Do you like the Fastpass+ system?

[tanyaegangibson]

We found paper FP a negative at DL. We wanted to ride RSR at night but didn't want to wait for hours in line. There is really no way to pull a paper FP for a night ride. Not without pure luck. Nor can you get a FP if you show up an hour after the park opens. I just can't see how that is a better system. But, that's ok. FP+ isn't for everyone. Paper FP isn't for everyone. I venture to guess there is nothing in this world that is liked by everyone.

Was this recently? I know it was like that when RSR first opened, but it hasn't been for several years. We go to DLR at least twice a year during busy times (height of summer, Halloweentime, Veterans Day weekend), and RSR usually has FPs for hours after it opens. (I don't know why some people get in line for the FPs right at RD because it isn't necessary.) If we want to ride at night (which we always do!) we just watch the app until it says that the FPs for RSR are being given out for about that time (they might be given out at 10 or 11 a.m for 8:00 pm ) and walk over and get the paper FPs with almost no wait.

Looking forward to seeing FP+ in action, though, on our first WDW trip, which starts next week.

 

[mom2rtk]

Was this recently? I know it was like that when RSR first opened, but it hasn't been for several years. We go to DLR at least twice a year during busy times (height of summer, Halloweentime, Veterans Day weekend), and RSR usually has FPs for hours after it opens. (I don't know why some people get in line for the FPs right at RD because it isn't necessary.) If we want to ride at night (which we always do!) we just watch the app until it says that the FPs for RSR are being given out for about that time (they might be given out at 10 or 11 a.m for 8:00 pm ) and walk over and get the paper FPs with almost no wait.

Looking forward to seeing FP+ in action, though, on our first WDW trip, which starts next week.

There's no guarantee of getting a FP a certain time of day under FP+ either, unless you happen to be booking at 60+ days out.

No, FPs for RSR don't last all day. But most people know to grab one early in the day. As things stand right now, you can even grab a FP for a headliner in DL, then head across the esplanade, and grab one for RSR without waiting for a new window to open.

 

[BayouQueen]

People here are mentioning the ability to select the time you want to ride an attraction. I see that as a big benefit, too, over the paper FP system at DL. Some rides really are cool at night. And I don't like roller coaster rides early in the day. It's very nice to have a solid plan for the day and then fill in the gaps spontaneously, IMHO.

 

[mom2rtk]

People here are mentioning the ability to select the time you want to ride an attraction. I see that as a big benefit, too, over the paper FP system at DL. Some rides really are cool at night. And I don't like roller coaster rides early in the day. It's very nice to have a solid plan for the day and then fill in the gaps spontaneously, IMHO.

At least at DLR if you get a FP for the evening, you start gathering FPs for other attractions 2 hours later. With FP+ you're going to be closed out of any additional FPs at all until that evening FP has been used.

 

[champ1380]

I find this discussion fascinating as always. I was first on the Dis in late 2013, early 2014, when legacy Fastpasses were just gone and exclusively Fastpass+ was new, and people were arguing morning, noon and night about it. Come back in 2017 and most people seem either love it, or at least made it work for them. (We personally did great with it when we went in May of 2014, riding everything we wanted to without any waits).

I can remember back when I went as a 7 year old in 1988 my parents refusing to let us us go on Dumbo because it was over an hour and a half wait (in early November, so not a busy time.) When we went again in 1996 I remember my dad (the marathon runner) sprinting away from us several times to go pull fastpasses. Clearly neither ideal. They're coming with us this time and haven't been since that 1996 trip, and I am excited for them to see how much more efficient everything has gotten .

 

[MerMermaid79]

After reading the whole thread it seems that the people who really like FP+ are the ones who go every year of more than once a year. For most of us this is not the case and this new system seems to pretty much suck. I'm dreading my trip because we do see this as a theme park for rides. I am not spending thousands of dollars to sit around looking at details. If you can go so often that you can do that then great but for most of us these trips are few and far between.

This was our first trip with kids (our kids are 8 and 3) and we absolutely LOVED the FP+ system. We were able to ride all of the rides we wanted and then some. DH and I had been 12 years ago and it was in September, so non - busy time and we didn't really care about FPs and rides then.
We are really not planning to go for another 2 years and would really hate it if they changed anything about the system - well aside from adding a 4th or 5th pre-booked FP

 

[BayouQueen]

At least at DLR if you get a FP for the evening, you start gathering FPs for other attractions 2 hours later. With FP+ you're going to be closed out of any additional FPs at all until that evening FP has been used.

Yeah, that's for sure an upside to DLR FP system. Pros and cons to both, really. But one thing I'm super glad about...I have a FP+ set for Peter Pan this May at WDW. I haven't been able to get on that attraction at DL for years without a very long wait. So excited for that!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I find this discussion fascinating as always. I was first on the Dis in late 2013, early 2014, when legacy Fastpasses were just gone and exclusively Fastpass+ was new, and people were arguing morning, noon and night about it. Come back in 2017 and most people seem either love it, or at least made it work for them. .

Yeah, this board was a hot mess for about a year when the change happened. People hated it before they tried it.

 

[Spork24]

I love FP+, I used to complain about all the extra steps we would take going to get FP's only having to come back later. I love the planning and we are still able to accomplish similar amounts of rides as before.

I was in the MK with 3 weeks to plan this past Saturday, and we were still able to use 5 FP's for major attractions and a 6th on buzz lightyear. That combined with ropedrop, a mid afternoon break, and a late night Led to getting tons of rides in. Including lots of repeats on the big stuff.

 

[djc9699]

When FP+ first came out I was not a fan and was even very upset at the thought. However, after having gone twice for 10 days each with it and one 8 day trip to DL without it, I can say without a doubt, we absolutely love the FP+ system. We get to the parks at either rope drop or during EMH and ride everything we can. Our fast passes are scheduled to start around 10:30 and we do them back-to-back. We then either make a FP for the same park early afternoon or if we want to leave we will check what is available at another park and hop there. Our last trip we hopped into Animal Kingdom to ride EE and to MK to ride Space Mountain and then got a Thunder FP after that one. We rope dropped TT one day, then rode it with a FP a few hours later, then got a Soarin' FP after we did our two 2nd tier FP. I really love being able to secure a FP in another park before hopping to that park. Before, you would not know what was available until you were actually there. We also love that on arrival day, you can walk into a park and ride 3 headliners before bed.

We don't mind the tiers because we only go for 9 days or more, so we go to each park at least two mornings and FP a different attraction each time and rope drop or do EMH for the other. We have gone early June every year and have always been able to ride the less popular rides with no more than a 30 minute wait. We do shows during the early afternoon or sit and people watch because they usually don't have a wait any longer than the length of one show.

When we visited DL and returned to the old fastpass, it was quite a shock how much we missed FP+. If we wanted to ride the Racers in DCA we had to be at the park before 9:30 to ensure we got a FP and it generally would be a return of several hours later. Standby was always over 90 minutes and often over 2 hours. Tower of Terror was the same way. We would have to go all the way over, get a fastpass to return a few hours later or discover that we couldn't return at the return time. Pirates, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, and Matterhorn didn't have FP at all and the waits for these rides were often over 45 minutes so we were wishing for FP while we were there.

Of course everyone has there own way of touring and are interested in different things. We simply love the parks. We get there early and stay late. We rarely take a day away from the parks when we are there. We love most of the rides (even the carpets and small world), the shows (except the TIKI Room - just don't get the appeal), the sappy entertainment, and all the nighttime shows. We even like to watch other people's kids and the awe and joy they display so having an hour without a ride does not affect us. We will simply get a snack, window shop, or watch someone else have fun. We are definitely not hard to please, so my opinion may not count for much.

 

[AngiTN]

Was this recently? I know it was like that when RSR first opened, but it hasn't been for several years. We go to DLR at least twice a year during busy times (height of summer, Halloweentime, Veterans Day weekend), and RSR usually has FPs for hours after it opens. (I don't know why some people get in line for the FPs right at RD because it isn't necessary.) If we want to ride at night (which we always do!) we just watch the app until it says that the FPs for RSR are being given out for about that time (they might be given out at 10 or 11 a.m for 8:00 pm ) and walk over and get the paper FPs with almost no wait.

Looking forward to seeing FP+ in action, though, on our first WDW trip, which starts next week.

Summer of the 60th anniversary.

 

[TexasAggie73]

We like FP+ better than the old system. Like many others, we are not RD people and recently had a trip with 8 people staying at different location, so it was easy to say meet up here at a certain time. Have heard the story about how many more old style FP one could get in the past, but with the current attendance at the parks now, not sure if that would still be true. The other issue I found with the old system is that if you arrived in the park in the afternoon, many times FP were gone for the popular rides and could only do standby.

 

[AngiTN]

When we visited DL and returned to the old fastpass, it was quite a shock how much we missed FP+. If we wanted to ride the Racers in DCA we had to be at the park before 9:30 to ensure we got a FP and it generally would be a return of several hours later. Standby was always over 90 minutes and often over 2 hours. Tower of Terror was the same way. We would have to go all the way over, get a fastpass to return a few hours later or discover that we couldn't return at the return time. Pirates, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, and Matterhorn didn't have FP at all and the waits for these rides were often over 45 minutes so we were wishing for FP while we were there.

We didn't realize how much we preferred FP+ till our DL trip. I was rather neutral on it, didn't love it and didn't hate it. Till that trip. Then I found all the drawbacks with paper version

Wonder how many who are not fans of FP+ would rethink it with a DL trip. It can either point out the issues with paper FP that you've forgotten or can make it more obvious how much you miss them.

We like FP+ better than the old system. Like many others, we are not RD people and recently had a trip with 8 people staying at different location, so it was easy to say meet up here at a certain time. Have heard the story about how many more old style FP one could get in the past, but with the current attendance at the parks now, not sure if that would still be true. The other issue I found with the old system is that if you arrived in the park in the afternoon, many times FP were gone for the popular rides and could only do standby.

Excellent point

 

[CarolynFH]

Well, since we lost our "FP runner" when DD stopped coming with us (not her choice, college and work got in her way!), we love FP+! We can show up whenever we're ready and know that we'll ride those three things at a minimum.

I'll also add that I greatly appreciate @mesaboy2's Suggested Priorities list in the FP+ FAQ thread. It's extremely helpful in planning days, especially when bringing newbies! Thanks, @mesaboy2!

 

[edk35]

Just posted this on another post but more relevant here I think...



Rides weren't reserved in advance, so when the park opened everything was wide open with no previous reservations. If you got to a park in the morning and planned well, you could ride every single attraction and sometimes even duplicates with very little "line" time. And it would never be the case that a ride's FP's were sold out before the park opened since no one could get them in advance. In addition, the "tiering" make things especially difficult now. There was no limitation on which rides you could go on if you planned the in-park same-day FP system well.

I agree. This new system is better for folks that don't get there at opening. I agree that some rides that didn't have fast passes that now do.....have longer lines. Like I said before..this will be debated until the end of time. It is like everything in LIFE what works for one person doesn't for another. There is no perfect answer.

 

[Klayfish]

After reading the whole thread it seems that the people who really like FP+ are the ones who go every year of more than once a year. For most of us this is not the case and this new system seems to pretty much suck. I'm dreading my trip because we do see this as a theme park for rides. I am not spending thousands of dollars to sit around looking at details. If you can go so often that you can do that then great but for most of us these trips are few and far between.

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.

 

[dlavender]

One thing that Disney doesn't get enough credit for, in terms of FP +, is that its Free. I still don't like it as much as the old system, but I'm really happy they kept it free. I hate the pay for express system that every other theme park has now. So I'll take the free system over a paid system every day of the week.

 

[AngiTN]

After reading the whole thread it seems that the people who really like FP+ are the ones who go every year of more than once a year. For most of us this is not the case and this new system seems to pretty much suck. I'm dreading my trip because we do see this as a theme park for rides. I am not spending thousands of dollars to sit around looking at details. If you can go so often that you can do that then great but for most of us these trips are few and far between.

Disney is the worst destination if you are going for nothing but rides. With or without FP+, FP, etc. It's not known for rides. It's known for details. That is what you are paying for. The details that are Disney. Rides are almost 2nd place. If you remove their details you have a pretty disappointing ride. You can save yourself a whole lot of money and go to a park that IS known for rides and doesn't put much in the way of details in the park at all.

 

[RetroCOTfan]

One thing that Disney doesn't get enough credit for, in terms of FP +, is that its Free. I still don't like it as much as the old system, but I'm really happy they kept it free. I hate the pay for express system that every other theme park has now. So I'll take the free system over a paid system every day of the week.

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.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Disney is the worst destination if you are going for nothing but rides. With or without FP+, FP, etc. It's not known for rides. It's known for details. That is what you are paying for. The details that are Disney. Rides are almost 2nd place. If you remove their details you have a pretty disappointing ride. You can save yourself a whole lot of money and go to a park that IS known for rides and doesn't put much in the way of details in the park at all.

Agreed - Cedar Point for Rides, WDW for amazing!