double dipping on fp is gone

[Hilly716]

[QUOTE="curemyreed;50185470"

I have UCT tickets (maybe....another loooong story as the tickets were lost in the mail & I have to go to GS with ticket copies UCT sent me & receipt to request "replacements"). So I (hopefully!) will be able to post whether UCT replacement tickets issued at GS will work in the legacy machines, in case anyone cares about that aspect.[/QUOTE]


I am interested in how your UCT tickets are working out? We arrive Saturday and I am hopeful that we can still pull paper fast pass with those tickets if our KTTW cards will not work. We are staying at Jambo House and have our fast pass + all set, but was hoping to still double dip a little. Hope your vacation as been magical so far and thanks for taking the time to report back !

 

[Mkrop]

I still think we will be able to buy more FP+ eventually in some form or another. A DVC purchase, Deluxe resort or just an extra charge-so my bet is you will be able spend your money for riding over and over once again.

I dont want to spend anymore money to ride my favorites over and over again...that is absurd. I never had to before so now WDW is taking value away. And as a DVC memeber they have enough of my money thank you very much!

Plus where will this supply of FPs come from????? They are already at the max with some rides if they are running out of FPs at 9:30 with some tiering happening.

 

[delmar411]

Ha ha ha!!! Forgive me for laughing at this. We stayed offsite last week and never got to ride Soarin. We picked the new Test Track at rope drop ( it was closed last year and my kids were dying to ride it). I pulled a FP ( with an 11am return time at rope drop!) and we rode. By the time we were done Soarin FPs were gone for the day ( by 9:30) and standby line was never less than 60 min (and was usually more like 140 min). So the thought that those of us offsite can just pull FPs all day make me LOL! We got exactly one too--- and only because I pulled it at 9:07am!

Why didn't you run to pull TT FPs while your family headed to Soarin and then ride Soarin right away at rope drop and use the TT FPs?

 

[AlohaAnnie]

I think you did! So I heard somewhere that WDW had switched to use AT&T for their wifi or their cell service or both, or something, in the parks. I don't remember where I heard it and have no idea if it's true, or if it means they'll actually scale up the service to handle the load. I hope that they do, because functioning cell service inside the WDW parks would be great. Our phones and LTE or 4G usually work at the hotels, but rarely can we ever get a data connection in the parks, and often can't even get a phone call out to each other if we get separated. Just too many phones in the area. They've needed more cell tower capacity near those parks for a long time now. We had the Disney app on our phones last couple of trips, for fun. Well, it would have been fun, if there had been functioning wifi for more than 20 seconds out of every hour.

We were there June 2013 and had no problem with wifi at the parks or resorts. We are AT&T customers. When we went the week between Christmas & New Years 2011, cell reception was terrible. It would take 30 minutes at times to receive a text message. Too many people in the parks!

I really hope now that AT&T has taken over that reception is better. I would dread MDE during Christmas week personally.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

I dont want to spend anymore money to ride my favorites over and over again...that is absurd. I never had to before so now WDW is taking value away. And as a DVC memeber they have enough of my money thank you very much! Plus where will this supply of FPs come from????? They are already at the max with some rides if they are running out of FPs at 9:30 with some tiering happening.

I also agree here, we are also DVC members & AP holders there is no way I want to shell out more money for additional FPs.

 

[wn01aa]

Why didn't you run to pull TT FPs while your family headed to Soarin and then ride Soarin right away at rope drop and use the TT FPs?

I was thinking the same thing. You ran to TT at rope drop and pulled FP right away for 11am and then didn't head over to Soarin? What did you do from 9-11?

 

[annacali]

I was thinking the same thing. You ran to TT at rope drop and pulled FP right away for 11am and then didn't head over to Soarin? What did you do from 9-11?

No, we has the audacity to FP and ride Test track at rope drop--- a strategy that used to be perfectly acceptable. In previous trips ( and we have been about once a year) it would never have been a problem to ride and FP TT at rope drop and when the usually fairly soon return time for the TT FP came up run over and FP Soarin for a later ride. But by the time we rode TT once standby it was already too late to ride Soarin. It was already 60 min standby and you really cannot appreciate how slow the standby lines move now until you experience it. It is truly maddening. FWIW my kids loved the new TT and would have loved to ride it even more!

 

[aubriee]

I dont understand this mentality at all...it is my money, if I want to ride the same ride over and over again and I have found a way within WDW rules to do it, there is no reason why I should not be able to. I got my family up and out to accomplish this, this way was more than fair

You (general) have the same option that I do to get to the park early and ride the ride, and then pull the FP. I dont know why rationing rides (and we are talking about rides at a vacation destination, not wartime food for goodness sake) is a more fair way of doing things.

I don't know why some people have such a hard time understanding this. The old way was so much more fair. We all competed for the same fast passes. There was a certain number of fastpasses available for the day and everyone competed for them. We all had the same chance to get our butts out of bed and to the parks in time for rope drop. Now, there are fewer FP- to compete for and for those of us that are not eligible for FP+ there is a good chance that we won't be able to get but maybe one a day and if we happen to oversleep and miss rope drop there probably won't be any at all for us. Even if we get to rope drop some of us still can't get more than one fast pass, because they may all be gone by 9:30. Us annual passholders that are staying offsite, so don't qualify for FP+ are being treated like red headed step children.

We are leaving early Friday morning and will be down there Dec 6th-16th, but are not holding out much hope of getting to ride many rides. However, we have made alternate plans if WDW turns out as bad as we expect. We also have annual passes for Universal and just recently bought Fun Passes for Sea World, plus have been researching other things to do in the Orlando area. If we can't get on the rides at WDW, without waiting in long lines, then, we will simply go elsewhere down there.

 

[conniehar90]

We have plans to come in March. We are staying offsite and have tickets from UCT. I am waiting until after Xmas to see how things play out but we honestly may take the 5% hit to return our UCT tickets and go to Universal/SeaWorld/BuschGardens instead. We have been to WDW many times (at least annually) and love it so much but I am worried about ruining those memories with this new system. We know how to tour and utilized FP and were able to ride our favorites many times in a day without a wait. My family just won't be satisfied with one ride on a headliner and then waiting in lines all day. Sounds like this is a lose/lose for everyone. Those offsite lose the FP- system since it runs out in 30 minutes and those onsite (who pay more for the "magic") only get 3 FP's a day with a tier.

I wonder if anyone at Disney reads these boards and realizes that no one is happy.

 

[Mkrop]

I don't know why some people have such a hard time understanding this. The old way was so much more fair. We all competed for the same fast passes. There was a certain number of fastpasses available for the day and everyone competed for them. We all had the same chance to get our butts out of bed and to the parks in time for rope drop. Now, there are fewer FP- to compete for and for those of us that are not eligible for FP+ there is a good chance that we won't be able to get but maybe one a day and if we happen to oversleep and miss rope drop there probably won't be any at all for us. Even if we get to rope drop some of us still can't get more than one fast pass, because they may all be gone by 9:30. Us annual passholders that are staying offsite, so don't qualify for FP+ are being treated like red headed step children.

We are leaving early Friday morning and will be down there Dec 6th-16th, but are not holding out much hope of getting to ride many rides. However, we have made alternate plans if WDW turns out as bad as we expect. We also have annual passes for Universal and just recently bought Fun Passes for Sea World, plus have been researching other things to do in the Orlando area. If we can't get on the rides at WDW, without waiting in long lines, then, we will simply go elsewhere down there.

My guess is that the squeaky wheel for years has been those that want to sleep in on vacation and stroll in at 11am. Or the uninformed people about FP in general. They have probably been the main complaints to Guest Services so WDW thought they can up with this "brilliant" plan to satisfy all those unhappy guests. Little did they realize that there were other happy guests out there who were not complaining bc they came up with a plan. Now they are the unhappy campers and WDW needs to hear from them. I think first come first serve is a much more equitable and fair way to deal with a vacation than rationing.

 

[jade1]

if I want to ride the same ride over and over again and I have found a way within WDW rules to do it, there is no reason why I should not be able to.

I dont want to spend anymore money to ride my favorites over and over again...that is absurd. I never had to before so now WDW is taking value away. And as a DVC memeber they have enough of my money thank you very much!

Your own strategy will work IMO-following the new rules will cost you more though IMO.

Right or wrong, WDW probably gets 100 guests that spend "their money" and get very few if any headliners-to every one like you. And actually they probably never hear from the one like you, and therefore are looking for solutions for those 100, plus making more money at it.

Lets assume they start offering additional FP+ for cash. Then 5 years from now, let's say they stop offering additional FP+ for cash.

Here is what you will see on the boards:

"It's my money, and if I want to ride the same ride over and over again and I have found a way within WDW rules to do it, there is no reason why I should not be able to."

Look familiar?

 

[DPickering]

My guess is that the squeaky wheel for years has been those that want to sleep in on vacation and stroll in at 11am. Or the uninformed people about FP in general. They have probably been the main complaints to Guest Services so WDW thought they can up with this "brilliant" plan to satisfy all those unhappy guests. Little did they realize that there were other happy guests out there who were not complaining bc they came up with a plan. Now they are the unhappy campers and WDW needs to hear from them. I think first come first serve is a much more equitable and fair way to deal with a vacation than rationing.

I actually agree with you overall but the bit about the people who 'want to sleep in on vacation' is funny.

They want to sleep in on vacation? The nerve!

It's just funny because Disney adds more and more hoops to jump thru if you want to try and have fun at their parks. Each hoop is basically a way for Disney to save money (even magic bands). Out of context some of it just sounds so nuts.

 

[Mkrop]

I actually agree with you overall but the bit about the people who 'want to sleep in on vacation' is funny.

They want to sleep in on vacation? The nerve!
It's just funny because Disney adds more and more hoops to jump thru if you want to try and have fun at their parks. Each hoop is basically a way for Disney to save money (even magic bands). Out of context some of it just sounds so nuts.

Sorry if I made sleeping in sound like a bad thing...I love to sleep in, I just know certain places require you been up and ready to go to maximize your time. We have certain vacations like the beach that are sleeping in but places like WDW, Hershey Park, or tourist stuff in other cities, we found that getting up early you are able to get sooooo much done.

But I find it crazy that the early bird is now being penalized or looking down upon when it comes to this new system.

 

[magicbob]

Disney could have done a LOT more to make those promises true, by investing in attraction capacity instead of investing in MM+ and FP+ which, if we listen to what Disney execs have been saying, are mainly designed to squeeze more money out of guests.

To be fair, they did double the capacity of Dumbo.

 

[rebbyparker]

My guess is that the squeaky wheel for years has been those that want to sleep in on vacation and stroll in at 11am. Or the uninformed people about FP in general. They have probably been the main complaints to Guest Services so WDW thought they can up with this "brilliant" plan to satisfy all those unhappy guests. Little did they realize that there were other happy guests out there who were not complaining bc they came up with a plan. Now they are the unhappy campers and WDW needs to hear from them. I think first come first serve is a much more equitable and fair way to deal with a vacation than rationing.

 

[BridgetR3]

lol...yes they did double Dumbo's capacity but then they built a really cool standby playground that my kids seldom get to visit because the line moves too fast!!

Thankfully this past week, we were finally able to stop at the playground!

 

[AmyB2006]

My guess is that the squeaky wheel for years has been those that want to sleep in on vacation and stroll in at 11am. Or the uninformed people about FP in general. They have probably been the main complaints to Guest Services so WDW thought they can up with this "brilliant" plan to satisfy all those unhappy guests. Little did they realize that there were other happy guests out there who were not complaining bc they came up with a plan. Now they are the unhappy campers and WDW needs to hear from them. I think first come first serve is a much more equitable and fair way to deal with a vacation than rationing.

I think this is your main complaint group. The people uninformed, or the people that are here for their once in a lifetime trip. Hey, I like to sleep in and eat rubbery bacon for $40 pp LOL, but I would laugh at a complaint from someone saying that because they chose those things over RD in the morning they couldn't ride TSMM. LOL I hope those complaints were the few.

 

[ArwenMarie]

But remember, if everyone had gotten up at the crack of dawn to be there prior to rope drop, then there wouldn't have been as great of an advantage to be an early bird

Anyway, I don't think Disney built this system because they were concerned about people who like to sleep in. They could have just staggered the output of the current Fastpass machines if that's what they were concerned out. Or any one of a number of other solutions.

They have a problem with lines due to lack of attractions and instead of building more attractions, this was the solution. Increase the number of people who get to ride the headliners at least once.

 

[Violet Parr]

But remember, if everyone had gotten up at the crack of dawn to be there prior to rope drop, then there wouldn't have been as great of an advantage to be an early bird

Anyway, I don't think Disney built this system because they were concerned about people who like to sleep in. They could have just staggered the output of the current Fastpass machines if that's what they were concerned out. Or any one of a number of other solutions.

They have a problem with lines due to lack of attractions and instead of building more attractions, this was the solution. Increase the number of people who get to ride the headliners at least once.

I was talking to my husband about all of this recently. We were talking about the people who ride Test Track 5 or 6 times in one day. He said, "man, I love that ride, but that's a ton of money to spend just to ride one ride." We agreed that while that may be how some people want to use their vacation hours, we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend all of that money just to spend most of our time riding certain headliners on repeat anymore. If that was all we truly loved at WDW, then perhaps WDW would not be the best vacay for us. We were bummed about not being able to repeat some thngs on our first trip testing MB and FP+, but then we used the time we would have spent re-riding discovering things we'd never done before. Like Figment. I mean, we certainly prefer Test Track to Figment, but in 9 trips we never rode it once until we were testing MB on our last trip. (We've used them for 3 trips now and love them. A few kinks to work out, but overall we love the whole system.)

So anyway, I think a problem Disney has is that headliners have been oversold and overmarketed for YEARS, while other attractions have been very much undersold. That explains how n 9 trips we never knew who Figment was. Countless planning DVDs and we still didn't know! I do chalk this up to competition with Universal. I began our family Disney trips around the time that Magical Express came about. It was apparent that the marketing Disney was employing was a BIG push to pull people away from Universal. I remember our first WDW planning video just pushed the three Mountains over and over and over. (I still have that whole planning video memorized by heart. That was 2005-2006.) There are SO many attractions at WDW, but e-ticket rides are overburdened and oversold.

Anyway, I'm glad that we were forced to ride Test Track only once on our last trip. We got to discover Figment, I finally saw Impressions de France, I finally saw the Norway film, I learned that there is a bakery in Norway. I seriously had no idea. 9 trips, most of them 10-12 days long, spent riding headliners over and over. Had Test Track not run out of FP, we would have been able to double dip there, but we would have missed out on other things.

VP

 

[DizBelle]

... Well it isn't funny. So how about this...

Do you think this will cause temporary relief for the up-to-now abused off-site guests. I guess it is time for the on-site guests to absorb the pain now.

It might ok for the next few weeks, isn't this a slower time?

Why in the world would Disney want any pain for their on-site guests? They should absolutely give preference to people who pay to be on-site guests. That's just a sound business move.