Don't like new fastpass plus!

[drtlc1990]

Just got back from WDW and in my opinion, the new fastpass plus has done nothing but deterred me from going back any time soon. We reserved and used our 3 fastpasses a day. They developed my disney experience and have a phone app but you can't use it to get new fast passes so you have to go to a kiosk and get your 4th fastpass. The problem is, by the time you've used your last fastpass, all of the fastpasses for the top rides are already gone. When we were there 2 years ago, we were able to go on Soarin 4 times in one day, 3 with fastpasses and once we stood in the stand by line early. This trip, we could only go on Soarin once over the course of 2 days. We didn't spend as much time in the parks either because we ran out of fastpass options and weren't about to stand in super long lines. I have been there 3 times in the last 6 years and for the first time, we were bored and went back to the resort early. Fastpass plus is a big disappointment.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I'm going in another week and I'm anxious to see how I like fp. What I have done, though, is cut back on fps and park time to have more us time.

 

[chris1212]

We had our first experience with fp+ today at magic kingdom and thought it was pretty good. It helped that I had been searching all the time and already had the tough fp's for A&E and SDMT.... But after our initial 3 were used up we were able to get another 3... And we left the park by 4pm, so could have had quite a few more probably.

Only annoying part is having to find a kiosk to book the additional fp's.... And that the app takes forever to load on my phone and rarely works properly.

 

[Texas Barbie]

We are here now and think fp+ is pretty good. Had some good ones for arrival day that we never would have gotten to ride without it. Rode Soaring twice this morning then hopped to MK to use our fastpasses. I think the point of fp+ is to give everyone a chance to ride at least once without having a lengthy wait. It does encourage us to do different things such as the Liberty Square Riverboat, which I had not ridden in years, but is actually pretty cool.

 

[karebear06]

3 fast passes is more than what I got on the original fast pass system. Especially if you want toy story. I like the new system, but I guess there's always going to be people that are not happy.

 

[agavegirl1]

I very carefully and in a commando like fashion, planned my trip. I used crowd calendars, spreadsheets, touring plans etc. I found that previous tried and true planning methods were messed up by FP+.

In short:

The system generally gives you FP+ in one hour increments with an hour between. If you plan to ride standby in between your FP+ reservations, make them further apart.

Do not try to do a FP+ reservation toward the end of your window if you have an ADR at the end of the window. You may not get on and through the ride in time to check in for your ADR.

Do not ignore your blood sugar/hunger during the day. Make sure you plan for meals or snacks prior to FP+ for more intense rides.

Unless the crowd level is under 5/10, do not expect standby times for previous "walk-on" type rides to be less than posted waits...usually 15 to 35 minutes. It can be more depending on when the last "red card" went through.

Do not overestimate how many attractions you can do at rope drop. Since FP+ reservations begin shortly after park open, lines build faster than they used to.

Just a few learning curve issues I encountered October 17-26

 

[trudyt623]

I will be going 12/18-12/25 for the first time with the new system. I am concerned with what I have planned for my first 2 days. Sdmt fastpass' are already gone and with the two tier system we have to choose between our 2 favorite rides at HS because they both fall into group A. I know it will be busy so we will not expect too many more FP after the 1st 3 are finished.

Trudy

 

[jmagoo]

The new system is better for park hoppers or if you are planning to enter the park at 4 PM for MVMCP. No way we could of gotten fast passes for late afternoon without an earlier admission as in the past method.
We were able to take advantage of the new FP+ system for this Friday's MVMCP. We do not have magic bands and only our print at home entry ticket.
Our question is how do we actually prove that we have the Fast passes to the ride attendants ?

magoo

 

[winterman]

FP+ worked well for me last week. I got them 60 days in advance for 5 park days but added an evening visit to Epcot at the last minute and I got those FP+s the night before.

 

[my2minnies]

I very carefully and in a commando like fashion, planned my trip. I used crowd calendars, spreadsheets, touring plans etc. I found that previous tried and true planning methods were messed up by FP+.

In short:

The system generally gives you FP+ in one hour increments with an hour between. If you plan to ride standby in between your FP+ reservations, make them further apart.

Do not try to do a FP+ reservation toward the end of your window if you have an ADR at the end of the window. You may not get on and through the ride in time to check in for your ADR.

Do not ignore your blood sugar/hunger during the day. Make sure you plan for meals or snacks prior to FP+ for more intense rides.

Unless the crowd level is under 5/10, do not expect standby times for previous "walk-on" type rides to be less than posted waits...usually 15 to 35 minutes. It can be more depending on when the last "red card" went through.

Do not overestimate how many attractions you can do at rope drop. Since FP+ reservations begin shortly after park open, lines build faster than they used to.

Just a few learning curve issues I encountered October 17-26

This is perfect advice. We were there all last week and it was my first experience with fp+. It could be great for park hopping and it did allow us to get a fp for rides in the afternoon in our second park of the day. However because the parks are so crowded and rides were down during every rope drop we went to, don't expect to get a lot done in the early morning hours. No more getting most rides done by 11 am--there are too many people with fp+ schedules bright and early.

It was "great" seeing space ship with a stand by line of 40 minutes at 10 am. We had fp+ and still waited 15 minutes to get on. I have been on that ride probably 25 times over the last 10 years and have never waited more than 5 minutes. This was true of so many other rides that typically have little or no wait.

I can't figure out if the lines were due to fp+ or high crowd levels. I am leaning to a combination of both.

After 10 trips in 12 years I think this is my last for a while. The crowds and the inability to tour the way we were used to really impacted what we got out of the vacation. The is the first time I came home not wanting to plan another trip back. We did have fun but want to try someplace else next time.

 

[cakebaker]

When we were there 2 years ago, we were able to go on Soarin 4 times in one day, 3 with fastpasses and once we stood in the stand by line early.

While I can understand you not liking it, this is exactly the sort of thing Disney is trying to control with fp+. While you enjoyed riding 1 of the 2 top rides at Epcot multiple times, othersoften didn't get to ride it at all because by the time they got to Epcot, fp's were long gone.

FP+ distributes the ability to ride more evenly so some who rode multiple times may only get once or twice while others at least get to ride once.

Sorry you didn't enjoy your trip.

 

[Laketravis]

It was "great" seeing space ship with a stand by line of 40 minutes at 10 am. We had fp+ and still waited 15 minutes to get on. I have been on that ride probably 25 times over the last 10 years and have never waited more than 5 minutes. This was true of so many other rides that typically have little or no wait. I can't figure out if the lines were due to fp+ or high crowd levels. I am leaning to a combination of both....

FP+ distributes the ability to ride more evenly so some who rode multiple times may only get once or twice while others at least get to ride once.

Whether someone likes or dislikes the situation is ancillary. I suppose it was very wise of WDW to devise and implement a means of managing increasing crowd levels while offering fewer activities. How much attendance has actually increased only WDW knows. Therefore, only WDW knows if their efforts prove successful and guest satisfaction outweighs any dissatisfaction.

In the meantime, it's hard to argue with the effects regardless of whether you like or dislike them.

 

[jerseygal]

I will be going 12/18-12/25 for the first time with the new system. I am concerned with what I have planned for my first 2 days. Sdmt fastpass' are already gone and with the two tier system we have to choose between our 2 favorite rides at HS because they both fall into group A. I know it will be busy so we will not expect too many more FP after the 1st 3 are finished.

Trudy

Getting SDMT 60 days out is HARD to get NON HOLIDAY WEEK like you!
I was lucky 60 days out and grabbed a time that I really didn't like, but hey,
happy that I got it!

You are going at ONE OF THE BUSIEST TIMES OF THE YEAR!
Good Luck!

 

[Frozen2014]

We had our first trip in October so never used the legacy FP. I've seen so many complaints though of the new one and never got it, but you have described the frustration. I'm sorry and hope it didn't put a damper on your trip.
For us, we loved it. It let us pre-book 3 FPs before even getting to the park, knowing that we could go in the fast line for these. To me, the old one seems like a pain....having to shlep to the attraction to get a ticket only to return later. It seems ilke you'd be running all over the park througout the day (unless the FP return time was close to the time you got the ticket).
Also for us, it let us arrive at the park when we wanted rather than feeling like we had to get there early to get a FP for our favourite ride.
But...I can see the argument from the other side as in your description.

 

[DISNEYD14]

We had our first trip in Octobover so never used the legacy FP. I've seen so many complaints though of the new one and never got it, but you have described the frustration. I'm sorry and hope it didn't put a damper on your trip.
For us, we loved it. It let us pre-book 3 FPs before even getting to the park, knowing that we could go in the fast line for these. To me, the old one seems like a pain....having to shlep to the attraction to get a ticket only to return later. It seems ilke you'd be running all over the park througout the day (unless the FP return time was close to the time you got the ticket).
Also for us, it let us arrivea t the park when we wanted rather than feeling like we had to get there early to get a FP for our favourite ride.
But...I can see the argument from the other side as in your description.

**We had the same experience at the end of October ** Loved FP+ so much that we booked two trips next year.
I hated the old system, someone being the FP runner while others enjoyed another ride.

Our first day in MK this past we did all of Fantasyland - every ride!!! By 11:45am when I planned to have us there until 2pm. We even ate lunch at BOG, by 1:30pm we were off to Frontierland and Adventureland with 4thFP to BTMRR (not that we needed it) all stand by lines that day were wonderful.

Sorry others are not enjoying it but we found 4th and 5th FP readily available. They may not be top rides but what I found was if I booked 4th and 5th FP on kiosk. I'd go into my app to change it and well look what we have here...space mountain on app not showing at kiosk and then I would change whatever I picked at kiosk on app for better ride.

Our first day in MK we had total 6 FP each including our first 3.

 

[kay1864]

The problem is, by the time you've used your last fastpass, all of the fastpasses for the top rides are already gone. When we were there 2 years ago, we were able to go on Soarin 4 times in one day, 3 with fastpasses and once we stood in the stand by line early.

This is a function of two things:

1. Disney marketing is promoting FP+ much more than it did legacy FP. Orlando Sentinel reports 75% of guests using FP, compared with less than half (my own guess is less than a third) using legacy FP.

2. Crowds are higher nowadays (the economy is better worldwide, so there are more domestic and international guests)

In other words, it's not the design of FP+ per se that causes FPs to be gone, but the fact that more guests are using it.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

We have a trip planned for 13-20 December. I have a plan devised that was accentuated by FP+. Here's an example: we are attending the MVMCP on 16 Dec (a Tuesday), so we won't be back to our rooms until around 0100 on Wed. Wednesday is our DHS day. Without FP+ we would have to forgo sleep to get there at RD or we would likely not get to ride many of the big attractions based on the old FP system. Instead, we can sleep in, have a nice breakfast, get to the park in time for the 1100 Indiana Jones Adventure, then hit our first FP+ at 1200 and go from there. We will be able to do all the attractions and shows we want (last one being the 1830 Fantasmic) and still make our 2020 ADR at Whispering Canyon. BTW: those are FP+ for a party of 10!

 

[Bete]

I have 49 trips under our belt and 2 trips were with the new fastpass+.

I absolutely liked the old legacy fastpass much better. We averaged 6 to 8 fastpasses with the old system. I haven't been able to do the same with the new system.

I do agree the new fastpass+ allows everyone to be on the same level playing field more so, but that's probably what I don't like about it.

For those who are late risers the new fastpass+ is a dream come true. For those who like park hopping the new system is better for them, too.

I do believe eventually this will impact Disney park attendance for those who have done both systems. I don't think too many who did better with the old system will tolerate the new system.

We have already started to take other vacations and we are skipping Disney for a while. I won't say I won't go back to Disney again, but my trips there will be much less in the future. When you start figuring out value like how many rides and attractions you can accomplish now Disney falls way short for us. I consider Disney as an expensive vacation and we can actually take two trips somewhere else for the cost of one Disney trip. Under the old fastpass system I could justify the cost, but under the new system I can't.

 

[PEC]

Whether someone likes or dislikes the situation is ancillary. I suppose it was very wise of WDW to devise and implement a means of managing increasing crowd levels while offering fewer activities. How much attendance has actually increased only WDW knows. Therefore, only WDW knows if their efforts prove successful and guest satisfaction outweighs any dissatisfaction.

In the meantime, it's hard to argue with the effects regardless of whether you like or dislike them.

Lots of truths here. Now the Disney CEOs do look at the bottomline and for Domestic Parks they had an excellent year with a very strong 4th Quarter that ended in September. I think for long term they will have to do some things at some of their parks if they plan on keeping those numbers that high, but this site can complain all it wants Disney will look at Income, Profits, Profit Margins etc. Judging especially by the 4th Quarter results the complaints on this site is not reflecting on the amount of cash flowing in.

 

[Mikie]

I have 49 trips under our belt and 2 trips were with the new fastpass+.

I absolutely liked the old legacy fastpass much better. We averaged 6 to 8 fastpasses with the old system. I haven't been able to do the same with the new system.

I do agree the new fastpass+ allows everyone to be on the same level playing field more so, but that's probably what I don't like about it.

For those who are late risers the new fastpass+ is a dream come true. For those who like park hopping the new system is better for them, too.

I do believe eventually this will impact Disney park attendance for those who have done both systems. I don't think too many who did better with the old system will tolerate the new system.

We have already started to take other vacations and we are skipping Disney for a while. I won't say I won't go back to Disney again, but my trips there will be much less in the future. When you start figuring out value like how many rides and attractions you can accomplish now Disney falls way short for us. I consider Disney as an expensive vacation and we can actually take two trips somewhere else for the cost of one Disney trip. Under the old fastpass system I could justify the cost, but under the new system I can't.

Exactly what I was thinking! I do not match your experience or touring style, so FP+ was fine for me. But I'd say it sounds like those who most dislike the new are those who had mastered commando touring under the old system at least to some degree. It seems like frustration levels are highest for someone who tries to re-create the style of touring they mastered before and match it under the new FP+. Ther will be ways to "master" the new system, but it will take change and time and will those veterans who loved the comfort of their experience and expertise be interested in sticking around long enough to develop it anew?