waiting in lines.

Well there are other factors that you need to figure in when planning as compared to years past. ADRS are made 180 days out or they can be. We can't make our FP selections until 60/30 days out. That right there for some is an added thing. It all depends on how we DISNEY. I have a friend that makes a dinner ressie every single night and they do their fast passes in the mornings/early afternoon. For her it is easy to plan these. They just do their park time mornings and spend the afternoon at the pool then dinner at night. They might schedule a fp or two at night. Less to plan. That is their DISNEY style. Others.... will spend all day/night in the parks.THEY might have to figure out ADR times around fp times depending on when they use their fast passes. Then throw in evening show times changing or Disney adding an extra show at night. Park hours change so much now too. So like I said before...this will be debated until the end of time.

 

[flatlandcycle]

If it's just my wife and I, FP+ works well.

If you are trying to coordinate with family and friends it's absolutely miserable. With the old system you could hit the ground early and gather Fast Passes most of the day. Most of my enjoyment was about bringing noobs into WDW. It's rather hellish trying to coordinate what people, new to Disney, want to do, months in advance. It's a divisive, nepotistic system.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We're uber-planners, so we love FP+. I understand the whole thing can feel regimented, but for us it's a good fit, especially since we don't mind waiting in a few lines if necessary.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I do and I don't. I hate the planning, I like to go with the flow, and I pretty much do that when I don't have my granddaughters. Last year we went without the kids and we probably only used 4 or maybe 5 fps for the whole week. Crowds weren't bad, though. I loved legacy because I had the system down pat, and could breeze through the park in no time. I find fp+ tends to hold me back, and I don't do as much (when using them) as I used to with legacy.
That said, I like fp+ for what it is and what it offers, particularly to busy rides and attractions. When I used the 4 or 5 last year I only used Space Mtn., 7DMT, TSMM, and Tot. I also used FEA which came in very handy because the ride broke for most of the day. We used EMH, PPO ADRs and MNSSHP as a means to eliminate such large crowds. We broke for rest and swim every day, and went back in the evening. I probably would not worry about getting FEA again, and I am definitely in the minority but I absolutely hated 7DMT. I found nothing fun about it with the swinging and the jerkiness of the ride. Even DH did not care for it and he rides pretty much everything.

 

[Boardwalk III]

If it's just my wife and I, FP+ works well.

If you are trying to coordinate with family and friends it's absolutely miserable. With the old system you could hit the ground early and gather Fast Passes most of the day. Most of my enjoyment was about bringing noobs into WDW. It's rather hellish trying to coordinate what people, new to Disney, want to do, months in advance. It's a divisive, nepotistic system.

Totally agree with this comment! We often go with large groups and sometimes bring people who are new to WDW. The FP+ system has been extremely miserable to try to manage with all the multiple MDE accounts as well as in terms of overall scheduling.

 

[Boardwalk III]

We're uber-planners, so we love FP+. I understand the whole thing can feel regimented, but for us it's a good fit, especially since we don't mind waiting in a few lines if necessary.

This entire topic is so interesting because I am also an "uber-planner" and I find FP+ to make the entire planning process much more difficult. Different strokes for different folks I guess!

 

[OSUZorba]

I didn't have much experience with the old system. But I LOVE the new system. On my last two trips, DW and I have been able to do 9 FP+ in MK in a single day, yeah Dumbo was one of them, but still didn't have to wait for it. I didn't wait in the standby line for any major attraction in any park on my last trip (except for RD'ing and single riding the Rock n Roll coaster). I even got a same day FP for FEA, Soarin' and Illuminations (which the FP location was very disappointing), on a day I was able to do all the Headliners in DHS too.

Yeah, planning out 60 days is annoying, but you have to do that with restaurants anyways, so you already fairly fixed to certain parks certain days, if you are doing TS for any meals.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

FP+ is a pile of hot steamin' garbage and is the primary reason why I no longer visit WDW as much. Have shifted my visits to some of the other Disney parks around the world that still use the old FP system.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

The new system is exponentially better than the paper system for many many reasons. In my opinion, people here on disboards give great help and information but tend to over complicate things - especially for those who are newer and have less experience.

How is it better? Under the old system, I use to get 10+ FP per day. Under the new system, I get 3 that have to be pre-planned months in advance.

 

[melanielll]

No!